Mac gets VRML browsing at last

Nearly a year after the launch of VRML 2.0, the de facto standard for creating virtual reality effects on Web pages, Macintosh users are getting the chance to join in the fun. Considered the platform of choice by a large proportion of the design community, Apple has been on the outside for too long. That changed last Friday with the release of a full VRML client: Intervista's WorldView.

Apple's demands for a QuickDraw 3D-based VRML browser has led to a lack of Mac support in Live3D (which uses Criterion's RenderWare), the VRML browser distributed with Netscape Navigator since version 2.0. With Communicator, Live3D has become fully VRML 2 compliant, giving all Netscape users access to 3D worlds complete with animations and behaviours - all users except Macintosh.

In December 1996, Apple and Silicon Graphics announced SGI's Cosmo Player would be available on the Mac in the first quarter of 1997 but there is still no sign of the product.