3-D viewers

This page deals with viewers for 3-D models, focussing mostly on VRML and WebGL.

VRML viewers

Other people's lists

For other surveys of available viewers, see

• Web3D.org list of X3D Viewers, Browsers & Plug-ins (most also handle VRML)

My list

The following summarizes my experiences while testing with VRML files generated by my own software. The list is in approximately descending order of my happiness with the software.

The viewers may be either stand-alone applications or plug-ins for Web browsers. All of the viewers listed here are available free, sometimes only for personal non-commercial use.

Name	OS			Pos.	Z rot.	Labels	Notes
	*n*x	Mac	MS Win
Thrup’ny	+	planned	+	+	+	+	Mine
Thrwp’ny	Web browser			+	?	+	Mine
3dviewer.net	Web browser			+	−	−
view3dscene	+	+	+	+	+	+
Instant Player	+	+	+	+	−	+
Cortona3D	−	(old)	+	opt.	+	+
CosmoPlayer	−	−	+	+	+	+	No longer supported
Octaga	+	+	+	−	−	+	Out of business?

• Thrup'ny
  • mine, under development
• view3dscene
  • tested 2012 Jan 1
  • free/open-source, for Linux, MS Windows and Mac OS X
  • positional control
  • good z-axis rotation (implemented in snapshot of 2012 Jan 2)
  • displays my labels (implemented in snapshot of 2012 Jan 2)
  • latest version 2011 Dec 30
  • standalone, not plug-in
  • can read and view several formats, and save as VRML
  • many display options
• Instant Player (instantreality)
  • tested 2011 May 8
  • free binary ‘for non commercial purposes’ on a ‘private computer’ (not clear whether academic research use is included)
  • positional control
  • displays my labels
  • no z rotation
  • filled/wire-frame/points modes
  • initially doesn't give a good centre of rotation with my models, but if I switch to Lookat mode, select something in my model, then that structure becomes the centre of rotation when I switch back to Examine mode
  • for Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX
  • latest version is 2.0, released 2011 Jan 19 (as of 2011 May 8)
• Cortona3D Viewer (ParallelGraphics)
  • tested 2005 Jan 22
  • free for personal and non-commercial use
  • for MS Windows only; an old version (1.0.1, dated 2002 Aug 30) is available for Mac OSX
  • manual installation gives good control, e.g., which browser, and whether DirectX or OpenGL
  • default Examine (Study) mode controls velocity, but there's an optional ‘CAD-like’ skin (under Preferences) with positional control (but apparently no z-axis rotation)
  • z-axis rotation using Roll mode
  • displays my object labels (anchor descriptions)
  • displays local files in NS 7.2.
  • according to readme.txt, ‘Pointing-device and drag sensors (TouchSensor, Anchor, CylinderSensor, SphereSensor, PlaneSensor, and DropSensor nodes) can be disabled to simplify navigation in sensor-rich scenes.’
  • version 5.1 as of 2008 Nov 19, with beta version of 6.0 available
  • free version will display company logo
• Cosmo Player 2.1.1
  • Hasn't been supported for many years :-(
  • Examine mode is positional, not velocity
  • Examine mode has an optional Virtual Trackball style which provides z-axis rotation when the cursor is positioned near the edges of the window. This is extremely useful; for me, indispensible.
  • For over a year I wasn't able to open local .wrl files in Mozilla (incl. NS 6/7 & Firefox). After I installed Cortona 4.2 for IE (2006 May 29) the problem was resolved; this ‘solution’ was accidentally discovered by NE in my lab.
  • For a while on my Windows 2000 machine (Earwig) the browser crashed if I tried to reload or use the Back button; this started some time in 2004, and didn't happen on my Windows XP laptop (Earthworm). As of 2006 May it no longer happens on Earwig, but I don't know why.
  • cf. Robert Lipman's history and installation notes
  • CosmoPlayer 2.1: VRML viewer. Download the English-language cosmo_win95nt_eng.exe (previously named cp21setup.exe) or the corresponding French or German version (_fr or _du). (Private local copy.) If installing for Netscape 6 or 7 or Mozilla, create a file called netscape.exe (it doesn't matter what's in it) in the directory where the browser executable and its plugins subdirectory reside. Run cosmo_win95nt_xx.exe. Check the box for Other (unsupported browsers). (I don't know what difference the Previewing in Cosmo Authoring Applications checkbox makes if no such applications are installed.) Check the box for either Netscape or Microsoft IE. (Apparently it's not a good idea to do them both at the same time; install CP for one browser and then for the other. CP can also be installed for multiple versions of Netscape and Mozilla.) Follow the rest of the instructions. For Netscape or Mozilla, you'll need to browse to specify the plugins directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Netscape\Netscape 6\Plugins). Cosmo Player should work fine in versions of Windows from 95 to XP. (Cortona VRML viewer is an alternative to CosmoPlayer. See Karmanaut for a brief summary of alternative VRML viewers and some useful links.)
• Demotride (NRC Canada)
  • tested 2012 Jan 2
  • free binary for ‘personal and non-commercial use’
