VR Scout 1.30 Plugin

April 1st, 1996

VR Scout 1.30 is a viewer for Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) files.  (VRML is a network format for 3D graphics.)  VR Scout works with Netscape Navigator and the NetManage WebSurfer as an embedded "plugin", so VRML files are displayed just like GIFs, JPEGs, and HTML documents.  VRML files can even be displayed "inline" in an HTML document!  

New with VR Scout 1.30:

·	Based on your feedback, we've completely reimplemented our 3D navigation, and added many cool features, like control-clicking on 3d polygons to move towards them.

·	Collision detection is now supported.

·	Many rendering improvements have been made, resulting in better-looking 3D scenes.

·	VRML background images are now supported, so you can have stars surrounding your VRML worlds.

·	VR Scout is more tolerant of not-quite-compliant VRML files.


This was new with VR Scout 1.22:

·	Fixed a bug with the use of the OrthographicCamera node which caused a crash.
·	Made some significant improvements on color and lighting.
·	Reduced memory usage.
·	VR Scout now supports multiple top-level nodes.
·	Fixed some problems with Text being ugly at small font sizes

This was new with VR Scout 1.21:

·	Fixed a bug with the use of the OrthographicCamera node which caused a crash.
·	Made some significant improvements on color and lighting.
·	Reduced memory usage.
·	VR Scout now supports multiple top-level nodes.
·	Fixed some problems with Text being ugly at small font sizes

This was new with VR Scout 1.2:

·	Plugin support for Netscape Navigator and Netmanage WebSurfer
·	Support for the Netscape EMBED tag, for multiple VRML files inline in HTML
·	Reality Lab 3D rendering.  Wow, many times faster than version 1.1!
·	Toolbar, for heads-up navigation changes
·	Tooltips anchor displays (hold the cursor over an anchor object to see the tooltips)
·	Improved AsciiText support
·	Transparency
·	Transparent textures
·	Handle concave faces
·	Warn of multiple top-level nodes

Issues:

·	We'd like your feedback on navigation.  Tell us what we need to be doing, and we'll do it.  The planned changes for the release are:  Be sure left/right navigation feels the same as forward/back navigation.  Slow down mouse navigation so it's a little less "tight".

·	Let us know if you run into problems, and we'll get them fixed as soon as possible.  The address to email bugs to is:  scout-support@chaco.com.  People who report bugs first will receive, ummmm, VRML Jack-O-Lanterns or something.  (Hey, we don't have as much money as Netscape for bug bounties!  ;-)

VRML Support:

·	VR Scout renders the image progressively in pieces, so you can get started using a VRML scene before the whole scene is done being downloaded, parsed, and rendered.

·	VR Scout supports WWWAnchor, including hints, links to VRML documents, links to CGI scripts, links to  HTML documents, etc.

·	VR Scout supports WWWInline, including relative URLs, nested WWWInlines, etc.  If there are WWWInlines in the VRML scene, they are downloaded while you are viewing, walking around in the scene, etc.  As the downloads of the WWWInlines are completed, they are added to the scene.

·	VR Scout supports Textures of GIF, JPEG, and BMP files.  Again, these are downloaded while you're walking around in the scene, and as the downloads complete, the textures are added to their surfaces.

·	VR Scout supports the LOD (Level-Of-Detail) node.

·	VR Scout supports VRML "hints", like background color, etc.

VRML Extensions Supported:

·	BackgroundColor.  This Info{} node allows scene authors to set the background color of the scene.

	Example (sets background to black):
			DEF BackgroundColor Info { string "0.0 0.0 0.0" }

·	BackgroundImage.  This Info{} node allows scene authors to set the background image of the scene.

	Example (sets background to a GIF supplied by a relative URL):
			DEF BackgroundImage Info { string "starback.gif" }


The VR Scout Development Team:

Pritham Shetty
Ron Lussier (Coyote)
Dan Greening (Pingbot)
Jim Doubek
Glenn Crocker (Wizard)

Installation

Be sure you're not running Netscape while installing VR Scout.  To install, just run the self-extracting self-installing .EXE, and it will prompt you for the information it needs, then install VR Scout.

Troubleshooting

If you run into problems with VR Scout, please mail us at scout-support@chaco.com.

VR Scout Upgrades

Information about getting the latest version of VR Scout is available from http://www.chaco.com/vrscout.

Pueblo

If you are interested in using VRML to create multi-user environments, you should check out Chaco's Pueblo.  Pueblo is an internet client application with built-in support for text MUDs (Multi-User Dimensions), Interactive HTML, 2D graphics, and Interactive VRML.  For more information, point your Web browser at:  http://www.chaco.com/pueblo.