Star light, star bright... I wish we may have night every night :) (Wishlist)

Star light, star bright... I wish we may have night every night :) // Wishlist

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dthknight

May 23, 1998, 12:49am
Roland, do we really WANT to know your opinion on Saddam Hussein? :)
seriously though, the night effect you introduced us to tonight is neat,
and would be great if it could be done every night... here's a hint: use
VRT! :)

*goes off to bed feeling happy and hoping for a positive response in the
morning*

--
Dthknight - dthknight at earthlink.net - ICQ: 2603180
Dthknight Central: AW 1875N 2225W
Home Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~dthknight/

"But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily
vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing..." - Kate Chopin,
"The Awakening"

technozeus

May 23, 1998, 5:20pm
Here's a related suggestion:
In a future revision, we could have the option to specify a night backdrop,
and a day backdrop, along with sunset and sunrise times... or, how about a
list of 12 backdrops representing a change once every 2 hours throughout the
day? Blank slots would be considered a continuation of the backdrop last
changed earlier in the day (or late the previous day if necessary) allowing
actual sunrises and sunsets to take place automatically each day. The
world owner or caretaker would be able to select weather these times should
be acording to the server, or the browser. This would give new meaning to
the phrase "it's night where I am." :·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

dthknight

May 23, 1998, 6:06pm
Interesting, however I can see where people would not like it if a world
owner 'forced' them to use a night backdrop when it was still light by
them - i.e. the world owner lives in Florida, you live in Maine, it's
summer, and it's 10pm - in Florida it's well dark (usually) by then, but
in Maine it's still dusky. Also a conflict may come in if those Aussie's
or Europeans say 'it's noon here, yet AW is still using a night
backdrop!'... at least VRT is a bit more of a compromise, and so basing
it on VRT would be nice (like I said in beta), as would basing it on
local time.

[View Quote] --
Dthknight - dthknight at earthlink.net - ICQ: 2603180
Dthknight Central: AW 1875N 2225W
Home Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~dthknight/

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." -
Albert Einstein

technozeus

May 23, 1998, 7:10pm
Well, perhaps VRT could be used as a third option... although it wouldn't
really be necessary as a a caretaker could choose the setting to base it on
the server's clock, and simply shift everything acordingly, but since it
would probably be easy to add and would simplify the process of changing
methods... why not? :·)

As for people getting upset about it being night in AW while it's still
light out their window... I wouldn't worry too much about it. Never heard
anybody yet complain about all the people flying over them while gravity is
still turned on in their computer room. :·)

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

robert patterson

May 24, 1998, 3:34am
Just wondering... How would COF forcing us to use DayTime all the time be any
different then a World Owner forcing Nite on us...???

What we need it a Citizen toggle... Keep it DAY or NITE or have it change based on
VRT or local time... One needs only cache two backgrounds instead of one (and as
we re-cache pretty well everytime one turns around who would notice) then we'd be
all set...

[View Quote] > Interesting, however I can see where people would not like it if a world
> owner 'forced' them to use a night backdrop when it was still light by
> them - i.e. the world owner lives in Florida, you live in Maine, it's
> summer, and it's 10pm - in Florida it's well dark (usually) by then, but
> in Maine it's still dusky. Also a conflict may come in if those Aussie's
> or Europeans say 'it's noon here, yet AW is still using a night
> backdrop!'... at least VRT is a bit more of a compromise, and so basing
> it on VRT would be nice (like I said in beta), as would basing it on
> local time.
>
[View Quote]

--
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.

technozeus

May 24, 1998, 5:39pm
Hmmm. Okay, so perhaps the world owner could set it to be based on the
server's clock, the browser's clock, VRT (acording to the browser I
suppose), or user selectable. Am I getting closer?

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

robert patterson

May 25, 1998, 4:22am
Oh... I can see a place for the World Owner having a setting - no matter what
(s)he wishes it to be by default... BUT it should still be an option for anyone
visiting the world to be able to switch it to how 'they' would like to see the
world... I don't personally like the 'bite' Day background. I'd lock myself to
nite sky... If the World Owner wants it to default to day then it would be day
if the person visiting didn't have a pref. selected... This would provide
everyone with a choice and wouldn't take any time at all to code in... (we'v
already got a default (day) background... just a few lines more directing the
Browser to the 'nite background' if the 'box' is clicked... this is not rocket
science...)

