Welcome to Xj3D codebase.  

This are notes for the 30 May 2003 dev release of Xj3D. 

NOTE:
In the next release we will be moving to the final file associations/MIME types
and parsing code to deal with the just changed file extensions. Note that all 
VRML-encoded X3D files from that release onward now _must_ end in the .x3dv 
extension. Anything ending in .wrl will automatically be assumed to be VRML97. 


Since Last Dev Release:
-----------------------
  Added new experimental application for doing file format conversions. Look 
      into the apps/converter directory (in the new dev-apps ZIP file). This wil
      allow you to convert between any of the formats as well as X3D <-> VRML97. 
      Still very much a beta release right now, but works on all the stuff we've
      thrown at it.

  Complete new input device handling implementation. Now completely generic 
      allowing anything from a mouse to joystick, to glove, to HMD to interact
      with the scene. Mouse and keyboard nav is provided. 

  Elumens Dome/VisionStation support complete for the Java3D renderer. 
      (note requires installation of DLLs etc. Has a completely separate 
      installer and not part of the standard downloads). 

  Basic NURBs nodes implementation. This is according to the original X3D ISO 
      spec document. In the final version, it is dramatically different, so use
      at your own risk!

  SAI interfaces updated to the final release version of the spec, including 
      final ISO edits. No direct implementation yet available, but partial 
      ecmascript handling included (not usable - next dev release possibly)

  Basic outlining of nodes for proposed 3D Texture and Environment Mapping 
      components. Not usable in the large-scale system yet.

  All the apps directory now builds using the Makefile system, like the rest of
      
  Lots and lots of scripting/event model/proto interaction development. Another
      reorganisation of the internals so that we can handle the differences 
      required by VRML97 and X3D in their event model. 

  Fog is back functional again. 

  Background sky/ground color partially works now. More development pending

  apps/Xj3DBrowser is starting to look much more like a real browser now. 

Major changes since M7:
-----------------------
    
  DragSensors now implemented. Not all debugged though. 

  Preliminary experimental binary format and infrastructure. 

Known Issues:
-------------
  
    General:
        Huge amounts of garbage generated internally within Java3D's picking 
        subsystem using Cone-based objects for those using J3D1.3.0. Fixed for
	1.3.1FCS. 

    ECMAScript: Due to a change in Rhino 1.5R4, a number of things broke in our
        code. The changes were an all-or-nothing afair. So we've decided to fix
	the code to work with 1.5R4-1. That means you will need to upgrade your
	copy of Rhino to this version.  As a result, the standalone print()
	method that some browsers support, is no longer supported by us. For your
	code to run, you must use Browser.println() instead. 

    MovieTexture
        In order to work, you need to have JMF installed. 

    AudioClip
        The Java3D audio capabilities are exceedingly bug-ridden. If you use
	anything before 1.3.1beta, you'll not hear any audio content. 

    browser
        GeoVRML and UMEL local resolution not supported in pre-compiled code,
            you need to specify the local installation path in DIYBrowser.java
            and recompile.
         
License
-------
 This source is licensed under the GNU LGPL v2.1
 Please read http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html for more information
 
 This software comes with the standard NO WARRANTY disclaimer for any 
 purpose. Use it at your own risk. If there's a problem you get to fix it.