AWBuilder Turns One Year Old

One year ago today, on Feburary 2, I set up a humble blog on Tumblr in the hopes of creating a new web resource for ActiveWorlds users.  I had envisioned a place to chronicle my projects, as well as a place for tutorials and for my comments on how AW was doing.  For many months, through high times and lows, I put time and effort into this place, and I think it paid off.  Here we are, a year later, and AWBuilder is host to over 100 posts -- tutorials, downloads, commentary, even the occasional shoutout to other people's projects.  I'm pretty happy with the blog, and from the analytics I see that the AW community is as well, as this page has maintained decent traffic even while I'm not making frequent updates.

AWBuilder had some really great momentum in Spring and even through Summer, but in Fall we hit a change of pace.  I began hinting at some projects I was working on outside of AW (/r/virtualreality) and my foray into other virtual world software.  On the forums and here on the blog I had become increasingly vocal with my displeasure of AW's direction, and for the past few months things have just seemed so... stale, moreso than ever.  Coupling this with the trouble on the forums and the "all is well" attitude that you'll see from AWI and die-hard fans, I found myself in an uncomfortable place.  My citizenship expired in January, and I've taken the opportunity to dive into the great ether that is the Internet to see what else is going on in the world of virtual worlds.

Looking back on my month away, I have to say... the outlook for virtual reality in the future is VERY EXCITING.  I mentioned /r/virtualreality... I try to post a news article there once a day to keep the conversation going, and I've found some incredible things.  Research on all areas of peripherals, from contact lenses that display HUDs to pop-up books.  Worlds designed as therapies for burn victims.  The creativity of research into virtual and augmented reality projects seems unlimited.

Back here in the present, outside of the protection of academia... the outlook for the present isn't so awesome.  In my conversations, I've found that many people consider Second Life to be "yesterday's virtual world."  We seem to be at an intermediary period, where the concept of a general virtual world is accepted and fairly well-known, but it isn't big.  It isn't "the 3D internet."  Not yet -- something is still missing.  With all of this research into hardware, I'm inclined to believe that the answer will be found in a world that takes advantage of immersive technology.

As an addendum to that last though... if Second Life is yesterday's virtual world, what does that make ActiveWorlds?  Some food for thought.

---

So what's next for AWBuilder?  I'm not sure, to be honest.  As a resource, it is completely functional just the way it is, and I expect that it could continue to be for many years, even if I never updated it again.  I expect that I will occasionally... I really have enjoyed working on this blog, and I'm very proud of the content here.  If ActiveWorlds can find a way out of the rut it is in right now, I may even return to regular posting.

Hey, a guy can dream, right?

Anyway, if you want to continue following my projects, I spend most of my time these days working on http://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/.  I've been moderating this reddit since August, and it has grown into a nice discussion forum.  We're starting to get at least one post a day and I'm even starting to recognize regular commentors. :p  My goal for the reddit is to be a good measure of where VR is heading, and to be a good place to discuss virtual worlds old and new.  My friends from ActiveWorlds are more than welcome to join in. :)

Merry Christmas, Everyone

Do Ut Des

Merry Christmas, everyone.  I hope the day has found you well and in good health.  I'm taking the time to rest up... currently a bit under the weather.

I should have some posts up in the following days. 

Finals Week

...ugh.

;)

AlphaMapper Progress Continues

Hey everyone!  I'm still on break through the end of this week, but I'd like to share a couple of things so it's not totally dead around here...

AlphaMapper Progress Continues


Byte has returned to work on the AlphaMapper and it's gettin ever-closer to being able to produce maps.  I understand the long wait-time may be frustrating to some Alphaworld builders, but I've been keeping up with Byte through the whole process and I can vouch that he's really taking the long, arduous road -- making all of the components himself -- so that when the product is finally done, the new AlphaMapper can be much more versatile than a simple mapper.  I think a lot of his recent promo videos and screenshots can attest to that.  One such video is below, where we see that he's got avatars and masks up and running.



Byte keeps a blog about AlphaMapper progress, which you can find in our 'What's new in AW?' sidebar links.  If anything new hits, you'll be sure to find it there!

Town Hall Meeting


This week's Town Hall Meeting will be today in AWSchool (Click to Teleport) at 6pm VRT.  From the looks of things there are a lot of big ideas floating around that need some dedicated volunteers.  If you've got the time and are up to it, feel free to step out and lend a hand.  :)


Annnnd that's it for me.  I'll try to get a new poll up this week, but I'm heading into finals so there's no guarantee.  Later!

Classes Begin Today

Hey everyone.  Summer classes begin today and I suspect they'll eat away at much of my time.  Oh well.  :)

I also have a link to share:  a thread containing the changelog of my progress in AD&DRPG world.  You can review it here.  There are also some suggestions from other users posted there that are worth a view.  If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know!

Docked in Key West

Hey everyone!  If I've scheduled this post correctly, we should be arriving in Key West right about now and I'll be in range of communications again.  If I have some time I'll see if I can post some images from my phone, as I'll surely be itching to get back in touch with the world after getting off the cruise boat. :P

I've heard there are a lot of chickens in Key West, so I'll be on the lookout as I've been known in my time to be somewhat of a Chicken Chaser...

The plan afterward is to the return to the boat and head on to Nassau.  Hopefully it'll be a good time!

Wedding Day

Hey everyone, today's the big day.  This is the first of several automatic posts I should have fired up for the week, and if I scheduled it right then I should be gettin' hitched sometime around when this gets posted. ;)  Anyway, these posts won't be anything too big, just some new content to keep the site alive while I'm away.

I want to thank everyone for supporting Crystal and I... all of the well-wishes have been wonderful.  There was even a nice forum thread started for it. :)  (Finally something that won't cause a flame-war on the forums, amirite!?)  Check out this cool announcement Sidris made up for us:

Thanks guys. :)

We'll finish out the ceremonies today and then head off on honeymoon for a week, down to Florida and the Bahamas.  Hope everyone has a good week!

Out of time!

No more new content after this post :)  I'm making final preparations for my wedding tomorrow, so I'll be out of here.  I won't be around until next Saturday, but I've gotten a few things together and will try to have blogger set up automatic posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday concerning some of my projects from this week.

See ya everyone!

AD&DRPG Visual Renovations - Title Screen

Hey everyone!  I've spent the past couple of days in AD&DRPG helping to get the world's half-decade old builds back up-to-date.  If you've never been to visit, AD&DRPG is a fantasy-themed role-playing game that uses Dungeons & Dragons gameplay mechanics for character stats, skills, and progression.  If you're a follower of the blog, you'll remember back in March when we reported that AD&DRPG would be open permanently.  Since they're around to stay, I wanted to contribute some of my time to help address the biggest gripe world visitors have had since it returned: the aging visuals.

In addition to the visuals I've also been addressing some navigation issues by making new NPCs that address players via the say command, but overall the chief concern has been to update areas with zones and particle effects, replace really low-res textures, get sequences to avatar objects... things like that.  Anything to help with interaction and immersion is being addressed, and it is really starting to show.

I would like to share all of my progress here on the blog (since this is a building blog, after all) and I think I'll do so in small snippets, to be released while I'm away next week.  I'll set them to be posted at various intervals through the week, so be checking for new posts!

Today, we'll be looking at the new world title screen.  The title screen appears when players drop into Merinel -- the ground zero town -- and is triggered by a simple bump trigger.  You can view it below.

As you can see from the video, there are a few things going on here.  Perhaps most noticeable is the camera switch -- this isn't native third person mode.  The user is forced into this camera position when they hit the bump trigger, and the camera itself is set to a pole object that moves and rotates back and forward.  In the actual view, you see the AD&DRPG logo, a large dragon, and several buttons.  The dragon is simple, and is stationary except for an appropriate flying sequence that has been set to loop. The two buttons on the left link to webpages, and the button on the right sets the camera location to the user -- effectively terminating the title sequence.

Commands used in the title sequence:

• Camera
• Used to begin and end the title sequence.  The 'location' parameter was first set to a named object (the pole) for the title camera, and then set to the user to terminate the title sequence.
• Move
• Used on the camera pole to give the camera the effect of zooming in and out.
• Rotate
• Used on the camera pole to give the camera the effect of zooming in and out.
• Name
• Used for objects that needed to be changed by bump or activate triggers.  In our case, everything that was meant for the title screen had a name assigned to it because when the player clicked 'PLAY,' all of the title screen objects needed to disappear.  'Activate visible <name> no' achieves this.
• Sequence (Seq)
• A flying sequence was applied to the dragon avatar object so that it would remain animated.
• Scale
• Scale is useful for detail work; in this example the dragon and logo were scaled.
• URL
• URL is pretty standard for accessing web-links from Active Worlds.  It is typically accessed via an activate command, and this is true in our example as it is used for interactive signage.
  

Anyway I don't want to go into a detailed explanation of how exactly to make a title screen like the one here, but this should get you started.  There are a lot of ways to go about it; be creative and see what you can do! :)

Finals are allllllllmooooooosttttt doooooooooonnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeee!!!

Gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo!

Sorry, I needed a break. ;)

Gaming - BuildCity Now Open for 'Off-Season' Play

Hey all, I've had some people contact me recently letting me know that they were interested in playing Builder's Challenge, and the game has been inactive for some time... so the other day I cleaned off the cobwebs in BuildCity world and have opened it in a setting that I'm tentatively calling the 'off-season.'

During the off-season:

• The chief end of the off-season session is to allow players to practice for times of competition.
• The world is not in active competition. The scoreboard will continue being maintained, but prizes will not be rewarded.
• Building lots will still be judged as normal, with a score and comments given to the builder.
• The global bot is not guaranteed to be online 24/7.
• Requests will be processed slower than usual. Expect turn-around times of up to 2 days during the off-season.
• Area restrictions are DISABLED -- this means that higher tier areas do not have to be unlocked like they normally do to be built in. However, the player still does have to lock them individually -- they must begin with a plot in Verdant Valley and progress to higher tiers on an individual basis. The only difference now is that they won't have to be held up by other players.

The global bot's online time will be sporadic until I have completed the semester and returned home. This period will last for about another week, and then the bot should be up 24/7.

The off-season will end when we're ready to hold another session of Builder's Challenge, at which time existing builds in the world will be wiped. There is no time-table at present for this, as I wish to automate much of the registration and judging process before I hold another session.

I'll post further updates concerning the off-season to this thread in the AW forums. In the meantime, here are a couple of images from the first plot of the off-season: A Cattle Ranch by Conqueror

Overview of the Ranch

Front-view with completed comment card for the builder.

 I'll have some more updates on this after I complete my finals.  In the meantime, give the world a tour.  It's a P-50 world and for the most part it's completely filled out (except for builder plots!)

Finals Week Approaching...

Hey everyone!  Just checking in as this semester is beginning to wrap up... getting busy again!  This period should last until next Wednesday night, and then I'll be home free.  In the interim, I plan on posting up at least 3 more updated posts from the "Retrospective Look" series...  I'll have the next one up tonight or perhaps tomorrow, depending on how busy we are here.

We will be visiting Yellow world next. :)

Practical Applications of Technology in Education

Hey guys! I'm a little busy today but when I've got some spare time I'd like to write a bit about practical applications of technology in education, and how that can be applied in a 3D environment too.  In the meantime, what brought this on was my recent introduction to the Khan Academy -- an excellent website that is home to thousands of instructional videos and exercises on an array of topics... from math to humanities, and its all free.

I've been using it myself as I'm learning Calculus.  The videos are really top notch, and they're a great idea.  I've posted a video below of a TED Talk concerning Khan Academy, and how it's really a great idea and I hope that it catches on.





But anyway, my experience using Khan Academy got me thinking: could similar intuitive education be done in the 3D environment?  What exactly would you need for that?  Interpersonal interaction?  Manipulating objects on the fly?  We can do some of this already.  As for the rest, well... I'll elaborate more on that later. :)

Back For More

Hey everyone, and welcome to a rather late start to April!  I apologize for my extended absence, but here's to hoping that my Calculus test grade will reflect the time away! (Don't count on it.)  At any rate, that's in the past, so let's see what's been going on lately...

