Controlling the RealiMation Internet Plug-in

  1. Click the left mouse button to start the RealiMation. The default camera is set to follow the helicopter.
  2. To change camera and fly yourself, click the right mouse button and select a free camera from the menu. To fly, hold down the Alt key and move your mouse. You will travel in the direction you move the mouse!
  3. When the cursor is over a link to another page (cursor changes to a hand) click the left button to activate the link.

Clicking the mouse button without the Alt key has other functionality: the left button starts and stops the RealiMation, and the right button displays the menu.

Flying Controls

LEFT MOUSE BUTTON CONTROLS FLY MOVEMENT
Hold down button and move mouse to left Look left (turn your head to the left)
Hold down button and move mouse to right Look right (turn your head to the right)
Hold down button and move mouse up Move / zoom into the picture
Hold down button and move mouse to down Move / zoon out of the picture
RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON CONTROLS FLY MOVEMENT
Hold down button and move mouse to left Pans to the left
Hold down button and move mouse to right Pans to the right
Hold down button and move mouse up Pans upwards above the view
Hold down button and move mouse to down Pans downwards below the view
LEFT & RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON TOGETHER MOVEMENT
Position mouse in the top half of the window and hold both buttons down Rotate the camera downwards
Position mouse in the bottom half of the window and hold both buttons down Rotate the camera upwards
Position mouse in the left half of the window and hold both buttons down Rotate the camera to the left
Position mouse in the right half of the window and hold both buttons down Rotate the camera to the right
Note: Hold down the Ctrl key to refine the camera movement. Hold down the Shift key to accelerate the camera movement. Remember that you should always press the Alt key down to fly around the RealiMation.

Other Flight Models

In addition to the Normal flight model described above there are two other flight models supported. These are the Ground Flight model and the Object Orbit model.

The Ground Flight model is identical to Normal flight except that when flying forwards / backwards you remain the same height above the ground regardless of whether you are pointing down at the ground or up at the sky. Using Ground Flight you can look down on the top of objects while flying straight over them.

The Object Orbit flight model allows you to orbit around an object by clicking with the left button to spin the object around. This flight model works best on RealiBases consisting of single objects as the centre of the orbit is the centre of the RealiBase.

Terrain Following / Sliding Camera

The terrain following and sliding camera options can be used in conjunction with any of the above flight models. The terrain following camera fixes the camera to follow the lie of the terrain. For example, if you have selected a 'free camera' i.e. one that is not attached to an object in the world, as you fly around, the camera will follow the landscape, moving up hills, down vallies etc.

The sliding camera 'slides' the camera along a solid surface. For example, if you fly into a wall at an angle then the camera will slide along the surface until it reaches the end.

NB: Your camera will need to be at an angle (flying straight at a wall will not allow the camera to slide), and the angle will determine the direction of the slide.

Hotlinks

A very useful feature of the RealiMation plugin is the ability to execute "Hotlinks". Hotlinks are associated with objects within the RealiBase and describe files, executables, or WWW pages. They are activated either by flying into the object with the link, or by moving the cursor over an object and clicking the left mouse button.

The status bar at the bottom of the Netscape's window will show the hotlink text of the object currently underneath the cursor.

RealiMation interprets the hotlink string as follows:

The possible applications of this feature are numerous. You could create a 3D program manager, for example - using only the editor and RealiView. It is the RealiBase that defines the program manager!

Another application is to link different RealiBases together. For example, the interior of an office might be loaded when you fly through the door from the outside. You might even make a RealiBase browser, which is itself a RealiBase.

Note: The stand alone viewer RealiView will accept executable files as hotlinks. However, for security reasons, no hotlinks to executables are activated from the Netscape plugin.

(RealiView is the freely distributable RealiMation viewer and can be downloaded from the Download Software page at this site.)


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