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  May+June 2018
  AW News (may + june 2018)
 
* Plans for a new AW Landing Zone
 
There were plans for a new AW Landing Zone for the 23rd anniversary of Activeworlds, currently in Alphaworld on position 7700S 1400E.. First of all is to make the current landing zone less laggy , and also to focus more on new citizens. But the main reason is that the landing zone was originally intended to be used only temporarily, during the year of the 20th anniversary of Activeworlds. But following that year, the landing zone was kept,
First there was the idea to make a whole new landing zone, and a copy of the current landing zone would be move to another location in Alphaworld.
However at the same time, there has been discussed if it wouldn't be better to make a separate world as universe entry point, like Activeworlds used to have for several years.
You can read a lot about this on the AWForum, under the folder "Teamwork" , and the AW Forum is accessible now for everyone : just press the F9 key , choose tabsheet notepad , en select there "Forums". A few new worlds have been opened recently, just showing examples of how the future universe world entry could be made.
Finally, a seperate world entry point has been decided, as well as the theme . The world name is still undecided. The new world entry point will be used to focus on the arrival of new citizens, the AWExpo zone will be still be used , but will focus on the AW Community.
The current AW Universe entry point....
* Community Meetings are cancelled
 
Bach Zhaa (#360197) has decided to cancel the Community Meetings. Bach Zhaa has hosted those meetings from 2010 until 2018, there were 2 meetings each month.
Due to disputes between Bach Zhaa and an AW staff member, Bach Zhaa lost his building rigths in the AW-Expo zone. As a consequence, he has decided to take "a step back" and cease his activities in Activeworlds for next months or maybe permanently.
 
* Bach Zhaa got banned (*)
 
Finally Bach Zhaa got banned from Activeworlds too ! This is bad news for the AW Community, as Bach Zhaa plays a leading role in most of the activities of AW , like preparations for all major building events. He is also an exceptional good builder, and made huge building projects in the main public building worlds.

Someone taking over Bach Zhaa's role is almost impossible, as he does a lot more than those meetings. Under similar circumstances, another important citizen got banned 2 years ago. Then GSK (#248037) had to leave AW.

The question is now how the AW activities will continue without him. Will there be an alternative for the meetings? All the topics and thoughts about this can be viewed on the AWForum posts in the folder "Meetings" .We can still hope that Bach Zhaa will return soon ,and that problems will be fixed and solved.
(*) Bach Zhaa got banned from 12 may till 13 september, Bach returned on 15 sept.
Bach Zhaa's last community meeting on may 6th in the world Keppler22b
* Thevirtual.life: new website
 
* Thevirtual.life is a new website made by Oklahomatraveler (#391054).
* This website is an informative website, just like AWTimes , and it brings new tools, basic tips and tweaks, which make it more comfortable to use the Activeworlds programs, : like for instance : movement controls, interface tweaks, font size, cache management, autowalk, the avatar home page, .. several items can be found in AWTimes as "useful tips", but the website brings also new material....
* One of the new articles is about the possibility to create custom toolbars for the AW menu , for which you need notepad and a graphic editor like Photoshop or Gimp.
* Another article is about creating a custom menu , instead of the default menu of AW. For this you need to go to the Activeworlds folder and modify the menu.cfg -file.
* For more details about this , go to :
thevirtual.life/2018/04/custom-toolbars-in-active-worlds.html
* Link to the main webpage : thevirtual.life
* Other articles will be added in future, e.g. about gaming worlds ,virtual parties,dance clubs, building tips, avatars , social aspects, etc.
* AW version 6.5 beta
 
* Chris (#268597) has started with updating the AW program with version 6.5, which is a beta version (test version).
* The focus of this version will be updating the AW WorldServer and the AW SDK (=server development kit), which is useful for bots and gaming
* Support for users with windows versions XP and Vista will be dropped.
* Chris hopes to be ready with this beta version in september.
* You can follow the progress of each upgrade on ActiveWiki :
http://wiki.activeworlds.com/index.php?title=6.5
 
