MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 7 (Theme: Humor)

Hey, everyone!  We have been partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this summer, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week (due by Fridays at midnight VRT, or in other words 00:00 am), we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner.

Last Week's Entries: 

Last week we featured Snow.  I'm a big fan of Winter and snowy builds are a refreshing and often seasonal change of pace from the green pastures of the public building worlds.

Syntax’s Morax Summit, AlphaWorld 2168S 3916E 43

AWTeen GZ circa Winter, 2006. AWTeen 831.58N 2142.99E 0.13a 1

And last week's winner (randomly selected from all entries) is... SirGreendown!

This week's theme is: Humor

Happy exploring, and good luck!

MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 6 (Theme: Snow)

Hey, everyone!  We have been partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this summer, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week (due by Fridays at midnight VRT, or in other words 00:00 am), we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner.

Last Week's Entries: 

Last week we featured Caves.  Cave-themed builds in ActiveWorlds are a lot of fun to build and explore because there are some technical challenges to overcome to make them look believable, and seeing how different builders implement that via lighting, interactivity, and/or detailing is always really interesting and often unique to that builder.

 

AW 1692.940s 3212.472e 3.5a 90

Merlin’s Cave featuring Keshi’s potions! minutia 46.90S 29.46E 0.47a 81

Unknown Location

There 971.63N 475.36W 6.07a 144

Ilexus Caves AW 2015.79S 3863.28E 0.00a 11

Ilexus Caves AW 2015.79S 3863.28E 0.00a 11

Ilexus Caves AW 2015.79S 3863.28E 0.00a 11

Ilexus Caves AW 2015.79S 3863.28E 0.00a 11

And last week's winner (randomly selected from all entries) is... TenYearsGone!

This week's theme is: Snow

Happy exploring, and good luck!

MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 5 (Theme: Caves)

Hey, everyone!  We have been partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this summer, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week (due by Fridays at midnight VRT, or in other words 00:00 am), we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner.

Last Week's Entries: 

Minutia 52.99N 20.28W 0.01a 164

mysticStar Landing Zone

Titanic by James. at AWTeen 1500.22N 3342.15W -18.38a 75

And last week's winner (randomly selected from all entries) is... Artist3D!

This week's theme is: Caves

Happy exploring, and good luck!

MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 4 (Theme: Water)

Hey, everyone!  We have been partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this summer, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, starting on Fridays at midnight VRT (00:00 am) we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week, we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner.  

Last Week's Entries:

Duskbat’s Galaxy, AW 9524.65N 7506.81E 0.82a 23

U.S.S. Glory, AW 2629.70S 3278.64E 10.35a 93

Mystic World

And last week's winner (randomly selected from all entries) is... Dodgy!

This week's theme is: Water 

Happy exploring, and good luck!

Southern Highlands Progress for Week of July 19, 2015

Building continues in the Southern Highlands!  Sorry, I've missed a few weeks worth of updates.  Here's a general overview: facades, facades, and more facades.  I have a few blog posts to catch up on as well, detailing new facade ideas for different types of buildings.

In the meantime, here's what I've been working on:

For the past several weeks I had been mostly concerned with filling in facades around the beachfront, but as of yesterday I've been moving back towards Cactus Jack's railroad station in an attempt to fill in all of that land.  I'd like to at least close off the river back there, I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish filling that whole area with facade work.

The row houses in the first few images are my current project.  I'd like to do a blog specifically about that facade work... I'm very happy with how it has turned out as a filler build.  It gives a lot of character to the area of town it is in, and it'll be easy for me to stylize it with posters and 'scenes' of avatars/vehicles to really give it a personality.

The curved brick building in the images above was a lot of fun.  I intended for it to just be a facade, but after playing with shear for a little bit decided to bring it's beam further out to act as an awning for the adjacent building.  I think it worked out really well... I'd like to put a theater or something there, but for now it is just hollow.

The final shot shows some buildings I haven't featured here yet -- they're not quite done!  Soon. :)

MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 3

Hey, everyone!  We have been partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this summer, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, starting on Fridays at midnight VRT (00:00 am) we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week, we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner.  

