Realistic virtual environments navigable over the www

Abstract

Creation of 3D virtual environments (VE) can be performed using a variety of design tools, most of which create 3D virtual worlds using high definition graphics, 3D Game engines and smooth animation techniques. The produced result is realistic and eye-catching. Although a VR model is always less detailed than the real world artifact it represents, VR provides greater freedom in viewing a model than physical constraints would allow. It provides the ability to zoom in and examine details that could not be distinguished by the naked eye. However there is a major drawback: to ensure at least average navigation performance everything has to be accessed locally on a single workstation. In this paper, we explore the benefits of 3D web modelling languages available for creating 3D VEs and especially VRML. To effectively exploit provided capabilities a number of techniques were developed to reduce file-size and design complexity, thus producing 3D VEs holding the appropriate level of realism and navigability, making them efficiently accessible via the World Wide Web.