THE UNOFFICIAL
VRSCRIPT SUPPORT PAGE

VRScript is a QuickTime multimedia scripting language, and a very large piece of example source code by Tim Monroe at Apple.

If you are interested in adding

                     3d sounds
                       3d objects
                       animations
                       effect transitions
                       linear transitions
                       7 kinds of event triggers
                       streaming audio and video
                       puzzle logic

into your QTVR panos and object movies , then try it!

The VRSCRIPT application and C source code is available freefrom Apple's QuickTime 4 site.

We are talking a lot of qtvr authoring power... A great 3d vr creation system...and a kind of ongoing open source initiative to create shared photographic qtvr space...(and sound-space)! Now with qt4 streaming into panos!

Contents of this Page:

Vrscript player applications-windows and mac . -these are older than the one you'll find at apple, or in the nodemedia download, they work with the early demos we did for standalone players...

The vrscript demos for the players -these use the little player app called vrscript. You can change the scripts and learn how to make a qtvr vrscript presentation of your own..

The latest vrscript extensions- windows and mac . When you put these in your extension folder, quicktime player, netscape, director, word, and dozens of other applications can instantly play quicktime movies that contain vrscript tracks. Added qtvr powers like backbuffer movies become easily available...

Some flattened demos using vrscript tracks - these are some example demos using quicktime vrscript tracks...Several made by talented artisans all over the world... if you have the vrscript extension installed you can probably play these vrscript movies right in this
browser....

Getting started authoring a qtvr movie with VRScript

NodeMedia This is an editor that tries to make it easy to write vrscripts, vrscript tracks, and vrscript projectors
You build up the movie while it is open...by walking through your panos and adding things...'decorating' the nodes'...with
sounds,transitions,linear movies, animations in the panos, 3d models, hotspot logic...border sprites...

Then it spits out a projector, or a qt movie that needs the vrscript extension, and soon... a wired qt 4.1 movie that needs no special extension.

latest vrscript news and archive of the mailing list. How to sign up for the vrscript list.

GETTING STARTED AUTHORING USING VRSCRIPT:

SCRIPT SYNTAX

Even if you don't think you'll read the code, there is a document in that download you'll need. It's called 'SCRIPT SYNTAX' and it lists every call in VRScript and what every parameter for that call means...

Html version of VRScript Syntax by Michael Crumpton...
Click here to check it out!

When you finishing downloading it and looking through the documentation, you may still have a few questions... How do I use this? for example...

GETTING STARTED

Here is a note from the QTVR list archive #804: VRScript starter(now updated a bit...) :

OK, so you've downloaded VR script and you can't do a thing with it. Well it's a simple scripting system once you get the hang of it, and it works on windows and mac! (Easier than MPW stitching for sure! )

You'll need QuickTime3 installed to begin with. On mac or windows. Because we're using LOTs of kinds of media. Make sure you do the default installation that includes the Sound Manager, QD3D, etc.

9/2/98 MAC users: We now recommend highly you use the shareware text editor BBEdit, available from many sites on the net, or CodeWarrior to edit your scripts. While you can use SimpleText or almost any other text editor, some of them will change the icon from a 'VRsc'(vrscript) and thus the scripts won't work unless you go into resedit and change them every time you save.

Windows users can use NotePad or any other text editor without worry...

Try this: -Get a Qtvr node and call it 'mynode.snm' -put it in the same folder as VRScript... -open BBEDIT and paste in these 4 lines:

OpenQTVRMovieFile 0 mynode.snm

AtPanAngle 1 190.0 240.0 1 0 SysBeep

CreateTorus 205 20.0 0.0 2.0 0.5 0.5 0.3 1.0 0

Set3DObjRotState 205 1 0

save that text file. Call it something like 'my script 1'.

put it in the same folder as VrScript and 'mynode.snm'

now drag 'my script 1' onto VRscript.

Windows users drag the VR movie onto VRScript rather than the script.

Windows user have to make sure they're working from a folder on their C drive called 'WWDC' for now..(this might

have change with the quicktime 4 version now available...)

