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Unpublished rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. iii Contents Atmosphere Builder Basics About Atmosphere Builder Creating and opening worlds Working with views Navigating in wireframe views Navigating in Browser view Using the Actor object Using palettes ............................. 1 ........................... 1 .......................... 3 .................................... 2 ............................. 5 .................................. 6 .......................... 8 .......................................... 7 .................................... 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Saving and publishing worlds Closing and quitting Building Worlds About building worlds Adding objects to a world Specifying where to add objects Using the Object Inspector palette Creating floors Creating walls Creating boxes Creating stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Creating slabs and trislabs Creating cones and columns Combining objects Exporting and publishing objects Working with Objects About working with objects Using the Objects palette Selecting objects Moving objects Deleting objects Duplicating objects Grouping objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Using the Tool Inspector palette Viewing selected objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Aligning and connecting objects iv CONTENTS Locking objects Resizing objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Showing and hiding objects Transforming objects Adding Textures and Colors About surface textures and colors Importing textures Applying textures Applying colors Editing textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Rendering surface textures and colors Deleting surface textures Adding Lighting About lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Creating luminous surfaces Editing luminous surfaces Lighting a world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Creating effects with JavaScript About working with JavaScript Attaching a script to a world Using the Atmosphere JavaScript API Connecting Worlds, Users, and the Web Creating gateways Administering worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Creating links to Web sites Embedding the Atmosphere Browser plug-in in a Web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Building Avatars About avatars Creating avatars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Making avatars available to users Index 1 Atmosphere Builder Basics About Atmosphere Builder The Atmosphere Builder application provides tools for building virtual three-dimensional worlds and publishing them on the Web. Users can explore published worlds on the Web using the Atmosphere Browser. The experience of exploring a world is much like a video game, except that Atmosphere Builder worlds can be linked together and explored over the Internet at realistic speeds, with high resolution, realistic lighting effects, and in full color. Users that are exploring the same world can see representations of each other called avatars, and converse with one another by typing messages in a chat window. Creating and opening worlds When you start Atmosphere Builder for the first time, you will see a variety of palettes and a menu bar. The menus at the top of your screen provide access to commands, and the palettes contain tools and options for building a 3D world. When you create a new world or open an existing world, a document window appears on your screen. You can have only one document window open at a time. To create a new world: Choose File > New. To open a world: 1 Choose File > Open. 2 Select the name of the file you want to open, and click Open. Note: You can only open Atmosphere files using the Open command. For information on importing Viewpoint files, see "Importing objects" on page 14. 2 Atmosphere Builder Basics Working with views The document window displays a view of the objects in a world. You can choose one of three wireframe views to see a blueprint representation of your world called a wireframe; or you can choose Browser view to see your world with its surface textures, colors, and lighting. Browser view shows you how your world will appear when viewed on the Web in the Atmosphere Browser. About views Building a world is easier when you understand how to use the different views. If you've ever worked in a 3D modeling application or sketched out plans for a building project, you're already familiar with the concept of using views. Atmosphere Builder provides four ways to view a world. The three wireframe views show you the structure of the world and how the objects are connected to each other; the fourth view shows a preview of the world as it will appear in the Atmosphere Browser with surface textures, colors, and lighting applied to objects. Top view Shows the top of the wireframe from a position directly above it. When you first create or open a world, this is the initial view in the document window. Side view Shows the side of the wireframe. You'll frequently switch between the Top view and Side view when placing and aligning objects in Atmosphere Builder. Isometric view Shows the wireframe from an oblique angle that is above and to the side of it. Isometric view is useful for getting an overview of where objects are in the world. ADOBE ATMOSPHERE 3 User Guide Browser view Shows a rendered, three-dimensional view of your world that you can move through and explore. You use Browser view to apply surface textures and colors to the objects you created in wireframe view, and to adjust the lighting in the world. Keep in mind that what you see in Browser view is what users will see on the Web. B A C D A. Browser view B. Top view C. Side view D. Isometric view Selecting a view You can use the Views palette or the Views menu to select a view. To display the Views palette: Choose Window > Views. To select a view: Do one of the following: · Click a view in the Views palette. · Choose a view from the View menu. Navigating in wireframe views Navigating is essential to building a world. You can scroll, rotate, magnify, and reduce a view to better see the portion of the wireframe you want to work on. 4 Atmosphere Builder Basics Scrolling wireframe views If the area of the wireframe you want to work on is not visible in the document window, you can scroll to bring that area into view. To scroll a view: Select the pan tool ( ), and drag in the document window. Rotating wireframe views You can rotate a wireframe view in the document window to see the objects from a different perspective. Keep in mind that rotating the view does not change the orientation of individual objects, only the angle at which you see the wireframe as whole. For information on rotating individual objects, see "Rotating objects" on page 40. To rotate a view: 1 Select the rotate objects tool ( ). 2 Drag to the left in the document window to rotate the view clockwise; drag to the right to rotate the view counter-clockwise. Magnifying and reducing wireframe views You can magnify your view to see the wireframe in greater detail, or you can reduce your view to see a larger portion of the wireframe. Keep in mind that zooming in and out does not change the actual size of the objects, only the magnification at which you see them. For information on changing the scale of objects, see "Scaling and distorting objects" on page 41. To zoom in and out by dragging: 1 Select the zoom tool ( ). 2 Drag to the right in the document window to zoom in, or to the left to zoom out. Your view zooms in and out on a continuous range of percentages based on how much you drag. To zoom in by clicking: Select the zoom in tool ( to magnify. ), and click a point in the wireframe around which you want ADOBE ATMOSPHERE 5 User Guide To zoom out by clicking: Select the zoom out tool ( to reduce magnification. ), and click a point in the wire ...