MAKING OBJECTS - Some General Issues

SIZE

One of the most difficult parts in creating is judging the proportions of an object. The easy part is that the object must not exceed 10x10x10 meters - that's 10 meters wide ( 5 meters to either side of 0 ), 10 meters tall ( from a bottom of -1.75 ) & 10 meters deep ( from 1 or 0 & going back to -9 or -10 meters respectively ).

How do you make sure that your object is not going to exceed the guidelines? There are 2 ways :

Make the Mall Scale your friend - which you should do anyway. It is an easy tool to use. What happens with the Mall Scale is that you upload your wrl file & texture from your comp to view your masterpiece in 3D. The Scale includes guide lines that demarcate the correct boundaries by maximum size, plus a bunch of cool tools to view & check your wrl - change the background color of the Scale to make your wrl easier to see, eliminate some of the lines so you can take clean screenshots; & by using various viewers, manipulate the level & angles of viewing, which is helpful when you're examining your work & when you're shooting your thumbs.

There's a way of quick-checking your work & that's to make a box 10 x 0.001 x 10 & place it at 0 -1.75 -5 & make it semi-transparent. This saves the trouble of having to go back & forth to the Mall Scale to check your work while you're creating. Just remember to take it out before doing your thumb shoot & uploading!

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PLACEMENT

This can be a bit tricky at times.

FRONT TO BACK : The basic rule is that the front of your object must not verge further forward than the 1 meter mark ( front to back ). The reason for this has to do with dropping objects in 3D - in order for an object to drop in front of you rather than around you such that you might get trapped inside it, the object has to be created in such a way as to drop sufficiently in front. Generally, you can forget the 1 meter mark rule & use the 0 meter mark rule instead ( makes calculations a little easier ). So for objects, in terms of the front to back numbers, all of your numbers will be negative ones ( that's the 3rd number in the translation X X X numbers ). For paintings & wall dividers that are not too thick, you can center your object at 0 rather than at infintessimal decimal points behind 0.

SIDE TO SIDE : Simply 0 ( that's the 1st number in the translation X X X numbers ). Center your object at 0 so that it doesn't end up dropping in 3D off to the side - important for users of objects who are lining themselves up in their homes & clubs to drop an object in front of them where they want it to be.

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The ENCLOSURE

Basicially the rule is simple : just make certain that your object doesn't exceed the 10x10 size requirement & that all doorways are about 2 meters wide. Also, if you are making a room, it cannot be completely enclosed because users cannot navigate inside an object if they can't grab onto the exterior world ( home or club ). This is the reason I leave plenty of blank space in my modular series pieces - gaps at floor & top of wall levels, no panes of glass in the windows, ceilings & roofs with gaps. Have a look at the 'Grand Bathroom' in the club - it has just enough blank space to limit the possibility of getting stuck inside. Basically, you need to be able to grab onto the existing world in order to manoever. That's why it's so important to provide those gaps - they make that possible.

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OH NO ! DOWN WE GO ... -1.75 here we come !

When you are creating a complex object ( anything that involves more than 1 piece ), the best place to begin creating is with the piece that is going to rest at that bottom level & work your way up from there, although one can create an object at any level, then Group it & translate it as a whole so that its bottom rests at the required -1.75.

Let's outline a basic procedure for locating your pieces starting at the bottom :

1st : put in your bottom piece - say it is 0.5 high - it goes in therefore at -1.5 ( translation X -1.5 X ) & extends from -1.75 to -1.25.

2nd : put in your next piece up - say this one is 0.5 high as well - begin your calculation from where the bottom piece leaves off - since the bottom piece at 0.5 high begins at -1.75 & ends at -1.25, begin the calculation for the 2nd piece at -1.25 - therefore, it would go in at -1 ( translation X -1 X ). Essentially, -1.25 becomes the new bottom number for your calculation.

3rd : just so you can see where this is going - let's have this piece be 1 meter high - begin your calculation from where the 2nd piece leaves off - since the 2nd piece at 0.5 high begins at -1.25 & ends at -0.75, begin the calculation for the 3rd piece at -0.75 - therefore, it would go in at ... -0.25 & extend through from -0.75 to 0.25 ( translation X -0.25 X ) which covers 1 full meter.

Of course this example is an easy one but it illustrates the main principles. And yep, you gotta learn how to count backwards LOL! ... more VRML craziness ahead !