Sim 0.04 - a simple 3d distributed virtual world Copyright (c) 1995 by Jamie Cameron jmc@cs.monash.edu.au http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~jmc/ INTRODUCTION This is version 0.02 of the client programs for sim, a very simple multiuser 3d world. To use these clients, you will need a machine running Unix and the X11 window system, with a fast connection to the Internet. The client programs connect to sim servers through the net, and allow you to move about the sim world stored on the servers. So far, I have compiled the client programs successfully under - Irix 5.2 and 5.3 (Silicon Graphics Indy) - Irix 4.0.5 (Silicon Graphics Person Iris) - Ultrix 4.4 (DEC DECstation) - OSF/1 (DEC Alpha) - SunOS 4.1.3 (Sun Sparc) - Solaris 2.4 (Sun Sparc) The sim clients and server are being written for my Computer Science honours project, so are very experimental :) If you are using any of the above systems, then they *should* work. As for anything else... if you get them working, email me with any changes you had to make or with what went wrong. COMPILING You should be able to compile the programs just by typing INSTALL, which is a shell script that runs xmkmf and make. If this works, 4 executables will be created - sim3d (3d sim client, using X11 graphics) - av3d (3d shape viewer, using X11 graphics) - simtext (text-only sim client) - ppmtotexture (for creating textured shapes) Also, if you are using Irix 5.2 or greater then 2 more executables will be created (assuming you have the Inventor libraries installed on your system, which I think all versions of Irix > 5.2 do) - siminv (3d sim client, using Inventor 3d graphics) - avinv (3d shape viewer, using Inventor 3d graphics) These programs make use of the Inventor 3d library, which is way faster than my 3d code and supports texture mapped graphics and Phong shading. Otherwise, they are the same as sim3d and av3d. RUNNING When you run one of the sim clients, it will attempt to connect to the sim server on which your 'avatar' is located in the sim world. If you don't have an avatar because this is the first time you have run one of the clients, one will be created for you in a safe place in the sim world. The name of your avatar is taken from your login name by default, although this can be overridden on the command line using the -name parameter. The command line format for the sim clients is basically : sim3d / simtext / siminv [server] [-port num] [-name myname] There are a number of other command line arguments, described in the web pages mentioned below. For more information on using the client programs, see the web pages Overview of the sim system and pre-compiled clients http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~jmc/sim/overview.html 3d clients (sim3d and siminv) user's guide http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~jmc/sim/sim3dguide.shtml Text based client user's guide http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~jmc/sim/simtextguide.shtml Shape format guide (used for creating worlds and avatars) http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~jmc/sim/shapeguide.html CHANGES Version 0.04 - Fixed bug in data tranfer requestors - Die if fork() fails - Clean up after exited processes in clients Version 0.03 - Removed useless allocation of shared memory when running X version remotely - Added status display for data transfers Version 0.02 - Fixed bug that prevented users from changing their avatar - Changed the way invisible 3d objects are handled - Fixed bug that occurred in changing the way invisible 3d objects are handled - Various changes to the server BUGS - Sometimes when running the X11 client remotely, it thinks that it can use shared memory when it can't. - Others too numerous to mention that I don't know about yet :)
