Wednesday 21 October 2009

New Blue Mars Release Part 2/2

The new Blue Mars client has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

The login screen now has buttons to link to the Tutorials pages, and for retrieving a lost password.


 Another change is the Clothing Inventory. At first I thought they had forgotton to add a 'Cancel' button, but that little arrow on the left side of the Inventory window closes it.



I could be mistaken, but it also appears that the list of Animations and Gestures has been increased significantly. I certainly don't remember a Fart animation before!





I now have a pic of that missing texture I mentioned in Part 1. Here it is:




I also noticed a strange alpha problem. You see that archway that my shadow is pointing towards? Well, if I swing my camera around (using right-mouse button down, and dragging the mouse), so it looks our from inside that archway, then not only do the boat, railings, water, and other objects disappear, but I do too! In the third screenshot you can see my name-tag is still there, and my shadow, but not me!

This is what the camera 'should' see:




This is what it actually sees:




So, what else is there lurking under the bonnet of this new release?
  • Avatar draw distance has been doubled.
  • Room customization UI has been changed.
I also referred in the first Part to the Preferences button, and how you can change the Client window resolution. The new supported resolutions are:
  • 1920 x 1080
  • 1600 x 900
  • 1440 x 810
  • 1280 x 720 (Default)
  • 1024 x 576
 MyPage
 The developers have had a MyPage for some time, but now all Players will get their own MyPage. Players can log into the Player MyPage to purchase BLU and manage their profile information, avatar, items and Residences.

In this release:
  • Edit your account email and password.
  • Edit your avatar name.
  • Choose how you want your avatar name to be displayed in Blue Mars (first and last name, first name only, last name only, hide all).
  • Reset your avatar's face.
  • Reset your avatar data (including the face, cosmetics, clothing, and animation).
  • View a list of your friends and their online status.
  • Download the latest Blue Mars Player Client.
 Coming soon:
  • Buy BLU!
  • Click to see friends' profiles.
  • Message your friends. 
  • Manage your Residences (pay rent, register your friends as guests).


I shall post the link to MyPage as soon as the server is back up.

Have fun

Rock