Is there a High-Level VRML-like API for doing 3D with HTML5?

Question

I used to love VRML + Java/Javascript as a way of building 3d web-based environments. Of course VRML has died a death and during the course of my subsequent wanderings of the web I picked up a lot of noise about HTML5 and its Canvas element.

What I would like to do is revisit my VRML work of the late 90s with the new technology but what I've seen in the demo code out there is very low-level calls and the sort of API that would involve me doing some fairly complex maths (I am emphatically not a mathematician) and this has put me off the idea somewhat.

Does anyone know of any APIs or frameworks that might fit the bill and allow me to concentrate on modelling behaviour without having to get bogged down with geometry?

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

I loved VRML too! I also browsed around WebGL and decided that I didn't really want to get into graphics programming, I wanted a tool like VRML.

I haven't tried these yet, but here's something to look at: X3DOM. It lets you write X3D (basically the XML equivalent of VRML right in with your html on your page, and have it displayed! See http://www.3d-test.com/interviews/x3d_2.htm for a discussion about all of this, and http://www.x3dom.org/ for the actual stuff. I wouldn't hold my breath that this will take over the world, but apparently at least at some level it's up and running and you can use it yourself today on some browsers that support it.