All Packages
Package Summary
Package
Description
This chapter presents introductory concepts describing VRML/X3D files, building shapes, three dimensions and event animation.
This chapter describes how to build primitive geometric shapes.
Text geometry is placed in a Shape to describe your scene.
This chapter describes how to position shapes within an X-Y-Z world coordinate system by adding a parent Transform node.
Rotations can transform the orientation of a shape in any direction.
Scale transformations grow or shrink a local coordinate system by a scaling factor in the X, Y, and Z directions.
TimeSensor nodes produce clock events that can drive event-producing interpolators for animating position, orientation and scale.
Authors can design interactivity into a scene that responds to user actions.
Appearance and Material nodes control a shape's shading color (diffuseColor),
glow color (emissiveColor), transparency, shininess, and ambient intensity.
Grouping nodes are used to group shapes to compose complex shapes.
Inline nodes can load other VRML/X3D scenes into the current scene, helping authors reuse models to build larger worlds.
Points, lines and mesh faces allow authors to build a complete variety of geometry.
ElevationGrid nodes provide a simple way to construct terrain-like geometry.
Extrusion geometry is defined by a 2D cross-section that is stretched and rotated around a central spine.
The Color node lists Red-Green-Blue (RGB) colors to use for rendering points in a geometric shape.
Textures are 2D images that can be wrapped on top of 3D geometry.
Texture coordinates transform and map pixels in a 2D image onto specific 3D points.
Normal (perpendicular) vectors defined for individual points or polygons can change the shading of geometry.
Lights provide virtual illumination that allows objects to be seen.
Material nodes are the primary way to define color, transparency and shininess for geometric objects.
A Background node presents a virtual sky above and land (or sea, or space) below.
Fog simulates atmospheric effects by blending distant objects with fog color.
The Sound node controls the stereo 3D spatialization of sound playback by a child AudioClip or MovieTexture node.
Level of detail (LOD) allows an overall world become very large by letting an author provide
high-fidelity models when a viewer is nearby, and simpler geometry when the viewer is far away.
Viewpoints are the primary way for an author to show users what is in a scene,
helping them navigate among objects of interest.
Sensing viewer activity enables the scene to trigger animations.
Similar to HTML web pages, the Anchor node lets an author make shapes selectable for navigating to another viewpoint,
loading a new VRML/X3D world, or launching new content in a Web browser.
The WorldInfo defines the title of the scene and can hold additional metadata.
Scripts allow authors to define their own event-handling code to improve animation sophistication.
Prototypes are an extension mechanism that lets authors define their own customizable nodes,
improving reusability and sharing of cool content.
This entire book was presented as a tutorial during the ACM Special Interest Group on Graphics (SIGGRAPH) conference in 1998.