Release notes

From Active Worlds Wiki

[edit] Active Worlds Release Notes

This is a compilation of Active Worlds release notes (originally up to build 246, compiled on May 7, 1998 by NetGuy, where Mauz took it from there, and Eep then added it to this wiki). It is hoped that it may serve as a sort of history of the evolution of the AW browser.

Some releases are still missing, so if you have any old release notes lying around or know the dates of certain releases, please add them to this wiki. Thanks!

Depending on how old the release is, the notes were contained in a file named either "bugs.txt", "readme.txt" or "readme.html" in your Active Worlds program directory.

In particular, release notes are missing from builds 1-45,51,55,57-63,78,87,89,119,120,131,132,178,199-227.

1 Active Worlds Release Notes

[edit] Active Worlds 4.1

[edit] Build 940?

Object Properties Dialog: The classic Object Properties Dialog has been replaced. It is now a dockable, dynamic dialog that changes based on what is selected. You can now see the exact position of a selected object in the world, and if you are a caretaker you may edit this value directly.
Movers: Movers are a new object type that can be used to create many types of vehicles.
Particles: Particle Emitters are a new object type that can be used to create many types of special effects.
Zones: Users may define zone objects, which can be used to define a 3d spatial volume where the normal world properties are replaced or changed.
Camera Objects: Users may place special camera objects in the scene to create dramatice or interesting camera views.
Camera Action command: An action command has been added to allow the placement of the camera in the scene.
Clear Cache Option: In the downloads window, a user with caretaker rights may right-click and select "clear local cache" in order to force the browser to dump all downloaded items and re-download everything. This is useful for worldowners who are trying to find and fix broken objects or downloads, or who are working on the avatar list.
The rotate and move commands now have a new "smooth" argument, which will cause objects using these commands to accelerate and decelerate instead of abruptly changing directions.
Build Mode: Caretakers now have a special build mode available to them. In build mode, all hidden objects are shown, the object properties box is always open, and collision is disabled. Flying is enabled, and movement is simplified. Particles are hidden, and zone shapes are revealed. This will make building significantly easier.
New Interface: The various controls in the browser are now floating, dockable windows. The interface is more streamlined, and more attractive.
Object Icons: The old "black triangle", which was a placeholder object used when an object was not available, has been replaced with new object icons. These icons should give the builder a better idea of why they are not seeing the object they expect. An hourglass indicates the object is still waiting to be downloaded. An "error" icon indicates the download failed, and the object is not available. Other icons are used as markers for the various new object types, since many do not have a model associated with them.
New "autolook" feature in the avatar list.
Ability to break avatar list into categories.
The World Rights dialog now offers the ability to grant rights to ranges of citizens, or to deny rights to individual citizens.
Users Tab: A new tab has been added to the tab controls that will list all users currently logged in. Note that this feature will probably NOT be available in the regular Activeworlds universe.
Personal Avatars: Personal Avatars allow you to take a unique avatar to almost any world.
Downloads Window: The downloads window will now list all objects queued for download. It will show an icon indicating the type of thing being downloaded (texture, avatar, animation, model, etc) and what priority the thing is for download. World owners can now have this list all failed downloads so they can quickly spot missing items.
Avatar List sub-menus: World owners may now have items listed in the avatar list without the "geometry" tag. These entries will act as submenus to contain subsequent items. This means that world owners can sort the avatar list however they choose.
Downslide: It is now possible to slide downhill. See the World Features for more info.
Fog tinting: A new effect has been added to make fog seem thicker without the problem of limiting visibility in your world. See the World Features for more info.
Terrain Offset: It is now possible to globally shift all of the terrain in your world up or down. See the World Features for more info.
Send bump event: World owners may enable this option so that bots can detect when users have run into objects with bump commands, allowing the bot to take action when this happens.
Global events: Using the "global" parameter in object commands can cause the action (say, clicking on an object) to be sent to all other users in the area. This means that when you click on a door to open it, others will see it open. Global events must be enabled for this to work. See the World Features for more info.
Expanded terrain elevation range: The old terrain limits have been expanded so that now terrain may be a kilometer above or below the zero altitude point. Also, the number of allowed terrain textures has been expanded to 500.
Voip: Activeworlds now offers VOIP, or Voice Over IP. This option will allow user to voice chat with one another in worlds where it is enabled.
Screenshot: A hotkey has been added to take a screenshot of the current 3d view and save it as a JPG in the Activeworlds directory.
Support for more image formats: GIF and PNG files are allowed as textures. The browser even supports animated and masked versions of these formats.
Autolook: World owners may add the "autolook" option to the avatar list. This will cause the avatar to attempt to turn its head the direction the user is looking while keeping the feet aimed the direction they are moving. The browser will animate the eyes, neck, and back together to perform the turn, so these tags must be present in the avatar or this option will not work. This can produce a very interesting and lifelike effect in humanoid avatars. Not recomended for non human avatars.
Presets: Zones, cameras, and particle emitters all support presets, which let you store complex objects for use elsewhere.

