X3DIRECTOR

A Front-end For Modeling Web Virtual World Navigation And Visualization

Parameters

Berta Buttarazzi and Daniele Pizziconi

University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Virtual Environment, interactivity, fully immersive viewing systems, post-production phase,

digital technologies.

Abstract: With the advent of digital communication technologies, a huge quantity of information can be stored and

transferred. However, with increased possibility comes increasing complexity. As indicated by the

dissatisfaction often experienced by users of information technology, current systems of accessing,

organizing and navigating information are proving insufficient. For this reason, in the Web world, besides

new media contents, new technologies for implementing more dynamic and user-friendly interfaces are

being developed. Currently, the last step in the evolution of digital technologies for web interface and

contents is represented by virtual environments which, despite the appearances, are, in some cases, very

accessible and economic. This paper will provide a panorama on the functionalities of language X3D and

the identification of the cases in which is possible to use X3Director.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the advent of digital communication

technologies, a huge quantity of information can be

stored and transferred. The last step in the evolution

of digital technologies for web interface and

contents is represented by virtual environments, and

so by X3D.

The syntax and data structure of X3D provide an

excel

lent tool for the modeling of three-dimensional

worlds that are functional and interactive and that

can, ultimately, be transferred into fully immersive

viewing systems.

X3D allows to combine other Virtual Reality

(VR

) technologies and real environment, for

example motion trackers are employed to monitor

the movements of dancers or athletes for subsequent

studies in immersive VR. These ‘Augmented

Reality’ technologies allow for the viewing of real

environments with superimposed virtual object; for

example telepresence systems (e.g., telemedicine,

telerobotics) immerse a viewer in a real world that is

captured by video cameras at a distant location and

allow for the remote manipulation of real objects via

robotic arms and manipulators.

As the technologies of VR evolve, the

plications of VR become literally unlimited. It is

assumed that VR will reshape the interface between

people and information technology by offering new

ways for the communication of information, the

visualization of processes, and the creative

expression of ideas. Note that a virtual environment

can represent any three-dimensional world that is

either real or abstract. This includes real systems like

buildings, landscapes, underwater shipwrecks,

spacecrafts, archaeological excavation sites, human

anatomy, and so on and abstract systems like

magnetic fields, molecular models, mathematical

systems and any other conceivable system including

artistic and creative works of abstract nature.

This paper and therefore X3Directior is proposed

ike an aid in virtual environment refining those

already existing, but not complete and not still ready

for the distribution in the Web world.

In particular, the paper mainly deals with a

speci

fic category of users who might be called “non-

expert developer”. They are users that use, for work

or pleasure, 3D graphics development software

which supports virtual development language as

X3D. These users can get a virtual representation of

their 3D projects without having any knowledge of

the X3D language. The goal is therefore to provide a

333

Buttarazzi B. and Pizziconi D. (2007).

X3DIRECTOR - A Front-end For Modeling Web Virtual World Navigation And Visualization Parameters.

In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, pages 333-336

DOI: 10.5220/0001620003330336

 SciTePress

software that helps this category of users in the

refining phase, again without the exigency of any

particular knowledge.

The second chapter introduces the X3Director

software and its features.

2 X3DIRECTOR

The production of the three-dimensional structure of

an X3D environment can completely be delegated to

the software of authoring 3d and, that concurs to

customers non-expert of X3D to develop, in

immediate and practically free way, virtual

environments compatible with the Web. After such

phase it is necessary, for the effective fruibility of

the virtual representation, a phase of post-production

that proceeds along one series of tried and

modifications. Phase that cannot be delegated to the

software of authoring 3D is because often, being

thought for other, do not support some of the

demanded characteristics (e.g. the Background

node), or, in case they come supported, their

implementation demands specific knowledge of

language X3D.

X3Director helps the “non-expert developer” to

accomplish the post-production phase. The software

provides a series of functions to manage the 3D

aspect of an X3D file. It allows realizing different

actions so as to add localized audio contexts or

sounds that start after having clicked on a particular

area or object, thanks to the use of the TouchSensor

node.

X3Director proposes a linear, intuitive and

provided of continuous assistance interface that

allows the user in few mouse clicks to edit or to add

ex novo the Background node in order to better

characterize a three-dimensional environment, the

NavigationInfo node that describes the view and the

characteristics of the avatar, user’s alter-ego, and the

Sound and AudioClip nodes. Moreover, thanks to

integration of parser DOM with the data structure

JTree provided from the Java Swing package,

X3Director provides, at nodes level, for the loaded

X3D file, an interface characterized from tree

structure that reflects the characteristic hierarchical

structure of XML files. As far as the attributes,

instead, X3Director has integrated an other data

structure, the JTable, in order to organize and to edit

in “expert” way the attributes of the nodes.

Such a software, conceived in order to come

towards requirement of a non-expert user in the

modeling of virtual environment in X3D, allows to

verify the user’s modifications, before the final

saving, thanks to the preview function (it is

necessary to have a player X3D installed in the

operative system). This function can be used in order

to evidence the modifications carried out globally in

the file X3D and therefore to have a preview of the

final complete file X3D or to evidence single

geometries and therefore to have a visual reply on

the single Transform or Group nodes. In order to

complete this global view on the X3Director it is to

be underlined that such a software does not forget

the more expert users that they do not have need of

the driven procedure. In order to edit or to add the

above mentioned nodes, these users can either use

simple functions of “add” or “delete” or can directly

modify the values of the attributes editing them with

a simple double click on the data structure JTable

left on purpose editable for this function.

