Active Worlds

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Active Worlds
Developer(s) Active Worlds
Publisher(s) Active Worlds
Designer(s) Active Worlds, User-generated content
Engine Renderware
Latest version 4.1 (Build 964)
Release date(s) 1995 (beta), 1997 (public release)
Genre(s) Online 3D Virtual Reality
Mode(s) Massive Multiplayer Online Game
Rating(s) G+
Platform(s) Browser: Windows; World server/SDK: Windows, Linux;
Media Available for download
System requirements 300Mhz (800Mhz recommended) CPU, 128mb+ RAM, Windows 98, Me, 2000, or XP, Direct X 8.1 or later, Windows Media Player 6.4 or later, 3D acceleration (64mb+ Video RAM recommended)

Active Worlds (AW) is a 3D virtual reality platform. The Active Worlds Browser runs on Windows, and on the majority of computers today. Users assign themselves a unique name, log into the Active Worlds virtual universe, and explore 3D worlds and environments that other users have built. Users can chat with one another or build structures and areas from a selection of objects. AW allows users to own worlds, and universe and develop 3D content. The browser has web browsing capabilities, voice chat, and basic instant messaging. This integrated software can allow users to connect, explore, and gain a more in depth understanding of 3D. Corporate and educational clients of Active Worlds can make use of the interaction, communication, and media to provide functional environments suited for their objective.

The program's original goal was to be the 3D-equivalent to a 2D browser (such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla). Instead of creating a website, the user could construct an office, building, or area in which to display products or information. Currently in version 4.1 released May 30th, 2006, there are many new features which allow users to interact with the environment more so than previous versions.

The necessity for 3D art within Active Worlds to enrich one's world has led to the development of a market place for 3D models, textures, avatars (and associated animation sequences), and more. There is also plenty of free exchange of 3D content. There is also custom design services for 3D art available, especially avatars.

Contents

[edit] Tourists, citizens, and world owners

Active Worlds has two ways of entering its universe: as a free tourist or as a paid citizen. Tourist mode is Active World's version of a free account with several limitations. You can pay for a citizen for the price of $6.95 per month. As a citizen you have more features when using the software. Additionally, AW allows citizens to purchase their own worlds.

[edit] Tourists

Tourists have several limitations:

  • Tourists cannot reserve a unique name across visits; when they log out, anyone else may choose the same name.
  • Tourists have only two choices of avatar (generally one male and one female).
  • In chat, tourist text colour is grey instead of black. The tourist's name also appears "in quotes."
  • Anything that a tourist builds can be deleted & edited by other users. Although, citizens may not edit tourist builds.
  • Tourists cannot enter some worlds, and some they can enter but cannot build. For example the largest world, Alphaworld (AW), currently allows tourist entry but no tourist building.
  • In voice chat enabled worlds, tourist may hear voice chat but not talk themselves.

But there are limited advantages to being a tourist:

  • Tourists can enter Active Worlds for free at any time, their 'trial' does not expire.
  • Tourists can work together on builds.

[edit] Citizens

  • A citizenship grants the user (a "citizen") access to any public world in the universe.
  • Citizens have a unique user name, unlike tourists.
  • Citizen builds cannot be deleted or modified in any way, except by themselves or the world caretakers.
  • Citizens may choose to give other citizens the ability to modify their builds, using a special secondary password called a "privilege password" (also known as "priv pass" or "ppw".) This makes it possible to engage in collaborative building. (See more below.)
  • Send telegrams to other citizens. Telegrams are like instant messages. They allow conversation between citizens who may be anywhere in the universe. Unlike Instant Messages, telegrams are stored on the server; if the recipient is not online when the telegram is sent, it will be delivered the next time the recipient logs on.
  • Send files directly to other citizens, though this feature may require configuration to work properly when using a router.
  • Join to where another user is, or invite to bring a user to another's location.
  • Add citizens to a contacts list to see when the user is online and easily telegram or join them.
  • In addition to a contacts list, there are associated privacy options which allow users to control who may and may not contact them and how their online status is shown.
  • Access to all generally available avatars in a world.
  • Citizen may talk to each other using Voice Chat.
  • Citizens have the ability to bring three bots into the Active Worlds Universe simultaneously. Noteworthy examples include the dictionary-based Preston Bot, the multi-purpose Xelagot, the highly configurable Eclipse Evolution, and the powerful, extensible MagsBots.
  • Citizens may post within the Active Worlds Forums.

