Use of 3D Models in Standard Web Browsers
If you do not see a black area on your screen with a model of a statue inside, then your web browser is unable to display our models. To run our 3D models, you must use Windows 7 with the latest version of one of the following browsers:
How to Use Our Models
If you can view the model but are having difficulty in manipulating it, here's the idea: when you open a web page with one of our 3D models, you will instantly find a low-resolution version of the model on the page. What you want to do is use this low-resolution model as a navigational aid to set up the view you want of the full, high-resolution model. The latter is safely protected on our server and cannot be accessed by end users. In any case, it's very big, so end-users wouldn't normally want to download it anyway because that would take many minutes or even hours. Instead, you will use the low-resolution model on your web page to define the view of the full model you want. Once you've done that, you automatically and instantaneously get the exact same 2D view of the full model on your screen where the low-resolution model had been.
It sounds harder than it is. All you have to do is:
- first, below the black box in which the model opens, left-click once on the tool you wish to use (Rotate, Pan, Zoom, Light, Reset).
- next, left-click once inside the black box and hold down the mouse to apply your tool to the low-resolution 3D model. For example, if you just clicked on Pan, when you click anywhere inside the black box and hold down the mouse and move it, you cause the low-resolution 3D model to start getting moving around the screen. If you make a mistake, just click Reset to start over.
- once you have positioned the low-resolution model with the view you want, let go of the mouse. In a couple of seconds or less (depending on your bandwidth), a high resolution rendering appears inside the box.
Note that you can use several tools in rapid succession. Thus, you can rotate to the desired position, zoom in, change the lighting, and then let go of the mouse. Only when you let go of the mouse for a couple of seconds will you receive the high-resolution rendering.
Experience shows that you will quickly get the hang of how to use the tools to get the view you want.
Copyright © 2009-13. Last updated: March 22, 2013.
The Digital Sculpture Project is an activity of the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory.