This tutorial will take you through the process of creating a VRML 2.0 world involving some simple behaviors.

In this exercise, we'll create a sphere which changes color each time the user clicks on it. In this way, we can make the ball change its color interactively -- something not possible in VRML 1.0. Here are some screen shots of the final result (the headlight feature of the browser is turned on):

When developing for Community Place, we always need to create the following:

• The VRML 2.0 files themselves -- these define the geometry involved in the scene, and describe how the script files interact with them. These files end with the extension .wrl.
• The Java programs. These describe how the objects in the scene should behave. We use the Java language because this gives us a powerful way to describe and program whatever our imagination leads us to. These programs start with source code which ends with the extension .java, which are then compiled (using Sun's Java Development Kit) into bytecode files which end with the extension .class.

• A discussion of the source code,
• An active example of this world (coming soon!), and
• Exercises for you to try on your own.

Written by John D. DeCuir