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Comment by anom9999 | Hacker News Reader

For all it's faults, I used to love writing VRML. In fact it was probably the last time I got giddy with excitement when talking about the internet as everything since has just been a case of trying to get web applications to catch up with desktop application.

I also agree that the world just wasn't ready for VRML. It was so far ahead of it's time that it even pre-dated 3D hardware accelerated graphics chips coming as standard on desktop PCs!

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Like myself, the enthusiasm that you felt may have had more to do with yourself not yet developing a healthy sense of skepticism for technology than the usefulness of the technology itself.

I can definitely see some uses for it - architectural walkthroughs for example. But using it for creating a virtual store would just get in the way of doing any shopping.

Oh I didn't think it would replace HTML. For me the appeal was because VRML was the closest thing we had to the 3D rendered remote mainframe logins that Hollywood hacker films loved to show off.

Running around a VR modelled web page made me feel like the Lawnmower Man or Joey hacking into the Ellingson Mineral Company supercomputer (well, maybe not Joey specifically because he was a n00b)

Confirmed for architectural walkthroughs! The lab I worked at in college used VRML for some interactive building models on a rear projected 3-screen polarized 3D setup. Pretty fun stuff.

Indeed, there was a great example of collaborative VRML on-line in the late nineties, by exploring a 3D 'house' together you could unlock certain features, everyone ended up in the bouncy fireplace! We were very excited about the potential, it's only been 20 years to wait for the hardware to catch up :)

The hardware has been ready for 15 years already (just think of all the 3D multi-player games and Second Life clones out there).

What we had to wait for was the technology to be reinvented a dozen times before client side web languages finally reached the same point that desktop software development was 20 years previously (and let's not forget the prolonged stagnation in web technologies as pioneered by the dominance of IE6).

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