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AW News (jan.+ feb. + mar. 2021) |
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| * AW Frosty Window |
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| On 12th december, the AW Frosty Window was introduced : |
| * When entering Activeworlds, instead of viewing immediately the 3d scene, you see first a frosty window (like you have with frozen car windows). When moving with your mouse, a part of the 3d scene appears, but freezes again. But the window starts to defrost gradually and after 30 seconds, the frozen window has gone, and you have the 3d screen as usual. |
| * This application already exists in other computer programs, like for webcams, where people can create e.g. a jungle scene around their face. |
* In spite of the fact that there are complaints (annoying, having to wait each time ), it could be an idea for the future. There can be created various themes according to the season, e.g. for the autumn, you can add a window of fallen leaves, that you need to move away by moving with your mouse. And it can be used as an option for world owners, which can choose to add such an additional window when entering their world, that matches with the theme of their world. (and/or a personalised window that they can create themselves) |
| For people who find it annoying, there could be added an option in the AW menu, where the user can choose to desactivate this additional window view. |
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| Frosty effect when entering Activeworlds |
| This feature was shown from 12th december till 14th february |
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| * AW Version 7.0 |
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| * On 22nd of january , there has been an upgrade to AW version 7.0 . |
First of all, this had consequences for bot users : for all the bots the .dll -file has to be replaced in order to keep the bots functional. There is also a new SDK (server development kit ) available for download, this is for the bot developers |
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| * World hosts (who offer world hosting) were informed in advance about the upgrades of the worlds into version 7.0 . This happened smoothly. |
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| * The existing telegram system will be changed, because since telegrams were introduced in the past, they were programmed for 1 user on 1 computer. So if a user had a second computer, then the received/sent telegrams weren't there . This will be solved with the application YouMe3D. |
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| * AW Version 7.0 : YouMe3D |
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| YouMe3D is a seperate application that you can download. |
| https://activeworlds.com/youme3d/ |
| And it can be used on Window10 , MacOS 10.9+ and Android6+ |
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| * The application has been tested by some citizens from october till december (see in the forum) and the programs covers different aspects : |
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| * Text chat and Voice chat |
| * Contacts and Telegrams |
| * Multiple Chatrooms and Worlds |
| * Screen sharing |
| * Live 3d Render Streaming |
| * Video Conferering |
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| You can install the application on your smartphone as well : if you are not behind your computer, then you can respond telegrams via your smartphone, or start to chat with someone in a 3d world. |
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| * In march, the YouMe3D has been added to the menu : File > Addons > YouMe3D |
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| How to use it : venice3d.net/2021bots9.html |
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| Screenshot of the YouMe3D application (click to enlarge) |
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| * AW-Europe Universe has gone offline |
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| The AW-Europe universe was one of the most succesful universes of Activeworlds, which ran separately from Activerworlds . The universe owner was Emmanuel , who lives in the The Netherlands . The startup was in 2003 and was an immediate success, after being on a children's television there were once 5000 visitors. |
| And after that , there was the launch of the world Titanic. Emmanuel owns the domain name titanic3d.com. Half of the new arrivals entered in AW-Europe via that website. |
| There was also a large community of citizens , mainly from the Netherlands, daily peaking to more than 40 simultaneous users , and more than 120 worlds. |
| Yearly there were hunt games and building contests , there was a weekly bingo game and there were worlds with paintball games, and original games like Landpick and ToTheTop. |
| As from 2011 , problems came up , like e.g. the loss of the main sponsors after the bank crisis of 2008, then a conflict with his main customer who had more than 20 worlds, |
| There was still 1 big project that he had in mind for 2012 , and that was the opening of 3 worlds for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, During those days in april 2012, there were up to 200 simultaneous visitors online . |
| Then in 2013, there was the bankruptcy of the payment website , and as a consequence, citizen registration or world renewal was not possible anymore . Aslo other (personal) misfortunes brought Emmanuel in a difficult position. As from 2013 Emmanuel was barely online, considering that it had become a failure, impossible to restore the situation. |
| In august 2020, Emmanuel decided to help with the transfer of the world ToTheTop to Activeworlds (the only world with daily activity) . And in december, Emmanuel finally took all the other worlds offline. Finally in january, Activeworlds has decided to remove the universe from its servers. |
| Unfortunately, nothing has been decided about the Titanic worlds (the versions of 2005 and 2012). Maybe there will be talks about that with Emmanuel in the future. |
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| * Activeworlds 2020 statistics |
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| Since the use of bot statistiscs have been desactivated for the websites of Awportals (of Strike Rapier) and Pensytes.net/aw (of Tomas) , We know that the statistics were not good for those years (especially for 2018) , maybe that's why bots registrations was disabled in april 2019. We rely now on keeping up the statistics "manually". |
| Number of worlds |
| In january 2020 the number of worlds was 527 ,and in january 2021 , there were 540 online. This rise of worlds can be explained because in 2019 a lot of citizens had not renewed their worlds, and this was not the case anymore in 2020, and a lot of new worlds have been started up by new citizens or by former citizens which have returned. |
| Number of users |