  • stand-alone viewer for VRML97 and X3D
  • for MS Windows (apparently a Linux version is available with a commercial licence)
  • latest release 2.3 (dated 2011 Jan 21) as of 2012 Jan 2
  • when installed, doesn't put itself in the Start Menu (which would be pointless since it has no file-open menu) but associates itself with .wrl files without asking; puts itself in Program Files\NRC\ or Program Files (x86)\NRC\
  • positional control
  • displays my labels
  • no z rotation
  • no menus, everything done with keyboard; interaction doesn't work properly when help information is displayed (with F1)
  • good centre of rotation
• FreeWRL (CRC Canada)
  • tested 2008 Nov 13
  • version 1.21.0 released 2008 Oct 8 (latest as of 2008 Nov 13)
  • GPL; for *n*x and Mac OSX (‘A Windows port is not yet started, but will eventually happen’)
  • stand-alone and plug-in
  • positional control :-)
  • z-axis rotation like the Virtual Trackball mode in Cosmo Player :-) but it acts strangely sometimes
  • doesn't display my object descriptions :-(
  • centre of rotation is not well positioned: 'A ray is cast along your line of view and the closest that ray comes to the origin of the local coordinate system is defined as the origin of the rotations.' This doesn't work well for my models.
  • I had problems with it crashing.
• Octaga Player (was at www.octaga.com)
  • out of business? (2011 May 8)
  • tested 2008 Nov 13
  • free binary ‘for personal non-commercial use’ (not clear whether academic research use is included); free version displays a promotional window on start-up displays a rather large logo all the time, and is missing some features (export, viewpoint editing and export, smooth/flat/wireframe/points-only rendering)
  • does display my object descriptions
  • velocity-mode only
  • no z-axis rotation
  • in Tools ▶ Options ▶ Navigation, select Automatic center of rotation to get rotation around a useful centre
  • as of 2008 Nov 13, version 2.3.0.3 for MS Windows, version 2.3.0.3rc1 for Linux i386, 2.2.0 Beta 1 for Mac OS X
• Xj3D
  • tested 2005 Jan 21-24
  • stand-alone, not plug-in
  • a GPL project of the Web3D Consortium; version 1.0 (2006 Apr 16) is latest version as of 2008 Nov 13
  • see www.xj3d.org for developer documentation, bug tracking, etc.
  • written in Java; browser is a sample application for Xj3D libraries
  • supports MS Windows, MacOS X, Linux, Unix, IRIX
  • velocity only; in Examine mode, rotates only about y axis, horizontal mouse motions cause zooming.
  • invoke with -nice (between xj3d.browser.Xj3DBrowser and %1 in Program Files/Xj3D/browser.bat) to prevent it from hogging CPU even when doing nothing
  • doesn't display my rat model at all; I created a small subset to experiment with; after I added -1000 to all of the z coördinates, it still started off invisible but a bit of zooming out brought it into view
  • displays anatomy3d bladder and femur models, but they disappear as soon as I try to move the mouse in any direction in Examine mode; in Fly/Pan/Tilt/Walk modes they move gradually. I tried setting the speed in NavigationInfo to a very small number, it didn't help. I commented out the 'headlight FALSE' line, it didn't help. I commented out the viewpoint definition, it now initially displays as seen from much farther away, and can be gradually moved horizontally, but moving the mouse upward doesn't zoom in and moving the mouse downward makes it disappear.
  • With test subset of rat model, discovered that problem arises from my avatarSize=0. With avatarSize=0, and with or without viewpoint specified, can't see or find model; apparently they set the far clipping plane to 3000 times the avatar size, which obviously causes a problem if the latter = 0. Without avatarSize: with my z vwpt, starts centred but jumps to upper right as soon as I try moving it; without a specified viewpoint, it starts out invisible but comes in from upper right when I zoom out.
  • with their test.wrl (with animation removed; a box with default size, i.e., 2x2x2) all modes work OK, but Examine mode left/right motions are backwards, and up/down mouse motions give _very_ rapid zoom in/out. When I made the box 100x100x100, the box was initially invisible, but I could gradually zoom out so it became visible.
  • (2006 May 30) with my pc12s_all.wrl, at first it doesn't appear, but selecting a viewpoint brings it into view; then clicking the mouse in Examine mode makes it disappear again, and after some searching it appears but is hard to control.
• X3DViewer (ARTIS)
  • tested 2006 Oct 6
  • X3DToolKit is an LGPL C++ toolkit for loading, displaying and processing X3D models. It is available for Linux, MS Windows and Mac OS.
  • X3DViewer is a sample application of X3DToolKit
  • it has no controls besides mouse with left (rotate), middle (zoom) and right (pan) buttons; positional control, no z-axis rotation; apparently doesn't open VRML files, but no error message; file-open dialogue is apparently only accessible when the programme is started
