Lately I've started to miss building things in 3D, but since I was coding things in VRML which is fairly outdated, I was thinking I should advance to X3D. And here the fun begins... I can't even figure out what I need to view an X3D file (so, no I haven't even started to try learning the actual code).
All the sources on the subject contains bucketfuls of text, mostly in geek-speak, and in the few bits and pieces where I can decipher the content they all seem to refer back to each other. I found that there's something called WebGL that should enable you to view X3D. WebGL is included in Google Chrome (9+) and Firefox 4+. Well, on Mozilla's homepage the 4+ doesn't even seem to be released (I'm confused!!!) so I got Google Chrome.
With Chrome, I can load X3D shapes from the X3DOM site where the 3D code is incorporated into an html page. But all shapes are black and I can barely make out that some are textured... So obviously that's not working quite like expected. If I try to load X3D files as they are, I can't. So apparently something else is needed. But I don't have a clue what. I'm getting tired of trying to decode the same info over and over, when it's not getting me anywhere...
Ideally I'd like to find something that would let visitors to a website see the 3D without also having to download all the right browsers and plugins, but that doesn't seem to be possible at this time (though I can swear that once upon a time there was a java applet that could do that for VRML - not that I can find it anymore...). I was hoping that with WebGL and Chrome, a visitor would only need to have Chrome... But right now I can't even understand how to manage to view the 3D files myself... *after more searching I'm guessing that webGL only does its work when the 3D file is included in the html page somehow...*
Anyone out there have a clue?
(With VRML I used to use Blaxxun 3D plugin but like I said VRML is outdated and I'd like to move on. And since I have that plugin and a couple of others installed, it seems obvious that none of them can handle X3D)
EDIT: And just because I gave up and asked, I think I'm starting the get the hang of it lol
Btw, for anyone else with Chrome 9, this is kinda fun: http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/
EDIT 2: Forget I said that. I don't get anything 
(That webGL code is all javascript and nothing like VRML, while X3D is supposed to be similar to VRML) *sigh*
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