Touring Fort Masen with SW Chris and Syntax

While we're on the topic of not completing builds...

SW Chris visited ActiveWorlds last month to tour sites in SW City as part of a video series called "Before There Was Minecraft." This video series celebrates Chris hitting 1,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel by revisiting his roots in ActiveWorlds. Syntax and I joined him for a couple of hours to explore various sites in the city, including one that I spent a lot of time working on: Fort Masen and an incomplete dungeon underneath that was designed for SW City Interactive.

Some background:  Fort Masen was initially built by SW Comit and is built in the style of a historical fort, complete with an old wooden ship and cannons.  Some time after I became involved with SW City Interactive, I set my attention on Fort Masen as a potential site for a series of archaeology quests and digsites.  Over the years, I've added a number of quests there and began an undertaking to build a cave/dungeon adventure under the fort.  It is partially completed: there is a lengthy quest chain available to SWI players that actually gives you access to the dungeon, but after another sidequest it abruptly ends and doesn't let you progress further.

That would be the end of the story... except for SW Chris' video series.  Chris, Syn, and I explored on past the end of the current game, and we did a complete video commentary on incomplete areas (including a partially-complete interactive boss!) and some puzzles further in the dungeon.

The commentary is split over two videos, #6 and #7 in the series. Fair warning for SWI players, there are tons and tons of spoilers in these videos:

So there you have it, some insight into one of my many unfinished projects!  I might actually finish this one day, I'm a sucker for coming back to work on SWI stuff. :)

If you're interested in more video commentary, visit SW Chris's Youtube Channel! He's done a couple of series now on ActiveWorlds that you guys might find interesting.

Capping Off Content in Elkins Beach

Since I've come back, I've been slowly working to cap off old builds that I left incomplete.  It is really jarring just how much I left unfinished. This weekend, I've been working on the oceanside area of Elkins Beach, a medium-density town area in the Southern Highlands.

The bridge in the image above was fun to slap together. It is reminiscent of another project (that I actually completed!), Legacy Bridge in Cypress Hollow, AWTeen.  That bridge was quite a lot better, this is just a small bridge over an outlet.  

This entire bridge is sheared by z2 = -0.5 because the road in this area is sheared to connect two areas of the town that are offset by a few coordinates. Since I've gotten comfortable with the shear command, I much prefer it to manually rotating long-pathing object groups like roads because there is a lot of power in being able to maintain the length along one axis while manipulating another.  This can especially be seen in the beach-side road in the images below, where shear helped me to cleanly extend this weird, windy road down the length of my beach.

My priority has been on getting the roads and landwork capped off first, and I've started to set placeholders for the geometries in the area.  There's an area set aside for a cathedral I had planned... but will probably scrap because the landwork around it would make it pretty stumpy in length.

Another embarrassing build that is unfinished in this area is where my Cy Award for the ActiveWiki rests:

I intended for this to be a skyscraper that featured ActiveWiki content, but never got around to completing or even really starting it.  Whoops!

Hopefully I'll get some of this capped off before I leave again.

Extreme Builder Talent Show 6 Entry - "Razorspine Bluff"

I participated in the EBTS 6 throughout February and March, and would like to share my work with the blog.  The build is called "Razorspine Bluff", and features jagged terrain with spikes protruding from walls and exaggerated flora.  My goal was to fill the space with large and unique scenes while keeping detailing pretty minimal. This led to large objects in the scene, such as large trees and roots. This also had an unexpected benefit of keeping the framerate very acceptable, compared to other nature scenes I've completed in the past.

I may do another entry on a technique I used for detailing here, if there is interest.  This involved "layering" on the landscaping details.  Very roughly, I:

• Placed flat wall panels around the cliffside
• Added complex geometries with rock objects of a separate texture
• Added vegetation
• Added depth to nearby ground and flat surfaces by using different textures on slightly offset objects.

Maybe more on that later.

For now, some details on the actual build:

Important Locations:

Entrance 
"aw" 7619.03S 450.13E 0.60a 270

Waterfall
"aw" 7627.76S 470.77E 0.53a 61

Base of Main Tree 
"aw" 7621.04S 462.83E 4.70a 4

Photos:

At the base of the tree that towers over the bluff.

Waterfall on the backside of the bluff.

A shot of the waterfall on the backside of the bluff.

A shot of the large tree that towers over the bluff.

A view inside the cave.  I used water and steam effects
here, and also used some of the same tricks for the
 terrain spikes to create thin roots protruding into the
 cave.

A view of the many terrain spikes in this build.

An experiment with creating a mudpit with particle,
lighting, and sound effects.