| For the number of users, you can keep up your own personal statistics on a database. For instance, you can register in a database the citizen nameqs that you see online in 2020 , and compare if they were online in 2019. For 2019 , i have counted 599 contacts , and for 2020 i have counted 522 contacts. This is a drop , maybe new arrivals don't know how to get from world AWEntry to the other worlds for chatting and don't get in contact with other people , and leave again too soon. Another reason can be of course that i didn't register that intensively as in 2019 , so its less accurate than doing it with a bot. |
| Snapshots |
| Another method to have a kind of statistic is to take regularly " a snapshot " about the number of users , on a weekly or monthly basis, and you note down 5 things (5 columns): the day, the time, the number of contacts online, the number of clients online, and the number of worlds online. After a while you have something like a useful statistic. Maybe you can add a 6th column with information , like e.g. if there was an event going on or if it was quiet. |
| date |
VRT time |
contacts |
clients |
worlds |
| 02/jan/2020 |
20:45 |
25 |
70 |
527 |
| 09/apr/2020 |
18:00 |
26 |
74 |
533 |
| 12/jul/2020 |
00:30 |
31 |
81 |
537 |
| 23/dec/2020 |
16:58 |
18 |
60 |
539 |
| 05/feb/2021 |
16:40 |
25 |
72 |
540 |
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| Note: not all online citizens are in the contacts : some citizens hide theire online status. |
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| AW Statistics : Current Online Status |
| We also have the statistics that are published by Chris in the landing zone (see panel). If you want to make an overview in time, you need to note down the statistics on your computer, in order to make comparisons with the former weeks or months. (This means: just like you do for the snapshots.) At the bottom.of this webpage, it is explained what the numbers mean. |
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| Halloween in the Alphaworld Landing Zone |
| See the stats panel on the right side of the picture. |
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| Conclusion : |
| 2020 was not a bad year for AW ,and 2021 looks very promising, with the introduction of YouMe3d and the return of Bach Zhaa (see below) |
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| * News from the worlds |
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| * TartSugar introduces the Color Yard |
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| TartSugar (#331363), has announced in december in the AW forum that she has created a color yard in Alphaworld (AW) on position 27278S 12732E 90. |
| For each colour, there is a teleport that brings you to all the shades of that specific colour. |
| All the colours have a specific colour name with there corresponding hexademimal colour code.This may be unimportant for some builders, but when you want to use a specific colour e.g. chocolate colour , you can win a lot of time by going to that yard and find your matching colour immediately. |
| As you can also use the colour tint command , and can mix colours with the materials with the matfx command, this is certainly a good yard to have. |
| All other yards of TartSugar can be found in AW on position 27430S 12596E 180. |
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| Color yard for the colors pink and magenta. |
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| * Bach Zhaa is back |
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| Bach Zhaa (#360197) announced on 28th january that "he is back". Bach Zhaa was away since may 2018 ,and was rarely online afterwards. But relations between Bach Zhaa and Chris (#290065) have been restored, and that is very good news for the Activeworlds Community. |
| Bach Zhaa got his rights back as a community leader, and there will be again activities in the Alphaworld Landing Zone (7700S 1400E). And there are also again Community Meetings, from now on ,you can read them on the events pages: venice3d.net/2021events109.html |
| And when sufficient community members have heard about the news of Bach Zhaa's return, he will also resume the Building Contests that he used to organize during several years. |
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| Bach Zhaa during the Community Meeting on 7th February |
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| * Horsy has a new website : Horsy.be |
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| Horsy (#319337) , world owner of the world Aeolia , where you can find today a world of Lego objects, has a new website : Horsy.be |
| His former website has ceased to exist, because his internet provider has stopped the free service of offering a webspace for personal use. |
| The same content is now on the new website, but the downloading of the freeware objects that he has modeled , still doesn't work, it will taken some time before this will be solved. |
| At this moment, you can still download his freeware objects from the website of Alusion : |
| alusion-fr.com/an1fho.htm |
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| * New worlds |
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| * Ithtellia |
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| The world Ithtellia is owned by LadyFireheart (#442506) , she will create a world in Tolkien and Renaissance-style. The world is a p20 in size and is currently under construction (with a small yard of building ideas) |
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| First build in Ithtellia, currently replaced by other building ideas.. |
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| * SeasSanctuary * SeasJunkyard |
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| The world SeasSanctuary (p40) is owned by SeaSiren (#316912) , She has returned to Acitveworlds after more then a decade and knws about n building, texturing and running a world. But she will have learn the new commands that were introduced since then. But fortunately there are there are tutorial areas like Yellow 1900N 1400W , Awschool and the AW wiki pages. The world center is surrounded by 12 islands , which can be used by other skilled builders. So the world will also be a building world. |
| SeasJunkyard is the objectyard-world of SeasSanctuary. |
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| * Sweet |
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| The world Sweet (p30) is owned by Snowkupp (#353181). Before that she ran the worlds Bagend (2016), Bossy (2019) and Blackwater (2020) |
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| Central building of the world SeasSanctuary |
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| * Dutchworld |
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| The world Dutchworld (p10) is owned by ZwolleJustin (#443027) , and he is from the Netherlands. He has already been a world owner in the former dutch universe 3dee. |
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| * Waxtopia |
