• Software installation

• Starting scene

• Welcome to the temple

• Use of Controllers

• Teleport, fly

• Hand actions

• Speech Recognition System

• Panels of activities

• Update Windows.
• (Only for Windows Mixed Reality headsets) In Cortana’s searcher of your desktop, look for “Windows Mixed Reality” and install it.
  
  
• (If new headset) Install the software of your VR headset  (Follow the corresponding instructions for HTC Vive, Oculus, WMR, etc.).
  
• Register at STEAM and keep login for the next steps

Pass your virtual hand on the buttons “boy” or “girl” to choose an avatar, hair color, etc.

(PC version) Write your name in the box “Player name” on the screen of your PC (use the keyboard for that).

Choose your language and press “Start game” to get into the temple of Neotrie.

Controllers

(ASSIGNMENTS CAN BE CHANGED DEPENDING ON THE VERSION OF NEOTRIE) Before playing, please check the assigned functions of the buttons of your HTC Vive, Oculus, Windows Mixed Reality controllers:

(Buttons on OCULUS QUEST have different functions: Flying/teleport with Joystick)

HTC Vive

Oculus Rift /S

Welcome to the temple

Hypatia or Euclid will guide you in the first steps, and show you how to use the basic actions of your hands, teleport and use some geometric tool. You can skip the tutorial.

(PC version) To activate this tutorial press the key “T” on the keyboard of your PC.

Teleport/ fly

To move inside and outside the temple, use the TELEPORT button. Look at the Menu below to see how to fly.

Hand actions

Speech Recognition System (SRS) 

(ONLY PC VERSION) The Speech Recognition System is one of the most useful functions of Neotrie. The language and the keyboard must be in the same language (available in English, French, German, Spanish).

Here is the list of the implemented figures:

• Plane, sphere, cylinder, cone, torus, Moebius.
• Triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, etc.
• Platonic solids: say “platonics” to have all at once.
• Archimedean solids
• Deltahedra
• Jonhson (not recommended to load the 92 Jonhson solids, in PCs with lower processor).
• Kepler solids
• Catalan solids
• Regular Polychora (hyper-tetrahedron, hyper-cube, hyper-octahedron, 24-cell, hyper-dodecahedron, hyper-icosahedron)

Panels of Activities

Neotrie VR 2020 has some panels of activities inserted in the scenario. Pass your hand over them to get into the corresponding activities. A Neot file will then download to your computer, together with the associated files. Here is one example of activity, “Mental rotation test”.

Neotrie VR 2021: Other panels have being inserted, like the ones File1, … File6, which allows automatic downloading lessons which are being tested by teachers.

Menu

Press the Menu Button on your controller to open this menu (nr 1 in HTC vive, Y, B in Oculus Rift, menu in WMR).

Pass your hand over the buttons to select or deselect an option. Then press again the Menu Button to close the menu. Activated buttons have a darker color.

Figure info buttons:

This list shows some properties of a figure.

• Number of vertices
• Number of edges
• Number of faces
• Length of all edges
• Area (sum of areas of drawn faces)
• Volume (sum of volumes of all tetrahedra having as bases the drawn triangles, and vertice the barycentre of the figure).

Flight mode button (birth):

This button switches between TELEPORT AND FLY. Teleporting is available on the left hand (from version 3.6.7). Flying is available on your left controller, while teleport stays iUse the same buttons on your controllers to move. For normal speed press the button on the right controller; for double speed, use the left controller; and for triple speed, use both controllers at once.

Hide button (eye):

Active this option to hide the vertices, edges or faces of all the figures in the scene, or change the sizes of these elements. The option “Vertices start size” creates vertices of this size, so one can have vertices of different size in the scene.

Little compass button:

Press on the little compass button to have your tools at your current position.

Four colors theorem:

Click the vertices with your finger to change their colors. Connected vertices must have different color, so edges change to white. Paint all vertices and use as few colors as possible to get more score.

