P3D Re: Stereo applet

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999
>From: Marvin Jones <Campfire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>................
>>(I wrote).....
>>There's a new applet for you to use on your websites. Since it's JAVA it's
>cross platform, meaning it works for the MAC and for many other machines.
>The only thing it can't do yet is provide page flipping stereo.<
>
>I've been playing with this applet and plan to add it to the 3D photo
>galleries on my two websites. It works in a similar manner to DepthCharge,
>which unfortunately has the disadvantage of being available only for Win95.
>(Visitors on one of my pages have been pelting me with increasingly angry
>letters about the fact that DepthCharge promises Mac/etc. versions
>"shortly" and has been repeating the promise for many, many, MANY months.)
>The only drawback to the applet is that it requires absolutely the most
>recent possible version of Java to run at all. It took me hours of
>searching and several downloads of Java versions (a good 10 or 15 hours of
>intensive work) to get it operating on my computer. This may be a problem
>for casual visitors for a while. Still, it does have all the versatility of
>DepthCharge and the advantage of cross-platform compatibility, too. I
>highly recommend it to anyone posting 3D images on their website.
>

****  Yes, it does require a browser that includes JAVA 1.1. I had to
upgrade my browser from Netscape 3.0 to the latest 4.5. Unfortunately
version 4.5 seems somewhat unstable and locks up quite frequently compared
to version 3.0. However most new browsers are using the latest JAVA so this
is an encouragement to update. Andreas checked out the browser called Hot
Java from SUN and it works fine with the applet. It's somewhat more
troublesome to install but it works well.

There is a restriction about JAVA not accessing any hardware system on a
computer for security reasons. This prevents the applet from providing page
flipping or interlaced viewing. However, for those with LCS glasses and the
correct software to run them, you can download the JPS image directly,
bypassing the applet and allow your regular software to do it's thing. This
seems a workable compromise considering all the conditions. Visitors new to
stereo won't have LCS glasses anyway, and they don't have to run off and
install a plug-in before enjoying your pictures.

If anyone comes across information that might help improve the applet to
operate LCS glasses, please write with that information.

Some additional features of the applet - It now has a progress meter
indicating how much longer before the image is ready to view. You can
specify in your code which viewing method will be the default method. If you
don't specify this, it will default to the cross-eyed version. If the user
selects any particular viewing mode, the rest of the images on a given page
will show up in that same viewing method so the user doesn't have to select
a viewing mode for every image.

If you are using a MAC, you need to have installed Apple's version of JAVA
and selected the option in your browser to use that version of JAVA. Other
browser/OS combinations are listed on his website, and he'd like to add more.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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