Sony's Extension to VRML2.0

New nodes

Community Place browser supports the functions, which VRML2.0 does not support, as extension nodes. These nodes have "Sony_" prefix. and are defined as a PROTO. Therefore, if your VRML file contains the nodes, other VRML2.0 browsers can load the file. The following nodes are supported:

• Sony_Appearance
• Sony_WorldInfo
• Sony_Viewpoint
• Sony_BindSharedNode

Again, these nodes are defined as PROTO, you should use them with their PROTO definition when you use them. For example, when you set FALSE to the Sony_WorldInfo node's floatButtonAvailable field, you should do as follows;

        e.g.

        #VRML V2.0 utf8
        # PROTO definition
        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
        ]{}
        # Entity of the PROTO with value
        Sony_WorldInfo { floatButtonAvailable FALSE}
        # Other VRML nodes ...

Or, the following is also availabel;

        #VRML V2.0 utf8
        # PROTO definition
        PROTO Sony_WorldInfo [
          exposedField SFBool   floatButtonAvailable TRUE
        ]{}
        # Entity of the PROTO with value
        Sony_WorldInfo { floatButtonAvailable FALSE}
        # Other VRML nodes ...

Sony_Appearance

Extends the original Appearance node by putting two new fields:

• backface: specify if polygons representing a Shape have back faces.
• description: specify a description attached to a Shape. Community Place Browser allows you to see a description by putting the mouse cursor on a shape.

The definition is as follows:

    PROTO Sony_Appearance [
        field        SFBool   backface         FALSE
        exposedField SFString description      ""
        exposedField SFNode   material         NULL
        exposedField SFNode   texture          NULL
        exposedField SFNode   textureTransform NULL
    ] {
        Appearance {
            material IS material
            texture IS texture
            textureTransform IS textureTransform
        }
    }

Sony_WorldInfo

Sony_WorldInfo is a description of world configurations which is only valid for Sony Community Place Browser. The prototype declaration is following,

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
]{}

These fields are explained in the following sections.

archive

Specifies an archive which contains all files used in this VRML file. After retrieving the archive by CommunityPlace browser, the browser extracts these files and places them in appropriate local directories before parsing the VRML file. So the browser can access them using relative paths from the place where this VRML file is placed. This method reduces the necessary connections during loading the entire content. For the compatibility with other browsers, these files should be placed in approriate remote directories as well.

The archive itself is created using LHA archiver and must be placed in the same directory as this VRML file is placed. The LHA command which is used to create the archive needs to keep case. For example, LHA command for UNIX can do that.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  archive ["foo.lzh"]
}

In addition, you must register the following MIME type to WWW server.

application/x-lha

armLength

Specifies how far your virtual arm can reach in a world. This parameter is used to decide if an object can be touched. This parameter is specified by "meter".If this is set to -1, the arm length is set to long enough.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  armLength 5
}

avatarRoom

This field is used for CommunityPlace's multi-user function.

Specifies if an avatar room (for changing avatar color) description file is provided for this world. You can specifiy TRUE or FALSEas the value. If the value is TRUE, a file named avtroom.wrl must be supplied in the same place as this VRML file. The avtroom.wrl is expected to provide the functionality of changing avatar part colors.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  avatarRoom TRUE
}

backgroundImageType

Specifies the type of background image format. you can specify one of following numbers.

0

this background image follows VRML2.0 spec.

1

front-URL texture is tiled horizontally and vertically, and the texture never moves while navigation.

2

front-URL texture is tiled horizontally, and the texture moves while navigation (If you turn left, the texture moves right).

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  backgroundImageType 0
}

cpBureau

This field is used for CommunityPlace's multi-user function. Specifies address and port number of Bureau of the world.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
   cpBureau "vsserver.foo.com:5000"
}

or

Sony_WorldInfo {
   cpBureau "12.23.34.45:5000"
}

cpBureauWLS

This field is used for CommunityPlace's multi-user function.

Specifies address and port number of World Location Server of the world. Also you must specify 'title' in WorldInfo when you use the WorldLocationServer.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo { 
  cpBureauWLS "vsserver.foo.com:6000"
} 

or

Sony_WorldInfo {
  cpBureauWLS "12.23.34.45:6000"
}

collisionSound

If you set this TRUE, Browser will play collision sound when you collide something.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  collisionSound FALSE
}

collisionDisplay

If you set this TRUE, Browser will display red frame when you collide something.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  collisionDisplay FALSE
}

turnButtonAvailable, floatButtonAvailable, homeButtonAvailable

Specifies availability of Turn, Float, Home button of Community Place Browser. If you set this TRUE, the button is available.

