Old News

29 August 2002 Version 0.9.3 has been uploaded. This fix several previous problems. More importantly, this version also introduces some changes to protocol method names and is not compatible with earlier versions so you will need this version to connect to the vop://interreality.org/world test server.

26 August 2002 Some new packages released, due to build problems in vos-3D-0.9.1 and vos-metaobjects-0.9.1.

25 Aug 2002: Version 0.9.1 is now available. This mainly fixes a number of bugs in 0.9.0, so if you had any problems with that release, please try out this new version.

23 Aug 2002: We've discovered (and fixed) a few rather annoying crashing bugs. (I did it! -reed) We should have a 0.9.1 bugfix release in a day or two. In the mean time, you can try the CVS snapshot if you like.

22 Aug 2002: Version 0.9.0 is now available. This version has been a somewhat long time in coming, because we have been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to make everything more accessable. Here's a summary of the major changes in this release:

  • Source tree has been completely reorganized and modularized. This makes it possible to pick and choose what parts of the project you are interested in and exclude parts you don't need.
  • Debian users may now easily install VOS from binary packages using apt.
  • Connections between sites may now be secured with Transport Layer Security (TLSv1) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSLv3) using OpenSSL. This also provides an authentication mechanism for users to prove their identity to one another.
  • VOS now has a fairly complete set of Perl bindings, including support for registering Perl code as listeners, and using Perl to extend MetaObjects.
  • The 3D client has some new features.
  • Type, subobject and method names now conform to a standard namespace scheme to avoid future conflicts. This also breaks backwards compatability with earlier versions of VOS (but then I think we've done that with every new version :-)
  • The manual now has full code tutorials for programming VOS in C++
  • The usual bug stomping and feature tweaking

Do note that with some of major changes in this version there may be some problems. Please help us in finding and fixing bugs!

14 Aug 2002: Version 0.9.0 is coming...

15 July 2002: Version 0.8.0 has been released! Major points of this release:

  • 3D client has many new features for inspecting and interacting with objects
  • 3D client has helper support for hypercards (such as tying a hypercard to a webpage and opening mozilla when the hypecard is clicked on.)
  • 3D client now supports cone and cylinder geometric primitives
  • Orientation has changed from euler angles to axis-angle representation. This eliminates many of the problems inherent in the euler representation.
  • A new demo, "clock" has been added, which uses extrapolated property to describe the motion of the hands
  • It is now possible to register a message handlers methods directly, eliminating many long if/then/else chains
  • There is now API support for requesting creation of new objects on remote sites, using the same API as creation of local objects
  • There is now a password authentication module based on the challenge-respose protocol.
  • Mesh has been cleaned up a lot.
  • otd2cpp, which generates skeleton metaobjects from Object Type Definitons, has been improved
  • Many bugs fixed, and many fixes bugged :-)

23 June 2002: I just wanted to mention that I (Pete) have put off coding for a while to put together a comprehensive manual for VOS. We hope that this will really make it easy to get into the project. Look for a first draft online within a week or two.

31 May 2002: Two annoncements: last week Peter Amstutz, the main programmer behind VOS finished his undergraduate career at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a B.S. in Computer Science. Second (and perhaps much more importantly :-) Version 0.7.0 has been released! New features:

  • Save states - VOS can now save and load vobjects to/from disk or over a network for object persistance
  • Movement extrapolation - the 3D client now uses client side prediction (also known as dead reckoning) to smooth out avatar movements
  • Type degeneration - VOS now handles unknown types more intellegently; this will greatly improve compatibility between different versions in the future
  • The GUI now has more options for editing 3D objects in the world, as well as the ability to "possess" other objects as ones avatar
  • The rules for global install have seen some work, in anticipation for eventual creation of Debian (.deb), Red Hat (.rpm) and other easy-install packages.
  • As always, the usual tweaks and fixes...

27 May 2002: I just added a new Publications page, with a paper Peter presented at the IEEE conference on Robotics and Automation a couple of weeks ago, and an introduction that was posted at advogato.org a while ago. Enjoy.

3 May 2002: Version 0.6.1 has been released. It fixes a reference count bug which caused sites to not be freed. Also fixes a bug in avatar orientation, cleans up logging a bit, and makes the texturing on cubes objects look much nicer.

