[pandorabots-general] New multi platform 2-D & 3-D virtual world, free developer kits.

[Stanley E. Honour]

Flash and Mobil devices included.  Not either / OR; but both
simultaneously.  http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20508/page1/

Sorry to reduce email size, had to remove graphics.  See the original
URL above.

 

Thursday, April 03, 2008


Different Views for the Same Virtual World


By Erica Naone

......  Today, at the Virtual Worlds conference in New York City,
Multiverse <http://www.multiverse.net/> , a company based in Mountain
View, CA, that provides foundations for virtual worlds, will show new
technology <http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20508/page1/##>
that allows developers to build virtual worlds that users can access in
either a rich, 3-D form or a simpler, browser-based form. 

"For worlds that take advantage of this, you as a player may not
actually know if the people you're talking to are accessing a 3-D world
or coming in via 2-D," says Corey Bridges
<http://www.multiverse.net/about/mgmt.jsp?cid=5&scid=3> , cofounder and
executive producer of Multiverse. This is important, he says, because it
gives virtual worlds the flexibility they need to reach a larger
audience. Developers can build virtual worlds with beautiful 3-D
graphics without shutting out users with older computers. The
flexibility also allows the possibility that the user might experience a
virtual world in different ways throughout the day, perhaps accessing
the 3-D version from a home computer, and then later accessing the
browser-based version from a mobile device. "We knew that virtual worlds
were more than just PC-based experiences," Bridges says.

The demonstration will take place in a virtual Times Square
<http://www.multiverse.net/games/demo.jsp?cid=2&scid=0> . Bridges says
that the company will showcase the photo-realistic 3-D version of the
environment, spotlighting two users interacting there through 3-D
virtual representations of themselves, called avatars. Then, Multiverse
will show the other side of the conversation: a cartoonish Flash
<http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/>  animation running through
a browser. 

The switch is made possible, Bridges says, by the way Multiverse has
designed its system. Most virtual worlds are hosted by servers
<http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20508/page1/##>  customized
for close interaction with specially designed clients at the user's end.
In contrast, Bridges says, "we built our servers to not know how the
world in question is being displayed." Multiverse servers perform
typical server functions, such as resolving conflicts, determining the
results of character interactions, communicating those results to
clients, and collecting responses. However, they're not as closely tied
to specific clients, Bridges says, adding that a Multiverse server could
run an old-style text-based game or a 3-D virtual world and hardly know
the difference. The client is entirely responsible for how the world is
displayed. Developers building worlds through Multiverse can decide
which kinds of experiences their worlds will support and build the
corresponding clients. Worlds could be built to work only in Flash or
only in 3-D, just as they could be built to work with both. 

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