History of Web 3D

virtual cities

History of Web 3D

Web 3D is coming. We were told that back in Mark Pesce's 1994 book entitled VRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspace. We were told that when the Virtual Reality Modeling Language fast-tracked to an ISO standard in 1997. We were told that when the language was reformatted and extended as an XML-complaint language called X3D. We were sure of it when the popularity of video games burst onto the scene with chilling urban environments where gang warfare runs wild. Why hasn't it happened yet? Where is the killer application to drive virtual city development on PCs? Will the game consoles get there first? All good questions worthy of a historical perspective.

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language seemed to have all the pieces to drive a 3-D cyberspace. Mark's talk to a Parisian crowd on May 8, 1996 seems to peg the three adjectives that make wikipedia so popular today: Connective, Collective, and Corrective. The VRML timeline in generating the standard is remarkably fast. We had a shared, accessible, hyperlinked, standard at our disposal. But, text is easy. 2-D Imagery is harder. 3-D is significantly harder still. We don't have the equivalent tool of the pencil or camera for generating 3-D. We have scanners in development but they are expensive and require more post-processing than a photographic image requires.

The real historical lessons of VRML to me are that people can come together to create a great vision if the goal is motivational. Our frontal cortex likes to receive eye candy. Even better if we can walk around in it. A painting or picture wakes our vision up. Walking about within a painting or picture brings more of our senses to bear.

VRML used some arbitrary syntax that required helpful tools to be hand-crafted in their entirety. The XML specification suggested a better syntax in which to embed VRML functionality. As a result, Web 3D began a journey from VRML toward the X3D initiative. The result was another round of not-as-extensive hype as represented by this Bringing 3D to the Web article.

Microsoft put together a Virtual Worlds group within Microsoft Research to develop a Web 3D platform. But their investigation into the merits of 3-D on the Web came up with many reasons not to proceed. Most of the engaging content they considered generating for research clients did not warrant the extra work required of meeting the 3-D specifications. Internet Explorer never came with the VRML or X3D viewer pre-loaded that might have come had Microsoft wanted to develop their own.

As a result, various innovative Java-based Web 3-D renderers appeared on the market, promising a low footprint in content download and compatibility with any browser that enabled a Java virtual machine upon installation. But Java ran into issues over licensing between Sun and Microsoft - a nasty little battle that confused the marketplace about when and where they were entitled to use different versions of the Java virtual machine.

Java 3D allowed developers to create 3-D content and connect users via the Web, but somehow the content never quite worked acceptably within the Web browser. Java 3D content thrived via stand-alone applications only.

Many technologies today allow for using the Web to connect 3-D users to content. But, most of them continue to require the user to download software ahead of time. More and more 3D fans are suggesting 3-D will only take off on the Web when we come to the Web with machines that have a 3-D interface from the get go. The opportunity seems ripe to develop a Web 3D machine that enables a 3D Web. But given the extra work required, it seems unlikely that an existing corporation would risk their current company on building such a 3-D device. Just look at the reaction to Sony's Play Station 3. We have become jaded in expecting a new machine to jump start our journey to a shared 3-D cyberspace.