Added a Targeting scanner in the helm of the bridge of the Enterprise from the 1960s TV show Star Trek. Click on the left side of the helm to make the scanner doors open and make the scanner come up.
Click on it again and it goes back into the helm.


Targeting scanner in the helm of the bridge.

This is a 3D VR Virtual Reality model of the Starship Enterprise Bridge from the 1960s TV show Star Trek. The turbolift doors will open if you get close to them.
I will add more to the bridge model such as the targeting scanner, more lights, etc. Also, I'm working on the rest of the set with the transporter, corridors, sick bay, engineering and other rooms. I'm using the free and open source 3D software Blender to build most of the model.


Bridge in 3D VR from the 1960s TV show Star Trek

If you have some old VRML files that you would like revive or would like to build some X3D worlds, here is a suggestion based on what I use to build my X3D worlds.

Microsoft Visual Studio
X_ITE VS Code Extension
X_ITE VS Code Formatter
X3D classic encoding (VRML) editing tool

With these tools you can open a VRML or X3D file in Visual Studio and see the resulting world in a separate window pane. Here is an example taken from the X_ITE VS Code Extension page...

Any comments or questions are welcome.

World Trade Center buildings 4, 5 and 6 (the Customs Building) have been updated. I created them truer to the original plans. I added the cantilevers and vertical mullions to the outside of the buildings. The buildings are also positioned according to the original plans for the World Trade Center.

I'm currently working on rebuilding the plaza and WTC1 and WTC2. Apparently, some of the dimensions I got from the internet way back in 2001 were incorrect. Also, I'll be adding the rest of the of the extensions to the plaza such as the sidewalks, stairs and front entrance.

Any comments or questions are welcome.

This 3D VR object is a result of photogrammetry using Meshroom of the Thrive Sculpture in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Thrive sculpture, created in 2020, is by artist Daniel Popper. You can find more information about the sculpture and the artist on his website www.daneilpopper.com. On Instagram @danielpopper.

To start this process, I took 35 pictures with my cell phone around the sculpture. I could only shoot pictures from about 180 degrees around it because it's under a building and there are walls and a restaurant near it.

Next, I imported the pictures into software called Meshroom and processed them to create a 3D mesh. It was quite easy to create the 3D mesh right away. I only needed to make some simple adjustments.

I then opened the resultant mesh and processed it in Blender to reduce the large size and some other technical issues with the 3D mesh.

After working on the 3D mesh in Blender, I then exported the model in X3D and added some simple code to add lights and navigation to the scene.

And finally, the software used to render the final X3D code in your web browser is X_ITE
And here is the result of this work.

And to top it all off, all this software mentioned above is FREE!

A test in viewing stereoscopic models in 3D. Cross your eyes to see the model in 3D.
Click the link below to see the models in interactive 3D...

This is my 3D representation of a Moebius strip coded in VRML. It's more accurately written as a Möbius strip, Möbius band or Möbius loop. It technically has only one side to it! Here's the Wikipedia page about the Möbius strip.

My online 3D work began in 1999 when I discovered VRML at the back of a web programming book someone lent me. I was excited to be able to create 3D content and see it easily on the web. At first, Netscape showed VRML content natively; it was already built into the browser. But soon there were plug-ins that could be installed in other browsers. These plugins were Cosmoplayer, Blaxxun Contact and Cortona by ParallelGraphics. There may have been some others but I can't recall them all.

The first 3D object I wanted to build that came to mind was the Space Station 5 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm a big fan of that movie, by the way. So I started building it bit by bit as I learned how to code in VRML. At first it was just a static ring. Then I added spokes and a central hub. Eventually I figured out how to make it rotate.

I continued to add to the space station world, eventually including the Orion spacecraft flying to and into the space station. But the more I added, the more the world frame rate started to slow down. I finally settled on a certain amount of detail to keep the 3D from slowing down too much and ruining the user experience. There was enough detail to give the world a nice feel, but not as much as I'd like.

Eventually, plugins were discontinued I think in the mid 2000's so unfortunately my site no longer worked so I took it down.

Over the years, I occasionally looked around to see if there was an alternative to the old plugins, but never found anything. That was until recently, when I discovered X_ITE. They created JavaScript code that is an interface to the now native WebGL found in most modern web browsers.

I was very excited to discover X_ITE. So, I made a simple test web page and put in the link to the code, put in my VRML code and it worked right away! I began to test the other worlds I had and much to my happy surprise it all worked. I just needed to tweak a couple of things. And now my 3D worlds work much faster and better than before with the plugins!

So, basically the worlds you see here in my site are about 20+ years old. I'm hoping I have time to continue building my 3D VRML sites as I had originally envisioned.

Hope you like my work here.