WEB3D introduction

Virtual display technology is usually used for online 3D display of commodities. It is not a new topic to use WEB3D to create 3D images in some small-scale virtual simulation projects, its applications on graphics workstations and PCs have become mature. However, the emergence of the Internet has injected new vigor into the 3D graphics technology, and some subtle and profound changes are in progress. The emergence of the new word "web3d" reflects the overall picture of this change. No one strictly defines web3d, but we can understand it as 3D graphics technology on the Internet.

It is a common format of interchange files for 3D graphics and multimedia technologies. It describes the sizes and shapes, colors, materials, lighting, animation, and interaction of interactive 3D objects and geometric objects in scenes. It is applicable not only to the Internet, but also to local customer systems. It has a wide range of applications. There is an international association of professional. In July 1996, the release of the version 1.0 and the birth of the version 97 in July 1997. The major innovation of the VRML 97 is that model files instead of video image files are transmitted over the network, so the transmission volume is greatly reduced, this allows any 3D graphics enthusiast to create 3D scene models that can be rendered in real time on the Internet.

However, after the 1997 s, the development of the 3D graphics standards of the company was slow, far from reaching people's expectations. The main reasons are:

● The demand for 3D images on the Internet is not urgent. Up to now, 2D images are still dominant in HTML files.
● Network bandwidth is still the main bottleneck restricting the development of 3D images on the Internet.
● It is too large and almost all-encompassing.
● Website visitors must spend 10 ~ Download the plug-in within 15 minutes, and then install the plug-in like installing the software to watch a very rough 3D image.

The product groups cut users down

Since the association did not promptly introduce the next generation of the standard, many Internet 3D graphics production software did not fully comply with the standard of the Institute. Many companies have released their own production tools, use a dedicated file format and browser plug-in. There are about 30 similar software types. Each of these software has its own characteristics, and is superior to the following in terms of rendering speed, image quality, modeling technology, interactivity, and data compression and optimization. All companies want their solutions to become "de facto international standards ".
However, users do not accept them. For users, to view 3D images produced using these software on the internet, download 1 Mbit/s ~ 7 MB plug-in, and then installed on the web browser. There are many types of plug-ins, making people at a loss. To view 10 different websites, users need to download and install 10 plug-ins from different manufacturers. This is so annoying that users cannot bear it.

Why plug-ins?

Why is 3D graphics software inseparable from plug-ins? In fact, the plug-in is a real-time rendering engine. Its function is to interpret and translate the syntax of the implementation scenario model file and render the scenario model file sent from the server in real time, 3D images are displayed frame by frame on the visitor's client in real time. The real-time rendering engine is a plug-in, which is a common practice of Internet 3D graphics software vendors. Obviously, the real-time rendering engine is a key technology for implementing Internet 3D graphics, its file size, graphic rendering quality, rendering speed, and interactivity all directly reflect the advantages and disadvantages of its solution.

Developing a better real-time rendering engine is the focus of competition among various software vendors, so a wide variety of 3D graphics file formats and corresponding browser plug-ins are generated.

The best way to end this chaos is to install one or more real-time rendering plug-ins in Microsoft's IE browser, so that users do not have to spend more than 10 minutes to download and install the plug-ins. However, Microsoft did not select any company as its partner. Maybe one day, Microsoft will launch its own complete solution to maintain its dominance in the Internet 3D graphics field.
New generation Internet 3D graphics

Standard X3D was born

In December 1997, the People's Association for the World-Wide Web 3D Consortium was renamed as web3d (Web 3D Consortium). Since then, the special abbreviation of web3d began to appear on the Internet. In August 2001, the web3d Association published the new international standard X3D (X3D stands for scalable 3D ).
X3D is supported by many software vendors, including 3 Dlabs, ATI Technologies, Blaxxun, Nexternet, OpenWorlds, ParallelGraphics, Sony Electronics, US Army STRICOM, and SGDL Systems. X3D is compatible with MPEG-4 and XML and integrates into the 3D content of the MPEG-4, using XML syntax. It is backward compatible with the VRML 97, that is, X3D can provide all the functions of the standard VRML 97 browser. The main task of X3D is to package the functions of X3D into a lightweight and scalable core. Because X3D is scalable, any developer can expand its functions as needed. The commercial version of X3D rendering engine was also released at SIGGRAPH's 2001 annual meeting last year. Parallel Graphics (a leading software company with web3d Technology) will work with several companies to develop new X3D Technologies.

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