Installation: Yes, Robert Scmitt and all, both IE and VE will change =
file associations and make it more difficult for you to view your =
favorite stuff in, say, Navigator with WebFX. I'm not surprised as IE =
is very much associated with the OS itself. As a result, I will now =
have to re-install WebFX to bring my system back to the way it was. I =
don't care what Microsoft's marketing people proclaimed to the Wall =
Street Journal or the Justice Department... they know d*mn well what =
their install routine does. Only their denial makes me suspicious of =
their motives, or of the necessity to modify file associations (note =
that, unlike a certain Netscape product, IE does not let you easily =
configure helper apps).
Functionality: On my system, a Pentium90 24 meg RAM Win95 2megDRAM =
Vidcard... questionable. It successfully loads scenes, even my bizarro =
booscary.wrl, with the textures intact (albeit overlit). However, none =
of the navigation functions work properly or as proclaimed. Joystick: =
no. Keyboard: no. Mouse: weeeellllll....
When trying to navigate with the mouse, the scene starts spinning out of =
control, as if I'd never released the mouse button. To stop it, I have =
to reload the scene (nice waste of bandwidth, guys!).
Pluses: the Rsality Lab engine renders very quickly, especially when =
spinning out of control! New APIs like RL and OpenGL are going to make =
us a very happy group!
Overall rating (out of 10): 3 Sloppy beta, MS. Of course, I filed a =
bug report, but that means nothing as I filed practically the same bug =
report based on their *pre* beta release. Unlike others in the VRML =
community (Paper, Intervista, TGS, Chaco, et al), Microsoft does not =
seem to respond to bug reports in either writing or implementation. =
IMHO.
Summary: Fix the navigation, don't change my settings, rely more on =
Intervista to make a working browser. For the VRML group out there, =
don't waste your time. It will be a great product when it's out of =
beta, but it ain't even close to the betas the rest of you released.
I was going to test out the ActiveVRML worlds they set up, but I really =
don't need to see a chicken with behaviors spinning out of control <g>.
Now I'm off to UNINSTALL this, and go back in time three hours to when I =
was finally happy with my setup. That'll teach me.
Robert Saint John
[email protected]