VRweb 1.1.2e

VRweb 1.1.2e
============

VRweb is a browser for 3D worlds and scenes modeled in the Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML). VRweb is a joint project between
IICM, home of Hyper-G, NCSA, home of Mosaic, and the University of
Minnesota, home of Gopher.

New since 1.1:

o Collision Detection (you'll no longer fly through walls)

o new Mesa driver (rel. 1.2.6): *faster*, improved texture
mapping, gamma correction, less Z buffer memory demand

o remote call interface (successive scenes into same window)

o support for Spaceball

o bugfixes

Release 1.1.2e was made outside the planned release cycle
to take advantage of the latest Mesa version and all bugfixes made in
the meanwhile. Currently, work is going on for network support
(WWWInline and textures).

New in 1.1.2e:

o use of Mesa 1.2.7: textured primitives,
bug fixes (byte order, fast gamma correction)

o italian user interface (thanks to <[email protected]>)

o bugfixes (fixed numerical problems in collision detection,
security issues on netscape remote call etc.)

UNIX users upgrading from an earlier version need to change the VRweb
commandline in ~/.mailcap to make use of remote calls. See
install.html in the on-line help.

The current Windows release 1.1 Beta 5 is based on the same version.

More information can be found at the VRweb technical home page:
http://hyperg.iicm.tu-graz.ac.at/vrweb

Supported Platforms
-------------------

UNIX:

o SGI: OpenGL and Mesa
o DEC ALPHA: OpenGL and Mesa
o DEC Ultrix: Mesa
o SUN Solaris: Mesa
o SUN OS: Mesa
o HPUX: Mesa
o LINUX: Mesa
o IBM AIX: Mesa

Windows:

o Windows NT: OpenGL
o Windows 3.x (win32s): Mesa
o Windows 95: OpenGL and Mesa

The Mesa library (by [email protected]) is an OpenGL workalike that
supports 3D graphics through standard windows calls (X11 or Microsoft
Windows). It neither needs nor benefits from HW accelerators.

OpenGL needs a working GLX extension for your X-server, and is part of
the Windows NT operating system, and free available for Windows 95.

Source Code
-----------

VRweb source code is availabe for both UNIX/X11 and Windows.

UNIX/vrweb.src-1.1.2e.tar.gz contains the source code for UNIX/X11.
Look at COPYRIGHT for usage conditions, and INSTALLATION for an
installation guide.

The source for the Windows is available in Windows/vrw_src.zip,
including Makefiles for Microsoft Visual C++ 2.x. Read file readme.src
as installation guide.

Features
--------

VRweb supports most of VRML 1.0 using a parser based on QvLib 1.0.
Some non-standard VRML extensions (Inventor) are also handled
(e.g. LightModel), others are reported and ignored.

Supported features include: Grouping, Separators, Coordinates,
Normals, Materials, Cameras, Light sources, Transformations, primitive
shapes, IndexedFaceSet, IndexedLineSet, PointSet, MaterialBinding,
ShapeHints (except concave faces), LOD (level of detail), and
Texturing (limited to in-file texture images).

WWWAnchor support with Netscape, Mosaic and Harmony under UNIX (since
release 1.1).

Several navigation modes: "Flip", "Walk", "Fly", "Heads-Up", "Fly
To". Flip is a kind of examiner, Heads-Up is an easy to use walk
viewer. Note the short hints in the status line. Fly To is used for
controlled approach to a selectable point of interest (available since
Release 1.1). See the explanations in the on-line help (available
since Release 1.1).

Optional switching to a lower display quality during motion.

Collision detection (Rel. 1.1.2).

Not Yet Supported
-----------------

Among VRML features not supported in the current release are nodes
dealing with text (AsciiText, FontStyle).

WWWInline is supported only in the Harmony version, and is currently
worked on for the UNIX/WWW version along with texture mapping.

Support for WWWAnchor under Windows is our next priority.

How to Get It
-------------

VRweb is available by anonymous ftp from:

IICM ftp://ftp.iicm.tu-graz.ac.at/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb

and from the following mirror sites:

Australia ftp://ftp.cinemedia.com.au/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb
ftp://gatekeeper.digital.com.au/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb
Austria ftp://ftp.tu-graz.ac.at/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb
Czech Rep. ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/Net/Infosystems/Hyper-G/VRweb
(also via http://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/ftp/Net/Infosystems/Hyper-G/VRweb)
Germany ftp://elib.zib-berlin.de/pub/InfoSystems/Hyper-G/VRweb
ftp://ftp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/infosystems/Hyper-G/VRweb
Italy ftp://ftp.esrin.esa.it/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb
Poland ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb
Portugal ftp://ftp.ua.pt/pub/infosystems/www/Hyper-G/VRweb
(also via http://ftp.ua.pt/infosystems/www/Hyper-G/VRweb)
Spain ftp://ftp.etsimo.uniovi.es/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb
Sweden ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/Networked.Information.Retrieval/Hyper-G/VRweb
UK ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/Hyper-G/VRweb
USA ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Hyper-G/VRweb
ftp://mirror1.utdallas.edu/pub/Hyper-G/VRweb

Mailing list
------------

A mailing list for VRweb is available, where you can send questions
and get feedback from the developers and other VRweb users.

To subscribe, send mail to

[email protected]

with message body

subscribe vrweb YourNameHere

(no subject needed).

To unsubscribe, mail "unsubscribe vrweb" to the same address.

To send mail to all members of the list, simply compose your
message or question and send it to

[email protected]

Feedback
--------

Please note that VRweb is unsupported software, but feedback is very
welcome. Please send bug reports to

[email protected]

including the platform and version of VRweb you are using.

Send other comments, suggestions, questions about distribution
and licensing, etc. to

[email protected]

We do read all of the mail we receive, but unfortunately cannot
respond to every piece of mail individually. Please bear with us...

last updated: Mar 19, 1996
Michael Pichler,
Keith Andrews