I experimented with large roots using scale and
shear/skew in this build.  I think they turned out well.  I
 made a rule to only connect them to different spots of
 grass/terrain, which led to interesting connections
 between different terrain levels.

An experimental area in the caves, with various lighting
 and flora effects.

Some equipment in the mines.

Closer to the main entrance into the mines.

Overview from the front of the build.

 I enjoyed building this, and hope to maybe work on some similar concepts back in the Southern Highlands sometime in the future!  I especially like the spiky terrain and giant roots.

Keybindings - Using WASD in ActiveWorlds

I've been gaming quite a bit in my time away from ActiveWorlds, and on my return I found movement with the directional arrows rather unsatisfying.  Thanks to some help from GC and The Alphaworldian, I've got a new setup that I would like to share in case anyone has a similar problem.

You can access the "Keyboard Controls" window from the top menu bar.  Select Options > Configure Controls.  Here's mine, with WASD movement setup in the rightmost column:

Some notes:

• "Move left/right" and "Sidestep" seem to do the same thing.
• "Look up/down" are bound to middle mouse scroll up/down.  Toggle move mode is bound to middle mouse click.
• You can bind two keys to the same action, so I've got old arrow movement and WASD movement both in place. My WASD movement is defined in the right column in the image above. 
• With WASD movement, the "Quick chat message" button becomes more useful. I believe tab is the default binding for this -- you can use it to quickly set "focus" to the chat window after you've bound letters to other actions. 
• I haven't had any luck binding the "Escape" key.  The Keyboard Controls dialog uses it to cancel actions, so it doesn't seem that it can be defined from here.

The only thing I'm really missing still is free camera movement with the right mouse click, reminiscent of World of Warcraft.  Using the middle mouse to look up/down has been the closest approximation I've found so far.

Noticeboard: Susan3D.com now a free resource -- models, avatars and textures formatted for Activeworlds

Hey everyone.  Coming out of the woodwork to share a link that has come across my radar.

Cy Award-winning artist Susan 3D (formerly Lady Murasaki) has made her online resource -- http://www.susan3d.com -- free to use.  She has designed many objects, textures, avatars, and other resources such as tutorials during her time in AW and I expect that opening the site up to everyone will be very valuable to the remaining private world owners.

In addition to this, she will continue to post resources to the site.  See this AWForum Thread today for the most recent updates.

From my Teleports List: Seiya's Orchard Home

BuildCity - Verdant Valley - Seiya's Orchard Home (Plot #24)

Builder: Seiya

Teleport: BuildCity 6.212n 28.272e 0.3a 0

Jump Point: ^jump Seiya's Home

While I was performing maintenance on BuildCity last week, one of my goals was to memorialize Seiya's work in the world.  Following her passing, many of her builds were visited and highlighted by the community, and I expect this one may not have gotten much attention due to its location.

Seiya was among the first set of builders in BuildCity's first (and only) competitive session during the Virtual Game Festival 2010.  BuildCity challengers players to create a build within a themed community, and the builder is assigned specific tasks to guide the themes and motifs of the build, or otherwise add to the challenge of creating the build.  Seiya picked an especially challenging plot, where the task given was to build a two-story home within an orchard... in 3 hours.

When I was generating tasks for the plots in Verdant Valley, I expected this plot to be filled by a simple wood home and some terrible sprite trees.  Seiya took that thought and turned it on its head, and then crafted a building under it.  In something of a poetic gesture, Seiya wasn't satisfied with the house and the orchard being two separate components.  Why couldn't the orchard BE the house?

And so it was -- in three hours, a metallic outcropping appeared on the site, covered by the canopy of many small trees on the roof.  The build is then bisected near its midpoint, and a secondary hill offers some geometric contrast at an angle.  Seiya's design is brilliant not simply in its quick conception, but as well as its execution, and to me the exhibition of this particular piece is not the piece itself, but rather the designer.  Seiya's sharp "design wit" in the face of challenge, combined with the masterful crafting of geometry, worked with an intense ethic in a small window of time to produce an intriguing concept and execute it with extreme clarity.

A metallic outcropping terminates the hill.

The Orchard Home is a good example of the intrigue of her work -- her ideas, that they were executed in her builds and that you could clearly see what she was going for in the builds themselves.  Take some time to sample more of her work, and you'll notice this trend.  Her ideas, concepts, motivations, and even humor can be found in the carefully sculpted geometries that she made, and they take on a different identity because of that.  They are expressive of Seiya's personality, and since the time of her passing this is all the more apparent in her work.  We may never share another conversation, but in the Orchard Home, I can see her ideas.  Her brilliance.

A back staircase offers access to the orchard above.