[edit] World owners

  • A world allows a user to have their own environment which others may explore, build, and more. Generally users have their worlds hosted by those who provide such services within the community, although can host their world themselves on Windows and Linux servers.
  • Custom content provided by various object paths, of which users may use their own. This allows the creation of unique content, including models, textures, sounds, avatars and animations / gestures, and more.
  • Caretaker privileges allow users to not only have vast control over the 3D environment, but to manage the privileges other users have within that world. As well worlds may be made private to select users for special situations and personal preference.
  • World owners may create and edit custom world-wide terrain.
  • Adjust the appearance of the world sky, clouds, and water. AW supports skyboxes for realistic scenes.
  • Control the operation of chat, buidling (including the content and functions of), physics, world sounds, and more.
  • Moderation abilities, known as "ejection".
  • Voice Chat, optional for a fee.
  • Tourist access, optional for a fee. Tourists may not enter worlds without it.
  • Caretakers can edit world features and custom world-wide terrain too.

As well, there are further administrative abilities of those that purchase their own galaxy / universe.

[edit] Main Features

Screenshot of the Active Worlds 4.1 browser.
Enlarge
Screenshot of the Active Worlds 4.1 browser.

[edit] Building

Building allows users to create their own environment. For example, a user may search for or request an open plot of land and then construct the walls of the build with 4x4 meter wall pieces. The user may then decide to add windows, doors, furniture, landscaping, etc. Active Worlds supports objects stored as RenderWare script RWX (and the RW3+ binary equivalent DFF) and trueSpace objects COB. The available objects are defined by the world owner; it is not possible to upload custom objects to a public world. Builders must work with the available objects, or else purchase a private world.

Tourists may build, but their builds may be deleted by anyone. No one is allowed to "encroach" on territory that has been "claimed" by another user. (Claims are made by covering the desired area in objects, usually large "groundcover" objects.) Citizens who wish to build collaboratively can share their "privilege passwords" with one another. Entering another citizen's privilege password grants a citizen the right to modify their buildings. Any changes will be recorded in the name of the user whose privileges you are currently using.

Building in Active Worlds is done using the keyboard and mouse. All buildings are constructed of multiple copies of particular objects, arranged appropriately. In some respects, it is like building with virtual Lego blocks. Right-clicking an existing object will highlight it and open an "Object Properties" dialog box. Once an object is selected, it can be moved up/down, left/right, or forward/back. It can likewise be rotated on all axis, yaw (Y), pitch (Z) and roll (X). The object may be duplicated, and the new copy moved into a new position. The object may also be transformed into another object, by typing in the name of the desired object. So, for example, it is possible to transform a tree03.rwx into a rock10.rwx by selecting it and typing in "rock10.rwx" as the object name. The new rock can then be rotated 90 degrees around its X axis, moved 3.5 meters to the left, and sunk 1 meter into the ground. This is generally how builds grow to their incredible proportions, one object duplicated from another.

More advanced effects can be achieved through the use of "actions". There are a few dozen different commands one can apply to an object through actions. One of the most common is "texture", this simply gives the ability to change the texture from the object default, and may be applied to specific areas of the geometry. Signs can be made to give simple information within the 3D environment, and pictures are available to display images from all around the world wide web. Actions can be written to take place at creation time (create), when a user bumps the object (bump), when the user clicks the object (activate), or when an animation has completed (adone). In essence, the commands form a primitive scripting language which makes it possible alter objects' appearance, make them move on cue, emit light, or move a visitor to a new location.

It is even possible to write simple games in this language. However, the scripting language lacks the use of conditionals and variables. It is possible to simulate those using advanced properties of the "animate" command, but doing so is considered an advanced building skill.

Dedicated builders have created beautiful, rich, complicated environments. Some of these, notably SW City, have grown enormous. SW City, a collaborative build started in 1999 and involving hundreds of builders, spans some 150 square kilometers of virtual territory. It includes some of the most sophisticated builds in Alpha World, AW's largest world, some of which can be seen in their screenshots.

