1  ...  3  4  5  6  7  8  ...  13  |   Order by default

Nov 7, 2003, 10:35pm

You have a revolutionary way of thinking about business.

In case you hadn't noticed, most companies have learned that 'batteries
not included' is a lame excuse and that people want things to work
right out of the box. Most devices come with batteries *in the box*

They are often crummy batteries, and that leaves the market wide open
for third party battery makers, but the consumer didn't have to wait to
enjoy their purchase.

I kind of wonder how many new world owners have accidently deleted
that one object they start out with, and had to wait overnight or over the
weekend to get someone to come and bail them out. That's really not the
kind of first experience you want someone to have with the product they
just paid you money for.

But this situation is easily foreseen, and it is very easily avoided with
little effort on the part of AW, either because someone in the community
would offer to do the work of packaging a simple bot at no effort to them,
or because Seamus can pop out the source for it like you might squeeze
a pimple.

So your many arguments as to why they should not do this don't convince
me it's not a good idea.

[View Quote]

Nov 7, 2003, 12:40pm

SVG is an open standard from the W3C.

It's very compact, and supports a very rich set of animation
constructs using SMIL (another W3C standard). These
animations can be keyframe based spline interpolations that
are done on the client side, so there is no huge bandwidth
penalty to pay for downloading a large set of raster images
as with the filmstrip or 'animate ? ? ?' methods.

This would be an excellent addition to the supported format
list.

Nov 7, 2003, 11:00pm

[View Quote]
Open Standard? Fill your boots? Have at it? Enjoy? Bon appetit? Help
yourself?
Be my guest? Fair game?

You can read about the file format yourself at www.w3c.org

You can judge for yourself if that place has any credibility. I think
they'll be
around for a while, but that's just me.

There are plenty of neat examples and demos of .svg on the internet if you
try
any of the search engines.

Nov 8, 2003, 12:06am

It would be convenient to have a checkbox in the rights
dialog that signifies that anyone is allowed to enter your world.

I know it's redundant since you can already use an asterisk,
but if you had the current list *and* a checkbox, you could set
up a list you might use while you're working, and then flip the
checkbox on without having to lose your list of cit numbers.

I know a bot can make maintaing the rights list a lot easier, but
a simple 'open season' checkbox would also help tremendously.

Nov 8, 2003, 2:23am

> *,cit#,cit#,cit#,cit#,etc

Yes.. but I've had this not work too, probably due to a bug
I think someone mentioned recently regarding wether you use
a space or put it at the end or something.

A checkbox labelled "allow all" is a really good way to tell
newbies how to open up the world to all visitors without them
having to read the docs.

Greying out the list entry so they can't access it after also
gives them feedback that it's not active. You can miss the
asterisk in your list and not realize you're letting everyone
in.

I suspect this is moot anyway. The world features dialog
has broken the barrier and is now in a nice tree format.

I'm sure that now that the guts for that kind of dialog are in
there, we'll see other dialogs break out into much nicer panels
and they will have more flexibility in what they do with the
user interface.

The rights lists are a ripe candidate for enhancements that
would only need to affect the browser (load and save list
come to mind).

Nov 12, 2003, 1:12pm

[View Quote] I posted a suggestion in another thread about doing something with the
"Local Path" feature of the browser.

If a more controlled method of using a local path on each persons
computer were implemented, it would be quite easy for you to give
your custom avatar texture to all of your 'friends' so that they would
see you in your custom skin.

People who you didn't know would just see the 'standard' skin for
that avatar.

AW would not need to get involved at all in terms of 'approving' the
skins. You could give whatever skin you wanted to whomever you
wanted, and you wouldn't need to even give them all the same skin..

You could have a webpage for your world allow people to download
the version of the skin they wanted to use (you could give them only
once choice, or choices such as high or low resolution, G rated or
a more risque version etc.) This would give people the choice of what
content they see, and it would afford you the opportunity to warn them,
ask them their age, or otherwise let them know what to expect.

All AW would have to do would be to extend the local path feature
to look in a local directory keyed off of a given citizen number for
any textures associated with any avatar worn by that person.

So if citizen number 59991 for example has created custom avatar
skins, and you have those skins in your local path in the form of:

59991/
textures/
some_av_head.jpg
some_av_shoes.jpg
etc.

then when the browser sees an avatar being used by cit #59991
calling for a texture, it would try to find it first by looking in the
directories noted above.

If someone did not have the customized content installed on their
local machine, then they would simply see the stock avatar and
the stock textures.

This kind of mechanism could also be extended to allow for custom
models as well, and custom .seq on a per cit basis.

