Introduction

The complexity of the install depends on what packages you have installed with your system, and what packages may have been installed later.

Most installs are very simple.

Installs for the impatient

Either grab a pre-packaged version of FreeWRL (in rpm format), or grab the source for FreeWRL and try:

  • gunzip FreeWRL-version-tar.gz
  • untar FreeWRL-version.tar
  • cd FreeWRL-version
  • vi vrml.conf and check that it looks ok for your system
  • perl Makefile.PL
  • make install

    Installs for everybody else

    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:

  • Building FreeWRL to run "standalone", without Netscape.
  • Installing Java support.
  • Getting it all to work with Netscape.
  • Adding X3D functionality.
  • Getting it to work with the Polhemus Fastrak 3d, or a Joystick.

    Building FreeWRL as a standalone executable

    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

    0.0 Required Environment (Linux)

    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.

    1.0 OpenGL

    OpenGL is a "standard" on all distributions.

    2.0 Java Install.

    If you do not want Java support, comment out all lines with JAVA in the correct vrml.conf file.

    If you do want Java support, the java compiler, javac must be in your path. the command "which javac" will tell you if you have this installed.

    Java must be version 1.4 or later; the command "java -version" should show which version you have. If you have the wrong version, then compile errors will happen, as some features of Java Version 1.4 and above are used.

    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.

    3.0 FreeWRL Build and Installation

    1. Grab the latest FreeWRL tar file, and untar it.

    2. Verify that the vrml.conf file has good paths for the libraries and includes. Note particularly the possible defines in this file.

      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.

    3. You might need to Install Perl Modules; if you get errors when building FreeWRL, make sure you have the modules requested. (FreeWRL is slowly becoming module independent, but...)

      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

    4. ImageMagick is required for some conversions of graphics files. The "convert" utility is used; this should now be installed with any graphical Linux distribution. If you can't find it, you can always download it from http://www.imagemagick.org

    5. Make the Make file

      perl Makefile.PL

    6. Build/install FreeWRL

      make
      make install (you have to be root of course)

      If you do not 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.

    7. Run the numbered tests.

      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.

    As of FreeWRL 1.11, X3D parsing is built in. It requires the "Expat" module, which is standard on all modern Linux distros. Without the Expat module, freewrl will fail.

    If you require expat, find it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/