On Monday 15 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will host a music event; the location will be the Ae’gura plaza, and the stream will be at nosilaradio.caster.fm.
CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the sixth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 13 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.
The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour.
The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!
A recent update to the MOULa client reportedly included a physics update, stirring the longstanding question of the future of ‘skydiving’ (a.k.a. glitching), the practice of jumping on invisible colliders to reach normally out-of-reach places, stemming from an older practice of jumping off high places. Innumerable marker games have been created to map skydiving paths along the Ages, and more recently a robot-assisted training course.
Skydiving, however, depends on broken physics engine (PhysX) implementation, causing an uneven game experience depending on computer and network characteristics, fixing which has been part of the open source roadmap since the beginning in 2011. Perhaps even more importantly, upgrading the physics engine (to at least version 4) will lift a major obstacle to a truly native macOS and Linux clients.
Hoikas and Doobes therefore agreed to illustrate the developer side of the issue, and clarify a few questions and misconceptions regarding the client update roadmap:
As for future options, a ‘skydiving client’ was released years ago by Lyrositor – who in the meantime retired from the community – but an update to the KI functioning made it unusable. The source code, and some guidelines on how it could be brought up to date, are publicly available to any coder willing to take up the challenge. However, the long-term solution to preserve skydiving would be a dedicated skydiving shard.
As an addendum, it was noted that another planned update is the transition from the exceedingly obsolete Python 2.3 to 3.8; for robot makers, this will require checking their code for no longer compatible syntax (e.g. from print "string" to print("string") ).
Doobes’ latest releases – Chiso Preniv, Veelay Tsahvahn and the New GoMe Pub – have been ported to the Minkata shards, where the heavy testing will begin. From then, if all goes well, they will be ported to Cyan’ staging server for the last quick checks, and eventually on MOULa, hopefully very soon.
But the big news was the announcement of another, yet unnamed Age in the works! It will be a competitive puzzle Age, based on the Gahreesehn Wall idea, but as a circular maze with configurable (or randomizable) walls. The player or team that will manage to reach the center of the maze, will win.
There will also be a one-in-four chance to remove the walls to gain an advantage, using a control panel beside each wall; but it may also be a disadvantage, so you will need to make a strategic decision! To make things even more challenging, a timer will also be available. During the Q&A, Theo suggested implementing a command to save and load wall configurations.
As for his other Ages in the work, the next release will likely be Kotsahvosahn, a.k.a. the Waystation, the beginning of the journey of D’ni citizen and Messenger Lothias, so it will be more story-heavy than Doobes’ previous Ages.
After that, Doobes has started a new project with AgeExplorer, which promises to be both story and puzzle-heavy.
To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.
Korov’ev then gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.
In June, the Touring Club will visit Enobmort and Noidrocca by J’Kla, Paah’kweh and Sonavio by Boblishman, and Pre-Swaltu by Tolip Ydop. A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki.
After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.
Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
Korov’ev mentioned that Mystitech Productions released Episode 10 of its The Lost Art machinima, on Saturday 30.
See also the News Roundup #4 and #5.
The convention will be held virtually, with a combination of Twitch and Zoom for presentations, and Discord for live chatting. The convention dates will be the same as planned, August 7–9, with a possible extended weekend. Refunds will be available, but roll-overs to next year’s in-person convention will too.
The deadline for event submissions has been extended to June 30, with the option to submit pre-recorded presentations. The deadline for the Digital Activity Book is also extended to June 30.
The existing T-shirt design will be used for Mysterium 2021, with altered dates. A store page will be opened soon. The 2020 pin designs will also be rolled over into 2021.
Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.
He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in autumn. Night time classes, however, are unaffected.
There are currently two students working on lesson 6. Meanwhile, Aqua completed her final exam and passed the D’ni 101 class! Votahret ah’shem khe-bahrtahtahvteeom!
Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next four weeks.
Rehn hinted at a possible special Story Night on the Gehn shard, in a “certain memorial Age”.
And that was it for this month.
Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 4, 2020 (Leesahn 2, 9676 DE) at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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On Friday 8 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will play some music; the location will be the Ae’gura plaza, and the stream will be at nosilaradio.caster.fm.
CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the fifth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 9 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.
The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour.
The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!
Rarified gave a quick update about the Minkata testing shard. Throughout April he has been busy archiving all of OpenUru source code from the public repositories on BitBucket, as they are discontinuing support. He is done and has secure copies of all the data.
He was then able to go back to getting fan Ages to be able to be loaded into the Minkata Alpha shard for testing. With help from Hoikas, he picked out a number of fixes that had been waiting for a while – including the Windows 10 mouse fix – to be added to the MOULa client, and integrated them into the Minkata Prime client.
In short, three fan Ages from Doobes (Chiso Preniv, the Guild of Messengers’ New Pub, and Veelay Tsahvahn) are now available on Minkata Alpha!
A number of enthusiastic Age testers on Alpha have ensured that the Ages are ready for wider exposure. Chiso Preniv will be a public instance shared by all explorers, like Kirel, and will hold the books for all the other Ages. Once he gets the procedure for adding a new global Age designed, he will go ahead and add the new Ages to the Minkata Prime shard.
No deadline can yet be set, at this point in time, for porting the fan Ages to MOULa itself.
The updated client has been available on Minkata Alpha for most of April. There have been a few regressions noted from the testers, most significantly troubles walking up stairs, generally due to improper collision models in Cyan’s Ages. Rarified is holding off pushing the new client (needed for the fan Ages) to MOULa until he has either found a fix or discussed it with Chogon, since new explorers may find it uncomfortable.
