VR Scout 1.00

VR Scout is a viewer for Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)
files.  VR Scout works with your web browser as an external viewer and
communicates with your web browser via DDE.  With VR Scout, you can
load VRML files from the World-Wide Web and walk around in 3d
interactively!

VR Scout supports:

	o Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and Windows NT
	o GZIP and ZIP files, automatically
	o Integration with your current HTML browser
	o Threading, on operating systems that support it.
	o Both DDE and internal HTTP support (threaded, of course)
	o Clever caching, with settings for checking once per session,
	  every time, or never
	o A headlight with a brightness control
	o Walk/Fly/Examiner viewing modes
	o Image degradation while moving, for speed
	o Textures
	o Extensive help

VRML Support:

VR Scout supports WWWAnchor, including hints, links to VRML documents,
links to CGI scripts, links to HTML documents, etc.  If you click on a
link to an HTML document, we'll start up your Web browser for you,
automatically!

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 LOD (Level-Of-Detail) node.

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

The VR Scout development team:
  Pritham Shetty
  Ron Lussier (Coyote)
  Dan Greening (Pingbot)
  Jim Doubek
  Glenn Crocker (Wizard)

Installing VR Scout in Netscape

One way to install an external viewer with Netscape is to download a
file of the type for which you want to add a viewer.  Netscape will
ask what to do with the file, and one of the options is to add a
viewer.

To add VR Scout without first accessing a VRML file, follow this procedure:

First start Netscape.  Next select the 'Preferences' menu entry in the
'Options' menu.  Click on the 'Helper Apps' tab.  If there is no entry
for "x-world/x-vrml", click on 'Create New Type' and set the 'Mime
Type' field to "x-world".  Set the 'Mime SubType' to "x-vrml".

Once the "x-world/x-vrml" type is created, select it in the File type
list, then click on 'Launch the Application', then select 'Browse'.
Locate VR Scout in the browser, select it, and select 'OK'.

Installing VR Scout in NetManage WebSurfer

First start WebSurfer.  Next select the 'Preferences' menu entry in
the 'Settings' menu.  Click on the 'Viewers' tab, click the 'Add'
button, and use these values for these fields:

	MIME Type:	x-world/x-vrml
	Extension:	wrl
	Viewer:	VRScout.exe

Then click 'OK'.  Websurfer will add VR Scout to the 'Document
Viewers:' list.  Click 'OK' again to finalize the new viewer.

3D Caveats

VR Scout uses Intel's 3dr rendering library.  If you have a special
polygon accelerator card that 3dr recognizes, you should have
extremely fast 3d graphics!  3dr is a complex piece of software, so it
has a few problems:

Gamma correction: If you notice that your graphics are darker than you
think they should be, you can change the 3dr "gamma correction"
factor.  This is in the '3dr.ini' file, which should be in your
Windows directory.  Find the line which looks like this:

	Gamma=1.0

and change it to whatever you like.  Values between 1.0 and 2.0 are
typically correct for PC video hardware.

A future version of VR Scout will likely have a "brightness"
preference box slider which will set the gamma correction value.

Texture sizing: The 3d graphics preference box in VR Scout allows you
to turn on and off texture size reduction.  Texture size reduction
works around a bug in 3dr: tiled (repeated) textures which are larger
than 128x128 pixels do not display correctly.

Troubleshooting

If you run into problems with VR Scout, feel free to 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.  Future versions will include
support for the few VRML nodes not already supported (AsciiText,
FontStyle, and Texture2Transform), new speed enhancements, etc.

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", Interactive HTML,
2d graphics, and Interactive VRML.  For more information, point your
Web browser at: http://www.chaco.com/pueblo.