Chapter 23: Java and VRML

This chapter is going to take a decidedly different tack. Rather than looking at toy examples that demonstrate specific pieces of Java, this chapter is going to build a fully object oriented model. This is going to require a lot of pages and a lot of code. You aren't going to learn any new Java syntax or library calls in this chapter, but you will learn something about how real programs come together.

The project this chapter describes is a Java package that handles large parts of VRML 1.0. Of course to model VRML 1.0 in Java you'll need to understand VRML first so this chapter begins with a lightning introduction to VRML. Then you'll see how you can abstract the underlying three-dimensional geometry of VRML into Java classes. Finally you'll see some examples of VRML worlds you can build using Java that would be too difficult to build with VRML alone.

Topics covered include

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language 1.0
Modeling VRML with Java classes
Using Java to create complex VRML worlds