FractVRML: A New Proposition to Extend X3D with Fractal Geometry

Fractal geometry is a branch of mathematics that has found applications in different sciences. Natural phenomena that are not specifiable with thousands of mathematical formulae can be modeled easily with fractals. Virtual reality uses interactive simulation of real world to simulate a sense of presence in a real or imaginable environment. Because of increasing demand for virtual worlds, and the lack of a fast way in visualization of natural phenomena, we have studied the applications of fractal geometry in virtual reality and its 3D modeling language (VRML). We found that large natural worlds modeled in VRML can take a very long time to download and render. Web3D Consortium has introduced X3D as the next generation of VRML. This paper, proposes a new profile, nicknamed FractVRML, for easily modeling natural phenomena with fractals. This profile adds more than 16 new nodes to X3D using extensibility mechanism of X3D. It also adds support for complex coordinates using quaternions. In addition to high resolution, natural scenes designed with FractVRML have lower volume. FractVRML provides more natural representation of objects, as well as making noticeable improvements in the speed of loading and navigation of scenes in the web.

FractVRML: A New Proposition to Extend X3D with Fractal Geometry Keywords:

Fractal , 3D Visualization , Virtual Reality , VRML , GeoVRML , X3D