Virtual Paradise news

Virtual Paradise 0.2.1 released

Mon, 12 May 2008 22:32:38 CEST

Version 0.2.1 for Windows is now available from the downloads page. New versions for other operating systems are coming soon. This version is probably a lot more stable and somewhat faster but it lacks some of the features 0.1.5 had.

The new version is available on the download page.

Lighting fixed for RWX models

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:12:43 CEST

You may or may not have noticed it when running the program but there was always something wrong with the lighting on RWX models. Now the lighting is fixed and the rendering of RWX models is faster as well.

I also uploaded a screenshot that you can see here:

Click for full size

Status update

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 17:01:46 CEST

I haven't posted anything new here lately. I decided to rewrite some parts of VP so the 3D engine doesn't depend on wxWidgets. VP used wxWidgets for a lot of non-GUI things like reading zip archives, loading models, loading textures and creating sign textures. I now also use the bot SDK internally, this also has the advantage that the bot SDK will always be up-to-date.

Version 0.1.5 released

Sun, 3 Feb 2008 21:41:17 CET

Virtual Paradise version 0.1.5 is now released! This version has a lot of new features and improvements:

RWX Loading(most models work, but not all)
Downloading models and textures from AW object paths
Support for AW filmstrip textures
Name tags on avatars
Support for object click events for the bot SDK.
No fixed range for loading objects in the world, objects load for the area you're in.
Frustum culling
OpenGL driver info window
A menu bar
Fullscreen mode
Translations(A Dutch translation is included)

Happy new year!

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 15:13:02 CET

Happy new year everyone!
Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

RWX file loader

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 0:11:34 CET

I wrote a RWX file loader.
Here is a screenshot showing some RWX models:

Website updated again

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 18:48:39 CET

The website has a new look again
I hope you all like it!

Virtual Paradise version 0.1.4 released

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:24:30 CET

Virtual Paradise version 0.1.4 is now released
It was about time I released a new version of VP. This version has some new features and improvements.

New features:

Signs
Streaming video
Basic collision detection with sliding(still a bit buggy)
Avatars(not a model, just a placeholder so you can see where someone is standing)

Everyone has to upgrade to this version because the servers are not compatible with earlier versions.

Collision detection

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:56:08 CET

VP now has a collision detection system. It is far from complete but it works for the most part, it needs some more error checking and optimizations to work better. It makes the camera slide when it hits a wall or floor.

Signs

Tue, 6 Nov 2007 23:05:24 CET

It was about time I posted something new. VP can do signs now, I posted a screenshot of it in the screenshot section of the website.

Sorry I haven't released a new version but I've been kind of busy doing other things lately.

Forum updated

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:42:35 CEST

The forum has been updated to phpBB3, this new version has a lot more built-in features then the older phpBB2 but is still a release candidate. I think it's stable enough to use here and I hope you like the new version.

A new version of VP including the streaming video will be released very soon

Streaming video on a 3D model

Tue, 2 Oct 2007 20:30:48 CEST

It is now possible to play streaming Quicktime video in Virtual Paradise. It's also possible to stream audio but that puts a black texture on the 3D model it's applied to, which is probably not what you want. I've made a video of it in action and put it on Youtube, it can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRBEy96Bgvo

Beta 0.1.3 released

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:30:12 CEST

Virtual paradise beta version 0.1.3 is now available on the downloads page. Building works better and you can now assign textures to models. The tab key now works at the login screen. The 3D landscape has been removed because it didn't seem to work for Vista users. I hope the program now works for Vista users.

Beta available

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:30:09 CEST

Beta testing release is available on the download page. Only testers can log in to the system, if you want to become a tester please sign up through the sign up page on the main website.

Heightmap terrain

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 0:09:54 CEST

VP now has support for heightmap terrain. It looks pretty good with a nice terrain texture applied to it. Click for screenshot.

Website updated

Tue, 3 Jul 2007 17:48:52 CEST

I updated the website with a new layout, a downloads page, a wiki and a page to sign up for testing. The wiki is still under construction but anyone can add to it to expand it. The downloads page will have downloads for the first testing release very soon.

Building video

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:43:26 CEST

Here is a video showing building in VP. It looks really slow on the video but that's just because of the recording. Normally it looks much faster.
*click*

VP forum helps digitizing books while blocking spammers :-)

Sun, 27 May 2007 15:24:56 CEST

I've installed something called ReCAPTCHA on the VP forum earlier this morning.
It is used to tell human and bot apart when registering for a forum account.
At the same time every user registering on the forum help digitizing a word from a book written before the computer age.
You can see it in action on the registration page of the VP forum.

Who wants to test the software?

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:20:14 CEST

Everyone wanting to be a tester should sign up by sending an email or replying to this message. I will release a new version for testers when the most important parts of the building code are done.

Selecting objects and moving them around

Thu, 10 May 2007 14:53:28 CEST

Hey ,

Now it is possible to select objects and move them around with your arrow keys. Right now an objects becomes bright yellow when you right-click on it but I will make it a wireframe box later. Any suggestions what color the box should be? Yellow is getting old!

P.S. I enabled avatars for the forums, I forgot

RSS feed

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 11:04:48 CEST

Hi,

I just finished my RSS feed script. To use it just add http://www.virtualparadise.org/rss.php to your RSS reader and it will remind you of any news about VP posted here.

Object picking

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:24:15 CEST

I just finished the picking code, this is one of first steps to building. Picking is actually a lot easier in OpenGL . The old version of af had picking but it had a lot of bugs and was very inaccurate, this is much better.

Back online, new website, new forums

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:01:38 CEST

Okay, it has been a while since the last news message and maybe I need to do some explaining...

So, the hosting company that was hosting the old website which was at edwinrijkee.nl was going out of business and they told me to get my files off the server and move somewhere else. They said the server would stay online for about a month after that message. The day after that... website gone .

I didn't have a backup of all the latest files on the server and I haven't heard anything from that company afterwards. A few days later I requested some information from a hosting company telling about the situation. When the email was answered(within 3 minutes) I sent an email back saying I wanted to get my website on their server. No reply to my email in almost 2 weeks.

Because this was taking too long I decided to move the website to another company where I got much more for less money. A few days after that, the domain stopped working. I did a whois and I saw that the nameserver had changed to a different one, one belonging to the company that wasn't responding to my emails. So they just moved my domain without even asking .

Now I decided not to move the old domain back to the other company and just register a new one: virtualparadise.org

The old website gone but this new website replaces it. The main website is custom made by me, the screenshot gallery is SPGM integrated into the main website and the forum software is phpBB2.