59991/
textures/
some_av_head.jpg
some_av_shoes.jpg
etc.
models/
some_av_custom_version.zip
seq/
some_av_custom_seq

It can already be done like this to an extent, but not in a way that
takes the citizen into account. You can replace a given avatar
locally with your own version, but all citizens using that avatar will
look the same, and that's not what you want.

The only changes needed in the browser to implement what I
described would be to distinguish between different instances of
the same avatar (i.e. append the cit number using it at the moment
to it's internal name so it becomes unique), and then looking in a local
path on your hard drive first for any models, textures, or .seq associated
with it.

But yes.. it would be cool to have individualized avatars, even if it's
just for your friends, and even if you have to 'install' them seperately.

Nov 12, 2003, 2:58pm

Someone emailed me that the method I described would provide
a way for tourists to customize their own avatars, and give them
less incentive to register.

Just a side note that if something like I described were done,
it would not provide a backdoor to allow tourists to individualize
their avatars since they all share the same cit number - 0

At most, people would be able to substitute their own model for
*all* tourists, which is actually kind of a bonus feature. I can see
the "kick me" signs now.

So it would not detract from the incentive for tourists to register.

Nov 13, 2003, 12:28pm

It would be useful if the triggers could cause chat or console
events to be printed in the users chat window.

This would allow for some primitive narration without the use
of a bot.

You could for example have a premise that there is an unseen
guide helping you that communicates by a radio link, and then
as the user moves through your world either clicking things, or
just bumping into them, the 'agent' could provide the appropriate
canned information in the chat window.

e.g.

create console "you are getting closer" color=green
bump console "you're are almost there" color=yellow
activate console "you found the secret thingamajig!" color=red

... could be used to help someone 'find' something.

The message text shown inline here would likely make more sense
to be the object description as in a sign.

create console color=green

... would create a console message just using the contents of the
description.

For those who will object to the prodigous amount of bandwidth
that would be wasted by putting message text in the object
descriptions the mechanism could simply name a URL from which
to retreive the message text:

create console url=http://mydomain.com/somepath/text1.txt color=green

If abuse is an issue, then it could be a command only available
to CT.

'bots' are really great, but not everyone can run one 24/7, and
if something can be done completely on the client side without
using one, then why not.

Nov 13, 2003, 7:03pm

There is no need for any kind of server to be involved in putting
up a chat message based on an event initiated by the user (like
a create, a bump or an activate). I didn't mean to imply that
everyone in the world would see it. I only wanted the person
triggering the action to see it.

It does suggest an additional option though that would allow it
to either be broadcast to everyone, or only the person who caused
the action.

[View Quote]

Nov 13, 2003, 10:29pm

Why would a new command in the command set be considered a 'plugin'
wether it's in the client or the server?

Are any of the other commands considered 'plugins'?

I stated a wish for a new command... like the other commands that are
there, and given that there are indeed no plans for 'client side plugins;
whatever they might be, then all the more reason for there to be an
actual command for the purpose I described.

[View Quote]

Nov 14, 2003, 2:09am

If I try to construct a ground object and place it far underground, there
appears to be an 'invisible floor' about 60 meters down that I collide
with, and if I shift through this barrier and go farther down to where the
object is, it doesn't collide with my avatar.. i.e. I can't walk on it.

Obviously, I wish this behaviour didn't occur.

Nov 14, 2003, 5:22am

No.. and Alex has told me that this is a known thing.

You need to make sure there is at least on vertex in your ground object
located at or near 0,0,0

[View Quote]

Nov 15, 2003, 2:40am

<tosses a penny in the well>

I wish you could set the distance that the repeating ground object
repeats at.

It currently appears to be fixed at 60 meters.

Perhaps instead of the checkbox, just a number. 0 means no repeating,
non-zero means repeat at the distance specified.

It would sure beat scaling the entire world you want to build around a
60 meter repeat rate.

Nov 15, 2003, 5:07am

AWGate is actually a P1, and all the avatars are little teeenie tiny
miniatures,
so the vis setting of 200 meters is actually really 200 kilometers in scale.

;-D

[View Quote]

Nov 15, 2003, 3:48pm

It would be useful if the browsers current language setting,
or the current message set being used were provided somehow
in the HTTP request that goes to the object path.

This would allow different textures to be provided as signage
for people speaking different languages.

Different obects might also be called for (a welcome sign
made from an extruded font), different .wav files (spoken
messages) depending on the persons language, and if the
country code were also included, a policeman could look
like the right kind of police man no matter what culture you
are from.

While it would not address the issue of objects created using
the 'sign' command, it would be a start, and even if the 'sign'
command is addressed in future, a complete solution for the
language issue would still involve allowing the OP path server
to also know the users current language.

Nov 15, 2003, 4:29pm

this would be from all objects the cutting object intersects?

Like maybe 'create hole' would also be a way to describe it?

[View Quote]

Nov 15, 2003, 9:03pm

Be nice Strike... not everyone has the body for it.

1.. 2.. 3.. pause.. 4.. 5.. 6.. wiggle.. turn.. wiggle.. 7.. 8..

[View Quote]

Nov 18, 2003, 8:24pm

Now that it is possible to control the avatars the user may use
through the SDK, in order to allow for even more possibilities
it would be useful if the users abilities to fly and shift could
be associated with specific avatars.

It would actually be even more useful if swimming and running
were included in the concept, but that would also assume the
browser implements restrictions on those activities to begin
with.

If the entries in the avatars.dat file had additional information
that identified specific actions a given avatar could not perform,
then the possibilities for more fun and interactive worlds would
increase.

Imagine a world where the you need to do certain things in order
to get a bot to change your avatar from the turtle bot to the rabbit
bot. Now you can go faster, and hopefully this will help you move
up to the next level which would be say a 'bear' avatar which can
walk run or swim.

After completing additional goals, you could acquire an eagle
avatar (which we'll assume is a magical aquatic eagle that
can walk, run, swim or fly), and eventually a free spirit avatar
that is insubstantial and finally allows you to SHIFT through
things.

If this additional mechanism is implemented so that the avatars.dat
must have the lines added defining actions to dissallow, it would
not break anyones existing avatars.dat

Nov 18, 2003, 8:28pm

It would be nice now that it is possible to disable
user avatar selection to have a simple command
whereby the existing triggers could be used to change
the users avatar.

Requiring a full bot in order to use the new mechanism
is unneccessary when:

'activate avatar 20'

placed on a model of the avatar in question would be so
much easier.

Nov 18, 2003, 8:31pm

A new right menu option in the browser that allowed you
to right click someone and 'use avatar' would help newbies
easily choose an avatar they would like to use by just grabbing
it off someone they see using it.

Nov 19, 2003, 12:44am

'newbie' and 'tourist' are not the same thing.

Most of the tourists are actually "old timers" if you think about it.

So assuming they are a citizen, clicking on another citizen and 'using'
their
avatar gives noone any capability they don't already have. It just makes it
easier to pick an avatar you like based on what you see other people using.

[View Quote]

Nov 18, 2003, 8:45pm

Many of the commands can affect a named model.

It would be useful if the skybox and ground model had
implicit names.

This would allow many of the existing commands and triggers
to work with those objects.

'create rotate 1 name=_skybox'

Could let you rotate the skybox for example.

'activate sign name=_ground'

would allow portions of your ground object to have signs
or picture objects mapped onto them.

I would not be upset at all if all commands did not work
with those special objects, but there doesn't seem to be
much reason for most of the commands not to.

Nov 28, 2003, 7:53pm

Yeah... like name clashes have ever concerned AWI before.

They can pick any name they want, and they have a big list of all
the names that have ever been used sitting in their server database
if it really matters.

The main point is that there is no way to apply commands to the
ground or the skybox model, and there probably ought to be.
They are special models in some ways, but I see no reason that
many of the commands should not work with them.

Call them __AW_RESERVED__skybox and
__AW_RESERVED__ground for all it matters.

[View Quote]

Nov 19, 2003, 2:59pm

In a similar vien to the fx= command arguements for the light
command, it would be cool if some simple effects could be
applied on the client side to animate textures.

'create texture foo fx=scroll dx=5 dy=0 skip=3'

might be used for example to 'scroll' a texture horizontally by
5 pixels every three times the animation engine loops. This
might be useful for example to simulate scenery moving by
a window in a train, but without having to create a full
texture image for each step.

Scrolling a texture in particular should be easily done on the
client side just by manipulating the drawing paramters of the
polygons. In other words, it should not be neccessary even
in the browser to create all of the intermediate frames from
the original image.

It should also be possible to perform a few other 'tricks'
to create dynamic textures without explicitly creating each
frame. Most of the 'fx=' options from the light command
could probably be applied directly to textures... controlling
how brightly the texture is applied to the object, again without
having to generate all of the in between frames.

If the lighting effects in particular could be applied to textures
(not to mention that they could also be applied to the create
color command), then it would be easy to create things that
blink or do other strange things.

Most of the same things can be accomplished now using other
means, but this would be a very simple, simple way to let
everyone regardless of their skill level make their builds more
dynamic.

