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Text File | 1995-05-15 | 17.6 KB | 454 lines

README -- 15-May-95 -- WebSpace for Windows 1.0 Beta1 Copyright 1995, Template Graphics Software Inc. All Rights Reserved. ************************************************************************* * Yes! It's May 15 and this *is* the WebSpace for Windows Beta release! * ************************************************************************* Software Requirements: To run the WebSpace for Windows 1.0 Beta1 VRML viewer under: Windows NT you must have ---------- + Windows NT 3.5 or 3.51 + WebSpace for Win32 (see WS32N10B.EXE on our ftp site). + Standard Microsoft DLLs for the VC++ runtime library, MFC and OLE. If you have MSVC++ 2.1 installed then you're all set, otherwise you will need to download these (see WIN32DLL.EXE on our ftp site). Windows 3.1 you must have ----------- + Windows 3.1 or 3.11 (WFWG) + WebSpace for Win32s (see WS32S10B.EXE on our ftp site). Note: Win32s is a Microsoft subsystem that allows 32 bit programs to run in the 16 bit Windows environment. WebSpace is not a 16 bit program and no 16 bit version of WebSpace is planned. + Standard Microsoft DLLs for Win32s 1.2 If you have MSVC++ 2.x they are on your installation CD, otherwise you will need to download these (see WIN32S.EXE on our ftp site). + Standard Microsoft DLLs for the VC++ runtime library, MFC and OLE. If you have MSVC++ 2.1 installed then you're all set, otherwise you will need to download these (see WIN32DLL.EXE on our ftp site). Windows 95 you must have ---------- + Patience! WebSpace is based on the OpenGL 3D rendering library which is not available yet (look for it shortly after Windows 95 is released). Hardware Requirements: To run the WebSpace for Windows you should have at least: + A 486/66 processor + 8 MB memory + 256 color graphics card You will soon want to have: + A Pentium processor + 24 MB memory + Fast, high resolution, 24bit TrueColor graphics card You will be able to take advantage of: + All display resolution/color combinations supported by Windows + Multi-processor machines + OpenGL accelerator cards (Accel, Oki, various GLint-based, etc) Installation: The WebSpace 1.0 Beta1 release does not have an installation program. All the download files are self-extracting zip archives (just execute the file to unpack its contents). See the Software Requirements section above to determine which files you need to download. 1) The WebSpace installation file (WS32N10B.EXE or WS32S10B.EXE) contains the WebSpace executable, the Readme file, the Help files (HTML format) and some example VRML files. Create a new directory, for example "WSBETA1", copy the download file into that directory and execute it with the "-d" option. Like this: ws32n10b -d NOTE! If you don't have two subdirectories "HTML" and "VRML" at this point, then you probably forgot to specify the "-d" option. Copy the startup file "WebSpace.ini" to your Windows directory (x:\WINDOWS for Windows 3.1 and %SystemRoot% for Windows NT). This file is used by WebSpace to store its last window size/position and other information. 2) If you need the miscellaneous Microsoft DLL's Download WIN32DLL.EXE into the WebSpace directory and execute the program to unpack the files. ==> Copy the file CTL3D32.DLL into your Windows system directory. Unlike most DLL's which can be either in the system directory or in any directory in the user's path or in the application's working directory, CTL3D32.DLL *must* be found in the system directory. Of course you can copy (or move) all the Microsoft DLL's into the system directory if you want to, but it may not be necessary. 3) If you need the Microsoft Win32s DLL's for Windows 3.1 Download WIN32S.DLL into a temporary directory and execute the program to unpack the files. It should create two subdirectories "disk1" and "disk2" in the current directory. Run the "setup" program in the "disk1" directory. When the installation has completed you will have a new program (OK, a game :-) called "FreeCell". You can run this program to verify that Win32s is correctly installed. Note: There are a number of different versions of Win32s and if you already have one installed you must be certain it is v1.2 or newer. In the File Manager, open the x:\WINDOWS directory, select the file WIN32S16.DLL, then select "Properties" from the File menu and check the version number. If you're not sure, install the newer version. The WebSpace 1.0 Product release will have a more automated installation. Recommended Browser: Enhanced Mosaic 2.0 from Spyglass Only known problem is that EMosaic does not pass the URL of the first VRML link to WebSpace -- it only passes the name of the temporary local file. This means that WebSpace has no context for resolving relative URLs in the VRML scene. Once the DDE protocol has been established however (i.e. on second and subsequent links), EMosaic passes the URL to WebSpace and relative URLs in the scene work fine. Configuring EMosaic for WebSpace: 1) Select the "Edit/Helpers" menu item. 2) Select the "Add" button in the Helpers dialog box. 3) In the Configure File Type dialog enter: For Description: VRML Documents For MIME type : x-world/x-vrml For Suffixes : .wrl For Encoding : Text For Helper App : <WebSpaceInstallDir>\WebSpace %s Other Browsers: Netscape 1.1 Netscape will start WebSpace but does not pass the URL of the first VRML link clicked. This means that WebSpace has no context for resolving relative URLs in the VRML scene. NOTE: Apparently there are still some problems with the Netscape implementation of the DDE protocol, including: 1) The second and subsequent VRML URL's are fetched but are not always successfully passed to WebSpace. 