July 22, 1996
Issue: 641
Section: Connect
By Gregory Quick
San Mateo, Calif.-While forthcoming Web browser updates from Microsoft and Netscape Communications have been grabbing most of the industry's attention lately, another browser technology about to hit the market may have even greater impact on retailers.
The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) 2.0 specification is due to be finalized in August, and it is expected that the technology, which supports 3-D games and applications, will precipitate a rush of VRML-enabled software shipping for the holiday season.
"This has the potential to bring 3-D visual experience to the consumers that matches their expectation of entertainment delivery,'' said Tim Bajarin, president of market consulting firm Creative Strategies Consulting, Santa Clara, Calif.
Tony Parisi, chief technology officer of Intervista Software, San Francisco, and a co-author of VRML 1.0, said he clearly sees a future for VRML in the consumer marketplace. He predicted that VRML applications will include not only games and entertainment, but also new Internet search engines as well as advertising and sales programs.
A place for VRML in the consumer market was also foreseen by Mitra, chief network technology officer of ParaGraph International, Campbell, Calif., and one of the co-authors of VRML 2.0. "[Version] 2.0 is aimed at the consumer market," he said. "When we developed it, we had to know how to target the consumer environment."
In addition to enabling 3-D and 2-D graphics, VRML 2.0 is a standards language that also supports animation and other multimedia applications such as sound. It was originally designed for high-end workstations, with much of the initial development done by Silicon Graphics.
The second version of VRML is more in tune with the personal- computer environment, although it requires a minimum of a 90MHz Pentium processor to run effectively.
Products that support version 2.0 are starting to hit the market, and more are expected when the standard is finalized. Support for the technology has come from many major industry players.
Netscape has a beta version called Netscape Live 3D, available on the Windows 95 platform. Mike McCue, Netscape's director of client technology, said the company plans to make Live 3D ubiquitous on all platforms.
Meanwhile, Silicon Graphics started shipping Cosmo, its first VRML browser, a few weeks ago.
"We felt that this was an important technology for the mainstream market," said Dave Frerichs, Silicon Graphics' VRML product manager, "and so it is the first product from us which is available on a PC before it is available on the Iris [SGI's operating environment].''
He added that this development is part of a growing commitment to the PC from Silicon Graphics, which has focused mainly on workstations.
For its part, IBM is working to develop new compression technologies that will allow large VRML files to be quickly downloaded, according to Willy Chiu, director of IBM's Digital Library.
Apple Computer is also a participant in the development of VRML and is working to get several of its technologies adopted as standards.
"VRML is the center of all that we are doing [in the Internet], and you will be seeing the results of this in the next couple of months,'' said Fabio Pettinati, Apple's 3D graphics engineering manager.
Intervista has developed WorldView, a plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer that will provide VRML compatibility for that platform.
Copyright * 1996 CMP Media Inc.
