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| The CRG Virtual Environment (CVE aka
Massive 2)
CVE is the principle visualisation software used in this project. The main CVE page at Nottingham University has links to background information on CVE. Further information can be found (in postscript format) within the CVE introduction documents (part 1 and part 2). A comprehensive guide to setting up, running and authoring 3D worlds using CVE can be found in the CVE Tutorial, which is relevant for versions of CVE up to and including version 13. In order to participate in an online CVE test a web-based setup wizard has been produced. Catering for users running CVE on Windows NT, these interactive web pages create the commands necessary for a user to set up CVE itself in addition to connecting and hosting CVE worlds. By filling in the details on each web page in order, client side Javascript creates the commands that need to be invoked specifically for the individual user's system setup. These pages arose out of the need for a simpler way to invoke CVE on Windows NT 4.0 systems. The initial environment settings for CVE are stored in a batch file called NTEnv.bat. The settings produced setup web page need to be added into the NTEnv.bat file, to override the initial default values. The discovery of values for environment variables (e.g. 'where is CVE installed?') is not automated, this would require the web page to search a user's local filestore, which is not permitted in web browsers because of security issues. Instead the wizard asks for specific pieces of information that it then uses to generate new content for the user's NTEnv.bat file. The default data in the wizard also indicated to the user that appropriate values that they should be entering.
Phillips, P. and Rodden, T., (2001), Multi-Authoring Virtual Words Via the World Wide Web, Special issue of Interacting with Computers: Interfaces for the Active Web, Volume 13, number 3, pp. 401-426, February 2001. |
