VRwave VRML 2.0 Nodes Support


[the newest version of this document is available at
http://www.iicm.edu/vrwave/release/nodes.html]


VRwave version 0.9 of Sep 30, 1997, now supports a large portion of
dynamic VRML 2.0 scenes and scripting via the Java-EAI interface. Thus
it's really worth to upgrade from version 0.8, which supported static
VRML 2.0 scenes only. The following list gives information to which
extend the individual VRML 2.0 nodes are supported.

    The parser ("pw") is able to parse legal VRML 2.0 files, semantical
    checks (e.g. geometry nodes should be placed into a Shape node) are
    done on loading the scene in VRwave. The parser tries to catch up on
    encountered syntax errors, but might run into endless loops in this
    case occasionally.

    ROUTE statements are generally handled, however some preprocessing
    steps for faster rendering cause some eventIns to cause no change in
    the scene (e.g. an Extrusion node is converted into an internal
    polygonal representation once only and the set_crossSection and other
    events have no effect). Setting colors and transformations are, of
    course, supported.

    PROTO and EXTERNPROTO declarations, and Script nodes are parsed but
    not handled any further. The current release allows scripting via the
    Java-EAI interface (except createVrmlFromURL, which is not yet
    implemented). We also intend to support the use of Java in Script
    nodes in a future release.

Node categories: Grouping, Lighting, Common, Sensors, Geometry,
Appearance, Interpolators, Bindables.



Grouping

Anchor
    supported [new]
Billboard
    supported [new]
Collision
    treated like Group (no collision detection)
Group
    supported; bounding box ignored
Inline
    supported
LOD
    supported for explicit ranges (shows first child otherwise)
Switch
    supported
Transform
    supported

Lighting

DirectionalLight
    supported: color, intensity; not yet scoped
    (active from position in scene graph until end of scene)
PointLight
    supported: color, intensity; not yet scoped
SpotLight
    not yet supported

Common

AudioClip, Sound
    not supported
Script
    not yet supported, Java support planned
Shape
    supported
WorldInfo
    ignored

Sensors

CylinderSensor, PlaneSensor
    supported [new]
ProximitySensor
    not yet supported
SphereSensor
    supported [new]
TouchSensor
    supported [new]
VisibilitySensor
    not yet supported
TimeSensor
    supported [new]

Geometry

Box, Cone, Cylinder
    supported
ElevationGrid
    not yet supported
Extrusion
    supported [new]
IndexedFaceSet
    supported (new: automatic normal generation, triangulation)
IndexedLineSet
    supported [new]
PointSet
    supported [new]
Sphere
    supported
Text
    not yet supported

Appearance

Appearance
    supported
FontStyle
    currently ignored
ImageTexture
    supported (formats as supported by JDK: GIF, JPG)
Material
    supported
MovieTexture
    not supported
PixelTexture, TextureTransform
    supported

Interpolators

ColorInterpolator, CoordinateInterpolator
NormalInterpolator, OrientationInterpolator
PositionInterpolator, ScalarInterpolator
    supported [new]

Bindables

Background, Fog
    not yet supported
NavigationInfo
    ignored
Viewpoint
    first one taken as initial view, no binding yet


Last modified: Michael Pichler, Sep 30, 1997
