A .WRZ file is typically a gzip-compressed VRML scene, where a .WRL world file—containing text-based 3D data such as shapes, materials, lights, cameras, and occasional animations—has been compressed because VRML compresses extremely well, leading to the convention of naming these archives .WRZ or `.wrl. If you adored this write-up and you would such as to receive more facts relating to WRZ document file kindly check out our own website. gz`, and the usual method of opening them is to extract with something like 7-Zip or `gzip` to produce a .WRL that VRML/X3D tools can read, provided any texture images remain in the correct relative paths.
A reliable sanity check is looking for the gzip marker 1F 8B at the start, which strongly hints the file is a compressed stream consistent with WRZ, and one common mix-up involves RWZ, a format tied to Outlook rule exports, so email-origin files are likely RWZ, while assets from 3D or web-3D workflows are usually proper WRZ files.
Calling a .WRZ a “Compressed VRML World” refers to a VRML scene file—typically .WRL, the extension meaning *world*—that’s been reduced using gzip to lower its size, because VRML is a text-based 3D format capable of defining objects, textures, lighting, cameras, and interactive elements, and its text nature compresses extremely well, leading to the widespread convention of labeling gzipped VRML as .wrl.gz or simply .wrz.
From a practical standpoint, the phrase “compressed VRML world” signals that you should treat the file as a gzip archive first to recover a .WRL usable in VRML/X3D-capable software, and you can verify this by checking for gzip’s magic bytes the code 1F 8B in a hex viewer, which is strong evidence you’re dealing with an authentic gzipped VRML file, not a look-alike format.
A VRML “world” (the .WRL obtained after decompressing a .WRZ) generally contains a structured scene graph describing what you see and how you navigate, using Transform/Group nodes for hierarchical transforms, Shape nodes blending geometry—IndexedFaceSet—with materials and textures via Material/ImageTexture, plus common extras like Viewpoint camera positions, NavigationInfo navigation rules, and bindable world settings such as Background, Fog, and Sound.
Interactivity in a VRML world is handled through Sensor nodes like various hit-test sensors that emit events, while animation is driven by TimeSensor plus Position/Orientation/Color/Scalar interpolator nodes that output changing values over time, all connected using ROUTE links (eventOut → eventIn), and more complex behavior comes from Script nodes using VRMLScript/JavaScript or sometimes Java, along with Anchor nodes for hyperlink-style jumps, with the spec separating transformable nodes in the hierarchy from non-spatial nodes like interpolators, NavigationInfo, TimeSensor, and Script, which is why a VRML world behaves like a small interactive program rather than a simple mesh.
A .WRZ being a “Compressed VRML World” means WRZ is just a VRML .WRL file wrapped in gzip for smaller transfers, keeping VRML’s text-based description of meshes, textures, lighting, viewpoints, navigation settings, and simple interactions intact, but delivered in gzip form and named .wrz or .wrl.gz as noted by the Library of Congress; this is why decompression tools like 7-Zip/gzip open it easily, and why the gzip magic bytes 1F 8B in the header help confirm it’s authentic gzipped VRML rather than an unrelated format.
