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The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a new technology for building, transporting, and displaying interactive 3D worlds. A dynamic VRML world can be stored in a relatively compact ASCII file that can be replayed on a variety of platforms and made available over the World Wide Web. The replay and analysis of Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) exercises is a promising application area for VRML. Traditionally, applications which replay DIS exercises in 3D have required high-end hardware and specialized software. The rapid increase in the computing power of PCs together with the development of VRML make it possible to replay and analyze DIS simulations using readily available hardware and software. The fact that VRML worlds are accessible over the World Wide Web makes VRML an excellent medium for distributing DIS simulations to analysts and trainers. This paper describes work conducted at IDA to build Battle Explorer, a prototype VRML application for replaying and analyzing DIS exercises. The report discusses both the advantages and limitations that we found during our experiments with Battle Explorer.
