VRweb

VRweb -- A new entrant into what will likely become a product-rich environment, VRweb's beta release offers many great features but, like its competition, currently falls short in terms of usability. This beta incorporates many of the best features in WorldView and WebSpace, including the ability to function as an external app to Mosaic or Netscape; Fly By, Walk, and Zoom navigational tools; and multiple rendering options. In addition, it offers several currently exclusive options such as Wireframe Rendering and Heads Up Navigation. However, in addition to being buggy (like most VRML Browsers at this stage), VRweb currently lacks network support -- for example, the ability to merge HTML and VRML within any given world. Also, navigation in VRweb is much more difficult than in WebSpace, especially due to the fact that VRweb lacks WebSpace's Fly To tool and the extremely useful navigational Viewpoints. VRweb is a joint project between the Hyper-G team at the Institute for Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media (IICM) in Austria and the Mosaic team at NCSA. Future versions should address the missing features identified above as well as adding a standard light source for VRML worlds, adding unzip support for worlds, adding on-line help documentation, and fine tuning the user interface. As with all VRML browsers, look forward to some massive improvements in the near future as well as many new and improved VRML worlds to explore. If VRweb can address many of its current deficiencies, it could well become a very strong app in what will likely becomean extremely competitive sub-domain of the 'net. Pros: Offers many interesting VRML features like Wireframe Rendering and Heads Up navigation Cons: Navigation could be improved, lacks some of WebSpace's better features New: Separate Windows 95/NT and Windows 3.x versions released, bug fixes Version Reviewed: 1.1 Beta 5 Date of Review: 3/14/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud apps conference Main Menu