Public Building Worlds are a major attraction to Active Worlds. Public Building Worlds, such as "Alphaworld" or "AWTeen", are vast and expansive worlds that allow any citizen (and in certain cases, tourists) the opportunity to build to their hearts content, with the limit of building being imagination. Public Building Worlds are often populated at every time of the day, and are constantly at the top of AW's World List user count. Not counting the standard citizenship fee, there is no additional fee to building in these worlds, or building very large areas. Most Public Building Worlds are owned and operated by Activeworlds, Incorporated. A Notable exception includes TheBeans world.

Building in Public Building Worlds is often very different from building in a privately owned. There is a set object path, or list of objects that are usable in the worlds, as well as the worlds own textures and other building resources. Builders in private worlds can have the advantage of importing large objects from other programs directly into their world at discretion of the world caretaker. With the exception of AWTeen, most AW, Inc. owned worlds have object paths that are rarely updated, and that can make building in them restrictive. As of July, 2006, most Public Building Worlds also lack simple primitive objects to build with. As building in these worlds is of a method often referred to as 'Building Block' building, most builders resort to using other objects to make innovative buildings with.

Several Public Building Worlds are themed worlds, with their own specific object path and landscape. These themed worlds are often p1000 sized (1000 coordinates of land from the ground zero in N/S/E/W directions.) and are usually very unpopulated. Such worlds include:

To enhance individual users experience, the use of AW's local path option has become popularized in recent times. Alphaworld Enhanced is the most developed example. Alphaworld Enhanced is a graphical modification developed expressly for Alphaworld. This modification uses to local path to upgrade existing textures to textures of much higher quality, as well as making unintended tiled textures seamless. A skybox, additional avatars, and gestures also come with this.

[edit] Chat

Communications in AW involve being within 200 meters from other people in the area and chatting. Users will quickly learn the common areas to chat, such as the starting location ("ground zero") when first entering a world. Citizens may also communicate with telegrams, which contact the user in any location. Telegrams are private, and it is possible to "whisper" private messages to nearby users. All other chat is public. The 200 meter chat range can become a problem within large worlds and projects that span a larger area than 200 meters. To tackle this problem, bots (see below) can be programmed to broadcast chat to everyone in the current world.

[edit] Traveling

Traveling is endless as AW has over 700 worlds to look at. On top of that, the few public worlds are enormous and have tens of thousands of builds. The largest world, Alphaworld, available space larger than California. To aid in navigating such a vast area, the Active Worlds browser offers users the option to quickly "teleport" to a specified location, and to maintain a "Teleport List", rather like a list of bookmarked web pages.

[edit] Bots / Active Worlds SDK

Bots are applications developed using the Active Worlds SDK. Some of these applications have been developed to allow users to automate simple tasks, such as weather, chat relay, giving tours and information, complex property management, and more. Games can be developed which interact with databases and other technologies to provide a basic, but extensible gaming platform. There are many other potential applications that can be developed using the SDK, for example, a program that automatically explores a world and creates a map, artificial intelligence through chat, and much more.

[edit] Community

[edit] AW Reunions

Much of the community has gotten to know each other quite well over a long period of time. Since 1998, Active Worlds users have organized and held an annual real-world reunion. Typically, this is organized on a web page or internet forum in the months before the reunion. During their time together, Reunion Attendees will meet, visit sites in the city they are in for that year, and chat with AW Users online in the universe at the hotel. In past years, more than one reunion has also been held.

Every year, a world named Reunion is built and modeled to reflect the city the reunion members are attending. In this world, users from the universe can interact with the reunion members while they are in the hotel online, and a webcam is set up at the hotel as well.

Below is a list of AW Reunions that have been held to date:

[edit] Towns and Cities

In the Public Building Worlds, towns and cities are common throughout the world. These towns are collections of buildings and builders, and are essentially small, virtual communities. The majority of the towns in Active Worlds are abandoned, and most towns are active for several weeks with a small amount of builders.

Some towns though, notably Moonlight Heights and SW City have survived for years and have many participants and have moved on to incorporate other projects into their towns. Other towns, such as Off World are uniformly themed and have a clear focus for builders.

[edit] History

This does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since June 2006.

