WorldView 2.1 for Windows 
Internet Explorer User's Guide

• The WorldView Window
• Navigating in WorldView
• Controlling Image Quality
• Setting WorldView Options

The WorldView Window

There are four parts of the WorldView window: 

• The vertical toolbar, at the left of the screen, which contains buttons used to specify how to move within a world.
• The horizontal toolbar, at the bottom of the screen, which contains buttons that allow you to perform corrective actions and view a world from previously defined locations.
• The viewing area, which in this picture shows the WorldView 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.

Navigating in WorldView

Using Viewpoints 

The easiest way to move around a VRML world is by using Viewpoints, which are specific locations and views designed by the VRML author. Not all worlds contain Viewpoints, but when they do, you can use them to "tour" a world by way of a predefined route. 

You can see a menu that lists all of the predefined Viewpoints in a world by clicking on "View" in the horizontal toolbar, or by choosing "Viewpoints" from the pop-up menu. You may move to a particular viewpoint by choosing it from either of these menus. 

You may also move to the next or previous viewpoint using the arrow buttons on the horizontal toolbar. If there are no predefined Viewpoints in a world, these arrows are inactive and dimmed.

Once you've gotten the hang of Viewpoints, it won't be long before you'll want to start exploring on your own. This section describes the four navigation options that WorldView offers. Unlike using Viewpoints, when navigating you control how you move by clicking the mouse and dragging it in an appropriate direction. The resulting motion is different for each option. (It can be very helpful to experiment with these tools while you read this.) 

There are two key concepts you should keep in mind while learning about navigation: 

• The direction in which you drag the mouse, from the point where you press the button, determines the direction in which you move. If you change the direction in which you're dragging, the direction in which 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.

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 and toward the left or right, you'll move forward at an angle. If you click and drag downward and 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 along an angle, you'll move along the same angle. 

It's important to remember that you will 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. You can turn upward, downward, and at other angles, as well as to the left or 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, so the world appears 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 we're used to in real life. Until you've gotten the hang of it, you might want to be careful to always drag the mouse directly up, down, left or right, rather than at an angle (you might find the arrow keys especially useful for this). If you've already turned at an odd angle and become disoriented, read Getting your bearings, below.

Use Roll to rotate either clockwise or counter-clockwise within a single vertical plane. Drag the mouse to the right to rotate clockwise; drag to the left to rotate counter-clockwise. Unlike other types of navigation, vertical movement of the mouse has no effect with Roll. 

 

Goto and Study are two types of navigation in WorldView that are specifically designed to help you examine individual objects within a scene. 

Use Goto to pick an object in a scene to move toward. When you select the Goto icon in the toolbar, the cursor will change 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 toward an object, press the Esc key or simply click on the background in the world rather than on an object. 

The way that the Goto tool works is closely tied to the way that a world was authored, which means that there can be situations where it doesn't work as you expect. Goto will always center the selected object in 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 only a part of a large building object, Goto will zoom your view out so that you can see the whole building, rather than zoom in to show just the detail you've selected. If this happens, use another type of navigation to move closer to the detail you'd like to examine.

Use Study to examine an object from various angles. Select the Study icon in the toolbar, and then click on the object you'd like to examine. Drag the mouse to see the object from different angles. With Study, mouse movement causes spherical rotation. Drag the mouse to the left to see the left side of the object; drag upward to see the top of it, etc. The view moves in the direction of the mouse around the selected object. 

It is important to remember that the object you're studying isn't moving -- you are, and your entire view of the world will change accordingly. In other words, once you stop studying an object, you might be left in an odd orientation. Read Getting your bearings below for help on quick ways to recover. 

Study can be especially useful in conjunction with Goto to explore individual objects within a world. 

 

WorldView provides three mechanisms that can help you learn your way around a world, and re-orient you if you've navigated your way into an unusual position within a world. Unlike the navigation tools, these buttons invoke automatic actions that take place as soon as you click on them. 

Use Zoom Out to automatically get a distant view of the entire world. You'll move away from the world until it can be seen on your screen in its entirety.

