Index of /~broehl/vrml/lnvj/cdrom/software/sony/SERVER

      Name                    Last modified       Size  Description


[DIR] Parent Directory        26-May-1999 12:12      -  
[   ] BRE20B1B.EXE            25-Mar-1997 08:49   100k  
[TXT] LICENSE.TXT             24-Mar-1997 11:36     4k
Virtual Society on the Web

Shared Community Place PC server
Alpha Test Release

 You should be familiar with the basic operation of the Community Place browser, and you should have connected to one of the Sony shared worlds to get a feeling for what it's all about.

You don't need to worry about this server if you just want to use the shared worlds that Sony, or some other third party has created. These shared worlds will connecti automatically to publically accessible servers that we or the world builder have already set up.

The Win95 server: what's it about

This server will allow you to share VRML1.0 and VRML2.0 worlds using the Community Place VRML2.0 browser. Sharing a world is simple, you need to add one line to an existing VRML1.0 or VRML2.0 world file which will tell the Community Place browser where the world server can be found on the 'net.

You then run the server on a PC of your choice and anybody loading the VRML1.0 or VRML2.0 file into a Community Place browser will be automatically connected to the shared world.

When connected, users can see avatar representations of other users, use a simple chat facility to talk to each other and, if you set it up, express a little emotion with our avatar action panels.

So why are we telling you this here? Because the use of a Community Place Bureau server running on your PC will not only allow you to share scenes, but it will allow you to share behaviours as well! Sounds fun, it is; shared animation, games, collaborative tools and a host of other 3D ideas are trivial to build if you have the desire.

Download the server

How do I use it

There are two parts, running the server and connecting a client.

Running the server

The Win95 server is a simple Community Place Bureau server that runs under Windows95. You simply download it and start it up. The server has a simple menu bar allowing you to control it. When you first bring up the Bureau program, it is in the stopped state. Pull down the View menu and click on the Status option. A small status window will be displayed with information about the server status, i.e. stopped or running, connected users, and the port the server is listening on.

The server starts up at a well known TCP port (5126). To change this, pull down the Options menu and select Port. You will be prompted for a new value. Choose any port number greater than 5000. If you are unsure which port to use, leave it at the default value.

Next, pull down the Run menu and select Start, the server will now start listening for connections at the port specified. In the status window, the status will change to Running.

The server is now waiting for Community Place browsers, or "clients" to connect. Once a client connects to the server port, the server handles everything, it tracks a user's location and avatar, telling other browsers about this visitor, it passes chat messages, and it handles everything needed to support shared behaviours.

The status window will also be updated to show any connections. It's a good idea to leave the status window open to see who is connected and if the server is running OK.

Connecting to the server

To connect to a server you need to do two things, tell the browser to connect by adding an WorldInfo node to your VRML 2.0 file and provide an avatar so that people can see each other.

Adding the server information to the VRML file

This information is read in by the Community Place browser when it loads your VRML file. It consists simply of the address of the machine that is running the server and the port on which the server is listening for conenctions.

The format is as follows:

     WorldInfo { info [ "VsServer:hostID:port" ] }
The hostID should be the full internet name of the machine either as an ascii name, eg fred.research.sony.com or as an IP address, eg 123.231.12.1

The port is the number that you choose when starting the server as discussed above.

So for example, the entire string might look like this:

  WorldInfo { info [ "VsServer:fred.research.sony.com:5126" ] }

The avatar file

When Community Place connects to a server, it will tell the server the name of the avatar it is using. The server uses this information to tell other browsers which avatar to use to represent you when they meet you in Cyberspace. You don't need to worry about the details at this moment. All you need to do is ensure that an avatar VRML file is available to the Community Place browser when it loads your world.

When Community Place reads your world file, it will search in the directory where you placed the world file, and look for the directory avtimg where it expects to find the image files for avatars. Image files are used to display a small avatar icon in the avatar choice menu in the browser.

So, you have to make avtimg sub directory under the directory in which your main VRML world file resides. The following self extracting archive file contains images for the default avatars also offered for download below. This archive, when uncompressed into the directory where your main VRML world file resides, will automatically create a sub directory named avtimg and copy the avatar image files into that sub directory.

Now you can select an avatar from the browser pulldown menu (or by right clicking your mouse inside the Community P plug-in window). When you select one of the avatars, the browser will look for it's geometry file in a sub directory named avtwrl under your world directory where the actual model files for the avatar are kept. So, you must also make an avtwrl sub directory under your VRML world maindirectory and place within it the files contained in the following self extracting archive. Note: when you use this self extract utility to uncompress avatar geometry files into the directory where your main VRML world file resides, the /avtwrl sub directory will be created and populated automatically.

In conclusion; to allow people to share your VRML file. Start the server running, add the VsServer WorldInfo node to your VRML file, and create avtwrl and avtimg directories with the necessary files.

After that all you need to do is tell people to load the world you've created and they will automatically connect to your server.

We've provided these two avatars for you to use to get started. Of course, you can set up any avatars you like for your users. The browser doesn't care. Feel free to edit or replace boy and girl.

Check our Tutorial #6 to find out how to configure your own avatar files for multi-user VRML 2.0 support. Lastly, a note on how you serve your world and avatar files. There are two approaches:

There are pro's and con's for both approaches. The first approach works well if the worlds are complex, large and unlikely to change. The second approach works well if the worlds are less complex (or use VRML in a clever fashion) and change a lot. Contact us if you would like more advice on this issue.

Testing the server

To test that the server is running, do all of the above and then start two Community Place browser windows on the same machine. Load your VRML world file in each of these browser windows. If you have properly followed the steps given above, the two browsers will connect to the server and will be able to see each other's avatars.

After that, all you need to do is tell users about the location of your new world and when they download and connect they too will share.

Problems

There are several things that can go wrong, here's a few common mistakes.

Restrictions

 There are a couple of restrictions with this release of the server. First, it will expire on 1 April '97, after which you will have to locate the next release. Second, the server is restricted to support a maximum of 12 connections. The publically accessible servers that we maintain to support Circus Park and other multi-user worlds allow many more connections. However these servers sit on larger machines on well connected nodes. Our experience has shown that most people who set up a PC server tend to do so on low powered machines with limited internet connections. In such a case overall system performance is poor ruining the experience for most users, hence the restriction.

If you are interested in running a larger server, then please contact us.

Action panels

You may have noticed that our publically shared worlds, such as Circus Park, offer an action panel. You can add these to your shared worlds with a little extra work. Mainly it consists of copying and setting up the required files in the same directory as your source VRML2.0 file.

Shared Behaviours

 Our scripting language in this browser is Java. This is what we use to create animated objects. The shared worlds like Sony Circus Park contain active objects that are scripted using Java and a set of simple shared behaviour extensions to VRML 2.0.

If you play around in the worlds we've created you'll notice some objects animate themselves without your clicking them. This is probably because they are shared among all browsers in the world and somebody else has clicked on the object. You can check this out by meeting a friend in Cyberspace, clicking an object and asking her if she sees it animated.

If you know how to write e-VRML behaviors, or VRML2.0 Java behaviors, then you can use the Sony extensions to write shared behaviors.

If you are interested in running your own server to support your own shared world and wish to know how to build shared behaviours, then just contact us.


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