Rarified and the Guild of Writers are also attempting to update the client to a more recent version of PhysX, which should make the new MOULa client run much more smoothly on Windows 10. An old plan was to switch to Bullet, but since Plasma was designed with PhysX, that would require a lot more work.
To keep up-to-date, check the OpenUru Discord channel. If you plan to join the testers on the Minkata shard (Prime and/or Alpha), be sure to know what to expect from a testing shard.
Korov’ev then gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.
After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.
Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
Korov’ev mentioned a suggestion he made on the OpenUru forum, after the successful April 26 event, to hold door runs on shards on rotation, each Sunday at 14:00 KIT.
Plans are being worked on to make the convention happen, if not in person, at least virtually.
The Triumvirate has opened location bids for editions of the convention outside the official one. The bids will be handled a bit differently, and accepted year-round. For 2022, that means bids will be due by April 1, 2021.
Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.
He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in autumn. Night time classes, however, are unaffected.
There are currently two students taking the classes, set to take lesson 6. Meanwhile, Axenna completed her final exam and passed the D’ni 101 class! Votahret ah’shem khe-bahrtahtahvteeom!
Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next ten weeks.
And that was it for this month.
April ended with a CavFunding of 125%, a population of 34,487 explorers, and 1840 unique visits.
Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 6, 2020 (Leebro 9, 9676 DE) at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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Nosila was first, to announce the music events for the International Women’s Day – just on the day most of the U.S. switches to daylight time, unfortunately!
CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the third Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 14 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.
The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. The upcoming tour will also feature special effects from Mir-o-Bot you may not have seen or heard before.
The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!
Minasunda was back to announce the parades for St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday 17:
In between, it will be Irish music dance party time! Last year the public instance of Ae’gura was pushed to the limit of its capacity, some players could not take part in the parade. For this reason, this year the venue will be Mir-o-Bot’s Ae’gura (KI# 32319).
Minasunda regularly posts reminders about Uru events on her Facebook group.
Doobes took the stage to announce the release of version 27 of the Gehn Shard, which came with a year and a half worth of fixes and additions, including an upgraded voice chat that sounds much clearer. A remarkable amount of work behind the scenes goes into these fixes.
Most notably, this release unveiled Doobes’ own Chiso Preniv, the Library Age, available from the Nexus, and a revamped New Guild of Messengers’ Pub; both are the first to be natively exported using the Korman plugin for Blender. The Pub no longer replaces Cyan’s version, but is now reached from Chiso Preniv, which also has books for Tre’bivdil, Vothol Gallery, Fehnir’s House, and any future release from fans.
But yet another Age was unveiled right after the meeting: Veelay Tsahvahn, the Memorial Age, designed as an extension of the Memorial in the Kahlo Pub, by providing more background to the names displayed there. Veelay also features a poignant theme written by Mystler.
For more on Doobes’ Ages, visit his site and Facebook page.
In what has become a grim tradition, Korov’ev had to report the passing of yet another explorer: Gary Andrew “Andy” Legate, prolific and respected Age builder, author or contributor of Camp Bravo, Zephyr Cove, Andy’s Nexus, Ahra Pahts shell 315, Serene, Eder Bahvahnin, Neolbah, Eder Tomahn, Eocene. He also wrote many tutorials for 3ds Max and Blender, which taught the basics of modelling to many Age builders.
Korov’ev then announced the Fan Age Tours he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT (except in March, when they will be at 12:00 KIT), to explore fan-made Ages, share impressions, try to find secrets, and get started with the puzzles if any.
The Ages will be explored in roughly chronological order of release, but occasionally will be based on a theme or an author. After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums.
To remember Andy Legate the next tour, Sunday 8 at 12:00 KIT, will visit some of his works: Camp Bravo (day and night), Eder Bahvahnin, Eder Tomahn, Serene.
One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works. Ultimately the hope is also that, by seeing these Ages, more people will be inspired to create their own.
Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
Originally, the destination for the Sunday 8 Fan Age Tour was the fourth episode in the Secret of the Rainbow series by Jhon J. Jaguar, Somahoglahn, which was released on March 1. The Age will be visited on the next tour, on Sunday 15.
The MOULa Launcher got a small update, finally fixing the login screen, with a funding indicator: not the CavCon, but a simple percentage of costs covered.
Early in February, Chogon released some worrying statistics about the Cavcon: donations had not been covering the server costs at least since June 2019. However, by the end of February, donations were again above costs!
Marker games are still disabled, until an issue that is causing the server to crash is fixed. All we can do is be patient until a solution is found.
The Facebook account API, that was used to verify a cell/mobile phone with a text message, was replaced with Amazon’s AWS equivalent.
Meanwhile, a new Cyan Venture has been announced: Area Man Lives, from Numinous Games. An Alternate Reality Game connected to it is ongoing, started with the address to KQV Radio that appears in the teaser. The mystery is being investigated on the #areamanlives channel of the Cyan Chat Discord server.
Registration and hotel reservations for Mysterium 2020 are now open. The hotel will be the Westin Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, VA, with a rate of $100/night for both single and double rooms.
From now until May 31, weekend registrations cost $25, while premium registrations (weekend + shirt) cost $40. Starting June 1, the price will increase and the T-shirts will not be available for pre-order.
This year the T-shirts feature designs from Katherine “Squee” White and Claire “Shoom’lah” Hummel.
Submissions for events, enamel pins, activity book pages, as well as writing and artwork, are still open but will end soon. This year, submission are handled with a new rights policy.
Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.
Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at roughly the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next weeks.
Due to traveling, there will be no Story Night – Europe on March 28. Original Story Night is unaffected.
And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 4, 2020 (Leenovoo 17) at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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