Controlling Navigation

Motivation

• Different types of worlds require different styles of navigation
  • Walk through a dungeon
  • Fly through a cloud world
  • Examine shapes in a CAD application
• You can select the navigation type
• You can describe the size and speed of the viewer’s avatar

Selecting navigation types

There are five standard navigation keywords:

• WALK - walk, pulled down by gravity
• FLY - fly, unaffected by gravity
• EXAMINE - examine an object at “arms length”
• NONE - no navigation, movement controlled by world not viewer!
• ANY - allows user to change navigation type

Some browsers support additional navigation types.

Specifying avatars

• Avatar size (width, height, step height) and speed can be specified

Controlling the headlight

• By default, a headlight is placed on the avatar’s head and aimed in the head direction
• You can turn this headlight on and off
  • Most browsers provide a menu option to control the headlight
  • You can also control the headlight with the NavigationInfo node

Syntax: NavigationInfo

A NavigationInfo node selects the navigation type and avatar characteristics:

• type - navigation style
• avatarSize and speed - avatar characteristics
• headlight - headlight on or off

XML Encoding

<NavigationInfo
  type='"WALK", "ANY"'
  avatarSize='0.25, 1.6, 0.75'
  speed='1.0'
  headlight='true'/>

Classic VRML Encoding

NavigationInfo {
  type       [ "WALK", "ANY" ]
  avatarSize [ 0.25, 1.6, 0.75 ]
  speed      1.0
  headlight  TRUE
}

Summary

The navigation type specifies how a viewer can move in a world:

• walk, fly, examine, or none

The avatar overall size and speed specify the viewer’s avatar characteristics.