Cosmo PageFX 1.0 Release Notes

This file contains important, late-breaking information about Cosmo PageFX, including installation information, how to contact us, and known problems.

Please visit these Cosmo Software web sites for more information:

Table of Contents

Submitting Bugs
Installation and Configuration Information
Known Problems and Workarounds
Licensing and Copyright Notice

We really want to make the feature set and product quality of future releases of Cosmo PageFX meet your needs. You can help by submitting great bug reports. Please make detailed notes about any bugs or weird behavior you see, or ideas for features you have, and send us the information. Access the submission form from Help > Feedback... Or you can visit: http://cosmosoftware.com/feedback.

This section includes information on the hardware and software requirements, location of installed files, and detailed installation instructions.

System and Software Requirements

To use Cosmo PageFX, you need the following hardware and software:

• A PC with an Intel® Pentium® or Pentium Pro processor
• Microsoft® Windows NT® version 4.0 or later, with Service Pack 3, or Windows 95
• At least 32 MB of RAM; 64 MB recommended
• A hard drive with at least 80 MB of free disk space
• A monitor capable of display at a resolution of 800 x 600; 1024x768 monitor resolution recommended
• A 16-bit (thousands of colors) color display adapter card
• OpenGL software drivers with any display hardware; OpenGL graphics acceleration hardware recommended
• Netscape Communicator 4.05 or Internet Explorer 4.0 (for Preview in Browser)
• The minimum installation of Internet Explorer 4.0 (You need certain libraries that are installed with this version of Internet Explorer. This minimum installation of Internet Explorer does not affect the Preview in Browser menu item, which will use your default browser, whatever it is [such as Netscape Communicator 4.0].)

Cosmo PageFX has not been tested extensively on Windows 98. One thing that has been discovered, however, is that Preview in Browser doesn't result in the content being displayed in the browser; previewing within Cosmo PageFX is fine, and the final, published content displays fine in any browser.

Cosmo PageFX Installation Folder

By default, Cosmo PageFX files are installed to the folder:

C:\Program Files\CosmoSoftware\CosmoPageFX

This Readme.html file is in that folder.

Installing Cosmo PageFX

1. If you are running Windows NT, be sure that you are logged in to an account that has Administrator privileges.
2. Insert the Cosmo PageFX CD-ROM disk in your CD-ROM drive.
3. Before you install Cosmo PageFX, be sure that you have Netscape Communicator 4.05 or Internet Explorer 4.0 installed before installing Cosmo PageFX. Use the Browsers button to access these installers and install at least one of them.
4. Click the Cosmo PageFX 1.0 button (the label below it says "Installs Cosmo PageFX and Cosmo Player").
5. The Cosmo PageFX Setup screen appears, followed by the Welcome screen.
6. Click Next to get to the License screen. Read the license instructions and then click Yes to move to the User Information screen.
7. Enter your name, your company, and your serial number; then click Next.
8. The Default Destination screen displays the location where the Cosmo software will be copied. Accept the default; then click Next.
9. On the Setup Screen, select an option to install all the required software or only parts of the software; then click Next.
10. The Select Product Dependencies screen shows you that Cosmo Player will be installed for previewing Cosmo PageFX content. Click Next.
11. The Default Program Folder shows you which Program Folder will be used. Click Next to accept the default.
12. You're now ready to start installing Cosmo PageFX. Click Next to begin copying files.
13. Read the license agreement reminder and click Yes.
14. Cosmo PageFX will be installed. Afterward, you'll be asked whether you want to create a Desktop Shortcut for Cosmo PageFX. Click Yes or No.
15. The Product Registration screen lets you select an option for registering Cosmo PageFX. Select one of the options and click Next. After Cosmo PageFX is installed, the Setup Complete screen appears.
16. If you are installing Cosmo PageFX for the first time, do not select the Launch Cosmo PageFX now option, because you must install Cosmo Player before you start Cosmo PageFX.
17. Click Finish. A message appears to indicate that Cosmo Player must be installed before installation is complete. Click OK/Install to install Cosmo Player.

For your convenience, your Cosmo PageFX CD-ROM contains several third-party installers besides those for Cosmo PageFX and Cosmo Player. If you require any of these in order to run Cosmo PageFX, the necessary installers will be launched by the Cosmo PageFX installer. You can view the contents of the CD-ROM by choosing "Explore CD-ROM" on the Cosmo PageFX CD-ROM screen. (These additional installers include: NT Service Pack 3, Netscape Communicator 4.05, Internet Explorer 4.0 and 4.0.1, Active Movie 1.0, DCOM95 for Windows 95, and DirectX 5.2 for Windows 95.)

Starting Cosmo PageFX

From the Start menu, choose "Programs > Cosmo PageFX > Cosmo PageFX". The Cosmo PageFX program starts and a blank, untitled window appears. The easiest way to come up to speed quickly with PageFX is to use the Quick Start guide that ships with the product; this card walks you through creating your first animation in 15 minutes (or less!). As you become more experienced, you'll want to read the manual for details and use the Quick Reference card for shortcuts and to refresh your memory.

This section describes known problems and workarounds in the Cosmo PageFX 1.0 release.

Installation and Startup

• When using hardware acceleration on certain graphics cards, you may see unexpected visual artifacts in the Composition View, the Preview, or the Appearance Palette, or you may experience unusual behavior in the application. Disable hardware acceleration using View > Disable Hardware if you encounter these problems. You may also consider getting the latest OpenGL drivers for your card from its manufacturer. Check the Cosmo Software web site (cosmosoftware.com) for the latest information regarding hardware acceleration compatibility.
• If you upgrade from Internet Explorer 2.0 to 4.0 as part of your install of PageFX, Internet Explorer will be made the default browser. This will not occur if you upgrade from Internet Explorer 3.x to 4.0. (586469)
• Cosmo PageFX is designed so that only one copy of it is running on your machine at any one time (you can have up to 10 documents open for editing). While it is possible to have more than one copy running, you might run into problems if you do so. For instance, PageFX might crash (606634), or you might be unable to preview more than one document (605885).
• Do not change your number of colors while running PageFX. To change, first quit out of Cosmo PageFX, then change the color depth.

General

• Cut/pasted elements do not retain their original order in the sequence view, and that causes them to have confusing default names. (581911)
• Minimized document icons can get "lost" behind the frame window if the application is made smaller.  To retrieve them, use the "Arrange Icons" command in the Window menu. (601190)
• There is no way to reset the document's camera persepective once you've changed it with the perspective tool. Undo your changes, or create a new document with the default perspective and copy your content into it. (600426)
• You can't sweep-select to select multiple objects in the Composition View. (580589)

On-line Help

• Context Sensitive Help (What's This) is not enabled on the menu bar, but the help is available by selecting an item in a dialog or property sheet and pressing the F1 key (570157).

Assets

• The textures included with PageFX are saved in various formats (JPEG, GIF, PNG). Each format was chosen to provide the smallest size while maintaining a desirable visual effect. You may be able to decrease the size of the textures even more, depending on how you're using them. Simply copy the texture file(s) you're using in a particular piece of content to a safe location and edit them with any image editing tool to increase compression or save as another format. (594663)
• Some servers, depending on their operating system, differentiate between upper and lower case. PageFX remembers the case used when an asset is first brought into PageFX. To avoid having these assets be "not found" by the server, either know in advance how the server for your final, published content treats case, or stick with lower case. (594669)
• Be sure to click on the actual body of a type character to select it. If you're having trouble selecting type, it might be because you're clicking on the space surrounded by the actual character (the hole in an "O" for example). (600563)
• Clipart assets brought in through the Asset Insert 3D Clipart menu item may not have the center of rotation that you expect. The center of rotation isn't necessarily the center of the bounding box of the asset.
• If you cut an open path, one section will revert back to the default color. To restore the color, copy the correct section and paste its appearance onto the incorrect section. (537794)
• The Color Background asset is different from the Initial Color tab of the Document Properties. Use the Initial Color to control the basic background of your content, the color that is used when the VRML player is starting up, and the color of the area that is left when there is no VRML player available. Use a Color Background asset when you want to add a gradient or switch the background displayed during the course of your content (using Change Appearance, Show or Hide effects). Even when you use a Color Background asset, the Initial Color is still relevant.
• Choosing Undo after changing a light's angle, softness, distance, and falloff has no effect. (606395)
• Sometimes short sounds will be clipped the first time they are played. (600309)
• If you import two image backgrounds and delete one of them, you might need to select the second, remaining one to get it to redraw. (602861)

