Category Archives: Virtual Worlds

Hypergrid : what is the best grid ?

Posted on by

Maria Korolov, Editor in Chief of Hypergrid Business, published by Trombly Ltd., a Hong Kong-based communications firm with offices in Boston, Shanghai and Mumbai, is the author of the contribution “What is the best grid ?“.

Maria Korolov is president of Trombly Ltd. Subsidiaries include the China Speakers Bureau, the largest speakers bureau for greater China, providing China experts to speak at conferences and events around the world.

One of the columnists of Hypergrid Business is Adam Frisby, head of Research and Development at DeepThinkLabs, an international company headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. Adam Frisby  has been using and developing for Virtual Worlds since 1997, he is a recognized industry professional and has been influential in the development of several key virtual world technologies including OpenSimulator, OpenViewer, Xenki, libsecondlife. Adam is also a member of several Virtual World standards bodies including the Linden Lab® Architecture Working Group.

Maria Korolov says that besides the isolated virtual worlds in cyberspace like Second Life, World of Warcraft, OpenLifeGrid and others, there are a few worlds which are on the hypergrid — accessible to travelers from other worlds via hyperlinks ( hypergrid teleports). The main are OSGrid, ReactionGrid, ScienceSim, FrancoGrid and Grid4Us.

OSGrid is the place for OpenSim developers and hobbyists running regions on their home computers or on spare servers. All the cool new features get tested first at OSgrid, like voice and vehicle physics.

If you like teachers, you need to be on ReactionGrid. Intel has a conference center here. ReactionGrid runs stable, older versions of OpenSim, tested and debugged, making it good for teachers or small businesses looking for a nice, reliable place to meet with students or clients.

If you want to do experiments, or watching them done, goto ScienceSim. Check out Galileo, Einstein, Kepler and other interesting builds.

FrancoGrid is the top French-speaking grid on the hypergrid and Grid4Us is best for hanging out with Germans.

Maria Korolov concludes that the best grid is the grid you build yourself and she gives an overview about OpenSim Hosting Providers.

FrancoGrid : Metavers 3D Francophone Libre

Posted on by

Last update : April 10,2013

Logo Francogrid

Logo Francogrid

FrancoGrid est un espace virtuel en trois dimensions, un metavers libre et francophone. Le logiciel Open Source OpenSimulator est le « moteur » de Francogrid, il est compatible avec le client de Second Life ™. L’équipe de Francogrid maintient une grille où chacun est libre de connecter son propre simulateur et ainsi, d’agrandir l’espace avec de nouvelles régions virtuelles !

L’objectif est d’exploiter au mieux ce nouveau support de communication et d’organiser la collaboration entre les membres. L’équipe de Francogrid veut soutenir activement le projet OpenSimulator par le rapport de bugs, le développement de “patch”, des expérimentations, et la réalisation de tutoriels.

Le site web de Francogrid comprend plusieurs blogs avec une liste d’évenements, des partenaires, des statistiques et des nouvelles.

OpenSimulator : create a virtual environment similar to Second Life™

Posted on by

Last update : January 22, 2013

logo by Adam Frisby

OpenSimulator logo by Adam Frisby

OpenSimulator (OpenSim) is a 3D Application Server that can be used to create a virtual environment (or world) similar to Second Life™. OpenSimulator is released under a BSD License, making it both open source, and commercially friendly to embed in products. Environments, protocols and features are supported via add on modules. The available modules (alternative gridservers, plugins and region modules, etc) are hosted on OpenSim Forge. OpenSimulator is powered by the community members that devote time and energy to the effort.

OpenSim is still at an alpha code maturity stage, the current latest releases is 0.7.6  released on October 4, 2013 (git source repository). OpenSimulator requires either the .Net Framework version 3.5, or Mono 2.4.3 or newer.

The OpenSimulator website provides documentation, FAQ’s, grid lists, bug reports, wish lists, forums, configuration files, news, blogs, rss feeds, technical reference, IRC channels, links, support and other informations concerning the development of the OpenSim project.

The following 3D Viewers are known to work with OpenSim : Official Second Life ™ Viewer, Hippo Viewer, Imprudence Viewer, realXtend Viewer and Meerkat Viewer.

An up-to-date coverage of the OpenSim technology is offered in-depth by the Hypergrid Business magazine.