2) In some cases, when WebSpace requests a URL from Netscape, the Netscape window maximizes itself. Configuring Netscape for WebSpace: 1) Select the "Options/Preferences" menu item. 2) Select the "Helper Applications" item in the pulldown. 3) Click the "New Type" button. 4) In the Configure New Mime Type dialog enter: For Mime Type : x-world For Mime Subtype: x-vrml 5) In the "Extensions" field enter: .wrl 6) In the "Action" group box click "Launch Application" 7) In text entry field enter: <WebSpaceInstallDir>\WebSpace Other Any browser should be able to start WebSpace and pass it a single VRML scene (once WebSpace is configured as a helper application). However WebSpace will not be able to fetch URLs associated with WWWAnchor nodes in the VRML scene unless the browser supports the Mosaic DDE protocol and has been registered with WebSpace. Also, if the browser does not support the DDE protocol then each time you select a VRML link in the browser, it will start a new copy of WebSpace. Help Files Help files are provided in the WebSpace installation directory. They are in HTML format and may be viewed with your Web browser. Example VRML files Example VRML files are provided in the WebSpace installation directory. They may loaded directly into WebSpace or through your Web browser. For example, type: WebSpace urlHouse.wrl Tips 1) Viewers WebSpace provides two different 3D viewers: Walk Viewer (the default): For 3D scenes Examiner Viewer : For 3D objects VRML files should contain a "Viewer" hint that tells WebSpace which viewer to use by default. But in some cases it may be necessary to change viewers manually using the "View" menu. You can tell which viewer is active by looking in the window banner or by looking at the dashboard. The Walk viewer has a "T bar" type joystick for maneuvering and the Examiner viewer has a track ball. 2) The Mouse In WebSpace, the mouse button (with no modifier keys) is used only to select "hot" objects (links) and to manipulate the dashboard. See the Help file (HTML format) for details on the dashboard controls, mouse buttons, modifier keys and keyboard shortcuts. Open Inventor users note! This is different from the default mouse action in standard Open Inventor viewers. Holding down the "Ctrl" key makes the mouse button work like what you're used to doing with the left mouse button. 3) Hot Objects WebSpace highlights "hot" objects (WWWAnchor nodes) that are links to other URLs by changing their color when the cursor moves over them (it also displays the URL associated with the link in the status bar at the bottom of the window). These "hot objects" are just like the links in an HTML document. Click on the "hot object" while it is highlighted to go to that URL. You can also highlight all the links simultaneously using the "Options/Show Hot Links" menu item. Note however that hot objects are *not* highlighted while you are moving in the Walk viewer (have the mouse button down), rotating the object in the Examimer viewer (have the mouse button down) or while the object is spinning in the Examiner viewer (hint: click the blue trackball to stop spinning). 4) Inline Objects Sometimes you will see "empty boxes" when a scene first comes up. Usually these are "inline objects" (WWWInline nodes). Inlined objects are defined in separate VRML files which are referenced from the main VRML file. They display as a bounding box until the viewer finishes fetching the contents of the file. The effect of this is similar to the way some HTML viewers display the text of a page while they are still fetching the images. If an inline object is also a link (a "hot object"), its bounding box will highlight just like any other hot object and you can click on the bounding box to follow that link. 5) ViewPoints WebSpace supports the VRML "Cameras" hint which allows a VRML author to predefine named camera positions, or viewpoints. The WebSpace "ViewPoints" menu is dynamically created every time a VRML scene is loaded and allows you to select any of the predefined viewpoints. This is particularly helpful in a complex scene where "walking" around using the viewer controls is too slow. By default WebSpace will "jump" to the selected viewpoint. This was selected as the default because it works better on slower machines. You can change this behavior by disabling the "View/Jump Cuts" menu item. Then WebSpace will attempt to move "smoothly" to the selected viewpoint by interpolating the camera position along a spline. 