[geovrml] Native GeoVRML support for Cortona 3

[Martin Reddy <reddy@AI.SRI.COM>]

Some great news from the Parallel Graphics folks - native support for GeoVRML
nodes in the latest Cortona VRML browser! See below...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 20:33:42 +0300
From: Mr.Parker <parker@parallelgraphics.com>
To: VRML@ai.sri.com mailing list <www-vrml@web3d.org>
Subject: [www-vrml] Native GeoVRML support for Cortona 3

Native GeoVRML support for Cortona 3 is ready.

We have ported all GeoVRML 1.0 scripts to C++. This scripts works under
experimental and undocumented Cortona Native Scripts interface.

All you need is use special urls in your scenes:
http://www.parallelgraphics.com/vrml/proto/GeoVRML/1.0/protos/GeoLocation.wr
l
Also we have
http://www.parallelgraphics.com/vrml/proto/GeoVRML/1.0/protos_debug/GeoLocat
ion.wrl
set of protos (with all debug fields setted to TRUE)

We also have added new node GeoSplineElevationGrid that uses script from
GeoElevationGrid, but has Cortona's SplineIndexedFaseSet inside.

Our protos is the same as the original GeoVRML protos, but has special
string in url field of scripts:

url

      "nativescript:
        libuid=Cortona.GeoVRML;

file-win32-x86=http://www.parallelgraphics.com/vrml/proto/GeoVRML/1.0/cortge
o.dll;
        scriptid=GeoViewpoint;",
      "GeoLocation.class"
     ]

We dont touch "GeoLocation.class" string, so this proto must work on any
VRML browser that supports Java and multiple url's (in case that original
GeoVRML 1.0 is installed).

All protos are gzipped.

Benefits of this implementation of GeoVRML:
1) increased speed
2) GeoVRML for Cortona does not require installation (!)

First time when you see GeoVRML scene with Cortona, cortgeo.dll (130K) will
be automatically downloaded and installed on your computer.

Our simple demo available at
http://www.parallelgraphics.com/vrml/geo/cities.wrl

We need some help with testing.
And we wait for your words and questions. Its very important for us.

Thank you,
parker