Active Worlds 3.6 Beta Notes

How to report bugs

Please send your bug reports to Beta@activeworlds.com. But please, do not send bug reports via telegram under any circumstances!

Important: The single most important thing to keep in mind when making a bug report is that, in order to fix the bug, we must be able to see and reproduce the problem here. If we can't reproduce the problem, we can't determine its cause, and if we can't determine the cause, we can't fix it. Thus, every bug report should be given with all information necessary for someone else to view and reproduce the problem. In particular, if the bug or problem occurs at a particular location, please be sure to include the world name and coordinates of the problem so that we can try to reproduce it. Please do not say "when I run the browser in my world, such-and-such happens" because we don't know which world is yours!

Before reporting any bug involving the 3D rendering of objects and/or worlds, please be sure to review the video problems page for some useful suggestions. Also, please be sure to note whether the problem you are observing is occurring under Direct3D, OpenGL mode, or software mode, and if you have Hardware T&L enabled. If you are having a rendering problem, try reproducing it under the other video modes. Finally, always be sure to mention what kind of video card your system has in your bug report. Keep in mind that 3D rendering glitches are often due to problems in the video card driver itself and cannot be fixed by us.

Also, please note that we can't reply to every bug report and question that we receive. Generally, you will only be contacted about a bug report if we need further information in order to diagnose the problem.

 

Build 551 Notes (07/06/04) - 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'.

Build 550 Notes (06/29/04)

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.

Build 549 Notes (06/21/04)

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.

 

Build 548 Notes (06/16/04)

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.

 

Build 547 Notes (06/14/04)

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.

 

Build 546 Notes (06/07/04)

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.

 

Build 545 Notes (06/03/04)

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.

 

Build 544 Notes (05/17/04)

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.

 

Build 543 Notes (05/11/04)

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
  •  

 

Build 542 Notes (04/30/04)

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!