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Nov 15, 2002, 12:39am

I heard many people talk about the 3.4 coming out and the supposed obsolete
Skyboxes, when does the normal users like me get a chance to see this
almight all so gracious heavely sent gift come from the Gods of AW.... come
out???


Thanx, Dart


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Nov 15, 2002, 12:48am

Ina bout 5 years. Wait...make that 7.
--
-Miek Zimmer
*Mike

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Thanx, Dart


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Nov 15, 2002, 12:56am

7? Better add another 2 to that.
--
- Syntax -
http://www.swcity.net
http://forum.swcity.net

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Nov 15, 2002, 3:12am

depends on what processor you have, on some Intel chips 7years+2years is somewhere around 3.573527e274years, which would be my guess...

--
Hal9000
worlds: Discover, Planets, Revolt76
http://hal9000.wkya.net

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Nov 15, 2002, 3:55am

It was pretty close to finished, but thanks to people "telling ENZO what to do" there has been a bit of a setback. The good side to it is that some of the features we would have had to wait for 3.5 to see will be in 3.4 instead. Of couse, you know the bad side.

As for skyboxes being obsolete, I wouldn't say that... you could still do some great effects with custom skyboxes, but the won't be needed anymore for a lot of the effects that used to be impossible without them.

You will also find that many effects will be possible which previously were not... and since the bugs were pretty much all worked out already, these new features are quite stable so I'm pretty sure they will be keeping all of them.

TechnoZeus

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Nov 15, 2002, 5:05am

*cough* Speaking of skyboxes!
Why don't you dudes at AWI pop one in AW Prime?!
--
- Syntax -
http://www.swcity.net
http://forum.swcity.net

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Nov 15, 2002, 8:10am

Agrees. And the backdrop feature could be taken out since it's really
obsolete. Just the backdrop color needs to stay and be renamed to Fog color.
And it would be really nice if the titlebar would show the current position
as fractional coordinates. I.E. "AlphaWorld at 0.7N 28.2W facing W"
or "AlphaWorld at 0.7N 28.2W facing 097"

By the way, why is the heading counter-clockwise instead of clockwise as on
a compass (E=090)?

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Nov 15, 2002, 10:50am

Well, I agree that backdrops are obsolete, but the feature shouldn't be
removed. Legacy compatibility is very important, especially for worlds who
use older world servers or for other universes who might not have the money
to upgrade.

-Brant

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Nov 15, 2002, 2:12pm

Skyboxes and panoramas as well as ground objects are still supported in 3.4
and useful for many things.

E



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Nov 15, 2002, 3:08pm

Because AW Prime is "historical" trust me, this debate has come up
many-a-time.. seems the majority of people who said anything thought AW
Prime should be left well enough alone.. for it's "historical" context..

(that's my excuse when people ask why my website is pure standard 2 html..
cuz it's historical.. i'de hate to change it; it would lose it's historical
value. :-)

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Nov 15, 2002, 4:00pm

I was thinking the same thing... and also, correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that a simple old style ground object is actually pretty efficient since it's really only a single object rendered in a position that jumps to stay with you as you cross certain zone boundaries, and the backdrop feature is both very efficient, and the only way presently available to place an image in the background that takes full advantage of the actual screen resolution of the computer that ActiveWorlds is running on. I wonder if a mask feature could be added to it so you could let the new 6 color sky and a sun, moon, or glowing planet show through. Hey, ENZO, any plans to allow jpg images already on the texture path to be used as masks by specifying a .jpg ending on a mask file name?

TechnoZeus

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Nov 15, 2002, 5:44pm

No :)

If you want a star/moon/sun/planet make it the lightsource corona, use the
corona features such as glow/render and mask to vary its appearance

E


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Nov 15, 2002, 5:54pm

Maybe checkbox for a "self-mask" feature like coronas have then? I was mainly thinking of how flexible it would be if any texture could be used as a mask, but at least it would be nice to be able to use textures that were designed to be used as coronas without having to create masks for each one.

TechnoZeus

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Nov 15, 2002, 8:21pm

Skyboxes can already be made with masks. There was one in AWTeen a while
ago. Contact Robbie if you're interested in using the one he made.

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Nov 15, 2002, 8:35pm

how does that happen lol? 7+2 is obviously 13! :)

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Nov 15, 2002, 10:23pm

Historical value, schmistorical value.
2.2 is long gone and so should the wrapped backdrop.

What would AW Prime be if they still ONLY had a Cy object?
C'mon ENZO, hook us loyal Alphaworld'ians up with something new and fresh.
--
- Syntax -
http://www.swcity.net
http://forum.swcity.net

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Nov 15, 2002, 10:33pm

E, please see my post somewhere in this thread (it's a reply to J B E L L)
to steer this topic back on track. Thanks. :-)
--
- Syntax -
http://www.swcity.net
http://forum.swcity.net

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Nov 16, 2002, 2:54am

Yes, I know skyboxes can use masked textures. Originally that didn't work right, but eventually they fixed it. What I was talking about is using a mask with a backdrop... which presently can't be done, as far as I know.