In that sense, perhaps 'memorialize' was not quite the correct term earlier, because even though Seiya may be gone... what she left behind is more characteristic of who she was than any monument or obituary could hope to be. And so it is, I've decided to write this today instead of making a marker in BuildCity, and whenever I visit the Orchard Home, I will be able to enjoy the beautiful expression that my friend left behind.

Gaming - BuildCity Updates

Hey everyone, if you've followed me for a while you'll know that I manage the BuildCity Gaming World in AW.  I've been meaning to get things in order there for a while (meaning that they'll mostly manage themselves) so I took some time this weekend to do some maintenance.  Here's what's new:

• Off-season play rules are still in-effect.
• Abandoned/Incomplete plots have been maintenance and are available to new builders.
• Tourist building has been disabled.
• The global bot is ONLINE 24/7... this grants access to global chat and jump points for ease of reference. It will also save your last in-world location so you don't start in the tutorial when you enter the world.
• Players can earn Airpark Achievements for completing certain tasks, such as completing their first build or earning a certain amount of credits. Check the signs in-world for more info on that.

I am still maintaining the world so telegram me if you want to play, but expect a 1-3 day turnaround time as I'm not active daily anymore. Alternatively, you may reply to this thread and receive a quicker response as I am active daily on the forums.

Halloween Millionaire - Photo Blog

A crowd assembling before the event begins.  The studio was dark and reserved before the show, and users were arriving at least a half an hour before the event began.

The studio flares to life in an animated introduction sequence as the show begins, filled with lights and sounds.  The game then randomly selects a player from the audience, and the fun begins.

A colorful board describes the player's progress with animations and effects.  The lower buttons describe current earnings, and the 3 buttons at the top describe lifelines -- the red x describes a lifeline that has already been used.

A look back towards the ~20 user crowd.  According to GSK, this weekend was one of the most successful turnouts for the Millionaire event.  Several users from a Millionaire fan forum were present as well.

The color differences in the studio reflected the mood and actions of the game's progress.  Colors change in response to questions and actions by the player.

A shot at the main screen as a question is being asked.  The question is asked in chat, as well as on the main screen.  Players can choose to answer the question, use a lifeline for help, or walk away with their current earnings.

The millionaire studio inbetween games.  The purple and yellow colors reflect the Halloween theme for this weekend.

A look at one of the contestants.  Contestants play from the center stage as GSK operates the game from the hidden control room.

Noticeboard: Millionaire in 30 minutes @ Airpark

Millionaire event will be starting in 30 minutes at Airpark in ActiveWorlds for any interested.  They're usually a good bit of fun.

Users already showing up for the event, 30 mins prior

GSK has gotten a new HUD set up in the world and people are already showing up.  Looks like it will be a nice event, and its certainly nice to see things going on!  Come on in for fun and prizes!

AIRPARK: http://network.airpark3d.com/
TELEPORT: http://objects.activeworlds.com/cgi-bin/teleport.cgi?airpark

I've Been a Bad User

Hey, I don't recognize that world?

That must have taken *ages* to align correctly...

I never want to say AW is in dire straits, but, well, it's been pretty quiet lately.  We've had a hard year in AW -- Tom left and two of our prominent citizens have passed away -- and I think its taken its toll on people.  Even stalwart users have been showing up less often, and I personally have begun looking to expand my horizons...

Here's hoping AW 5.3 will have some strong offerings.  I don't know about you guys, but I look at my long past with AW and when I see all the content and effort I've put into a reputation, it's a bit disheartening.  As I become a better programmer I imagine I'll have more open doors, but I do still enjoy building and the screencaps above are some of my first forays into building within Second Life.  If you've ever used Google SketchUp, I find the building operations and manipulations to be very similar, with the exception that the surfaces and lines are replaced by primitive, solid objects.  The building system there was very intuitive to me as I've used 3D modelers before, and I was building in under an hour.

If you've spent time here developing skills, I think you'll find that many of them can easily translate into projects beyond AW.  Perhaps not the building interface itself, but certainly the design sense you pick up in a community like this, and the intuitive geometric relations that you can recognize while working with modular objects.


Anyway, that's it for now.  I'm probably going to continue laying low, until AW 5.3 comes out.  Later guys.

Too little, too late?

Hey guys, just wanted to drop in to share an update to AW that hasn't been applied to the release notes for whatever reason.

• The Contacts List has been reordered
• Sorted by ONLINE and OFFLINE users
• AFK users are denoted by a yellow check
• After X minutes, users can be automatically toggled AFK by the browser.

I like the yellow checkmarks as they offer some visual consistency to the notifications in the contacts list.  Hopefully someone will get some use out of it... I came in today to check it out and I didn't have very many friends online. :(

Reddit for Virtual Reality

Hey everyone.  Apologies for the infrequent posts... I'm in a bit of a lull as far as Activeworlds goes (it happens).  Anyway, I'm still around on other parts of the net and I've acquired the r/virtualreality space on reddit to foster a commonground between various VR platforms.