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  turnButtonAvailable  FALSE
  floatButtonAvailable FALSE
  homeButtonAvailable  FALSE
}

soundDeviceRate, soundDeviceBits

Specifies sound device parameters which Community Place open.

• soundDeviceRate: specifies the sampling rate of the device
• soundDeviceBit: specifies the number of bit of the device

e.g.

Sony_WorldInfo {
  soundDeviceRate  22050
  soundDeviceBits  8
}

Sony_Viewpoint

This node extends the original Viewpoint node by putting two new fields:

• snapshot: eventIn whether to generate an image which is taken from Sony_Viewpoint or not.
• snappedImage: a generated image from Sony_Viewpoint, when a TRUE value is sent to the snapshot eventIn.
  The current implementation only supports to route the snappedImage eventOut to an image field of a PixelTexture.

The definition is as follows:

    PROTO Sony_Viewpoint [
        eventIn      SFBool     snapshot
        eventOut     SFImage    snappedImage

        eventIn      SFBool     set_bind
        exposedField SFFloat    fieldOfView 0.785398
        exposedField SFBool     jump        TRUE
        exposedField SFRotation orientation 0 0 1 0
        exposedField SFVec3f    position    0 0 10
        field        SFString   description ""
        eventOut     SFTime     bindTime
        eventOut     SFBool     isBound
    ] {
        Viewpoint {
            fieldOfView IS fieldOfView
            jump IS jump
            orientation IS orientation
            position IS position
            description IS description
        }
    }

Here is an example:

Shape {
    appearance Appearance {
        texture DEF PICTURE PixelTexture {}
        ...
    }
    geometry ...
}

Transform {
    children [
        ...
        DEF CLICK TouchSensor{}
        DEF CAMERA Sony_Viewpoint {}
    ]
}

ROUTE CLICK.isActive TO CAMERA.snapshot
ROUTE CAMERA.snappedImage TO PICTURE.set_image

Notice: This node is available in CommunityPlace browser's RenderWare version.

Sony_BindSharedNode

This node is used for CommunityPlace's multi-user function. This node is used

• to make a 3D object to be shared among clients, and
• to associate the 3D object with a Script node whose eventIns are called remotely.

Prototype definition of this node is:

    PROTO Sony_BindSharedNode [
        field SFNode transformNode NULL
        field SFNode scriptNode NULL
        field MFString action 
           "SonyActionPanel: Hello,sonybrowser:Hello,,,; Smile,sonybrowser:Smile,,,;
              Wao!,sonybrowser:Wao,,Wao,; Umm...,sonybrowser:Umm,,Umm,;
              Wooo!!,sonybrowser:Wooo,,Wooo,; Bye,sonybrowser:Bye,,,;"
    ] {}

This node is defined to be expanded to nothing so that VRML 2.0 browsers other than Community Place can safely ignore the node.

In the Community Place browser, this node is treated in a special way. A transform node specified for transformNode field of this node is made sharable among clients. In other words, nodes other than those specified in this field are not shared. The field transformNode must be specified and its value must be a Transform node.

If the value of the scriptNode field is not NULL, the value must be a Script node. The Script node's eventIns can be called remotely. You can call sendApplSpecific() or sendApplSpecificWithDist() Java APIs with specifying the target (the first argument) to be the Transform node specified in the transformNode field and eventIn name (the second argument) to be the eventIn names that appear in the Script node.

The third argument of the APIs is a string value, which will be the value of eventIns of the Script node. The eventIns must be of type SFString to accept the values sent using the APIs.

The action fileld is used to customize the action buttons in multi-user window(see action-panel-j.html).

Here is an example:

PROTO Sony_BindSharedNode [ 
  field SFNode transformNode NULL 
  field SFNode scriptNode NULL
  field MFString action 
      "SonyActionPanel: Hello,sonybrowser:Hello,,,; Smile,sonybrowser:Smile,,,;
          Wao!,sonybrowser:Wao,,Wao,; Umm...,sonybrowser:Umm,,Umm,;
          Wooo!!,sonybrowser:Wooo,,Wooo,; Bye,sonybrowser:Bye,,,;"
] {}

DEF T1 Transform { ... }
DEF S1 Script {
  eventIn SFString IN1
  eventIn SFString IN2
  ...
}

Sony_BindSharedNode { transformNode USE T1 scriptNode USE S1 }