1 May 2002: Today we release a new milestone in VOS development: version 0.6.0! There have been many changes made in the past few weeks. Here are some of the highlights:

  • All 3d geometry in S3/VR is stored in MetaObjects, rather than a map file.
  • Added handshaking "hello" message to VOS protocol. (Note: breaks protocol compatability with old versions, please upgrade). This message replaces the old "tell-host-aliases" message and will be used in the future to exchange capability information and to negotiate SSL.
  • Hypercards (links to new 3d worlds) are complete
  • mesh uses an avatar and receives talk messages
  • Terangreal is starting to get more features for object creation and editing
  • Test server is now running! (we use SOCKS to get through our firewall) vop://interreality.org/world
  • We recommend using the new Crystal Space release 0.94-002 or better.
  • Added a "Light" object to A3DL (colored point light source)
  • Merged in latest patches for VOS on Windows. One day it might actually compile out of the box on that platform :-)

7 April 2002: At long last we finally have a new release ready! Check out version 0.5.0. Changes, briefly: added hypercards, fixed VOS meshes (supports texturing now), new, better-looking default world, better logging control (and much less verbose default log level), some core bugfixes and slight API change, hopefully better support compiling under windows, mesh handles vobject structures which loop onto themselves correctly, documentation improved, 3D client now requires Crystal Space .93 or .94, playlist daemon comes with php-based web interface, also the usual random tweaks and fixes.

26 March 2002: Reed and I were away last week on spring break vacation. We're back and working on a new release, which we hope to have out by the coming weekend.

28 February 2002: So it seems that the change I made to fix a compiler error in 0.4.1 introduced a serious segfault. So we're now on version 0.4.3 or the fourth revision in 24 hours! Keep the bug reports coming...

27 February 2002:
<Homer>DOH!</Homer>
So I left a few files out of 0.4.0 and 0.4.1. Go get version 0.4.2 :-)

27 February 2002: I've made version 0.4.1 available which should fix a compiler error on certain versions of gcc.

27 February 2002:

  • Yup. You guessed it. Version 0.4 is out. New in this version is SOCKS support (through the Dante library), buffered output for properties (which is a big performance improvement), better support for out-of-the-box compilation on Windows (with cygwin or cs-mingw), better options for taking sequential screenshots and the usual assortment of tweaks and bugfixes.
  • We've got a test server running at "vop://interreality.org:4231/world". It's the same demo room from the screenshots but it does have a few things for people to manipulate, and you should be able to see anyone else who happens to be logged in at the time. You can also connect to it with mesh to see it in action on a live world.

13 February 2002: Version 0.3 has been released! New features include the ability to load a model for your avatar (no more blue circles!), better object maniplution with the mouse, some new utilities for the 3D client, and some crashing bugs in the core fixed. I'm sure there's more that's I'm not remembering...

10 February 2002: Mailing lists are back online. Our fearless coder has been out of action for a few days battling illness, but now that he's better you can expect a new release in a few days.

6 February 2002: The site has been moved now, with a bit less bandwidth but a lot more control. The mailing lists will be reinstated shortly -- if you'd like to be notified when they're back, let Reed know. Thanks for your patience. Expect a new VOS source release real soon! In the mean time, nightly CVS snapshots are now available. (see the software page.)

30 January 2002: We've had some downtime of the webpage and mailing list due to the fact that our hosting service decided to abruptly disappear. We are in the process of moving things to our home DSL connection.

13 January 2002: Happy new years everyone! After a month of coding we have released version 0.2.0 with a whole bunch of new features:

  • Greatly improved command line parsing for mesh /w readline tab completion
  • The ability to middle-click the mouse button on 3D objects things to drag them around
  • 3D clients in the same space can chat with simple text messages
  • Low-level protocol parser supports range quoting, so that binary data can be sent directly in message fields
  • As a result of this, textures and model data are now actually downloaded by the client instead of read off the local file system
  • Some segfault-causing bugs in the VOS core fixed
  • Some memory-management bugs fixed, there are now no known memory leaks
  • Configure now now detects things like wxwindows and postgres and will skip over things that can't be built if the necessary libraries arn't found.
  • Several new object types (space and metadata) have been added, and Reed has been working on an OTD -> C++ script (essentially an interface compiler for VOS)
  • ... and some other things I can't even think of now!
Download it here.

December 2001: After a major redesign and about a year of coding, we are proud to announce the first release of the Virtual Object System. This release is actually termed "third system" or S3 because it represents the third interation in a design process that has been going on since 1998! Download it here.

 

Contact: tetron @ interreality . org
Website problems: reed @ interreality . org