TECH - by popular demand

Scott Virt Theme Parks ([email protected])
Tue, 9 May 1995 07:06:52 -0700 (PDT)


a couple of TECH questions, these relate to how browsers will
interpret VRML, in part. This affects how we write VRMLs (and how
Virtual World Factory helps you write them!).

Colors:

In the Material node, there are parameters for four different
kinds of colors:

1) ambientColor
2) diffuseColor
3) specularColor
4) emissiveColor

So, two questions about these colors:

a) what do these colors mean?

I think AMBIENTCOLOR would mean like color unaffected by lights.
DIFFUSECOLOR would mean color affected by lights (shading etc.).
SPECULARCOLOR, I have little clue about.
EMISSIVECOLOR, would that be like the object emitting light, some
lightbulbish properties? Would the emissiveness be related to the
SHININESS parameter that follows? (And would any of these colors be
related to the TRANSPARENCY parameteer?)

b) would it make sense for an object to have more than one kind of color
at once?

In Virtual World Factory, you can currently set more than one
kind of color for one object. Would it make more sense (logically and
user-friendliness-wise) to have users just choose one of the four colors?

c) are these the kind of questions that I am stupid to be asking, and I
should really be reading something like the Open Inventor spec? (since
there's nothing about them in the VRML spec.)

-- -- -- --
+ 1 more question

The VRML equivalent of home.html

would this be home.wrl? I guess when you type something and leave
off the home.html, it's the HTTP server that returns home.wrl. Anyhow,
something to think about when we go beyond HTTP (or have HTTP update).

------ ----- ---- --- -- - -- - ----- ------
Adrian Scott, Ph.D.
Scott Virtual Theme Parks, [email protected]
http://www.clark.net/pub/theme <--changed URL
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