ABOUT WORLDVIEW 

Last edited 01/15/98

Intervista Software, Inc. is proud to announce WorldView™ 2.0 Macintosh Special Edition, the VRML 2.0 plug-in for Netscape Navigator.

Please read these release notes carefully  to help you avoid problems we already know about. Please report any new problems you encounter to macbeta@intervista.com. Please include specific information about your problem including:
• Type of Macintosh system
• Amount of physical RAM installed
• Version of Netscape
• Version of WorldView
• Description of your problem. If possible, attach a copy of the wrl file, or give us a URL.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

WorldView for Macintosh requires:
• Macintosh PowerPC computer. 680x0 is not supported.
• MacOS version 7.5 or later
• 16 MB RAM installed, 32MB or more preferred
• 20 MB of disk space free

Additionally the following software components are required. If you don't already have them, you can download an installer containing much of the system software from our site.
• SoundSprocket 1.0 (installed as  :Extensions:Sound Manager, SoundSprocket Filter, and SoundSprocketLib)
• QuickDraw 3D 1.5.3 (installed as  :Extensions:Apple QD3D HW Driver, Apple QD3D HW Plug-In, QuickDraw™ 3D, QuickDraw™ 3D IR, QuickDraw™ 3D RAVE, and QuickDraw™ 3D Viewer).
• QuickTime 2.5 (installed as QuickTime™, QuickTime™ Musical Instruments, and QuickTime™ PowerPlug)
• Thread Manager (installed as :Extensions:ThreadsLib)
• Netscape Navigator 3.01. To obtain this, download it from www.netscape.com.

INSTALLATION

• erify that Netscape Navigator 3.01 is installed on your system.

• ouble-click the WorldView Installer or WorldView Full Installer application to begin. Follow the instructions to install the software. You will need to restart your Macintosh.

• erify that the WorldView Plugin and the WorldViewStuff folder are installed in the :Netscape:Plugins: subfolder

• ncrease the amount of memory available to Netscape Navigator by selecting the icon in the Finder, choosing Get Info from th efile menu, and typing in a number into the Preferred Size. This number should be large, but not greater than the amount of free memory. To find out how much free memory you have, quit all active applications and select About This Computer… from the Apple menu. Choose a value that is approximately the amount of Built-in Memory minus the System Software, leaving a few megabytes free. In this beta version of WorldView, you will be able to navigate many VRML worlds with a 16-20 MB partition given to Netscape Navigator. This release won't work very well on a machine with only 16 MB physical RAM, even with Virtual Memory turned on.

NOTES

To get to the options menu, hold the option key down and press the mouse  key while over the content area of the window. Alternatively, click and hold the mouse button down in the content area without moving it until the menu pops up.

NEW SINCE BETA 2

• Many content crashes have been fixed.
• Large worlds are more stable (check out www.lightscape.com).
• Faster load times for worlds with many in-lines.
* Object transparency supported if hardware acceleration is present.

NEW SINCE BETA 1

• VRML 1.0 files now work
• Textures now use much less memory
• Normal interpolators don't crash
* Orientation interpolators no longer have strange discontinuities
• Keyboard accelerators work
• Multiple windows or embeds work much better
• The installer is properly licensed
• Options is now called Preferences
• Supports QuickDraw 3D plugin renderers. To choose one, visit the Preferences/Options screen.
• Supports SoundSprocket setup.  To do this, visit the Preferences/Options screen.
• QuickDraw 3D 1.5.3 is included and required. This fixes a number of rendering problems and is faster.
• Many other bugs are fixed.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Movie textures and movie sounds unsupported at this time
• Java is unsupported at this time
•
Fog is unsupported at this time
• Collision detection is not completely implemented
• UTF8 support is not implemented.
• Some preferences have no effect, for example Hardware acceleration off.
•  Internet Explorer is not supported.
• Loading the plugin takes a long time
•  If an animation is started before sounds are completely downloaded,  sound is not synchronized.
• Can't load BMP files.
• QuickDraw 3D sometimes stops rendering, usually because it runs out of memory. To remedy this, increase the application partition. You can sometimes unwedge it by making the window smaller. Sometimes you must click in the scene to update it.