How to Write a Graphics Program

Screen shot of the X3D for Authors website

Most computer users and Internet surfers have a misguided belief that writing a graphics program is only for super-computer users. This is no-longer the case with the emergence of the newest 3D standard for the Internet, X3D. X3D graphics became the standard for 3D graphics for the web several years ago and for the first time made creating complex, animated, 3D graphics scenes or programs within the reach of all computer users. Advanced programming skills are not required in order to create your first graphics program with X3D.

Things You'll Need

• Internet Access
• Administrator Rights to Your Computer

Instructions

1. Download and install the free X3D-Edit 3D authoring tool from the Web3D consortium (see Resources).

2. Download and install a web browser plug-in to view X3D scenes. The Web3D consortium maintains a listing of all browser-plug-ins available for download in its site resources.

3. Launch X3D-Edit and load one of the example scenes from the X3D-examples library into the scene editor. X3D-Edit allows you to create graphics scenes by text editing scene-graph components that are in plain-English (for example, a shape and box for the example scene in this article).

4. 

   Select the "View Scene" menu option to view your first graphics program.

Resources

• X3D-Edit Download Site
• X3D Browser Plug-Ins