User's Guide
This guide describes the user interface for the Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer.
It is divided into the following sections:
The
Viewer Window
When you browse a file containing VRML, the Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer will
start automatically within your browser window, as shown
below.
There
are four parts of the Viewer window:
- The vertical toolbar, which contains
buttons you use to specify how to move within a
world.
- The horizontal toolbar, which contains
buttons you use to perform corrective
actions and view a world from previously defined
locations.
- The viewing area, which in this picture
is showing the Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer startup screen.
- The pop-up menu,
not shown in this picture, which you access by
pressing the right mouse button while the cursor
is in the viewing area.
VRML authors can control whether or not the toolbars
are displayed when a world is loaded. You may not always
see them.
This section describes the mechanisms that Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer
provides for getting from point A to
point B in a VRML world. Navigating in a
three-dimensional space can take some getting used to. Initially, you may find some of the techniques described
here more comfortable than others.
Using
Viewpoints
The easiest way to move around a VRML world is by
using Viewpoints, which are specific locations that the
VRML author has defined for you. Not all worlds contain
viewpoints, but when they do, you can use them to
"tour" a world just as the author intended.
You can see a menu that lists all the
viewpoints in a world by clicking on View
in the horizontal toolbar, or by choosing
Viewpoints from the pop-up menu. You can move to
a particular viewpoint by choosing it from either of
these menus.
You can also move to the next or previous
viewpoint using the arrow buttons on the horizontal
toolbar. If there are no viewpoints in a world, these
arrows appear grayed out.
Moving Around:
Walk, Pan, Turn, and Roll
Once you're comfortable with viewpoints, you'll want to start
exploring on your own.
This section describes the four navigation options that
Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer offers. Unlike viewpoints, these options
let you control how you move by clicking the mouse
and dragging in an appropriate direction. The movement
that results is different for each option. It may be
helpful to experiment with the options as you read this.
However, there are two key concepts you should keep in
mind while you're learning about navigation:
- The direction in which you drag the
mouse -- from the point where you depressed the
button -- determines the direction in
which you move. If you change the direction
you're dragging, the direction you're
moving will change, too.
- The distance that you drag the mouse
determines the speed with which you
move. If you stop moving the mouse, you'll
continue moving at a constant speed until you
release the mouse button.
When you select a navigation type from the vertical
toolbar, your cursor will change to a shape that is
similar to the icon on the toolbar. Both the toolbar icon
and cursor are shown here.
Use Walk to move forward and backward along a
single horizontal plane. To move forward, click the
mouse button and drag straight up, toward the top of
the screen. To move backward, click and drag straight
down, toward the bottom of the screen.
If you click and drag upward toward the left or
right, you'll move forward at an angle; if you click
and drag downward to the left or right, you'll move
backward at an angle.
Use Pan to move up, down, left, or right within a
single vertical plane. Drag straight up to move
upward, drag to the left to move left. If you drag on
an angle, you'll move along the same angle.
It's important to remember that you'll
move in the same direction in which you drag the
mouse, which means that the world will appear to
move in the opposite direction.
Use Turn to change the angle of your view. Unlike
real life, you can turn upward, downward, and
other angles, in additon to left and right. To turn
right, drag the mouse directly to the right. To turn
downward, drag the mouse directly downward. As with
Pan, you move in the same direction as the
mouse, the world will appear to move in the opposite
direction.
Dragging in any direction will cause you to turn
in that direction. This can be confusing at first --
you might, for example, end up with the floor
rotating toward you at a 45-degree angle, which isn't
something you're used to in real life. Until you're
accustomed to it, you might want to drag the mouse directly up, down, left or
right, rather than at an angle (the arrow keys
are especially useful for this). If you've already turned
at an odd angle and are now disoriented, read Getting
Your Bearings.
Use Roll to rotate either clockwise or
counterclockwise within a single vertical plane.
Drag the mouse to the right to rotate clockwise; drag
to the left to rotate counterclockwise. Unlike other
types of navigation, vertical movement of the mouse
has no effect with Roll.
Examining
Objects: Goto and Study
Goto and Study are
Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer navigation types specifically designed to help you
examine individual objects within a scene.
