Welcome to my Tatra VRML museum. Here you can find some VRML models of the vehicles of Tatra. All these vehicles exist(-ed) in reality and were produced by Tatra a.s., Czech Republic. But I'm sure you know that :)

If you are new to virtual reality, please proceed to a tutorial about running virtual reality on your computer.

FAQ: scenes not loaded?

If you get an "error404" message (file not found) when loading scenes (or even pictures), try to reload the scene (page). Sometimes the server "forgets" the requests. All the links should be functional and the virtual worlds should be complete. But you know, how's it going on the Internet :)

And here we go:

• 23th december 2004 - Major update, two new cars - Tatra 30 (1929) (120KB) and Tatra 77 (1934) (112KB).

  First, Tatra 77 (1934) (112KB), the very first series produced aerodynamical car with rear mounted air cooled V8. The model comes with full interaction possibilities - she can open door, front and rear bonet or even give direction signals (just in front of the front door). There is a screensaver scene with Tatra 77 available too.

  Next, Tatra 30 (1929) (120KB). She can do the same fancy things like the Tatra 77 - open doors and bonet. Take a close look at the original Tatra chassis - air-cooled 4-cylinder engine, gearbox, central tube and diferential with swinging axles. Almost indestructible. There is a screensaver scene with Tatra 30 available too.

  
  

• 31st april 2004 - I've modified the standard T2-603 into a Tatra 2-603 coupe.

  Warning - this is a FICTIOUS car; it has never been produced.

  The original idea comes from Ondrej Ertl from Tatraklub Slovakia, who has done some pretty impressive photo-retouching on a standard T2-603. You can find the photos on the TAKS pages (a direct link is here).

  
  

• 21st april 2004 - Tatra 23 (1926) is coming. Many thanks go to the folks at Tatra Klub web forums, who have sent me valuable information about this beautie. Still, she is in a beta stage, but even now can do some fancy animations. Check her out as usualy as a standalone model (38KB), in a presentation hall, and also in the updated large outdoor scene, which now includes all of the models available. Please note, that this scene requires a bit better hardware.

  
  

• 8th march 2004 - Mike has sent me some new screenshots about the progress of his work on porting T111 and T613 into GTA Vice City. He also has set up a web page, where you can download the T2-603 for GTA3/Vice City.

  
  

• 26th february 2004 - T613 (93KB) has reached her final stage too. She now has interiour, engine, exhausts, windscreen wipers, and more. She can open doors (!) and both hoods. Check her out.

  
  

• 18th february 2004 - T2-603 (115KB) has reached her final stage. She now has exhausts, windscreen wipers, antenne, rear view mirror on the front wing and special T603 emblems. Check her out.

  
  

• 12th august 2003 - Do you still remember mid 20's Tatra trucks ? Here is one to remember - Tatra 24 (1926) with "bulldog" front. Along with her 2 axle sister, Tatra 23, she was the first Tatra truck with central tube and swinging axles. Enjoy the standalone model (38KB), presentation hall (39KB) and also a screensaver scene (39KB). She was not a small truck - compare her with Tatra 111 and Tatra 147 in a special truck scene. She has also many animation capabilities - doors can be opened (!), direction pointers move, driver's window opens, and the sides of the platform can be lowered. However, I'm unsure how was the front engine hood opened. If you know, please tell me and I'll update it.

  
  

• 17th july 2003 - Tatra 2-603 and Tatra 111 models have been updated. Both can now open their hoods upon request. T2-603 also got a new red heart - modeled V8 engine with classical colors and shape.

  
  

• 12th july 2003 - Mike has successfully imported the T2-603 to GTA-Vice City. Here are two screenshots. Still it is a very early alpha version, but it looks very promissing. Now he has almost finished his Tatra 700 for GTA-Vice City.

  
  

• 20th june 2003 - "Her majesty" Tatra 111 (1950) is here. The best known Tatra truck ever with massive aircooled V12 engine (now modeled under the hood with chromed ventilators), comes as classical plattform model and is available as static model (140KB with textures), screen saver scene and presentation hall scene.
  Animations: she can drop the sides of the platform (click on them) and in near future, she will be able to open her hood, doors and windows.

  Tatra 147 was updated along with Tatra 111, the nasty bug with missing textures on the wheels has been removed and also some details added (engine too !).

  
  

• 4th june 2003 - I've played a bit with VRML2 animation capabilities and here are the results. Tatra 147 "has learned" to tip and Tatra 77a shows her aircooled V8 engine. The interaction is very simple. When browsing the model scenes just click on the tipper body of Tatra 147 or at the rear hood of Tatra 77a. The models will automaticaly do the animation. To close the hood, click on it again. It is pretty straightforward. More interactive models will follow as soon as I update my editor to handle the animations correctly.

  
  

• 21st may 2003 - I'd like to present a beta version of an impressive truck - Tatra 147 DC5 (1950 ?). Her sister - Tatra 111 will be available soon. As usualy, Tatra 147 is available as a standalone model (130KB total with textures), in a presentation room and as a screen saver. If you have any additional information about this beautie, please send it to me. I have never seen her with my own eyes.

  
  
  
  

  Here is one more picture, called "A bit of nostalgy...". Do you have something similar at home :) ?

