3DML - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

3DML is a format for creating 3 dimensional websites. It was invented in 1996 by Michael Powers. The files are written in a kind of (non-valid) XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

and can be shown with a browser plugin and independent 3DML browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

called Flatland Rover. Unfortunately the latest version is from spring 2005, which is also why there is only a plugin for Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...

, Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator was a proprietary web browser that was popular in the 1990s. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation and the dominant web browser in terms of usage share, although by 2002 its usage had almost disappeared...

and AOL

AOL

AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

, but not for Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...

. An older version of the plugin is available for Opera

Opera (web browser)

Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...

: http://www.opera.com/docs/plugins/.

A 3DML world is called a "Spot". In the spot "blocks" can be inserted, laid out in a grid. The blocks can be ordered into "levels" - each has the same size. This approach was designed to simplify the building process and comprehension of 3D pages. The following is an example of a full Spot description of a 3D room with walls.

<br /> <blockset<br /> href="http://blocksets.flatland.com/flatsets/basic.bset"/><br /> <map style="single" dimensions="(9,9,2)" /><br /> <sky texture="images/clouds.gif" brightness="90%" /><br /> <ground texture="images/dirt.gif" /><br /> <ambient_light brightness="100%" /><br /> <ambient_sound file="sounds/waves.wav" volume="65%"<br /> playback="looped"/><br /> </head><br /> <body><br /> <level number="1"><br /> ###...###<br /> #.......#<br /> #.......#<br /> #.......#<br /> #.......#<br /> #.......#<br /> #.......#<br /> #.......#<br /> #########<br /> </level><br /> <level number="2"><br /> ###---###<br /> #-------#<br /> #-------#<br /> #-------#<br /> #-------#<br /> #-------#<br /> #-------#<br /> #-------#<br /> #########<br /> </level><br /> <entrance location="(5,8,1)" name="default" angle="0,0" /><br /> </body><br /> </spot><br /> <br /> You can navigate the spots by using either mouse or arrow keys.<br /> <H2>External links</H2> <ul> <li> <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.flatland.com">Homepage of the developers</a></li> <li> <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.opera.com/docs/plugins">The Opera plugin</a></li> <li> <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/1999/01/3dml/3dml-plain.html">An introduction to 3DML</a></li> <li> <a rel='nofollow' class='greylink1' href="http://www.flatland.com/build/tutorial/">Another tutorial</a></li></ul> <div class="article-reference">The source of this article is <a class='greylink1' href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DML">wikipedia</a>, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the <a class='greylink1' href='/gfdl'>GFDL</a>.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="footer"> <a href="http://www.silverdaleinteractive.com/">Silverdale Interactive</a> © 2024. All Rights Reserved. </div> </div> <div class="opacity-panel"> </div> <div class="dialog-wrapper"> <div id="dialog1" class="dialog-pane"> <div onclick="CloseDialog()" class="close-dialog button">x</div> <img class="dialog-logo" src="/images/logo.png" /> <div class="line"></div> <div id="dialog-panel"> <div class="dialog-title"></div> <div class="dialog-content"></div> <div class="ok-button-wrapper"><div onclick="CloseDialog()" class="ok-button">OK</div></div> </div> </div> </div> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-395964-1"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag() { dataLayer.push(arguments); } gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'UA-395964-1'); </script> </body> </html>