Use Goto to choose an object in a scene to move to.
When you select the Goto icon on the toolbar, the
cursor changes to a crosshair. Click on an object
in the world and you'll move directly to it. If you
decide after selecting Goto that you don't want to
move, press the Esc key or simply click on the
background in the world rather than an object.
The way Goto works depends on the way
a world was authored, so there can
be situations where Goto doesn't work as you expect.
Goto will always center the object you choose on
the screen. However, it's sometimes hard for you to
tell how large an object is. For example, if you
click on an interesting piece of architecture that
turns out to be part of a single large building
object, Goto will zoom your view out so that you can
see the whole building, rather than just the detail
you're interested in. If this happens, use another
type of navigation to move close to the detail
you'd like to examine.
Use Study to examine an object from different
angles. Select the Study icon on the toolbar, and
then click on an object you'd like to examine. When you drag
the mouse, the object rotates.
Drag the mouse to the left to see the left side of
the object. Drag upward to see the top of the object.
It important to remember that the object
you're studying isn't moving, you are, and
your entire view of the world changes
accordingly. When you stop studying
an object, you might be left in an odd orientation.
Read Getting
Your Bearings for help on quick ways to
recover.
Study is especially useful in conjunction with
Goto to explore individual
objects within a world.
Getting Your
Bearings: ZoomOut, StraightenUp, and Restore
The Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer provides three mechansims to help you
learn your way around a world and re-orient you if you've
navigated into an unusual position within a
world. Unlike navigation,
these are automatic actions that take place as soon as
you click on them.
Use ZoomOut to automatically get a far-away view
of the entire world. You'll move away from the world
until it can be seen on your screen in its entirety.
Use StraightenUp to reposition yourself so that
your view of the world is upright. StraightenUp is
useful if you've turned at an angle or
been left in an odd orientation after
studying an object.
Restore automatically returns you to the position
you were in when you first loaded the world. It is
not the same as clicking the Refresh button in
Internet Explorer, however. If there are animations
or other behaviors going on in the world, Restore
won't restart them, while Refresh will.
Keyboard Shortcuts
for Navigating
Instead of clicking on the toolbar, you can use these
keyboard shortcuts.
To change navigation types:
| Walk |
Ctrl+Shift+w |
| Pan |
Ctrl+Shift+p |
| Turn |
Ctrl+Shift+t
|
| Roll |
Ctrl+Shift+r |
| Goto |
Ctrl+Shift+g |
| Study |
Ctrl+Shift+s |
To use arrow keys instead of the
mouse to navigate:
| Drag left |
Left arrow |
| Drag right |
Right arrow |
| Drag up |
Up arrow |
| Drag down |
Down arrow |
To perform automatic actions:
| Zoom Out |
Ctrl+Shift+z |
| StraightenUp |
Ctrl+Shift+u |
| Next Viewpoint |
PageDown |
| PreviousViewpoint |
PageUp |
Interacting With Worlds: Locating Sensors
and Hyperlinks
As you move the cursor over objects in a world,
circular lines may appear around the cursor. This indicates
that the mouse is over a VRML sensor. Clicking
will trigger an activity in the
scene. Exactly what happens is decided by the VRML
author. The best way to find out is to click!
The table below shows the sensor cursors for each
navigation type.
| Walk |
Pan |
Turn |
Roll |
Goto |
Study |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The actions of Goto and Study
always override sensors. In other words, if you select
Goto and click on an object that is a sensor, you'll go
to the object rather than activate the sensor. (To
activate the sensor, click on it again once the Goto is
complete.)
You may also come across hyperlinks, which
can be links to other VRML worlds, specific viewpoints
within the current world, or HTML documents. When the
cursor is over an object that's a hyperlink, it changes
to a hand:
Simply click to follow the link.
You might also come across an object that
is both a sensor and a hyperlink, in which case this
cursor will appear:
Clicking the mouse in this case will
activate the sensor. To follow the hyperlink, hold down
the Ctrl key
and click the mouse.
Seeing Where You're
Going: Using the Headlight
Occasionally, you'll encounter a world where you can't
see much because it doesn't have enough light.
