Release Note

Table of Contents

1. Manual
2. Directory Structure
3. Sample Worlds
4. Functional Specification
5. Restrictions
6. Caution
7. How to get updated news for this product product
8. Contact address

Dicrectory Structure

\Program Files\Sony\Community Place Browser\

• bin
  An excutable file cpbrowse.exe and the necessary DLLs
• doc
  Readme, manual, release note, and technical documents
• lib
  Library files for java and other components
• snapshot
  Window dump images in BMP file format are put in this directory
• tmp
  Temporary files created during the execution of the product go here
• world
  Several sample worlds including Circus Park 2 have been placed here
  If you put a new world content in this directory, a link from the entry room (the world that is displayed automatically when you launch this product) is automatically created. To use this automatic function, please consult the manual.

Sample Worlds

Analog Clock
There is an analog clock which tells the correct time. If you click the second hand, the clock itself starts to rotate. In addition, Netscape navigater displays a message for you.

Buggy
A dune buggy runs in a small course. If you click it, you can ride on it.

Origami
Click the white paper, it will transform itself into a plane through a series of classic origami moves.

TV
Click buttons of the television set. They work as you expect.

UFO
Click the UFO and it starts to go up. Clicking again, it starts to fly in random directions. Once again clicking it, the UFO goes down and stays there.

Cicurs Park 2 (Multi-user World)
Anyone can enter Circus Park 2 - its a free public world hosted by Sony. In it, you can see other users who are represented by Avatars . You can chat with other users by using the text chat window and you can express a little emotion with our action panel.

Becuase you and other users are in the same virtual world, events that you see in the world happens for other users as well. It's a shared world !

Click here to enter Circus Park 2. and enjoy a whole new experience in shared 3D on the Internet.

üª If you want to experience the multiuser worlds, you need to be connected to the Internet. After you connected to the Internet and you load a multiuser world in to Community Place, the browser automatically connects to the Community Place Bureau server on the Internet and you will be in the multiuser world.

Functional Specifications

• Link to a list of VRML 2.0 nodes that are supported in this release
• Link to a list of Sony enhanced nodes
• Link to a list of Sony enhanced Java API

Restrictions

1. VRML2.0 Support
   • SE-VRML and draft versions of VRML 2.0 are not supported. Files in these formats may cause mulfunctioning of this product.
   • The JavaScript language is not supported.
   • The following VRML2.0 nodes are not supported.
     • CylinderSensor
     • Extrusion
     • PixelTexture
     • PlaneSensor
     • SphereSensor
     • VisibilitySensor
   • If you use DEF/USE in a VRML 2.0 file, you can change the attributes of the DEFed node, however, the corresponding attributes of the USEed object do not change.
   • A syntactically incorrect Transform node does not cause a parsing error.
   • Although the VRML 2.0 specification says that you can have multiple nodes inside a PROTO definition, this release only allows a single node. A workaround is to use a Transform node and you can include arbitrary number of nodes.
   • You cannot route out events from PROTO defined nodes. Note that you CAN route events into the PROTO defined nodes.
2. Browser Functions
   • We don't support the navigation mode: 'NONE'.
   • TILT and ELEVATION functions do not work
   • The button dislpay may not change even though you press the shift or ctrl-shift keys during keyboard navigation.
   • When you push the HOME button , you will be returned to the home position, however, your view angle might be different.
   • The color may be different from other browsers when you see the same world.
   • Sometimes, if you release the mouse button while you go up and down by holding Ctrl-Shift and mouse dragging you may be 'transported' to a new location because the browser thinks you used the POI function.
   • In case the size of the contents is too large, nothing will be shown in the window.
   • You can set up SOCKS to connect to the Community Place Bureau server from inside the firewall. However, sometimes you cannot connect to Community Place Bureau WLS according to your network configuration.
   • Bookmark does not always work properly.
   • Avatar color will not be displayed correctly when you use two or more Community Place Browsers at the same time on the same machine.
   • Don't get too close to the TV monitor If you want to turn on the power-on switch in the TV room.
   • You will hear the click sound of the switch after the BGM starts.
   • In the analog clock world, the clock starts to turn around when the 'hand cursor' appears and you try to navigate.

Caution

Netscape 3.0 or later bundles Live3D plug-in as a VRML browser. With a VRML browser plug-in installed in Netscape, even if you specify Community Place Browser as a helper application for VRML files, the setting becomes inactive once you restart Netscape. To make Community Place Browser invoked when you open a VRML file, you need to deactivate plug-in browsers, or more precisely, deactivate plug-in DLLs.

Usually plug-in DLLs for Netscape are stored in:
c:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\Program\plugins\npXXX.dll
'XXX' is a plug-in's name. For example, the plug-in DLL for Live3D is npl3d32.dll. By moving a DLL away from the directory, the DLL becomes inactive, and Community Place Browser is invoked as a primary helper application for VRML files. Be careful to move the DLL into a directory which is not under the above-mentioned `plugins' directory. Netscape searches all directories under 'plugins' for plug-in DLLs.

We also provide Npchooser (Netscape Plugin Chooser) to help you choose which plug-in DLLs are active.

How to get updated news for this product

Contact Address