3D graphics in VRML

VRML is the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, a 3D graphics format and language. I was involved in the VRML community in the 1990s; in particular, I co-wrote the book The VRML 2.0 Handbook: Building Moving Worlds on the Web with Josie Wernecke.

This set of pages includes some VRML models that I made on my own, as well as VRML models for the examples from the book.

Each item on each of these pages provides a download link, a static preview image to let you know what the item should look like, and a live demo to let you view and manipulate the item in 3D within your browser.

The demos in these pages are displayed using the X_ITE X3D browser, which displays VRML as well as other formats. It’s a JavaScript library that displays 3D material in a web page.

You can also download these items if you want to edit them or view them locally in a VRML viewer. To download each VRML file, click the appropriate Download link. In some cases, the Download link downloads a ZIP file that also includes texture images or associated VRML files.

The only outside-of-a-browser VRML viewer that I’ve tried recently (as of 2023) is FreeWRL, which does a decent job of rendering most of these—except that it doesn’t display textures, which makes some of the objects in these scenes look bad.