Effects

• Suppose you have an instantaneous (not gradual) Change Appearance effect on a textured asset, with the effect wired to begin at Startup. Previewing this content should cause the asset to appear without its texture and with the appearance you've chosen for the Change Appearance effect. Sometimes, however, you'll see the asset textured instead. Note, however, that having an instantaneous Change Appearance effect on startup is an odd thing to do because you're scheduling the change to occur before the content is loaded. (601079)
• Applying Spin Texture and Scroll Texture simultaneously causes the spin rate to continuously increase well beyond its original value. (578135)
• Suppose you use the Sequence View to drag an effect off an asset, and then undo the operation. If the effect uses a transformation center, the undo operation will always place the effect center at the default center of the asset, even if it had been moved previously. Additional undo operations may move the effect center even farther away from its position prior to the drag. (599445)
• Using the Play effect to play a sound once using the default settings will sometimes not work reliably if the duration of the sound is short. The same results can be achieved with greater reliability by checking the Loop checkbox and setting the Stop After duration to be equal to the duration of the sound.
• Wiring the start input of an instantaneous Change Appearance effect to the stop output of Jitter Appearance, Waver Appearance, or Change Appearance effect will not have any effect. This is due to the simultaneous setting of the appearance attributes by the stopping appearance effect and the instantaneous effect. You can work around this problem by either making the instantaneous Change Appearance effect gradual with a minimal duration or by inserting a minimal duration Delay effect between the stop output of the first appearance effect and the start input of the instantaneous Change Appearance effect. (605925)
• Applying an effect which changes the position or orientation of an asset simultaneously with a Look at Camera or Look at Asset effect can cause unpredictable rotations of the asset. A workaround is to create a group for the asset and apply one of the effects to it. (605536)
• Turn to Target effects applied to group or type assets may cause the asset to jump at the beginning of playback if the center of the effect is not the same as the center of the asset. If you want the centers to be different, you can create a group around the group or the type asset first. (607128)
• Ease duration for Look at Asset and Look At Camera may be shorter than specified in the properties for the effect. (606998)

Tools

• The Look tool can be interrupted by a right mouse press.  When this happens, it does not reset.  To reset the view, use the Reset Pan and Zoom command in the View menu. (580613)

Publishing

• The size reported on the property sheet for an imported VRML scene does not include the size of all of the textures, sounds, etc. that are associated with the imported VRML. (569126)

Pasting/Duplicating

• When you paste or duplicate assets, effects or sequences, the new elements are applied to the current primary selection. For example, if you paste a Move effect while you have a Rectangle asset selected, the Move effect will be applied to the Rectangle and wired to the Mouse Sequence of the Rectangle, if there is one. This can sometimes lead to unexpected results, particularly when pasting or duplicating a sequence. (586104, 594301, 594207, 603049)
• The Paste Properties and Paste Timing menu entries are enabled sometimes even when they are not valid. If they appear to do nothing, it is probably because an effect was not copied, or that there was no overlapping timing information in the copied effect and the effect onto which the paste timing was done. (595677)
• When you paste appearance attributes, the texture transform center is not included in the pasted properties. (581265)

Document Properties

• There is no button to return to the default grey color in the Initial Color tab in the Document Properties dialog. Simply choose 75, 75, 75 for the color values on the RGB tab. (583653)

Sequence View

• Effects which have been completely orphaned (have no input wires at all) cannot be repositioned using drag and drop. The workaround is to drag a wire from the desired start event to the start of the effect. (606069)
• If a gradual effect has a wire to its stop input, and the effect is subsequently changed to be instantaneous, the wire(s) to the stop input are not removed. These extra wires are harmless, but may be removed by selecting them and deleting them. (606182)
• Inputs to logic sequences have names drawn to the right of the input. If multiple inputs occur at the same location, the names will overlap. (603529)
• Expanding details on sequences can make it difficult to access start output taps, even when holding the control key down. The workaround is to collapse the sequence. (605032)
• Stop input wires are shown going to the right when sequence details are expanded. They should go to the left. (605031)