Eulerian paths:

An Eulerian path is a path which does not repeat any edge. It is known after the solution by Euler of the famous problem of 7 bridges of Königsberg.

Click over the edges with your finger. These will change to orange. Try to get the longest Eulerian path, to get the maximum score.

Restrictions menu (PC version)

This panel is available on the downleft corner of the screen of your computer. Some options can also be manage inside the VR scene.

• Grid: Restriction on the positions of vertices, on the screen of the computer.
• X=0.1 sets a grid of 0.1m = 1dm at the X-axis. These can be fixed on the Axis tool.
• Lock pad: This prevents changing the basic modes of the hands.
• Angles: Sets the angular jumps for the Rotations tool (in degrees).
• Scale Coef: indicates the coefficient of scale (or homothecie) when copy a figure with the copy seal.

Loading and saving keyboard 

(Instructions for PC Version) We can use this virtual keyboard to save Neot files in your local folders: 

• NEOT files are saved in Documents/Neotrie/NeotrieSaves
• STL (and OBJ available in the next version) files can be exported and imported from the local folder Documents/Neotrie/Objects
• STL import has two options:
  • Internal: It loads a STL object on the scene as an editable figure of vertices, edges, and faces Be aware! Large figures could not work, depending on your PC processor.
  • External (Recommended). It maintains the STL format, and can be saved in the scene as a neot file.

Some example: if we write in the box

file1

then, the scene will be saved as

[Documents]/Neotrie/NeotrieSaves/file1.neot

And, if you write in the box:

myfolder/file1

then, the scene will be saved as

[Documents]/Neotrie/NeotrieSaves/myfolder/file1.neot

Loading from windows menu

Figures, pictures, objects, sounds, etc. can be loaded directly in the scene with a new windows menu (available formats .neot, .stl, .obj, .jpg, waw, .config, see more details below).

Loading 3d objects

OBJ and STL are the most extended formats for 3D objects. Almost all known softwares have this format implemented. In this version, you will be able to import OBJ/STL files from the load and save menu, as well as from the new windows menu. Once in the scene, we can take them with your hands paint and rescale all its parts and save them in your Neot file, for improving your lessons and activities.

Loading pictures

One can insert pictures (JPG format) on the scene from the new windows menu. These pictures can be taken, and enlarged as other objects.

Loading 360º backgrounds

One can change the background of the scene with any desired 360 picture (JPG format). Open it from your folder “environments 360” and move it inside the ball of 360º picture. Now take the ball and approach it to your head.

Can use Street View download 360 to download pictures from Google Earth, for instance.

See video1. video2

Loading sounds

One can import waw files into the scene, as well as assign them to 3d objects, images and drawings. See Music boxes below.

Tools

Tools (as other objects) can be taken by pressing the Trigger Button, release them by pressing the Trackpad (nr 2 i HTC vive, WMR, or the Joystick in Oculus Rift, Buttons A or B in Quest).

Many of them have a small blue cube or pyramid at the end which works as a pointer or selector.

Palette and pencil

With the pencil you can paint free drawings, vertices, edges and faces, and other objects inside the scenario.

Rubber

The rubber (“eraser”) can be used to delete a figure, by touching any of its vertices. 

Selector tool

This tool can hide a selection of vertices and edges (touch menu button when taking the tool). It can also be used to rotate or reflect a selection of vertices.

Tape

Measure lengths between two vertices, or any two different places.

Copy tool

Press on a vertex of a figure to be copied. The copy tool also allows to make clones of any other figure, 3d object, image, 3D ball, sounds or music notes, free drawing, and any other tool. All these clones can be saved in your scene as a neot file.

Rotation tool

Touch 2 vertices or 1 edge, to fix the rotational axis, or a face to rotate around this face.

Reflection tool

• Planar symmetry: Touch one face (or 3 points) and one vertex of a figure to reflect.
• Axial symmetry: Touch one edge (or 2 points) and one vertex of a figure to reflect.
• Central symmetry or inversion: Touch 1 point to fix the center and an extra point of a figure to reflect.

