• What hardware and software do I need?
• What do the toolbar controls do?
• How do I maneuver within a virtual world?
• How do I find links to other web sites within the virtual scene?
• Why can't I get my joystick to work?
• I've calibrated my joystick, but I'm still moving continuously. Now what?
• Why do I go right through the walls?
• Why can't I move?
• I don't see the VRML Add-In toolbar. What's wrong?
• How can I improve the speed of a virtual world?
• How can I prevent Internet Explorer from displaying virtual worlds?
• Why do I receive an error when I try to enter a virtual world?
• How do I uninstall VRML Add-In?

To use VRML Add-In, you must have Windows 95 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0. You must have at least a 486/33 DX computer with 8 megabytes of memory and a fast video card. VRML Add-In supports 8-, 16-, and 24-bit video. The faster your hardware is, the smoother and more realistic your virtual-reality experience will be.

When you open a web page that contains a virtual world, VRML Add-In displays a toolbar with buttons and controls that you can use to explore that world.

The toolbar contains the following buttons and controls:

Menu button

Displays the VRML Add-In menu. You can also display this menu by right-clicking anywhere in the virtual scene or on the VRML Add-In toolbar.

Slide button

Slides your viewpoint horizontally or vertically.

Walk button

Moves you through the scene.

Tilt button

Tilts your viewpoint up, down, right, or left.

Spin button

Enables you to inspect an object (the entire virtual world) by spinning it around.

Reset button

Returns you to your starting location and orientation.

Straighten button

Straightens your viewpoint with respect to the scene.

You can maneuver within a virtual world by using a mouse, keyboard, or joystick.

To maneuver by using a mouse

1. Click one of the navigation buttons on the toolbar.
2. Point to the virtual scene.
3. Press and hold down the left mouse button, and then move the mouse pointer in the direction you want to go.

• You can move toward a specific object by double-clicking it.

• To move forward, backward, left, or right, press the arrow keys.
• To tilt, press and hold down the SHIFT key while pressing the arrow keys.
• To slide, press and hold down the CTRL key while pressing the arrow keys.

1. Use the mouse to click the virtual scene.
2. Move the joystick in the direction you want to go.
   • To tilt, press and hold down the SHIFT key while moving the joystick.
   • To slide, press and hold down the CTRL key while moving the joystick.
   • If your joystick has a POV hat, you can use the hat as a Slide control. To slide up or down, move the hat forward or backward. To slide sideways, move the hat to the left or right.

Some virtual worlds contain links to other web sites (usually other virtual worlds). When you are pointing to a link, the pointer shape changes to a hand. To go to the link, click it.

If your joystick doesn't work, or if you spin or move continuously when you load a world, your joystick probably needs to be calibrated for use with Windows.

To calibrate your joystick

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Joystick icon.
3. Make sure the Current Joystick and Joystick Configuration settings are correct for your joystick.
4. Click Calibrate to begin the calibration process, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

If you have already calibrated your joystick and are still moving or spinning continuously, try adjusting your joystick controls. Most analog joysticks have adjustment wheels or sliders you can use to compensate for joystick "drift." Turn or slide these controls until you stop moving.

By default, you can move right through walls and other objects, since VRML Add-In does not normally perform collision detection (detect the surfaces of objects).

To stop moving through walls and other objects

• Click the right mouse button, and then make sure that Walk Through Walls is not checked.

• Disabling the Walk Through Walls option can slow down virtual worlds.
• Some worlds do not support collision detection. In those worlds, you will not be able to move if Walk Through walls is disabled.

To work around this problem

• Click the right mouse button, and then make sure that Walk Through Walls is checked.

Note

• When Walk Through Walls is checked, you will be able to move right through walls and other objects.

To display the VRML Add-In toolbar

• Enlarge the Internet Explorer window until the toolbar appears.
• Right-click the virtual scene and make sure the Show Toolbar item is checked.

To get the quickest possible look at a virtual world

1. Click the right mouse button, and then point to Options.
2. Make sure that Load Textures and Load Inlines are not checked.

• Since texture bitmaps tend to be large, disabling the Load Textures option can significantly speed up the download of some worlds (at the expense of visual realism, of course.)
• You will always be limited by the speed of your connection to the Internet.
• To improve speed more dramatically, you need either a faster computer or hardware support for 3-D rendering. (Support for hardware acceleration will be available in the next release of VRML Add-In.)

You can set Internet Explorer to display virtual worlds only when you click a specific world.

To prevent Internet Explorer from automatically displaying virtual worlds

1. In Internet Explorer, click the View menu, and then click Options.
2. Click the Appearance tab.
3. Make sure that Show Animations is not checked.

• Disabling Show Animations prevents Internet Explorer from displaying video clips as well as virtual worlds.
• After you disable Show Animations, you can still display a specific world or a specific video clip by right-clicking the icon that represents it, and then clicking Show Picture.

• A typographical error
• An instruction that isn't part of the VRML 1.0 standard
• An instruction that VRML Add-In does not yet support

• The address of the site containing the virtual world in question
• The name of the VRML file you were trying to open
• The contents of your Vrml.log file, if possible

To uninstall VRML Add-In

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
3. Click VRML Add-In Beta1, and then click Add/Remove.