DESCRIPTION:
3DHome opens a screen and shows you a ray-traced room with 4 lamps and a
radio. When you click on any of these appliances, it turns it On or Off,
on the screen AND in the real world if you have EZHome and an X10 interface.
To look more realistic, both the On and Off states have been ray-traced.
Additionally, if you use an external X10 controller or RF remote to turn
something On or Off, the images will be updated as well.
The same happens if you use VoiceShell to control your lights/appliances
with voice commands.
REQUIREMENTS:
o jAnimator (Aminet:util/wb/JAnimator.lha)
To display/update the images
o GFX card using P96 or CyberGFX (for jAnimator)
o MUI (for EZHomePrefs) and MUI:PSI (to open the public screen)
o AmigaOS3.x (might work with 2.x but not tested)
Optional:
o EZHome (ftp://ftp.iolinc.net/hines_j/web/EZHomeDemo.lha)
(registration recommended for full functionality)
You can test 3DHome without EZHome, but the reason why I made 3DHome is
precisely to control those X10 modules sold at www.X10.com and RadioShack.
For X10 distributors in Europe, go to http://www.x-10europe.com/listof.htm
INSTALLATION:
Read the HOW-TO-INSTALL.doc file.
USAGE:
Double-clicking on EZHOME:3DHome should:
-open a new screen,
-start EZHome and
-put clear images on top of each appliance.
A single click on any of the appliances should switch it ON or OFF.
If you have registered EZHome, switching an appliance ON or OFF with a remote
should update the image after a few seconds.
Double-clicking on EZHOME:3DHome again should:
-quit EZHome,
-remove the EZHOME: assign,
-remove all the images,
-close the 3DHome screen.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
If it didn't work, take a look at 3DHome with a text editor, save a copy of
it and remove the >NIL: redirections then try again to see what fails.
Otherwise, clicking on any device should send a rexx command to EZHome and
then update the image.
SHELL USAGE:
Four commands are used by 3DHome and EZHome and can be used from the shell
if needed:
Switch is the main command used by all the components.
SYNTAX: Switch NAME/A, STATE/A, (UPDATE/S)
NAME: Lamp, Halogen, Sink, Spot or Radio.
STATE: ON or OFF
UPDATE: Use this to change the image without sending the command to EZHome.
EXAMPLE: 1.RAM:EZHOME> Switch Radio ON UPDATE
AllLightsOn, AllLightsOff and AllUnitsOff are shortcuts doing exactly what
their name says, and were created mainly to allow EZHome to change the images
when one of these commands is received through ARexx or the CM11a.
The syntax is: AllLightsOn (UPDATE/S)
KNOWN BUGS:
-3DHome doesn't read the "STATUS" output from EZHome, therefore when the
program starts, all the images are set to OFF. For now you'll have to click
on what should be ON or issue the Switch xyz ON UPDATE command manually.
-The DIM function is ignored, mainly to avoid ray-tracing hundreds of images,
and because a single click wouldn't work for that, requiring a dimmer on
the picture, not worth it.
-Avoid sending too many commands too quickly as RX might get confused or hang.
-The first version of jAnimator wasn't designed for this type of application
but it gave me this idea and made it possible to implement.
The only way to remove an image is by breaking its process, which gets
complicated if they all have the same name as 3DHome would have to track the
process number as well. For now I use renamed copies of jAnimator which are
easy to "kill" individually. This means using an extra 160kb of storage on
the disk. Additionally, under the same or a different name, each instance of
jAnimator is also taking up RAM for each the process and its image.
This isn't perfect but it works.
THE FUTURE...
-An HTML and/or Multiview version of 3DHome for Amigas without GFX card.
-Perhaps a VRML version (if I find a way to get feedback from objects).
-Improve the startup procedure to query the current state of each module and
load the appropriate image.
-If the next version of jAnimator allows it, only one instance of the program
will be loaded in memory.
-A different sky image in the window, changing according to the clock or light
intensity for those who have the X10 light sensors or HawkEye.
-Support for sound. Functionality is my main priority, but why not.
-Some kind of installation procedure to make it work "out of the box".
-A complete set of appliance images to let users pick the ones they need
with a configuration panel.
-Various background images like 2 or 4 rooms at once, side or top views.
-Livecam support. (To generate the background in realtime)
-Any suggestion is welcome.
COPYRIGHTS:
3DHome is ©2000 Alex Carmona. You are free to copy, distribute and modify it.
The included WBRun and parm.library are ©1995 Silvain Rougier/Pierre Carrette
and came from Aminet with the demo of the excellent BrowserII.
When configured properly, BrowserII is a real marvel and is useful on PCs as
well (using WinUAE) as it navigates through directories and open/copy/delete
files many times faster than Windows98 very own Explorer! Give it a try.
Questions, comments, suggestions, flames? Email:AmigaTheWorld.net
DISCLAIMER:
Whatever goes wrong, it's all YOUR fault.
============================================================
Amiga... Because real wizards don't settle for wooden sticks
============================================================
|