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1995-11-13
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- 1 -
3. _N_e_w__F_e_a_t_u_r_e_s
This chapter lists the major changes and additions to
WebSpace Navigator 1.1 since the 1.0 release.
3.1 _P_e_r_f_o_r_m_a_n_c_e__I_m_p_r_o_v_e_m_e_n_t_s
+o WebSpace 1.1 is based on the new 2.1 release of Open
Inventor, which provides many rendering performance
improvements.
3.2 _I_n__S_c_e_n_e__N_a_v_i_g_a_t_i_o_n__I_m_p_r_o_v_e_m_e_n_t_s
+o There are now two modes for mouse clicks in the scene.
_C_l_i_c_k _t_o _f_o_l_l_o_w _l_i_n_k_s provides WebSpace 1.0
functionality where a single click on a link object
will follow that link. Other clicks in scene are
ignored, unless the alt or ctrl key is pressed to
employ viewing functionality.
_C_l_i_c_k _t_o _n_a_v_i_g_a_t_e provides seek functionality where a
single click in the scene will seek to the clicked
object. Click dragging provides viewing functionality.
Double click on an anchor is required to follow a link
in the mode.
+o Hitting Page Up or Page Down will go to the next or
previous viewpoints, respectively.
+o New cursors are provided for better feedback as to what
the user is doing or is about to do.
3.3 _D_a_s_h_b_o_a_r_d__C_h_a_n_g_e_s
+o The viewing dashboards have a new fixture which
displays the current viewpoint, and allows navigation
to the next and previous viewpoints specified in the
scene.
+o The viewing dashboards no longer provide a seek
fixture. Instead, they provide a fixture to toggle
between _c_l_i_c_k _t_o _f_o_l_l_o_w _l_i_n_k_s and _c_l_i_c_k _t_o _n_a_v_i_g_a_t_e
modes.
+o The viewing dashboards look nicer.
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3.4 _S_m_o_o_t_h_e_s_t__V_i_e_w_i_n_g
+o A new method for degrading the scene to provide near
constant frame update rates during scene navigation is
available. This method renders a wireframe grid of the
space occupied by the scene, then renders the objects
in order from most important to least important,
aborting the render process at any time to achieve a
near constant frame update rate. This may cause objects
to disappear from view, but allows the user to move
through a scene at a steady rate, even on low end
systems. The heuristic for deciding importance is as
follows: objects directly in front of the camera and
close to the camera are most important, objects to the
side and farther away are least important. Whenever
the user stops navigating, the entire scene is
rendered.
+o The _O_p_t_i_m_i_z_e _F_r_a_m_e _R_a_t_e and _O_p_t_i_m_i_z_e _I_m_a_g_e _Q_u_a_l_i_t_y
options have been renamed _B_e_s_t _I_m_a_g_e _Q_u_a_l_i_t_y and _S_m_o_o_t_h
_M_o_t_i_o_n. A third option has been added to enable the
degradation method described above: _S_m_o_o_t_h_e_s_t _M_o_t_i_o_n.
+o If either _S_m_o_o_t_h _M_o_t_i_o_n or _S_m_o_o_t_h_e_s_t _M_o_t_i_o_n is
selected, during navigation, spheres, cones, and
cylinder may degrade to a simpler representation and
flat 3D text may degrade to either a simpler
representation or to a rectangular polygon.
+o For machines without texturing hardware, if either
_S_m_o_o_t_h _M_o_t_i_o_n or _S_m_o_o_t_h_e_s_t _M_o_t_i_o_n is selected, textures
will be turned off during scene navigation. When the
user stops navigating, the textures will be turned back
on. If you want to see textures while moving on these
machines, select the _B_e_s_t _I_m_a_g_e _Q_u_a_l_i_t_y option.
3.5 _M_i_s_c_e_l_l_a_n_e_o_u_s
+o The _S_a_v_e _A_s... command now allows saving to different
formats, either _S_o_u_r_c_e or _I_n_v_e_n_t_o_r. The difference in
these formats is that the Inventor format will write
out inline data that has been fetched, and is thus
suitable for import into other Inventor based
applications like _S_h_o_w_c_a_s_e, _I_n_P_e_r_s_o_n, and _A_n_n_o_t_a_t_o_r.
The Source format will save the file exactly as it was
downloaded.
+o Menu items now have mnemonics for keyboard traversal.
+o The _M_o_v_e _F_a_s_t_e_r, _M_o_v_e _a_t _D_e_f_a_u_l_t _S_p_e_e_d, and _M_o_v_e _S_l_o_w_e_r
commands on the _V_i_e_w menu have been renamed _T_r_a_v_e_l
- 3 -
_F_a_s_t_e_r, _T_r_a_v_e_l _a_t _D_e_f_a_u_l_t _S_p_e_e_d, and _T_r_a_v_e_l _S_l_o_w_e_r.
+o The _S_h_o_w _H_o_t _L_i_n_k_s command has been renamed _S_h_o_w _L_i_n_k_s.
+o The keyboard shortcut to increase traveling speed has
changed from _c_t_r_l-_k to _c_t_r_l-_u.
+o There are now keyboard shortcuts to choose the viewer
type: _c_t_r_l-_e for examiner, _c_t_r_l-_k for walk.
+o The home scene icon has been updated to include a blue
arrow.
+o The _V_i_e_w_p_o_i_n_t_s menu now displays a checkmark next to
the last chosen viewpoint.
+o The _H_e_l_p menu now has a _N_a_v_i_g_a_t_i_o_n_a_l _S_h_o_r_t_c_u_t_s menu
item which brings up HTML based help on that topic.
+o The _F_1 key now brings up the HTML based help.
+o Data files are now installed in
/usr/share/data/models/WebSpace instead of
/usr/share/data/VRML.