Other possible effects for animation could include inverting
it (making a negative image), swapping it left to right or up
and down, or spinning it around. These effects can all be done
using the features of the 3D drawing engine and do not require
the original texture to be altered, so they should be just as fast
to render as everything renders now.

I'll save the wish for wipes, fades and dissolves using the
same draw engine tricks for another day :-)

Nov 22, 2003, 2:51pm

Hear hear... I wished for a readout in the browser in an earlier post, but
this
would work.

Even if they just told you when you right click to edit an object, how many
objects were in the cell at the time you cllicked, it would help.

[View Quote]

Nov 23, 2003, 12:09pm

It would be useful to be able to specify that certain
axes within an avatar are inverted.

It is quite easy for example to construct a centaur avatar
by cloning the legs of an existing avatar, moving them back
a little and then swapping the left and right leg so that the
walk is convincing... diagonally opposite legs move at the
same time.

When the legs are swapped however, the second pair of
legs now wants to move in when it used to move out.

In other words... if the front legs want to spread wider as
in the begginning of the karate stance, then the swapped
pair of back legs will move closer together and actually cross
through each other

If there were a way to specify that the axes of the hip joints
on the back legs should have all .seq applied to it with the
'X' channel inverted, then all of the existing .seq could work
unmodified on such an avatar, or other avatar that had
four legs and walked as most four legged creatures do.

If the ability to invert specific .seq channels were added
on a per joint basis, I'm sure there would be many other
avatar tricks made possible that currently would need to
have custom .seq created.

It seems reasonably simple to put an:

if (something) seq_axis_value = - seq_axis_value;

somewhere in the code.

It seems quite daunting to try to create new .seq just
to get the back legs to work right.

Nov 25, 2003, 1:02pm

[View Quote] I already know how to make .seq thanks.

I could solve this problem with a small C program that automatically
converts
them if I cared to as well thanks.

But it's not *my* place to care about AW technology enough to do a bunch
of work to enhance it. That's rightly *their* job... i.e. I spend the money
to have
the fun.. they take the money and invest some of it in new fun things.

Manually creating mirrored .seq for each and every existing .seq is not my
idea
of 'fun'. Sorry. It's not why I'm paying for this service.

The wishes I post here are suggestions that would make AW friendlier to
everyone, and would increase the sense of value I get from it as a paying
customer.

And no matter what some moaner will say about how hard it is to add
things to the program, for one thing I don't believe it, and for another I
don't
care if it *is* difficult. There is no way that inverting an axis in a .seq
in the
browser when it's playing is difficult.

If you really think it's helping AW sell cits to keep making content as
difficult
as possible, then there's no point in us discussing the matter. I'm
referring not
just to you, but in general to anyone who brushes off suggestions on the
basis
of there being 'some other way' to accomplish a given task.

Innovate or stagnate.

Nov 26, 2003, 1:57pm

I would really like to read the AW research paper on sounds and how
they affect your ability to think.

I cannot conceive that there could possibly be a sound that makes
it more difficult to count the number of rotations you are doing. It's
as though the cowbell was designed to interfere perfectly with the
thought centers in your brain that allow you to count 'out loud' in
your head.

Before the rotation sound was there, I could easily construct those
fancy spinning kinetic sculptures that require precise
'INS-BACK-ROT-ROT-ROT:INS-BACK-ROT-ROT-ROT'
repetitive operations. It used to be like you made up kind of a tune
in your head and sang it to a certain rythym and generally once you
got started and into the groove of it, it sort of 'flowed'

But now there is a tone deaf cowbell player with no rythym trying
to jam to my tune.. and the fact is he just don't help.

The simple 'tick' sound when moving is OK. Maybe a simple 'tick'
when rotating would be cool too.. or even really short musical chimes
using standard notes. You could actually describe how to build
something by sending someone the 'score'.

Touch tones might also work.

But the cowbell is just.... really not the best choice. It 'bounces'
several times... and I think that is it's main fault. That is probably
what interferes with the rythym you have when building.

The buidling sounds need to all be of the same duration, and
they need to be fairly mellow.. with especially no multiple echoes
or anything in order to aid in counting.

Nov 26, 2003, 3:07pm

[View Quote] Cool.. these are the ones with the subliminal "support a!!ct" messages? :-D

Nov 26, 2003, 10:14pm

I wish that AW would always use a 32 bit Z buffer regardless of your
desktop display depth so that people running with 16 bit screen color
would not see through things that other people can not see through.

People making games might want to run in 16 bit screen depth to check
if they can see through walls that you can't see through in 32 bit color
depth.

1  ...  3  4  5  6  7  8  ...  13  |   Order by default