In the summer 1994, Ron Britvich (Protagonist) created WebWorld which was the first 2.5D world where tens of thousands could chat, build and travel. WebWorld operated on the Peregrine Systems Inc. servers as an 'after hours' project until Britvich left the company to join Knowledge Adventure Worlds (KAW) in the fall of that year. On February 1995, KAW spun off their 3D Web division to form the company Worlds Inc..[1]

Britvich was eventually joined by several other developers, and the renamed "AlphaWorld" continued to develop as a skunk works project at Worlds Inc, internally competing with a similar project known as Gamma. While AlphaWorld was developing a strong cult following due in large part to Britvich's open philosophy of favoring user-built content, Worlds, Inc. favored Gamma for the company produced contract projects for Disney and others.

On June 28, 1995, AlphaWorld was renamed Active Worlds (from Active Worlds Explorer) and officially launched as version 1.0. Around this time, Circle of Fire (CoF) was formed to create content for the Active Worlds universe. This company would end up playing a pivotal role in the future of the product.

In January, 1997, Worlds Inc., after failing to secure needed contracts and having spent its venture investment of over 15 million dollars, laid off almost the entire staff of the company, keeping only several employees which included the author of Gamma, now known as WorldsPlayer. Active Worlds, never considered much of an asset by the company, became an object of struggle for those close to it. Eventually, it ended up in the hands of CoF, with most of the development team joining CoF until internal disagreements caused some of the team, including Britvich, to leave and eventually be sued by the company.

On January 21, 1999, CoF did a reverse merger with Vanguard Enterprises, Inc., which changed the company's name to Activeworlds.com, Inc. and, later, Active Worlds, Inc. Some of the original developers like Roland Vilett and Shamus Young (although Shamus Young had been involved as first an artist, then webmaster, and now developer since COF took over)stayed involved with Active Worlds and development on the product continued for years, as it continues to have a following.

In 2001, the company launched a new product called 3D homepages [1]. Each citizen account is entitled to one free 30 day trial of a virtual 10,000 square-meter 3D homepage, using their choice of layout from a selection of pre-designed styles. After the trial, the user has the option of upgrading to a larger size and user limit. These 3D Homepages are hosted for the user, unlike traditional worlds where the user would have to get their world hosted by another company or user, or themselves. Later, the 30 day free trial citizenship that came included with the 3D Homepage would be discarded. As of Version 4.1, 3D Homepages are no longer available.

In 2002, the company in an attempt to financially survive and turn a profit, increased the price of their yearly citizenships from $19.95 USD to $69.95 USD [2]. This event caused discontent amongst current users of the program and subsequently in the following months, activity within the program substantially died down.

In January, 2006, Wells Fargo's Stagecoach Island program was released, which used a pre-release [2]. During that time, Beta versions of Activeworlds 4.1 were available to registered citizens only. Active Worlds 4.1 version

On May 30, 2006, Active Worlds commenced the rollout of the 4.1 version. Active Worlds routers did not last for long due to the extreme amount of users downloading the new 4.1 browser and a large amount of users in the new 4.1 universe. 4.1 was closed for a short time, while Active Worlds upgraded their routers and equipment. On the 31st, 4.1 was reopened and the rollout of 4.1 was commenced.

On June 1, 2006, Active Worlds released the public world server version 4.1. While a normal amount of issues were reported for a massive software update, there are now over 600 worlds converted to 4.1, with few more remaining unlisted at the owners's discretion.

On the dates of November 3, November 4, and November 5, the Active Worlds Expo was held by AW users Newman111 and SW Chris. More information can be found here.

[edit] Official

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.kether.com/words/thesis/context.html, Beth Scannell, November 6 1999
  2. ^ http://www.tnlc.com/Lara/aw/awpriceplan-2002/noll_letter_revised_feb-6-2002.html, Rick Noll, February 6 2002

[edit] Sources

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Universes
Worlds, cities, communities
Media
Resources
  • Pelican3d Pelican3d 3d Objects
  • awportals.com Active Worlds Portals, comprehensive site including history, worlds and services
  • AWLife A useful resource for the Active Worlds community, software-wide.
  • SupportAW Dedicated to supporting the Active Worlds software
  • Shared Teleports List An online database of teleports to points of interests across the Active Worlds universe submitted by users.
  • Snow Crash - The inspiration that ignited the Active World's living megaverse representation of a creative idea into reality.
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