SL, A Sleeping Beauty and Blue Mars

I really like the idea that LL are working on a secret all new, built from scratch SL. It makes me feel calm and more confident for the future of the platform.

If this isn't so - I'm concerned

I was Skyping last night with a young chap (just finishing University) who is in BM, who was helping me sort out some graphics card problems, using Teamwork for remote desktop access. When we were done he gave me a tour of his project (he is a long-time Crysis player and modder).

He has build a full scale replica of the Starship Enterprise, all 800m long of it, with every deck, observation lounge, bridge, engineering, 10-forward, weapons, Pickard's ready room, etc, and I mean, every detail!

He was really looking forward to flying this beast around a BM City. He then showed me the Starbase that he had made with some friends for the Crysis Mod, all 12Km across!!!



He was bemoaning the fact that although he could get it into Crysis Mod (using a trick or two) he would not be able to get it into a BM City that was at the maximum size of 8km x 8km. So even a region that is over 976 times the size of a SL region, for some people, it still isn't big enough!

I came away very humbled indeed.

Guys, prepared to be amazed, very amazed, when BM launches.

Rock

nice post Rock

I think it's important for people to understand the shear scale and grandeur of what's possible in the cryengine.

I'm also a BM beta developer. I'm very well aware of the Cryengines capabilities and basically there are almost no limits to what could be done.

I love SL ( as you all know by now ) but I fear the small sim sizes are it's achilles heel and once BM is running with economy in place etc, etc,

There really is the possibility of mass migration from one virtual platform to another.

I can only hope there is an SL V2 with super sizesd sims.

You console kids just couldn't handle a real computer.

rock, interesting stuff, would love to see it sometime

do you know if bm is related to crytec somehow or did they just license the engine?

(yeah i am lazy i know i could google it )

The reason sims are limited to 256x256 in SL is because scripts have too many hardcoded dependencies on the number 256.

I suggested a call to get the sim size three or four years ago, so this could be treated eventually as a legacy problem. That made too much sense, I guess.

While I think that Blue Mars will provide some of the much needed competition for SL in many ways I think that it is the "business" clients that will really love BM.

One of the things I get from all the blogs and postings about businesses having a "presence" in a virtual world is the lack of control they have over their environment. It seems that BM will provide that total control they are seeking. I think that BM might siphon off many of the potential clients that SL is trying to win over.

A business that desires to have a 3D presence in the virtual world could create a city in BM. Totally control the content, the rules, the look and feel of everything. I think this will be a very attractive prospect for many businesses.

Avatar Reality, based in Hawaii, and the owners of Blue Mars, are in no way related to Crytek, a German company, and the makers of the games Far Cry and Crysis, based on their CryEngine 2 technology, other than they have licensed the CryEngine 2 as a platform for Blue Mars. I don't know, but I daresay the licensing may include coding help from Crytek as the game engine is modified to become a virtual world platform.

Rock

Even sims of a maximum size of 256m x 256m are in no way 'limited' if only sim crossing was truly seamless, robust, and consistent.

I rather like the idea of building up in small chunks of 256x256, and SL could steal some thunder from BM right here by making sim crossing problems a thing of the past.

Rock

I think this is spot on.




Ah Rock, I see you have met Ruben. Amazingly talented smarty.

I have brought up larger sl sims in Office hours too. Besides the currert coding set at 256, there are other issues. The biggest being how accuratly(or not) the sim can deal with geometry. The further from 0,0 the wonkier things get.

A good demo of this problem is to try to build jewlery or something very small at over 1000 meters.

There is nothing wrong with competition, choice is always good. Any good business should welcome the challenege of a competitor to keep it on it's toes. Blue Mars doesn't have to be an SL killer, there is plenty of room for more than one virtual world. If it does kill SL, then it will be LL's fault more than anyone else's, and they will deserve it then.

I think that is very true Brenda. Competition can/should be a win for us customers. Either by more choices or a "better improve quick" SL.

Assuming there are no non-human avatar meshes, is that a bad thing?

Absolutely.

But human-only meshes would prevent furries, especially the toon-cute ones (blech!)! It'd be like a repellent!

a) According to various sources, the 1701-D is just under 642 meters.

b) It's Picard, not Pickard.

c) Posting a screenshot from the movie does not impress me.

d) Funny how you posting city region limits and other technical data is obviously not against the NDA you signed...

You forgot to mention that the starship in the picture is not a Galaxy Class ship as Enterprise D was, but a Constitution II refit, as Enterprise A was.

* I know not to be drinking Coke when reading one of Novis' posts.

e) I don't care what physics engine he's using, if he's physically moving that detailed an object around in 3d space it's going to bring it to its knees.

Meant in BM, not SL. And that picture is frightening!

On the topic of BM and restricted building, yes, it puts my little shop in SL right out of business if I choose to move to BM because I am not a maya 3D creator. However, I do think the elimination of mainland-style blight and adult prim body parts (freebies, usually oversized) worn by newbs and dinks in public is a small price to pay. Will I miss building? Sure. But from the pictures I have seen, the appearance of well-made 3D content more than makes up for it and would trade creation for less 'tacky' content ingame.

That's my "naked, you call that naked, let me show you naked" avatar I use when people complain that my totally-G-rated avatar with all the sexuality of Donald Duck isn't wearing any pants. Got a 3d sculpted exposed spinal column in the back.

Shoot! I'm losing my edge!

I much prefer a nice suit (circa 1890, with high collar, cravat, pocket watch, cane and top hat (although sometimes the hat IS mechanical).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3444078576_cb43889acd_o.png


Though of late I have taken to a period naval costume when on one of the airships.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3403/3513811093_91d1aa7ff9_o.png

Don't feel bad. There is only one topic I can claim any semblence of Geekdom on and that is The Trek.