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The VRML demo at 18 minutes in really took me back: https://youtu.be/Bo3lUw9GUJA?t=18m https://youtu.be/Bo3lUw9GUJA?t=18m I remember how convinced some people

The VRML demo at 18 minutes in really took me back: https://youtu.be/Bo3lUw9GUJA?t=18m https://youtu.be/Bo3lUw9GUJA?t=18m I remember how convinced some people were that VRML was going to be the future of the Web. 3D graphics in your browser, all coded with a simple markup language! How could it fail? Ultimately it was just too complicated for the average web surfer to navigate, especially in the '90s. For a while, though, it really looked like the visions of virtual worlds that cyberpunk fiction loved might show up in your Netscape browser.

ipsum2 8y ago
I remember reading an old copy of a VRML book from the library, marveling at the syntax (computer couldn't run it). There's some modern VRML-esque things now, A-Frame and ReactVR come to mind.
- mattlondon 8y ago
  I also have fond memories of marveling at VRML scenes on TV when my computer and dialup internet connection weren't really ready to experience it. Thanks for the link to A-Frame though! This looks great - I am loving the declarative nature of it, and the scene-inspector seems like a really useful tool.
  - narrator 8y ago
    Virtual Reality is so weird. It's a future that never really got here. Even now that the tech has caught up, it still just doesn't get a lot of enthusiasm from the market.
    - twingie 8y ago
      Well, if you look at any form of interactive 3D multiplayer game, it really is here, it's just that there's so much to pull apart, in terms of the nuance of online interaction with humans, that we're reluctant to move beyond the cartoonish worlds of video gaming. We have tons of really popular game titles, and millions of people playing or watching or chatting, as tournaments unfold. We fill convention centers with people playing games, and stream a webcam feed of people at conventions playing the games. But it's all still games, world of warcraft, fortnite, minecraft, eve online. So, what if it wasn't a game? What if it was more than video conferencing? What if there was more going on, and an immersive system of interaction closer to first person gaming engine was as relevant, in social terms as facebook, twitter, bitcoin, uber, amazon, google, github, along with email, chat, and file sharing, all as a single service? What if all your home automation and mobile devices were integrated? What if it gave your GPS location to the world, and authenticated you selectively as context sensitive pseudonyms, or conversely your authentic legal identity, securely and as preferred? How much of that is possible? And how much of it do we actually want? But most of all, if corporations collaborating with governments, or an open community of enthusiasts, put this in your hands, would you trust it? Would you put all your eggs in one basket like that? How many IP addresses would a system like this require, to keep each context secure from another, to preserve pseudonyms, and not leak GPS location information? What about background audio, and geolocation by timing attacks? Plus the basics of platform security, knowing what we see every day in terms of zero days getting dropped, and leaving people out in the open? It's cool to think about, but our technology as it exists, is a drafty outhouse, compared to the brick shithouse we really need.
    - jonhendry18 8y ago
      Part of it is that interfaces that require "walking" through a space or looking around for things in a 3D space are terrible if there's no inherent justification for the movement (as there is in a game of exploration). I don't want to have to navigate a space in order to find something. Navigating space is a limitation of physical objects; replicating it in an online environment is an error. It's like if automobiles were designed so that steering and speed were controlled with reins.
nabla9 8y ago
>it really looked like the visions of virtual worlds that cyberpunk fiction loved might show up in your Netscape browser. It was exactly that. I participated on one SGI demo around 1995. It included tehnology demo and the grand vision from some guy I don't remember. They had few the these bad boys (bigger refrigerator sized models) and very fast internet running Netscape browser. They wanted us to start to develope for this to this new thing called Java that would allow code run everywhere. They demoed what they thought internet would look like after 3-5 years: * 3d browsers with VRML. HTML is replaced with 3d virtual rooms with 3d surround audio. * you can attach pieces of Java code to the VRML and freely interact with objects * people would buy stuff in the internet using micropayments possibly using new fancy new digital currencies like DigiCash (this was still hand waving). There was also this thing called E-gold few years later. * the demo included virtual kitchen design app, virtual rooms with water fountains and java controlled robots, and fish that responded to their environment. It was all mindblowing technologically, but none of the ideas were new to me because I had been reading Snow Crash (1992) and others. Jaron Lanier and VPL Research were also known to work with these things. In fact, it looks like we are repeatedly trying to bring the same vision alive. Every wave of attempts is getting us little bit closer but always falling short little bit. In the current wave Nvidia has replaced Silicon Graphics and there are new technologies doing the same things in VR and AR. Now we have cryptocurrencies, javascript, Wasm, WebGL, mobile GPU's, 5G. Most of the current bleeding edge will crash when the next recession hits around 2020 or so and some of it will survive. I'm looking forward to the next generation of technology emerging around 2025 ...
twic 8y ago
VRML! I wrote a modest amount of VRML by hand in the early '00s. One project was a 3D model of a castle, which i worked on in large part because it was something i could do together with my then-girlfriend - she would describe how the castle should look, and i would code it up. I learned a lot about how to use parametric prototypes, so i had a kit of parts i could rapidly use, to speed up the feedback loop.
- hpcjoe 8y ago
  I wrote a code called genvrml which converted molecular models from any format (using Babel at the time for conversion) to VRML for display. I converted a bunch of my models for this. I still have them here. And if I dig around, I might even have genvrml as well. I did believe that this was fairly game changing tech. I showed my 3D models sticking 2m out from a rear projected Reality Wall powered by an IR engine in the Detroit office. But SGI was beset with inane leadership, and we began our terminal decline mere weeks after I was hired ABD from grad school. I finished up my thesis and developed an autoinstaller code for Irix at the same time. Writing the manuals in LaTeX.

