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- README for Open Inventor and WebSpace Demos
- -------------------------------------------
-
- Updated 4-Aug-95
- Copyright (C) Template Graphics Software Inc.
-
-
- Requirements
-
- These demos will run under Windows NT or Windows 95 (Intel only).
- All the necessary DLLs are provided with the demo installation.
-
- Using the standard Microsoft OpenGL, all screen resolutions and color
- depths are supported. Resolution of 1024x768 or higher and color
- depth of 256 or higher is recommended for best appearance.
-
- All 3D accelerator boards compatible with Microsoft OpenGL are
- supported, including boards based on GLint, Oki and AccelGraphics.
-
-
- OpenGL DLLs for Windows 95
-
- NOTE: The TGS System directory contains the files opengl32.dll and
- and glu32.dll. These are the OpenGL DLLs for Windows 95 (Intel only).
- The TGS System directory is located under the directory you selected
- during installation of the Open Inventor Demonstration.
-
- DO NOT copy these files into the system32 directory under Windows NT!
- If you have installed a version of OpenGL under Windows 95 and experience
- problems running the Open Inventor Demonstration, try replacing the
- OpenGL DLLs in your Windows 95 System directory with the OpenGL DLLs in
- the TGS System directory.
-
-
- SceneViewer, Slotcar, and Maze Demonstration Programs
-
- The SceneViewer program demonstrates some of the capabilities of the Open
- Inventor class library. The various viewers, the material and color
- editor dialogs, direct manipulation of scene objects and many other
- features available in SceneViewer are built-in capabilities of the Open
- Inventor class library. This allows rapid prototyping of applications
- based on Open Inventor -- if you can describe your application's geometry
- in Open Inventor terms, you automatically have the ability to view and
- edit that geomtry. Here are some suggestions for running the demo:
-
- - Use the File/Open menu to open one or more of the example models
- provided in Inventor format. These files have a ".iv" extension.
- You can also use "drag and drop" to open Inventor files.
-
- Sceneviewer can also load most VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling
- Language) files, although it does not support the WWWInline, LOD
- or AsciiText nodes. These files have a ".wrl" extension. WebSpace
- is a VRML specific viewer that supports all the VRML 1.0 nodes.
-
- - The default mode is "Examiner Viewer". Hold down the left mouse
- button to spin the model using the "virtual trackball". Hold
- down the middle mouse button to translate the model.
-
- - Use the View menu to change to a "Walk Viewer" or "Fly Viewer".
- In the Walk Viewer, hold down the left mouse button and move the
- mouse to "walk" forward or backward and to turn.
-
- In the Fly Viewer, click the left mouse button to accelerate and
- the middle mouse button to slow down. Current speed is displayed
- by a bar graph at the bottom of the window. Move the mouse to
- change your direction of travel.
-
- - Use the Light menu to create a new light in the scene. A 3D icon
- will appear indicating the light's position (and direction if
- appropriate). Put the cursor on the light icon, then press and
- hold the left mouse button to move the light. For directional and
- spot lights you can also interactively change the direction by
- moving the light icon's arrowhead.
-
- - Press the ESC key to toggle between "viewing" (the default) and
- "selection" modes. In viewing mode the cursor is a red hand. In
- selection mode the cursor is an arrow. In selection mode you can
- select any object in the scene by clicking on it. A red highlight
- box will appear around the selected object.
-
- - With an object selected, use the Editors menu to bring up the
- Material Editor dialog or the Color Editor dialog. Notice that
- Inventor automatically changes the appearance of the selected
- object when you make changes in the dialog box.
-
- - With an object selected, use the Manips menu to attach an Inventor
- "manipulator" to the object. For example, the Trackball manipulator
- allows you to rotate the selected object (move the cursor onto the
- trackball, then press and hold the left mouse button).
-
- Slotcar is a simple "game" that demonstrates using Open Inventor to create
- a virtual world and simulating the physics of a slotcar race. When the
- first window appears, click in the rectangle labeled "Start". When your
- car appears in the race window:
-
- - Click the left and right mouse buttons to change lanes
-
- - Your speed is determined by the position of the mouse cursor in
- the window -- the closer to the top of the window, the faster you
- go. Watch out for those tight curves!
-
- - Use the arrow keys to adjust the position of the camera relative
- to your slotcar.
-
- - The car will automatically reset (back on the track) after a crash.
-
- Maze is a simple "game" that demonstrates using Open Inventor to create a
- virtual world and directly manipulate an object (the maze board) in 3D.
- Hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse to change the tilt of
- the maze board. Try to roll the ball to the exit in lower right corner.
-
-
- WebSpace
-
- WebSpace is a VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) browser that works
- with your HTML browser (Netscape, Mosaic, etc) to display 3D scenes you
- find on the Internet. You will need to have an HTML browser installed in
- order to access VRML files on the Internet. WebSpace uses your HTML
- browser to fetch files. You do not need an HTML browser if you just use
- WebSpace to view local files. You will need an HTML browser to display
- the WebSpace help files (which are in HTML format). You will need to
- configure your HTML browser so it knows to use WebSpace as the viewer for
- files with the MIME type "x-world/x-vrml" (also "application/x-inventor"
- if you want to view Inventor files). WebSpace can also view Open Inventor
- files and/or VRML files containing Inventor nodes.
