Glossary

This is a listing of common terms, phrases, and abbreviations used in Active Worlds and in the Activeworlds community.

A

• AABB - Axes aligned bounding box.
• AFK - Acronym for Away From Keyboard.
  • A variation, AFAW, is sometimes used, which indicates the user is Away From Active Worlds, but not away from their keyboard.
• Av - See Avatar.
• Avatar - Describes the in-world representation of someone in Activeworlds. See also Avatars.
• Avcheck - Used to notify someone if they are not in their usual avatar.
• AW - Acronym for either Active Worlds or Alphaworld.
• AWI - Acronym for Active Worlds Inc., the company behind Activeworlds.
• Axis - Describes a particular set of three perpendicular directions (X, Y, and Z). Plural is Axes.

B

• Bot - Describes a (usually) computer-controlled avatar. See also Bots.

• Single-purpose bot - A program made to assist in a single task, such as building, terrain editing or chat logging.
• Multi-purpose bot - A program which does multiple tasks or provides a scripting interface to allow the user to easily do multiple things in Active Worlds or make complex systems, such as an RPG bot that handles items, combat, etc.

• Bounce - Teleporting from one world to another and back, usually done to jog the cache to re-download any failed objects or textures.
• BRB - Acronym for Be Right Back.
• Builder - Describes someone whose primary use of Active Worlds is building.

C

• Cache - Local storage of objects, textures and animations as well as terrain, world attributes and object positions for quicker loading.
• Caretaker - A Caretaker is a user who takes care of a world in the ActiveWorlds universe. For example, the caretaker of Yellow is Digigurl. Some worlds, like AWTeen, may have multiple caretakers.
• CAV - Acronym for Custom Avatars.
• Cell - Describes a 10 meter by 10 meter square, going infinitely upwards and downwards.
• Cit - Abbreviation for Citizen, describing someone who has paid for and/or registered a name in AW.
• COB - A less commonly-used file format to store 3D objects for use in Activeworlds.
• CoF - Acronym for Circle of Fire, the former name of ActiveWorlds, Inc.
• CT - Acronym for Caretaker.

D

• Decametre - A unit of measurement, where 1 dam equals to 10 meters. Used for coordinates, where one coordinate/cell is one decametre.
• Direct3D - An interface through which the Activeworlds browser displays graphics.

E

• Encroachment - When an object belonging to one person goes above or below the surface area of another person's object. The server, when a registry file is present, checks for encroachment to reduce vandalism of one's property.

F

• FPS - Acronym for Frames Per Second, usually describing the speed of the Activeworlds browser. This can also mean First Person Shooter, sometimes describing the style of AW@War gameplay.
• Freelook mode - When enabled, allows both horizontal and vertical rotation of the camera in mouselook mode, rather than having vertical mouse movement move the user forwards and backwards.

G

• Galaxy - Describes an isolated single world environment. See also Galaxy.
• GK - Acronym for Gatekeeper.
• GZ - Acronym for Ground Zero, the entry point in a world.

J

• JAM - Acronym for Just Ask Me, commonly used in AWTeen.

L

• Lag - Usually describes lower-than-desired frames/sec in the Activeworlds browser.

M

• Model - A 3D object that can be built with or act as a mover.
• Mover - A special object that users can drive, ride, or pick up.

N

• NP - Acronym for No Problem.

O

• Object - Describes a single element in a build. Multiple objects are put together to form the building.
• Object Scripting - A collective term used to describe building triggers (create, activate, bump) and commands (texture, move, etc.) commonly used within Active Worlds.
• OpenGL - An interface through which the Activeworlds browser displays graphics.

P

• Particle Emitter - See Particle Emitter.
• PAV - Acronym for Personal Avatar.
• PK - Acronym for Peacekeeper.
• PBW - Acronym for Public Building World.
• PPW - Acronym for Privilege Password, a second password used for logging in bots and acquiring rights of another citizen.
• Prim - Abbreviation for Primitive, a basic shape used in certain worlds for building.

R

• Renderware - The graphics engine used by the Activeworlds browser.
• RWX - The file format used to store most 3D objects in Activeworlds.

S

• SDK - Acronym for Software Development Kit. See also SDK.
• Sol - Describes an isolated single world environment, much smaller than a Galaxy. See also Solserver.

T

• Telegram - Describes a private message sent from a citizen to another citizen.
• Tourist - Describes a "guest" AW user, or a user that has not paid/registered for a citizenship.
• TY - Acronym for Thank You.

U

• Uniserver - Shortening of Universe Server. See also Uniserver.
• Universe - Describes a collection of worlds and a citizen database. See also Universe.

V

• Vandal - Describes someone who defaces and/or destroys builds with malicious intent.
• VRT - Used to describe Virtual Reality Time and is the time zone of AW. It is equal to GMT-2.

W

• WFS - Acronym for Waiting For Server, used to describe when the connection to the world has been lost.
• World - See World.
• WB - Acronym for Welcome Back.

Z

• Z-buffer - See Z-buffer fighting.
• Z-fighting - See Z-buffer.
• Zone - See Zone.