[edit] Active Worlds 3.6

[edit] Build 567

Fixed a possible locking situation when sending invites while universe got disconnected (thanks to Andras).
Fixed a potential crash bug when zip files with invalid headers are used, and another one with the property dialog (thanks to Andras).
Fixed opacity for under water objects.
Optimized terrain build-up speed.

[edit] Build 566

fixed falling through terrain after teleporting in-world.
Fixed avatar.dat refresh. When objects are refreshed avatars.dat file will be refreshed now too.
Fixed algorithm for calculating audio panorama when the same media stream is heard through 'multiple speaker' objects.
Fixed issue where MOVE_DOWN would work even if flying is disabled but passthrough is enabled in certain circumstances (thanks to Andras).
Changed to flash minimized application icon when a popup occurs, but do not restore the main window from minimized state.
Changed sign update interval to up to date processor speeds.
Added feature to start application from CD, memory sick, etc (ask for it, when needed).
Added feature to use media streams as ambient sound in world features.

[edit] Build 565

Added show login dialog after renewal dialog has been canceled.
Fixed cloud layer1 was set to opacity 0 (zero) always.
Fixed, restore the application window when the application was minimized before and a popup window would appear (e.g. invite).

[edit] Build 564

Fixed random crashes when closing the browser.

[edit] Build 563

Fixed a sporadically occuring memory leak when switching worlds.

[edit] Build 562

Fixed tags from 32 to 42 for avatars.

[edit] Build 561

internal build

[edit] Build 560

Installer for build 559 had an issue; increased to build 560.

[edit] Build 559

Fixed opacity for avatars again.

[edit] Build 558

Fixed incoming telegram would not show on top of the list after switching rollup to normal and in other circumstances.
Updated the message set for the Portuguese language.

[edit] Build 557

Fixed recently discovered JPEG exploits, which could lead to crashes of the browser. Note IE still might be affected.
Fixed the display of the disk usage, where a minus-values were shown, if the used disk space was more than 1GB.

[edit] Build 556

Fixed an issue where the browser could eventually crash if an urls exceeds a length of 255 characters.

[edit] Build 555

Fixed avatar pitch limits if an object was selected and look up/down at the toolbar was hit.
Grey out popup menu items of the user list, if function is not available for tourists or bots.
Fixed potential crash-bug that occured if IE was set to 'Global Offline'-mode during startup of the embedded web-browser.

[edit] Build 554

Fixed an issue with WinXP SP2, where the download window would flash and fixed the user list to be displayed and updated correctly.

[edit] Build 553

Fixed an issue where it could happen that new incoming telegrams would not notify in the chat log and would not display in the telegrams tab properly during universe logon.

[edit] Build 552

Fixed IME character sets for Windows XP.

[edit] Build 551 (7/6/04) - Release

Changes:

Detect if Windows Media Player version 9 is installed, to change order of used interfaces. When WMP9 is found, use it in first order rather than the 'Compatibility Interface'.

[edit] Build 550 (6/29/04)

Fixes:

Fixed issue where worlds list would be too narrow by default.
Fixed issue "Register" button would be partly hidden if the gesture-bar is off.
Fixed issue where toolbar would paint over the logo when resizing the main window.
Fixed issue where telegram-list would not scroll to last telegram, when control tab was rolled-up.

[edit] Build 549 (6/21/04)

Changes:

Optimized ratio of media frame-rate and 3D frame-rate, to prevent sound and video getting out of sync when 3D frame-rate dropped noticeable below video frame-rate. This was the case, if high resolution 30fps videos were watched and view range was set to 200m in 'heavy render' areas.

Fixes:

Fixed conflict when midi was launched using a "create url http://.../file.mid" command through the embedded web-browser.
Fixed issue where browser crashed randomly, under certain circumstances on XP with WMP8 and DX9, and when sound and midi were off.

[edit] Build 548 (6/16/04)

Changes:

Disable Local Teleports world option also disables Local Invites.
Limit the amount of selected objects to 128 to prevent world disconnects. The more objects are selected at once, the longer the interval to duplicate all the selected object is.
If chat is not enabled , always display chat-input in grey (e.g. if user does not have speak rights).

