Metaverse One

Anyone that has been following the virtual worlds industry has noticed the growing number of virtual world platforms that have closed recently. Now this is to be expected given the amount of virtual world platforms that popped up over night during the 2007-2008 virtual worlds gold rush, but it still saddens me to see these players leave the stage. I have witnessed that the closing of a virtual world platform is more than a company shutting down, people getting laid off, and investors losing on their return. It is the Apocalypse of a digital eco-system. Worlds are demolished, user creations are destroyed, relationships with digital family and friends are lost, and all at the literal flip of a switch. So I am taking a moment on my birthday to salute those virtual world platforms that have recently fallen: Metaplace - Raph Koster's virtual world open platform announced it was closing earlier this year. This really surprises me as I found Metaplace's world creation tools to be su...

The Kira Institute , a nonprofit organization in Second Life, focuses on combining the elements of universality and personal involvement. Kira is exploring the use of virtual worlds to develop new forms of research and education, rooted in scientific and scholarly traditions but unconfined by the usual disciplinary and academic boundaries or by geographical limitations. Virtual worlds are media where professionals, amateurs, teachers, and students, from all over the globe, can engage in open dialog. In this setting, Kira facilitates peer based collaborations in fields as diverse as science, art, philosophy, and other ways of knowing. As their website describes it, science is basically universal in the way it is practiced, largely independent of nationality or personal belief system, where personal involvement is specifically discouraged. Systems aimed at developing and guiding personal aspirations, from religions to ideologies to humanistic programs, do encourage involvement, but at th...

Vivaty recently announced the release of Vivaty Studio . Formerly Flux Studio 2 (MediaMachines), it is a web3D authoring tool for creating geometry, animation, and interactivity. It imports from a variety of formats, exports the open standard (X3D,X3dv,VRML) formats and Vivaty's own encrypted fx3d format. Here for a full feature list . Although Vivaty Studio is a 3D modeling and animation application, the real value add of this application is the web3D authoring. I highly recommend Vivaty Studio for 3D artists and programmers. For artists and those slightly familiar with standard 3D modeling software, it has a user-friendly UI to get one creating interactive content in no time. Simple wizards and drag/drop menu features can add basic functionality to 3D objects in a few clicks. Animations can be made in Vivaty Studio with a simple animation time-line or imported directly from other DCC tools (personally found COLLADA imports work best). Most of the 3D artists I work with love wo...

SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is the convention for all interactive device, 3D graphics, and related companies. Held this year in beautiful weather Los Angeles. SIGGRAPH is an interesting time, full of company announcements, product releases, workshops, tech discussions/classes, and more. For five days, people from all around the globe come together to geek out on a feast of graphics and tech. Tech panels, white papers, and workshops on all kinds of topics keep all the hallways busy as mainly entertainment focused booths dominate the expo floor. All the major Hollywood players are here, Disney, ILM , Dreamworks , and Pixar to name a few. Intel, ATI , and other hardware companies show off tech that could make any pc command center seem from 2050. Combine this with over a hundred other companies, universities, organizations, thousands of people, and what an event you get. This year had to be the strongest presence of web3d so far at the sho...

After becoming aware that more than just the nice folks at Vivaty were reading my blog (they promptly thank fans), I see the need to catch others (non-supernerds) up to what all my recent blogs are about. For those techies that know what Open Metaverse truly means, skip this blog, close the laptop, close the eyes, rub the eyes, open, and go talk with someone you enjoy. If you have little/no clue to what the Metaverse is, or if you think it is SL or OpenSimulator, please keep reading. To see what smart collaboration (Open Metaverse Roadmap) had to say about the Metaverse last year, this is a must READ . ( warning-beyond this is my perception zone, not wikipedia ) Repeated visitors to my blog will see this graphic again. What is the Metaverse? Don't worry, I am not going to cover all these now, but these "domains" are converging into a mash up of technologies that will blur the line between the virtual and real via the immersive 3D web. This is the Metaverse, a mix of rea...

What an interesting day for the web and me, but let's cover more of the web 1:23 am- I finished my review of the public beta launch of Vivaty and called it a day (see previous post). 8:35 am- Woke up, entered the web, caught up on known news, and read the IBM and Linden Lab Interoperability announcement. I applaud the people that worked on the project, really. Glad to see them making progress on what they set out to do. Beyond that, the press announcement was a tad bit over-dramatic. " This is a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general. IBM and Linden Lab have announced that research teams from the two companies successfully teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another. It’s an important first step toward enabling avatars to pass freely between virtual worlds." Sounds great to the public, and three cheers for...

This review has been a long time coming but I did not want to share too much while these guys were in closed beta. Vivaty, the fun way to socialize and share your web stuff in a personal virtual scene ( your stuff. your friends. your scene. ), is now open to public beta. This multi-user 3D platform allows you to view and interact in the 3D web via a small browser plug-in for Facebook or AOL AIM. Lets start with the spaces. The spaces take almost no time to load on a broadband connection and look really detailed. Nice job on the designs, lighting, fog, and backgrounds. They have an "open" feel to them and each has its unique style. One can tell this design team is a group of pros. Somewhere I can here "You can do it!", in the Governator's voice. The release is showcasing partnered scenes from Target and Coke Zero, some cool looking virtual dorm spaces. The avatars are realistic with almost lifelike animations. There are a number of moods you can set fo...

Let us take time to appreciate the individual pioneers and Sherpas in 3D, gaming, and web3d and all they have done to get these technologies where they are! *CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP As the next gen of developer I salute and support those companies and institutions that have stuck with supporting the collaborative "open" mindset. Their applications and brands echo across many a coast and eyes. Keep making what you do cooler. Hold firm your niche and use your powers for awesome. Help foster more growth in the industry in whatever way you feel for corporate social responsibility. Why not make a learning application and give it to the web, or work with a non-profit to build a 3D web presence? This will only make your echo louder. I sit in the grumbling noise of enlightened to this "new" technology. Immersive Information or " Infomersion " that connects us, directs us, and allows access to a more personalized highly interactive web experience. It will be grea...

Today is a great day to start a blog about the open 3D web and open Metaverse if one had to set a date. What makes today different than any other is that it marks the begining trend of true "open garden" virtual worlds coming into the mainstream market place. By "open gardens" I mean virtual worlds based on open standards. Is this necessary to be a successful platform, well no. Is this necessary for a platform to be a portal into the much bigger 3D web? Well it's a must. Like the World Wide Web, the Metaverse is not going to be just one website, one big company, one virtual world, or one platform. It is going to be as varied in content, context, developer, and platform as the people using it. A convergence of technologies and platforms that work well together without exposing whats under the individual hood. Starting this evolution is Vivaty - a Silicon Valley based company that is exposing the video game and Internet generation to true immersive 3D web. Read m...