PROTAGONIST PULLS OUT ALL THE STOPS WITH VERSION 35: WARP SPEED!
Issue #3, Friday October 6, 1995
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Today Protagonist unveiled a new version of AlphaWorld software that makes it possible to traverse even large distances very quickly. This begins a whole new era for AlphaWorld residents.
With over a billion square meters of land now available at a very short commute, you can expect to see a building boom unparalleled in any world! See the New World Times Extra Edition #1 for details of how to use the new feature.
Laura became the first AlphaWorld citizen to officially fall off the edge of the earth (how did we know it would be her?) at approximate coordinates 32,750 32,750 (we didn't ask in what direction) early the next morning. She was rewarded promptly with a General Protection Fault.
Coincidentally, soon after the release of version 35 Hobo Sam became the 4,000th citizen of AlphaWorld.
(Note that most of these won't start working until you load more of this page.)
Warning: files you can download from links in this article require dweeb capabilities, and should not be attempted unless you feel fully competent as a dweeb. Neither Worlds, Inc., or Dataman will assume any liability should you trash property or self in using them. This offer void where prohibited by law. Neither employees of Worlds, Inc. not their families are eligible. This paragraph should be read very quickly in an undertone by Don Pardo.
As of version 32, AlphaWorld gets TV sets. However, the big problem facing us at the moment is that there is only one TV station, and programming consists of only an animated testing pattern.
The way the TV sets are set up is fairly simple: Renderware (the library currently used for rendering objects and scenes in AlphaWorld allows bitmap "textures" to be attached to objects. These textures are all stored in the TEXTURES subdirectory of your AWORLD directory. In the MODELS subdirectory are scripts describing each object and the textures which are associated (if any.) When a texture bitmap is long and tall, say 128x1024 pixels, Renderware splits it into 128x128 pixel pieces and plays them to you in sequence continually. This is the technique used to make AlphaWorld's waterfalls, fires, spinning globes, the laser beam and magic walks at Worlds Headquarters, etc..
The latest addition to the animated objects in AlphaWorld are the two TV sets: TV1.RWX is a relatively small TV, TV2BS.RWX is a big wall-hanger. Both play spinning globes by default, but other animations can be "plugged in." If you know how to edit text files and solve a few puzzles, you can figure out how to change the way things look and sound in AlphaWorld...at least to you. In the future, you should be able to create your own custom objects and share them with other users.
For instance, here is PKZIPped file containing an avatar you can use to replace the default one. He's not much different, I just gave him black hair and a blue shirt and changed the skin tones a bit, lots more work to do. Be sure to back up the file AVATAR.RWX in your MODELS directory before overwriting it with this file!
Tech support is not available for this replacement animation! Please, if you aren't that familiar with DOS files and directories, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (or anywhere else for that matter.)
We will have more replacement animations next issue. If you make any of your own, be sure to send them to the New World Times so that we can post them for others.
Commercial ad space available here. Eventually we may actually charge for this so get it while it's virtual.
Editor's note: Sleepy Hollow willbe featured in an upcoming Under Construction.
The Bar Over Troubled Waters is
open for business around the clock.
We have added a dance floor and sound, and remodelled completely with new building materials.
Thursday night is Headbanger night! Come and blitz your brain in our mosh pit!
Coords: 8N,4W Dress: come as you are...hell, come as everyone is! Please do not drink and fly!
We are still waiting for canvas materials from Kalak, but have found what we consider an acceptible compromise in the small computers that came in version 32. Please stop by and see some of the more outstanding artwork on the Web at 6N, 1E. On your way out please doubleclick on the mailbox and Netscape will set you up to email Enigma, so you can vote for your favorite work of art.
Editor: see the LA Times and Boston Globe editions from Thursday, 10-06-1995 for a photo of Enigma's gallery!
Those of you who have been following Queen Nemesis's exploits will be interested that the Queen has graced us with a web page...or rather a series of web pages! The Queen is heavy on graphics, watch out for that first page, it's a killer. After the load of the initial wallpaper we think you'll agree that this stuff is worth the wait.
We brought the Queen's pages with us in our recent move from Netrunner to the Worlds server. Welcome, Queen!
There certainly have been a lot of versions lately! See that New World Times Extra Edition #1 for details of which versions do what. Many are minor updates you don't need to download...for instance version 37 just corrects a bug in the install procedure so don't bother downloading it if you already have version 36 installed!
This seems as good a place as any to thank Worlds, Inc. for our new home here on the Worlds server. We were running out of space at the old site, and the issue was forced by the recent hurricane which rampaged through Georgia and took down netrunner's Internet connection for almost a whole day. Hopefully this server will provide a much better link for many of you.
If you haven't seen the main index page for AlphaWorld docs and such, check it out here at its new site. The old link will continue to work for a while, but it will soon become just a pointer to this new site.
Be sure to check out Ion's Construction Company at 28S, 5W if you are building. We featured this site in Issue #2, it has all the building materials laid out for easy comparison. Version 32 introduced marble construction materials, artificial turf on WALK12.RWX, TVs, poles, and lots of other good stuff. But probably most important, we now have some double-wide panels! (Look for "X2" in your REGISTRY.TXT file in \AWORLD\MODELS.) This trend will probably continue with other double-wide materials and possibly some larger ones. Have you ever gotten a message that says "Try building somewhere else because this area is full?" Use double-wide panels and get twice as many objects in the same space!
As of version 32, we have the ability to play sounds in AlphaWorld. If your sound is not working yet, please be patient. Many citizens are still without sound service but Protagonist is working on ironing out the kinks.