Windows users have to name all scripts "myScript"

If all goes well your movie will play. You'll beep when you turn to a certain angle, and there'll be a rotating inner tube flying through space somewhere in your node... That's the idea. From there on in, it gets more interesting, and sometimes quirky. The sound support is awsome, with multitrack multimovies of sound playable at the same time, directional sound, and special 3d sound using the sound sprocket if you like... To try a sound call make a quicktime movie that has a midi track only. You can do this by dragging any midi file onto movieplayer and going through the convert process. There are thousands of midi files available on the net. Call your midi movie:midiQT.mov and put it in the same folder as VRScript. cut and paste this 5th line into your script:

PlayNodeQTMidi 1 144 -1 1 1.0 0.0 0.0 180.0 0 0 2 midiQT.mov

That should get louder when you turn one way and softer when you turn the other... Those five lines together should give you the idea. If you replace the SysBeep in line 2 with another call, say line 3, you'll have to say

AtPanAngle 1 190.0 240.0 1 0 CreateTorus#205#20.0#0.0 etc.

That is, when a call is used as part of another call, the spaces have to be #. If you go deeper in a call hierarchy, you have to use % and then &

With VRScript, you can use the script for a lot of things, and then very fast calls can be coded/optimized directly into C... Now there's a VRScript extension that let's you play VRScripts in the browser,etc. and there's a VRScript standalone maker that makes a single file 'projector' out of your multifile VRScript. Plus there's NodeMedia, an app that allows you to write some VRScripts without having to do any scripting... As of April 26. 99 we've got a Windows extension for you too!

DEMOS OF THE VRSCRIPT PLAYER

**The demos that use qd3d will not work on osX.**
Demos	Description	System Requirements
VRScript	This is the player application which you need to view the following demos... (many of these can be watched in the browser on mac and windows...see below ) Click here for information on how to make the demos work	VRScript Mac	VRScript Windows '95
Demo 1 663k	This includes hotspot triggered sounds, a backbuffer movie, and a 3dmf controlled by hotspots.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D	Windows QT 3.0
Demo 2 2.6 MB	A multinode walk-through of the Brohm Lake fire watch station using photographed source material and composited 3D models.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D	Windows QT 3.0
Demo 3 1.2 MB	A single node QTVR with super-imposed, realtime chroma-keyed linear Quicktime movie (the ubiquitous dancing baby, created by Kinetix software) and directional sound.	Mac QTVR 2.0	Windows QT 3.0
Demo 4 325k	Our QTVR Christmas Card featuring a photographic node composited into a 3D modeled environment which includes the new fire codec.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D QT3.0	Windows QT 3.0
Demo 5 260k	A 3D tween movie embeded in a QTVR Panorama. A tigermoth biplane flys around in a node.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D	Windows '95 QT 3.0
Demo 6 212k	Our Kitchen node with user selectable cupboard textures.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D	Windows '95 QT 3.0
Demo 7 645k	A demonstration of QuickTime 3.0 transitions.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 Quicktime 3.0	Windows '95 QT 3.0
Demo 8 645k	Multiple movies embeded in a panorama.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0	Windows '95 QT 3.0
Demo 9 700k	A walkthrough of Brohm Ridge which showcases backbuffer movies, interactive 3DMF models and directional sound.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D QT3.0	Windows '95 QT 3.0
Demo 10 550k	New version of VrScript supports triggering actions by clicking in a movie sprite track.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D QT3.0
Demo 11 900k	Linear Transitions between two modeled QTVR nodes.	Mac PPC QTVR 2.0 QD3D QT3.0

As discussed elsewhere on this page...Deep Forest Multimedia is building a tool, NODEMEDIA to put a Graphic User Interface onto VRScript... Click here to check that out.

What do you need from a QTVR Scripting language? What do you need from an interface to use it? We want to know... Drop us a note and give us some ideas!

Do you have a demo using VRScript? Is it on the net? We'd love to put a link to it here...

MAC VRSCRIPT PROJECTORS (updated jan 2000)

Check out an example of a standalone projector made in VRScript. If you make an interactive presentation of any size with VRScript you may find that you've got a messy folder with tons of movies,3d objects, etc. in it. Now you can 'save as projector' in NodeMedia and get a single file like this...

LINTRANS.SIT

MAC VRSCRIPT EXTENSION! (updated 1 /14 /2000)

Check out a PowerMac Extension for playing VRScript's anywhere! It will allow you to use qt Movies with VRScript tracks, wherever qt movies will play. We've tested so far in MoviePlayer,Director,Netscape,SimpleText and a few others...

