REALISTIC VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS NAVIGABLE OVER THE WWW
Ioannis Giannopoulos, Ourania Hatzi, Mara Nikolaidou and Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos
Summer Computer Simulation Conference 2007 (SCSC 2007)
San Diego, California (USA), July 15-18, 2007
Abstract
Creation of 3D virtual environments (VE) can be performed using a variety of design tools, most of which create 3D virtual worlds using high definition graphics, 3D Game engines and smooth animation techniques. The produced result is realistic and eye-catching. Although a VR model is always less detailed than the real world artifact it represents, VR provides greater freedom in viewing a model than physical constraints would allow. It provides the ability to zoom in and examine details that could not be distinguished by the naked eye. However there is a major drawback: to ensure at least average navigation performance everything has to be accessed locally on a single workstation. In this paper, we explore the benefits of Virtual Reality Modeling Language VRML, for creating 3D VEs. To exploit VRML’s capabilities, a number of techniques were developed to reduce file-size and design complexity, thus producing 3D VEs holding the appropriate level of realism and navigability, making them efficiently accessible via the World Wide Web.