-
- Note: A copy of gzip.exe is provided with some versions of the demo
- installation (Intel and ?). When available, WebSpace uses gzip to
- automatically decompress VRML files that have been compressed (these
- files normally have the extension ".wrl.gz").
-
-
- Inventor Wizard
-
- The Inventor Wizard will modify source code generated by the Microsoft
- AppWizard to create a skeleton Open Inventor application. The Inventor
- Wizard is automatically added to the Visual C++ 2.0 tools menu by the
- setup program (INTEL and ALPHA versions only). For MIPS it is necessary
- to manually add the Inventor Wizard to the tools menu. Also for MIPS, you
- must manually add the Inventor include and lib directories to the lib and
- include directory search paths in Visual C++ 2.0. This is done by selecting
- the Tools/Options menu and clicking on the directories tab. These are
- updated automatically in the INTEL and ALPHA versions if Visual C++ was
- installed when you ran the TGS Open Inventor Demonstration setup program.
-
- To use the Inventor Wizard create a new project using the AppWizard,
- and close the project. NOTE: It is important that you close the project
- before running the Inventor Wizard. If you modify a project with Inventor
- Wizard while Visual C++ has the project file open, Visual C++ will overwrite
- the changes made by Inventor Wizard. These problems will be solved when
- we integrate the Inventor Wizard with the AppWizard extensions under
- Visual C++ 4.0.
-
- This demonstration distribution includes all of the necessary header files
- and import libraries to build the viewers generated by the demonstration
- version of the Inventor Wizard. The demonstration version only generates
- code for Render Area, Walk, Fly, and Examiner viewers. The full TGS Open
- Inventor SDK is required to generate a SceneViewer application. In addition,
- this demonstration version does not provide the header files and import
- libraries for developing full Open Inventor programs. The complete TGS Open
- Inventor SDK is required to write code that uses the Open Inventor Class
- Library directly. Only the TGS Inventor Framework library is provided with
- this demonstration.
-
- NOTE: This version of the demo installation does not include the Open
- Inventor debugging DLLs -- so you cannot build the Debug target for your
- Inventor Wizard generated application. You must build the Release target.
-
-
- SceneViewer OCX (Intel and Alpha only)
-
- The SceneViewer OCX provides an OLE control wrapper for the Open Inventor
- SceneViewer application. The OCX provides all of the functionality of the
- SceneViewer through a set of OLE interfaces. It is not necessary to have
- the Open Inventor SDK to develop applications using the SceneViewer OCX,
- only the runtime Open Inventor DLL's are required.
-
- To use the SceneViewer OCX you must first register the control. Click on
- the Register SceneViewer Control icon to register the control.
-
- To experiment with the SceneViewer OCX start the Test Container, then:
-
- 1. Select Insert OLE Control from the Edit menu, and pick Ocxsv Control.
-
- 2. Resize the control to the desired dimensions.
-
- 3. Select Invoke Methods from the Edit menu.
-
- 4. From the Name drop box select the LoadFile method and click on Invoke.
-
- 5. Use the File Dialog to select an Inventor File (Barcelona.iv is
- a good model for experimenting with the Walk and Fly Viewers, bird.iv
- is good for the Examiner Viewer).
-
- 6. From the Name drop box select the showViewDialog method, and click
- on Invoke.
-
- 7. Select the desired viewer and click on Ok.
-
- 8. Click on Close to exit the Invoke Control Method Dialog.
-
- 9. For the Fly Viewer, click the left mouse button to accelerate, middle mouse
- button to decelerate, and left-middle to stop.
-
- For the Walk Viewer, press and hold the left mouse button while moving
- the mouse in the desired direction of motion. Use the up and down arrow
- keys to change elevation.
-
- Use the controls of the Fly or Walk viewer to move to a new viewing
- position, the bring up the Invoke Control Methods Dialog. Invoke the
- showNewCameraDialog method. Click on create, select View All, and
- click on Apply. Up to ten cameras can be created. Picking a camera
- from the Camera List will install that camera as the current camera.
-
- For the Examiner Viewer, press and hold the left mouse button to spin the
- camera around the object. Pressing the right mouse button brings up
- a popup menu that can be used to toggle viewing mode. Turn off viewing
- mode, place the mouse pointer over a piece of the model (i.e. the head
- of the bird) and click the left mouse button. A bounding box will
- appear around the selected component. Bring up the Invoke Control Methods
- dialog, invoke the manipTrackball method and close the dialog. Grab
- the trackball with the mouse pointer by pressing and holding the left
- mouse button.
-
- For a detailed description of the viewer controls see the Open Inventor
- Help File.
-
- 10. Invoke the lightAddDirect method to create a directional light. Turn
- of viewing mode and grab the light icon arrow head with the mouse.
- Use the mouse to change the direction of the light. Invoke the
- lightHideAll method to hide the light icon.
-
-
-
- To contact TGS about purchasing the Open Inventor SDK:
-
- Template Graphics Software Inc.
- 9920 Pacific Heights Blvd
- San Diego, CA 92121
-
- Tel: 619-457-5359
-
- Fax: 619-452-2547
-
- Email: info@tgs.com
-
- WWW: http://www.sd.tgs.com/~template
-
-