Fixes:

Fixed crash, when leaving a world with ambient sound on.
Fixed issue where sign "text" was not displayed correctly when object had no name.
Fixed flashing chat input while in mouse mode and world attributes change.

[edit] Build 547 (6/14/04)

New features:

Added ambient sound in world features.
Added mute all sounds when browser is minimized or in background.

Changes:

Additional error-messages, such as "Access denied".
Removed debug-text for media signs saying "MEDIA" on media signs when no text was given and no description was entered.

Fixes:

create media with subsequence activate media stop/pause did not work when used within the same action command, if no name was given to the create and activate trigger.
Media was not closing automatically when an "Access denied" error occurred.

[edit] Build 546 (6/7/04)

Changes:

The set argument now allows one to change all parameters independently, except for the res, ext and the loop argument. Note, the set argument only affects named objects and only when they are active and playing media.
Added 'readable' error messages as suggested by the beta team.
Added online help for the media command to the browser's User Guide.

Fixes:

Fixed crashes, on deletion of the media signs and on browser exit.
Fixed backward compatibility issue for a better support of WMP6.4+ and when older DirectX versions are installed on a system.

Notes:

Playing MIDI files using the media command is depreciated. It uses more resources than the existing music interface. MIDI supported of the media command will probably be disabled in the final release version.

[edit] Build 545 (6/3/04)

New features:

Command argument to pause a playing media.
Command argument to change various parameters while playing.
Command argument to auto-switch-off a running media stream.
Volume stays at max, when avatar is within a 15% of the given radius.
Volume uses log2 to calculate from percentage to decibel.
Backward compatibility to WMP 7 and 6.4 using NetShow interface (to be tested!).
Browser setting to disable media streams (Options/Settings/Downloads).
Browser setting to mute audio when browser is in background or minimized (Options/Settings/General).
World option to disable the capability of playing multiple media streams at once.

[edit] Build 544 (5/17/04)

New features:

Added fx=3D argument for panoramic sound effects.
Added radius= argument option, default set to 30 meters (see help for details).
Added an average calculation for volume and panoramic effects on audio, when more objects share the same url and are within the view.

Changes:

Implemented proposed audio volume in percentage.
The arguments color and bcolor are used as color for OSD display and the background for status messages too.

Fixes:

Fixed crashes, if background music and sound effects were off.
Limited resolution to 256 pixel, when software render mode is used.

[edit] Build 543 (5/11/04)

Help is online.

New features:

A new argument stop, allows to stop a running media explicitly.
The new argument nostop, switches the default toggle behavior of the start/stop switch of the media to ...
Streaming media can be played in an external window now too.
If the same media stream is started on different objects, all subsequent streams pick up the existing one. The stream does not stop until all of the playing media signs with same url are stopped.

Changes:

If the same url is used on more than one named target object, only one stream will be created, but info and video are displayed on all of them at the same time, for less bandwidth consumption and more efficient rendering.
If no color or bcolor is specified, the sign object's colors are used.
An activate media or bump media command inherits it's color, bcolor, or text arguments from its target sign object, whether the target is itself or another named sign object, unless a color, bcolor or text is specified in the media command. The color, bcolor and info text parameters in the media command act as optional modifiers.
'Click to stop' is not displayed in the on-screen-display, if the media command is not present in the activate section of the displaying object, or if the nostop parameter is used there.
Info messages and stream errors are displayed for at least two seconds, and can be canceled by clicking onto the sign, if an activate media command is used and nostop is not specified.
If a video is displayed in an external window, the video is not rendered within the 3d scene, for improved performance.
The optional external video window stays on top of the browser, as soon it starts playing.
An unique engine for all file formats is used, streaming and non-streaming media now use the same engine - to reduce the use of system resources and size of the application.

Fixes:

Fixed flashes when media is started or stopped.
The bump trigger caused the media to alternately start and stop during the collision. It will now only start the media. To stop a media by bumping, use the stop argument: bump media name=... stop .
Fixed that audio stream was played twice, if external window was enabled.
Fixed issue, where invalid resolution could have caused crashes

[edit] Build 542 (4/30/04)

Features included:

Playback of local- and web-based media files, as well as live streams
Looping playback
On-screen display for status report and info
Adjustable video resolution
Adjustable volume
External and resize-able window video
On/off switch using single mouse click (with activate command only)
Playback on world enter (if create url is enabled)
Close a running media stream or file, when objects becomes out of view

How to use: Use the 'create media' or 'activate media' action command followed by the url or path, on any sign object.

