OTHER Virtual Worlds

Hello Citizens,

I'm not sure if you've heard of MULTIVERSE, but I urge you to go have a look at their website:

http://multiverse.net/

Check out the Powerpoint presentation for a nice breakdown of features. This virtual (open source) world is pretty exciting...and the graphics are much better than SL.

One of the biggest differences?

*It uses DIRECTX and not OpenGL--this will solve that pesky alpha issue, and give you much more freedom to create higher quality imagery and objects.

Anyway. Have a looksee...and discuss.

hope they don`t have that stupid pain in the ass annoying float problem wich turns prims on all axises like LL is unable to fix...

half-jest, half-serious... is there a mac port of direct-x stuffins??

Can't really make up my mind from the screenshots - some graphics look impressive but overall doesn't look better than SL, even if objects are less 'primmy' looking.

Multiverse looks like it might be a place for robots, wizards and high-powered corporate animals - don't know where I would fit into a place like that.

Looks better designed for "gamers" and "combat" orientented.

Be a great alternative for teh griefers of SL *Grins* Places where they can LEGALY shootup people lol.

And since it's open-source, LL has access to all the programming anyway. I'm still clinging to that pixel thread of the grid blanket that LL corrects the vast majority of major bugs and then explodes into the future.

With the partnership to IBM, as well as working with Google, I see good things for SL. Just need some focused management, and a LOT more communication.

~Jessy

I think graphics are not a paticularly good indicator of whether a game/virtual world will be a hit or not. The way the world operates and the tools within it determine that IMO.

For example Sony recently announced a kind of virtual chat room thing. On closer inspection it seems very superficial compared to SL since there was basically no provision for user created content.

Multiverse seems much closer to SL than that. However for me to switch I would want at least the same tool set I have in SL for creativity. Plus I'd want to know that it had reached some critical mass in terms of users (because nobody wants to roam a big empty world right ?).

Their site seems to be very light on information on their current user base (unless I missed it). I suspect this means their actual user numbers are pretty low

Finally recall the VHS vs Betamax battle of years past. Betamax was technically superior but ultimately lost simply because the users pushed towards one standard. Another example would be how Ebay crushed most other auction sites (in the USA at least), by virtue of the fact that people tend to gravitate to the platform with the most choice.

The analogy is not quite correct for virtual worlds IMO since SL hardly competes with WoW. However it may mean that there is only room for 1 (or perhaps none) direct competitors to SL.

Last month's thread about other worlds is a good one, has some opinions about Multiverse in it, as well as others:

/327/d9/202377/1.html

Also note Google's partnership with Multiverse. Sketchup -> world? I dunno if that part wows me ...

"If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.
...

"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."

Is that something they say or do you just assume this? Because the issue with alpha sorting applies to any real-time 3D graphics, doesn't matter if it's DirectX or OpenGL.

As for giving creators more freedom, I'm not sure why you think the graphics API makes any difference to content creators.

Direct X Fanboyism

I took a look at Multiverse before. It was nice & all, BUT... it's more along the lines of basically creating your own SL from scratch. I doubt most here would care to learn C++, Direct X and other graphic API's, 3D Modeling, etc, etc.

Probably more work than most folks would care to take on.

Heh- even I was tempted.

Entrance to the Multiverse worlds is not limited to the people that do the hard work of making the worlds.

Most users wouldn't need to do any modeling, programming, etc. They'd play the games.

Here I am in Multiverse Lunar Quest and entering Force of Arms:





I asked in the Multiverse forums a while back if it would enable runtime building and the answer was vague.


====================================================


There's a building area - a sandbox, I guess - open in the Novoking beta but I can't find it on the map!

Well wheres the fun in that??

OP is a liar. This is a completely different product than SL and doesn't overlap at all. Multiverse is more a quick game development platform, not an entire, fully-functioning world like SL.

I'd even be willing to be that the OP was paid or convinced to do this advertising.

Wow. Strong words, AM. But nice to hear from you, even in this riled up state.

While I believe Aminom goes way too far and is unnecessarily rude, Multiverse does look very different.

My thoughts too. Not comparable at all as far as I can see. The idea seems to be (disclaimer, I´m only on my third cup of coffee) that you build and host your own 'game' then make that available to other users through their network. And if you make money from it they take 10% of the gross revenue. (Seems to be a lot of focus on the money aspect anyway).

But if it provides a haven for SL griefers, I´m all for it

Creating buildings in Multiverse takes on a totally different meaning in comparison to SL.

