Subject: Lifeforms and .seq files Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 11:15:00 -0700 From: Athena Organization: Sandow Terraforming Newsgroups: worldbuilders Re: the following exchange..... It might be time for a few (or a lot ) of polite emails sayings "me, too" or "yes, please" to arrive at Credo.... Athena > Subject: ActiveWorlds > Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 15:59:59 -0700 > From: Athena > Organization: Sandow Terraforming > To: support@credo-interactive.com > > Hello. > > I suspect that you have already been contacted by someone (probably more > than one someone...) in the ActiveWorlds community about your product. > However, on your page: > fas.sfu.ca/css/lifeforms/links.html > there is a link for an AlphaWorld demo which has not been valid for over > a year. This makes me wonder....surely if you have talked to any of our > group, they would have pointed this out to you before now. (I already > sent an email to your webmaster about it.) > > Obviously, at one time in the past, you were aware of the existance of > AlphaWorld, but have lost touch with them. > > The software used to run AlphaWorld (an application) has been renamed > ActiveWorlds. It was purchased from Worlds, Inc. (which went bankrupt) > by Circle of Fire. Their current URL is: www.activeworlds.com. > > The ActiveWorlds browser uses .seq files (to animate avatars) which, so > we were told, were created by someone working at World's Inc. using > Lifeforms. Apparently, the source code for that part of the browser was > lost....as a result, for over a year we have been "stuck" with only > using .seq files which were created long ago. > > Several people have tried over the last year to figure out exactly what > needs to be done to create new animations for ActiveWorlds. At least > two people have apparently succeeded in doing so. However, so far this > "translation" process they are using will only work if they are using > humanoid avatars. > > Has anyone contacted you about the possibility of importing Renderware > (.rwx) script files (avatars) into LifeForms? Or the possibility of a > plug-in which would allow you to export .seq files which could be used > by the ActiveWorlds browser without having to make any changes to them? > (ActiveWorlds uses the Renderware rendering engine from Criterion.) > > There are over 250,000 people who have downloaded the ActiveWorlds > browser since it was first made available. There are a number of people > who have purchased the AW server software so as to create their own > virtual worlds. I work for a company which has done so, and am involved > in trying to sell more world servers. There are at least two companies, > large ones, that have purchased Uniservers.....stand alone servers which > allow them to run multiple worlds on an Intranet. It would make sense > to me that you would be able to sell LifeForms to many of those > companies/people if there were a simple way to make use of your product > to enhance the ActiveWorlds experience. > > I am also interested in knowing how long it might be before you are > ready with the TrueSpace plug-in. The page that mentions it only talks > about TrueSpace3. I am currently looking at buying a copy of > TrueSpace2.....is there any chance that your plug-in will work to import > files from that product? > > I hope to hear from you. > > Athena Wilson > Sandow Terraforming > > >-------------- > > Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 14:11:58 -0700 > To: athena@neosoft.com > From: Pamela Chow > Subject: Re ActiveWorlds > > Hello, > > Yes we are aware that ActiveWorlds users could have a lot of fun with Life > Forms. In house have just been doing some tests with Life Forms and > ActiveWorlds and > > We have had success with creating new seq files for Activeworlds avatars. > However, the process we are using > requires 3DS Studio R4 to bring the models into Life Forms. We are > currently working on releasing Life Forms 3.0 but can look at documenting a > process after our release. Thanks for the feedback. There was a lot of > interest among ActiveWorlds users several months ago, but that sort of died > down. I assume people think it can't be done. Actually it can but you have > to have 3DS release 4 which most people do not. 3DS release 4 has exporter > for bring model geometry in Life Forms. There is some confoundedness in > doctoring the rwx file to add the .seq file. I'll document it soon as we > have more bandwidth. > > We have been looking at Truespace and we are now evaluating our priorities. > We only need a solution to bring Truespace models into Life Forms - > unfortunately their VRML 1.0 export does not contain any hierarchy > information. As for renderware - the benefits of having a renderware > export would be excellent. I think one of our developers has taken it on as > a hobby. I can't even guess when a working version will be available. > > Be assured though that ActiveWorlds users are the top 4 applications on our > list to support. After version 3.0 is released, we will make these our top > priority. I hope we will have good news for you within a few months. > > Best regards > Pamela Chow > Pamela Chow > Customer Support > > Credo Interactive Inc. > 8900 Nelson way, Suite 270 > Burnaby BC V5A 4W9 > Canada > > Tel: 1-604-291-6717 Fax: 1-604-291-7484 > email: info@credo-interactive.com > Life Forms - Movement Software for Character Animation