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Title: The VRML 2.0 Handbook by Jed Hartman, Josie Wernecke, Silicon Graphics ISBN: 0-201-47944-3 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $31.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A good book for a dying technology
Comment: Well, I could have started talking about the book and how nicely written it was, but first, I believe you should ponder if learning virtual reality technology would really add some 'plus' to your CV.
VRML was a good idea that could not survive to Macromedia Flash and 3D Studio tachnical marriage through Vecta 3D. Until 1999 when Vecta 3D, the 3d studio plugin that exports 3D studio files to Flash animation, was created and a bunch of other minor programs also intended to produce 3D animation for the Web popped out, VRML seemed a good alternative to the interactivity we all missed. I myself bought this book in 1998 and was impressed with the quantity of sites that were using VRML. I remember Cosmo had a wonderful page full of demo software and I had all of them, Blaxxun was and still is one of the major exponents of that technology and I was constantly visiting their page for plugin updates. But soon, Cosmo pages could not be reached anymore and all that software simply disappeared into the far distant world of SGI platforms. At that time, there was a boom of chats and virtual worlds and each one of them seemed to be programmed in a different way with a different language than VRML, you could settle in one of these worlds but you could not create your own furniture, or design your garden with the pictures of your own real life house garden. You could not add your own touch, you had to pay to be there and you did not have a place to put what you designed.
Then it came the final cut, SGI simply removed the city it had created for the book, the case study simply disappeared. In a certain point-of-view, it is kind of immoral that a company still sell a book they do not back up anymore.
I would really appreciate to know where I can find the great Tenochtitlan, the SGI virtual capital of VRML vanished along with Cosmo and all other VRML paramounts.
If you still think you do not want to learn Flash, to what I strongly advise Graphics, Animation and Interactivity with Flash 4.0 by Mohler and afterwards sneak into the world of 3D, I tell you why you should buy this book on VRML.
1. It is not based on software but hand written code.
2. It is not difficult to follow as said by a reviewer here, it is quite easy, project based and gives you freedom to deploy your own project. If you run into something difficult you can continue your project (mine was a temple where people could find details of my life) using simple programming.
3. You do not need to know absolutely nothing of programming, this book deals with pure VRML in a very simple way.
Unfortunately you will not find most of the urls listed in the book, due to the fact that this language is getting more and more rare on the web. I was tempted to send all to hell and give one star but this book does not deserve it. I give five stars to Macromedia and Kinetix/Discreet for the alternative to VRML (there is a lot more to be done but we are getting there), five stars to the authors who wrote it as one, 1 star (and that is a lot) to SGI for being incompetent in maintaining the attention the ones who bought and are still buying the book deserve and being dishonest by offering a book whose links and case study are not available anymore.
Rating: 4
Summary: no site found for the samples mentioned in book
Comment: hi this is umesh, I could not find the site mentioned in the book to work with the examples ,it always takes me to the SG website,can somebody help me out, you can get me on [email protected] at the earliest cause i'm loosing time , thanks umesh
Rating: 2
Summary: The VRML 2.0 Handbook
Comment: As mentioned before by other customers, the URL for the case study cannot be found. This book has been recommended by a professor teaching computer graphics, which is why I purchased it. Not finding this code on the web as promised infuriates me. Time is of the essence in classroom assignments and wasting time searching for something that turns out not to be there is frustrating. SGI, Hartman and Wernecke should be ashamed of themselves.
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