ISO/IEC INTERNATIONAL STANDARD 14772-1 First edition 1997-12-15 Information technology Computer graphics and image processing The Virtual Reality Modeling Language - Part 1: Functional specification and UTF-8 encoding Technologies de I'information - Infographie et traitement de I'image -- Le langage de modelisation de realite virtuelle - Partie 1: Spécification fonctionnelle et codageUTF-8 IEC Tso Referencenumber ISO/IEC 14772-1:1997(E) ISO/IEC 14772-1:1997(E) Foreword VRML92 Foreword ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form a specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. See http://www.iso.ch for information on ISO and http:/ /www.iec.ch for information on IEC. In the field of information technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1. Draft Internationai Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for voting. Publication as an International Standard requires approval by at least 75% of the national bodies casting a vote. See http://www.iso.ch/meme/JTC1.html for information on JTC1. International Standard ISO/IEC 14772 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee 24, Computer graphics and image processing， incollaboration withTheVRML Consortium, Inc. (http://www.vrml.org) and the VRML moderated email list (www- [email protected]). ISO/IEC 14772 consists of the following part, under the general title Information technology -- Computer graphics and image processing -- The Virtual Reality Modeling Language: Part I: Functional specification and UTF-8 encoding Further parts will follow. Annexes A to C form an integral part of this part of ISO/IEC 14772. Annexes D to F are for information only. This part of ISO/IEC 14472 is distributed as both a hard copy edition and an HTML file which is on the attached CD-ROM. The paper and the electronic versions contain the same material. However, the structure and presentation are more relevant to the document as viewed on-screen. Please note that the electronic file must be viewed using a recent version of a web browser. @ ISO/IEC1997 All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and micro- film, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISO/IEC Copyright Office · Case postale 56 . CH-1211 Geneve 20 · Switzerland Printed in Switzerland ii @ ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 14772-1:1997(E) Introduction Purpose The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a file format for describing interactive 3D objects and worlds. VRML is designed to be used on the Internet, intranets,andlocalclient systems.VRMLisalsointendedtobeauniversalinterchange format for integrated 3D graphics and multimedia. VRML may be used in a variety of application areas such as engineering and scientific visualization, multimedia presentations, entertainment and educational titles, web pages, and shared virtual worlds. Design Criteria VRML has been designed to fulfill the following requirements: Authorability Enable the development of computer programs capable of creating, editing, and maintaining VRML files, as well as automatic translation programs for converting othercommonlyused3DfileformatsintoVRMLfiles. Composability Provide the ability to use and combine dynamic 3D objects within a VRML world and thus allow re-usability Extensibility Provide the ability to add new object types not explicitly defined in VRML. Be capableof implementation Capable