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  AW News (july->dec 2022)
 
* AW Version 8.1
 
* AW version 8.1 has been started on 28th of december .There have been some program upgrades , most of them during the month of august.
 
* New Ambiant Occlusion / New Ocean Water
* New Shadow Renderer
 
This has had some impact on the program, and some modifications were needed.
* In some cases the ocean water became too bright. In the world options, the slider for the opacity of the water had to be moved.
* The quality of the shadows had improved , without causing any latency.
* Problems may occur if you put an object at ocean level : the axis point of the object must be under the ocean level , otherwise the object will appear as "not being under water".
 
* Visibility increase

* With the program improvements, the maximum visibility has been increased to 400 meters. Before the program change, the maximum visibility was only 200 meters.

 
* Screenshots
* When taking screenshots, the chat window and tabs window are now included in the screenshot. Close those windows first if you want to make a screenshot with the 3d scene only.
 
* Opacity
* The opacity range for the opacity command is now possible from 0.02 to 10 (instead of 1 to 10).
 
* New Options - Settings menu
* The tabs are now displayed vertically instead of horizontally
 
* Vulkan as default renderer
* It is preferred now to use the renderer Vulkan (if available for your computer) instead of Direct3D 11.
* Go in the menu to : Options - Settings - Graphics and choose Vulkan.
 
* Light Sources
* Up to 32 simultaneous light sources can be used now

Vukan renderer -> Click upon image to enlarge

* New pricing for worlds
 
* New prices have been announced for purchases or renewals of 3d worlds.
The price for worlds has remained unchanged for more than a decade.
These are the new prices :
P10 world -> 350 credits -> (= ± 32 dollars )
p20 world -> 700 credits -> (= ± 63 dollars )
p30 world -> 1200 credits -> (= ± 108 dollars )
For a complete overview, you can go to the website of Activeworlds.com
 
* Rooooo has passed away
 
* On june 14th, Rooooo (#307429) has passed away at the age of 66. Rooo was a regular visitor of Activeworlds. He even has built a whole town in Alphaworld, called Bracha , located on position 224N 3445W.
 
* Shamus Young has passed away
 
* Shamus Young has been a programmer of AW about 20 years ago. He died on june 15th, at a age of 50 after heart failure.
 
* Pelican has passed away
 
* Pelican #354436 has passed away on 30th september. He was well-known as a modeler of railway sets. They can be viewed in the world AWTrains.
There is also a railway set of Pelican that you can download from the Uberpath.
 
* Busylion has passed away
 
* Busylion #304932 has passed away on 16th november. He had his own website (busylion.net) , upon which were various textures , but he also made an overview of all cities in Alphaworld.
Dovestar (#278411) added these textures to his website https://rjbradio.com/bl-tex.zip .
MeL (#341444) had put the coordinates of the cities of Alphaworld in the AWForum (she did that already in 2020). Go to the section "Building" and then to the subject "Cities in Alphaworld".
Panne (#365962) created the AWmap in august 2021 on position 15500N 23500E. Almost all the cities have been added to the map (with teleports).
 
* Lady Dragon has passed away
 
Lady Dragon has passed away on 2nd december, she was the wife of Albertagold (#170481).
 
Picture of the AW explorers club event in 2015 in the world AWTrains, with the train models of Pelican.
 
Lady Dragon playing the CandyLand game in 2016.
 
Memorial area
 
There is a memorial area in AW on position 4391S 3681E. This memorial area has been created by Lady Pippin (#308688)
 
* Karten stops world hosting
 
* After 20 years of good service, Karten (#315184) has decided to stop the world hosting services. The worlds that he hosted had to choose a new world hosting provider. The worlds !!AVines and AWTrains (which were the worlds of Keshi and Pelican) are hosted now by Activeworlds. Karten's worlds ReginaUp and ReginaDn have been stopped.
In the world ReginaDn, as well as in the world AWTrains, Karten managed to make all the trains run (and stop) automatically. He used several bots for that.
The world ReginaUp was dedicated to the use of bots.
In the world ReginaDn, Karten managed to create a world with all the Homepage theme worlds joined together.
* News from the worlds
 
* Alphaworld Landing Zone Contest 2023
 
* Arsène (#152438) has organized a new LZ contest for the AW Landing Zone of 2023.
The contest starts already on 3rd of july and on 4th of december the new chosen building area will be revealed, and will be the new AW Landing Zone for 2023.
The AW Landing zone of 2022 , created by Enkii
* Sile avatars have been added in Alphapath
 
* MeL (#341444) has given to Chris (#290065) the files with a set of Sile avatars. Those have been added to the objectpath of Alphaworld. This already happened last year.
These high-quality avatars have the file extension .X , which can be used in Activeworlds withouth having to be converted.
If you are a world owner, and you don't have these avatars yet in your world, then you can download them from the objectpath listing of Alphaworld. All objects of Activeworlds are available for everyone.
At this moment, you cannot use the sile avatars in Alphaworld yet, because they are still not a part of the object registry (= the building inspectors won't accept them, although they are already in the objectpath).
 
* Mandala has finally opened
 

World owner Cereza (#352854) has finally opened her p20-world Mandala this summer. The world was already online since last year, but then it was closed.

It is a world built with high quality and with a detail for things.

The world has been created with a 'zen' atmosphere, which can be seen on various areas in her world.

Landing Zone of the world Mandala
Japanese area
Coastal area with meditation area in the background.
A "cosy" interior
Statue of person in meditation
* New worlds
 
* AncientHistory
This p10-world has been started in july and is owned by Demure Hero (#445562).
The theme will be focused on the ancient Rome and Greece.
The world is still under construction, but you can already see Dorian and Ionian columns.
 
* Xantus
This world has been started this summer , and is still closed. (owner yet unknown)
 
* Cygnus
This world has been started this summer , and is still closed. (owner yet unknown)
The world AncientHistory
* Sonasprime
This p20-world is owned by Dovestar (#278411) and the world consists of 2 islands which are connected with bridges. There is a restaurant, a movie theatre and a dance area, which will sometimes be used for the weekly dance parties that he hosts.
 
The world Sonasprime : world entry point
* Ahoy
 
This p20-world is owned by Old Chinese Man (#427489), and has been started in july. He also owns the world zZzZz.
The world Ahoy will be used to offer freeware 3d objects that he is modeling himself, as well as a range of textures. The world is still under construction and you can already download several 3d object sets.
 
* Deruta
 
This p30-world is owned by Gerry (#282936) and has been started in september. After more than 20 years, he restarted the world Italia under the name Deruta, and he placed an backup of the world that existed in 2003.
Now he has started to update and modernize that world .
 
* Leviathan
 
This p10-world is owned by Poseidon (#293157), and has been started in august.
This world is still in building/testing mode.