When this happens, you can turn on a light of your own by
choosing Headlight from the Graphics item on
the right-button pop-up menu.
When the headlight is on, the area directly in front of
you will always be illuminated.
VRML authors can also specify the setting of your
headlight, so you might find that it's turned on or off
automatically as you browse among worlds.
You can use the Options dialog to change the default
setting of the headlight. See Specifying Defaults.
Avoiding the
Furniture: Preventing Collisions
By default, Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer allows you to pass through
objects in your path. If the objects are large, your view
of the world may be temporarily obstructed as you move
through them.
To keep from passing through objects, turn on
Prevent collisions, which is located under
Movement on the right-button pop-up
menu. When a check mark appears next to this item,
you won't be able to share space with
objects. Instead, they block your way and you must
navigate around them.
VRML authors can also control when you're allowed to
pass through objects and when you aren't. You may be able
to pass through certain objects even when you have
Prevent collisions turned on.
You can use the Options dialog to change the default
setting of Prevent collisions. See Specifying Defaults.
Adjusting
Your Speed
When you're navigating in Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer, the speed with
which you move is determined by the distance you drag the
mouse. The farther you drag, the faster you move. You can
control the way that distance relates to speed by using the
items under Speed on the right-button pop-up menu.
The default setting for Speed is Medium.
If you choose a faster speed, shorter dragging distances
are needed to increase your movement speed. If you
choose a slower speed, you need to move the mouse
further to increase your movement speed. Typically
this is a matter of personal preference, although novice
users might find faster speeds somewhat unwieldy.
Many factors determine the maximum possible navigation
speed, including the complexity of the world, the image quality
you've selected, and the speed of the computer you're
using. The items on this menu don't affect the maximum
speed, they simply determine the amount of mouse movement
required to get there.
The Graphics item on the right-button pop-up menu
provides several ways for you to control image quality.
Higher image quality almost always results in longer
loading time and slower navigation, so you can use the
options described here to trade beauty for speed in
worlds where it's appropriate.
Smooth, Flat, and
Wireframe Shading
The table below shows the difference between these
three options.
When Smooth is selected,
the object appears to be smoothly colored across the
surface. This is the highest image quality. When
Flat is selected, the object still appears
solid, but has faceted sides. When Wireframe
is selected, the object appears to be outlined with wires
rather than solid. Wireframe is the lowest image quality.
You may use the While moving menu to
specify a different image quality to be used when you are
navigating through a world. By default the same image
quality is used when you're moving and when you're
standing still.
Full Color
Turn on Full color to see the best possible color
quality. If this option is not on, loading and navigation
speed will be significantly increased, but you won't see
colored lights or certain kinds of colored lines and
dots. If you're in the habit of keeping this opion off
and you visit a world that seems unusually empty, try
turning on Full color.
Dithering
Dithering refers to the blending of shaded
surfaces. When this option is turned off, shaded surfaces
will appear banded, rather than smooth, but you will
notice a small improvement in navigation speed.
To display the Options dilog box, choose Options...
from the right-button pop-up menu.
Downloading
Textures
Textures are picture files, separate from the VRML
file, that VRML authors choose to apply to the surfaces
of objects, usually to make them appear more realistic.
For example, the floor of a world might have a wood
texture applied to it. Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer gives you the option of
not downloading and displaying these textures, which can
significantly decrease the time you spend downloading
worlds.
However, when authors use textures in worlds, they
typically expect them to be viewed with the textures
loaded. Viewing worlds without textures will detract from
their intended appearance and can make them difficult to
use.
Using
Hardware Acceleration
If your computer is equipped with a Direct3D graphics
accelerator card, turn on this check box to take
advantage of it while you're using Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer.
Rotating
Objects Automatically
When you're examining an object with Study,
you can choose to have it rotate automatically after you
click on it, instead of rotating it manually by dragging
the mouse.
Specifying Defaults
You can customize the default settings of most
Microsoft VRML 2.0 Viewer options by choosing Options... from the
right-button pop-up menu and then clicking on the Worlds
tab in the dialog that appears.
You can set defaults for the following settings:
