Top	Who & What	Fish	Images & Videos	Mail	Models	Physics	References	* Help!

Help!   Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Questions and contributions are welcome, mail them to brutzman@nps.navy.mil

• How do I upgrade my web browser to handle 3D graphics?

  We recommend installing one of these free browser plugins. Available for Windows and Macintosh.

  Karmanaut mirror site: CosmoPlayer 2.1.1 plugin for Netscape or Internet Explorer.

  Cortona 2.0 plugin for Netscape or Internet Explorer.

  CosmoPlayer 2.1.1 plugin for Netscape or Internet Explorer.

  WorldView 2.1 plugin (called VRML 2.0 Viewer for Internet Explorer) via Microsoft's Explorer update page.

  WorldView 2.1 plugin for Netscape or Internet Explorer.

  More information about VRML (perhaps too much!) is available on Don Brutzman's Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) page.

• How do I learn more about moving around in 3D graphics?

  We recommend playing the Chomp! game which teaches you the different ways to navigate inside 3D graphics worlds.

  Chomp!

• Where do I see the real kelp tank? How do I get there? What does it cost?

  Please see the Monterey Bay Aquarium's E-quarium pages.

• Can I put a local copy of this website on my computer?

  Yes. If you wish to visit the site repeatedly, or have the content display more quickly, this website can also be downloaded and installed locally on your machine. The Windows and Unix versions of the site and video files have identical content. When these archives are extracted, the compressed files are placed in a new subdirectory named kelp/ so that they won't overwrite any of your other files.

  Latest update was 1 December 1999.

  • Windows: kelp.zip (10.7 MB) and kelp.videos.zip (28.6 MB)

  • Unix: kelp.tar.gz (10.6 MB) and kelp.videos.tar.gz (28.6 MB)

  You may need to download an unzipping utility to extract these compressed files if you want them on your own machine. The 32-bit version of PKunzip for Windows can be obtained at PKWare Inc. - please use a recent version to ensure that complete filenames (e.g. kelp.html) aren't mangled.

• Can I use or copy any of this material?

  Yes, you are welcome to employ any of this work, but for nonprofit use only. All unattributed photos were taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Kelp Forest Exhibit by Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) students. If there is a further photo attribution on the Fish page, you will need to include that too.

  Please credit these efforts with the following attribution:

    Kelp Forest Exhibit Modeling Project, Brutzman, Donald P. et al.,
    Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey California, January 1999.  Available at
    http://web.nps.navy.mil/~brutzman/kelp
  

  We are happy to include appropriate links to other projects in the References page. Please let us know about your efforts too.

• Where can I see a demo of the virtual kelp tank?

  We keep track of public demos on the top page.

• How were the 3D graphics models created using VRML?

  Nearly all VRML modeling was performed manually. Most CS4470 students learned the fundamentals of VRML programming in a one-hour course, and then learned advanced VRML techniques this quarter as part of our CS4470 3D Image Synthesis course.

  Tim McClean's shark was developed using the CosmoWorlds authoring suite from Cosmo Software.

  Our most essential tool is a VRML syntax checker. Vorlon by Michael St. Hippolyte of Trapezium Development Company is a command line java application which validates the format of VRML 97 files and prints out any errors/warnings encountered. Freeware. This is really only useful for experienced VRML authors. Available at www.trapezium.com/vorlon.html

• How do I contribute models, code or other stuff?

  Short answer: just send it in to the kelp mail list (which is archived and publicly visible).

  There is also a kelp anonymous ftp site (password = your e-mail address) at ftp://ftp.stl.nps.navy.mil/incoming/kelp/ for larger files. Please tell brutzman@nps.navy.mil when you put stuff there.

  Please note the pedigree of your material, since most of it will be in the public domain. In other words, copyrighted work must include proper permissions for public/educational/nonprofit use.

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for this home page is http://web.nps.navy.mil/~brutzman/kelp/help.html