Active Worlds 3.5 Released!

Check out some of the cool new features that can be found in 3.5! Here's just a glimpse of what's been included in the latest version:

• Invite Feature - 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.



• Emote Command - 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".



• Floating Tabs - 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.



• CPU Consumption Adjusted - The CPU throttle has been adjusted for more robust scaling. In previous versions, the browser would consume 99% of CPU time on fast machines (particularly ones with high-end graphics cards). The overall effect is that the browser should use far less resources for only slightly diminished frame rate.



• Avatar Storage - 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.



• Terrain Elevation Offset - This new world option will move the global terrain up or down by the value given, in meters. 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).



• Show Water Under Terrain - This new world option 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.



• Configurable Toolbar - The old toolbar has been replaced with a new, configurable toolbar. While this is intended for other universes 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). The image used for the toolbar is selectable under options -> settings -> advanced.

Complete details on all of the new features in version 3.5 may be located in the comprehensive online help files at: http://www.activeworlds.com/help/aw35/.