Most installs are very simple.
Linux and MacOS-X are the build platforms for FreeWRL 0.38 and beyond.
Mac OS-X users: Congradulations! You now can compile and run FreeWRL. We have put specific install directions here.
Solaris users: Congradulations are in order for you, too! Alex Prengel of MIT has put specific install directions here, and more recently, Alberto Dubuc at Siemens.com has made changes to the source code, and has added two README's to the top level directory. (files README.RTS_Sun and README.SunCompilation)
This install is divided up into the following sections:
This is the place to start. Once it runs, you can configure more options for FreeWRL to use, like Netscape Plugin functionality.
You can get FreeWRL from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/freewrl/
You can also access the cvs repository. The way to do it is explained at:
- http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=9120
Your Linux system requires some "development" RPMS - look for the following list. (note: rpm -qa | grep freetype2 will list all freetype2 rpms installed)
Thanks to Leandro Dias da Silva, the following rpms were required for Connectiva Linux:
XFree86-GL, XFree86-GL-devel, XFree86-GLU, XFree86-GLU-devel, freetype, freetype-devel, freetype2, freetype2-devel, libpng, libpng-devel, libjpeg, libjpeg-devel, and perl-base.
OpenGL is a "standard" on all distributions.
The java compiler, javac must be in your path. the command "which javac" will tell you if you have this installed.
If you do not have java on your system, or it is not on your Linux distribution CDs in RPM format, Java can be found at http://www.blackdown.org.
FreeType version 2 has been in distributions for years; FreeWRL now uses it. Check that you have the library installed; the command "ldconfig -p | grep freetype" will print the path, if it is installed. If you have an older distribution, you can get a new version of FreeType from http://www.freetype.org.
Note: you may have to modify the FREEWRL_INC line in vrml.conf to point to the path for FreeType2 header files. eg, for Slackware 8.1, you may wish to add -I/usr/X11R6/include/freetype2 and -I/usr/X11R6/include/freetype2/freetype to this line.
Installing these modules is a no-brainer; just untar
each module as root, then go into the directory, and
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install (you have to be root of course)
If you do not<\b> want to install freewrl, you will have to set up the "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" correctly, to show freewrl where the libraries are. The file "runme-standalone" is one example of what to do.
There are quite a few tests in the "tests" directory.
Run all of the numbered files (and any others that you want!) in the tests directory. Note that some use javascript, so you will be testing javascript, too.
4.0 Getting it all to work with Netscape/Mozilla/Konqueror, etc. Mozilla/Netscape: If FreeWRL was built correctly, then the Netscape/Mozilla Plugin was installed in the browser plugins directory. Stop and start your browser, and enter "about:plugins" in the url entry box. You should see the FreeWRL plugin listed.
Konqueror: invoke the "settings" dropdown menu, then go and click on "netscape plugins", and import the plugins. (check the build directory in vrml.conf to determine exactly where the npfreewrl.so file is)
5.0 X3D compatibility.
5.1) Go to the x3d directory, and follow the instructions.