Re: .wrl file sizes

Chris Marrin (cmarrin@ariel.engr.sgi.com)
Fri, 17 Nov 1995 13:34:21 -0800


On Nov 17, 3:17pm, Jason Hirsch wrote:
> Subject: Re: .wrl file sizes
> I have just started using VRML with a browser called "fountain" a very
> simple sphere and 3d text ran about 243kb!! I don't know if I did
> something wrong, though, but you can see for yourself.
> http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/vonda/test.wrl
> any input you may have would be appreciated.
>

The text is extruded with the edges rounded. VRML does not support this
so it has to be converted into polygons which generates a huge number of
polygons. Rounding of the edges is especially nortorious for exploding
polygon count. A nice way to solve this would be to cesate several levels
of detail for the text. Maybe AsciiText for the lowest, simple extruded
text without rounded edges for the next highest, then what you show for
the highest. Then Just the lowest LOD can be in the file, with the others
in WWWInlines. That way the file loads fast and can be browsed while the
others are loaded.

Also, consider gzip. It will reduce file size tremendously (down to about
40K for this file). More and more browsers are supporting gzip natively
so it is becoming a very good solution.

-- 
chris marrin      Silicon      http://www.sgi.com/Products/WebFORCE/WebSpace
(415) 390-5367    Graphics     http://reality.sgi.com/employees/cmarrin_engr/
cmarrin@sgi.com   Inc.         

"It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." - John Andrew Holmes


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