I personally use Cosmo Player, and I found it to be excellent.
A VRML file can be in either plain text (ASCII) or compressed (GZip) form.
To make a basic VRML file, use a simple text editor, like Notepad, Wordpad, or any other ASCII text based editor. To make it an official VRML file, the header has to be used to tell the browser what version you are writing in, but more on that later. Now, time to save the file. Instead of saving the file with the standard TXT or DOC extension, use WRL. If your VRML plugin is installed correctly than it should atomatically have a VRML icon.
A compressed VRML file is the same as a plain text file, it just has been compressed. It is like compressing an image in WinZip. The image still looks the same, and all of the same information is still there, it just has been compressed. A Unix (or Linux) program called GZip is the only compression agent that can properly compress a file. Once the *.wrl is compressed, it should be *.wrl.gz . Now, just remove the extension, and the file is ready to go. BTW, you can also decompress VRML files!
VRML can be ran in either plain text or compressed form. Plain text is good while troubleshooting, because changes can be made quickly and easily. Compressed form is great for final presentation, because they are small in file size. I've gotten some VRML files down to 4.5% of original size!
I now know what a VRML file is, now tell me what the are.
Sure. VRML files consist of the header, the scene graph, the prototypes, and event routing. The header.
It is either #VRML V2.0 UTF8 or #VRML V1.0, to tell the browser what version of the VRML language the world is written in. #VRML V2.0 UTF8 is for the VRML97 specification, and #VRML V1.0 is for the VRML 1.0 specification. So why would anyone what to use an outdated version? Well, it is still around to support the very old worlds still out on the internet. Another reason is for 3D modelling. Most 3D modellers can export both versions, but only import Version 1.0.