Yes.
Avoid shipping normals around the net; wherever possible, let the
browser generate them automatically.
Use gzip.
Use inheritance (for materials, etc).
Use WWWInlines in conjunction with LOD.
I actually have a longer list, but it's at work and I'm at home.
> Also, for incidental objects like doorknobs and what-have-you, what are the
> advantages/disadvantages of 3d vs. bitmaps - at what point does it become
> advantageous to use one rather than the other?
What I would do is use LOD. From a distance, the entire door is just a
single texture-mapped polygon; as you get closer, the doorknob becomes
a real 3D object (which can rotate around its axis eslative to the door,
once behaviors are implemented). If you use WWWInlines, you may never
have to download the knob geometry.
This also works great with things like control panels.
> Do the general rules for efsicient 3d modeling also apply to VRML, or does
> VRML need special considerations?
VRML's LOD is kind of odd, but has some advantages. Other than that, most
standard techniques should be applicable.
-- Bernie Roehl University of Waterloo Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mail:[email protected] Voice: (519) 888-4567 x 2607 [work] URL:http://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl