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.gz`, and the usual method of opening them is to decompress 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 straightforward check is verifying whether the file starts with the gzip indicator 1F 8B, a strong sign of gzip compression matching the WRZ format, and a common misunderstanding is mixing it up with RWZ, which belongs to Outlook Rules Wizard exports, so if the file came from email migration it may be RWZ, whereas anything from a 3D or CAD workflow is usually a true WRZ.
A .WRZ being called a “Compressed VRML World” means the file is just a VRML world—commonly stored as .WRL, where the extension means *world*—that’s been shrunk using gzip for easier storage or earlier web transfer, as VRML’s text-based scene description (objects, textures, lighting, cameras, and sometimes animations) compresses extremely well, resulting in conventions like naming such files .wrl.gz or .wrz.
If you have any sort of questions regarding where and exactly how to make use of universal WRZ file viewer, you can call us at the page. In practical terms, “compressed VRML world” also tells you exactly how to handle it: process the file as a gzip stream first, which will usually yield a .WRL you can load in VRML/X3D viewers or import into tools that still understand VRML, and a simple technical hint is the gzip “magic bytes” 1F 8B in hex, which, if present at the start of the WRZ in a hex viewer, strongly suggests it’s a genuine gzipped VRML world rather than some unrelated format with a similar extension.
Inside the VRML “world” (the .WRL produced after you decompress a .WRZ) you’ll find a typed scene graph covering both scene content and navigation, starting with Transform/Group nodes that define position, rotation, and scale, then Shape nodes that mix geometry—Extrusion—with appearance through Material and ImageTexture, as well as world-level nodes like Viewpoint, NavigationInfo, Background, Fog, or Sound.
VRML’s interactivity uses Sensor nodes like TouchSensor to send events, animations build on TimeSensor plus the Position/Orientation/Color/Scalar interpolators that provide time-based outputs, and ROUTE links connect everything, while complex behaviors rely on Script nodes with VRMLScript/JavaScript or occasional Java, and Anchor nodes allow hyperlink-like navigation, with the specification distinguishing transform-affected nodes from non-spatial ones such as interpolators, NavigationInfo, TimeSensor, and Script, giving the world the character of a small interactive program rather than a simple 3D model.
What “Compressed VRML World” means for a .WRZ file is that WRZ isn’t its own 3D format but simply a regular VRML scene file—usually .WRL—compressed with gzip to reduce size back when web bandwidth was tight, so the content is still VRML text describing shapes, lights, textures, viewpoints, navigation, and simple interactivity, just stored inside gzip and labeled .wrz or .wrl.gz, a convention noted by sources like the Library of Congress, which is why tools like 7-Zip/gzip open it and why checking for the gzip signature 1F 8B helps confirm it’s truly gzipped VRML.
