![]() In 1996, CNET wrote about VRML’s failure to meet expectations, saying, “Bandwidth constraints, hardware limitations, and, worst of all, lack of compelling applications may make the 3D technology more virtual than real for the time being.” Virtuality ![]() ![]() Around that time, interest in VRML began to wane as it became evident that 3D online worlds weren’t as practical or useful as futurists had promised. While VRML 2.0 became an international standard with the ISO in 1996, the final version of VRML, known as “ VRML97,” was standardized in 1997. Spoiler alert: VRML didn’t take off like its creators hoped. The story doesn’t end there, but VRML’s fragmented past is currently scattered between the couch cushions of the internet, waiting for someone to pick up the pieces and reassemble the entire puzzle of this lost chapter of online history. Sony also ran a popular VRML-powered world in Japan called SAPARi, which ran through a client distributed on its VAIO computers between 19. ![]() Sony hosted a VRML chat service called SAPARi from 1997 to 2001. OZ Virtual and several other firms did similar work in creating 3D chat worlds with VRML. VRML also powered experiments such as a 3D site created by the Atlanta Braves and a prototype virtual clothing store from The Gap, among others. Blaxxun’s software laid the foundation for what was one of the first 3D “metaverses” on the Internet, CyberTown, launched in April 1995. In 1995, a German company called Black Sun Interactive (later changed to “Blaxxun Interactive”) developed multi-user server software that utilized VRML for graphics and allowed more complex interactions to take place than simply viewing 3D objects. An experimental VRML scene based on Alice in Wonderland. 3D hardware vendor Silicon Graphics embraced VRML and released 3D animations featuring a character named “ Floops.” Wired Magazine initially hosted the VRML Architecture Group and the VRML mailing list. Several university departments, especially those that studied new media, experimented with VRML and posted their creations online. So the question remains: Did VRML ever see widespread use? Not really, but relative to the size of the internet at the time, VRML’s reach was wider than you might expect. Much like a 2D vector graphics file that contains instructions on how to draw an image, VRML files include instructions needed to render a 3D scene, which makes the format relatively compact, data-wise. WRL file extension), store three-dimensional geometric shapes using a text-based language that describes the geometrical properties of the objects. For a short time, its future seemed pretty solid. Early on, VRML drew support from major corporations such as Microsoft, Netscape, Silicon Graphics, and dozens of others. At first, VRML only supported 3D static objects, but over time the standard grew to encompass avatars, animations, pulling in multimedia, and more. (Although the term “metaverse” wasn’t commonly in use at the time to describe this concept, a 1995 article from New Scientist titled “How to Build a Metaverse” made the connection with VRML.)Īfter picking up support from other developers, the VRML standard debuted in November 1994. Similarly, VRML aimed to allow dynamic linking to (and drawing elements from) virtual 3D worlds across the internet, ideally creating what people now call a metaverse, where people could chat, do business, educate, own property, and more. One of the key strengths of HTML is that it uses hypertext, which allows authors of HTML pages to link to any HTML document on the internet, even those hosted on other servers. As these concepts coalesced, Pesce and Parisi created the first VRML browser in November of that year. He positioned this new 3D browsing technology as the VR equivalent of HTML, which was the primary markup language used to create pages on the World Wide Web at the time. In that paper, Raggett coined the term “VRML” (for Virtual Reality Modeling Language). Not long after, another engineer named Dave Raggett presented a paper that proposed “Extending WWW to support Platform Independent Virtual Reality.” In May of 1994, Pesce, Parisi, and Peter Kennard gave a presentation about Labyrinth at the First World Wide Web Conference in Geneva. In this atmosphere of VR buzz-in late 1993-software engineers Mark Pesce and Anthony Parisi created the rudiments of a 3D web browser called Labyrinth. Without much delay or hesitation, computer engineers who read these books set out to turn these dystopian cyberpunk visions into reality. It crystallized ideas about the alternate realities in worldwide computer networks that originated from various sources, including William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), another influential cyberpunk novel. In 1992, Neil Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in his sci-fi novel Snow Crash.
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