It would be cool if people could view vrml scenes with just their
Mosaic browser. To do this run the graphics code on an HTTP server
and use it to generate 2D gif images of the scene. Include at the
bottom of the image a control panel for changing the viewpoint.
Clicking on the image would move the viewpoint forward to that
position (or a sensible place near by if the user clicked on a wall
or window). Use CGI scripts to interface to a "VRML" server. The
current viewpoint can be encoded into the URL. The server takes
this viewpoint and the location on the image clicked by the user,
and runs the model to generate the new image file and html file.
A cache is needed to hold the files, but the server could return
a cached viewpoint if reasonably close to that requested by the user.
One could use the Accept headers to decide whether to return the
VRML file or to handle it as HTML as described here.
Needless to say, this would act as a powerful incentive for people
to get hold of a VRML browser to run on their own system.
-- Best wishes,Dave Raggett
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