There are at least these ways that I've heard of for doing this. One
is the proposed NavigationHints node, another is to use a specially-named
Info node, and the third is to use the focalDistance of the camera node.
Browsers may also set the value arbitrarily (perhaps to normal walking speed,
assuming 1 meter scale) or based on the dimensions of the world (one "step"
might be one tenth of the maximum dimension).
> Also, just curious, have people been accurately designing real-life art =
> at the 1 unit == 1 meter scale convention ( pp 111 of VRML ... by =
> Pesce )? Obviously the 'solar system' example is not real size :), but =
> are tables about 1 meter high, people 1.5, rooms about 10, etc...?
It would be a good idea for people to do that, since it makes it a lot easier
to re-use objects without having to fiddle too much with their scaleFactors.
(By the way, your numbers are *very* approximate: most tables are no where
near one meter high (more like .65 meters) and a 1.5 meter person would stand
4 foot 11 -- reasonable, but on the short side. Of course, at 5' 6" I'm
not really one to talk about height!)
For those not on the metric system, the best "rule of thumb" is that one
meter is about a yard. And yes, there really are "meter sticks".
-- Bernie Roehl University of Waterloo Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mail:[email protected] Voice: (519) 888-4567 x 2607 [work] URL:http://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl