instantreality 1.0

Scene

The Scene defines the default SAI execution context and the root node of your spatial world. As shown in the following example it is only valid as X3D element. There is only one Scene per execution context or file allowed. However you can Inline extra X3D-files which must include a Scene element.

<X3D>
    <Scene>
        <Shape>
            <Box size='1 2 9'/>
        </Shape>
    </Scene>
</X3D>

Engine

The scene describes the content of and interaction with the world - they do not describe on which kind of output device or how the content should be displayed. This is where the engine file comes in. Imagine you want to display your world in red/green stereo, or you want it to be displayed on a three-sided power-wall, etc. This can all be done via an engine setting without even touching your world. This separation between the world and the engine file allows you to visualize your world on a variety of output devices without changing the world itself.

The next example shows a very simple engine setting as an example of a basic engine file, which only contains a RenderJob. The RenderJob includes a WindowGroup, an abstraction used to combine render threads, which itself includes two windows. Therefore the engine will start two windows on the desktop showing the same scene and camera.

The Engine sub-tree is a own X3D-namespace and can include any nodes which are not SceneBaseNodes. For example scripts and event-filter are very usefull as part of your engine. The Engine also does not have to be complete. Missing jobs will automatically be inserted by using the Engine.requiredJobList values. More complex engine settings can be found in the cluster section.

<X3D>
<Engine>
    <RenderJob DEF='render'/>
        <WindowGroup>
           <Window DEF='win1'/>    
           <Window DEF='win2'/>    
        </WindowGroup>
    </RenderJob>
</Engine>
<Scene>
  <Inline url='theWorld.X3D'/>
<Scene>
</X3D>

ContextSetup

The ContextSetup stores all setup and preferences per execution context which are related to specific nodes or components but independent of a specfic instance of a node. You can set different limits, e.g. texture size and system pathes (like the Java classpath and various other properties which are usual stored in the player plist or registry entry).

If and only if you really have to overwrite it in the application file you can create an extra ContextSetup child as part of the X3D element.

<X3D>
<ContextSetup maxTexSize='2048'>
<Engine>
  ...
</Engine>
<Scene>
  ...
<Scene>
</X3D>

The attributes and the values are not fixed and dynamically build up from the loaded component. Use the WebInterface access point in order to see the configuration of your running system. The following section includes a list of attributes for the beta3 player including all components.

  cdfPath /Users/jbehr/src/Avalon/tmp/cdfFolder ()
    defines the for the cdf data
  multiContext FALSE ()
    Run more than one context
  appThreadCount 16 ()
    The number of application threads
  forbidFieldFree FALSE ()
    forbid Field free optimize
  forbidNodeFree FALSE ()
    forbid Node free optimize
  rayIntersectMode auto (auto,lowMem,fast,fastest)
    defines the ray intersection mode
  forceSingleDataTypeRoute FALSE ()
    force routes to connect only slots with same type
  explicitGZIPTest FALSE ()
    use the explicit gzip test
  forbidReindex FALSE ()
    forbid geos to reindex to share properties
  forbidStripFan FALSE ()
    forbid geos to strip/fan the mesh data
  forbidVertexResort FALSE ()
    forbid vertex resort to improve cache usage
  forbidSingleIndex FALSE ()
    forbid singe-index opt. for static/unshared obj.
  forbidIndexResize FALSE ()
    forbid optimized-index opt. for static/unshared obj.
  forbidDList FALSE ()
    forbid DisplayLists for static obj
  forbidVBO FALSE ()
    forbid VertexBufferObjects for static obj
  forbidNormalUpdate FALSE ()
    forbid normal updates for dynamic obj.
  geoPropertyUpdateMode memcpy (none,memcpy,stl-assign,stl-swap)
    mode used to update backend geoProps
  maxTexSize 4096 ()
    max texture u,v,w size, 0 means hardware limit
  forceTexCompress FALSE ()
    force textures to use compressed internal types
  frontCollision TRUE ()
    do front-collision check while navigating
  zRatio 20000 ()
    ratio to specify the z-near limit
  defaultJobList TimerJob,InteractionJob,ExternalInterfaceJob,WebServiceJob,CollisionJob,SoundJob,CombinerJob,SynchronizeJob,RenderJob ()
    Defines the default jobs
  showStatusMessage true ()
    show the status message in render view
  infoScreenAnimationTime 0.5 ()
    info screen animation time in seconds
  logoMode auto (auto,on,off)
    logo mode
  forceSingleThread FALSE ()
    force single thread app/render cycle
  keyAssignMode ctrlMod (autoSwitch,app,sys,ctrlMod,altMod,shiftMod)
    defines how key-events are assigned to sys/app
  binSearchKeyIndex FALSE ()
    use binSearch to find the key value
  tessellationFactor 1 ()
    tessellationFactor (from 0 to 1)
  ecmaScriptShareRunTime FALSE ()
    ecmascript share-runTime
  ecmaScriptGlobalMem 8388608 ()
    ecmascript global system mem size
  ecmaScriptLocalMem 8192 ()
    ecmascript local script mem size
  ecmaGCPerFrame none (none,auto,force)
    set GarbageCollection mode per frame
  javaVMPath  ()
    The path to the Java virtual machine
  javaClassPath /Users/jbehr/src/Avalon/java/instantreality.jar ()
    The Java class path
  javaOptions  ()
    Options that are transfered to the Java virtual machine
  cgVertexProfile auto (auto,arbvp1,vp20,vp30,optimal)
    Cg vertex shader profile
  cgFragmentProfile auto (auto,arbfp1,fp20,fp30,optimal)
    Cg fragment shader profile
  rigidBodyTrigger Collision ()
    name of the rigid body physics trigger

The Scene node in classic encoding

The classic encoding normally does not include an explicit Scene node. All root nodes of a single file are added to the scene as children. Here we extent the spec by allowing to explicitly set context root nodes like ContextSetup, Engine or Scene nodes.

#X3D 3.0 utf8

Engine {
}
Scene {
  children [
	Transform {
		...
	}
  ]
}
        

This tutorial just tries to explain the Context root nodes, like Scene, Engine and ContextSetup-nodes, and how to build up an application using only one or none of them. More useful examples can be found in the cluster and rendering tutorials.

An execution context will always have an Engine and ContextSetup node. In most cases there is only an explicit (=X3D encoding) or implicit Scene (=classic encoding) and the runtime system will automatically create the object.