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Dec 1, 2001, 1:56pm

For those of you that didn't go to this week's TechTalk (or didn't read
a copy of it from Mauz's logs ;), AW 3.3 will (hopefully) add terrain
support. Below are two screen shots of the "early terrain prototype"
(WARNING: they are over 120k each):

http://www.activeworlds.com/roland/terrain2.jpg
http://www.activeworlds.com/roland/terrain3.jpg

The terrain kind of reminds me of the terrain in Tribes 2. Now, if we
only had a firing mechanism and the ability to jump... ;)

Also, at least three things from the Feature Vote page (located at
http://www.activeworlds.com/featurevote/) will be added to AW 3.3 (which
includes new privacy options). When will AW 3.3 be coming out? Probably
sometime in early 2002.

Builderz
Stuff-X Network
http://www.stuff-x.com/
PGP Key ID: 0xAC0E7073 (for non-commercial use)

Dec 1, 2001, 5:51pm

From the second screenshot I take it the cellgrid will adapt itself to the
terrain?

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Dec 1, 2001, 11:30pm

Wow, that looks awesome. I can' wait!
--
- Syntax -
http://swcity.net
http://academy.swcity.net
http://forum.swcity.net

Dec 2, 2001, 12:24am

Roland said most likely the "terrain" will be set from the world settings,
much like backdrop, ground and skybox, where the file will be a list of
elevation heights for each grid point. The terrain files are easily built
with a number of supporting software products already available to create
terrain files. He also said that there will be SDK support, so bots will be
able to detect terrain height (good news for both walking bots and building
bots).

Some things that he is still working on as part of it is a) texturing and b)
putting in holes (for cave, subway, basement entrances).

Roland said the privacy upgrades are complete, and the other thing being
worked on is avatar skin support, and 3rd axis rotation.

Oh, and he said they are working on another "secret" thing!

Current target release date is January 2002 (or was it February? forgot
now).

What an wonderful upgrade is coming! I'm excited! :o)

Regards, Justin


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Dec 2, 2001, 1:09am

Um.. with this terrain generation thing... is that just something for world
owners, or can folks in Public Building worlds use it to raise and lower
their land? It probably doesn't matter anyways... AW Prime has been just as
bland for about 5 years now... If regular builders can use terrain
generation, then I wish they'd enable it in AW.
--
SW Chris
Eagle Scout, Philosopher, Peacemaker, and... Kung Fu Master?
http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame1.html

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Dec 2, 2001, 5:28am

will this be open or closed beta?
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Dec 2, 2001, 5:32am

also... it would be cool is there was an action like create terrainmold or
something that could change a flat horizontal object to be like the terrain
its on... would make building roads on those hills a lot easier in public
building worlds :D just hope it dont slow rendering down too much
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Dec 2, 2001, 12:41pm

WOW! that's really cool


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Dec 2, 2001, 1:47pm

I would assume a closed one since they've worked fairly well so far. Like before, I would expect Roland would gradually add more people to the beta list as 3.3 develops.

-Agent1

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Dec 2, 2001, 3:11pm

I believe the terrain feature will be a feature in the world options.
The world server has to send the elevation data back to each browser,
and for a world as big as AW, that is a lot of data being sent. I doubt
AlphaWorld will have it enabled, but you never you know.

Builderz
Stuff-X Network
http://www.stuff-x.com/
PGP Key ID: 0xAC0E7073 (for non-commercial use)

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Dec 2, 2001, 9:45pm

You forgot the visibility range. It'll only send back the data in
visibility range. Or at least, that's how it should work. figures
though... Too bad SW City is so big. We can't move it to our own world.

Chris

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Dec 8, 2001, 5:11am

well as long as its working. having 3.2 closed was a BAD IDEA there were so
many problems cause of different systems it drove me insane i almost
downgraded to 3.1 before i got win2k all i know is if there are probs like
that again im leaving that pissed me off :P
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