ADVANCED SPOTTING > STREAMING VIDEO IN 3DML

Rover uses either Windows Media Player 6.4 or RealPlayer G2 to play streaming video. So visitors to your spot will need to have one of these software packages installed in addition to Rover in order to see the video in your spot.

Adding a video stream to your spot involves naming the stream in the HEAD section of your 3MDL file in the <STREAM> tag, and then calling out the name of that STREAM in the PART tag of the block on which you want to place the video. The STREAM tag looks like this:

<STREAM NAME="stream_name" WMP="video-file-path-or-url" RP="video-file-path-or-url" />

You can specify a different URL for each available media player. So for example, if you have a video in the Windows Media format, and you also have a video in the RealVideo format, you should include the URL for both. If your vsitors have WMP installed, then they will see that stream. If they don't have WMP installed, but they do have RealPlayer, then they will see the RealVideo stream. If you have a video in a format that both media players can play, (this is true of most video formats) then you can include the same URL in both the WMP and RP attributes.

Important points to remember:

If a stream is defined in the STREAM tag for both Window's Media Player and for RealPlayer, Rover will look for Windows Media Player first. If WMP isn't installed, or if WMP can't play the media type that is called for, then Rover will look for and use RealPlayer.

At this time, a spot can only contain one STREAM tag.

File types: both WMP and RP are capable of playing back many different media types. But when you first download either of these pieces of software, only a few file types are supported. As you encounter new file types, these software packages update themselves to be able to play the new media types. However, they cannot update themselves when they are playing through Rover. So for example, Lets say you have WMP installed, and you visit a spot that contains an MP3 stream. If you have never used WMP to play back an MP3 file before, you will not be able to hear the stream in the spot. However, if you have used WMP to play back an MP3 at some time on its own, then you will be able to hear the stream in the spot.

Let's look at an example of a very simple spot with streaming video (The trailer from "A Bug's Life") on a LARGETV block from the Interior Blockset.:

<SPOT>
<HEAD>
<TITLE NAME="Video in 3DML" />
<BLOCKSET HREF="http://blocksets.flatland.com/flatsets/basic.bset"/>
<BLOCKSET HREF="http://blocksets.flatland.com/flatsets/interior.bset"/>
<MAP DIMENSIONS="(5,5,1)" STYLE="single"/>
<SKY />
<GROUND />
<STREAM NAME="bugslife" WMP="http://www.hollywood.com/trailers/bugslife/low_bugslife.asx" RP="http://www.hollywood.com/trailers/bugslife/low_bugslife.asx"/>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<CREATE SYMBOL="n" BLOCK="largetv">
<PART NAME="screen" STREAM="bugslife"/>
</CREATE>

<LEVEL NUMBER="1">
..n..
.....
.....
</LEVEL>

<ENTRANCE NAME="default" LOCATION="(3,5,1)" />

</BODY>
</SPOT>

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