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Please refer to the README file for downloadable packages - VRwave source code, binary distributions for varios platforms, `pw' parser alone - their file names and for installation instructions that come with them.
Important: this installation guide is about the integration of VRwave
with your web browser. It assumes you have already got VRwave working
when started on the command line (as described in file INSTALLATION).
Especially, you always have to set environment variable
VRWAVE_HOME
to the location of the VRwave installation.
The "base" version of VRwave (i.e. starting it via the
vrwave
wrapper script) can be run standalone to view
local files or be started from your webbrowser as a helper application
to view VRML 2.0 (or VRML 97) files from the web.
You need a JDK (Java
Development Kit) for your platform. All necessary environment
variables should be set up by the vrwave
wrapper script.
Make sure you use the a native code library (libgejc.so) that was
build with the same JDK version as you use.
To make your web browser invoke VRwave on VRML files, you have to
create (or edit existent) mime types x-world/x-vrml
and
model/vrml
and enter the command line
vrwave -URL '%u' %s
.
x-world/x-vrml
and once for Type model/vrml
.
The suffix of VRML files is wrl
. Check
Application
and enter
vrwave -URL '%u' %s
.
~/.mailcap
x-world/x-vrml; vrwave -URL '%u' %s model/vrml; vrwave -URL '%u' %sRestart your web browser to make the changes effective.
model/vrml
is the official mime type for VRML, but most
HTTP servers still send x-world/x-vrml
for backwards
compatibility. It is best to set up both on the browser
side.
The -URL
switch (supported since VRwave 0.8) is necessary
to resolve relative URLs of textures and inline scenes. Note that JDK
1.0.2 was not able to handle HTTP/1.1 server responses. If you use VRweb to view VRML 1.0
files, set up the lines as described in the VRweb user guide; VRML 2.0
files will be then passed to VRwave (this only works with VRweb 1.5).
As of version 0.9 we also provide a netscape plug-in wrapper for
VRwave, which allows you to use standard Java EAI examples. This feature
is still in beta and currently available for SGI (Irix), Dec
Alpha (OSF1) and Sun Solaris machines. The HPUX and Linux 0.9 versions
do not yet work.
Important: for netscape compatibility, you need a version of
libgejc.so that has been compiled with JDK 1.0.2. All tests
have been made with netscape 3.x. Netscape 4.x does not
support JDK 1.0.2 style native code interface used by VRwave, but we
intend to port the native code of VRwave to JRI (perhaps also to JNI
and/or RNI) for future versions.
The plug-in will control the Java classes of VRwave (via LiveConnect)
and open an external window containing the Scene.
Browser Configuration (netscape plug-in)
Try out to view the embedded Java-EAI examples, and look for the
trouble shooting section if it does not work.
plugin/$SYS/npvrwave.so
into either directory
/usr/local/netscape/plugins
,
~/.netscape/plugins
, a directory set via environment
variable NPX_PLUGIN_PATH
, or any other place listed in
file README of the netscape distribution.
$VRWAVE_HOME/classes:$VRWAVE_HOME/classes/vrwave.zip
in
environment variable CLASSPATH
and include
$VRWAVE_HOME/lib/$CPU
in environment variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
.
x-world/x-vrml
and
model/vrml
and listed on the "About Plug-ins" page.
To configure your webserver to host VRML files - also gzipped ones -,
please look into the the various VRML FAQs and
the documentation of your server for the necessary steps. It will look
like the following:
Note: The new, official mime type for VRML is
You are now able to put VRML scenes on your web server, which can be
viewed by all clients with a VRML browser. Try to keep file sizes low
and compress worlds of more than toy-size with gzip.
Further information on mailcap/mime types can be found in the NCSA XMosaic
documentation.
Remember: mimetypes are document type definitions
(e.g. according to filename extensions), whereas
mailcap entries are helper app definitions (according
to mimetypes).
The server is responsible to set the appropriate mimetype (e.g.
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=wrlmodel/vrml
but most users still have their browsers
configured for x-world/x-vrml
, so you should use it still
for a while.
x-world/x-vrml
for VRML scenes), and users may choose the
browser (helper app or plug-in) of their choice in their mailcap file.