Firstly there are no building tools like we have in SL, the Prims and edit menu.
Now I am only saying this from reading this link;

http://update.multiverse.net/wiki/index.php/Creating_Skyboxes_with_Terragen

The basic method of designing a texture outside in Maya, PS or gimp still applies and the upload method preferred is again .TGA Files.

But to build, this could be quite challenging as you do not have the visual build as is in SL, you will require scripting knowledge to start with.

So the end result would be limited content creation by its residents..

It appears to be a platform for creating static builds within which players can interact.
From gong through the samples it is clear that some will use it for worlds of the type in which players a cute baby rabbits and will go on quests for vegetables. Most will use it for shoot-em-up worlds as that appears to be where the mass market lies.

The question for SL's future is:
How many current and potential SL residents are only here for the sort of 3D environment that any of these other 3D worlds provide?

In these other worlds
The baby rabbits would be able to quest for carrots without fear of being yiffed or being frightened by large carrot-like things.
People in search of pony farms will find things that look like RL ponies.
Shooters would be able to attack the enemy without arriving at the battlefield with their guns up their butts.

SL has to play to its strengths and not try to compete with specialist worlds.
I'm not interested in RP-quests and shoot-em-up in an unchanging built environment
I am interested in both creating and exploring the creations of others. SL is still the only 3D game in town for that.



It would be nice fantasy to think that these other worlds would suck away the griefers.
That's not going to happen. In the other worlds, people can grief back. That's not an attractive prospect for the moronic cowards who abuse others in SL.



PS: If Aminom is going to out Mr Bigwig, then let's out him properly.
Mr B is also a serial killer, a major cocaine dealer, a terrorist and a major backer of genocide in Darfur. OK?

This product has serious ... problems. It overwrote my newest DirectX installs with an older version.

No excuse for crappy installers that DONT ask you for what you need installed or not.

Not only that, it is DOG SLOW. Makes SL look like a Ferrari, in both graphics and speed. Terrible.

As far as game platforms go, this is neither the newest technically, nor the best. If your goal is to rapidly create a game - go for Torque or get some serious backing and funding and spend the bucks on Unreal Engine. Cryengine is another one to watch.

I'm curious about Vastpark, but so far I've not gotten into it yet. But Multiverse - meh, it has a long way to go before its anything really useful, for either virtual worlds or games.

They have Speedtree, that alone blows SL out of the water.

Speedtree can be licenced for all the above engines I mentioned.

I get the impression that LL avoids Speedtree for the moment. I myself am a bit hesitant about it, because it's not open source, and could seriously impede open sourcing of key parts of the platform. It's also scary expensive.

I have to wonder how hard it would be to do a fractal prim tree generator for SL. I've seen several tree programs arise from the 3d community over the years, that were darn good, for use in 3d renderers. Carrara Pro has a great one for example, that was originally preceded by one coded for it by a guy experimenting with fractals. XFrog is another which is great.

My perfect world would be a fractal tree/shrub program much along the lines that exists in Carrara Pro. Where you can control the shape and animation of the plant through parametric controls, and then simply texture the parts with your own textures. Speedtree is supposed to have that flexibility, but is it open to everyone to actually use it in the same way we build in SL? They have some scary scary licensing terms, hate to say, and such an interface could cause problems with their CAD product that they sell (to actually make the trees) So I have to wonder if that's what's keeping it out of SL.

Oooooo! The new Cryengine looks sweet! *he sez while waiting for Crysis to come out on November 16th*

sweet like chocolate on vanilla ice cream with hot cherries on top, indeed

http://www.crytek.com/technology/cryengine-2/specifications.html

Lots of complexity and power in that baby I do think I will be getting Crysis when it comes out just to play with the sandbox editor.

I think the point was that this is the model that Second Life is moving toward, with the Second Life Grid system. It seems to be the model that other competitors, such as Metaplace, are going for as well.

I don't see any special emphasis on the game aspects in SL at all. In that way, it's very different from Metaverse. SL puts a whole lot of emphasis on the community and social aspects, which only There and Kaneva really do to any real extent (plus some VRML worlds, but their tech is very outdated by now) at this juncture.

Of those three, only SL has any real freedom to do mostly what you want, in a platform sense. Metaplace and Vastpark seem to be going to that market as well, but only Vastpark is in beta (anyone here in Vastpark?)

Unsure who else. I have heard whispers to go that direction from Epic (producers of Unreal) and Crytek, too. But whatever they are up to, they're being real quiet right now.