How to Navigate in 3D Worlds

Whenever you view a 3d world over the internet, you use something called a VRML browser. This tutorial will help you learn how to use the most popular version, called Live3D.

The tutorial is designed to get you started exploring VRML worlds with Live3D. It won't explain everything, but should be enough to get you comfortable.

The topics covered in this tutorial are:
The Control Buttons
Jumping From Place to Place
Walking Around
Spinning the World Around You
Stop The World, I Wanna Get Off!

The Control Buttons:
Whenever you are in a vrml world, a panel of buttons will appear at the bottom of Netscape that looks like this:

The green triangle (play button) stops and starts any animation or motion in the scene
"Walk", "spin", "look", and "slide" are the motion modes. You are always in a motion mode. You can switch between modes by clicking on one of the words.
"Point" will not be dealt with in this tutorial.
"Lamp" controls whether or not you use a headlight while viewing the scene. You can turn the headlamp on and off, and also control how intense it is.
"View" lets you switch between the preset views in the scene, if there are any.
When you are ready to see a VRML world, click here to try a sample world.

Jumping From Place to Place:
The creators of VRML worlds often create preset viewpoints. You can use these to jump from place to place in a 3D world, without having to navigate yourself. These are helpful when first exploring a VRML world, and also when you get lost (and you will).

The up and down arrows (triangles) send you to the next and previous viewpoints respectively. Click on them to rotate through the viewpoints.
Click on the word "view" to return to the last viewpoint (when you get lost).
When you are ready to try to switch viewpoints, click here to try a sample world

Walking Around:
Walking is the best way to explore flat or realistic style worlds, where there is a ground plane to walk on, or just when you want to move trough a space. You can move forward, backward, or turn to the left or right in walk mode.

When you are in walk mode, "walk" will be highlighted in green, as seen above.
To switch to walk mode from another motion mode, click on the word "walk".
To walk forward or back, hold down the mouse button while in walk mode and move the mouse forward or back.
To turn to the left or right, hold down the mouse button while in walk mode and move the mouse to the left or right.
When you are ready to try to walk in a VRML world, click here to try a sample world. Remember the viewpoints if you get lost!

Spinning the World Around You:
Spin mode is the best way to explore object style worlds, as when you want to see all the sides of an object. In spin mode, you stand still and you rotate the world around you.

When you are in spin mode, "spin" will be highlighted in green, as seen above.
To switch to spin mode from another motion mode, click on the word "spin".
To spin the world around you, hold down the mouse button while in spin mode, and move the mouse in any direction.
When you are ready to try to use spin mode in a VRML world, click here to try a sample world. Remember the viewpoints if you get lost!

Stop The World, I Wanna Get Off!:
In VRML worlds with motion, you may occasionally want to pause the scene to look at a particular view. Also, due to a problem with Live3D, in order to leave a scene, you must pause the motion in the world.

When you click on the green arrow, the scene's motion will pause and the green arrow will turn into a pause symbol, like this:

To restart the motion in the scene, click on the pause symbol.
When you want to leave a world with motion, be sure to pause the motion.
When you are ready to try to pause the motion in a VRML world, click here to try a sample world.

Well That's it, now go back to Sculpture & Computers.

This page created by and Copyright 1997 Mike Mittelman