Example:

create sign; activate media url=mms://66.231.226.12/womb.video.wm.80 osd=on

Optional parameters:

   On-screen display: osd=on
   default: off
   valid values: on, off, true, false, yes, no

   Audio volume: vol=-600
   default: 0
   valid values from 0 to -100000
   (-100 equals -1dB, -6dB is half of the nominal volume)

   Video resolution: res=128
   default: 256
   valid values: 64, 128, 256, 512
   (take care to use the lowest possible resolution, some users on older systems may suffer if you over-do it!)

   Play in loop: loop=2
   default: 0
   valid values: positive integer, 0 to some millions...

   Play in external window: ext=on
   default: off
   valid values: on, off, true, false, yes, no
   (window is resizeable and can be set to background; if external window is closed, it will close the running media too)

Notes:

a) The create command only works, if 'Create Url' is enabled in the world features settings. To pass urls or local paths with blanks in their names to the create media or active media use:

   activate media "C:\Program Files\cat.mpeg" osd=on res=512

b) If you want to define a text for the sign differnt to the description when using the create media command, the url= parameter must be used and the url must not contain blanks:

   create media "Sign Text" bcolor=red url=C:\myfile.avi

All video and and audio formats supported by Windows Media Player™ work, unless the expected codec is not installed on your machine. Playlists are not supported at that time.

Enjoy!

[edit] Active Worlds 3.5

[edit] Build 525 (12/2/04)

Changed the way CPU throttle was handled, to allow Flash, MP3's, and other media - intensive applications to run more smoothly alongside ActiveWorlds.
Fixed bug where the user may have the incorrect avatar when visiting a world, if they had been using a special avatar on their previous visit.
Fixed bug where Ascii sequences were not loaded, if one tag name would be invalid. This was done to reach a similar behavior to the binary format.
Fixed the issue that the debug-log file sometimes did not rotate, caused by a timer-value overflow.
Fixes the issue that camera movements kept wobbling in 3rd person view.
Fixed the bug where switching worlds before a terrain load was complete would break all terrain downloads until the browser was restarted.
Fixed bug where, for some users, the worlds column in the worlds tab could become very narrow (1 pixel wide) and would be impossible to expand again.

[edit] Build 524 (1/29/04)

This is the first public beta release of Activeworlds 3.5. Again, please send bug reports to Beta@activeworlds.com.

Fixed bug where certain sequences might cause crashes.

The following bugs have been reported and will be fixed in the next release:

The columns in the worlds tab window can be made narrow, but it is difficult to make the column a useable width again. It will usually snap back to the narrow width when the user attempts to expand the column.
Invite does not work.
A user can use a special avatar if they were wearing one on their last visit to a particular world, even if they no longer have rights to use specials.

[edit] Build 520 (11/6/03)

Attempted bugfix for the issue where clicking on the chat window to follow a link or select text would cause the chat to suddenly scroll to the top.
Another attempted fix for the issue where the tab windows would always have a horizontal scrollbar, and the columns would auto-size to slightly larger than the available width.
Fixed issue where the tab windows might not be the right size at startup.
Fixed bug where search tab would not show up if another tab was disabled.
Fixed bug where search tab would not show up if login completed before the tabs window was created.
Fixed bug where search window would be blank if login hadn't completed by the time the window was created.

[edit] Build 519 (11/3/03)

Fixed bug where re-sizing the tab window would, under certain circumstances, cause the window to re-size to a width larger than the current window, making it impossible to get rid of the horizontal scroll bar.
Fixed bug where tab windows would be incorrectly sized at startup, usually placing the bottom of the vertical scroll bar off the bottom edge of the window.
Fixed bug where leaving only one character in the world options or object properties dialog field would cause the field to be blank.
Fixed bug where main window would steal focus when opening up the compose telegram window.
The teleport popup now remembers its last location.
The way the connection is maintained has been changed, which may lead to smoother avatar updates and more stable connections for some.
A new ini option has been added for creating debug logs. Under the [debug] section you may now add an optional value "purge_time = n", where n is the number of seconds of log file you want the browser to keep before a purge. Using this option will limit how big the log can get, which was a problem for some when the log would expand until the hard drive was full. A value between 15 and 60 seconds is recomended. Very small values may make the log file useless, as the log may not have enough information to be useful when the browser crashes.
Fixed a bug where using the "flush" option for debug logs might cause a crash.

