1  ...  7  8  9  10  11  12  ...  36  |   Order by default

Jun 25, 1998, 7:56am

I like it. Good start.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 23, 1998, 4:29am

AW is designed for "good" computers. Fortunately, it still runs (or more
like crawls) on old clunkers like mine too. You're wish is being worked on
as we speak. Almost every enhancement to AW makes it a little nicer for
those of us with slow computers, and much nicer for those of us with fast
computers.... That's just the way things wirk. :·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 23, 1998, 4:32am

This has been mentioned before, and I think lots of us are hoping it's
already being worked on.... especially those of us with slow computers
because it's particularly annoying to have to turn around to get moving
again when it "looks" like you should be able to just walk forward, and
turning around takes a very long time.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 24, 1998, 6:01pm

I am cross posting this reply to the wishlist newsgroup because it contains
something new that "could" revolutionize the idea of vertical rotation of
objects.

The idea of rotating around the X or Z axis has been talked about for quite
some time now. I don't know if it's being worked on, but I do know certain
complications that exist which could make it more difficult. Take for
example the fact that many objects were not intended to be viewed from
undernieth adn therefore have no texture mapping or incorrect texture
mapping on the bottom. Another example is the fact that most objects in
Active Worlds have been designed with their 3D center of rotation at the
bottom, so vertical rotation (or rotation "into" the Y axis) would naturally
happen around the object's base unless some fancy manipulation was done to
cause it to rotate around it's vertical center.

Anyway, the fact that you only mentioned a 90° rotation combined with the
mention of not needing to create "all kinds of objects" as a result of such
rotation brings to my mind an interesting idea which has to do with rotating
objects ither than 90° and still being able to make them fit into place.
Imagine a checkbox allowing the builder to specify that the object is to
maintain it's "original" base and top positions after any rotation that
leaves it with more than zero thickness in that direction. Now, imagine
that there were similar checkboxes for the other two dimensions. Think of
the possibilities. If you were to rotate a standard panel 45° with those
boxes checked, it would automatically be stretched to fit across the
diagonal formed by two such walls, or in other words, it's resultant X and Z
size each being the original dimensions divided by the square root of 2,
would be automatically multiplied by the square root of two because they
were not zero (and not too close to zero). Anyone besides me think this
makes any sense?

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 25, 1998, 8:11am

I actually feel the name makes it "more" realistic, because that's part of
"what they look like" and I've gotten used to the idea that the image of a
person in Active Worlds if formed by several components, most visible of
which is their avatar, most recognizeable of which is their name, and most
important of which is their personality. Other features of their
"apearance" include such things as their linguistic style, their typing
style, their social style, and many other components of what each of us can
"see" in a person.

Not saying you're wrong. Just saying your opinion isn't the only one. I'm
sure mine isn't the only other one.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 26, 1998, 4:04am

That brings up an interesting idea. Perhaps it would be possible, for the
sake of locating an avatar in a crowd, to add a feature where a person could
make an avatar on their screen become invisible to them for a specified
period of time. That way, it would be possible to thin out the crowd until
you find the one you're looking for. Once you have found the person you are
looking for, perhaps another option could be used to make all the invisible
ones show up again rather than waiting for the timers to run down.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote] their
to
feeling
>
>
>
>--
>Tyrell - Alpha Prime - 21.8s 457e 90 - "Mundus vult decipi"
>"No matter where you go...there you are."
>http://www.dlcwest.com/~rpatter/index.html
>ICQ UN - 272905
>All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
>
>

Jun 25, 1998, 6:44am

I try not to cross post much, but since this one looked like it would have
been good to have in WishList, I decided to add one more newsgroup and cross
post it as a reply. The original message was a reply in a thread titled
"AW downtime tomorrow" and was cross posted to awcommunity and
worldbuilders.

TechnoZeus

The original message follows:

[View Quote] This way people already in the universe could still be there without
"waiting for server" and people doing live demoing would feel safer about
it.


HenrikG


Roland Vilett <roland at lmi.net> wrote in article <35919d4f.0 at homer>...
> Oops! You are right...I just came back in to post a correction but you
beat me to it!
>
> The downtime will be at 11 AM Pacific, that's 2 PM Eastern, 4 PM VRT, and
6 PM GMT.
>
> Sorry about that.
>
> Have fun with Windows 98!
>
> -Roland
>

Jun 25, 1998, 6:48am

I try not to cross post much, but since this one looked like it would have
been good to have in WishList, I decided to add one more newsgroup and cross
post it as a reply. The original message was a reply in a thread titled
"AW downtime tomorrow" and was cross posted to awcommunity and
worldbuilders.

TechnoZeus

The original message follows:

[View Quote] This way people already in the universe could still be there without
"waiting for server" and people doing live demoing would feel safer about
it.


HenrikG


Roland Vilett <roland at lmi.net> wrote in article <35919d4f.0 at homer>...
> Oops! You are right...I just came back in to post a correction but you
beat me to it!
>
> The downtime will be at 11 AM Pacific, that's 2 PM Eastern, 4 PM VRT, and
6 PM GMT.
>
> Sorry about that.
>
> Have fun with Windows 98!
>
> -Roland
>

Jun 29, 1998, 2:57am

In regards to Showcrash... Haven't seen the book, the RWX, the movie (if
there is one) or anything else about it except what mention I've found in
these newsgroups.

As for a way to make if visible when an avatar has been left inactive for a
long time, or when AW has been an inactive window for a substantial period
of time, I think it's a great idea. The first step, I would think, would be
to get AW to acknowledge a new event that the avatar sequences could be tied
in to.... then the new sequences could be written later. Also, in my
opinion, it should be possible for each person to set how long their avatar
must be left inactive or how long their AW window has to be without the
focus before the new event would be issued, and perhaps how easily the
avatar would be "woke up" once in this state.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 29, 1998, 3:36am

Thanks.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 29, 1998, 9:44pm

Sounds good. I wonder if it would be possible to decide how we land based
on our "flight patern" during the landing process... For example, for one
avatar it might be something like straight down = head first... after a
while, maybe go into a spin. Hehehe.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jun 29, 1998, 3:34am

When an object is selected, it would be nice to have access to properties
about that object such as it's angle and center of rotation. It would also
be nice to have access to such information when a multiple objects have been
selected. For example, I would like to see it made possible to "change" the
center of rotation before rotating a group of objects, or to choose to set a
group of objects to move along the compas directions even though no object
in the group was set at that type of angle, or to do likewise with a single
object. I like the default choices for group selections as they are, but I
would also like to see it possible to use something other than the defaults
when appropraite.

TechnoZeus

Jul 2, 1998, 5:04am

Yes, I think we all would like to see an Undo. Not sure, but it seams to
me I've never seen it mentioned in here either... or maybe it has been many
times and just seemed so familliar that I forgot I had seen it. Anyway...
it's mentioned now.

Undo function... please.

:·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 2, 1998, 5:08am

Exactly as Grover said. All it will get you is trouble... if you're that
lucky.
Thanks for asking rather than trying it out on us. Gets to be a bother
having to turn people in for such things. We're usually a pretty nice group
here, but even the nicest of us have a limit, and those things cross it REAL
quick.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 2, 1998, 4:37pm

Not sure if it's their reason, but adding more objects tends to increase the
cache space needed, and also slow performance since you will encounter a
larger variety of objects. Also, I have noticed that most of the objects in
Alpha World are much simpler and more efficient than most objects elsewhere.
Actually, I have a few object sets that I have designed specifically to work
with existing Alpha World object sets, and I could make more... If CoF
expresses an interest in them, I would be happy to send them what I have,
and make a few more simple objects if requested. At least then people could
build a room with a 45 degree angle in it without z-buffering. :·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 6, 1998, 8:51am

Using 60m by 60m lots in a 500m by 500m world, you will have 8 lots by 8
lots (for a total or 64 lots) with 20m left over in each direction. This is
not accounting for any roads, so to get your 64 lots, and put a 10 meter
road on each edge of each lot, you would have to settle for 5m by 5m lots
separated by 10m roads, and leaving 10m unused in each direction... or you
could use 70 by 70 meter lots separated by 10 meter roads, which would give
you 7 lots by 7 lots for a total of 49 lots, with just enough room left over
to have a 10 by 10 road around the whole thing to complete the grid. 3600m
lots are a bit small anyway... in my opinion. I'ld go with the 70m by 70m
with a 10 meter street, or if you leave the street out in some places, you
could join two lots for a 70m by 150m double lot, or join 4 lots for a 150m
by 150m quad lot. Hope this helps a little.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 9, 1998, 12:35am

Or perhaps custom rectangular foot path objects. :·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 9, 1998, 12:46am

Looked like a legitimate question to me, and although I "think" the main
intention behind this newsgroup was to express what we would like to see in
future versions of Active Worlds, the question did aim at getting what you
wanted out of Active Worlds, and I personally see nothing wrong with it.

Anyway, I know it must be embarrassing to announce difficulty in any subject
in front of people you don't even know, so congratulations on your bravery
at least. If you would like a little help getting better at your math,
temegram me in Active Worlds some time, and I'll get back to you and see
what I can do to help. Perhaps we can do something about that wish too.
:·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 9, 1998, 12:33am

What was the "instant micro worlds" idea about?

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 9:49pm

By "micro" world, is that just meaning a small world, or is there something
more to it that I maybe missed?

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 9:52pm

Perhaps a new option could allow that to be toggled. It's usefull for
builders, but "usually" not so useful to most other people, and may even be
confusing to some.

TrchnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 10:14pm

I'm not sure if I'm following this one correctly. We have a mouse mode..
where you can turn and walk with the mouse, and look up and down with the
keyboard.

Is what's being requested a second mouse mode?.. Where you move around using
the keyboard, but can also turn with the mouse, and can look up or down with
the mouse instead of it moving you forward and backward?

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 22, 1998, 2:26am

As for customized controls, the bad side to that, is that it's harder to
teach people stuff when you don't know how it's set up to work... that would
effect teaching almost anything in Active Worlds, since it's all done
through the user interface. Most of the programs that I've seen partially
make up for that "bad side" by making it easy to find a list of available
controls... which is generally sufficient, but would still make it difficult
to instruct a person in a multi-person interactive environment like
ActiveWorlds where people help each other rather than shoot each other. For
example, I would like to see the distance one key click moves an object
customizable... but then I could no longer make a statement like "now click
the same arrow key exactly 20 times to move the object 10 meters" without
wondering if it will actually move the correct distance.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 10:22pm

Don't forget the effects of transparency... Still, there may be a way.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 10:27pm

I like that full screen 3D keypress idea... Perhaps Alt-Enter, like Windows
uses for DOS programs... except that is would hide most other parts... maybe
only leaving the 3D window and the chat dialog.. or possibly hide the chat
dialog too, and just have some way to indicate when new chat text is
recieved, so you could switch modes to read it if you want.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 11:12pm

Although the Flow texture set, and the Flow object set are not on a one to
one correspondence, they would still seem to be the best sets to carry out
this idea.

First, and most important... Note that the Flow texture set is "very"
inclomplete. Last I checked, it consisted of three files as follows:
flow11.jpg
flow12.jpg
flow13.jpg
and of course, their corresponding mask files.
It should not be that hard to make color variations on the Flo texture set
(which is presently used on the Flower object set) to make the first nine
missing textures for the Flow set, as follows...
flo1.jpg --> flow1.jpg
flo2.jpg --> flow2.jpg
flo3.jpg --> flow3.jpg
flo4.jpg --> flow4.jpg
flo5.jpg --> flow5.jpg
flo6.jpg --> flow6.jpg
flo7.jpg --> flow7.jpg
flo8.jpg --> flow8.jpg
flo9.jpg --> flow9.jpg
and of course, copy the corresponding zipped mask files with no change, as
follows...
flo1m.zip --> flow1m.zip
flo2m.zip --> flow2m.zip
flo3m.zip --> flow3m.zip
flo4m.zip --> flow4m.zip
flo5m.zip --> flow5m.zip
flo6m.zip --> flow6m.zip
flo7m.zip --> flow7m.zip
flo8m.zip --> flow8m.zip
flo9m.zip --> flow9m.zip
Then just add a Flow10 texture (flow10.jpg and it's mask) for the remaining
flower, and if someone can get it uploaded (the unlikely part), then the
texture set is ready to use. The revised flower8.rwx could then be created
through normal building as follows:
Make a flower8.rwx object
and apply the following command to the Action field...
create animate me flow 13 1 0 8
.... and that's it.

Now, the second part would be quite optional, but would make it easier for
beginners to make more flowers.. that would be to make the corresponding
flow1.rwx through flow10.rwx objects, which would be designed to (by
default) display the flow1 through flow10 textures.

By the way.. I would like to see some purple flowers in Alpha World too.
:·)

TechnoZeus
[View Quote]

Jul 21, 1998, 8:02pm

Four new toolbar buttons could be added with text labels and uses as
follows...
[Web] -- Show Web, but not the 3D display.
[3D] -- Show the 3D display, but hide Web.
[Split] -- Show the Web to the right of the 3D display. (default?)
[Detached] -- Show the 3D display, and use a separate window for the Web.

The following new menu items would support this functionality as follows...
Show --> 3D -- Show the 3D display.
View --> Detach Web -- Use a separate window for the Web if it is displayed.

TechnoZeus

Jul 21, 1998, 11:29pm

A cell is exactly 10 meters by 10 meters... by about 655 meters tall.

As for limiting a person's total land usage, but not their total object
count, keep in mind that an inexperienced user who decides to use an
automated building tool without regard for anyone's frame rate, can easily
(or even accidentally) produce a land cover dense enough to squeeze 50000
objects into a very small space... and then decide that they don't feel like
"manually" deleting it all... and abandon the area in favor of a new
building site where they can "try" again.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Aug 6, 1998, 12:57am

Using ICQ's web pager feature would be a nice option, but e-mail could also
be a good option if it was done right. For example, "Convert Old Telegrams
to E-Mail" could be set to any of "Off, Short term, Medium term, or Long
term" where such settings would decide the upper and lower limits on the
amount of time since you have been in the universe (or galaxy) where the
messages are stored, the number of messages waiting, and the amount of space
they take up. When a sent message or periodic check caused the Uniserver
to recognize the conditions associated with the selected setting, it would
compile an e-mail message containing all waiting telegrams, and send it out
to the selected e-mail address. A flag would then be set to notify the user
upon returning to that universe about the fact that temegrams had been sent
to them by the uniserver via e-mail while they were gone.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

Aug 6, 1998, 1:00am

I don't know if it's okay for me to give that information here. (I didn't
ask.) ... so I will send your e-mail address to someone who has wrote a bot
program and leave contacting you at his discretion. Good luck.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

1  ...  7  8  9  10  11  12  ...  36  |   Order by default