Iso/iec jtc 1/sc 29 N

Scene related information (spatial and temporal relationships)

The following scene related nodes are used in ARAF: ARContent, Background, Background2D, CameraCalibration, Group, Inline, Layer2D, Layer3D, Layout, NavigationInfo, OrderedGroup, LoImg, ReImgProxy, ReImgServer, ReImgComp, Switch, Transform, Transform2D, Viewpoint, Viewport, Form.

Background

XSD Description

Functionality and semantics

As specified in ISO/IEC 14772-1:1997, section 6.5.

The Background node is used to specify a colour backdrop that simulates ground and sky, as well as a background texture, or panorama, that is placed behind all geometry in the scene and in front of the ground and sky. Background nodes are specified in the local coordinate system and are affected by the accumulated rotation of their ancestors as described below.

Background nodes are bindable nodes as described in 4.6.10, Bindable children nodes. There exists a Background stack, in which the top-most Background on the stack is the currently active Background. To move a Background to the top of the stack, a TRUE value is sent to the set_bind eventIn. Once active, the Background is then bound to the browsers view. A FALSE value sent to set_bind removes the Background from the stack and unbinds it from the browser's view. More detail on the bind stack is described in 4.6.10, Bindable children nodes.

The backdrop is conceptually a partial sphere (the ground) enclosed inside of a full sphere (the sky) in the local coordinate system with the viewer placed at the centre of the spheres. Both spheres have infinite radius and each is painted with concentric circles of interpolated colour perpendicular to the local Y-axis of the sphere. The Background node is subject to the accumulated rotations of its ancestors' transformations. Scaling and translation transformations are ignored. The sky sphere is always slightly farther away from the viewer than the ground partial sphere causing the ground to appear in front of the sky where they overlap.

The skyColor field specifies the colour of the sky at various angles on the sky sphere. The first value of the skyColor field specifies the colour of the sky at 0.0 radians representing the zenith (i.e., straight up from the viewer). The skyAngle field specifies the angles from the zenith in which concentric circles of colour appear. The zenith of the sphere is implicitly defined to be 0.0 radians, the natural horizon is at /2 radians, and the nadir (i.e., straight down from the viewer) is at radians. skyAngle is restricted to non-decreasing values in the range [0.0, ]. There shall be one more skyColor value than there are skyAngle values. The first colour value is the colour at the zenith, which is not specified in the skyAngle field. If the last skyAngle is less than pi, then the colour band between the last skyAngle and the nadir is clamped to the last skyColor. The sky colour is linearly interpolated between the specified skyColor values.

The groundColor field specifies the colour of the ground at the various angles on the ground partial sphere. The first value of the groundColor field specifies the colour of the ground at 0.0 radians representing the nadir (i.e., straight down from the user). The groundAngle field specifies the angles from the nadir that the concentric circles of colour appear. The nadir of the sphere is implicitly defined at 0.0 radians. groundAngle is restricted to non-decreasing values in the range [0.0, /2]. There shall be one more groundColor value than there are groundAngle values. The first colour value is for the nadir which is not specified in the groundAngle field. If the last groundAngle is less than /2, the region between the last groundAngle and the equator is non-existant. The ground colour is linearly interpolated between the specified groundColor values.

The backUrl, bottomUrl, frontUrl, leftUrl, rightUrl, and topUrl fields specify a set of images that define a background panorama between the ground/sky backdrop and the scene's geometry. The panorama consists of six images, each of which is mapped onto a face of an infinitely large cube contained within the backdrop spheres and centred in the local coordinate system. The images are applied individually to each face of the cube. On the front, back, right, and left faces of the cube, when viewed from the origin looking down the negative Z-axis with the Y-axis as the view up direction, each image is mapped onto the corresponding face with the same orientation as if the image were displayed normally in 2D (backUrl to back face, frontUrl to front face, leftUrl to left face, and rightUrl to right face). On the top face of the cube, when viewed from the origin looking along the +Y-axis with the +Z-axis as the view up direction, the topUrl image is mapped onto the face with the same orientation as if the image were displayed normally in 2D. On the bottom face of the box, when viewed from the origin along the negative Y-axis with the negative Z-axis as the view up direction, the bottomUrl image is mapped onto the face with the same orientation as if the image were displayed normally in 2D.