Shared Community Place Tips & Tricks
Shared Community Place Welcome
You should be familiar with the basic operation of the Community Place browser.The multi-user version of the browser adds a few extra features which we describe below.
However, navigating a shared world is no different from navigating any other world. The only differences you will see are other users' avatars as they move around the world with you.
In VRML 2.0 some objects may have behaviors such as triggered animation. In a multi-user VRML world, these behaviors can also be shared between users. So for example, in the shared Jumanji world, you will see some "disasters" happening without your touching the die which is suspended in space above the game board. This is because another user in the Jumanji world clicked on the die and you are seeing the result of her "die roll," which is the same effect that she sees!
How to Use the Chat Feature
The Community Place chat feature lets you to type text messages to other users in a shared world. It's simple to use. Pull down the View menu in the browser window, then select Chat (A tick mark will appear beside the Chat option when the Chat window is already open somewhere on your desktop). A Chat window will appear. Resize it and place it in a convenient location on your screen.At the bottom of the chat window is a text input line where you can type your messages. When you press Enter or Return, the text will be sent to all users in your vicinity. If there are other users in your vicinity and they are chatting, you will see their messages displayed in the chat window. In addition to the Chat window, the text messages you type are displayed in the main browser window as a 'text balloon' over your head. You won't be able to see your own communications in the browser window, but any messages sent by other users will be visible above their avatars.
Community Place is clever, it will only display your message to people who are near you. This has two benefits. First, when you have a text window open, you won't see all the messages from all the people in the world, just those close to you. Second, if you want to have a private conversation with a small group of people, you can just head off to a quiet spot away from other visitors. Community Place will take care of the rest and give you privacy.
Note that, by default, the Community Place server broadcasts your chat messages to users whose avatars are within 8 meters (a meter is the standard VRML unit of measure) of your avatar's position in the world. Users whose avatars are located outside this "aura" area will not receive your communication. The aura area of influence can be set to a different value by the server administrator.
How to Choose an Avatar
Pull down the Avatar menu in the main Community Place browser window. Choose an avatar representation by clicking on it, then click on the Select button. Other users will see you as this avatar image in their browsers.
How to use the Action Panel
If implemented in a given multi-user world, the Action Panel is a set of buttons that allow you to animate your avatar to help you express your feelings. You can think of them as a quick way to augment the normal chat window. Pressing one of the buttons, such as the Smile button, will cause your avatar to perform a 'smile-like action' and perhaps a sound which will be seen and heard by others near you in the shared world.What About Other Worlds?
We're always open to feedback, so if you have a world you want to see, or if you have a VRML 2.0 world that you'd like to turn into a shared world, just let us know and we'll help you out.Shared Scripts
The scripting language used by the currently available beta version of Community Place is Java. This is what we use to create animated objects. The shared worlds contain active objects that are scripted using Java and a set of simple shared behaviour extensions.If you play around in the worlds we've created you'll notice some objects animate themselves without you clicking them. This might be something that moves on it's own such as the pinball or the rotating planets, or the object might move because it is shared among all browsers in the world and somebody else has clicked on it. You can check this out by meeting a friend in cyberspace, clicking an object and ask him if he sees it animated.
If you are interested in running your own server to support your own shared world and wish to know how to build shared worlds and shared behaviours, please contact us.
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