HOTFP BLUPUS - Rolling the Ball

[cbullard@HiWAAY.net (Len Bullard)]

Between Zero and One is an Infinite Space.
In that Space is every Dream, every Hope, every Fear.
Between Nothing and the Universe are All the Worlds.
Each World is a Vision; Each Vision, a Paradise.
God kissed the Darkness, softly,
And made the Stars of Endless Desire.
The Immortal Other heard a Whisper in the Darkness,
And knew the Secret of God:
Here in this Eternal Shining Light,
Love would not be Alone.

***********************************************************

BLUPUS 1 - Rolling The Ball

Our first VRML lesson is an easy lick,
but that is important.  It means that is
very simple to do and understand.
This makes it delightful.

VRML is easy.  You just make objects,
put them in a world, give them a color,
let there be light, and open an eye to see.

I assume you have downloaded a VRML
viewer.  In these examples, I am using
WorldView from Intervista.  You can
find these packages by going to

http://www.newcollege.edu/vrmLab/

where a *RealGoodEgg* named Jeff Sonstein
keeps a repository of VRML objects, scenes,
and downloadable applications.  Get one and
leave Jeff a thank you note.  That is grace.

On your system, make a directory called
hotfp.  Then make two subdirectories
named hotfp/textures and hotfp/wrls.

Now, like most of us, you probably have a
picture or two of Kate saved as a file.  It
is best if this is a gif or jpeg.  David
Benson has very nice jpegs on his homepage.
I suggest the inner9th as it has a special
perspective created by John Carder Bush
that is particularly delightful for this BLUPUS.
If you have a conversion program, or something
like Adobe Photoshop, load the file and convert it
into a .gif file using the SAVE AS option and put
into the hotfp/textures directory.  If you have one
you already like, put it in the directory.

Open an ASCII editor.  Notepad or
Write, if you are on a Windows platform
will do nicely.  Enter these lines exactly:

#VRML V1.0 ascii

Separator {

Material {
	diffuseColor 0 0 1
	specularColor 0.9 0.9 0.9
                  shininess 0.9
	}

Texture2 {
	filename "c:/hotfp/textures/inner9th.gif"
             }

	Sphere { }
}

After you make the file, check your
SAVE AS option and make
sure you are saving it as an ASCII file
(e.g., with a .txt extension).

Now open it in WorldView.  Use the
EXAMINE mode and you can roll the
ball with Kate.  Congrats.  You are
a builder of worlds.  Try it
with  Cube { } and look at the Six
Faces of Kate.  Cool!  Try other photos.
Your fellow LoveHounds have a lot of
them out there.  (THANKS! DAVID BENSON!!)

In the filename field, you could, for
example, use the http address
and your browser will do the rest,
but that takes load time and a lot of hits
on David's system.  So for now, download
and use your local disk as you are
experimenting.  Later when we must
build worlds that look at each other,
we can use the network.

Next, for your who have sound cards,
I'll show you how to make Kate sing
to you at your request as your play in
your world.

We'll discuss the example more later.
To learn more quickly, I suggest you
buy a copy of "VRML:  Browsing
and Building Cyberspace" by Mark
Pesce from NewRiders.  He is also, a
*RealGoodEgg" and a fan of Kate's.

Until the Future,

len