Outside of Active Worlds, most of your time using Demeter will be spent in the program screen:
The Login Information tab includes information that can only be applied once before logging in. The information in the remaining tabs can be changed at any time and will take effect immediately, regardless of the current state of the application. The various options are described below.
| Universe host | The address of the host of the universe to which Demeter should attempt to log in. The default value is auth.activeworlds.com, the main Active Worlds universe. Text values such as edu.activeworlds.com are also accepted in addition to IP addresses. |
| Universe port | The port on the universe server to which to connect. The default is 6670, used for most universes, including the Active Worlds universe. |
| Citizen Number | The citizen number of a Caretaker in the world specified in the "World" field. If this citizen number does not have Caretaker rights, Demeter will be unable to perform its job. |
| Privilege PW | The privilege password of the citizen specified in the "Citizen Number" field. |
| World | The name of the world to enter. |
| Language File | The filename specifying the language set Demeter will use for responses in-world. This language set does not affect the GUI. |
| Terrain texture min/max | The minimum and maximum terrain texture numbers with which users in the world can build. In most worlds these values will be 0 and 500 respectively, but it can be increased above zero if there are certain textures that only the world Caretakers would like to use. For example, these value could be specified as 2 and 500, leaving textures 0 and 1 available only to Caretakers. The maximum texture number is restricted to 500, the maximum possible value in Active Worlds 4.1. |
| Default terrain texture | The default terrain texture to use. |
| Default height (cm) | The height (in centimeters) to which the terrain in any cell in the world is restored if a terrain marker in that cell is deleted. The default value is -10cm, because most legacy ground objects in worlds that will be changing to terrain are actually set at -10cm altitude, not at zero altitude as might be expected. |
| Warn & Disable time (sec) | In order to reduce processor load, Demeter operates by "terrain sessions," which means that terrain around a given avatar is only surveyed and dealt with if the avatar in that area is attempting to modify the terrain. This implementation saves processor load and bandwidth by not wasting resources on those citizens who are not currently using Demeter's functions. The Disable Time sets the amount of idle time (in seconds) until a user's terrain session is disabled. Setting this value too high can cause unnecessary performance problems, but setting it too low can annoy users because their session will "time out" too quickly. The Warn Time sets how long a terrain session can remain open before Demeter warns the citizen that it is about to expire. |
| Terrain rights | Specifies which citizens are permitted to use Demeter. This field is a rights list similar in behavior to those found in 4.1 world rights, which may include ranges (1~999) and exclusions (-358911). To edit the list, click the [...] button. The following screen will come up.
By default, all citizens and tourists are granted terrain rights, represented by the * entry. To add a citizen to terrain rights, type the citizen number into the
text box above the list and click Add. Similar to the way rights work in 4.1, the * entry cannot be used when excluding citizens. In the example above, the 1~99999999 entry allows all citizens similar to *. Specific citizens are then excluded. Number ranges may not start at 0; the range 0~999 is invalid. To allow tourists in this situation, simply add the citnum 0. For your convenience, if you attempt to add any entries while an * entry is present the * will be removed. |
| Disable bot use | Specifies whether to allow bots to use Demeter. Bot use can greatly enhance the ability of builders to copy buildings with all terrain around them, but also presents the possibility of abuse. |
| Disable tourist use | Specifies whether to allow tourists to use Demeter. Tourists can learn how to use Demeter and build interesting buildings; however, this allows for anonymous vandalism in worlds where tourists are enabled if not carefully monitored. |
| Notify users about their terrain rights | If a user attempts to use Demeter and does not have terrain rights, this option controls whether or not that user is told about this. For example, turning this option on results in one of the following messages:
If this option is off, no message will be sent. |
| Max queries | Specifies the number of cell queries that can be outstanding simultaneously. If you're not sure to what to set this value, leave it at its default 5 Higher numbers may speed up processing on fast processors, but could also result in crashing Demeter. Lower numbers could result in slow querying. |
| Max commands | Specifies the number of show, hide, or delete requests that may be outstanding at any given time. If you're not sure to what to set this value, leave it at its default 5. Higher numbers may speed up processing on fast processors, but could also result in crashing Demeter. Lower numbers could result in slow response time when a huge request like show all is accessed. |
| Flood commands | Specifies the number of verbal commands one user (or bot) can issue during any given ten-second interval. If a user exceeds this number of commands, he, she, or it is ejected. |
| Flood eject duration (sec) | Specifies the duration of ejection (in seconds) that a user who exceeds the maximum number of "Flood Commands" will experience. |
| Sessions always enabled | Removes the need for users to say d:begin to start a terrain session when entering the world. Note that even when this option is enabled, users can still use d:end to disable a terrain session. |
| Use sectors for show/hide | An experimental option which uses sector areas instead of the normal box used for d:show and d:hide. |
The labels at the bottom of the screen show Demeter's status at all times:
| World | The name of the world to which Demeter is logged in. |
| Connection State | Reflects Demeter's current connection status. |
| Terrain Cells | The number of cells in the world that Demeter has queried for terrain markers. Demeter queries all cells within 20 meters of an avatar that has enabled terrain in an attempt to locate terrain markers. |
| Show/Hide Queue | The number of outstanding items in the queue used for d:show and d:hide. |
| Percent Queried | The percentage of the world that has been queried through enabled terrain sessions. |
| Terrain Markers | The number of terrain.rwx objects Demeter has actually located through its querying of Terrain Cells; in other words, the number of cells Demeter has detected where terrain has been modified by users. |
| Avatars Present | The number of citizens, tourists, and bots currently in the world. |
| Terrain Sessions | The number of users who are currently using Demeter to build with terrain (have issued a d:begin statement). |
The "Close" button closes Demeter and disables terrain features in the world.
