FreeWRL
Encyclopedia
FreeWRL is an open source
compliant VRML
/X3D
browser
for Microsoft Windows
, Linux
and Mac OS X
.
Ottawa and Western Ontario, and
CRC Canada. FreeWRL was used by CRC in this project, as it ran on their platform of choice, Linux, and supported VRML additions (the EAI protocol) that allowed control of a VRML scene from outside entities.
At the end of the DIVE project, CRC took the knowledge gained from it, and combined this knowledge with other on-going projects (European Commission funded projects of Meccano, MERCI and MICE http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/projects/) and created a form of conferencing by designing a distributed multicast enabled virtual world with position-dependent audio capabilities. This project, MVIP http://mvip.sourceforge.net, and the follow on, MVIP-II http://mvip.sourceforge.net, leveraged VRML and Multicast to enable interaction in shared worlds where participants were physically distant, by removing both high bitrate applications (video) and "time sinks" (client-server interaction) to best give the participants the feeling of being in a shared space.
MVIP and MVIP source is available http://mvip.sourceforge.net, and papers describing MVIP can be found on acm.org here and
here.
MVIP-II tests were conducted between Ottawa, Canada, and Denmark, and between Ottawa, and Hawaii.
CRC, with the valued support of Open Source contributors, continued to develop FreeWRL during the MVIP and MVIP-II projects. CRC co-sponsored the Web3D Consortium's
Software Development Kit, and chaired the Web3D Consortium's Conformance Working Group, giving both industry and the public a common set of functionality to strive for.
As of the 2007-2008 timeframe, CRC was researching better ways of bridging audio, physical interfaces, and 3D visuals. To this end, FreeWRL now interfaces with MIDI
devices on both Linux
and Mac OS X
; and with Propellerheads Reason
.
FreeWRL has been developed by Open Source contributors, and managed by John Stewart, CRC Canada. It is believed to be the first sanctioned Open Source project
supported by the Federal Government of Canada, and gave CRC considerable in-depth knowledge on this and related technologies, in accordance with CRC's mandate. In April 2010 CRC cancelled its financial and official support of the project. The participants and project continued to thrive and in mid-2011 the list of ongoing improvements included smart phone and GPU initiatives.
FreeWRL follows the Web3D Consortium's ISO standards, and is certified "Interchange Profile" Compliant by the Web3D Consortium.
It is in daily use worldwide. It is multi-threaded, written in C, and uses OpenGL for rendering. Source code is available http://freewrl.sourceforge.net. Development of FreeWRL has been continuous,
and is expected to continue, with focus on interactivity, usability, and rendering fidelity. As with most Open Source projects, help with code development and testing is
always welcome.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
compliant VRML
VRML
VRML is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind...
/X3D
X3D
X3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language . X3D features extensions to VRML X3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality...
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...
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
.
History
It was originally developed by Tuomas Lukka circa 1998. Also during 1998, Canarie funded a project titled "Distributed Interactive Virtual Environment (DIVE) over CA*net II", with three partners, the universities ofOttawa and Western Ontario, and
CRC Canada. FreeWRL was used by CRC in this project, as it ran on their platform of choice, Linux, and supported VRML additions (the EAI protocol) that allowed control of a VRML scene from outside entities.
At the end of the DIVE project, CRC took the knowledge gained from it, and combined this knowledge with other on-going projects (European Commission funded projects of Meccano, MERCI and MICE http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/projects/) and created a form of conferencing by designing a distributed multicast enabled virtual world with position-dependent audio capabilities. This project, MVIP http://mvip.sourceforge.net, and the follow on, MVIP-II http://mvip.sourceforge.net, leveraged VRML and Multicast to enable interaction in shared worlds where participants were physically distant, by removing both high bitrate applications (video) and "time sinks" (client-server interaction) to best give the participants the feeling of being in a shared space.
MVIP and MVIP source is available http://mvip.sourceforge.net, and papers describing MVIP can be found on acm.org here and
here.
MVIP-II tests were conducted between Ottawa, Canada, and Denmark, and between Ottawa, and Hawaii.
CRC, with the valued support of Open Source contributors, continued to develop FreeWRL during the MVIP and MVIP-II projects. CRC co-sponsored the Web3D Consortium's
Software Development Kit, and chaired the Web3D Consortium's Conformance Working Group, giving both industry and the public a common set of functionality to strive for.
As of the 2007-2008 timeframe, CRC was researching better ways of bridging audio, physical interfaces, and 3D visuals. To this end, FreeWRL now interfaces with MIDI
devices on both Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
; and with Propellerheads Reason
Reason (program)
Reason is a music software program developed by Swedish software developers Propellerhead Software. It emulates a rack of hardware synthesizers, samplers, signal processors, sequencers, and mixers, all of which can be freely interconnected in an arbitrary manner...
.
FreeWRL has been developed by Open Source contributors, and managed by John Stewart, CRC Canada. It is believed to be the first sanctioned Open Source project
supported by the Federal Government of Canada, and gave CRC considerable in-depth knowledge on this and related technologies, in accordance with CRC's mandate. In April 2010 CRC cancelled its financial and official support of the project. The participants and project continued to thrive and in mid-2011 the list of ongoing improvements included smart phone and GPU initiatives.
FreeWRL follows the Web3D Consortium's ISO standards, and is certified "Interchange Profile" Compliant by the Web3D Consortium.
It is in daily use worldwide. It is multi-threaded, written in C, and uses OpenGL for rendering. Source code is available http://freewrl.sourceforge.net. Development of FreeWRL has been continuous,
and is expected to continue, with focus on interactivity, usability, and rendering fidelity. As with most Open Source projects, help with code development and testing is
always welcome.
External links
- Official website
- An article on VRML by FreeWRL developer Tuomas Lukka in the 1999 Linux Journal.