v0.51.6 Update

[Mit]

Hullo,

I've just finished uploading the first new patch of The Universal for a while. Despite the gap since the last, this new one probably won't strike you as particularly significant - There are two reasons for that..
1) I ain't had much time to do much work on it recently.
2) Most of the work that has been done has been on (important) core technologies and on upcoming features that you won't necessarily notice much yet, but will make more things possible in the long-run.

Most of the changes in this version relate to things on worlds, so those of you who're after new space features will have to wait. I hope to be able to tidy up and improve some of the space stuff in the next month or two, in advance of a galaxy reset towards the end of the year.

Anyway.. disclaimers aside, heres a rundown of whats new in the v0.51.6 server and client..

- Replaced the default player camera with a more simple one that doesnt bounce about quite as much
- Tweaked the default lighting settings
- Added various bits of scripting functionality to the servers (Full docs to follow).
- Added various new commands (that can be accessed by script) to the servers.
- changed system map targetting so you can't target a planet's spacestation when it doesnt exist (i.e. when its a 'lifeless' planet)
- Fixed bug that meant the 'learnt first skill' messages appearing for everyone instead of just the person who got the skill
- Added some bongosquares functionality and linked it to the world minigames list
- Some fixes for crashes and various other oddities on the chat server
- fix for server crash when buying jehovah-owned buildings
- changed the positioning of walls so they sit on the landscape when underwater
- Added system that (optionally) makes worlds connect to the chat server and use it as a NAT resolution route. (Meaning that worlds hosted on a LAN or behind a firewall will more often give a ping to clients, without having to fiddle with router/firewall settings n whatnot)
- added check so that the galaxy server never re-cycles player accounts for anyone who has donated
- added a new file transfer for sending files from the world server to the client. The new system (which is only used for models & textures at the moment), has a number of advantages ; primarily that you can set an upper limit for all file transfers from your world.. the new system throttles the speed of transfers accordingly, meaning (when all fully integrated) the world servers won't lag as much when they are heavily occupied
- Did various bits of work on a new 'Scene Editor' tool which can be used to create building interiors and worlds that dont use a terrain. (More info to follow..)
- Added the ability to have some clientside scripts, mostly for use in building interiors - e.g. You can have a building with an interior that has a region you must walk to to be able to buy items.
- fixed bug that meant the marketplace window would occasionally pop up while connecting
- fix for 'random' crash in client when loading a compressed model
-fixed bug that meant no-one but the world owner could move in vehicles with fuel consumption set to 0
-fixed crash on worlds that show the 'recent server events' screen when no events are present for your character
- changed the process for flattening the landscape around buildings, so buildings less often are floating or sunk into the ground
- fix for the 'restore building' function sometimes restoring the wrong building, when you have buildings that are close together

Please let me know on the bug report forums if you have any problems with this update. Though I might not respond or fix things there very often atm, i do read 'em regularly and any time you spend helping the game improve is much appreciated.

[fhko]

- changed the positioning of walls so they sit on the landscape when underwater

Thanks again...

But I think whatever steps you took to fix it had the downside of making 'hover' vehicles (like the HoverTrans on zion) roll and pitch to match the landscape below the water rather than the waves...

[morbydvisns]

is it just me and a few other ppl or is the camera angle now too low for comfort.

any way we can get an adjuster key for the angle of view

[junk]

is it just me and a few other ppl or is the camera angle now too low for comfort.

any way we can get an adjuster key for the angle of view

yes i have had more than a few complaints as well and dont care for it personally either
Junk

[Mit]

mm, oh well :] i thought it was much nicer this way, personally...

i'll add some more camera control settings in the next patch so you can set angles etc more specifically.

meantime, remember theres various vehicle -> camera type options to have cameras at higher angles..

[zaroba]

if you add controls to set them, please also add a setting (either vehicle or global) to disable them



to everybody else, sorry, this is somewhat my fault
i had posted a feature request for this camera ( http://www.theuniversal.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6901 ) since i wanted a low, directly behind the player view for ciroz and sabrada to be able to go under things like trees on ciroz and inside the buildings on sabrada. mit saw it, and not being to fond of the bouncey camera, changed it to the current camera.

[kb32a]

Hmm... I personally like it better then the old cam.

[fhko]

I like it better too...except it's far more likely to end up going below the terrain level.

[Mit]

Next version will add :
*Settings -> Graphics -> Default camera angle
which you can set from 1 to 100 to specify the exact angle the camtype 0 camera uses.

I've also fixed the bug that meant the new camera would go underground.

One extra note : for those world owners who preferred the original camera, in 0.51.6 this is available as *settings -> Vehicle -> CamType 27.

[flametard]

every time i connect to the universe it asks me if i wanna download the new patch. i already downloaded it, but it seems like it doesnt remember like it did with the other patches. is this happening to anyone else?

[morbydvisns]

try the manual patch from the downloads.. unpack it into your /clients/ folder of the universal location.

[fhko]

lol

his problem is that the updater won't stop telling him to get the new update...so you tell him to get the new update....

(no, flametard, I'm not sharing your difficulties...although I always just manually update)

[flametard]

ok so how do i get the updater to recognize that its already been downloaded? it used to work before.

[Mit]

sorry, that was my bad (out of practice doing the update procedure ;] ).. the initial version of 0.51.6 didnt have the version code set correctly - i fixed it about 8 hours later, so morby's right.. get the latest version (either from the downloads page or just let the auto-updater run again) and it'll stop.

[zaroba]

- added a new file transfer for sending files from the world server to the client. The new system (which is only used for models & textures at the moment), has a number of advantages ; primarily that you can set an upper limit for all file transfers from your world.. the new system throttles the speed of transfers accordingly, meaning (when all fully integrated) the world servers won't lag as much when they are heavily occupied

i don't know if its a bug, or some other thing...

on zoric, my client wouldn't download any models or textures until i turned off the 'use new file transfer system' setting on the server.

seems to be the same for ariya. models/textures often weren't downloading. bong turned off the setting, and now things are downloading.

yes, both of us are using client and server 51.6