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15/02/2026 - VRML

Or, how Windows 11 still has Internet Explorer and they really don't want you to know that:

Hey hey, it's been a bit. Sorry! I've been super swamped with uni. 'tis the exam season over here and I had no good topic ideas.

But a bit of time ago, I came across something interesting earlier. VRML, an old vector 3D graphics model that was meant to primarily be used within websites and unlike most other formats you may be familiar with, it could be relatively easily read as it uses plaintext coding.

SAPARi - "Park" Map

VRML stands for Virtual Reality Modeling Software, and it has been released in the mid 90s. It was used in various web-based applications and allowed for exploration of a virtual 3D space all within your browser. In fact, your Windows 11 (ew) computer can run it right now with the almighty internet browser called...

Internet Explorer.

Yup, that's right, your Windows computer still has Internet Explorer installed for legacy compatibility purposes, but if you try to launch it normally it opens Edge instead (also ew). But with a simple desktop shortcut that runs a Powershell script, you can open it just fine. But why would I want to open the browser that was notorious for being slow and kind of weird even back when it was still a flagship one? Well, it's the only one whose native, latest version supports Cortona3D Viewer. It's a plugin for the browser that allows you to explore VRML files (.wrl, "worlds") within their intended-ish environment.

Granted, there are some specialized pieces such as games that use VRMLs that do not need this plugin, but the vast majority of my exploration was done through Cortona. But I think it is fitting to start with my personal first interaction with VRMLs, and the reason I looked into Cortona in the first place:

SAPARi (AKA "Sampo Park Relaxation")! It was a social VRML-powered MMO bundled with Sony Vaio computers. It ran from 1997 to 2003, and you may have seen a picture of its little cat mascot:

What a cutie.

It was apparently really popular in Japan of the time, though I missed its peak by a hot minute or so, give or take 20+ years (and also never being in Japan). But luckily, fan servers - or rather, a fan server - is still up for it, allowing me to get in-game and with some coordination meeting up with people within it and having the "intended experience". It's a lovely little piece of software, I consider the likes of Webfishing and co. to be a bit of a spiritual successor. There is no objective except just chatting with fellow folks, wandering around as cute little animals and vibing.

Images provided by ' ' AKA "Solkero" on Discord. I'm even in one!

Anyways, as I looked into it more, I got interested by this funky VRML business. I wondered what other things it was used for, and before long I found myself downloading several files from the Internet Archive. I even came across a very nice collection which I recommend for anyone interested. I will explore a few things from it, but there's still a lot in there that I think will be really interesting for you all to look at if you're interested. (Or I can do a part two? Lemme know via my guestbook!)

From now on, this blog post will be more of a screenshot collection with occasional text to showcase the fun stuff I came across and my hopefully brief thoughts.

Pyramid of Khufu by University of Michigan VR Laboratory, 2003

A nice little recreation of the pyramid of Khufu (also known as the Great Pyramid of Giza). It allows you to view a 3D render of the internals from the outside, and click on locations on the map to view them in first person.

Interactive 3D Nokia 8110 by Cybelius Software, late 90's - early00's

A clickable Nokia. Imagine if all products had this, where you had a 3D model of it you could interact with to see how it works before you decide if you want to buy it or not. It even has clickable buttons and according to the files even a working screen, but I was unable to make that specific part of it work. Still, sliding the case and even bulling the battery out is really neat.

Galerie PICI by Amorphous Constructions, 2004

An architectural representation of the Galerie PICI art gallery in Seoul, South Korea. Only the facade and the stairway is present, but what is here is really well done and conveys the building's structure well.

Virtual Expo for Muzeu Dětské Kresby, Prague (Children's Drawing Museum), late 1999 - early 2000

A digital expo for the Children's Drawing Museum, prague. Each work of art is clickable and brings you to sites (that have been thankfully also archived alongside it), each giving you basic information about them and their creator. I am very fond of this one, personally. Accessibility of these things for children is really important and this is a great way of doing it. You can also find a full archive of the book "Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart" by John Amos Comenius (1623), a very well known piece of Czech literature from the Baroque era.