  • the provided X3DViewer Windows binary requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework be installed (when it wasn't installed, it complained about missing mscoree.dll)
  • latest version 1.0.1 released 2004 Aug 27 as of 2008 Nov 13
• ImmersaView (EVL, Univ. Illinois Chicago)
  • 2007 Jul 18
  • reads .iv and .wrl files (reads a configuration .iv file in which the model file(s) are specified)
  • positional control with mouse or keyboard; has z-axis rotation from keyboard
  • doesn't display my object labels (anchor descriptions)
  • seems to be very slow
  • displays stereo pairs
  • for Linux, MS Windows and Mac
  • uses Coin3D and glut
  • source code is available
  • latest release 2004 Aug as of 2007 Jul 18
• VRMLview (Systems in Motion)
  • 2006 Jun 14
  • positional control, with z-axis rotation just like the Virtual Trackball mode in Cosmo Player :-)
  • doesn't display my object descriptions :-(
  • doesn't use my background colour :-( (displays background as selectable colour or as user-provided image)
  • can display wire-frame, points, etc.
  • for Linux and MS Windows
  • free with non-commercial licence
  • obsolete; they have better VRML support in their Coin library but haven't yet implemented a replacement VRML viewer
• Carina (D. Huffman)
  • focus on xVRML with ‘some support’ for VRML and X3D
  • for Linux and Mac OSX
  • GPL licence
  • uses QT and OpenGL
  • latest release 2006 May 20 as of 2008 Feb 14
  • Web site broken on 2008 Nov 13
  • I haven't tested it
• OpenVRML
  • 'a cross-platform VRML and X3D browser and C++ runtime library'
  • GPL
  • includes Lookat, a simple stand-alone VRML browser
  • latest version 0.17.10 released 2008 Oct 26 (as of 2008 Nov 19)
  • MS Windows, *n*x, Mac OSX
  • available as source (including project files for Visual C++ Express), plus a package for Fedora and through Fink for Mac OS X.
• SimVRML
  • GPL for Mac ('for Mactel and G5 Macs', apparently requires 10.4 (Tiger))
  • latest version released 2006 Oct 7 (as of 2008 Nov 19)
• contact 5.1 blaxxun
  • 2005 Jan 22
  • free for non-commercial use
  • installed itself as a plug-in for my netscape 7.2 and ie without asking. when i tried to view a model in netscape 7.2, contact failed with message ‘direct x error : cannot find a d3d device driver which is compatible with the current display depth’. in preferences > render options, i chose ‘prefer opengl’ and ns crashed. when i ran ns 7.2 again, contact worked ok (with opengl) except for positioning the model in the corner of the window rather than in the centre; resizing the window slightly fixed this.
  • contact worked ok in ie with either directx or opengl.
  • on-line help from within viewer points to a non-existent page; on-line documentation is available on their site.
  • examine mode controls position, not velocity, but has no z rotation. pressing shift increases the speed as described in the documentation, but pressing 'r' doesn't invoke temporary rotate mode for me.
  • when i open a local .wrl file from within ie, it calls up my netscape 4.7 and contact runs successfully within it.
  • it does display my object labels (anchor descriptions).
• Contact 6.2 (Bitmanagement Software)
  • 2005 Jan 21
  • free for evaluation only
  • installed itself as plug-in for Firefox (but Firefox still can't view local files)
  • excellent speed, positional control in examine mode
  • apparently no z-axis rotation
  • screen got really messed up with ghosts left behind
• BS J (Bitmanagement Software)
  • 2005 Jan 21
  • velocity-type interaction
  • it killed Firefox after a while
• GLView 4.4
  • 2005 Jan 24
  • stand-alone, not plug-in
  • velocity, not positional
  • can get z-axis rotation by using Roll mode
  • displayed my object labels (anchor descriptions)
  • dates from 1999-2001, no longer supported; this seems to be the predecessor of Contact 5.1 from Blaxxun and Contact 6.2 from Bitmanagement
• Horizon (OpenWorlds)
  • 2005 jan 21
  • horizonwz
  • a free demo viewer (licence for use ‘internally for the purposes of evaluation only’); they sell libraries
  • latest version 2.5 beta released 2001 (as of 2006 May 30)
  • for MS Windows and SGI Irix
  • successfully opened my rat01r_all.wrl, but extremely slow (~2-ghz intel with fast opengl)
  • doesn't display my object labels (anchor descriptions)
  • selected full screen, then it couldn't recover, i had to kill it
  • for included links to samples
    • successfully viewed vissim/seattle2.wrl
    • tried to view vissim/retina.wrl, it crashed
    • tried to view wrl\trombone.wrl, said 'could not open'
    • tried to view motorcycle.wrl, it crashed
  • File > Settings button does nothing
  • After using it a few times, when I tried to run it the main window came up but then it froze and needed to be killed.
• VRwave
  • GPL
  • Java
  • latest version = 2.0, released 2000 Jul 14
  • no longer being supported or worked on
• VRweb
  • GPL
  • for *n*x and MS Windows
  • obsolete since 1997, succeeded by VRwave
• Venues (Vcom3D)
  • 2005 Jan 21
  • free viewer
  • requires Internet Explorer
• Flux
  • 2005 Jan 21
  • ActiveX (requires Internet Explorer)

