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Jun 24, 1998, 10:53pm

One more thing that could make AW a little more real. We now have a
option to remove the floating chat text if you like it that way. It
would be nice to extend this option, or add another level of
enable/disable that could optionally remove the persons floating name
also.

Now your going to say, "How would we know who is who with it turned
off?". We have one method now (right click their avatar) as long as they
have hit the enter key during the current session. That's good enought
for me! If they have not chatted during the session you can't see their
name now anyway.

But I can think of one obvious improvement to the right click method to
see their names. Why not produce "Tooltips" (little yellow text box)
just like we have for objects that have their "Description" field
defined. Then you just float your cursor over them and ya know.

I know this does not sound like a big thing, but it is more realistic to
not have the names floating around. Any small detail to create a feeling
of reality is important.

zer0

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 25, 1998, 2:38pm

Unfortunately, often times the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is
ignored by programmers. Over a year and a half ago, I thought it was great
when your name only appeared while speaking and then disappeared a few
moments after the conclusion of the text. The name would then appear only
after speaking again.

zer0 <marvin at constant.com> wrote in article <35919F91.577B at constant.com>...
> One more thing that could make AW a little more real. We now have a
> option to remove the floating chat text if you like it that way. It
> would be nice to extend this option, or add another level of
> enable/disable that could optionally remove the persons floating name
> also.
>
> Now your going to say, "How would we know who is who with it turned
> off?". We have one method now (right click their avatar) as long as they
> have hit the enter key during the current session. That's good enought
> for me! If they have not chatted during the session you can't see their
> name now anyway.
>
> But I can think of one obvious improvement to the right click method to
> see their names. Why not produce "Tooltips" (little yellow text box)
> just like we have for objects that have their "Description" field
> defined. Then you just float your cursor over them and ya know.
>
> I know this does not sound like a big thing, but it is more realistic to
> not have the names floating around. Any small detail to create a feeling
> of reality is important.
>
> zer0
>

Jun 25, 1998, 5:37pm

I agree with you here... It was far better when the name would remove itself
from view after a minute or so... What we have now is a mess where names of
people who haven't said anything for 15-20 minutes still clog up the screen...
The ability to turn off the text spoken has helped locate the person speaking
but places like GZ where everyone stands around (for whatever reason) all the
names just blend into one big mess... (so I say)...

[View Quote] > Unfortunately, often times the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is
> ignored by programmers. Over a year and a half ago, I thought it was great
> when your name only appeared while speaking and then disappeared a few
> moments after the conclusion of the text. The name would then appear only
> after speaking again.
>
> zer0 <marvin at constant.com> wrote in article <35919F91.577B at constant.com>...



--
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 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.
>
>

Nov 4, 1998, 2:34pm

I agree, no names...also an option to make avitars not show through walls, or at
least one for bots... seeing someone through 30m of rock seems like a little
hole in realism to me!

[View Quote] > 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]

Nov 6, 1998, 7:31pm

Rendering avatars with realisting position is not a problem from the programming
standpoint. It would require pretty much just copying/pasteing some code from one
sub to another. The problem is the speed tradeoff: to render the avatars like you
want would slow down fps by about 10x!! The dynamics of 3D rendering are a lot more
complex than they appear.... Which is why the avs are simply rendered on top.

grover

[View Quote] > I agree, no names...also an option to make avitars not show through walls, or at
> least one for bots... seeing someone through 30m of rock seems like a little
> hole in realism to me!
>
[View Quote]

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