[edit] Build 514 (10/1/03)

Fixed several issues where the avatar would be incorrectly set when entering a world, or the avatar would be set but the menu selection would not.
Terrain elevation offset is now expressed in meters instead of decameters.
Fixed bug where closing the world features dialog with the return key would not save changes for the currently selected item in the dialog.
Fixed bug where the world column in the contacts list would be auto-adjusted too wide, which would make impossible to get rid of the horizontal scrollbar if the vertical scrollbar was visible.

[edit] Build 513 (9/26/03)

Added some space to the bottom of the toolbar to prevent overlap.
Added new world option "Show water under terrain". This will disable the use of "transparent edges" that would appear on shallow water, and instead cause the world water to be rendered at a uniform opacity, even underground.
Added new world option "Terrain elevation offset". This will move the global terrain up or down by the value given, in decimeters. Note that this is not designed to be used on-the-fly, and changes to this value will not take affect until a terrain update is forced (by moving around).
Fixed small memory leak when selecting objects.
Avatar selections are now stored seperatly for citizens and tourists, to avoid the bug where switching from citizen to tourist would attempt to use restricted avatars.
Fixed bug where citizen name field would be replaced with citizen number when hitting "undo" in the object dialog.
Fixed bug where citizen number field would not be reset when hitting "undo" in the object dialog.
Fixed bug where the field with user focus would not revert at all when hitting "undo" in the object dialog.

[edit] Build 510 (8/13/03)

Fixed bug in object dialog where hitting "undo" while editing an empty text box would cause the word "none" to become the actual text of the field.
Fix bug where hitting return while editing an object would cloase the dialog but ALSO undo whatever changes had been made.
Attempt to fix bug where user can sometimes clip through walls.
The current avatar is now stored by object path, not world. This means that you will always use the same avatar for all worlds that share the same path.

[edit] Build 509 (8/11/03)

Attempt to fix bug where tabs would not grab the edges of the desktop on some systems. Note that this feature does not support multi-monitor setups, and so the tabs will only snap to the "main" desktop.
Eliminated wasted space in object dialog
Changed how the tabs handle keyboard focus in an attempt to fix the various complaints related to focus and the tab window.

[edit] Build 508 (8/6/03)

Fixed bug where overhead objects would be un-selectable when standing below default water height.
Fixed bug where tabs would give focus to main window, even when they did not have focus. This was stealing focus from the chat line.
Tabs now grab onto edges of desktop in addition to the viewport.
The CPU throttle has been adjusted for more robust scaling.
The current camera mode and view distance are now stored in the ini abd should be remembered the next time the browser starts.
Fixed bug where pressing ENTER / RETURN while editing objects would not close the dialog.
Fixed bug where closing the object dialog with the close button would not save the object changes.

[edit] Build 507 (8/4/03)

Fixed bug where web window could not be re-sized under certain conditions.
Tabs now "snap" to the edges of the viewport.
Fixed bug where user could open multiple teleport dialogs at once
Fixed bug where the toolbar drop-down menu button would become stuck in the highlighted state.
Fixed bug where users tab would not remember the list sort preference.
Added several changes to prevent the tabs from stealing focus from the main window.
Title text for the tabs window is now added to the message set
Fixed bug where user would have to hit apply twice after using a slider control.
Fixed bug where moving the mouse off the left side of a slider would cause the control to move all the way to the right.
The slider control should now match the sizing of the other controls in the dialog instead of sticking out of the right side.
Edit box for slider control now wide enough to display -1000.
Changed message for mouse move tooltip.
Added option to remember priv pass when privleges are turned off.
Fixed issue where cloud textures were applied "backwards".
Added a bit of margin space to the left side of the chat window.

[edit] Build 506 (8/1/03)

A new feature is in this release that will attmpt to regulate the processor usage of the browser. This should make the browser more stable and less likely to overheat certain processors (particularly mobile CPU's). On our test machines, this had the effect of reducing frame rate by 5% while reducing processor usage by 95%. We are very interested to find out how this affects other machines.
Fixed bug where right mouse btn would become "stuck" down when selecting avatars.
File transfer uses new popup instead of chat window.
Fixed bug where /me would appear in chat bubbles.
Fixed bug where scrollbars would be incorrectly sized in tab windows
Fixed bug where public speakers would not see their own text in bold.
Fixed bug where toolbar would briefly appear during startup, even when it is turned off.
AFK now disabled in standalone
Fixed bug where objects would jump long distances when dragging them with the mouse.
The backdrop fix for old voodoo cards has been removed. This was preventing the gradient sky from working properly.
Toolbar images can now be variable size. The button size is the height of the toolbar image divided by 5.
Fixed bug where selecting a tab from the toolbar would not unroll the tabs.
Fixed bug where tabs would sometimes steal focus from the main window.
Fixed bug where colons would tanslate into tabs in the chat window for /me commands.
Fixed bug where the users list would become un-sorted after its contents changed.