Appearance Palette

• The graphics windows on the Appearance Palette are not currently drawn properly when using hardware acceleration on certain graphics cards. Sometimes the palettes are crufty, and the custom color popup spectrum will appear black. Disable hardware acceleration via the View menu if you encounter these problems. (559495)
• Change, Jitter, Waver Appearance: When appearance effects are selected, they "project" their appearance onto the corresponding asset in the Composition View. This allows you to interactively view any changes made through the Appearance Palette.
  • When the effect is deselected, the asset's original appearance is restored. It is possible to have a tear-off property sheet for the asset, and click its appearance button to focus the AP on the asset even though the effect is selected. Note however that any appearance changes made to the asset in this fashion will be ignored when the effect is deselected. (597552)
  • If you move the gold ball to change the center of texture transformations, you may not see the resulting effect on the texture in the Composition View unless you deselect and reselect the effect. (606493)

Preview

• Pausing the Preview halts redrawing in the preview window. However, sounds will continue to play until they're finished (601767), and some interactive effects like Tumble with Mouse will still respond to initial clicks (598027, 601325).
• If you force the Preview to be constantly reloaded (by holding down the F5 key, for instance), PageFX will not be able to redraw the Main View and the palettes. PageFX may also eventually crash. (601025)

Copying and Pasting HTML Tags into Your Web Page

Cosmo PageFX provides a convenient command that lets you copy or save HTML tags. These tags allow you to then embed your PageFX artwork into your HTML page. The HTML embed string provides the .wrl file name, the width and height of the .wrl file, the fallback scripts, and the initial color of the file. This can be accessed using the "File HTML Tags..." command. However, web authoring tools (meaning FrontPage97, FrontPage98, and Netscape Composer, the three that were tested) handle the insertion of these tags in different ways. All these tools have potential difficulties with the HTML tags, but there are easy ways to get around them, as explained below.

For FrontPage97 and FrontPage98:

1. The PageFX application is running. Publish your .wrl file, then go to the "File" menu and select "HTML tags". Press the "Save..." button to save the HTML tags to a file.
2. Switch to FrontPage to edit your web page.
3. Go to "Insert File" to bring in your HTML tags. The tags will be inserted in the document at the location of the insertion cursor.
4. Preview to verify.

For Netscape Composer:

1. The PageFX application is running. Publish your .wrl file, then go to the "File" menu and select "HTML tags". Press the "Copy" button to put the HTML tags on the clipboard.
2. Switch to Netscape Composer to edit your web page.
3. Go to the "Edit" menu and select "HTML source". This will allow you to paste the HTML tags wherever you want in the document. However, the insertion cursor location is not maintained between the page view and the HTML source view of the document--you have to know where to insert the tag in the HTML. (Of course, you can move your artwork around interactively in the page view once it is in your document.)
4. Preview to verify.

Verifying pathnames:

You will have to check to make sure that the pathname for your .wrl is correct. If you use the "Copy" command in PageFX, no pathname will be specified in the HTML tags: it is assumed that the file is in the current folder. If you use the "Save..." command, you can save it to the folder that contains your web page, and the pathname for the .wrl will be correct.

Please read the Software Licensing Agreement displayed before software installation.

This product and related documentation are protected by copyright and distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, distribution, and decompilation. No part of this product or related documentation may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of Cosmo Software and its licensors, if any.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the assets, effects, sequences and the clip art images, models, sounds, and textures contained herein may be used, modified, reproduced and redistributed solely in conjunction with content created by this product, provided that neither the assets, effects, sequences, or clip art, nor any portion or derivation thereof, is redistributed (i) in conjunction with any software program other than this product, (ii) as a stand-alone collection of clip art, assets, effects, or sequences, or (iii) as individual stand-alone clip art, assets, effects, or sequences.

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of The Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 or subparagraphs (c) (1) and (2) of Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52.227-19, as applicable.

Unpublished - rights reserved under the Copyright Laws of the United States.

Copyright © 1998 Cosmo Software, a Silicon Graphics Company, All Rights Reserved