Issue #12, June 23, 1996


The New World Times

AT LAST!
AN INTERFACE!

ALPHAWORLD GETS A REAL UI

Saturday, June 22, 1996

A new version of AlphaWorld has been in pre-test for some time now, and has finally been released. This version features a much more extensive menu system, a chat history window, and a graphical toolbar. Minor upgrades are being implemented as last-minute bugfixes are implemented, and version .89 also implements a Teleport selection from the menu.

Chat history

The chat history window allows us to converse in AlphaWorld without having to have everyone situated in sight of each other and alleviates problems with text overlay. This feature has been requested for some time, and is welcome to most of us. You can resize the chat window, and also scroll back to check previous conversation.

Be aware that the limit of avatars within site applies to the chat window as well. The current avatar limit is 12 (subject to change), so if someone moves into range the furthest avatar from you disappears and their conversation won't be seen in the chat window either.

Also in the works (or implemented already?) is a more reliable method of chat transmission. In the past, some packets have been lost occasionally so that you may have missed a line of conversation from others at times. The new method institutes confirmations and retries so that this won't happen much at all if ever.

Captions on objects

The "description" slot for objects no longer appears perpetually at the bottom of the AlphaWorld client's window. Now you only see it when you have an object selected. When your mouse cursor passes over an object that has a description, a caption box appears near the object showing you the description instead.

The toolbar

The graphical toolbar shown above gives easy access to the most common functions of AlphaWorld, which all involve moving, viewpoint, and building. The functions which only involve avatar movement or change in viewpoint (labelled in red) are grouped together. Another group (labelled in blue) only affects objects. The "walk mode" button is the equivalent of clicking on sky or bare ground to make your mouse cursor disappear.

Teleporting

We finally have a quick way to teleport to any coordinates from the teleport menu. Once you have teleported, whether using Web Page Teleport, a teleport object in AlphaWorld, or the teleport menu item, you may use the Back buttons (or menu item) to go back to a previous location. Likewise the Forward option, these work very much like the Back and Forward buttons on web browsers such as Netscape.

To learn a little more about how the teleport command is formatted, try the teleport program written by yours truly (Dataman.) I mostly wrote this as a prototype to show to the AlphaWorld development team--it's not feature complete but does implement a crude history list and assisted entry of the destination coordinates.

New Object Browser

The RWXLOOK program which comes with version .87 and higher is enhanced, which several fixes and new features. While browsing, you can zoom in and out, and stop or start the spinning of objects. Once you have selected an object, you can examine it up close in the main window.

There hasn't been time yet to do a help file for RWXLOOK, so I'll outline here the ways to move the object in the main window:

An even newer version of RWXLOOK (beta #11 as I write this) is available here for download in ZIP format. In this version, the menu used in the main window moves over to the browse window, so many of the buttons are not necessary anymore. You can also zoom or move the object in the browse preview window in the same ways as in the main window (bullet list above.)

The object browser still doesn't show any objects that haven't been cached on your local drive, so in order to be able to see all the obejcts available for building, you'll need to make a visit to LittleBull's construction yard at 600S 760E and autodownload all the objects to your hard drive. While you're out there, check out LB's flying saucer. (Well, it's parked, not flying per se, but it's pretty cool!)

Lighting fix

For those of you who noticed that there was quite a glare coming off some walls and other objects that faced west, a fix was made in version .89 that moved the light source back up where it belongs (how did that happen?) There are also some fixes being implemented (compliments of LittleBull) in the shading of models which affects the amount that things reflect at various angles.

New street object

Space Ranger (Ricky Bennett) has contributed to the AlphaWorld building objects in the form of a slanted street with a one-meter incline, STREET3.RWX. He also put a bottom on STREET1 and I followed suit with STREET2.

Other small fixes have been made to the building objects so that the "flat" colors (non-textured surfaces such as WALK and FLOOR bottoms, or all surfaces if you have bitmap textures turned off) match up better with each other.

"ALPHAWORLD OVERVIEW" OPENS

PROTAGONIST CREATES SCALE MAP

Tuesday, June 11, 1996

Protagonist has created a scale map of AlphaWorld! "Overview" is a separate world which contains scaled-down (1:5) roads and markers for each mailbox in AlphaWorld. You can get to the AlphaWorld Overview from Telepark (take the teleport just NW of the entry point to Telepark.) The teleport to Overview is up in the air, you can't miss it.

The Overview world will be updated periodically (as Protagonist's schedule allows) to reflect new construction. All mailbox descriptions from AlphaWorld are duplicated on the mailbox markers in Overview, and double-clicking on objects in Overview teleports you to the corresponding area in AlphaWorld.