For the uninitiated, Reddit is a social content site where users can submit links that other users can vote up and down on, and the highest-ranked content gets more exposure.  Reddit goes beyond other sites of this nature by allowing users to take control of reddits/subreddits (such as r/virtualreality), make their own rules, and manipulate their design.

I've spent the weekend preparing r/virtualreality, and I think its ready for others to join me now.  If you'd like to visit, just go to http://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/.  If you register a Reddit account, you can participate in the conversation by voting, commenting, and submitting.  It'd be really great to have a diverse crowd from many platforms, and I'd love to have some other AW users lurking around!

Town Hall Meeting going on NOW in AWesome World

AWesome World has reopened and is the setting of this week's Town Hall Meeting, which will be going on for the next two hours.

If you recall, the world was to be an inspired setting for younger users and their friends/family, but it fell into disrepair and neglect as many projects tend to do. RMConstruction is the current world caretaker and is looking for a new purpose for AWesome World, but that hasn't yet been decided by AWI.

Schedule of Topics: Click Here for AWForums Thread

Noticeboard: AWExpo Cancelled, Texpo Announced

A bit of ruckus was caused earlier this week when GSK announced that in a joint decision with AWI, the 2011 AWExpo will be cancelled.  The AWExpo had a rough start out of the gate, and despite general community support the struggles came to a climax last week when a vandal took advantage of a Caretaker's privilege password to damage the world.  The Expo world closed in the following days and GSK looked to step down -- even making plans for a successor so that the expo could continue... but AWI did not accept the proposal, and thus the event will be ending.

Builders who have already made a booth have until Monday to save their progress before the world OP is closed.

In light of this decision, citizen Xandrah (Xandrake on the forums) has offered their private, P-100 sized world (RF3D world) up for a community expo that AWI won't be hosting.  The premise of this new event is essentially the same as the AWExpo, with the only difference being that the event dates have been bumped to mid-July and the attendance will likely be lower since AWI has pulled support from an Expo this year.

ActiveWorlds Technology Expo Dates

• June 30th - July 10th
• Registration is open; telegram Xandrah in-world
• Booth Building is Open
• Building Guidelines:
• If you have a plot please only build within your plot space.
• Please make sure your booth is to do with Active Worlds.
• If your booth is not about Active Worlds it will be deleted.
• July 11th
• Texpo Begins
• July 16th
• Texpo Ends

I am not sure yet if AWBuilder will be participating in the Texpo as I have a rather full schedule leading up to the event, but if I do I'll announce it here.  Hoping to see some good things come of it, and we wish it well. :)

Noticeboard: WTV Opens, Help Wanted

WTV opened today after some initial planning by Watson and the staff of WolfW1 world.  As announced today in the Activeworlds Forums, Shadow Creature and Watson. plans to build the station up in the coming weeks, and is looking for helpers and volunteers.  I dealt quite a bit in AW television back in the day as a senior staff member at VWTV... and know firsthand that there's a lot of work to be done on an endeavor such as this, so feel free to offer your skillset because they could surely use actors, builders, designers, writers... maybe even an audience member!

WTV takes after the tv stations of the past by using rotating jpgs to create a 'slideshow.'  In AW, this is achieved by applying an update parameter to the picture command.  Simply apply the following code to the action line of any object that accepts the picture command, and you'll see the image below:

Something unique that WTV appears to be attempting is that they are looking to run multiple channels of their programming at the same time.  Hopefully they'll be busy enough to justify the many channels!  AWBuilder wishes this new endeavor luck, and encourages any interested in participating to visit WolfW1 World in Activeworlds or the website at http://wolfw1.net/.

(Note: If you're viewing this on the frontpage with the related TV post, the image above may be breaking because the script is attempting to run twice on the same page. Simply read this post on its own page to correct the issue.)

Activeworlds 16th Birthday - Community Photograph Part 3

Happy Saturday everyone!  Activeworlds turns 16 on June 28, and we've opened up a week full of festivities with an annual event... the community photograph!  Over 115 users were in AWGate Saturday for the photo.  I was able to take a ton of screenshots before and after the arrival time, and I'm just gonna dump them all into a few posts.  Each post will only contain 10 shots so the loading time for the page isn't miserable.

Activeworlds 16 Birthday Photograph (Part 3)

Photos starting with this post should have names removed.  I also increased my total avatars visible, but some errors occurred on some where they wouldn't load.  Click on each image to zoom-in to a wide format (1600 px) image.