Getting Started

Cosmo Worlds is all about creating a 3D world that can be published on a Web server. This includes making your world efficient for downloading and viewing.

The following topics assume you are familiar with VRML concepts. The topics appear in the order that you might complete each task when you create and publish a world for the first time.

  1. Learn how to view objects and worlds.

  2. Learn how to manipulate objects.

  3. Create basic shapes and text which you can model into more complex shapes. If the models are complex, make a separate file for each model, then import the models into a world.

  4. Import and edit models created with other modeling software programs.

  5. Add colors, textures, and materials to your models.

  6. Optimize the world. Reduce the number of polygons in your models. Create level-of-detail (LOD) groups where appropriate. Use inlines.

  7. Animate models in your world and write your own scripts to define additional behaviors for the objects.

  8. Create special objects, such as lights, sounds, movies, and links to other files.

  9. Use the Outline Editor to edit the VRML file (a readable text file) for your world. The Outline Editor also allows you to create routes between events so that values can be sent from one part of the world to another part.

  10. Save the world to a file.

  11. Preview the world so you can test links, levels of detail, animations, sounds, and movies, as well as overall frame rate and performance.

  12. Package the world and publish it on the World Wide Web.

Jump to: For more information on VRML, see The VRML 2.0 Handbook, by Jed Hartman and Josie Wernecke or jump to the VRML 2.0 specification.