Latest Info

Worlds is an evolving technology. New features are regularly added and new worlds are created. The program checks for automatic upgrades on a weekly basis, and you can also choose to check for upgrade at any time by choosing 'Upgrade Now' from the Options menu.

Beta Version 1586:

* A filth filter, which will display **** in places where people type in obscene, racist or otherwise offensive language.

* It has the capacity to allow members to participate in special online events that we will start hosing soon. We've added a new class of user - Special Guests - who will have their unique avatars (that will look like them!)

* It has the ability to dynamically stream textures in the 3D space (to be used for news and ads).

* People who download Worlds for the first time will not be getting the avatars files with the download, a 1MB saving on download size: the WorldsPlayer will dynamically download the avatars from our server, and cache them on the clients machine. This means that at first the users will see gray cubes for avatars, but they will quickly load, and once cached, will load instantly.

* There is now an option to Reject Whispers, to help alleviate the problem of people getting unwanted private messages.

Version 1551

Version 1551 fixes the problems reported in version 1546-1549: Avatar movement is again relayed, changing your avatar no longer results in ghost avatars to others around you, when avatars first appear on the scene they load faster. If you do not like the delay in avatar image loading, you can turn it off completely by adding the following line to the gamma section of the worlds.ini file: ThreadDroneLoading=0

If you experienced the assertion failure in line 804 on ncamera.cpp, this version should work for you.

Please be sure and send detailed reports if you experience any problems. It is also helpful if you attach the Gamma file from your worlds directory with your report.

Version 1546-1549

In version 1546 we introduced hardware acceleration, and a few features that improve performance for lower memory machines. The hardware acceleration feature is a very exciting one, as machines with good video cards can now have greatly enhanced graphics, and it conserves memory usage, since most of our textures will be uploaded onto the video card's memory and won't need to be in system memory all the time.

We also added a feature that scaled the name tags so that ones in the distance used proper perspective and scaled down. We got a lot of negative feedback from our early betas, and have removed this feature in 1549. Please read the following important notes about hardware acceleration, and about how to report problems with Beta:

Hardware Acceleration:

When you start the program after an update containing this code, and the program detects a good video accelerator card, you will be prompted to enable hardware acceleration through the "Enable Hardware Acceleration" option on the Options menu. After you enable the option, restart the program, and if you experience any difficulties, make sure you have the latest video driver for your card. You can usually find those on your card manufacturer's web site. If you continue to have a problem, choose "Disable Hardware Acceleration" option from the Options menu.

What's New?

Version 15196: Added 2000 to copyrights, fixed a problem with resizing the Whisper window, removed the Win Help Getting Started file, and added code to allow members to sign in to another server if their assigned server goes down.

Below is a description of the major changes in the recent revisions. You can determine what revision you have by going to the Help menu's "About Worlds" item.

Worlds Ultimate 3D Chat version 1519 Featuring a new way to travel! Explore our expanding universe using the new Universe Map mode, which displays a scrolling galaxy like map on the View screen, where you can click the different planets to choose your destination. Click on the Universe Map button above the map on bottom right, and the Universe map will display in the view screen. When you click a worlds name sphere on a planet, a menu drops down listing the permanent Let's… WorldsMarks and your very own World specific WorldsMarks! Or you can double click the world name a worlds name sphere on a planet to teleport to its default entry point. Note that if you have a low memory machine (less than 48MB), using the Universe Map may strain your memory capacity and cause performance slow-down.

NYYankeesWorld: What better place to chat away about the World Series than our very own 3D Yankee stadium, the official 3D worlds of the World champion NY Yankees! BTW, I found myself wanting to wave and bow every time I stepped onto the field, and boy, was I craving a good hot dog when I was in the sky box. I think our artists did a great job on this one. Click the NYYankeesWorld sphere on the Universe map, download this relatively small download (less than 1 MB) and see for yourself.

BowieWorld: More and more of the worlds are becoming downloadable. BowieWorld was formidably large for the purpose of a web download, so we have made it into multiple sub-worlds, including some neat new spaces such as the church. Those of you who have installed Bowie off the CD before, will have BowieWorld I, and the new BowieWorld II will be downloadable through the Universe map download. Hopefully, this is a one time event when Worlds.com is going to make a world absolete (the original Bowie). It means that until you download the new Bowie, while you may be in the same room in BowieWorld, you will not see members who have the new BowieWorld. I recommend downloading the new BowieWorlds (there are 9 small ones - about 1 MB each), and eventually, when the rest of the members do the same, you can delete your old Bowie directory.

1493 - You will find that we have added additional servers in the United Kingdom, to handle our rapidly increasing Worlds member population, both here in the US and overseas. Both servers run the same 'parallel' worlds, but when you start Worlds.com Ultimate 3D Chat you will be connected to the server that has the most optimal Internet connection to you. While most our European members are likely to find themselves on the United Kingdom servers, the geographic proximity doesn't necessarily matter - you will connect to where you have the fastest connection. If you have friends on the other servers, you can join them by following them to the other server, as the Friends List works simultaneously on both servers.

Do you wonder who all the new faces online are? Worlds.com has launched a 3D chat service with Freeserve, the united Kingdom's largest ISP. The response to this launch has been tremendous, and we have many new UK and European members! So if you see a bunch of penguin avatars waddling about, offer them a welcome and a helping cyber hand!

Added ability to launch Worlds from Netscape. Optimized the way members are directed to server with fastest connection.

1487 - Several small fixes, including correctly reporting the size of downloads.

1477 - Improved downloader speed and functionality. Added the Host feature for Worlds-sponsored hosts.

1415 - Simplified the Sign-In procedure to alleviate confusion for many users. You must now press Enter to sign-in, as the autologin feature is no more. You must now type alternate usernames, rather than choosing them from a list; your other usernames are still reserved for you while you're using an alternate. You may now change usernames and passwords by going to the Options menu's Account Info item.

Added the VIP menu's "# Visible Users" item. This feature lets users with less than 48 meg of RAM lower the number of other users they can see at once, in order to improve performance. It also lets users with more than 48 meg of RAM raise the number of other users they can see at once, so that they can see a larger crowd.

1414 - Added Saved Avatars menu option to VIPs only, which lets VIP members save and maintain a list of customized avatars. Reduced memory use to improve performance on machines with 32meg or less of RAM.

How to become a Beta Tester: We welcome any interested member to become a beta tester for Worlds. For a chance to have a 'sneak preview' of new features and worlds. We ask that you report any problems you encounter while using the beta update to beta@worlds.com. The procedure to become a beta tester changed on July 24, 1999. If you became a beta tester before then, you'll need to change your TestAutoUpgrade line to the new value stated below.

Worlds makes beta versions available from time to time, to its beta testers. After a couple of weeks of testing, beta versions are made available to all users; beta users see new features a little sooner, in exchange for reporting any bugs they find. If you would like to be a beta tester, and you are willing to put up with some bugs in order to do so, edit the file WORLDS.INI using Notepad. After the line that says "[Gamma]", insert a lines that says "TestAutoupgrade=2", and "TestWorldAutoUpgrade=2" and save the file. The next time you start the program it'll notify you if any beta versions are available.