TechnoZeus

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Nov 16, 2002, 3:15am

It's not made by robbie. It's the skybox from AWgate, called sha_sky1.rwx,
he just renamed it and called it his own creation.

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Nov 16, 2002, 8:06am

Why exactly is that someone?...

> By the way, why is the heading counter-clockwise instead of clockwise as on
> a compass (E=090)?

Nov 16, 2002, 10:23am

I don't know for certain, but I would guess it's probably something to do with the fact that the standard horizontal number line has the negative numbers to the left of zero, while in ActiveWorlds, West is positive, and East is negative, placing the negative numbers to the right of zero on a standard map.

TechnoZeus

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Nov 16, 2002, 11:37am

"ncc 71854" <NCC-71854 at USS-Venture.Starfleet.UFP> wrote in
news:3dd5d47e$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> It's not made by robbie. It's the skybox from AWgate, called
> sha_sky1.rwx, he just renamed it and called it his own creation.

No, it's not the same. Brant was referring to the Nox skybox, and it's not
the same as in AWGate.

KAH

Nov 16, 2002, 11:55am

It IS the same, compare them exactly.

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Nov 16, 2002, 8:40pm

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It seems things are changing in the AW Universe as a whole.
The focus of the NewAW seems very different to AWPrime. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but it seems the New AW is an RPG of life? While AW Prime is aimed
at public building


Before it seems much (around half) of the online population was just normal
people building and chatting in Public buildworlds. Since the price
increases, I've seen many of the buildworlds dwindle in population, AW
Prime's population is slowly dwindling and the rest of the public worlds
have virtually no life at all now. However Only AWTeen has managed to stay
a float dispite the increased pricing.

Most of the online population now it seems comprises of people staying in
their own little worlds with prehaps a group of about 2-5 friends


Along with that and the non existant progress, I ultimately decided to move
to AWTeen to take advantage of the new building features. Keeping in mind
that I came to ActiveWorlds purposely to build, not to live another life
online.

Nov 16, 2002, 8:48pm

[Urgh accidentally hit send prematurely] [Additions at the bottom]


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Along with that and the non existant progress in AlphaWorld, I ultimately
decided to move
to AWTeen to take advantage of the new building features. Keeping in mind
that I came to ActiveWorlds purposely to build, not to live another life
online.

So what I'm thinking is the days of citizens just building and roaming
around in public BUILD worlds numbered?

Nov 16, 2002, 9:01pm

NewAW is a game, yes. Not necessarily "role play" although it can be. You could also consider it a sort of strategy game like chess, or a simulation for us to play with. From what I was told, NewAW isn't the directions ActiveWorlds is going in, but rather a new addition to the ActiveWorlds universe for people to enjoy. Don't let the name fool you. It's not taking Alpha World's place. On the other hand though, it may turn out in the long run to be just as historically significant due to the fact that it will push the envelope of what ActiveWorlds "can" do.

TechnoZeus

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Nov 16, 2002, 9:04pm

If NewAW doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then don't go there. It's
pretty simple. Those people who like the idea of having to "buy" objects
and earn money will go to NewAW. Those that don't will continue to go to
the other public building worlds. There might be an initial crowd of
curiosity seekers once the world opens, but after the novelty wears off,
only the people who actually *want* to be in NewAW will stay there.

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--
Goober King
The art of wandering in ActiveWorlds has been dead for ages. :P
gooberking at utn.cjb.net

Nov 16, 2002, 9:09pm

AW is changing. I can see it in all aspects, even AWTeen has been hit hard
by the price increases. Almost every week, we loose an awesome member of our
community by not renewing cits. We continue on keeping the world up and
running, but it has not been without toll.

The days of the builders are passing, I'm afraid. Building is no longer
enough. People are going to be attracted now by entertainment.

J

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Nov 17, 2002, 4:32pm

yeap, the idea of buying land and earning credits seems repugnant to me. I
won't be participating. I get enough commercialization crap in my real
life.


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Nov 17, 2002, 5:33pm

Yeah, it's not for everyone, and it's definately not for all the time even for those who will enjoy it. Right now, those of us who are beta testing are tollerating the way it is currently set up because we figure there must be some reason for it, although we're not tollerating it entirely without complaining. Hehe. I figure it's probably considered a necessary step to see if any of us can manage to pay off our loand before it should be mathematically possible... because if that happens it means someone found a way to cheat, and you wouldn't want a bug like that left in a game. NewAW is by no means "fun" at this stage, but it has the potential to be. We have had some fun in it, like when 9 9 9 hid some gnomes for us to give us something to do, but at the moment I think most of us have gotten thoroughly tired of this phase of NewAW testing and are just doing our best to hang in there and not give up while waiting for something new to test. The next stage should be alongs soon, as I'm sure there must be testers who are closer to paying off their mortgage than I am, and I've only got 9 days left to go if I can manage to tollerate 24 hours a day in there to collect credits. Then hopefully we'll get other things to do in there, like jobs, trade, or whatever. I know what kinds of things I'm hoping for... but I don't know what we'll actually get. Either way, NewAW is just a game. Don't expect it to have much effect on the AW Universe as a whole, except in the sense of helping to push the envelope of what is possible in AW.

TechnoZeus

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