Steven Abbott wrote:
On the subject of large VRML files, is there a list which shows which of the popular VRML viewers support gzipped VRML files? If most of them do, then there's no danger in using the gzipped files.
The 2 big players: Cosmo and WorldView work fine with gzip files. Virtually <g> all 125,000 molecular models on WebMolecules are supplied that way for VRML viewers. See http://www.webmolecules.com
Because VRML2 is plain text, the compression in going to gzipped is huge, so it should be a matter of habit for anything other than the smallest of worlds.
The compression ratios are significant, but the sluggishness of VRML players on Win/Mac platforms remains. Even with modern P3 and Athlon processors, the performance for mega-component worlds is awful. By comparison, Chime is amazingly fast. We do think VRML shines for small 3D models and simple animations. Sincerely, -- Phil Stevens Molecular Arts Chemistry and Safety Software for the Classroom, Lab, and Field ---------------------------------------------------------------- Molecular Arts Corporation | <phils@molecules.com> Hanover Corporate Centre, Suite 1000 | http://www.molecules.com 1532 East Katella Avenue | Main: (714) 634-8100 Anaheim, California 92805-6627 USA | FAX: (714) 634-1999 ---------------------------------------------------------------- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)