The sounds AlphaWorld plays must be of type WAV or MIDI at this time. WAV is a digital recording of sound (and is appropriately huge on disk), MIDI is a symbolic representation of music. AlphaWorld only plays a MIDI file once when you move into its range. If you move into and out of range again, or if you click on and off the object which links to the MIDI file you'll hear it again.
WAV sounds, unlike MIDI, play in a continuous loop. Like MIDI, AlphaWorld attempts to make volume proportional to your distance from the source of the sound. WAV and MIDI files can be playing at once, but each one cancels any other files of that type. So if your neighbor's music or background sound is too loud, just make one of your own and the closer of the two will override the other.
Both MIDI and WAV files reside in the directory \AWORLD\SOUNDS. If you don't like a particular sound or MIDI track, just move it out of that directory and the software won't be able to load it. You can also add your own custom sounds by placing them in that directory. Others will not be able to hear these sounds unless they have the files on their local disk, so you may want to ZIP up your favorite sounds and set them up as a URL on the Web. Then you can attach a reference to the ZIP file to any object, just as you can with HTML pages on the Web (like this one.)
To add sound to a scene, first create an object or decide which object you want to attach the sound to. Then select the object by clicking on it, and in the "Destination" slot add "sound:filename" (no quotes) where "filename" is the name of the .MID or .WAV file in your SOUNDS subdirectory. Don't put too many sounds in one area! Not only is it irritating to others, it will slow down movement in the area as the software continually evaluates which sound it should be playing.
Laura has been busy this week, building on some land Protagonist just made available. Her office, just west of the Little Red Schoolhouse at 0, 7W, is a welcome addition to the Ground Zero area.
From the time you see the scale of the entrance to the Hawaiian Village, you get a feeling that this woman is planning a serious undertaking.
A journey around the perimeter reveals some very nicely planned waterfall areas.
Inside a winding circular river, stairways lead to a giant path...who knows where it will go?
LittleBull has been busy as usual. As Lord Morpheus would say, "This guy has way too much free time on his hands!" Bull's Grand Hotel should be ready for prime time soon, and we plan to feature his home as well, but for this week we decided to feature a giant lighthouse he showed as at 200S, 100W.
Kalak of Tanagra is blowing everyone away with his fantastic work on Worlds
Headquarters, near 1S, 25W. As head artist of AlphaWorld, Kalak and
the not-so-shabby-either Ms. Tanagra designed and implemented a completely
unreal journey through space and time (see picture below), and into Worlds HQ,
which is built under the ziggurat.
We were going to run some picture of the
headquarters itself, but we decided to let you see for yourself. The
animations don't come across nearly well in pictures, and Worlds Headquarters
is just something you have to visit to be a full-fledged citizen. When you get
inside the Ziggurat, walk up to the disk under that laser beam and hold down
Shift while tapping your minus key to reach the subterranean offices of Da5id!
When you get down below, be sure to check out the lighting effects and hit PgUp
to see the skylights.
Everyone wants to know when they can use these incredible Z objects. The answer is...NOT YET! So far, Z objects are restricted to Protagonist and Kalak. However, sometime in the not-so-distant future we should be able to make our own objects for AlphaWorld, which is essentially what Kalak is doing at this point to demonstrate what can be done with some artistic talent and imagination.
An animated golden path and laser beam must be seen in person to be appreciated.
Geek has done it again! Last issue we told you about the AlphaWorld Atlas the has created--now he's already created another very useful web page for Alphans. The Alpha Tribe page is the first operational Tribe page for groups of Powwow users who want to keep in touch.
Powwow can be very useful for locating your fellow citizens, and for handing files back and forth and so on. It allows you to chat with up to 6 other people, and go on group tours of the Web. However, etiquette requires that we limit concurrent use of the two programs. The AlphaWorld software slows down people in Powwow, even other users who are not in AlphaWorld. On the flip side, when you use Powwow to speak to others who are in Alpha you may end up being rude to others around you.
You can get Powwow at http://www.tribal.com if you haven't got it already. A word to the wise...you may wnat to register with the Alpha Tribe but don't register with the regular Powwow White Pages unless you want to be interrupted a lot by strangers who want to chat.
Geek is also testing a new AlphaWorld Bulletin Board. Give it a try!
DEAR DATA
Hey Russell
I keep getting (STOP you have lost your internet connection) Has this just started, my connection seems okay, but if it's something between here and there what should I do? Re establish connection's or just keep on keepin on...
Ray,
If you mean "It seems your Internet connection has failed," that can be a
number of things, none of them really good of course. If you get it when
you first come on, and then go insto "standalone" mode, then I'd say restart.
If you get it while building, try waiting a while before building again.
If your Winsock allows you to trace what is going back and forth, you can
see if the server is actually sending you back messages...for instance, I
turn on Trace IP in Trumpet Winsock and I can see if any messages are coming
this way in between the ones that are sent to the server.
When you get that message it may mean that you can't get confirmation
from the server for building, but not that you're completely offline.
In fact, you may still be able to chat with others and see them move around...
even if the server is out to lunch! This is because communications between
citizens in AlphaWorld is "peer to peer." I'm not totally sure how this
works yet but I already think it's pretty cool.
Another pretty cool thing is that you can lose your Internet connection
entirely and stay in AlphaWorld, then come back online and the software will
pick up where it left off! (If you try this trick, please fly up high before
"going to sleep" so that people won't waste time trying to talk to you.)
Dataman