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| The world Waxtopia (p10) is owned by Blaxar (#425847) , and he is from France. |
| Blaxar was a citizen in the former french universe LeVillage3d. |
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| * VerityTheGame |
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| The world VerityTheGame is owned by Garrick and this will be a new RPG game world. |
| The world is quite huge (P90), where you will find several castles and towns. |
| The current activities are still in de landing zone under a dome , where Garrick focuses on optimalisation of the HUD screens and the game instructions in the LZ. |
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| Small building in the landing zone of VerityTheGame |
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| * Nursland / Nursvill / Woodyard |
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| These worlds are owned by Nursemom (#304857) , and by Woody (#321492) and they returned to Activeworlds in january after some years of absence. They stared immediately a building event in the public world AWReunion. The world Woodyard contains the objectyard of the huge objectpath that is used in AWReunion |
| Nursland (p30) and Nursvil (p50) have nice 3d buildings with several Starheart models. |
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| * Droog |
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| The world Droog is owned by Droog (#339566) and he is a bot developer. |
| He has the ambition to make new bot programs for the aw citizens. |
| One of those programs will be a huntbot. |
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| Teleport overview of Woodyard. |
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| * Allusion |
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| This world is owned by Heu (#348453) , and he is from France and returned to AW. |
| Heu is also a 3d modeler , and he runs the website alusion-fr.com/an1.htm |
| On this website you can download hundreds of freeware objects from ±50 modelers. |
| Apart from that , there are textures, skyboxes, avatars, and some tutorials as well. |
| Heu had this world before, and he still owns a huge number of original 3d models. |
| The world hasn't opened yet, but an inauguration event will be planned soon. |
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| * Section 31 |
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| This world is new , but still closed (worlds owner still unknown) |
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| * NewAW |
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| Also this world is new , and also closed (worlds owner still unknown) |
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| Renaissance garden in Allusion |
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| * Useful tips: |
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| * Move the icons bar to the top of your screen |
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| * Since 19 july 2020 , the option to view the "Classic bars" has been removed. As a consequence, if you want to make a printscreen now of a 3d scene, you have the menu bar on top and the icons bar at the bottom, which is aesthetically not as good as when you still could use the classic bars.. |
| * However, in the AW Facebook groups, someone explain a method to bring the icons bar on top of the screen. In that case, if you want a printscreen without any menu bars or icons bars on it, then you just have to cut off the upper part of the picture. |
| * This is how to move to icons bar on top : |
| 1. Press the ALT GR-key (= the left alt-key) ,and you will see that the icons bar is surrounded by a grey bar while press that ALT GR-key |
| 2. Right-click on your mouse (while pressing the ALT GR-key) |
| 3. Grab your mouse upwards , and you will see that the icons bar moves as well |
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| * Screenshots optimalization |
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| You can make screenshots by clicking upon the camera-icon of the icons bar. |
| * Move the icons bar on top ,so that it is on the same line as the menu bar |
| * Show - Credit Info : uncheck this(Ctrl +F7) |
| * Show - Gestures : uncheck this (Ctrl+F3) |
| * Show - Cell Grid : unchekc this (F10) |
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| * Printscreen optimalization |
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| You can make printscreens, by using the printscreen-key on your keyboard, here you need to uncheck additionally : |
| * Show - Status bar : uncheck this (Ctrl+F5) |
| * Show - Tabs : uncheck this ( F9 ) |
| * Show - Chat : uncheck this ( Ctrl +F4) |
| But you can also remove the icons bar and menu bar : |
| * Show - Toolbar : uncheck this (Ctrl +F2) (=icons bar) |
| * And for the menu bar: press : (Ctrl +F1) |
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| All options mentioned are optional : if you really want them on your screenhot or printscreen , then leave them as they are. |
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| * Current Online Stats |
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| * Since citizen statistics registration by using bots in the AW Landing Zone was disabled in april 2019, we don't find any detailed statitics anymore about the "health" of Activeworlds. |
| * But instead of that Chris (#290065) introduced the "Current Online Stats" in the AW Landing Zone |
| * You can also find the same information in the F9 tabsheets-window, under tabsheet "Notepad". Then click here on "Current Online Stats" , and there will open a small window with those stats. Sometime you won't see it immediately, but on the toolbar at the bottom of your computer, you will find an additional session of Activeworlds, only with a small window with the title : "users_stats.jpg (256x256)" |
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| Sim users : this is the number of users online at the certain moment of the day (but not the actual moment ) . This number concerns the online citizens only (bots not included). |
| Average NPC's : this is the number of bots , some worlds have more than 10 bots online in their worlds , in the F9 tabs window, only 1 bot per world is shown in the number of clients. |
| This means that these stats are totally different than the numbers in the F9-window. |
| You can also keep up the statistics manually, but only Chris knows what the numbers really mean. The statistics that were made with the bots of Tomas and Strike Rapier were way better, and had clear and understandable information. |
| So, it is better to keep up the stats by making "snapshots". (see above) |
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| Stats window in the AW Landing Zone |
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| Stats window : in the landing zone + in the Notepad-tab. |
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