[edit] Build 505 (7/31/03)

Fixed bug where tabs would move when rolling / unrolling.
Fixed bug where some right-click popup menus wouldn't work in the tab windows.
Viewport will now reclaim wasted space if gestures are turned off.
Fixed bug where logo would continue to spin even when downloads were complete
Fixed bug where user could no longer tab between fields in the world features dialog.
Fixed numerous bugs in the object properties dialog.
Removed colon from popup menu on users tab
Added the ability for users to enter country name on the registration screen.
User defined messages in message set are now 1100 - 1199 instead of 1100 - 1119
New Message set

[edit] Build 504 (7/30/03)

Users tab can now show when a user changes their citizen name. (this will require a universe update to take effect)
Fixed bug where non-caretakers could still edit the citizen number field in the object dialog
Removed the location field of the object dialog. This feature has been moved to 4.0
User can now use F5 and F6 to respond to Invite/join popups. If there are multiple popups, these keys will accept/decline for the oldest (top-most) popup in the stack.
Fixed bug where citizen name would only display the first time an object was selected
Fixed bug where the object dialog would take the focus after selecting an object, forcing the user to click on the main window again before the object could be moved using the keyboard.
Removed change from last version where the camera would not resize when the 3d viewport was resized. This was intended to avoid the slowdowns and crashes associated with changing the viewport size. Instead....
The tabs window is now a floating window. It can still be hidden/shown using F9, and can be "rolled up" by double-clicking the title bar.

[edit] Build 503 (7/28/03)

World Features, keyboard config, and object properties should now give more space to the input fields and waste less space on the left side, where the labels are.
Fixed bug where text boxes wouldn't wrap long lines.
Fixed bug where citizen name wouldn't show in the object properties dialog
Fixed bug where app would crash if the toolbar.cfg was missing.
Fixed bug where user would get an incorrect notice that mipmap settings had been changed in the options dialog
Changed the way memory is handled when the main 3d viewport is re-sized. This should make the application more stable, and less likely to run out of video memory, but use more video memory overall.

[edit] Build 502 (7/25/03)

The old toolbar has been replaced with a new, configurable toolbar. While this is intended for other univereses that require custom interfaces, the ability is available to all users. The toolbar is defined in the toolbar.cfg in the /default directory (under your Activeworlds directory). See below for information about this file. The image used for the toolbar is selectable under options -> settings -> advanced.
Users may now assign the different camera modes to specific keys, eliminating the need to cycle through the camera modes looking for the desired view.
Individual tabs in the tabs interface can be removed. Again, this feature is intended for custom universes, but is available for users that wish to experiment with it. The contraols.ini in the /default directory contains options that will show/hide various interface elements. The web controls and whisper box may also be added/removed via this file.
The new "users" tab will list all users currently logged into the universe, and will also list bots for universe administrators. Note that this tab will probably NOT be supported in the main universe, but may be used in other universes, and will be enabled in the test universe.
A new option is available on the users and contacts tab: users may now invite others to join them at their current location. This works much like a join, except that the other user will teleport to your location, instead of you teleporting to theirs.
Join and invite prompts will now appear as stacking popups instead of inserting themselves into the chat winodw where they interrupt chat. The popups disappear once the invitation expires. This also allows the users to see all pending invitations at once.
Fixed a bug where tourists could appear as any avatar in the list if the avatar list was closed and controlled by a bot.
Added a change intended to fix the issue introduced in 3.4 where the backdrop would render in front of the scene.
Fixed bug where closing a branch in the world features dialog could cause items to become un-aligned.
The new 3.4 dialogs such as world features and key config should now remember their last position.
Several user-defined messages have been added to the message set. Messages 1100 through 1119 can be set by someone (usually the unverse administrator, prior to distributing the software) Right now the only use for these messages are as tooltips for the new configurable toolbar.
The downloads box is now smaller, and will show progresss bars for each item being downloaded.
Web page urls can now read content from a local directory. prefacing a URL with "local:" will cuase the browser to look from content in the "/default/web" directory. For example, "Activate url local:mypage.html" will look for "C:\Active Worlds\default\web\mypage.html". This is really only useful for universe admins who want to pre-load web content for users.
The object properties dialog has been changed. IT should function as before, with the added feature that it will show the location of the currently selected object.
Several slash commands have been added to the chat interface:

1. /whisper username, message - users may whisper to another user without using the whisper box. Just type /whisper, followed by the target's name, followed by a comma, and then your message.

