Access Grid Toolkit v1.2

Windows Release Notes - October 7, 2002

The Windows installation program is designed to run on a computer with MS Windows 2000 or MS Windows XP already installed. The AG installation has tested successfully with Service Pack 3 for Windows (with all additional critical updates available as of the release date, above), as well as Windows XP prior to Service Pack 1. The AG Toolkit can be uninstalled using the Add/Remove Programs application in the Windows Control Panel, or the 'Uninstall Access Grid Toolkit' icon in the Start Menu/Programs/Access Grid Toolkit folder. This version of the AG display software interoperates with Windows Explorer rather than Netscape. It has been tested using the browser that is bundled with Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, IE 5.5, as well as IE 6.0 for Windows 2000 and the version of IE bundled with Windows XP. The installation program installs the AG software into the c:\ag\ directory. Version 1.2 must live in c:\ag\ or the software will fail to run properly.

The following software is installed by the Windows installation program:

· Release documentation for the AG Toolkit

· Virtual Venues client event server

· Display Resource Manager

· The tkMOO-light mud client

· Java runtime environment 1.1.8

· Java swing 1.1.1

· UCL-based VIC video tool

· Orbacus

· Tcl 8.2

· Distributed PowerPoint master, client, and server

· java-getopt

Optionally, either the Access Grid Display tools, or the Personal Interface to the Access Grid (PIG) tools, or both, may be installed. The Access Grid Display tools include appropriate startup mechanisms to run the Access Grid Windows Display computer components. The PIG tools include the following (in addition to the tools above):

· Windows-optimized UCL RAT (audio tool)

· Video Resource Manager

· Audio Resource Manager

· Appropriate startup mechanisms for operation of the PIG

NOTE: The PIG software is still very delicate!

Specific configuration steps must be followed for the Personal Interface to the AccessGrid to work. The following requirements MUST be met, and even so, some minor tweaking may be required for any particular installation.

· A variety of video capture devices, include USB and FireWire, have been tested, though only ViewCast Osprey video capture cards have been thoroughly exercised

· A relatively high-powered dual-processor P4-Xeon machine is required for reasonable performance

· The file 'c:\ag\agapps\video-config' must be modified to reflect the correct host name for the PIG machine, as well as to reflect the correct device name for the video capture devices desired

· The proper video capture drivers must be installed, and the cards must be configured properly using the native card tools (or some third-party capture tool other than the VIC tools included in this distribution)

NOTE: USB and Firewire Camera Support

Firewire and USB cameras have worked well with this release in our informal testing. These devices, however, (as well as some other relatively recent video-capture hardware) use WDM drivers, which places a restriction on their use within the PIG or AG environment. The ‘vic’ video tool uses the Video for Windows (VfW) API to communicate with video capture devices. The VfW to WDM mapper that is implemented as a part of standard Windows operating systems is limited in that it only provides for a single WDM device to be mapped to VfW. Due to this limitation, only a single Firewire or USB camera may be used at a time with ‘vic’. In order to properly address this limitation, native WDM support needs to be added to ‘vic’, a lengthy and complex process.