CONTENTS

AlphaWorld Newsgroup is Live
AW Citizen's newsgroup is busy already!
AlphaVerse Expands
Colony Alpha's Grand Opening grows near!
About Our World
Where did my hard disk space go?
Under Construction
With over four million objects, AlphaWorld building is booming!
Advertisements
Ads from our citizens.
Data's Corner
A call for submissions.

ALPHAWORLD NEWSGROUP IS LIVE

...AND BUSY ALREADY!

Saturday June 22, 1996

Try the AlphaWorld Newsgroup for the latest AlphaWorld news, and answers to your burning questions.

You don't need a newsgroup reader to access this if you're using Netscape (or Microsoft's Explorer enhancements for news,) just click on the link above. This newsgroup is not run by Worlds, but by Lars "Spacefreak" Bahner, an AlphaWorld afficionado in Norway. Lars has a big project working which we'll cover in a later issue.

ALPHAVERSE EXPANDS

COLONY ALPHA CLOSE TO OFFICIAL OPENING

Saturday June 22, 1996 Since last issue, everyone on the AlphaWorld team at Worlds has been working on various issues having to do with AlphaWorld Community Servers. There are now some preliminary docs about setting up a server and creating artwork for it here.

Several new worlds are ready to come online. Some of these are still playing their cards close to the chest, while others are open for testing already. Colony Alpha is about to come online for real, with a Grand Opening on July 4th. See the ad in this issue for more info.

The Contact Consortium is creating a virtual university world called TheU. They're gearing up for a move to a new server soon! Other educational worlds are also planned, in fact there may be a world that serves as a "hub" for only educational worlds. Don't forget to visit the Consortium's Sherwood Forest pages, including their Towne Crier newspaper.

Nokia is about to open a Scandinavian VR called Arctic Light. Stay tuned to the main index page here for details of when and how to get there!

Take a look at the Piazza page for a preview of what's coming in a new world very soon. I would give my right arm (yes, including the typing fingers) to be able to create this kind of artwork!

Cyborg Nation is going through regular changes as it fulfills its role as a testing ground for new objects, avatars, animations, etc.. If you have just too much hard disk space on your hands and you like Jimi Hendrix, head out to the psychedelic pyramids NW of the entry point and go inside the largest one, then doubleclick on the music speaker there. (This is a WAV file that is over a megabyte, not for slow connects or crowded hard disks!)

Advantages to running your own server include ability to use your own artwork, control of who is allowed to build and/or enter, control of encroachment logic, etc.. For those who are interested in setting up a VR of their own, beta pricing is $4999 and up. The base price gets you a "buildable" world that is 1 Kilometer cubed, with all the AlphaWorld artwork, sounds, and avatars included. The server software is available for Sun and SGI machines running UNIX, and will soon be available for Windows NT. Other configurations are available and pricing will likely change in the future.

Currently almost all servers are running from the AlphaWorld machine as early beta licensees work on their own artwork and building schemes. The property and avatar servers need to run from the same site, the citizenship server at the Worlds site coordinates all the citizen traffic, and the artwork and sounds can come from anywhere on the Web. For instance, Cyborg Nation's property server and avatar server are running on the same Worlds machine that hosts AlphaWorld, but the artwork comes from the same website that hosts this newspaper.

DATA'S CORNER

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Some of you have noticed that issues of the paper are getting further and further apart...this is mostly because I have been swamped with other work. At this point I'm spread very thin, and I'd like to remind the readers that I am open to submissions.

At this point I have no budget to compensate folks who do submit, but with the way things are taking off in the Alphaverse I think this paper will eventually become a self-supporting entity. Lots of people read it, and eventually I suppose we'll be able to charge for advertising.

If you're interested in submitting to the paper, here are some rough guidelines:

Other than these few guidelines, the only recommendations I have are to read the paper and try to make your submission fit in at least a bit with what's here so far. I know, I know, I'm pretty picky for someone who isn't offering any money! But I have worked pretty hard to maintain a certain standard here, and even though these pages have never been perfect, I have always tried to make them so. What I'm essentially looking for is more people who are interested in doing things as well as they possibly can. That's what I'm doing in VR, trying to make things as good as they can be!

"'Scuse me while I kiss the sky."
...Jimi Hendrix.

AlphaWorld is a trademark of Worlds, Inc. The opinions and other content of this paper do not necessarily reflect those of Worlds, and belong only to Dataman.