• The forums seem to be going through a pretty dry spell.  Events too.  If I recall correctly things are typically pretty quiet this time of year until late May when the summer crowd comes in, so that's no surprise.
• I did manage to sneak some time in to attend the town hall meeting last Sunday, which was held in SW City.  I was only there for the first 40 minutes, but during that time I got to share and direct some users to SW City Interactive and there was some interest in getting some SWI tours set-up.  That sounds like a good idea to me. :)
• I would like to get a new tutorial up, probably one concerning the ActiveWiki.  I may do that as early as tonight depending on my motivation.  I'm pretty drained from the Calculus test, to be honest.

And that's where I'm at.  Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon.  Later!

The Person Who Doesn't Finish

That'd be me. ;)  A shame too... plenty of excellent, excellent builds in the EBTS this year, though, and good luck to all fellow builders!

I've actually stepped away from AW for the past few days and expect that I'll have a diminished presence for at least the next week.  I've got an important test coming up soon and as many of you know, I'm also gettin' hitched next month.  Lots of planning involved with that, and between the two I'm pretty busy in RL.

I should be back later in the week for a blog, and I'll throw up some 'noticeboard' news updates when I've got a free moment.

Later!

Spring Break is here!

Hey everyone, and welcome to Anthony's Spring Break 2011! ;)

I don't really have any personal plans for this upcoming week, so I guess that means that we'll be seeing a more active period here on the blog.  There are a few goals here and in the universe as well that I'd like to accomplish, and I'll list them off here:

• Arklay World:  I'm working on a game project in Arklay world, and although the game part of it may be a while yet coming, I'd like to finish the world environment for visitors.  I'll post updates of my progress as I complete it, because the world makes for a really great game map!
• Instructional Videos: I've been talking about these for a couple of weeks now, and I would have plenty of time to get this started.  I'm not quite sure how I'll get this started yet because the AW video tool only captures the 3d screen, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. :)
• Toolbar: I'd like to set up widget along the top of this blog that links directly to helpful or interesting articles I've written here.  The only reason I haven't done this yet is because I don't feel like I've written enough content to justify it yet.
• The Black Sun: I've got some prime real estate in EBTS4 world that I'd like to work on sometime soon.  The Black Sun is a virtual bar/club that is a setting in Snow Crash, and I'd like to bring a true representation of it into the virtual space.  The Black Sun as described in Snow Crash isn't very visually interesting, so I'm going to focus on very visual scenes and interactions with the user to make the build engaging and interesting.  It's an awkward project, and hopefully I can get it done. :D

That's whats up at my end.  I'll post again tomorrow, probably continuing in my line of thought regarding architecture.  If you ever want me to discuss a specific topic, feel free to leave a comment on a post or on the chat box in our side bar.

Later!

Noticeboard: AD&DRPG Open Permanently

Hey everyone!  Just a quick note before I get into tonight's post -- I'll probably take a couple of days off the blog Monday and Tuesday to focus on my Calculus midterm.  I've got a lot of studying to do and won't have too much time to blog while I'm doing that.  On the plus side, after this week is over I will be on Spring Break and will have quite a lot of time to devote to projects. ;)

Now to the meat!  I want to use this blog to plug community efforts here from time to time that don't get too much press.  There are a lot of groups in Active Worlds who are actively seeking out volunteers and for whatever reason tend to get overlooked... and since I've got this nice blog now hopefully I can help to put a stop to that.

Without further adieu, today we'll be taking a look at AD&DRPG World. AD&DRPG is a massive gaming world that drops the player into a medieval adventure.  Designed in the fashion of dungeons and dragons, the player builds stats and skills as they increase in level and gain better equipment.  The player's actions influence their moral alignment, and players can even PvP against one-another!

Interactive Building Class: 5pm VRT on Saturday

Hey guys!  I just wanted to check in and say that, if all goes well, I'll be able to host an Interactive Building class this Saturday at 5pm VRT!

I also wanted to make a correction... that Byte's class will be taking place next weekend, not this one.  I'll try to get a full post up later... had a bomb of a paper due today. :(

Later!