I see. Hmm; we need to resolve this (in some fashion) fairly soon,
because it *does* become critical as soon as we start hooking pages
up to each other -- we need to make sure we're all on the same scale.
(Or, alternatively, that we have some way of scaling worlds.)
I can see the 1 unit == 1 millimeter argument, and I will admit that
I like avoiding floating-point math when possible. *However*, if that's
the case, the 16-bit format still has the precisions a bit off. With
8 bits for the integer part, that means that we only have a range of
about a fourth of a meter, which is a bit too little -- we need at
least a meter or two, I think. (Plenty of real-world objects are a
meter in size, although not too many are more than four meters.) We
also don't need a full 8 bits for the fractional part -- that would
bring our resolution down to almost micron level, which is *way*
smaller than we need.
So if 1 unit == 1 millimeter, we probably want to adjust so that
we've only got a few bits after the "decimal" point. Heck, we might
even want to simply use 16-bit integers at that level. (Although I
suspect that we'd find it useful to have .1-millimeter resolution.)
Regardless, though, we need to figure out how we're going to approach
the scale issue, probably now...
> [FIXED/FLOAT hint]
>I don't think it needs to be a node at all; this is not a VRML construct,
>but rather something that is in the binary file format as a "hint" to the
>stream reader. It is a stream token. It is or should be quite invisible to
>VRML ASCII.
Okay, so you don't see it as having any representation in the scene
graph at all? Hmm; the implication is that all numbers get translated
to a common format (probably IEEE) during the reading phase, and are
stored in the graph in that format. All right, that's probably
reasonable; it even has the advantage of limiting the impact of
the change on browser code...
>For the 14.4 modem user who's downloaded their copy of
>WebSpace/WorldView/VRML browser-of-the-month it will be the most important
>feature of VRML.
Okay, I'll take your word for it here. I still don't have a browser
(Tony, TGS, anybody got a Windows version ready to roll?), so I haven't
experienced the agony for myself yet. Sounds like I'm going to be
mighty happy when my company upgrades to 256K next month, though...
>Rudimentary behaviors are already possible with the SWITCH construct; they
>are crude, but they will work. Hacking the behavior problem might be a
>waste of time; we may want to have a facility for streaming "changes" into a
>VRML browser - so that server-side push or MOO can dump "updates" into a
>world, but beyond that we should wait for (and start to define the
>requirements of) VRML 2.0.
I'm willing to accept this, simply because it's probably going to take
us at least six months to fully define the behaviour stuff
anyway. (And *that* is assuming we can get anyone talking about it in
any sort of focussed way.) But I really do think VRML is going to just
be a toy until we get behaviour in. (By "rudimentary", BTW, I sort of
mean the full capabilities, but at beta level; it's going to take a
while to make it all work right, I suspect.) People will look at it,
have fun playing, and write it off once the novelty value wears
off. (IMO.) It's once we have behaviour that we hit the big time; at
that point, we start reinventing the concepts of user interfaces
wholesale, which should be a helluva lot of fun...
>Cyberspace Protocol is the subject of the a posting set for Thursday.
>CP is neither dead nor forgotten; we just never needed it before.
Good; I have some questions I've been meaning to ask for almost a year
now. (There's a section in the middle of the proposal that I've never
really understood.) My ideal would be for us to implement both CP (which
provides the framework for a moderately structured cyberspace) and
portals (which provide the basis for an extremely fluid one), and let
things grow from there. (Assuming, as I have been doing for a while,
that CP and portals are reasonably compatible.)
-- Justin
Random Quote du Jour:
- Never pass on the left when you can pass on the right.
- In making a left turn from the right lane, employ the element of
surprise. That is, do it as suddenly as possible, so as to stun other
drivers.
- Speed limits are arbitrary figures posted only to make you feel
guilty.
-- From "Basic rules for driving in Boston"
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