  

• 13th march 2003 - My friend from TAKS has asked me to improve the fly-by scene, which was originaly designed for the Tatra 77a only. Now the scene randomly selects from T2-603, T77a and T613. The vehicles' colors are modified randomly too. Try it here.

  Also all the three models have undergone more optimizations as I keep working on my VRML editor.
  

• 13th january 2003 - Currently I am working a on VRML2 3D editor, which will be capable of loading, saving and of course editing these models. Using the editor, all the models' VRML files were cleaned, optimized and malformed syntax repaired (I'm fed up with buggy exporters). Now the models shall produce stable results under different VRML browsers.
  

• 27th september 2002 - well, what shall I say ... the classical T2-603 (1969) is here ! Modeled using the beautiful photos supplied by Ondrej Ertl from Tatra Autoklub Slovakia. The new beautie is available in the presentation hall (116 KB), as a standalone standard model (115 KB ), Ondrej Ertl's T2-603 and as screen saver scene as well (116 KB). She is also standing in the large outdoor scene. Check it out!

  To download the model of Ertl's T2-603 do the following:

  • download all of these files into the same directory (alltogether about 120 KB)
  • scrsaver603ertl.wrl
  • t603.wrl
  • ertl.jpg
  
  

• 9th september 2002 - Small page redesign. Thumbnails with links to bigger pictures added. Added link to Cortona Autoinstaller. This might help those of you who prefer automatic instalations or who do not know how to install but wish to browse VRML scenes. It is pretty straighforward and it works both under Internet Explorer and under Netscape too. Just go there and wait until the plugin gets installed.

• 30th july 2002 - How-to's page added. Check it out. The section includes setting VRML browsers to maximum speed, cutting screenshots, offline viewing issues.

• 16th july 2002 - T77a just got a sister ! This is the beta version of T613-1 (1969) in a presentation hall (77KB).
  Standalone static model is here (76KB).
  The large outdoor scene now contains 5 different T77as and 5 different T613s. Try it here.
  One more scene - especially designed for Tatraklub Slovakia members - give it a try.

  
  
• 28th april 2002 - first final-version model - a classical beautiful Tatra 77a (1936) in a presentation hall (88KB).
  A little warning: every VRML scene is being loaded in steps. The purpose is to show anything on the screen just when it is downloaded. This scene loads in two steps. First the hall is loaded and displayed (!). Then the car is being loaded (the file length is 87KB and it may take several seconds). After the whole car is loaded, then it is displayed. So for a brief moment you may see only an empty hall.
  
  

  A standalone static model is here (87KB). It is designed so to change bodywork color easily.
  And a scene suitable for a screensaver is here (88KB).
  These are screenshots from the presentation hall. However static images cannot supply the true three-dimensional feel of the VRML scene.

  
  
  

  Here is a small FPS table for this model (hall scene).

  computer, graphics card	frames per second
  486DX2 80MHz, Matrox Mystique	1.3
  Celeron 540MHz, nVidia TNT 2	30

  
  
  

  All measuring was done using Cortona VRML plug-in. Even a 486 is capable of displaying this VRML scene. But you can not expect high FPS on such machine :). Fast Celeron has no problems with this scene.

  These pictures are from this outdoor scene (170KB). However, I shall say, that this scene definitely needs a good computer.

For the newbies to virtual reality:

VRML stands for Virtual Reality Modelling Language. It is defined with ISO/IEC 14772 standard. If you wish to learn more, you can go directly to Web3D consortium web.

What do you need to view these models:

• a good computer: To view these virtual reality models, you will need a good computer with a good graphics card. Pentium II 400MHz with nVidia graphics card is optimal (but I've managed to view these models even on a 486DX2 80MHz :) ). Generally - faster computer will achieve smoother movement of the scenes (higher frames-per-second rates).
  
• VRML plug-in: since you are browsing the Internet I expect that you have a web browser. Web browser alone cannot display VRML scenes. It needs a plug-in, which will process the WRL files. A VRML plug-in can be downloaded free of charge e.g. from Blaxxun (product called Blaxxun Contact). There is are also other plug-ins, e.g. from Parallel Graphics - product called Cortona VRML Client. ParallelGraphics also have a nice autoinstaller, work both under Internet Explorer and Netscape. When you enter their page, Internet Explorer automatically asks, if it should download and install this plugin. Now you have the choice if it should or should not. Also note, that if you cannot download and install programs due to limitations of your user access rights, you may try this autoinstaller.
  Both these plug-ins are only for Microsoft Windows platforms (Win95/98/ME, WinNT/2000/XP). If you are using other operating systems, you may try the OpenVRML project at http://sourceforge.net.

Now let's explain the instalation of Blaxxun or Cortona VRML plug-in.
Both the plugins (Blaxxun and Cortona) come as a self-installing archive. So after downloading simply run the archive and it will install. The instalation is pretty straightforward and does not require any knowledge of VRML. Note, that you may need administrator rights on WinNT/2000. But I'm not sure about this.

After the instalation you can view VRML scenes ! Simply click on a link and watch the show.
Just to make your first steps into virtual reality more comfortable, I've prepared the hall scene moving.

If you have any problems installing or running virtual reality on your computer please feel free to ask me.