New Features in GopherVR v0.1 for X
-----------------------------------
* You can now add ambient sounds to directories (currently
this only works on Sun platforms..) To experience it cruise into
the U of MN gopher server at gopher.tc.umn.edu
* Added a linear browser for Gopher Directories. The browsing window
has a history list like Minuet, and an abstract display area.
* Added Stilts mode, you can increase your height to look over
objects. Look for this on the navigation menu.
* Fixed an AIX memory allocation problem.
* The Sun executable should run under solaris. As soon as our Solaris
2.4 SDK kit arrives we'll have a native version.
* You no longer need the hangglider.nff file in the current
directory. It's been replaced with an in core parser. There's a
new familiar logo on startup too :-)
* X display code uses the multibuffering extension if present. This
may not work correctly on some X servers. If this happens set the
environment variable NOMULTIBUF to 1, and let us know what platform
you were using.
What is GopherVR?
-----------------
At GopherCON '94 we talked about using 3D scenes as a user interface
metaphor for navigating the Internet, visualizing relationships and
clustering of documents.
Although not yet complete, in this release you can browse Gopher
directories by driving around Gopherspace, navigate between Gopher
servers by driving through a series of 3D scenes, open items by
clicking on them, get overviews of the neighborhood you are in, and
view meta-information about items.
Because this is an alpha-test release, we are still working on
the software and will be doing frequent bugfix releases. Use it
at your own risk, and please send us bug reports and comments.
We are doing an early release of this software because we have
found this to be the best way of quickly shaking out bugs and
feature sets.
Why a 3D user interface to Gopher?
----------------------------------
Gopher has an explicit organization and structure which is
external to the content of the documents, so it is straightforward
to map a 3D virtual world interface onto the existing gopher
servers. Since the Gopher+ protocol also has provisions for open
ended extensions and meta-information that resides external to the
content of documents, it is also easy for servers to give 3D-savvy
clients the 3D spatial coordinates and orientation of objects in a
gopher directory. This means that we can both synthesize 3D scenes
from existing non-3D-savvy Gopher servers, and take advanatge of
new 3D-savvy servers without reworking the contents of the
documents published in Gopher.
Virtual world interfaces give us a powerful data visualization
tool. GopherVR makes it possible to display clustering of documents
which is not feasible on either a menu or a flat page. Combining
GopherVR with servers that catagorize and cluster collections of
documents will make it possible to visualize complex retationships
within collections. To be effective, moving about the 3D scene must
be fast and fluid, and GopherVR has been optimized for quick
navigation within the scene without hardware Z-buffer.
Gettting the software
---------------------
GopherVR 0.1 is an alpha-test release of an X-window Gopher client.
GopherVR for Unix is curently available for SUN Sparc, SGI, and IBM
AIX RS-6000 platforms. At this time, only binaries are available since
we expect frequent changes to the source. We have tested the software
on
SUN SunOS 4.1.3 with MIT X11R5 distribution
SGI IRIX 5.3 with SGI's X-windows distribution
IBM AIX 3.2.5 with IBM's X-windows distribution
To get the software, gopher to boombox.micro.umn.edu and follow
the path /gopher/Unix/GopherVR. This brings you to the directory
holding the current version of the software.
You can also use these URLs to get to the same directory:
<URL:GOPHER://boombox.micro.umn.edu/11/gopher/Unix/GopherVR>
<URL:FTP://boombox.micro.umn.edu/pub/gopher/Unix/GopherVR/>
GopherVR binaries will be available for HP-UX and DEC OSF, Linux, and
Solaris 2.4 soon.
If you find a bug, please report it to us by sending an e-mail
decribing your computer, the version of the operating system and
how you caused the bug to occur. If you have ideas for features we'd
love to hear about it. Send your bug reports and comments to:
Internet Gopher Team / mongoose & iguana squad
Fuzzy Monkey Productions