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WRL is the file extension for VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language), a text-based 3D scene format from 1994 that imagined a future where you'd browse the internet in three dimensions. Mosaic was the hot browser, 14.4k modems were standard, and somehow people thought navigating 3D worlds would be more efficient than clicking links. They were wrong, but the format was genuinely ahead of its time.
VRML files describe 3D scenes using a hierarchical node structure: shapes (boxes, spheres, indexed face sets), appearances (materials, textures), transforms, lights, viewpoints, and interactive sensors (touch, proximity, visibility). Animations use interpolators and routes — a signal-routing system that predates modern node-based visual programming by years. The syntax is human-readable and reasonably intuitive.
VRML was superseded by X3D in the early 2000s, and the web moved to WebGL and glTF instead. But VRML files still appear in scientific visualisation, 3D printing (some slicers accept WRL for coloured models), molecular biology (protein structure viewers), and archaeological site reconstructions. It's a format that peaked early but never fully disappeared.