From: pcrvrjon@aol.com (PCR VR Jon)
Subject: REV-PUB: VRML - Browsing & Building Cyberspace
Date: 7 Oct 1995 17:14:44 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


From: pcrvrjon@aol.com (PCR VR Jon)

For those of you who haven't seen it, I just picked up a book called:

VRML - Browsing and Building Cyberspace  by Mark Pesce

from New Riders Publishing (http://www.mcp.com/newriders)

This book is a great resource for understanding VRML (and the
Internet/Web in general!) straight from the driving force behind VRML.

It includes a CD-Rom with VRML utilities, programs, browsers, and demo
versions of several 3-D graphics utilites.

>From the Forward by Tim Berners-Lee:

"It is so natural for a person to be immersed in a three dimensional
space that we expect more of the warp and weft of the Web, the strands
which hold it together and provide the basic navigation between its
varied resources, to be woven in VRML rather than HTML ...  Mark is to
be congratulated on his balancing of vision and practicality to make
this big step so cleanly.  A new era does not come without a certain
amount of hard work"

I am only about halfway thru, but so far I have found that Mark
Pesce's enthusiasm for VRML literally drips from the pages of this
book.  In fact, having heard him preach .. er .. speak in person, I
wondered if his engaging style and sprititual approach towards VRML
would come across in what is essentially a technical book. Simply put:
it does.

He very succinctly lays out a natural progression from the beginning
of communications to the Internet to the Web and on to VRML.  He then
goes on to describe history and philosphy of VRML, how VRML works
alongside HTML, and then the basics of 3-D computer graphics (in
fairly simple terms).

That being said he goes on to give a VRML primer, showing how to build
worlds using VRML from the ground up.  After that he goes into various
World Building tools, VRML publishing issues, style guides for world
building and finishes with the future of VRML.

Another excellent feature: Mark gives several paths through the book
(as, in his words, reading straight through is "so dreadfully
linear").  There is a Novice Path (for people not familiar with the
Web or VRML and just wish to browse), a Hackers Path (for those who
already have a experience with the WWW and 3-D graphics, who want to
design their own VRML tools), and a Designers Path (for people who
area interested in designing their own VRML content).


I have torn though the first half of this book in one evening (As
usual I have ignored the paths and have taken the semi-linear "read
until it comes out your ears approach") and have skimmed the rest.  I
highly reccommend it to anyone interested in VRML!

-jon


==================================================
Jon Neill
Resource Consultant
AOL VR Resource Center
PCRVRJon@aol.com
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