Click here to get the MAC PPC extension: 59k

WIN VRSCRIPT EXTENSION! (updated 1/31/2000)

The windows extension is available. Everything works the same as the mac now, except for qd3d...

Windows:

Click here to check out the windows VRScript extension

How do I make a VRScript track? Well you'll need VRScript TrackMaker a tiny tool that allows you to paste them together by hand: $49 U.S. ..

NodeMedia writes vrscript tracks when you choose 'save flattened' from any vrscript you have open..It's our full editor : $99 . Click here to check that out.

DEMOS USING THE EXTENSION play right in this browser...

If you just downloaded the extension above...and you've put it in your system folder and restarted,(don't need to restart on windows) check out these movies with VRScript tracks in the browser. Do they work for you? Problems? When you save them, do they work for you in other applications that support quicktime?

We'd love to know! We've had mostly positive reports, but we're wondering about a possible problem on Windows NT (dont' have an NT box here...)

VRISLAND.MOV (611k) An island with hotspots that trigger movies and sounds, and spin a 3d model...(demo 1 above)

BABYNODE.MOV (1.4 meg) An animated human figure dancing in a node...(demo 3 above)

KITCHEN.MOV (286k) A dark kitchen demo that lets you choose textures for the cupboards...(demo 6 above)

RAINMEN.MOV (858k) __ a weird node with three mermaid-people sitting on rocks that talk when you click on them...(demo 8 above)

MOUNTAIN.MOV (1.1meg) _ a multinode showing off continuous scene sound, 3d realtime model placement, an eagle (this is a small bug right now, you have to leave the first node and return for the eagle to show up) (and the prescreen call doesn't seem to be working...and your browser needs at least 10meg of ram allocated to it...) ...(demo 9 above)

PRIMTIVE.MOV (169k) _ a node that lets you click and create all the 3d primitives in qd3d. Then you can set them to wireframe and change the backfacing etc. by clicking on certain statues...( demo 10 above)

LINETRNS.MOV (858k) __ An example of linear tranistions between nodes, and a wheel you turn (demo 11 above)

BEES360.MOV (455k) __ A new demo, by David Currey in England, shows a 25 frame 360 degree animated VR movie of bees! (This is temporarily broken as of the jan 1 2000 extension....)

JAYSYARD.MOV (559k) __ This is a multinode by Jay Shaeffer. NEW This has been updated to show the use of the cool new qt3 transtions between nodes. These disolves, wipes, zooms etc. (over 200 to choose from) can be added to your multinode at less than 1k per transition!

STUDIOVR.MOV (800k) __ This is a node and four tracks of music by Germany's awsome Markus Krueger...(records with Maria Perzil on warner...) I just added a little mixing board underneath so you can turn each instrument up or down...also so it pans to the instrument you're mixing...(requires the latest version of the extension...above)

milanbrd.mov (450k) __ Here's the eagle in Milan. Nice Node by Dennis Marsico.

ZENROOM.MOV (530k) __ Here's a nice zen room with an animated fishtank wall and some nice midi koto music... This was done by Jay Shaeffer. This demo shows how you can add VRScript movies to your own page. If you don't have the extension loaded you get a sprite track in the front layer that says 'This movie requires the VRScript extension to play, click here to get it'...If you have the extension you won't see this...

BEARMUSE.MOV (325k) .We can now add asynchronous sound to object movies! This is a cute little object movie by Terry Breheny in New York with some Sax music by Bill Meikle...This sound ability can
cover other territory, like slide shows where the user clicks to move the slides independant of the sound track...
We can effectively play many quicktime movies from within a qtvr movie...

gardnin.mov (208k) __ A nice pano by Irene Blueth...a garden with a flying flower..

Trio.mov (208k) __ Another pano by Irene Blueth...3d textured planet spinning in this node..

streamone.mov 150k Pano by Thomas Khubli... A live tv show into a pano.

2 streamone.mov 150k- A few people couldn't get the streaming backbuffer movie to start. One person fixed this by renaming the vrscript extension with a bunch of aaaa's before it's name.(so it loads first? )

flatearth2.mov a nice pano from the moon with a spinning earth in the distance... Markus Kruger's work...