6) Inventor Files WebSpace also supports the full Open Inventor file format. These files are identified by the extension ".iv" and may contain nodes that are not (or at least not yet) allowed in VRML files. Inventor nodes include 2D text, 3D text and "engines" that define various types of predefined motion in the scene. Initial URL All the browsers we have tested so far have the problem that they do not pass the URL of the first link to the helper application (only the name of the temporary local file). As a result WebSpace has no base URL to use to resolve relative URLs in the VRML scene. If you are using a browser that supports the Spyglass DDE protocol, e.g. Enhanced Mosaic 2.0, you can work around this problem by selecting the same link a second time in the browser. This works because all links after the first one are passed to WebSpace using the DDE protocol. Encourage your browser vendor to pass URLs to helper applications! The VRML community is considering adoption of BASE_URL as a standard "hint" that VRML authors could incorporate in their file to provide this information to the VRML viewer independent of the browser. WebSpace will support this hint in the next release and we encourage VRML authors to use it. The BASE_URL hint has the following form: DEF BASE Info { string "http://www.something.com/somefile.wrl" } Messages "WWW_RegisterViewer returned fail status." This normally means that no HTML browser is running or at least WebSpace does not recognize the browser as a candidate for the DDE protocol. WebSpace will still work as a standalone viewer for local files. Known Problems 1) WebSpace started before HTML browser When WebSpace is started manually before the HTML browser, the browser will not recognize that WebSpace is already running and will start another instance (if a VRML link is clicked). It is not known yet whether this is a browser or WebSpace problem. 2) WebSpace exits before HTML browser When WebSpace exits before the HTML browser (whether intentionally or not :-), the DDE protocol is hosed and the browser is no longer able to start WebSpace. Exit and restart the browser to work around this problem. 3) Window resizing Window resizing does not work correctly when the Examiner viewer is selected (main window resizes but drawing area does not). Switch to the Walk viewer and back, if necessary, to work around this problem. 4) Incorrect colors The Windows 3.1 version of WebSpace does not draw the correct colors on a 24bit TrueColor display. It works correctly if the display is switched to a 256 color mode. The Windows NT version of WebSpace does not have this problem and works well on 24bit displays. 5) Dashboard obscured In some cases graphics in the scene may be drawn on top of the dashboard. This problem is being investigated. 6) WebSpace crashs Yep. Still happens some times. We're working on it. Not Implemented in Beta1 Release Menu items that are "grayed out" are not implemented yet. The keyboard shortcuts. Compared to WebSpace on UNIX: 1) WebSpace for Windows does not currently fetch URLs directly, but instead relies upon a Web browser that supports the Spyglass DDE protocol. Therefore WebSpace cannot be used as a standalone Web browser (although it can be used standalone to view local files). Note however that by fetching URLs through a general purpose Web browser, WebSpace provides the ability to handle many types of URLs linked through the VRML scene. For example, if a link in a VRML scene is to an audio file URL, WebSpace will request the Web browser to fetch the file and the Web browser will route it to an appropriate helper application. 2) The default setting for "Jump Cuts" is TRUE in WebSpace for Windows. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Registration for WebSpace v1.0b1 (beta 1) Support Template Graphics Software has partnered with Silicon Graphics Inc. in the development of WebSpace. WebSpace v1.0b1 is available free for personal use from various ftp sites. This is an unsupported version. Comments may be mailed to: webspace@tgs.com but do not expect a reply to these messages. If you would like to purchase support for WebSpace for $49.00 per copy, please contact Template Graphics Software at 619.457.5359 x233, or mail a check or money order, payable to Template Graphics Software, Inc., to: WebSpace Support Template Graphics Software 9920 Pacific Heights Blvd., Suite 200 San Diego, CA 92121 A secure transaction form will be added to the TGS home page located at http://www.sd.tgs.com/~template/WebSpace eventually. WebSpace Support is $49.00 per copy for all platforms. Once you have registered, you will be entitled to the following: + 30 days 2-way email technical support (TGS Hotline will call you if needed) + Access to password-protected VRML pages (For verification and fun) + Access to follow-on beta releases + Free upgrade to WebSpace v1.0 final (July 15, a $99 value) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for using WebSpace! Really. We appreciate you checking it out, 'cause we're not making a lot of money off of this thing, we really want VRML to be successful at whatever it is it's struggling to become. So, you know, don't just tell us it's "broken" (heck, we know it's still got bugs, we wrote it! :-), tell us things we can do to make it better. See you in Cyberspace, -- The TGS WebSpace Team