IF COF doesn't see fit to add this feature in the very near future someone
should take it upon themselves to do a 'clunk'... A wee util that would search
out the '.../texture ' whenever a new world is entered and quickly dump a 'nite
sky' into the newly created DIR, then write protect the file so the one caching
doesn't overwrite it... problem solve (altho' not very elegant...)

[View Quote] > Hmmm. Okay, so perhaps the world owner could set it to be based on the
> server's clock, the browser's clock, VRT (acording to the browser I
> suppose), or user selectable. Am I getting closer?
>
> TechnoZeus
>
[View Quote]

--
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.

technozeus

May 25, 1998, 7:28pm
This can easily be accomplished with a local object path, however I would
see nothing wrong with adding a feature to allow forced selection of a
particular background which could be changed without all going through the
bother of clearing your cache and re-starting the ActiveWorlds browser.
This would be particularly useful to builders wanting to see how their
structures will look against a night sky, mid-day sky, and so on... without
having to wait.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

dthknight

May 25, 1998, 8:46pm
While you do have to go to another world and come back again, you don't
have to restart the browser OR clear your cache... just replace the
default backdrop (in AW that's fall_day, and you may wish to change
fall_nit2 as well.) To make sure AW doesn't overwrite the file, you have
to make it read only, and one can easily make a little batch file such
as the one below to protect and unprotect the backdrop(s):

[--protect.bat--]
at echo off
F:
cd "\Active Worlds\cache\art\objects.activeworlds.com-aw\textures"
attrib +r fall_day.bmp
attrib +r fall_nit2.bmp
cd \
echo Backdrops protected.
C:
[--end--]

I have this and a similar unprotect.bat sitting in the root directory of
my C drive, where they are accessible all the time (thanks to PATH=C:\
in my autoexec.bat). If I ever want to change the backdrop(s), just load
Paint Shop Pro, change them, run unprotect.bat, save it/them, and run
protect.bat. So now I have a 'day' sky with clouds in it, and a 'night'
sky adapted from the 'day' one. Only problem: they don't blend nicely
with the 'AW blue' background color at the top :((

[View Quote] --
Dthknight - dthknight at earthlink.net - ICQ: 2603180
Dthknight Central: AW 1875N 2225W
Home Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~dthknight/

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay

technozeus

May 25, 1998, 9:24pm
I meant a local object path... not the cache. This is a 2.0 feature. to
quote form Options --> Settings --> Advanced... "The lacal path is a
directory on your computer where the browser will check for art files before
downloading them from the internet."

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

dthknight

May 26, 1998, 7:35pm
well I don't own a world, and the majority of citizens don't either...
The method I'm using - and that Tyrell has been using for how long now
Tyrell? :) - works whether you have a world or not, with features we
KNOW to work well - as opposed to the new and possibly buggy local path
option. Personally I don't want an exact duplicate copy of COF's artwork
sitting on my computer, it was bad enough running a trial world...

[View Quote] --
Dthknight - dthknight at earthlink.net - ICQ: 2603180
Dthknight Central: AW 1875N 2225W
Home Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~dthknight/

"But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily
vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing..." - Kate Chopin,
"The Awakening"

technozeus

May 29, 1998, 10:30pm
The local path does not have to contain any of the files that you don't want
to use a modified version of, and you don't have to own a world to use it.
I don't own a world either, and by the way I am familliar with the method
you speak of and have used it myself, but the local path method does have
advantages. Give it a try. I think you'll like it.

TechnoZeus

[View Quote]

jim oxby

May 30, 1998, 2:26am
Umm......Wouldn't all the objects look light it was day while it was night?
If only we could change where (and the brightness of) the light
source.........then that would be better than all this gibberish kinda stuff
below. Or maybe someone could set up a web-cam pointing up at the sky and
use it for a VRT time (or any other time zone) Sky dome. so it would update
itself every few minutes/hours and you could see the clouds float past, or
it could be raining, etc. Sounds a bit like "virtual weather".

Bug

[View Quote]

marvin

Jun 13, 1998, 12:07am
This is a very good idea. Nothing to make AW (or any world) more
intresting than what is going on in that huge virtual sky! I think there
should also be "Cloudy" days, "Stromy" days, and anything else that
would make AW a little more RL. Everything is there to select different
backgrounds and GZ default sounds. All the world servers need is a way
to automate it.

zer0

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