ROOMS Build 401 - release info

This is ROOMS build 401 published 10 July 2001.

1. How to install or upgrade
2. New features in response to your requests
3. New features as part of continued innovation
4. Bug fixes
5. Features for next time (please be patient)

1. How to install or upgrade

To install or upgrade to ROOMS build 401, simply download, unzip and run setup.exe. If you already have ROOMS it will be automatically upgraded. Build 401 delivers a new default world to a new folder so you wont lose your existing world configuration.

If you have an earlier release of ROOMS and want the PayWare, PayWare is no longer delivered separately, so simply download and install this release and apply a registration key within the newly installed product.

[v1.4.401 4.6 Mb]

TIP 1: left click for focus, right click for properties

TIP 2: to pause ROOMS for other apps, uncheck "Background running" from MainMenu/Options in right-click popup

Download NOW: FreeWare ROOMS [US Server] - temporarily suspended

Download NOW: FreeWare ROOMS [Singapore Server]

Download NOW: FreeWare ROOMS [UK Server]

2. New features in response to your requests

You asked for mouse navigation
We have added full mouse configuration. You can use simple mouse motion (just move the mouse) or left drag motion (or neither or both) to perform any movement or change of view. This is configurable via the Input Controls dialog which replaces the old "keyboard setup".

When activated, click once on the background to toggle between standard Windows mouse usage and ROOMS simple-mouse navigation.

You asked for a Home key
We have implemented a general home key mechanism. That is, we have added GoTo markers which allow you to go to anywhere in the world via a popup menu option. You can set markers for wherever you like, including wherever you want to be "home".

You can have lots of GoTo markers, and can add them via the right click popup menu, and change their names and delete them via the new Input Controls dialog (and via the World Wizard).

You can also add USERGOTO as an EVAC command to implement a transporter (as per Star Trek) e.g. for when you collide with/walk over an icon.

You said "Can the Display Change Detected dialog be disabled?"
Yes. We have added an option (in ROOMS Setup and Start) to disable ROOMS Display Change detection. This means that you can instruct ROOMS to ignore display changes invoked e.g. by your favorite screensaver (whatever that may be).

You said "Must I buy the PayWare license when I only want to view worlds?"
Good point, we have changed this. We have split the PayWare license into ROOMS World Viewer and ROOMS Creator. The World Viewer license ($9) lets you run what were known as PayWare worlds. The Creator license ($39) lets you create new worlds.

For those of you with the old-style PayWare license, just download and install the new release and your existing license automatically matches combined Viewer and Creator functionality (i.e. no need to do anything).

You said "I need a better idea of how to create worlds before getting the PayWare."
OK. We have introduced a 14 day free trial of (what is now) the ROOMS Creator license. It allows you to use all the wizards and create and save your worlds.

It does mean also that everything is downloaded in a single (larger=4.6 Mb) zip, but hopefully this is not too painful.

You said "Why cant we have better graphics?"
You can. We have added an "auto" option to the texture resolution control which automatically displays each texture with best quality.

Plus we have started including selected "strategic" images at higher resolution to show off worlds to better effect (strategic graphics are those, unlike shadows, which ought to stand out in a scene).

You said "The installation fails during unzip and installshield"
Ooops. So, we have removed the self-extracting stage (which was one difficulty), we have completely replaced InstallShield with a proprietary package, and we have added extra diagnostics to the proprietary installer so that, should something now go wrong, we have the best chance of getting it working quickly.

You asked for joystick button actions
I still dont know how we missed this obviously configurable input control, but here it is now. We have added configurable responses to joystick button presses. Standard ROOMS or Windows actions can be assigned to a joystick button via the new Input Controls dialog.

3. New features as part of continued innovation

We have added a screensaver. This displays 3D journeys thru your 3D desktop worlds. You can have random or pre-recorded or rule-based (EVAC) journeys.

We have extended EVAC with features to make screensaver creation more flexible.
Now you can replace one EVAC file with another mid-execution.
You can invoke GoTo commands from within EVAC and you can choose between generic GoTo and User-GoTo.
We have added an impact event, which means that you (or an icon) have hit something. This is distinct from the already existing "collide" event, which still means something has hit you. Whats the difference? The difference is "Who does the moving?" If you attempt to move and are stopped by an object you receive an impact event. If an object attempts to move and is stopped by you, you receive a collide event (the object receives the opposite of course, and if both attempt to move, both receive both - couldnt be simpler could it? ;-)
We have added playback which instructs EVAC to replay a set of pre-recorded input commands (as per keyboard/joystick/mouse/goto inputs).
We have added zoom-in and zoom-out commands to EVAC.

We have extended the CTRL key function, which in build 384 could be used to reduce the magnitude of rotation. Now by pressing the CTRL key at the same time as any other motion (or view) command you reduce the magnitude of the command to one tenth normal magnitude.

We have added global control over animation frame rates, so you can set the delay between animated texture frames. Before, you could set relative delay between frames, but animation frames were always changed once every three world render frames. Now you choose how many world render frames to wait (between 1 and 16k). This is setup via the World Wizard but defaults to 3 so there is no change unless you make the change.

4. Bug fixes

RPT00002 Pasting a group icon may disrupt icon arrangement.
Fixed. You can now repeatedly paste group icons and all child icons are correctly aligned relative to the group parent icon.

RPT00005 Unable to climb steps?
Fixed. Steps or slopes can be at any orientation and you can walk up them when collision footprint is set to "fine".

5. Features for next time (please be patient)

While we have not yet implemented all of your requests, we are listening and hopefully you can see that we are implementing changes in a logical and systematic way, finding general purpose and configurable ways of doing things (aka abstraction ;-))

Some of the things we are thinking about now are:
furniture and utility libraries, static shapes and functional shapes, and how to import or create them, how to give them properties
using joystick like the mouse (moving the cursor)
ROOMS as a shell and ROOMS as a projection onto standard wallpaper
photorealistic environments, especially the office metaphor for the desktop
importing from VRML and other formats
improved lighting effects
letting the user acquire and operate tools (which would accomodate the suggestion of a Quake-like weapon)

So, please keep the suggestions coming (via forum and contact us page). We *ARE* listening and acting...