VRML was developed as a derivative of Silicon Graphics' Open Inventor file format. This popular format was designed to describe 3D graphics. VRML features extensions for linking from and to normal web pages. Child nodes inherit rendering behaviors from parent nodes. VRML defines a set of nodes, which includes spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders, textures, as well as nodes for creating groups of objects, and nodes to create camera angles and light sources.
Most browsers support navigation via keyboard commands, mouse, or other input devices.
VRML 1.0, the first draft specification, was published at the Second Web Conference in Chicago, in Fall 1994. In VRML 1.0, you can specify single-user worlds without interactive behavior, sound, or animation. You can create a world and explore it, but that's it. While quite limited, VRML 1.0's major importance is the fact that it forms a core set of capabilities and direction for browser developers to develop, and extend them. People have started developing virtual worlds.