2. /join [citnumber] - Type /join followed by the citizen number to send a join request to that user.

3. /teleport location - just enter /teleport followed by the location you wish to go. For example, "/teleport aw 1n 0w" or "/teleport 100s 223n 10a" Any valid teleport location should work.

4. /me emote - enter /me followed by an action to have that shown in the chat window. For example, if your username is "Bob" and you enter "/me waves goodbye", then the chat window will display "Bob waves goodbye".

NOTE: These chat commands may be removed or changed during testing.

In addition, any of the toolbar button commands list below can be used as a /slash command. For example, /world_features will cause the world features dialog to open. This option was added during testing and is not likely to remain as a feature in 3.5. More info on the toolbar.cfg file

The new toolbar will load the toolbar_image.bmp from the /default directory. This image is divided into 32x32 images to be used as toolbar buttons. The buttons are numbered horizontally starting with 0 on the left. The image file is divided into four rows as follows:

Row 1: Image of button in its normal, unpressed state.

Row 2: Image of button pressed

Row 3: Image of button in its normal, unpressed state with mouseover.

Row 4: Image of button pressed, with mouseover

Open the toolbar_image.bmp to see how this works.

Each line in the toolbar.cfg file will define a button on the toolbar. Each line has the following format:

[action] [image number] [tooltip message] [special id number]
[Action] can be any of the possible toolbar actions from the list. (see below)
[image number] is the index of the image from the toolbar_image.bmp
[tooltip message] is the index of the message from the message set that should be used for the tooltip. This message is displayed when the user hovers the mouse over the given button. The custom messages (1100 - 1119) are particularly useful for this. This field is optional.
[special id number] is only used with buttons using the sdk_event action. The browser will send this id number with an sdk_event to the server to perform some custom action to be handled by a bot in the world. (for example "show map" or "open inventory", where the bot can respond by sending the user the appropriate url) Here is the list of possible actions for the toolbar:

exit

forward

back

home

teleport_set_home

remember

look_up

look_down

look_level

first_person

third_person

world_features

world_rights

world_ejections

show_downloads

show_tabs

show_gestures

show_web

show_whisper

show_cell_grid

login_citizen

login_tourist

privileges

web_back

web_forward

web_stop

web_refresh

help

about

options_controls

camera_locked

camera_chase

camera_front

contacts_tab

worlds_tab

users_tab

telegrams_tab

teleports_tab

help_tab

search_tab

afk

mouse_move

sdk_event

[edit] Active Worlds 3.4

Welcome to Active Worlds 3.4

Welcome to the Active Worlds 3.4 user guide.

The latest release version of the Active Worlds browser, server, and administration software are now available for download at http://www.activeworlds.com/products/download.asp.

Many of the new Active Worlds browser features are specifically designed to take advantage of new World Server features, and may not work the same in worlds running on older world servers.

Active Worlds 3.4 includes the following new features and changes:

New World Options:

Active Worlds 3.4 offers many new features for world owners. In fact, the number of available world options has more than doubled from what it was in 3.3. World owners should upgrade to the latest world server as soon as possible in order to take advantage of this new functionality. The new world options are:

