Main menu
To see the mainmenu, click once
with the right mouse-button anywhere in 3DTop (not on an object).
You'll see the following menu-items:
- 3DTop temporarily on top.
This will cause 3DTop to fill the entire screen while any windows that
were present are hidden. When you perform an action that causes a Wiindow
to appear again the former -hidden- windows will be shown again in exactly
the same order and position as they were before.
- Minimize all windows.
All Windows that are visible will be minimized, so that 3DTop fills
the entire screen .
-Minimize 3DTop.
3DTop will minimize itself
to the Windows-taskbar, the normal desktop appears (Yes, 3DTop is like
any normal application but occupies the entire screen) and your video-card
is totally freed from any old data of 3DTop so other applications can use
the video-card for 100%.
To restart 3DTop, simply "maximize" the little 3DTop window.
-Shutdown.
Same as in the normal "Start"-menu.
Under these two you will see a list of items between two horizontal lines that represent the programs that are currently running. Choosing one of them will put this program on top.
- Paste.
When there are files or folders on the clipboard, you can paste them
to 3DTop with this. They will be positioned on the spot where you clicked
with your right mouse-button to show the main menu.
- Edit Background Color...
If you choose
this you'll see a new object on your screen that is attached
to the middle of the floor: the "color-chooser". This
object allows you to choose the color of the background
by clicking with the right mouse-button in the cube. Notice
that you can rotate the cube also, this will allow you to choose from
every color of the spectrum. Underneath the color-cube you'll
see a strip that allows you to set the brightness of the color
you've chosen, use the right mouse-button here also. When you're
done deselect " Edit
Background Color ...
" in the menu to remove the color-chooser or double-click on
the cube..
The background color is used also for controlling the basic color (or
brightness) of the sky-paper.
- Edit Ambient Light Color...
If you choose
this you'll see a new object on your screen that is attached
to the middle of the floor: the "color-chooser". This
object allows you to choose the color of the ambient light
by clicking with the right mouse-button in the cube. Notice
that you can rotate the cube also, this will allow you to choose from every
color of the spectrum. Underneath the color-cube you'll see
a strip that allows you to set the brightness of the color you've
chosen, use the right mouse-button here also. When you're done
deselect "Edit
Ambient Light Color...
" in the menu to remove the color-chooser or double-click on
the cube.
The ambient light is (in contrast to the spots) a non-directional light.
You can compare this with normal day-light.
- Load Sky-paper...
See Sky-paper.
- Floor texture...
See Floor.
- Edit floor-size and tiling...
See Floor.
- Options for moving Objects.
Which contains the sub-menu's:
- Grid .
When you check this, you will be able to position the objects on a grid. If you want to be able to position the objects in straight lines you'll want to use this. Changes to the position of an object, according to the grid, are only made when you move the object. All unmoved objects will stay at their place.
- Wobbely Crossely.
This is the equivalent of the usual cross-hair cursor found in many programs. As you will notice the term "Cross-hair" doesn't really describe it well. Hence the "Wobbely Crossely".
- Options
for moving yourself.
Which contains the sub-menu's:
- Set Global Speed-limit.
3DTop uses a filtering-technique to smooth all movements. With this option you can change it's behaviour, ie increase or decrease the maximum-speed of your movement. A small strip will appear with a little human walking on it, click with your right mouse-button anywhere on the strip and the maximum speed will change.
- Look up and down as in a flight-simulator. This will let you look up by moving the mouse towards you, or down by moving the mouse away from you.
- Game-like cursor-movement. If you select this option and you move around with the cursor-keys you don't have to press a mouse-button anymore to change the direction of where you're going. Clicking somewhere with the left mouse-button will go back to the normal movement until you use an up or down cursor-key again.
- I want to move mostly horizontal. When this is checked the standard left-mouse-button-press-and-move-mode is chosen. Besides that you now have the following extra options:
- I want to move mostly vertical. You check this when you have your objects all close to you and you don't plan to move "in-depth" but up and down mostly. Actually , to move up and down is now the standard: left-mouse-button-press anywhere will enable you to move up and down and look around, left-mouse-button-press followed by right-mouse-button-press will now move you front and back.
- I want to look around me most of the time. The standard will now be looking up-and-down and left-and-right. For when you have your objects around you.
All this goes for movement with the cursor-keys also.
And, these settings can be different in each world if you like....
- Other Options.
Which contains
the sub-menu's:
- Choose font...
This will enable you to change the font that 3DTop uses throughout the whole program. When you increase the height of the text, the height of the text in 3DTop changes accordingly. Be careful with making the height to much, that way the text will look much better and bigger but can take up a lot more memory of your video-board which otherwise could be used for Paintings, floor-textures, sky-paper etc..
- Hide all flags.
All flags will be hidden, so they don't get into the line of sight .
- Stereo 3D.
3DTop will check to see if your OpenGL-driver supports Stereo-view and if possible switch to Stereo-3D mode. Ofcourse you will have to have some kind of equipment to enable you to see Stereo, like LCD-shutter-glasses or other virtual-reality gear. You can then set the depth of all objects and between objects with the next (then enabled) menu-item: Set depth and depth-range.
Then there are the "Create " items with which you can create new objects:
- World
- Light
- Clock
- Painting
- Flag
- Plugin
The "About 3DTop" menu-item will show you a poster with information about
the version of 3DTop you're running.
You will also , at the bottom, find some information about the current
OpenGL-driver you're using.