VRview: Archimedes World demo version (08/11/95)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright (c) 1995, Paul Gardiner and Robin Watts for Warm Silence Software.

This is a demo version of Warm Silence Software's Quicktime VR renderer,
VRView. It is keyed just to work with a small set of films, but should give
you a taste of what is possible using this new technology.

For space reasons we have not been able to include as many films as we would
have liked to on the disc, but for those of you with access to the Internet,
check out:

        http://qtvr.quicktime.apple.com/

and
        http://quicktime.apple.com/
        
The following films (available from these sites can be played using this
demo version.

Objects:
~~~~~~~~
DFP3      Spinny Jim        )
DFP4      Flapper           ) (See the Domestic Funk Products link for these)
DFP5      Zooming Jim       )
DFP6      Rotating Cube     )
F18       A model of an F18 fighter
Robot     A toy robot

Scenes:
~~~~~~~
AoBstu    The 'Ace Of Bass' recording studio.
Hob       The House of Blues venue in the states. (Nice!)
Recep     The Reception room of the White House .
Gateway   A piece of computer modelling.

Bigger files are obviously of better quality as less extreme compression can
be used.

What *is* Quicktime VR?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quicktime VR is Apple's latest foray into the world of Virtual Reality.
Traditional virtual reality engines require huge amounts of processor power
to model scenes and objects in 3 dimensions, and to render them on the
screen. To render scenes quickly and yet realistically requires far more
computational power than is usually available in todays desktop computers.

Quicktime VR takes a different approach. Using standard still photography,
a series of photographs of a scene are taken. The photos are scanned, and
the images are stitched together using powerful computer software to give a
"Panoramic" view of the scene. This is then compressed and output as a
Quicktime film.

VRview (and equivalent software for PCs and Macs) then decompresses the
panorama and displays it on the screen. To simulate looking around the
room, VRview has to distort the image in real time, so as to transform it
from "plain" panorama, to a realistic image.

For instance, if you look upwards, the picture distorts slightly so that the
top of the image is bigger than the bottom. This distortion is modelled
carefully using some hairy mathematics to give a startlingly realistic feel.

How to work VRview:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First, run VRview by double clicking it; nothing installs on the icon bar,
but VRview is now ready to run. Now double click on a VR file.
[To turn on full screen operation, run the !VRview.!Big file]

The cursor will whirl for a few moments, and an image will appear.

Depending on whether you have run an "object" or a "scene" file, the controls
are slightly different.

For scenes:

      * Moving the mouse left, right, up and down will allow you to look
      around the scene.
      
      * Holding Select (the left hand mouse button), and moving the mouse
      forwards and backwards enables you to zoom in on areas of interest.

      * Clicking Adjust (the right hand mouse button) toggles the cursor
      on and off.

      * Clicking Menu (the middle mose button) exits the viewer.

      * Occasionally (when viewing multinode films), an arrow will appear.
      Double click when this is visible, and you will step forwards to a
      new scene - so you can move around within the room.

For objects (currently RISC PC only, but this will change!):

      * Moving the mouse left, right, up and down allows you to examine the
      object from many angles.
      
      * Clicking menu (the middle mouse button) exits the viewer.

Contacting Us:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are interested in finding out more, or purchasing the full version
(at the introductory price of just 20) then please do not hesitate to
contact us at the address below:

        Warm Silence Software,
        St Catherines College,
        Oxford, OX1 3UJ
        Tel: 0585 487642
        Email: Robin.Watts@comlab.ox.ac.uk
               Paul.Gardiner@comlab.ox.ac.uk
        WWW: http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/robin.watts/

Other Products:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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MovieFS 26.42

        Add-on to allow Replay to transparently handle AVI (Video for
        Windows), MOV (Quicktime), ANM, DL, FLI/FLC (Autodesk Animator), WAV,
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6502Em  15

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        Fortress, Hopper, Revs and many many more!
        
        Runs far more software than !65Host (a copy of !65Host is required as
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        Even emulates BBC Master and Master Compact (you must source your
        own copies of the ROM images from those as again we cannot distribute
        them - we supply programs that save images to disc if run on a Master
        or Compact).
        
z80Em   15

        The best Spectrum emulator on the market. Full sound and graphics
        support. More games than we can possibly mention...
        
**Special Offer: Both emulators can be bought together for only 25 pounds!**

Speccy Sensation 2 CD      15 (if bought with z80Em, 18 otherwise)

        Around 3000 Spectrum games on one CD ROM. Runs on Arcs, PCs, Macs...
        Thats 0.5p per game!
        
        ***** Do not buy this unless you have lots of time to waste *****

Tapes   10

        Load your BBC and Spectrum tapes into the emulator by playing them
        into a small parallel port interface (circuit diagram supplied).
        For those (like me) who dislike soldering, we can supply read made-up
        interfaces for just 15.

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Quicktime and Quicktime VR are trademarks of Apple Computers Ltd.
