Controlling the RealiMation Internet Plugin

Left button - start / stop Animation Right button - Menu

When the mouse pointer is over a hotlink (pointer changes to a hand) click the left button to activate the link.

Flying Around

The flight path is determined by the author of the RealiBase - if there is a free form camera, e.g. from the menu choose Select Camera then Free Camera, then you can fly wherever you wish to around the world by holding the ALT key down and clicking then moving the mouse inside the RealiMation window.

Mouse Controls: Left Button

Hold button down & move mouse to the left	Look left (turn the viewpoint to the left)
Hold button down & move mouse to the right	Look right (turn the viewpoint to the right)
Hold button down & move mouse UP	Move into the picture
Hold button down & move mouse DOWN	Move out of the picture

Mouse Controls: Right Button

Hold button down & move mouse to the left	Pans to the left
Hold button down & move mouse to the right	Pans to the right
Hold button down & move mouse UP	Pans upwards above the view
Hold button down & move mouse DOWN	Pans downwards below the view

As you pan either up or down you can then tap the left mouse key to tilt the camera viewpoint down or up to allow you to look onto the view from a different angle. If you are panning downwards then the left mouse button will tilt the camera upwards, and if you are panning upwards then the left mouse button will tilt the camera downwards.

Mouse Controls: Left & Right Buttons together

Position the mouse in the top half of the window and hold both buttons down	Rotates the camera downwards
Position the mouse in the bottom half of the window and hold both buttons down	Rotates the camera upwards
Position the mouse in the left half of the window and hold both buttons down	Rotates the camera to the left
Position the mouse in the right half of the window and hold both buttons down	Rotates the camera to the right

Note: Holding down the Control key as you move the mouse will give you finer control over the camera movements. Holding down the Shift key will give you coarser (accelerated) control. Remember you must always have the ALT key held down in order to fly around.

Other Flight Models

In addition to the Normal flight model described above there are two other flight models supported. These are the Ground Flight model and the Object Orbit model.

The Ground Flight model is identical to Normal flight except that when flying forwards / backwards you remain the same height above the ground regardless of whether you are pointing down at the ground or up at the sky. Using Ground Flight you can look down on the top of objects while flying straight over them.

The Object Orbit flight model allows you to orbit around an object by clicking with the left button to spin the object around. This flight model works best on RealiBases consisting of single objects as the centre of the orbit is the centre of the RealiBase.

Terrain Following / Sliding Camera

The terrain following and sliding camera options can be used in conjunction with any of the above flight models.

The terrain following camera fixes the camera to follow the lie of the terrain. For example, if you have selected a 'free camera' i.e. one that is not attached to an object in the world, as you fly around, the camera will follow the landscape, moving up hills, down vallies etc.

The sliding camera 'slides' the camera along a solid surface. For example, if you fly into a wall at an angle then the camera will slide along the surface until it reaches the end.

NB: Your camera will need to be at an angle (flying straight at a wall will not allow the camera to slide), and the angle will determine the direction of the slide

Hotlinks

A very useful feature of the RealiMation plugin is the ability to execute "Hotlinks". Hotlinks are associated with objects within the RealiBase and describe files, executables, or WWW pages. They are activated either by flying into the object with the link, or by moving the cursor over an object and clicking the left mouse button.

The status bar at the bottom of the Netscape's window will show the hotlink text of the object currently underneath the cursor.

RealiMation interprets the hotlink string as follows:

If the link specifies a World Wide Web URL (address) then Netscape will be asked to load the file.
If the link is a RealiBase file, that file is loaded.
If the link is some kind of document, the Windows application associated with that document is executed, and the file loaded. For example, "readme.txt" will cause Notepad to run up, with the contents of the file "readme.txt".

The possible applications of this feature are numerous. You could create a 3D program manager, for example - using only the editor and RealiView. It is the RealiBase that defines the program manager!

Another application is to link different RealiBases together. For example, the interior of an office might be loaded when you fly through the door from the outside. You might even make a RealiBase browser, which is itself a RealiBase.

Note: The stand alone viewer RealiView will accept executable files as hotlinks. However, for security reasons, no hotlinks to executables are activated from the Netscape plugin.