2.1 Characterizing Features

The absence of the necessity of specific knowledge

differentiates X3Director from the others editor X3D

and it renders it ideal for the phase of post-

production. The below table shows a comparison of

main editors X3D and X3Director. From the

comparison, that refers exclusively to the phase of

post-production, tool of optimization of the code and

the software of authoring 3d have been omitted.

Table 1: Comparison between X3D post-production tools.

Software Knowledge

X3D

Potentiality Complexity

X3Director null medium low

SwirlX3D medium medium medium

X3D-Edit high high medium

Everyone of the software shown can be used to

modify file X3D exported from the software of

authoring. It is obvious that, with the exception of

X3Director, is however necessary a sure level of

knowledge of language X3D.

SwirlX3D is a powerful X3D authoring

environment that gives full access to the data

structures in an X3D file and is able to preview the

completed scene. The specific knowledge of X3D

are not excessive but of against it does not offer, as

instead X3Director offers, no visual procedures that

it renders the formulation of the parameters

independent from the knowledge of language X3D.

The graphics file editor X3D-Edit includes the

typical characteristics of this type of editor: context-

sensitive editing prevents creation of incorrect

scene-graph structures and detects invalid numeric

values, context-sensitive tooltips provide concise

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explanations and warnings of each X3D node and

field, tag-inspectors, syntax highlighting, tag hints,

code fragments, objects, edit dialogs and much

more. They demand a deepened knowledge of

language X3D with the exception of X3Director that

has a complexity of use practically null thanks to the

friendly and intuitive interface, and offers to the

developer the possibility to act on the independent,

from the three-dimensional structure, aspects of the

virtual environment (phase of post-production for

non-expert customers), or to modify whichever other

parameter (expert way). In the next sections the

several features are described in more detail.

2.2 File Selection and Parser

When the X3D file is selected and loaded,

X3Director displays it using a JTree that reflects the

hierarchical structure of an X3D/XML file (see

Figure 1 below).

Figure 1: Node X3D in tree structure.

Figure 2: Attribute X3D in JTable structure.

Now it is possible to have access of all

functionalities provided by X3Director. As an

example clicking on any node, such software will

show to right, organized in a JTable, the attributes

and their values of the selected node (Figure 2):

then, as pointed out in the previous cross-section, it

is possible to edit manually, by the more expert

users, the values of the attributes.

2.3 Update

Once the file is loaded, a series of operations can be

carried out on it as addition or the modification of

nodes Background, NavigationInfo, Sound,

AudioClip and TouchSensor.

In the next subsections the driven procedures

provided by X3Director will be analyzed one by

one.

2.3.1 Navigation and Avatar Parameters

Navigation and Avatar parameters are included in

the NavigationInfo node. In order to open frame

(Figure 3), where it is possible to update such

parameters, it is necessary in a loaded X3D file,

either the presence of a NavigationInfo node to be

modified, or clicking on the Scene or Group node

and to push the AddNavigationInfo button present in

the toolbar of X3Director in order to add a node ex

novo.

Figure 3: NavigationInfo procedure.

2.3.2 Background Parameters

Also for this node, as for the NavigationInfo, the

driven procedure (Figure 4) can be opened in order

to modify an existing Background node or in order

to add a Background node ex novo. Such procedure

allows the user to select three colors for sky and

three for the land through the JColorChooser class

supplied from the Java Swing package.

X3Director provides an interface with a text field

for every cube’s face with relative file browser

button. The image path can be directly put in the

relative text field or it can be obtained by file

browser. The software, moreover,

features a preview

of images selected.

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Figure 4: Background procedure.

2.3.3 Sound Parameters

For the adjustment of sound parameters X3Director

provides a further driven procedure (Figure 6). Here

it is possible to modify the parameters regarding the

ellipsoids representing localization and propagation

of the audio source (it is also possible to listen in

preview the file audio selected) that otherwise have

to be specified in a procedure regarding the

AudioClip node (Figure 5).

Taking up the Sound procedure again,

X3Director gives the possibility to add audio file

with use of TuchSensor node. In this case the audio

will start from the user’s click on the geometry

before selected in the Sound procedure. Once added

the Sound node with TouchSensor it is possible to

add to a further TouchSensor node and respective

node ROUTE required to assume the task of “stop”

to the file audio enabled with a click thanks to the

previous TouchSensor.

Figure 5: AudioClip procedure.

Figure 6: Sound procedure.

3 CONCLUSIONS

The Web represents today a fantastic showcase for

commercial or non-commercial messages. Its

diffusion and inexpensiveness makes it the best way

to obtain visibility and in this scenario it is

fundamental to offer a good Web experience that is

not frustrating and that has a good impact on the

visitors. It is therefore developed X3Director, a

front-end which helps the X3D non-expert users (but

it could also be helpful to expert users) for modeling

navigation and visualization parameters in X3D

environment. The software allows realizing the post-

production phase without any knowledge of X3D

language.

An X3D non-expert user could therefore develop

and deliver a X3D content on the Web by using the

combination 3D authoring software-X3Director.

REFERENCES

Pohja, M., 2003. X3D and VRML Sound Components.

Bouras, Ch., Panagopoulos, A., Tsiatos, Th., 2005.

Advanced in X3D Multi-user Virtual Environments,

Seventh IEEE International Symposium on

Multimedia (ISM’05).

Behr, J., Dahne, P., Roth, M., 2004. Utilizing X3D for

Immersive Environments.

Figueroa, P., Medina, O., Jimenez, R., Martinez, J.,

Albarracin, C., 2005. Extensions for Interactivity and

Retargeting in X3D.

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