Magnet tool

This tool allows users to join tiles by two of their edges. It also joins two 3D figures by two of their faces, or two pairs of edges.

Parallel tool

Use this tool to make parallels, sum of two vectors.

Perpendicular tool

Use this tool to make perpendicular of two vectors, and also projections of a point on a line or plane.

Middle point tool

Use this tool to make the middle point of a set of points.

Divisor tool

Use this tool to have rational points m/n on a segment (can be changed in file.config.

Bisector tool

Touch two edges to bisect.

Intersection tool

Intersection tool permits to find the intersection of:

• 2 lines (gives two points of minimal distance).
• 1 plane and a line (touch a plane and then a line, or three lines)
• 2 planes (touch either: two planes, or 4 lines).

Slider tool

This tool allows to automatically move a point passing through a set of vertices.

Press the button “circle” to generate a circle. Maintain the trigger button press and touch three points: the first one is the center of the circle, the second a point on the circle, and a third to define perpendicular to the plane.

Press the button “restart” to restart all the moves made with the slider tool. This can be used to make plenty of known curves, like for example the conics.

Compass tool

The compass tool has several functions: it transfers a specific distance in a given direction, by selecting 4 points (the first two give the distance, and the last two the direction). It finds a point in the intersection of two spheres and a plane, by selecting 5 points. And furthermore, it intersects a sphere with a line (by selecting 2 points and an edge). We have added a last function that finds the tangent point of a sphere in a line, which can be also done with the perpendicular too.

Nets generator tool

This tool allows to generate a unit cell, as well as crystal structures. Change the parameters a, b, c, alpha, betta, gamma, and size number, to get the desired cell unit. 

Labelling

The label tool has several functions:

Axis of coordinates

Use the label tool to add:

• Name, coordinates to vertices (with respect to the Axis of coordinates).
• Name, weight, length to edges
• Name, area, equation to planes.

Button true and false for test activities

In the next video, it is shown how to use the label tool to make tests in VR, with scores.

Each label created in the scene can be edited by touching the little red square on its right. One can add the desired text, and also the following commands:

<button correct=t> and <button correct=f> for true or false.

<nhits> for number of hits, <nerrors> number of errors.

One can also edit the file directly with any text editor. For example in this NEOT file one can change texts, positions, and values of buttons ((t=true, f=false).

Multiview projections

Multiview planes are now available with applications to engineering drawing.

Scanner

Use this gadget to find projections and sections of figures.

Photo-camera (Only PC version)

Photo-camera permits to make a photo directly in the VR scene, by pressing the trigger button. Use the green “selfie” gadget to make selfies.

Photos are saved in the local folder

Documents>Neotrie>ScreenShots

Any photo (JPG, NPG format) can be inserted inside the scene by using the virtual windows menu.

Boxes

Ask your pupils to classify polhyedra or any set of figures by types. One can use these boxes to move a set of figures at once. Boxes are editable, scalable, coloreable, and one can make copies with the “seal” copy tool.

Shuttle

Shuttles can be used with interesting didactical applications. Both the shuttles and the balls are scalable and paintable. They interact with objects. The larger the gun, the larger the balls.

Config files are useful to configurate your scenes for activities or lesson plans.
Download an example filePC.config or fileQuest.config.

Open it with any text editor. (Recall to save it as filename.config and not as filename.config.txt). Take care to save it as filename.config (and not as filename.config.txt).

Choose the tools that you want to see on the scene, indicating TRUE or FALSE. Other parameters of the game can also fixed here.

• T_ROTATION = TRUE (indicates that the rotation tool is enabled in the scene).
• MAX_ANGLE_TELEPORT = 10 (indicates the maximum angle of 10º when teleporting).
• VERT_DETECTION_DISTANCE = 0.03 (distance of 3cm to detect any vertex).

These config files have to be located in any folder inside [Documents>Neotrie, for instance:
Documents>Neotrie>Config