* News from the worlds
 
Ishtari
* This world is owned by Greymane (#377710), and is supported by caretaker Zarolene (#326199). The world exists already since 2001 and has been expanded , revamped and completed year after year. In 2017, the world has been stopped , but has been restarted recently.
p40 or p70 size ?
The world size is a p40 , but at this moment the objects appear in a p70 area. This situation can happen only when you shrink the world into a smaller size without deleting the existing scene of the objects outside the p40 area. But nothing can be done with those objects : you can't move ,retexture or resize them. And it's not valid for V4-objects : these objects disappear immediately when you shrink the world.
 
collision off
Zarolene is a modeler since 2003 , and all the plants in this world have been made "collision off" while modeling ,with the purpose of reducing lag. In Activeworlds, all models are "collision ON" by default, one of the reasons is because Activeworlds uses ".rwx" as model format for building. An object that is "collision on" means that when your avatar collides against an object, the avatar cannot pass through. If you build in the public worlds, you need add the "create solid off" -command for plants and shrubs, otherwise you cannot pass through, unless you use the shift-key. But in Ishtari, this is not the case : all plants have been modeled collision off, in view of reducing lag. Also other models are partially modeled "collision off ", for instance for a table : only the top of the table has been modeled collision on, the rest is collision off.
 
world revamp
The world Ishtari has a huge amount of objects, all of them are real 3d models, but causing lag and even memory crash problems, that's why Greymane and Zarolene are trying to reduce the lag by byanother revamp and by trying to use better models. When this is finished, the world is ready for expansion again to a p70-size world ,and then the outer zone can be revamped too.
All the models in Ishari have the textures in the model itself : command scripts in the action command of the objects are rare here. Long command scripts cause lag and will also reduce the cell limit percentage when building.
world entry point
world map with teleports (at landing zone)
19s 20e - tiki bar
* New worlds :
 
VillageBelge :
This world has been started by Edmonditaliano (#431786). Formerly he was the citizen Edmond, and he speaks french. The purpose of the world is a buiding world , each citizen can choose two building lots of 16 cells. Edmond used a backup file of a P20 world which he had a few years ago. The world VillageBelge is now a p30-sized world, so there is plenty of room for expansion.
 
DAX40100:
This world is owned by Minimoi40100 (#430501) , who also speaks french,
 
Whyst:
This world is owned by Whystler (#323210) who recently returned to Activeworlds..
VillageBelge - world entry point
Zilch :
This p10-world is owned by Aero (#430577)
 
SE3Dworld
This p20-world is owned by Robbidude (#431733) and Taintedangel (#423369) . Both citizens returned to Activeworlds recently and they also placed a backup file of a world that they have had before. There is a rock concert, there is a casino, there are all kinds of vehicles: digging machines, motorcycles, and some nice sports cars.
 
PraiseWorld3d :
This new world is owned by Maxpoly (#430380).
 
FancyParty :
This world is owned by Snowkupp (#353181) .

Sportscar in SE3D world
Winter1 :
No info yet.
 
HémonVR :
This world is in dutch language is about art. More info is yet unknown.
 
BootyBay :
This world is owned by Ohioman(#355803) , it's a p10-sized world, but looks a lot bigger, because some models have been placed outside the world's border, and the landscaping of the isles around makes you think this is rather a p50 or p60-world.
 
BaBs2:
This world is owned by Bassa (#353181) , who has returned to Activeworlds recently.
 
Leviathan :
This world is owned by Poseidon (#293157) . This world is back online after 1 year of interruption. Purpose here is to make a tycoon game or rpg game..
 

BootyBay world entry point

 

 
AWWelcome :
This world is owned by Activeworlds, and with the discussion about using a seperate universe entry world instead of modifying the current landing zone , this world has been put online as an idea that could be used. From the central landing point, there are paths leading towards the outer borders of the world , where you have themed presentations of each part of the world : USA , China , France, UK , Brazil , Indonesia, Belgium , Germany, ..etc . The world was only temporarily open for everyone.
 
BritTown:
No info yet..
 
SteveElRoyele:
This world is owned by Steve For Faith (#365534) . He has got the help of Stanly (#299665) , who is an excellent builder. You made already 2 other huge projects : Intramuros and Puerta de San Jackelyn, of which you can find 2 articles in the explore-pages of AWTimes. The new p20-sized island-world currently has trees with shadows effects, a volcano and a maya temple. Other buildings are still under development. The world will be used for games and presentations.
Maya-temple in the world SteveElRoyele