V-Realm Builder and 3D VRML Visions
By Andrea L. Ames
New authoring tools and other products supporting VRML authors are being released at an ever-quickening pace. For example, before this column reaches you, the new version of V-Realm Builder, the product I'll discuss this month, will likely be available -- at least in beta form.
So how do you keep up? You're doing it! In this and future columns, I'll be a guinea pig for you. I'll install the latest beta product and let it cause conflicts on my PC before you encounter those problems. Some columns, like this one, will provide you with a full-fledged product review. Others will provide minireviews of relevant software, libraries, and so on, in the context of building a home space or some other topic. (See the December 1996 "Using Authoring Tools" sidebar for a broad-brush review of Internet Space Builder, and the January 1997 column for numerous quick takes on object and texture libraries.)
V-Realm Builder, from Integrated Data Systems, is a VRML authoring tool with an easy-to-learn-and-use interface ideal for novice 3D "artists" with some knowledge of VRML's structure and rules. However, V-Realm Builder is not so much a modeling tool for objects as a construction tool for environments, so I found myself looking for object libraries to build with as I used the product. For this reason, I also looked at the