At www.3d-node.com (last updated 2004 Oct 7) is a recommendation of Cortona, BS-Contact, Freewrl and GLView, with the comment that script support is missing or poor in Octaga, Flux, OpenVRML, Venues, Horizon, Casa and VRweb.

WebGL

WebGL ‘is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL’ and is used via the HTML5 Canvas element. Mozilla (Firefox), Google, Apple and Opera (but not Microsoft) are members of the WebGL Working Group. WebGL is enabled in Firefox 4.0. Interactive examples:

• my demo
• Khronos Demo Repository
• Experiments with Google: WebVR
• ZygoteBody, formerly Google Body; viewing adult female and male bodies is free, separate components require a paid subscription
• BioDigital Human (requires registration, or sign-in with a Google account; no-cost for individual use; no-cost for 14 days for use with students or business team)

WebGL scenegraphs, frameworks, etc.

• three.js: ‘an easy-to-use, lightweight, cross-browser, general-purpose 3D library’ for WebGL. ‘WebGPU (experimental), SVG and CSS3D renderers are also available as addons’. As of 2023 Dec 28, the latest download is dated 2023 Dec 22.
• Blend4Web: ‘an open source platform for creating interactive 3D Web content’, combining Blender and WebGL; there are both open-source (‘community’) and commercial versions. As of 2023 Dec 28, latest version is dated 2018 Jul 31.
• lightgl.js is ‘a lightweight WebGL library’ designed to ‘quickly prototype WebGL applications’. As of 2023 Dec 28, latest version is dated 2016 Jun 20.
• C3DL: ‘a JavaScript library that will make it easier to write 3D applications using WebGL’; as of 2023 Dec 28, latest download is version 2.2 dated 2011 May 20; core team based at Seneca College in Toronto
• Processing.js: a port of the Processing visualization language; the project was archived in 2018 Dec 5; core team based at Seneca College in Toronto
• WebGLU: ‘a set of low-level utilities and a high-level engine for developing WebGL based applications’; as of 2023 Dec 28, latest download is dated 2013 Feb 11; author is Benjamin DeLillo
• SceneJS: ‘3D Scene Graph Engine for WebGL’ based on JSON. As of 2023 Dec 28, latest download is dated 2015 Jun 11; site was last seen by Wayback Machine on 2021 Jan 23.
• PhiloGL: as of 2023 Dec 28, latest download is dated 2012 Sep 19.
• GLGE: ‘a javascript library intended to ease the use of WebGL’; as of 2023 Dec 28, latest change is dated 2014 Jun 20; author is Paul Brunt; last seen intact by Wayback Machine on 2022 Aug 9
• O3D: ‘open-source JavaScript API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser’; as of 2023 Dec 28, latest download is dated 2010 Aug 29
• SpiderGL: ‘a JavaScript 3D Graphics library which relies on WebGL for realtime rendering’; as of 2023 Dec 28, latest download is dated 2013 Jun 4; last seen intact by Wayback Machine on 2017 Jan 19
• CopperLicht: ‘a WebGL library and JavaScript 3D engine’, designed for use with the CopperCube editor (commercial, with a no-cost version); as of 2023 Dec 28, latest version is dated 2018 Jul 24

glTF

glTF (Graphics Library Transmission Format) is a file format for 3D scenes. The .gltf format is primarily plain text (JSON) but may contain binary blobs, while the .glb format ‘also contains JSON text, but serialized with binary chunk headers’. Viewers include the Khronos sample viewer (which can be used to view models other than the built-in ones by appending ?model=URL_TO_MODEL to the URL), and various WebGL viewers (including Babylon.js). One example of the use of .glb models is the HRA 3D Reference Object Library.

X3DOM

X3DOM is ‘an experimental open source framework and runtime’ that aims to be a 3-D equivalent of SVG, as a declarative part of an HTML document, as opposed to <canvas> and WebGL, which are procedural (imperative) API’s.