Two world options have been added to regulate gravity in the world, "Gravity" and "Underwater Gravity". A value of 1.0 will use standard "Earth" gravity. Note that with the default setting of 1.0 you will sink in water. Use a negative value for underwater gravity to cause avatars to float to the surface.
Three new options have been added to control specific sounds in the world. The "Water Enter" sound plays when the user enters the water and begins swimming (when the mid-point of the avatar drops below water level) and the "Water Exit" sound plays when the user emerges from the water. The "Footstep" sound plays twice every time the user walks the distance of their own height. For example, for a 2-meter tall avatar, the sound would play once for every meter they walked. This distance is doubled when running. The footstep sound works very well when combined with the "autowalk" feature (see below) to produce footsteps that match pace with the avatar's movement. All three of these sounds can be found under the new "Sound" group in the World Options dialog.
A new world option has been added to allow the world's caretaker to disable tourist building.
A new Enable Browser Referrer world option has been added. Clearing the checkbox for this option will prevent the browser from sending the new referrer string (explained under "Browser Features" below).
A new world option, water, is now available. Water can be used to fill the world with an endless rolling ocean. Note that avatars will "float" when underwater (gravity will be lower, and reversed).
New in 3.4 is the Layered Clouds feature. This new world option allows world owners to create up to three layers of moving clouds in their world.
Also new is the Gradient Sky feature. This allows world owners to specify separate colors for areas of the sky and have them blend into each other. This, along with the new "fog color" option replace the original "backdrop color" feature.
World owners may now apply a texture to the world light source. This makes it possible to have a sun, moon, or corona type texture attached to the world directional light source, which will change position as the light moves.
Fog color can now be controlled independently of the sky colors. Note that pre-3.4 users will see the sky colored with the fog color, and will not see the gradient sky.
Terrain has been enhanced so that the world owner can now control the surface lighting.
In order to better manage the increasing number of world options, the old World Options and Lights & Fog dialogs have been merged into a new, branching dialog.
A new world option has been added to show all avatar names. Normally, you do not see a user's name until they speak unless you have "Eject" rights or "Caretaker" status. This option allows everyone to see all names, regardless of rights. This is intended to be used in game worlds where the owner might not want people to be anonymous, or in a world where users would not otherwise see each others' chat.
A world option has been added to hide all chat in the world. If this is checked, users with speaking rights will still be able to type messages, but the messages will not be sent to other users. Only a bot with caretaker rights will see the chat. This is useful if you have a bot monitoring the incoming chat and relaying it to everyone via the console command. In this way, a bot can be used to color chat messages, control the distribution of chat, and filter text.
A world option has been introduced to block citizens from whispering to one another. This is intended to be used with a bot, just like the "hide chat" option listed above.
Increased maximum fog distance (which also controls the maximum view distance) from 400 to 1200. Note that this does not affect the visibility of property-based objects (which is still limited to 200 meters) but only applies to world-based geometry, such as ground objects and terrain. While this can be used to create striking vistas, it should be noted that this will also greatly increase the number of terrain polygons in view and lower the accuracy of the z-buffer. The net effect of this is that your world may be slower, and may be more prone to suffer from annoying z-buffer "bleeding".
Added new world option "Avatar Updates per second". This can be used to control how often avatar updates are sent to the client. Setting this value above the default value of 1 can smooth avatar movement, at a significant cost to bandwidth.
Added new world option "Disable avatar list", which will cause the avatar list to be unselectable. This is intended to be used in conjunction with new SDK settings that will allow world owners to control what avatar each visitor is wearing.
The browser will now allow the world server to set the user's avatar and gesture, via a bot. This goes along with the changes in build 428 that allowed the world owner to disable the avatar list. Now a bot can be used to regulate the gestures and avatar use in the world.

New Browser Features

The browser now sends a proper referrer string to the web server when downloading objects. This may prevent downloads from some sites. This option can be turned off by the world owner.
The maximum rating can now be password protected in the World Features dialog. This means that parents may now lock the browser from entering worlds above the given rating. Worlds that exceed the maximum rating will not appear in the world list. Note that you can still enter a world of any rating if

Release notes

From Active Worlds Wiki

[edit] Active Worlds Release Notes

Contents

[edit] Active Worlds 4.1

[edit] Build 940?

[edit] Active Worlds 3.6

[edit] Build 567

[edit] Build 566

[edit] Build 565

[edit] Build 564

[edit] Build 563

[edit] Build 562

[edit] Build 561

[edit] Build 560

[edit] Build 559

[edit] Build 558

[edit] Build 557

[edit] Build 556

[edit] Build 555

[edit] Build 554

[edit] Build 553

[edit] Build 552

[edit] Build 551 (7/6/04) - Release

[edit] Build 550 (6/29/04)

[edit] Build 549 (6/21/04)

[edit] Build 548 (6/16/04)

[edit] Build 547 (6/14/04)

[edit] Build 546 (6/7/04)

[edit] Build 545 (6/3/04)

[edit] Build 544 (5/17/04)

[edit] Build 543 (5/11/04)

[edit] Build 542 (4/30/04)

[edit] Active Worlds 3.5

[edit] Build 525 (12/2/04)

[edit] Build 524 (1/29/04)

[edit] Build 520 (11/6/03)

[edit] Build 519 (11/3/03)

[edit] Build 514 (10/1/03)

[edit] Build 513 (9/26/03)

[edit] Build 510 (8/13/03)

[edit] Build 509 (8/11/03)

[edit] Build 508 (8/6/03)

[edit] Build 507 (8/4/03)

[edit] Build 506 (8/1/03)

[edit] Build 505 (7/31/03)

[edit] Build 504 (7/30/03)

[edit] Build 503 (7/28/03)

[edit] Build 502 (7/25/03)

[edit] Active Worlds 3.4