1  ...  2  3  4  5  6  7  ...  10  |   Order by default

Aug 31, 2003, 1:56pm

I have a special RAM disc program running which creates a RD of
unlimited size which only uses as much space as the files in it. In the
configuration, I can state which folders will be automatically copied
into the ram disk at startup.
Unlike "normal" ram disks, it is not an extra drive, but consists only
of the folders I want. So to speak, the ram disk acts like the normal
folders, only everything that changed in it will be gone when the
computer is rebooted or switched off and the "original" content of the
folders will stay forever the same on the HD.
One of the most useful programs I ever had. :-)


[View Quote]

Aug 31, 2003, 2:02pm

I have my page drive and also the TMP (as well as SET TEMP!) redirected
to a "junk" partition. The advantage is that I can delete/format this
partition without pardon at any time <g>, even when windows should
forget it <g>.
However, some programs will even then create an absolute path
c:\windows\tmp by disregarding the registry, so you still need tmp and
temp in the c directory also (those two I have added to my ram disk),
however, I didn't have any large file in them yet, those incidents
probably only happen from old programs or "small programmer programs".


[View Quote]

Sep 15, 2003, 7:22am

There is also a general crash problem which I (and many others)
experience all the time, no matter whether other avatars are present or
not. This type of crash also results in a page fault error.





[View Quote]

Oct 7, 2003, 3:23pm

Well, it is funny - this 495 release is in AW available to beta testers
only, although it was promised to be made available as a general release
in order to fix the serious "enable fly/pass-through in each world" bug.

I was not aware it was not publicly available - so probably only all the
beta testers are running it, since they got it served as an automatic
update many weeks ago already.





[View Quote]

Oct 7, 2003, 3:29pm

As a matter of fact, you can skip the "built timestamp" when saving,
then loading objects, and create a world with all objects missing the
build date <g>, I have not tried yet to leave out the owner (should
default to 0 then) or object name.

You can delete such invalid items also in a text editor (make a propdump
and delete all lines starting with "0 " (which would be owner 0 then) -
for those who do not have a bot who can check automatically.

In the server logfile, you can see who uploaded the wrong objects and
ask them to improve their upload program. :-)



[View Quote]

Oct 31, 2003, 6:17am

You can limit your _maximum_ visibility by using a fixed setting from
the "Visibility" menu (not "float", but like 20m, 40m, etc.). In this
case, only items withing the visibility range will be downloaded. The
maximum visibility must be set new every time you enter a world, since
it will automatically always reset to "Float".

Setting to "Float" means that the maximum visibility using the minimum
frame rate (as set in options:settng:performance) is being used, and
this can be, depending on the environment you are standing in, up to
200m.

The "minimum visibility" (options:settings:performance) and the mininum
visibility (server setting) is the range that you will see under each
circumstance - the bigger of these two settings is applied to each
individual person.

So, to download the smallest possible amount of items, you need to set
the minimum visibility to 30m (client and server) and the maximum
visibility to 30m as well (as soon as you enter a world).

The "refresh rate" in the world settings determine (in minutes) how
often items are checked if they are still actual or have changed. This
check downloads not the actual item, but only the time stamp and only if
the time stamp indicate that the item has changed since the last check,
an actual download takes place.

A senseful setting for the refresh rate is 10080 (1 week) or multiples
thereof.



[View Quote]

Nov 3, 2003, 2:09pm

10080 minutes = 1 week (7 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes)

Even when the backup is older than (refresh time), an update check is
not only much faster, but also will not require any downloads.




[View Quote]

Dec 14, 2003, 3:09pm

Not really all of the world - there are ca. 20 other dictators who also
mistreat their people (one of them even eats them), right in this
minute, they only do not oppose the USA (Hussein did also not 20 years
ago when he was happily supported by them _DESPITE_ the by then already
known killing of his own people) and do not have rich resources of gas
and oil.

What I am really wondering, though, is, who will be blamed now for
further attacks? Is it now the hour to pull out of the box again Osama,
the feet-sick Mountain Wizz? :-)






[View Quote]

Apr 3, 2003, 7:17pm

Such a scripting engine as Enzo suggests exists already in some other
VRs, I think, in fact that something like that would be needed.

However, the question is if it should be implemented with a command, on
a seperate "scripting" engine or via an enhanced sdk (personally, I
favour the last option and at the same time revise and improve some of
the existing commmands).

The most important thing is IMHO a dedicated rights administration, eg.
to be able to give certain citizens certain rights (eg. fly, enhanced
commands, etc.) rather than rights depending on global flags.



[View Quote]

Jul 14, 2002, 7:57am

[View Quote]
Must have been a long time since you visited Europe last <g>...

Jul 15, 2002, 7:41am

[View Quote] well, at least with time and date, it is an easy thing - the 24-hour
clock is not a national "specialty", but plain and simple _the_ (only)
international ISO standard for time measurment.
The same is true for the date, btw, only here, the Americans AND most
European countries rather use their own (church-tower-view) system; the
correct date has this form: yyyy(-)mm(-)dd.

In fact, in the USA, the 24 hour format is called "military" time, since
the military (not necessarily of the USA), as an international operating
entity, saw the need to use an easy, not confusing and uncomplicated
(sic) time system, even more in multinational operations. Their system
actually adds an additional letter for the time zone, so a military time
would be correctly spelled for example: 13:00a, 22:00z, 03:00b, etc.

For the history, the 24 hour system was "invented" by Europeans. To be
exact, it was the Egyptians who used a decimal system for the day and a
duodecimal system at night (plus 2 hours dawn) - this was later replaced
by the Greek by a complete 24 hour system (with influence from the
Babylonian measurment system, from which also the hexagesimal (base 60,
for seconds and minutes) system derived).

People on the streets in Europe (of which the UK is only a very small
part, geographic-, population-, and business-wise), do in fact use a 12
hour system, from obvious reasons: Most dates in daily life target
within the same day or in a day time where it is obvious which part if
the 24 hour clock has to be applied ("I see see you tomorrow morning, at
9"), ("We meet tonight, at 10"). In all official and in almost all
commercial documents and announcements though, the 24 hour format is
used, as well with business dates, etc - as a notation that is most
economic and least error prone (they have to learn to use the correct
ISO date notation still though, see above...).

:-)

Jul 24, 2002, 3:48pm

I read it in some earlier thread in the forum that gestures are now
possible for special avatars (#250-255). However, every attempt to add
ordinary gesture definitions in the avatars.dat file just results in
additional avatars (who have then then names special1, ... ) <g>.

Is there anybody who succeeded in adding gestures to special avatars
yet, and if yes, is there a sample of such a definition somewhere
available? :-)

TIA, KF

Dec 11, 2002, 4:33pm

Nope, have to disagree - game engines are developed especially for this
useage and AW will _never_ be able to compete with that, the same way
that game engines will never be able to compete with the typical AW
features (eg. the very detailled graphics possible, interactive
commands, etc.).
Each type of application has its focus and strength and can only include
elements of other types up to a certan degree, but not be the same.

The same way as you wouldn't use a truck for car racing, an avid gamer
would not use AW to play a game, or some game to build sophisticated
environments - becoming a game and even target a game audience will make
AW contours unsharp, not succeed and end up as a deadlock with the
probable descent of AW altogether.

However, there are various types of games, and when we talk about a
specific tpye the epic RPG type games, where high speed and shooting do
not play much of a role and where competiton is rather marginal, then
the aw engine could well be used for that. However, what we would use
for that as developments are not the 10th new view, the 20th speed
upgrade and the 30th method to press a key for the same result, but
well-thought interaction mechanisms but for the network
(uni-world-client) and the bilateral world-client and client-client
interaction (eg. enhanced scripting, enhanced account and avatar
control, enhanced feature control (rights(options!), enhanced sdk
functions and such.
Unfortunately, I still have the impression that AW is trying to run
behind a bus that has departed and tries to catch up with features of
application types that have been developed especially for this type,
rather than concentrating on other types where a leading and innovative
role can still be obtained.

LindenLabs is not offering something really new, btw, and will go most
probably the same way that other more or less famous developments or
"innovative" ideas went - right into the orcus. The pretend alone that
their application is the FIRST or only of this type (which is wrong in
multiple ways) shows either a deliberate dishonesty or a complete
ignorance/incompetence, both will be deadly for a successful business,
which requires in the end the constant interaction with the customers
(other than games that are sold and done).

The key for a successful virtual world has also nothing to do with
edge-cutting graphics, there are quite some reasons why products like
Habitat2 (Japan) and GlassCity (Korea) had been, in relation to the
needed developement, administration and the offered quality, extremely
successful.

Let's also face that the market for 3d virtual worlds is not growing -
not at all and especially not in the western countries. It will grow in
other regions, though, that are currently neither targetted nor
recognized by any company I am aware of, and it is very likely that the
"next" successful virtual world won't rise in the classic internet
countries.










[View Quote]

Dec 11, 2002, 4:42pm

I admire the quality and depthness of your speech and vocabulary - you
are quite a respectful advocate for this cause. :-)


[View Quote]

Dec 11, 2002, 8:32pm

I was not referring to Sims Online. This one is, in my eyes, not a game,
but rather a comic style community - like WorldsAway, with 1000s of
users (since 1995). The Sims fascination does not come from the game
type (or other, similar had the same success), its idea or graphics, but
simply from the fact that it takes on one hand advantage of a long
tradition (the "Sims" game family) and on the other hand consequently
double targets the market of a successful product.

AW does neither have a tradition of a game family, nor a standalone
product that had been successful before. Even whan AW was doing EXACTLY
the same thing that Sim is doing, it would fail (the same way as other,
even better rpgs had and will have a problem compared to UO, which had a
similar tradition and marketing approach).

No, AW must concentrate on something own, using its own strength and
advantages rather than wasting development and financial resources by,
see my previous post, trying to catch a bus that has long departed.






[View Quote]

Dec 12, 2002, 6:38am

we do not divide months into 2 either like 12th bm of March and 12th em
of March (24th of March).
<<<

ROFL! Don't give them ideas. :-)



[View Quote]

Dec 12, 2002, 7:01pm

Guys this is an interesting thread
<<<

Please contribute then by discussing the issues and suggestions that me
and others brought up here. :-)



[View Quote]

Dec 19, 2002, 2:46am

[View Quote]
This might be the case for later releases, but currently, I do not see
it, frankly. There are lots and lots of improvements that could be made
to the existing state that would enable a variatey of new game and
simulation ideas and implementations and not even need to touch the
basic program experiences. In short words, a more concise and granular
control of a world and the commands in it.
I just mention here additional switches for existing commands and, of
course, the per-avatar configuration of world rights and features-
Especially the latter one was on Rolands wish list for a long time but
had always been postponed by the order of management. Still today, there
is no chance to allow bird avatars to fly while human avatars need to
walk, still today, it is impossible to grant more than 36 citzens any
specific right (and disallowing is even completely impossible).
Of course, rights cannot be seen in the client, they do not add any
graphic or sound effect, all they would do is to add more control, make
games and simulations better and allow yet unused implementations - but
something that not everybody can see right away might not be good enough
for an "upgrade".

The WWW once made a huge mis-step in thinking that the more colorful and
bouncing a website became, the more "valeuable" it would become as well,
but really, it just managed to hid more the view on the real content and
the real "value" that could be found. Likewise, graphics is not all in
AW, because graphics is thing you look at a couple of times, and then
you know well and look for other challenges, like playing a game,
simulating situations and so on. Let me point out again, that, not
without any reason, there are 2d environments out there, and even pure
text style (eg. rpg games) ones that have still a lot of participants,
and if graphic was the only God, this certainly had not happened.

So - what I am asking for, is a decent balance in new feature implements
that address BOTH the desire for eyecatchers and the desire to use the
already existing features and options more close, more granular and to a
higher extent.

Mentioning the sdk - how many programmers are out there, in all
universes and worlds together, how really take advantage of all what the
sdk offers? 10? And 10 is a quite high number already.
But now, let's compare this to the number of world owners who control
their world by using the tools they are provided with by the client only
- how many are those? 2000? 3000? 5000 over a period of 3 years,or even
more?

In this regard, your argument with the sdk is not a substantial one.
Right, all those new things COULD be controlled by sdk appplications,
but ARE they, in reality? No, they are not - most worlds, and "most" is
here a term for a significant higher number, are controlled with the
world features and rights dialogue and using the building commands that
can be applied. You certainly can now say that most new features could
be accessed via the features dialogue as well, and this is correct, but
only in a numeric, not a qualitative and practical way (eg. something
simple as a day/night transition, where there could be an option for it
in the world features rather than manually manipulating 20 and more
parameters every couple of minutes).

I could, in fact, go on for hours and pages here and bring hundreds of
examples, but I think you understand my point here. :-)

Dec 19, 2002, 5:03pm

As far as your example... it already is possible in NewAW.
<<<

That is not the point. The point was rather: Can the normal, average,
world owner control and use all those features WITHOUT being a
programmer or having somebody write a specifically customized program
for him?

I am fully aware about the possibilities, they are more than can be
experienced in NewAW, even already without a modified world server. :-)
The question is, though, how effective and stabile external plug-in
applications can be, see also some discussions about sdk issues here -
in this regard, a world server upgrade would be in fact, a much
appreciated matter.
However, my point here was also a different one: it was the order,
focus and form of improvement and changes, not the fact or nessecity
itself, which I do not negate at all.

Dec 20, 2002, 1:11am

I agree, the limit imposed by 63 textures (0-62) make it hard to develop
realistic landscapes for various environments and seasons including
pathes, etc.

However, the textures are encoded in one value together with the
orientation (rotation) of a terrain cell - it is sort of "there will
never ever be the need for more than 640kB main memory" approach and I
doubt that we will see a change here soon, since it means to alter the
code for the whole terrain implementation (in which it would be a good
idea then to alter the 1 terrain/10m limit also <g>).



[View Quote]

Dec 20, 2002, 3:17pm

Running a day/night change has nothing to do with a game (which is AW
not anyway), but with environment. And the environment can, in many
cases, not be controlled to a good non-static extent, rights management
(which also has nothing to do with games) is only possible to a little
degree in both regards quantity and quality.

The need to be a programmer and even more, to have access to a
permanently running machine on which the bot applications are run is not
a necessary part of an application - there are already examples that
simple environments and interactions can be scripted server-side and
with an easy to learn language (without compilers, sdks and server
access).

[View Quote]

Dec 17, 2002, 8:54pm

> You can start panicking once 3.4
> is released to the public. :)

Once it released it is too late to discuss it <g>

Dec 18, 2002, 4:33am

Hi,

The new system was made with the intention of making avatar walking more
realistic.
<<<

However, as I have outlined in my posts, since the speed and perception
is directly related to the computer equipment, now more than ever, this
idea can't be obtained anyway.

Regarding the "scale", it is correct that the speed is too high in
comparision to the size scale - however, the scale is unbalanced anyway
in that most items available are oversized (in relation to the size of
many items, the current ((v419)) speed becomes absolutely normal again).
There is also a collision with the cell (or, in other words, 10m based)
architecture, if you want to build "realistic" environments that match
the realistic speed, the building limit is too small respectively allows
not enough granularity.


[View Quote]

Dec 18, 2002, 1:21pm

build 443 had been released as scheduled,
everything would have been ready the beginning of December, during the
prime
holiday season. There probably would have been many people who, amazed
with
the clouds and water that used to work perfectly in 3.4, would have
purchased a world for their brother/son/friends for Christmas.
<<<

Right!!!!!!!!

Dec 20, 2002, 3:36pm

Dx9.0 became publicly available today in its final version (consumer,
the sdk is not yet available). After testing it for some while, I do not
see any positive or negative effects compared to Dx8.1 using a GF4TI
card, both the DD7 and DD8 implementations work well.

It seems subjectively (?) to increase the performance of the old "Dx8"
mode in client version 419 with and without terrain, though.

As a first resumee, an upgrade is probably only needed when Dx8.1 had
problems - or in a few months, when the first Dx9 games will come out
who take advantage of some of the new internal features (namely shader
language, bigger pixel and vertex shaders, improved color calculation
for texture overlays, and some smaller changes and improvements, eg. in
DP, DM and DS).
The release identifies as 4.09.0000.0900 with a copyright date of 2003
(<g>).

Dec 20, 2002, 9:15pm

thank you :)


[View Quote]

Jan 10, 2003, 11:22am

One of them is a person who was one the "Oracles" (Jeff Douglas, also
known as "Oracle Vaz"" in Worldsaway (www.vzones.com) once.

See also this report on CNN about there.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.games/01/08/being.there.ap/index.html

I spare any comments :-)





[View Quote]

Jan 13, 2003, 6:40pm

Here is more information about there:

http://www.prod.there.com/about_press.html

especially: http://therecorp.there.com/press/jpg/

When I look at those graphics, I start to wonder why here is a
discussion in the newsgroup at all about them <g>.

Moreover, when I read things like (taken from
http://www.azcentral.com/news/reuters/stories/NET-TECH-THERE-DC.shtml):

The company has a two-pronged approach to revenue: an undetermined
monthly membership fee and revenue from the sale of goods and services
within the game, such as Nike shoes and Levi Strauss jeans.

Already, it is recruiting for an ``online sports activity coordinator''
and an ``online fashion activity coordinator,'' people who the company
said must be experienced online users with a knack for making new
members feel welcome.

Players will be able to use virtual funds called ``Therebucks,'' which
they can earn in various ways or purchase directly via credit card, to
buy clothes and other accessories for their avatars.

Among the company's investors are 3DO Co. (Nasdaq:THDO) founder Trip
Hawkins, CNET Networks Inc. (Nasdaq:CNET) co-founders Halsey Minor and
Shelby Bonnie, DoubleClick Inc. (Nasdaq:DCLK) Chief Executive Kevin Ryan
and Wired magazine founder Louis Rosetto.

The company's board of directors includes Levi Strauss & Co. Chief
Executive Phil Marineau and Jim White, general partner of venture
capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures.
<<<

This didn't work in the past, it won't work now, but THERE...

Jan 13, 2003, 6:46pm

.... is is quite hard to take this serious at all
(http://www.ipo.com/venture/press.asp?p=ONI2&prid=2760) when reading
marketing bubbles like ...

"Levi Strauss & Co. has long used the Internet to reach consumers in
innovative and compelling ways. There's immersive communications
environment uniquely brings to life two benefits of the Internet that
consumers value most: communication and community," said Patrice Varni,
Director of Digital Business at Levi Strauss & Co. "When There wanted
its members to be able to wear Levi's jeans, we were excited to
participate. There provides a compelling new way for consumers to
interact with the Levi's brand. We thought it was a great fit for
debuting our new Levi's Type 1(TM) Jeans -- a bold new take on jeans in
a breakthrough online community."


In addition to its relationships with leading consumer product
companies, There, Inc. is announcing a partnership with ATI, Inc., the
leading retail seller of computer graphics cards. ATI will bundle
There with its industry-leading Radeon graphics cards, and will partner
with There, Inc. to upgrade computer labs at schools. "There is bringing
advanced graphics to the mass market, which will introduce consumers to
the power of ATI's innovations in a powerful way," said Dave Orton, CEO
of ATI, Inc. "We're impressed with the visual quality the There team has
achieved on relatively low-end hardware, and look forward to
collaborating on ever more realistic versions of There."
<<<

[View Quote]

Jan 13, 2003, 6:49pm

<g>


PS: "There" must be doing something right. It's the number one topic in
the AW news groups. The next year or two will bring some interesting
competition for 3D-VR users.
<<<

http://www.3dvrweb.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=135

1  ...  2  3  4  5  6  7  ...  10  |   Order by default