Table 1. Overview of considered technologies.
| Requirement | Shockwave | Flash | Quicktime VR | VRML ‘97 | 3D PDF |
| Open standard | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Encryption | no | no | no | no | yes |
| 3D surface mesh models | yes | (yes)1 | no | yes | yes |
| Movies/2D images | yes | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Standalone player without license cost | no | no | yes | no | yes |
| Player available for Windows | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Player available for MacOS | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Player available for Linux | no | yes | (yes)1 | yes | yes |
| Player with built-in interaction | no | (yes) 2 | (yes) 2 | (yes) 2 | yes |
(yes) in brackets indicates some minor limitations. Important features are emphasized in bold font.
1
needs plug-in or additional efforts |
2
limited functionality.