Virtual Paradise news

Virtual Paradise 0.3.6

2010-09-10T07:48:02+02:00

A new version of Virtual Paradise is now available from the downloads page. Version 0.3.6 has some welcome improvements for building as well as some other changes. A few of the most important changes are better object rotations, object scaling and freelook mouse mode.

Here is a full list of changes:

Faster loading(especially for very large models)
View distance menu on Mac OS X version
Object moving relative to object rotations
Correctly rotate multiple objects
Use axis/angle instead of Euler angles to store rotations
Free look mode
Added application icon on Mac OS X
Show axis of last selected object instead of first selected object
Removed unnecessary texture mirror in texture loading code
Rotate objects with scroll wheel
Added color name 0 as black
Added support for color command
Don't use non-power-of-two textures as that seemed to cause a slowdown on most systems
Support for object scaling
Add http:// to picture URLs if it is not included yet
Fixed last used mask visible on avatars
Fixed slowdown after activating or selecting objects
Fixed seams on skybox mesh
Fixed physics meshes being left in scene when they are too far away, causing slowdown after exploring larger worlds for some time
Fixed possible crash when loading RWX files
Fixed crash when using buttons on object properties window while not in building mode
Fixed crash when using scroll wheel when not in building mode on Mac OS X
Fixed possible crash because of uninitialized variable
Fixed incorrect translation on some RWX models
Fixed keys / and * for rotation not working
Fixed incorrect parsing of object change message

The changes in this version and earlier versions can also be found on the changelog wiki page.

Virtual Paradise 0.3.5

2010-08-25T00:53:08+02:00

A new version of Virtual Paradise is available for download now
The new version has a lot of small changes and a few bigger changes. One of the more noticeable changes is the addition of a rendering mode using shaders. In the new render mode objects near the view distance limit fade in and out when you walk around.

Here is the full list of changes:

Removed unnecessary error checking in OpenGL renderer(speedup)
Removed unnecessary texture bind in OpenGL renderer(also possible speedup)
Support for double sided faces from RWX files
Removed unnecessary texture bind in RWX renderer
Disable texture masks when rendering skybox
Send object clicks to world server
Loading indicator for Mac OS X version
Set 24 bit Z-buffer in Direct3D renderer
Fixed Direct3D transparency issues
Users list on Mac OS X version
Physics mesh generation on background thread
Selecting placeholder objects(black triangles) now possible
Ground object updates when changing worlds
Add messages in chat box when connection to universe or world server is lost
Fixed race condition that could result in a crash
Added b and x for black as color names
Fix partly transparent object placeholders(black triangles)
Removed unused material calls for specular lighting
Added check to prevent crash when object is not found in object change event handler
Better normal generation for RWX models
Support avatar model RWX files
Don't load texture if it doesn't have any references left after downloading
Added OpenGL renderer using shaders
Fade objects in distance for OpenGL renderer with shaders
Gradually change view distance
Added support for mask= and tag= in texture command
Read configuration file to select renderer
Read configuration file to get frames per second limit
Less format conversions when loading images

New version of Virtual Paradise

2010-07-04T18:44:45+02:00

Version 0.3.2 is for Windows and Ubuntu Linux is ready for download.
Among the new features are improved speed, automatic viewing distance, partial Direct3D support and smiley faces for avatars
For a full list of changes, take a look at the changelog for this and the previous release yesterday.

Virtual Paradise 0.2.13

2009-12-29T10:47:27+01:00

Version 0.2.13 adds particle emitters, it is far from finished and has some odd bugs but some of you still might want to experiment with it. You can only create the particle emitters from a script at the moment.

Here's a screenshot of a particle emitter in Virtual Paradise:

It actually looks much better when it's animated.
There are some other changes in this version and earlier versions, you can read about those on the changelog.

Virtual Paradise 0.2.10

2009-12-01T00:31:12+01:00

Finally! A new version of Virtual Paradise has arrived.
To see all the changes you can check the changelog on the wiki.

I also cleaned up the building world and created some lots for everyone to build on.

Website back online

2009-04-03T21:12:20+02:00

After being gone for over a day, the website is back online. It turned out I didn't pay for it... I intended to pay for it but didn't get a reminder from the ISP because of a changed email address so I just forgot about it. I'm glad they got it fixed before the weekend.

Sorry about the downtime.

Virtual Paradise 0.2.8

2009-03-29T21:40:40+02:00

Lot's of changes this time. New in this release: flying works again, some support for animated ms3d files, world settings, installable deb package for Ubuntu and lots of bugfixes. This version should crash a lot less often.

Virtual Paradise 0.2.7

2009-02-09T09:15:59+01:00

Virtual Paradise version 0.2.7 is now available for download! There are some great changes in this version like 3D sound and faster loading objects(it loads 3 at the same time now). Check the changelog to see what the other changes are.

Virtual Paradise 0.2.5

2008-11-28T20:28:52+01:00

Changes:
All operating systems:

Works with new world server.
Show errors when changing an object fails.
Objects reset to their original properties when changing an object fails.
Automatically create object cache folder.
Use vertex buffer objects when available.
Fixed crash when DNS lookup for server fails.

Linux(GTK):

Use system font DejaVu Sans when available.

Virtual Paradise 0.2.4

2008-10-25T23:54:36+02:00

Virtual Paradise version 0.2.4 has been released

Changes in the new version

All operating systems:

Rotating multiple selected objects now works.
Some minor memory leaks fixed.
Object properties don't get overwritten when multiple objects with different properties are selected.
Build window changes depending on the type of object that's currently selected, but there is only one type at the moment.
Added DMG installer.

Linux(GTK):

Added working world list.

Mac OS X:

Sockets now run on the main thread.
Separate login window instead of login sheet on top of the main window.

Windows:

Fixed bug where the background of the chat window was not repainted.

From now on changes will also be listed on this wiki page.