There are two parts, running the server and connecting a client.
Running the server
The Win95 server is a simple Community Place Bureau server that runs
under Windows95. You simply download it and start it up. The server has a
simple menu bar allowing you to control it. When you first bring up the
Bureau program, it is in the stopped state. Pull down the View menu and
click on the Status option. A small status window will be displayed with
information about the server status, i.e. stopped or running, connected users,
and the port the server is listening on.
The server starts up at a well known TCP port (5126). To change this,
pull down the Options menu and select Port. You will be prompted
for a new value. Choose any port number greater than 5000. If you are
unsure which port to use, leave it at the default value.
Next, pull down the Run menu and select Start, the server will now start
listening for connections at the port specified. In the status window,
the status will change to Running.
The server is now waiting for Community Place browsers, or "clients" to
connect. Once a client connects to the server port, the server handles
everything, it tracks a user's location and avatar, telling other browsers
about this visitor, it passes chat
messages, and it handles everything needed to support shared
behaviours.
The status window will also be updated to show any connections. It's a
good idea to leave the status window open to see who is connected and
if the server is running OK.
Connecting to the server
To connect to a server you need to do two things, tell the browser to
connect by prototyping and adding a Sony_WorldInfo node to your VRML 2.0
file and by providing at least one avatar so that people can see each
other.
Adding the server information to the VRML file
This information is read in by the Community Place browser when it loads
your VRML file. At minimum, you must add the "cpBureau" (previously VsServer) line
to define the internet address location of the machine that
is running your Community Place Bureau server and the port on which that server is listening
for conenctions.
The format for the Sony_WolrdInfo PROTO is as follows:
PROTO Sony_WorldInfo [
field MFString archive []
field SFInt32 armLength -1
field SFBool avatarRoom FALSE
field SFInt32 backgroundImageType 0
field SFString cpBureau ""
field SFString cpBureauWLS ""
field SFBool collisionSound TRUE
field SFBool collisionDisplay TRUE
exposedField SFBool turnButtonAvailable TRUE
exposedField SFBool floatButtonAvailable TRUE
exposedField SFBool homeButtonAvailable TRUE
field SFInt32 soundDeviceRate 22050
field SFInt32 soundDeviceBits 8
]{}
You will next need to instantiate the PROTO node in similar manner to the example given following:
Sony_WorldInfo {
armLength 5
avatarRoom TRUE
cpBureau "fred.research.sony.com:5126"
}
The hostID should be the full internet name of the machine
either as an ascii name, eg fred.research.sony.com or as an IP
address, eg 123.231.12.1
The port is the number that you choose when starting the server
as discussed above.
NOTE: Other useful Sony PROTO nodes are described in the document named exten-e.htm
which was included with your Community Place browser download.
The avatar file
When Community Place connects to a server, it will tell the server the
name of the avatar it is using. The server uses this information to
tell other browsers which avatar to use to represent you when they
meet you in Cyberspace. You don't need to worry about the details at
this moment. All you need to do is ensure that an avatar VRML file is
available to the Community Place browser when it loads your world.
When Community Place reads your world file, it will search in the
directory where you placed the world file, and look for the directory
avtimg where it expects to find the image files for avatars.
Image files are used to
display a small avatar icon in the avatar choice menu in the browser.
So, you have to make avtimg sub directory under the directory in
which your main VRML world file resides.
The following self extracting archive file contains images for the
default avatars also offered for download below. This archive, when
uncompressed into the directory where your main VRML world file resides,
will automatically create a sub directory named avtimg and copy the avatar image files into that sub directory.