The Vrml 2.0 Handbook: Building Moving Worlds on the Web

Many programmers can recall a moment when they first felt like a minor deity. My introduction to such hubris-laden megalomania was when I wrote a Modula-2 program to simulate the population dynamics of two competing bird species. I knew better, but it really felt like those digital birds were alive, even though they were represented simply by columns of numbers on a printout! Though now older and slightly wiser, part of me still longs to create even more complex, visual and 3D worlds in the computer, and I envy programmers whose first mythopoeic moment is in creating a VR world.

One of these days I'll get back to making VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) virtual worlds either for legitimate work or for the sheer euphoria of creating simulated worlds. A year ago, the obvious choice was Pesce's VRML; currently, I'd recommend VRML Handbook, written by staff members of Silicon Graphics who clearly know whereof they speak.