PROTOs for Dummies IV
Speak to Me
 More of this Feature
• Part 1: Intro to Prototypes
• Part 2: Creating Modular Prototypes
• Part 3: Adding Interaction
 
 Join The Discussion
"Have certain sites increased revenue because of 3D features?"
AHEDSTROM
 
 Related Resources
• VRML Repository
• VRML PROTO Repository
 

Dateline: 5/11/98
 
Now that we have some PROTOs for eye balls, clearly we have to start poking it! To review from the previous features, still available as Dummies IDummies II and Dummies III, there several PROTOs that we now have. PROTOs for single and multiple eyeballs. We can also move the cursor over these eyes to see the colors change.

It was my distinct hope to simply plug these eyes into a sound PROTO...but alas 'twas not to be (in the time I have). So as a semi cop out, here is an explanation of the use of Braden's AudibleButtonTemplate which can be found in his VRML97 PROTO collection. One would like to be able to simply plug-and-play PROTOs to create reusable pieces of content, and in fact this is possible, however the data types of the nodes must be clearly specified. In this case the AudibleButtonTemplate requires the use of various Geometry nodes and the EyeBall protos developed so far are Transform or Group nodes. I will leave the proper completion of these PROTOs to the talented hackers out there.

The use of the AudibleButtonTemplate is however quite instructive. The interface to the PROTO looks like:
EXTERNPROTO AudibleButtonTemplate [
        eventIn         SFBool          set_enabled
        field           SFNode          activeAppearance
        field           SFNode          activeGeometry
        field           SFNode          activeOverAppearance
        field           SFNode          activeOverGeometry
        field           MFString        activeSoundUrl
        field           SFNode          appearance
        field           SFString        description
        field           SFNode          disabledAppearance
        field           SFNode          disabledGeometry
        field           SFBool          enabled
        field           SFNode          geometry
        field           SFNode          overAppearance
        field           SFNode          overGeometry
        field           MFString        pressedSoundUrl
        eventOut        SFBool          enabled_changed
        eventOut        SFBool          isActive
        eventOut        SFBool          isOver
        eventOut        SFTime          pressedTime
] [ "widgets.wrl#AudibleButtonTemplate" ]

To see it in action check out the wrl linked to by this image.
 
The actual use of the PROTO requires that it be placed as one of the nodes as the children of a Group node. So it's use in this case is as follows:
Group {
    children [
        NavigationInfo {
            headlight       FALSE
            type            [ "NONE" ]
        },
        Background {
            skyColor        [ 0.75 0.7 0.6 ]
        },
        DirectionalLight {
            direction       1 -1 -1
        },
        Viewpoint {
            position        0 0 3
        },
AudibleButtonTemplate {
        description "DOH"
        enabled TRUE
        geometry DEF GEOMETRY Sphere { radius 0.5}
        activeGeometry DEF ACTIVE-GEOMETRY Sphere { radius 0.3 }
        overGeometry USE GEOMETRY
        activeOverGeometry USE ACTIVE-GEOMETRY
        disabledGeometry USE GEOMETRY
 
        appearance DEF NORMAL_APPEARANCE Appearance {
            material Material {
                diffuseColor 0.2 0.2 0.2 #color of the pupil
            }
        }
        overAppearance DEF RED_APPEARANCE Appearance {
            material Material {
                diffuseColor 0.8 0.2 0.2
            }
        }
        activeAppearance  USE RED_APPEARANCE
        activeOverAppearance  Appearance {
            material Material {
                diffuseColor 0.2 0.8 0.2 #color of the pupil
            }
        }
        disabledAppearance USE NORMAL_APPEARANCE
 
        activeSoundUrl [ "hey.wav" ]
        pressedSoundUrl [ "doh.wav" ]
        }
    ]
}

There are five distinct possible states each of which can be visually represented with it's own unique geometry and appearance node.
State 1: no user action, the default.
State 2 (over): the user has moved the cursor on top of the object.
State 3 (over active): the user has the cursor over the object AND is pressing a mouse button.
State 4 (active): the user has pressed down and is holding the mouse button. [this state can only be reached after the over-active state and the user has moved the cursor away from the object but is still holding the mouse button.
State 5: (disabled): the proto has been disabled with a FALSE state in the enabled field.

One of the difficult issues in creating a library of reusable PROTOs is to ensure that the inputs and outputs are compatible. There are no simple magic solutions just good programming style (of which my PROTOs are clearly NOT!). As usual in most programming tasks, find examples of good PROTOs and "borrow" them. Happy PROTO building.

Got any burning issues, post it on the board.

Previous Features