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 reduced in size because VRML compresses extremely well, leading to the convention of naming these archives .WRZ or `.wrl. In case you beloved this article and also you desire to be given more info with regards to file extension WRZ generously stop by our own site. gz`, and the usual method of opening them is to unzip 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 simple check is seeing whether the file begins with the hex code 1F 8B, which is typical of gzip-compressed data and supports the idea that WRZ is a gzipped WRL, and people often mix it up with RWZ, a format associated with Outlook’s Rules Wizard, so a file from an email setup is probably RWZ, while one from a 3D workflow is almost certainly WRZ.

Saying a .WRZ is a “Compressed VRML World” means it’s simply a VRML scene—normally saved as .WRL, with “WRL” standing for *world*—that has been wrapped in gzip to make the file smaller, as VRML uses structured text to describe full interactive 3D scenes including objects, materials, textures, lighting, and even animations, and since text compresses very efficiently, the VRML community standardized on .wrl.gz or .wrz as names for gzipped VRML files.

In practical terms, “compressed VRML world” also tells you exactly how to handle it: open 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, 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.

Opening the VRML “world” (the .WRL extracted from a .WRZ) reveals a scene graph made of typed nodes that define visuals and movement, built from Transform/Group hierarchies controlling transforms, beneath which Shape nodes combine geometry like IndexedFaceSet with appearance nodes such as Material and ImageTexture, along with typical environment elements including Viewpoint camera spots, NavigationInfo settings, Background coloring or sky textures, optional Fog, and even Sound.

Interactivity in a VRML world is handled through Sensor nodes like TouchSensor 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.

Calling a .WRZ a “Compressed VRML World” means the file isn’t a unique format but a standard VRML world (.WRL) compressed with gzip to shrink download/storage size from the early web-3D period, leaving the VRML text intact—shapes, textures, lights, viewpoints, navigation, and simple behaviors—just packaged in gzip and signaled with .wrz or .wrl.gz, as noted by references like the Library of Congress, which is why 7-Zip/gzip opens it and why identifying the 1F 8B signature bytes helps confirm it’s really gzipped VRML.