If you are reading this file, you have successfully downloaded
and unpacked the help archive:
To use VRweb with WWW browsers (Netscape, Mosaic) or to view local
files, you need one of the files
On displays with OpenGL support (e.g. SGI, DEC Alpha with Open3D
installed) use the OpenGL version
The UNIX binaries are compressed with gzip. Run gunzip on the
appropriate version of vrweb and you will have an executable. If you
need to compile the source code yourself follow the instructions in
the README-Unix and INSTALLATION file provided with the distribution.
So, if you want to use vrweb-XXX-YYY, call
You may wish to rename the binary to
You are now ready to start VRweb with a local file: If you have
downloaded the VRMLsamples and unpacked them with
try
To make your web browser display VRML scenes coming from the net with
VRweb, add the following line to
If you do not already have a
The argument
The
If you want to make the change on the fly (without quitting your
browser), you have to reload the config-file. In NCSA Mosaic:
Note to sys-admins: you can also make the changes to the global
configuration file listed in the dialog, so that they are valid for
all users.
You may also wish to configure your browser to pass
You are now ready to download VRML scenes from any server: Try
connecting to the IICM server for some sample scenes.
If you do not want to configure your webserver for hosting VRML files
right now, you should continue setup for accessing the on-line help directly from VRweb.
To configure your webserver to host VRML files - also gzipped ones -,
please look into the VRweb FAQ
and the documentation of your server for the necessary steps. It will
look like the following:
Further information on mailcap/mime types can be found in the NCSA XMosaic
documentation.
To be able to access this help on-line from VRweb, it must be found in
directory
Alternatively you can use command line
argument
If you unpacked the help files yourself, you should move the help
directory to become a subdir of
As described in the Browser Configuration section above, you have to
decide whether to use Netscape or Mosaic. In both cases, the
webbrowser must be running to accept requests. The calling mechanism
is the same as for anchors.
You are now ready to view this help from VRweb: Just select
"Overview" in the Help menu or press F1.
Back to overview.
Downloading
help.tar.gz
vrweb-1.1-... For use
with Harmony you need harscened-...
vrweb-1.1-ogl-[Systemname],
otherwise vrweb-1.1-mesa-[Systemname].
gunzip vrweb-XXX-YYY.gz
vrweb-ogl or
vrweb-mesa respectively to have a more convenient name
and to make your configurations independent of the release number.
gzip -cd VRMLsamples.tar.gz | tar xvf -
vrweb-mesa cubes.wrl or any other VRML scene. VRweb
can read gzipped files as well without having to first uncompress them.
Browser Configuration
.mailcap in your
home directory:
x-world/x-vrml; vrweb-mesa -URL '%u' -remote %s
x-world/x-vrml; vrweb-mesa -mosaic -remote %s
~/.mailcap create a new
one. Of course, use vrweb-ogl on SGI systems. If you use
VRweb with Harmony (harscened), you do not need to make these setups.
-URL '%u' is necessary to follow relative URLs
in scenes, %s stands for a temporary file name containing
the data. Argument -mosaic will invoke NCSA Mosaic for
WWWAnchor support and on-line help, otherwise VRweb communicates with
Netscape.
-remote argument causes a single instance of VRweb
getting successively opened scenes (although you have the chance to "hold" a window later on). If you
prefer a new window for each scene omit -remote in the commandline. Do
not put other options between -remote and
%s.
Options/Reload Config Files, in Netscape 1.x:
Options|Preferences|Helper Apps, in Netscape 2.x:
Options|General|Helpers.
.wrl
files opened on your local file system to VRweb. This needs an entry
in ~/.mime.types in the same way the server needs to be
configured (see below).
Server Configuration
.../conf/mime.types:
x-world/x-vrml wrl
.../config/httpd.conf:
AddType .wrl x-world/x-vrml 8bit
.../ns-home/https-80/config/mime.types
enc=x-gzip exts=gz
type=x-world/x-vrml exts=wrl
on-line Help
~/.vrweb/help. If you (or your sys-admin)
installed it in another directory
(e.g. /usr/local/vrweb/help) you should create a
directory .vrweb in your homedir, cd into it, and create
a link with ln -s /usr/local/vrweb/help help, to share
the help.
-helpDir or set an Xattribute like
Harmony.Scene.helpDir: /usr/local/vrweb/help.
~/.vrweb. The
subdirectory .vrweb will be used for other purposes, such as saving
user configurations, in future releases.