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Shout3D™ 1.0 - User Guide

Features of the Bundled Applets

Shout3d 1.0 comes with with a number of applets for displaying Shout3D content. Each of these is used in at least one of the demos, so you can explore them without doing any programming.

Shout3DApplet

This is the base class for all applets, so every other applet in Shout3D shares this set of features:

  • html parameters for controlling the behavior of the applet. These may be set by setting parameters within the applet tag in the html file. Click here for a listing and description of the parameters.
  • frame rate display: at any time, click in the applet and press the 'f' key to see the frame rate

ExamineApplet

This is a simple viewer to use for examining objects. Click the mouse in the applet window, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse to tumble the scene. If you drag up/down, the scene will tumble around the horizontal axis. If you drag left/right, it will tumble about a vertical axis.

To zoom in and out, hold the <control> key while click-dragging up and down in the window.

WalkApplet

This is a simple viewer for walking through environments. Click the mouse in the applet window, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse to navigate. If you drag up/down, you will move forward or backward through the scene. If you drag left/right, you will turn the camera in that direction and continue to walk in the new direction.

The WalkApplet also performs simple collision detection with the environment, meaning that the camera will not go through walls or objects. Three special applet parameters help you to adjust the behavior of a WalkApplet. Edit them in the html file (see Shout3d_runtime\demos\walk_demo.html for an example) to change the behavior:

  • avatarHeight: This is the height above the ground plane (0 height in world space) that the camera will be placed. To change it from its default value of 2, include the line
    <param name="avatarHeight" value="2"> in the applet tag, substituting the value of your choice.
  • avatarRadius: This is how far ahead of you a surface is allowed get before the camera motion will be halted by collision detection. To change it from its default value of 2, include the line
    <param name="avatarRadius" value="2"> in the applet tag, substituting the value of your choice.
  • collideHeight: This is the height above the ground plane of the plane in which collision detection is performed. To change it from its default value of .25, include the line
    <param name="collideHeight" value=".25"> in the applet tag, substituting the value of your choice.

MultiTestApplet

This is an applet that allows you to write out the scene in a vrml-style syntax, test picking, and test searching. When the applet is running, click in the applet and type '?' to see a display of options in the java console.

In addition to those provided with the standard Shout3DApplet, this applet has three additional parameters:

  • normal tracking: When this is on (off by default), an arrow appears under the cursor whenever you move it over geometry in the scene. The arrow will be perpendicular to the picked geometry. To turn normal tracking on upon startup, include the line
    <param name="normalTracking" value="true"> in the applet tag.
  • location tracking: When this is on (off by default), a 'nubbin' appears under the cursor whenever you move it over geometry in the scene. The nubbing appears at the picked location of the geometry. To turn location tracking on upon startup, include the line
    <param name="locationTracking" value="true"> in the applet tag.
  • markerSize: the arrow or nubbin displayed when tracking the cursor have a default size of .1, but you can change this with an html parameter. For example:
    <param name="markerScale" value="0.2">

Other Applets

The other bundled applets are each tailored for a specific demo. Explore the java source files to get an idea of how they work. The other bundled applets are: BindingTestPanel, LightTestPanel, ModDunkPanel, and PyramidTestPanel.


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