And finally...

Vermel virtual pub, 1998

While I unfortunately wasn't able to find a specific reason behind this one existing, I suspect that it is because of the name of the establishment. VRML is commonly prounnced "Vermel", so of course the Vermel pub in Russia will get its own recreation! And I kept this one for last because it is insanely impressive. It is recreated in very good detail, and even has a photograph included of the actual place, though I blurred the faces for obvious reasons.

Photo and a recreation I took inside the VRML.

And yeah, that's pretty much it! I hope you found this slightly deep dive into early 3D modeling interesting. See you whenever I am less busy! (But please do feel free to suggest topic ideas.)

25/01/2026 - Deltarune - installing CATZ

Or, how W.D. Gaster made me reinstall Windows

Okay. So, some of you may know what Undertale and Deltarune is. I would wager that the vast majority of you do if you're in Neocities. But for those who are maybe a bit unaware, there's a mysterious figure called "W.D. Gaster" in those games. A very hidden figure, with the W.D. being a reference to the "Wingdings" font more than likely, considering his connection to another set of characters whose names are puns on fonts (and how the very few bits of dialogue in Undertale that we do know that come from him are indeed written in Wingdings).

In the parallel story to Undertale, Deltarune, his role is largely expanded as a shadow figure among several that haunt the game's narrative. But in Deltarune, there is also a character called Noelle Holiday. A character with a lot of themes centerting around secrets, mystery, and so on. And you can visit her own site on Deltarune's main site as part of a small ARG, which lead me to find something that piqued my interest.

Link to Noelle's blog #1 - Cat Petterz.

There's a second page on there as well, a slightly creepier blog post. Not that it's actually creepy, but considering the secretive context and the themes around the character, it's interesting. I don't plan on writing an analysis of Noelle's character, but I digress. I looked at the description of the in-universe game and realized.

(Image sourced from WinWorld)

This is just Catz! It's just a somewhat fantasy-modified version of Catz!! It's a cute little game about cat caretaking. What tipped me off is that Noelle occasionally describes the game as having cats made out of spheres, which is the exact rendering method that Catz uses. And I have a Windows 3.1 VM I set up to use old CAD software anyways... so I figured to try it out.



And this is all where it started to go wrong, partially due to my stupidity and partially because of Gaster. (Totally not because I didn't know how VirtualBox handled display modes).

Alright. All good so far.

lol, I couldn't just not do it.



Then, blood spaghetti.

Now, this is actually pretty interesting. It wiggles and rotates and admittedly looks a little gross in motion (especially considering I did not expect it from Catz of all things), but I would sometime really like to look into how it detects what it does. But this is where it all went wrong.

Oh well. Guess I'll try to change the display, maybe try to figure out what display Virtualbox uses and if I need to download something for i-

Ah.

Now, more competent people would probably try to diagnose the issue. Figure out what went wrong (which is probably just incorrect display settings from yours truly). The thing is, I had virtually nothing on this VM other than some CAD software I was mildly curious about. So I naturally nuked the installation since installing Windows 3.1 in Virtualbox, which is not really emulating accurate hardware, takes a collective 30 seconds. And it gives me joy, installing these old OSs. I dunno why, but it's just really engaging for me, like unboxing a new present.

Thing is, somehow the executable for CATZ survived. I figured something would, since I nuked C:\Windows and not C:\CATZ, but I was surprised that even the executable shortcut survived. Nothing ever goes wrong when running a damaged executable on an old operating system while knowing nothing about what you're doing, aye?

I mean... it didn't break it again, but "Wing.DLL"? Of all things?? When I am doing something related to the game where the first name of the spooky shadowy character that haunts almost if not every single part of the main overarching mystery is "Wing"??

I know this is just a coincidence, it's a really funny one. But it's also really funny to say that Wing Ding Gaster himself screwed my Windows 3.1 installation personally, so I am going with that.

That's kind of it, really. Just a funny little story about Basil's mildly amusing ride. I hope your day goes well if you read up to this point! And feel free to type what you think about this stupid little thing in my guestbook.

Wowza, you reached the end of my blog!