This is the FreeWRL VRML/X3D Browser FAQ. It tries to answer most questions about running/installing/helping FreeWRL. If you encounter something that is not covered on this FAQ, please send an email to John Stewart (see email below) and ask.

FreeWRL is able to read and display most VRML2.0, VRML97, and X3D files encoded in "Classic" or "XML" encoded X3D files.

FreeWRL has passed the Web3D Consortium for testing to X3D "Interchange Profile" compliance - the first browser (commercial, or open source) to submit.

FreeWRL Will be compliant to most of the X3D Profiles - the main developers of FreeWRL are employed by the Canadian Government in a Federal Research Centre, and use FreeWRL in research. So our goal for FreeWRL is to have it become an implementation for X3D, not to develop FreeWRL for sale or as a tool for bundling within other products. We use FreeWRL for our research projects, and make it available for free, under the LGPL License, for your use.

how can I help? Tell us what you use FreeWRL for! It helps us in our internal funding and planning cycle to know how FreeWRL is used- for certain kinds of research, for industrial design, or for whatever.

We are always looking for coding help, but realize that FreeWRL (and any project of this magnitude) is difficult for people to jump in to. Giving us a pat on the back helps; telling us what FreeWRL is used for helps; submitting bugs helps.

FreeWRL is a "Universal Binary" meaning that it runs natively on Intel and G4 processors.

I have broken down the install into quite a few steps; it is not as complicated as it may seem.

Find your Administrator password from wherever you wrote it when you first started your OSX computer, and:

Download the "dmg" file from the OSX section of the Download page;

Double click the "dmg" file from within the Finder - it should be on the Desktop;

In the "dmg" window, double click on the brownish open box icon and follow the installer prompts.

Now, for using FreeWRL with Safari:

Quit Safari, and restart it. When Safari is running, look at the "Help" - "Installed Plugins", scroll down and you should see FreeWRL in there.

Alternatively, click here and you should see a grey cone.

Note: FreeWRL will try and "speak" errors (either with the input files, or with FreeWRL's interpretation of them), so listen to the sound output. The text of the messages can be found in the OSX "Console" (in the Finder, "Applications" - "Utilities" -"Console")

And, to use FreeWRL with the Finder (to double click a file):

Down load the test file in Safari, by doing a holding down the control key, and clicking the mouse here. Choose "Saved Linked file to the Desktop".

In the finder, go to the Desktop; single click the "test.wrl" file to highlight it.

Then click on the apple key and the I key at the same time. A window titled "test.wrl Info" will appear.

Go to the Open With: section, and find the "Applications" "FreeWRL" "FreeWRL Icon", select this, and then click "Add".

click the "Change All" button.

To put FreeWRL in the dock:

You will find the FreeWRL directory in the Applications folder; open the FreeWRL directory, and drag the FreeWRL icon to your Dock.

If you have FreeWRL running, and are experiencing problems only on a few worlds, please refer to the operating system independent section FreeWRL Q and A