Last Week's Entries:

Manhattn World, Ground Zero

Ancient City Atlantis Mysticstar 0.70N 0.05W -24.27a 169

And last week's winner (randomly selected from all entries) is... Charlies!

This week's theme is: Space

Happy exploring, and good luck!

MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 2

Hey, everyone!  We have been partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this summer, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, starting on Fridays at midnight VRT (00:00 am) we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week, we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner.  

Last Week's Entries:

MysticStar 0n 0w

AW 629.60S 558.32E 0.15a 339

And last week's winner (randomly selected from all entries) is... SirGreendown!

This week's theme is: City

Happy exploring, and good luck!

Edit: I'm extending this another week due to a MyAW outage as they migrated to a new domain.  The new AWBuilder Group is located at http://network.myaw.us/groups/awbuilder/

Web Command - Interactive Scarabian User Terminal

The web command came along after my group of friends became inactive, so our builds are largely devoid of examples of it.  I was building a TV shop in elkins beach today and decided to give it a shot with the Scarabian User Terminal.

Here's what I came up with:

Model:
pict1.rwx

Action:
create texture tv2,scale .75,picture pics.swcity.net/kiosk1.jpg;activate web url=npc.swcity.net/sut.php sw=1000 sh=750 keys=on nonav

I'm pretty happy with the outcome, but this certainly shows how the SUT has aged compared to modern web apps! There's a lot of content on the page and I had to get really close to the TV to make good use of it.

MyAW - Summer PTZ Giveaway - Week 1

Hey, everyone!  We're partnering with MyAW to host a PTZ Giveaway on MyAW throughout the summer!  MyAW is a new social network that opened earlier this week, and is exclusively for ActiveWorlds! PTZ are a currency that you can use within MyAW to redeem for prizes or trade with other users.

Every week, starting on Fridays at midnight VRT (00:00 am) we'll ask our readers to share some of their favorite places that match a particular theme.  You'll need to post the following to our MyAW "AWBuilder" group (must be logged in to view):

• Coordinates (i.e. AW 0n 0e. World & position at minimum)
• A screenshot of the build at that location

At the end of the week, we'll pick one of the screenshots at random to win a voucher for 100 PTZ! We'll share all locations submitted on the next week's blog, along with a public announcement of the winner. 

This week's theme is: Forest

Happy exploring, and good luck!

Facades - Transparent Windows in a Solid Wall

Today I'd like to share a very old trick -- likely a bug, honestly -- in a particular texture mask that has been used in AlphaWorld for over a decade to create windows. 

Stone1m is a very useful mask that leaves the texture unchanged except when a transparent surface is placed in front of the masked object -- the rendered area of the masked object then itself is rendered as transparent. Here's a screenshot from another angle that shows this clearly:

 As I said, this is very useful to create windows on facades that are very inexpensive users of cell space.  To demonstrate, I'll share another facade for a building I completed in Elkins Beach this week.

We start with the base selection of objects:

For this facade, we want a simple wall panel to cover the entire span of the wall. This piece will contain the stone1m masked texture, and  the windows will be placed on it.  We also want a transparent object -- winb2.rwx is a rectangular window that supports the optional texture "tag" parameter:

Texture the frame:
create texture topgrey tag=1 

Texture the pane:
create texture topgrey tag=200

Finally, we'll use p1rec0005g.rwx to add some depth and break the different levels of the facade apart. So we can arrange the facade objects in the location we want:

And then add textures, masks, and scale:

For a final result of 9 objects:

# Object          Purpose        Action

1 w1pan_1000j.rwx masked surface create texture tv4 mask=stone1m
4 winb2.rwx       windows        create texture topgrey tag=1,scale 3 1 0.1

4 p1rec0005g.rwx  depth/detail   create texture topgrey,scale 1 1 5

With this base facade completed, I replicated it out into a larger rectangular building and added some additional detailing as wall dormers and some street-level shops. The street-level shops are currently complete, but the overall structure is done:

And that's that! Feel free to share your own examples of this technique in the comments! This is a very common technique in AlphaWorld and I enjoy seeing new and creative implementations of it.