AWTimes News 2015


	44

		January 2015
		AlphaMapper rediscovered

The Alphamapper shows a map of Alphaworld in 2008 , this was the last time that the bot has scanned the entire world . When you go to the website http://www.imabot.com/ and you choose in the menu to view the Alphamapper, then you will notice that Alphamapper doesn't work anymore ( grey screen instead of the map). However, there are still 2 ways of using the Alhamapper (of 2008). The first way is viewing the Alphamapper by typing the correct url link. The second way is by using the specific url images.

1. Typing the Alphamapper url links

If you still use Internet Explorer (e.g. version 9.0) ,then you will be able to view the Alphamapper. Open a seperate IE window and type the IE address below and type enter :

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=0N_0E&zoom=1

Now you will view Alphworld at zoom level 1.

You will notice however that you can"t use the zoom function or pan function at the left side of the screen, and at the bottom left , you can see Alphamapper works with Google Maps software. Now if you want to see more, you will have to type another url link ....

The Alphamapper has 10 zoom levels.

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=0N_0E&zoom=5

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=0N_0E&zoom=10

You will also notice that 0N 0W in url is not equal as position 0N 0W in Alphaworld.

Alphamapper will show a location somewhere in the north-west.

The ground zero of Alphaworld can be found on this Alphamapper -url location :

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=41900S_46000W&zoom=8

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=41900S_46000W&zoom=10

Now we search for some well-known locations : SWCity 2218S 3610E :

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=47900S_293250E&zoom=4

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=50000S_295000E&zoom=5

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=52000S_296000E&zoom=6

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=52500S_296000E&zoom=7

As you can see, if you want to zoom in , for each zoom level you need to type other url coordinates. These coordinates numbers are also a lot higher than the AW coordinates (= maximum 32750 -> Alphaworld is a p32750-sized world.). Modifying the coordinates by 1000 units, will only make a small move on the Alphamapper.

Now we search for Faldon Village 2353S 3610E (a part of SWCity) :

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=53200S_296900E&zoom=10

We also search for Horizon City 7000S 14000E in Alphaworld, and in Alphamapper:

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=70000S_224850E&zoom=6

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=69400S_224850E&zoom=8

Some places have been build , so that they could easily be seen on Alphamapper.

Now we go to the North-West area of Alphaworld. Strangely enough, it may happen that when you type a E-location, you will see the west part of Alphamapper , and for a W-location you will see the east part of Alphamapper. It is possible that you will find 2 url-locations for the same place.

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=79850N_120297E&zoom=3

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=79850N_120297W&zoom=3

In the north-west you will find a place called Tri-City .

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=79850N_122297E&zoom=7

Also in the north-west area , but at the east of Tri-City, you will find this huge area built by IceDee , which has in fact been made with a bot program.

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=78150N_81200E&zoom=7

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=78050N_80543E&zoom=8

Now we go to the north-west corner (=32750N 32750W)

And at the east of this corner , you will find the words "Alpha Mapper 1.0"

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=87050N_181250E&zoom=8

http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/?location=87050N_182400E&zoom=9

Hopefully is this information useful enough for those who want to use Alphamapper.

2. Using the Alphamapper url images

You can also use the individual images from the Alphamapper webpages.

These images have been used by Astroh (#349251), who has published images of Alphamapper on her website http://www.alphaworld.fr/. On this webpage you can see the map of Alphaworld at zoom level 1. When you click upon this map you will see a larger map of Alphaworld at zoom level 4 , which consists in fact of (16x16) 256 individual images of the Alphamapper of november 2008.

http://www.alphaworld.fr/guppy/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=14

When right-clicking at the left upper corner on this map , and you choose properties , then you will see the url weblink of the png file ::

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/upper/4_0_0.png

When you move a bit to the east on this map and right-click again, you will see:

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/upper/4_1_0.png

When you move a little bit to the south on this map, then you will see :

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/upper/4_0_1.png

The url-links for these images are simple : 4 stands for zoom level 4 , the 2nd number is the horizontal picture number, and the 3rd number is the vertical picture number.

When you want to view Alphamapper images at zoom level 8 , the url codes are more complicated. Here you can see a few images of Astrohland, located at 3150N 2000E.

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/33_28/8_135_115.png

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/34_28/8_136_115.png

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/34_28/8_137_115.png

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/34_28/8_138_115.png

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/34_28/8_139_115.png

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/33_29/8_135_116.png

http://mapper.activeworlds.com/alphaworld/34_29/8_136_116.png

When teleporting in AlphaWorld to the coordinates 2300N 3200E 3A , you will see a map reconstruction Alphaworld (zoom 8) with pictwall-objects, and by using the "create picture"-command, followed by the url of the png-images. This map area is only a small part of Alphaworld, because Alphamapper at zoom level 8 consists of thousands of individual images (of 2008).

This map area has been built byAstroh (#349251) in november-december 2014.

Why does Alphamapper not work anymore ?

Chris The Pegasus (#290065) explains it like this :

For ima's Alphamapper: run chrome's developer tools or IE inspector to see the maps.

Control is no longer supported in the Google Maps Javascript API v2. Please visit https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/v2/v2tov3 to migrate your application to v3.

If imabot still has the mapper's images, the java scripts would need to be updated only, and eventually the api-developer key, since has likely expired too. Setting up the Alphamapper application is easy, but keeping it maintained over a longer period of time is not. Since google APIs constantly change, for instance, the integrated google calendar into the AW Forum has been disabled too , now for the same obvious reason there are problems with the Alpahmapper too.

So it's about the fact that Google applications need to be updated constantly in order to keep the application functional.

Alphamapper will be redone

The Alphamapper re-discovery has been posted on the forum, and there have been reactions on it.

http://forums.activeworlds.com/read.php?7,362723

Bukka (#301389) has posted that Byte(#30) and Ima Genius(#96929) himself (of Imabot) will redo the Alphamapper Property Search Function in honor of the 20th anniversary of Activeworlds.