Installing Cyberview on Your Server

Obtaining Cyberview

Binaries are available for a number of platforms:

[I will also release source to qualified individuals. Send me the URL for Cyberview-X, which is distributed in source form with W3Kit, running on your server.]

Server Requirements

HTTP: Cyberview works with any CGI/1.0 or 1.1 compatible HTTP server, such as the latest versions of NCSA httpd and CERN httpd.

Graphics: Cyberview can use either X11 or Quick Renderman graphics.

NOTE: The current version of Cyberview requires access to a display server to perform off-screen rendering (this will be fixed in the next version!). If your HTTP server machine doesn't have a display attached to it, you'll need to set the DISPLAY variable in the configuration script to point to a X11 server that Cyberview can use.

(In the case of Quick Renderman graphics, the HTTP daemon must be run in standalone mode from /usr/lib/NextPrinter/lpd.children.)

Perl: When it first loads up a template document, Cyberview converts all of the inlined 3D data files into plain OOGL (its native display format). The WebOOGL-to-OOGL conversion script supplied with Cyberview requires Perl 4.

Configuring Cyberview

  1. Editing. After unpacking the distribution, edit the main configuration script cgi-bin/cyberview3d-app.cgi. You can support arbitrary 3D formats by adding conversion scripts to the CVFORMATS table. Next, you'll need to edit a few lines in each of the scripts cgi-bin/cyberview3d-get.cgi and cgi-bin/cyberview3d-tmp.cgi. Finally, if desired, a site-wide banner can be placed in cyberview3d/menu.html.

  2. Installing. Copy all the files from cgi-bin into your server's /cgi-bin directory, and move the cyberview3d directory into your server's /apps directory (create one in the server's root directory if necessary). Make sure that the HTTP daemon has permission to write in its new /apps/cyberview3d/tmp directory. (NeXTSTEP users may also need to install the programs from bin onto their systems.)

  3. Bootstrapping. Run the newly installed script /cgi-bin/cyberview3d-app.cgi from the command line. This should create the bootstrap 3D document /apps/cyberview3d/interface.html on your server. (If you need to run the script a second time, you'll have to delete this bootstrap document first; otherwise you'll get the error message ``W3Kit is refusing to overwrite the existing installation.'')

Now you can test the installation using an HTML 2.0 compatible Web browser (such as X Mosaic, MacWeb, or Netscape). Load /apps/cyberview3d/interface.html into the browser, and enter /apps/cyberview3d/acme.3dhtml as the name of the template file. Pressing the LOAD button should produce a 3D page.

License

The Cyberview 3D Document Generator is Copyright © 1995 by Paul Burchard and the Geometry Center, and is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See the W3Kit License for more details.

Cyberview Manual