The Universal World Owner's Manual

29-Sep-2007

“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[/quote:29sf3u1x]

: Currently have no records for end 2007 → 2010