The collision detection system has been overhauled. This was the single biggest drag on performance, and most users should see at least a modest improvement in frame rate. Note that the "feel" of movement has also changed. Movement downhill should be more natural, and you may notice your avatar eases to a stop instead of coming to an abrupt halt when you release the forward key.

To improve performance, durring a warp the collision detection is turned off until you're within 7.5 meters of your destination. This should make the effects of warping from one place to another more predictable, and allow builders to create more elaborate warp rides and other warp based additions to their builds.

Sliding against an object should worl more smoothly and reliably, and the user should no longer get stuck in walls or pass through walls while attempting to slide along them.

As of Active Worlds 3.4, Landing has been more clearly defined. The user should now stop flying if they collide with a surface beneath them and are holding down the "move down" key. It is now possible to fly along terrain or fly into a stairway or other incline, without being stopped by an incline that you could climb over while walking.

The collision gap between avatars and the terrain has been reduced for added realism.

As of Active Worlds 3.4, avatars may now fly, run, swim, jump, fall, hover, or float. Avatars in pre-3.4 worlds or which do not have run, swim and fly sequences available will walk instead. A new "idle" sequence has been added for when an avatar is not moving, to avoid having avatars stand at rigid attention while waiting to perform the "wait" sequence. Avatars will now begin to "idle" the moment they stop moving, and will perform the "wait" sequence after 30 seconds of inactivity. When flying or swimming, your pitch is taken into account as you move. This means that looking up or down will cause you to actually move at an upward or downward angle when flying forward, if you are facing upward or downward and have not set your Active Worlds browser to "ignore pitch" for these modes. The pitch of the avatar also changes, so that it looks like the avatar is actually flying or swimming in the direction it's facing. Worlds older than version 3.4 will not support these enhancements.

World owners may now set their world's avatars in "autowalk" mode, for much more realistic walk and run sequence timing. In fact, if autowalk in enabled for the avatar you're using, your avatar can actually "walk backward" and your avatar's feet will track the ground much more realistically.

The "text over the heads" system has been replaced with a nicer-looking system of comic-style chat balloons. Users will have "round" balloons, while bot names and text chat will appear in square bubbles. You can choose between the new "comic style" chat bubbles and the original transparent style.

Thanks to the hard work and patience of both the development team and the beta testers, movement in Active Worlds 3.4 has been greatly enhanced, and adjusted based on helpful feedback.

The addition of a jump key, the ability to customize movement controls, more realistic movement speeds and inertia, better slide and collision detection, and many other small changes add up to a new movement feel and support for future enhancement plans.