Use Straighten Up to reposition yourself so that your view of the world is upright. Straighten Up is particularly useful if you've turned at an angle, or been left at an odd orientation once you stop studying an object. 

Use Restore to automatically return to the loaded world's original Viewpoint. Note that clicking on this button is not the same as clicking on the Refresh button in Internet Explorer or Navigator. If there are animations or other behaviors active in the world, Restore won't restart them, but Refresh will.

Instead of clicking on the toolbar, you can use these keyboard shortcuts. 

To change navigation types: 
 

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 some sort of interesting activity in the scene. Exactly what happens is decided by the VRML author, the best way for you to find out is to click! 

The table below shows the sensor cursors for each navigation type. 
 

Walk	Pan	Turn	Roll	Goto	Study

You may also come across hyperlinks, which may be links to other VRML worlds, to specific viewpoints within the current world, or to 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. 

(While the hyperlink is loading, the Intervista logo at the bottom right of the window will animate, and spin like a lighthouse.) 

Seeing where you're going: Using the headlight 

Occasionally, you'll encounter a world where you can't really see much because it doesn't have enough light. When this happens, you can turn on a light of your own by choosing "Headlight On" 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 through different worlds. 

You may use the Options dialog to change the default setting of the headlight. See Specifying defaults, below. 

Avoiding the furniture: Preventing collisions 

By default, WorldView will allow 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 will block your way and you will have to navigate around them. 

VRML authors can also control when you're allowed to pass through objects and when you can't. You may be able to pass through certain objects even when you have "Prevent Collisions" turned on. 

You may use the Options dialog to change the default setting of "Prevent Collisions." See Specifying defaults, below. 

Gunning the engine: Adjusting your speed 

When you're navigating in WorldView, 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 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 will be needed to increase your movement speed. If you choose a slower speed, you'll have 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 attain it. 

Controlling Image Quality

Smooth or Flat Shading, and Wire Frame 

The table below shows the difference between these three options. 
 

Smooth Shading	Flat Shading	Wire Frame

By default, the same image quality is used when you're moving and when you're standing still. You may use the "When Moving" menu to specify that a selected image quality always be used when you are navigating through a world. 

The initial settings for the image quality when moving and at rest may also be preset by the VRML author, but may still be changed through the Options... item in the right mouse menu. 

Full Color 

Turn on Full Color to see the best possible color quality. If this option is deselected, 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 option off and you visit a world that seems unusually empty, try turning on Full Color. 

The initial setting for the Full Color option may also be preset by the VRML author, but may still be changed through the Options... item in the right mouse menu. 

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. 

The initial setting for Dithering may also be preset by the VRML author, but may still be changed through the Options... item in the right mouse menu. 

High Quality Text 

Selecting this option causes WorldView to generate text in a world as polygonal objects, rather than as as an image painted on a plane. Polygonal text offers higher image quality, but requires more memory to generate than texture mapped text. 

High Quality Text is on by default. 

The initial setting for High Quality Text may also be preset by the VRML author, but may still be changed through the Options... item in the right mouse menu. 

Setting WorldView Options

Downloading textures 

Textures are picture files, separate from the VRML file, that VRML authors apply to the surfaces of objects. For example, the floor of a world might have a wood texture applied to it. The Downloading textures option in the Options... menu allows the user to control whether or not these textures are downloaded. Deselecting this option 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 may 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 WorldView. 

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. 

This option may be preset by the VRML author, but may still be changed through the Options... item in the right mouse menu. 

Selecting input device 

You may choose to use either a mouse or a joystick to control navigation in WorldView. Mouse input is always activated. Joystick input may also be activated by selecting the Use Joystick checkbox in the General tabbed window of the Options... menu. 

Specifying defaults 

You may customize the default settings of most WorldView options by choosing Options... from the right-button pop-up menu and then clicking on the Worlds tab in the dialog that appears. 

Note: The pop-up menu may be disabled by the VRML author. 

You may set defaults for the following settings: 

• Collisions
• Dithering
• Full Color
• Headlight
• High Quality Text
• Navigation Device
• Smooth or Flat Shading, and Wire Frame
• Speed
• Toolbars