How to enhance your avatars.dat file

General Sky Avatars.dat	Options Cloud Layers	Sound Water	Ground objects Authorisations	Lighting Ejections
This is an old tutorial. Available updated tutorials : Active Worlds 4.1 in French Active Worlds 3.6 in Italian

• Create an avatars.dat file followed by an avatars.zip for your FTP space

Where is it used for ?
The file avatars.dat contains all information relative to the avatars which are available in your virtual world. It indicates which RWX or COB file to use for every avatar, the name of the avatar how it will be visible in your avatar list and which RWX (or COB) files are attributed to the special avatars. It also defines the animations (.seq) available for every avatar.
Without it, no avatar list would be available from the Avtars menu in the top of the AW browser, and no animation buttons for each avatar would be displayed/available.


avatars.dat and avatars.zip files, where to place them ?
The avatar.dat file can be opened with a text editor like Notepad.
Once the file is finished, you will have to compress it as .ZIP file and place it in the avatars directory within the FTP space of your world. avatar.dat doesn't have to be present within your FTP space, only avatars.zip needs to be present.

avatars.dat example

avatar
name=Mathilde
geometry=math.rwx
autowalk
beginimp
walk=marche
idle=pause
wait=attente
endwait=sopattente
run=courir
fly=voler
hover=volplane
swim=nage
float=flotter
jump=saut
fall=tomber
endimp
beginexp
SeVoir=tourner
Saluer=coucou
Danser=danse
endexp
endavatar

avatar
name=Amelie
geometry=amel.rwx
autowalk
beginimp
walk=marche
idle=pause
wait=attente
endwait=sopattente
run=courir
fly=voler
hover=volplane
swim=nage
float=flotter
jump=saut
fall=tomber
endimp
beginexp
SeVoir=tourner
Saluer=coucou
Danser=danse
Sportive=sport
endexp
endavatar

avatar
name=Celma
geometry=cel.rwx
autowalk
beginimp
walk=marche
idle=pause
wait=attente
endwait=sopattente
run=courir
fly=voler
hover=volplane
swim=nage
float=flotter
jump=saut
fall=tomber
endimp
beginexp
SeVoir=tourner
Saluer=coucou
Danser=danse
Pointer=pointe
endexp
endavatar

The avatars.dat file has to be zipped. The obtained avatars.zip file needs to be placed in the avatars directory within the FTP space of your virtual world.

When following the example below, the animation files will need to be zipped as well (without password) and be placed in the directory SEQS withint the FTP space of your virtual world :

marche.zip pause.zip attente.zip sopattente.zip

courir.zip voler.zip volplane.zip nage.zip

flotter.zip saut.zip tomber.zip tourner.zip

coucou.zip danse.zip pointe.zip sport.zip

The files math.zip, cel.zip and amel.zip need to be placed in the avatars directory withint the FTP space of your virtual world.

avatars.dat in details :
The lines written in green are provided as example and can be modified.

avatar	Start of the script for the concerning avatar
name=Mathilde	Name as which the avatar will be displayed in your avatar list
geometry=math.rwx	Filename of the RWX, with its extension
autowalk	Allows to control the movements speed of the avatar for a more realistic, natural behaviour. Wehn adding autowalk, the avatars can alwo walk backwards in a realistic way. This option eliminates also the incompatibilities found when the same SEQ is used for different avatars of different sizes and adapts automatically the SEQS created before the arrival of the 3.4 Active Worlds version.
beginimp	Begin of the description for the animations (seqs) of the concerning avatar
walk=marche	.seq sequence name of the animation for walking, without the extension.
idle=pause	Name of the file containing the animation which will be activated between the and of a walking sequence and the start of the idle sequence. Try to avoid a static avatar during the 30 seconds which are in between the walk and idle animations.
wait=attente	Start of the animation which will be played when the avatar is inactive and at the ground.
endwait=stopattente	.seq sequence file which will be played at the end of an idle sequence.
run=courir	Filename of the sequence relative to the animation which should be played while the avatar runs.
fly=voler	Filename of the sequence to be played when an avatar starts flying.
hover=volplane	Filename of the sequence to be played while the avatar is flying.
swim=nage	Filename of the sequence to be played while the avatar swims in water (note : only with water option)
float=flotter	Filename of the sequence to be played while the avatar floats in teh water (note : only with water option).
jump=saut	Filename of the sequence to be played when the avatar jumps.
fall=tomber	Filename of the sequence to be played when the avatar falls down from height.
endimp	End of the mandatory animations which are needed for a correct functionning for every avatar.
beginexp	Start of the additional animations. These animatons will create a button in the top menu of the 3D Active Worlds browser which can be activated by the user.
SeVoir=tourner	The text in front of the "=" sign can not contain spaces, neither accented characters and will be displayed at the animation buttons at the top menu of the 3D Active Worlds browser. After the "=" sign you can specify the filename of the sequence corresponding to the animation.
Saluer=coucou	See above
Danser=danse	See above
endexp	End of the additional animations
endavatar	End of the script for the concerning avatar

You will find a wide collection of avatars as well as .seq (sequence) files in the megapath of Active Worlds.

Active Worlds tutorials