VRML99
the Fourth International Conference on the
Virtual Reality Modeling Language and
Web 3D Technologies
23 - 26 February 1999, Paderborn, Germany
http://www.c-lab.de/vrml99

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The annual VRML Symposium is the worldwide most important event
for the VRML and Web 3D community. Its purpose is to bring together
researchers, developers, product vendors, content creators and
other contributors interested in using or enhancing VRML and
Web 3D technology. The VRML Symposium features courses, workshops,
peer-reviewed papers and panels. It will address current
burning issues in the VRML and the Web 3D community.
The symposium will be further enriched by the famous
Web3D Round-Up and an exhibition which will present
leading edge technology and applications.

+papers+

"MetaStream" (by V. Abadjev, M. del Rosario, A. Lebedev, A. Migdal and
V. Paskhaver, Metacreations, California). This talk presents a framework
for generating and storing multi-resolution mesh representations which
supports levels of detail, progressive transmission, compression,
selective refinement and rapid and efficient playback, in particular
streaming of 3D data on the internet. MetaStream was developed at the
Real Time Graphics Lab of MetaCreations.

"An Open Virtual Environment for Autonomous Agents Using VRML and Java"
(by B. Jung and J.-T. Milde, University of Bielefeld, Germany). In a
course at the University of Bielefeld a virtual environment was
developed which is populated with heterogeneous articulated agents.
Autonomous and instructable agents compete for collecting certain
objects while avoiding obstacles and other agents.

"Avatars in LivingSpace" (by M. Wray and V. Belrose, HP Labs, Bristol,
UK). LivingSpace is the name of an implementation of the LivingWorlds
standard for multi-user distributed VRML worlds. LivingSpace was
developed at Hewlett-Packard Labs. In this paper solutions to the
problem of creating behaviors of avatars and coordinating these
behaviors in a distributed environment are presented. In particular an
extension of dead-reckoning is introduced which is based on velocity,
curvature and angular velocity.

"A VRML Integration Methodology for Manufacturing Applications" (by S.
Ressler and A. Godil, NIST, Maryland). This talk describes several
methods developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
for using VRML as the visualization integration technology for
manufacturing simulations. The resulting type of integrated worlds
allows engineering systems to be visualized and communicated via the
Web.

There will be 17 further presentations of papers on topics like
multi-user systems, extensions to VRML, streaming, compression and
applications including arts and museums, tourism, cartography and CAD
(see Program at http://www.c-lab.de/vrml99).

+courses, workshops and panels+

At VRML99 renown experts will teach courses on multi-user systems,
VRML97 and Java3D. Educational applications of VRML, the Universal Media
Element Library and VRML in Germany are the topics of workshops held
during the conference. We are especially looking forward to the VRML NG
workshop which will discuss proposals for the future VRML standard.
Finally experts will discuss controversial issues in panels addressing
the relation of VRML and other Web 3D and present competing technologies
and visions for shared virtual worlds.

For further information see: