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Dec 4, 2002, 10:24am

Something I've been tossing around for a while now might work better for this, possibly... the idea of allowing the Object field in the Object Properties dialog box to hold object names that are not file names. There would have to be some way for AW to know the difference so that it wouldn't try to download such things, but that shouldn't be difficult, since certain characters are not allowed in file names. For example, your sphere might be simply entered into the Object field as <Sphere 5> and be one of several simple geometric objects that could be placed in the same way, each with their own optional parameters. Details not specified in their own parameters such as texture or color could be entered as regular commands in the Action field.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 4, 2002, 3:51am

Right now, there is an Object Refresh rate, which tells the AW browser to check any cached file beyond the specified number of minutes old for a newer version, but in addition to that I would like to see a Refresh Date setting such that any cached file not checked since before the specified date (and time) would be checked even if it is not older than the number of minutes specified by the object refresh rate.

This would be very useful in worlds where you want to be sure that people always have the latest files from the object path without having to set the object refresh rate low. In fact, you could set the object refresh rate unreasonably high and then just change the Refresh Date to the last time a file on the object path was changed. You wouldn't even have to change this setting when "new" files are added, because files that are not cached are checked for as needed, and it would also pave the way for setting up Active Worlds to be able to update an object in a person's cache when it is changed just by setting the date and time in the Refresh Date setting without them even having to exit the world and come back.

TechnoZeus

Dec 5, 2002, 4:12am

A long time back, we got part of a grouping system... the ability to select multiple objects. Some day, I would like to see a more complete grouping system, such as Beziér or NURBs enveloping. This suggestion is intended to outline a possible step in that direction.

What I would like to suggest is a way to turn a bounding box around an object or group of objects into a stretchable container.

Objects would not have this property by default. It would have to be added where needed as a separate grouping object. An envelope, encasing the object or objects that were selected at the time the envelope was created.

When selected, an envelope would not bring up an Object Properties dialog box, but rather an Edit Envelope dialog box. This idalog box would have options to allow you to have the corners of the envelope be able to move freely when dragged, or snap to significant nearby points such as the corners of a terrain cell, the bounding box of an object, or the corners of edge centers of another envelope. It would also have numerical controls for the envelope's height, width, and depth, and buttons that could be clicked to align or restore the locations of corners in various ways. An envelope could be copied to the clipboard, and later applied to another object or group, or pasted in contents and all to replace a selected object and bring up the Edit Envelope dialog box.

This is not something that I expect to be seeing in ActiveWorlds any time soon, but it would be great to see added eventually.

It would allow not only resizing, but reshaping of many standard objects when necessary to fit into places where making a new object would be more bother than it's worth, such as the case where the new object would be used only in one place. It would allow objects to be skewed to match the terrain, or modified to fit an incline on the bottom while keeping the top level. Originally the Edit Envelope dialog would only need to have a few controls and being able to move the corners individually would be sufficient to add a lot of power that builders now lack. Eventually, controls to rotate the envelope could be added, and perhaps even Beziér curve control points.

TechnoZeus

Dec 12, 2002, 6:57am

I like the idea, but I think rather than requiring caretaker privs, it should be available to anyone with eject privs. I also think a person should be able to disable the feature through a browser setting, in case they don't want to allow someone to teleport them to another world, or at least be able to set it so that the immigration officer would ask them for permission first. Perhaps if this is to be an extension of the eject feature the person attempting to teleport someone could choose either "Teleport to..." which would simply fail if the person blocks it, or "Eject to..." which would act like a regular Eject if the person blocks it.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 17, 2002, 2:36am

definately

TZ

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Dec 18, 2002, 7:26am

Even with that change... a world homepage button would be nice... and would make world owners happy too, because they would know that people could then easily access their home page at any time while in thier world.

It would also be nice to have a "View World's Homepage" option added to the context menu that you get when you right click a world in the Worlds list.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 22, 2002, 8:36am

I agree...

There should be a simple built in way to change asign specific texture names to be used instead of the default numbered terrain texture names, and let the default names be used where no specific name has been chosen to replace it in the given world.

Also, there should be a simple built in way to change the terrain altitude, but I would suggest that two different ways of doing this should both be implemented. First, a way to set the "default" terrain height. This would change only terrain that hasn't been specifically set to any height yet, and would leave the rest alone. Second, and probably more important, a way to raise or lower all terrain, including the default.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 18, 2002, 7:20am

I don't know if this is even reasonable, but since it's a wish... I'm puting it in the wishlist.

I would like to see the ability to create objects with self incrementing UV values.

For example, to make a scrolling billboard object, or to make a picture object that looks like it has a vertical hold problem.

TechnoZeus

Dec 21, 2002, 12:07pm

Good idea. I like rainbow as a color. Not sure if it would work, or how. I guess there are a lot of possibilities... but this is the wishlist. I'll wish for that one too. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 22, 2002, 12:44am

Most be a bother to be so easily annoyed. Hang in there... you'll survive it. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 22, 2002, 8:06am

It's okay. You'll survive it too. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 23, 2002, 1:58am

Unsightly, yes... but not annoying, if you consider what reasons there may be. At least, not annoying to me. :·)

Perhaps Jacob the Hero didn't realize that the "Re:" is short for the English word "Regarding" and that it is used to signify a reply to the subject specified. We all know different things. We all had to learn what we know. Other people are bound to be lacking knowledge that each of us has, and we in turn are bound to be lacking some knowledge that they have. It doesn't do any good to be annoyed by the fact that someone may have reasons for something that you don't understand, or that someone may not have yet learned something that you already know.

Here's a piece of information you may not have been aware of. When people are speaking French, they often say "Re" when someone returns. This is something I learned only recently myself, and it made sense to me right away because many people who's first language is not English form the word "Rehi" as an English word for "Hi again" which is a reasonable English word formation even though you're not likely to find it in most dictionaries. I wasn't sure the exact reason for the French usage of "Re" as meaning "Hi again" but I figured it was an abreviation for something, so I asked Ourasi and got the response... yes it's the abreviation of "rebonjour".

It's not hard to see how a person could mistake the "Re:" in a newsgroup post's subject for meaning "Hi again" so that's one possibility, and of course there are other possibilities too. When people allow themselves to be annoyed by what they don't understand about another person's actions rather than politely resolving the issue, they may be missing an opportunity to learn somethig or teach something... either of which could make the world they live in a little better place to live.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 23, 2002, 2:37am

As I said, it doesn't do any good to be annoyed by the fact that someone may have reasons for something that you don't understand. Don't let things get to you so easily. Life is too short. Don't waste it. :·)

By the way, it looked to me like Maki was replying to Kah.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 22, 2002, 8:18am

Right now, the closest you can get is to have the person join you, and then join themself. (I know that word isn't considered proper English, but since English doesn't have an acceptable proper word, it'll do.)

You may also want to check my wishlist post entitled "2nd person mode" on Thursday, November 28, where I suggest an addition to the context menu that comes up when you right click on another person's avatar.

About the idea of a 1st person view zoom option, I would like that very much... and also, a wide angle lense option, to see straight up, straight down, straight to the left, straight to the right, and straight ahead, all at the same time.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 22, 2002, 8:24am

Yep, there are a lot of things that could be done with a world entry rejection message. I like that idea of puting a web form URL in the message. Perhaps this could be taken a step farther and add a checkbox for whether or not to open the world's set homepage upon failed world entry in addition to upon successful world entry.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 24, 2002, 9:43am

There's a potnetial for abuse in anything that has a potential for use. In this casem the potential for abuse is no greater than the potential for abuse of the world's Welcome message and the ability to set a world so that anyone can enter it and read that message. Keep in mind that this would a way of getting only a single text message, which obviously is much less than what you get if you are actually allowed to enter the world. The potential for proper use are what we sould be concerned with, because it would allow world owners a way to give people such information as why the world is closed, when (if ever) it will be open, and where to look or who to contact for more details. Abuse of such a feature would be handled like abuse of any other information providing feature, if such abuse were to happen and be bad enough for people to look for a way to deal with it. It would be a very useful feature.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 26, 2002, 9:46am

Then how about a way that someone with eject privs could request permission to view your incomming and outgoing whispers? A person being harrassed could grant such permission, causing whisper messages to be echoed to the person who made the request, until one of the two turned that function off.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 26, 2002, 9:55am

I don't recall specifically whether or not the AW end user agreement had such a provision, but in my experience most such agreements specify which areas laws will govern any disputed concerning the things covered in the agreement, so if you accept such a contract then you are technically agreeing to be bound by that particular set of laws regardless of where you live, unless the laws of your area specify somehow that such terms of a contract are not legally binding.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 26, 2002, 10:45am

Yep. "This Agreement shall be governed by and construed under Massachusetts law." Covers which laws govern the terms of the agreement. I notice that "arbitration" is, if used, to be held in California. They may want to update that since Massachusettes is pretty far from there. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 27, 2002, 1:54am

If someone chooses to allow another person to a conversation they are having in whispers, yes they would be breaking the privacy of the other person in the conversation... but isn't that the same thing they would be doing if they copied the whispers and gave them to the same observer in telegrams, chat, or any other way? There would still be no way to view whisper conversations without the permission of someone involved in the conversation.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 27, 2002, 1:55am

Abritration is a formal way of settling disputes out of court. Usually formal anyway. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 27, 2002, 4:34am

It wouldn't be automatic. Only simplified.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 29, 2002, 10:35am

I'm not sure what you mean by tourists using the feature, but I'm thinking it would be best if only world caretakers and people with eject privileges could request permission to view your incomming and outgoing whispers, of the intention is to allow a way of verifying harrassment, since other people couldn't do much about it even after verifying it and some people might have a tendancy to repeatedly ask complete strangers for such permission without good cause, given the chance.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 29, 2002, 10:46am

Ah, okay sk8man1, I just realized what you meant. The concept of "tourist" doesn't trigger in my mind the idea of not being able to whisper, so I didn't realie that you meant "people who can't whisper or send telegrams" and yes I agree that for their sake it would be nice if there was some alternative way of letting someone in charge know that they are being harrassed and would like their whispers monitored. I suppose better yet would be to be able to choose mute from the whisper list (even with whispering disabled) so that they can't whisper to you. Some kind of context menu should be added to the whisper list. If not the ability to right click on a name in the list, then perhaps a "context menu" button right next to either the whisper list or the whisper input field. Adding a context list option would then be even better since it would make that option easier to get to without having to find the target avatar.

TechnoZeus

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Dec 29, 2002, 10:49am

That wouldn't be so bad... and if it only announced when they started watching, and not when they stopped, the person doing the harrassment (or other unwanted behavior) wouldn't know when the monitoring stopped and would most likely continue to behave, just in case. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 30, 2002, 12:35pm

That's another reason why I figure there shouldn't be a way of letting a person without eject privs or caretaker privs listen in on whispers... because if the problem they're monitoring gets worse it would be good if they could do something about it.

TechnoZeus

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Jan 1, 2003, 8:12pm

Any time you say anything to anyway, it is possible that they may repeat it. They may also choose to record for later use. There are a few people in Active Worlds who do that kind of thing all the time. If you want to be sure something you say will not be repeated, either say it where nobody can hear you (which seems to me would usually serve no purpose) or only say it to someone you trust and only after they agree not to ever repeat what you're about to say. Personally, I have a little trouble making such agreements without knowing what is "about to be" said. Hehe.

TechnoZeus

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Jan 3, 2003, 1:36am

True... but still, we can wish. :)

TechnoZeus

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Dec 26, 2002, 10:10am

This would make a good addition to the existing warp and teleport commands, actually.

It would also go well as an addition to the "Accelerate" command that I suggested a long time ago for nudging avatars in a specified direction without the sound associated with warp or teleport actions. The command would act to accellerate in a certain direction rather than toward a specific destination. The idea being that such a command could be used to move someone downstream or act as if the wind was blowing hard ehough from one direction as to slow or speed movement in certain directions. There are many such enhancements that are possible. :)

TechnoZeus



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Dec 27, 2002, 2:01am

No different to me. The way I understood the original post was that 45 would mean 45 degrees down, whereas straight down would be 90 degrees, and straight up would be -90 degrees. Upside down and backward would be 180 or -180 degrees. This idea of looking level being set at 0 degrees and straight down being 90 degrees seems to me no more or less intuitive than looking level being 90 degrees and straight down being 0 degrees, but looking level being at 0 degrees and 90 degrees being straight down does fit in better with a standard used in trigonometry.

TechnoZeus

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