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The SoVRMLSphereSensor maps pointing device (e.g. mouse or wand) motion into spherical rotation about the center of its local space.

<font color="#0000FF">NOTE:</font> This class does not exist in Open Inventor 10.0 and later.

VRML97 SPECIFICATION

This section describes the expected behavior of the node in a conforming VRML97 browser application. In some cases, the application is responsible for implementing portions of the expected behavior. Open Inventor viewer classes and IVF classes implement some of the application behaviors.

This section may reference portions of the VRML97 specification that are not present in this help file. The complete VRML97 spec is available at http://www.web3d.org.

The SoVRMLSphereSensor maps pointing device (e.g. mouse or wand) motion into spherical rotation about the center of its local space. SoVRMLSphereSensor uses the descendant geometry of its parent node to determine if a hit occurs. The feel of the rotation is as if you were rolling a ball.

The enabled exposed field enables and disables the SoVRMLSphereSensor - if true, the sensor reacts appropriately to user events, if false, the sensor does not track user input or send output events. If enabled receives a false event and isActive is true, the sensor becomes disabled and deactivated, and outputs an isActive false event. If enabled receives a true event the sensor is enabled and ready for user activation.

The SoVRMLSphereSensor generates events if the pointing device is activated while over any descendant geometry nodes of its parent group and then moved while activated. Typically, the pointing device is a 2D device such as a mouse. The pointing device is considered to be moving within a plane at a fixed distance from the viewer and perpendicular to the line of sight; this establishes a set of 3D coordinates for the pointer. If a 3D pointer is in use, then the sensor generates events only when the pointer is within the user's field of view. In either case, the pointing device is considered to "pass over" geometry when that geometry is intersected by a line extending from the viewer and passing through the pointer's 3D coordinates. If multiple sensors' geometries intersect this line (hereafter called the bearing), only the nearest will be eligible to generate events.

Upon activation of the pointing device (e.g. mouse button down) over the sensor's geometry an isActive true event is sent. The vector defined by the initial point of intersection on the SoVRMLSphereSensor's geometry and the local origin determines the radius of the sphere used to map subsequent pointing device motion while dragging. The virtual sphere defined by this radius and the local origin at the time of activation are used to interpret subsequent pointing device motion and is not affected by any changes to the sensor's coordinate system while the sensor is active. For each position of the bearing, a rotation_changed event is output which corresponds to a relative rotation from the original intersection, plus the offset value. The sign of the rotation is defined by the local coordinate system of the sensor. trackPoint_changed events reflect the unclamped drag position on the surface of this sphere. When the pointing device is deactivated and autoOffset is true, offset is set to the last rotation value and an offset_changed event is generated. See "Concepts - Drag Sensors" for more details.

When the sensor generates an isActive true event, it grabs all further motion events from the pointing device until it releases and generates an isActive false event (other pointing device sensors cannot generate events during this time). Motion of the pointing device while isActive is true is referred to as a "drag". If a 2D pointing device is in use, isActive events will typically reflect the state of the primary button associated with the device (i.e., isActive is true when the primary button is pressed and false when released). If a 3D pointing device (e.g. wand) is in use, isActive events will typically reflect whether the pointer is within or in contact with the sensor's geometry.

While the pointing device is activated, trackPoint_changed and rotation_changed events are output. trackPoint_changed events represent the unclamped intersection points on the surface of the invisible sphere. If the pointing device is dragged off the sphere while activated, browsers may interpret this in several ways (e.g. clamp all values to the sphere, continue to rotate as the point is dragged away from the sphere, etc.). Each movement of the pointing device, while isActive is true, generates trackPoint_changed and rotation_changed events.

See "Concepts - Pointing Device Sensors and Drag Sensors" for more details.

FILE FORMAT/DEFAULT

VRMLSphereSensor {

autoOffset	true
enabled	true
offset	0 1 0 0
description	""
metadata	NULL

}

EVENTS

eventIn

SoSFBool	set_autoOffset
SoSFBool	set_enabled
SoSFRotation	set_offset
SoSFString	set_description
SoSFNode	set_metadata

eventOut

SoSFBool	isActive
SoSFBool	isOver
SoSFRotation	rotation_changed
SoSFVec3f	trackPoint_changed
SoSFBool	autoOffset_changed
SoSFBool	enabled_changed
SoSFRotation	offset_changed
SoSFString	description_changed
SoSFNode	metadata_changed

Obsoletesince Open Inventor 9500 The VRML API is no longer supported. See section http://oivdoc95.vsg3d.com/content/compatibility-notes-4#Deprecation of the Reference Manual.

Reference