ipsum2 8y ago

I remember reading an old copy of a VRML book from the library, marveling at the syntax (computer couldn't run it). There's some modern VRML-esque things now, A-Frame and ReactVR come to mind.

mattlondon 8y ago
I also have fond memories of marveling at VRML scenes on TV when my computer and dialup internet connection weren't really ready to experience it. Thanks for the link to A-Frame though! This looks great - I am loving the declarative nature of it, and the scene-inspector seems like a really useful tool.
- narrator 8y ago
  Virtual Reality is so weird. It's a future that never really got here. Even now that the tech has caught up, it still just doesn't get a lot of enthusiasm from the market.
  - twingie 8y ago
    Well, if you look at any form of interactive 3D multiplayer game, it really is here, it's just that there's so much to pull apart, in terms of the nuance of online interaction with humans, that we're reluctant to move beyond the cartoonish worlds of video gaming. We have tons of really popular game titles, and millions of people playing or watching or chatting, as tournaments unfold. We fill convention centers with people playing games, and stream a webcam feed of people at conventions playing the games. But it's all still games, world of warcraft, fortnite, minecraft, eve online. So, what if it wasn't a game? What if it was more than video conferencing? What if there was more going on, and an immersive system of interaction closer to first person gaming engine was as relevant, in social terms as facebook, twitter, bitcoin, uber, amazon, google, github, along with email, chat, and file sharing, all as a single service? What if all your home automation and mobile devices were integrated? What if it gave your GPS location to the world, and authenticated you selectively as context sensitive pseudonyms, or conversely your authentic legal identity, securely and as preferred? How much of that is possible? And how much of it do we actually want? But most of all, if corporations collaborating with governments, or an open community of enthusiasts, put this in your hands, would you trust it? Would you put all your eggs in one basket like that? How many IP addresses would a system like this require, to keep each context secure from another, to preserve pseudonyms, and not leak GPS location information? What about background audio, and geolocation by timing attacks? Plus the basics of platform security, knowing what we see every day in terms of zero days getting dropped, and leaving people out in the open? It's cool to think about, but our technology as it exists, is a drafty outhouse, compared to the brick shithouse we really need.
  - jonhendry18 8y ago
    Part of it is that interfaces that require "walking" through a space or looking around for things in a 3D space are terrible if there's no inherent justification for the movement (as there is in a game of exploration). I don't want to have to navigate a space in order to find something. Navigating space is a limitation of physical objects; replicating it in an online environment is an error. It's like if automobiles were designed so that steering and speed were controlled with reins.

nabla9 8y ago

>it really looked like the visions of virtual worlds that cyberpunk fiction loved might show up in your Netscape browser. It was exactly that. I participated on one SGI demo around 1995. It included tehnology demo and the grand vision from some guy I don't remember. They had few the these bad boys (bigger refrigerator sized models) and very fast internet running Netscape browser. They wanted us to start to develope for this to this new thing called Java that would allow code run everywhere. They demoed what they thought internet would look like after 3-5 years: * 3d browsers with VRML. HTML is replaced with 3d virtual rooms with 3d surround audio. * you can attach pieces of Java code to the VRML and freely interact with objects * people would buy stuff in the internet using micropayments possibly using new fancy new digital currencies like DigiCash (this was still hand waving). There was also this thing called E-gold few years later. * the demo included virtual kitchen design app, virtual rooms with water fountains and java controlled robots, and fish that responded to their environment. It was all mindblowing technologically, but none of the ideas were new to me because I had been reading Snow Crash (1992) and others. Jaron Lanier and VPL Research were also known to work with these things. In fact, it looks like we are repeatedly trying to bring the same vision alive. Every wave of attempts is getting us little bit closer but always falling short little bit. In the current wave Nvidia has replaced Silicon Graphics and there are new technologies doing the same things in VR and AR. Now we have cryptocurrencies, javascript, Wasm, WebGL, mobile GPU's, 5G. Most of the current bleeding edge will crash when the next recession hits around 2020 or so and some of it will survive. I'm looking forward to the next generation of technology emerging around 2025 ...

twic 8y ago

VRML! I wrote a modest amount of VRML by hand in the early '00s. One project was a 3D model of a castle, which i worked on in large part because it was something i could do together with my then-girlfriend - she would describe how the castle should look, and i would code it up. I learned a lot about how to use parametric prototypes, so i had a kit of parts i could rapidly use, to speed up the feedback loop.

hpcjoe 8y ago
I wrote a code called genvrml which converted molecular models from any format (using Babel at the time for conversion) to VRML for display. I converted a bunch of my models for this. I still have them here. And if I dig around, I might even have genvrml as well. I did believe that this was fairly game changing tech. I showed my 3D models sticking 2m out from a rear projected Reality Wall powered by an IR engine in the Detroit office. But SGI was beset with inane leadership, and we began our terminal decline mere weeks after I was hired ABD from grad school. I finished up my thesis and developed an autoinstaller code for Irix at the same time. Writing the manuals in LaTeX.