Some commercial providers of OpenSim virtual worlds are listed hereafter :

Vivaty Scenes : a personal virtual 3D web community

Posted on by

Vivaty

Vivaty, a company in the San Francisco area, has developed during the last two years a platform designed for rich web content and 3D experiences called “Vivaty Scenes“. The application was launched as a public beta on tuesday 8th July 2008 in AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and in Facebook. Vivaty Scenes are realistic rooms that act as a virtual personal environment, a 3D version of your personal page. You can set the theme, decorate with furniture and other virtual goods, and chat with the avatars of friends who enter your room. You can bring in photos from Flickr and Facebook or videos from YouTube and display them on screens in your room. You can also play MP3 songs.

Vivaty Scenes is a platform which plugs straight and seamlessly into your already setup, defined and working social network. The program (a 4 MB player browser plug-in) currently only runs on Windows machines and in Internet Explorer, although Firefox and Mac versions of Vivaty Scenes are planned for release at a later date. 2 GB computer memory and 256 MB VRAM graphic card memory are recommended for using Vivaty Scenes.

Avatars

The avatar associated with one user can be changed at any time, a richer avatar customization will be available in the future. Avatars can be moved with the mouse or with the directional keys. The viewpoint (camera position) can be changed with a mouse right click and drag & drop, with the mouse wheel you can pan in and out. Avatars can be animated with gestures and express their moods in idle animations (sad, angry, happy, …).

3D objects

Scenes can be modified and customized at anytime, items can be changed and added. By double clicking on a media object (photo, photo gallery, video) the camera zooms in close but your avatar stays put. Some features of Vivaty Scenes are similar to Adobe Atmosphere discontinued on 19th december 2004.

Active Worlds

Posted on by

ActiveWorlds

Activeworlds Inc., headquartered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, provides software products and online services that permit users to enter, move about and interact with others in a computer generated, 3D virtual environment using the Internet. A 3D virtual environment enables users to move in three dimensions and  to create objects and structures which other users can see and move in real time.

The “Active Worlds Browser” runs on Windows and Linux. Active Worlds has two ways of entering its universe: as a free tourist or as a paid citizen. Tourist mode is Active Worlds’ version of a free account with several limitations. You can pay for a citizen for the price of $6.95/month or $69.95/year.

On June 28, 1995 AlphaWorld was renamed Active Worlds and officially launched as version 1.0. On June 16, 2008, Activeworlds, Inc. released the first major update to the browser in two years, version 4.2. The update was considered smooth and painless, being completed in a matter of only fifteen minutes, compared to the several days of version 4.1’s initial upgrade in 2006. Version 4.2 includes an enhanced graphics engine, captured web pages on objects, and, most notably, customizable avatars on a scale more complex than that of Second Life.

In 2008, Alphaworld is 429,025 km2 large, has more than 360.000 paid citizens, more than 200 million objects, more than 100 shops selling a wide variety of products and more than 1000 unique worlds to explore

i-dog, i-cat, i-cy, i-fish : Robotic Music Loving Pet’s

Posted on by

Sega Cat

Sega Dog

Sega Pinguin

In 2005, SEGA Toys introduced a small robot dog called i-dog in Japan which played about 70 stored children’s songs and other favorites. A sensor on top of the dog was used to control the tempo of the song playback. The i-dog was also able to mimic the owners voice with sound that had similar wavelengths. The i-dog was licensed to Tiger Electronics, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc for distribution in the United States. Today, a complete series of robotic music loving pet’s is available in different colors and looks. i-pet’s can wear clothing and they react to music from an external source, such as an MP3 player. They feature seven flashing LED lights on its face and have the ability to ‘dance’ to the beat of the music. They also have a number of switches to react to user input. They have various emotions (which change based on user interaction) that provide different color patterns on its LED lights.

I-CAT, the musical feline is fond of rock, punk, rap, hip-hop, dance, techno and more! I-DOG entertains you with electronic lights, movements and sounds based on the music you play.  I-CY, the performing penguin, loves to dive into music and flap its flippers to your tunes. You make him happy with lots of music and interaction! I-CY communicates moods through musical riffs, movement and tons of blinking light patterns! It even squawks to let you know when it needs more attention! I-FISH dances by swishing it’s tail and spinning around.

To switch the I-DOG off, press the nose button more than 5 seconds.

McDonald iDog

In 2007, a basic version of the i-dog was manufactured for the McDonald’s corporation, with reduced functionality, different styling and without speaker or movement. The toy has a switch on its underside that turns it on, subsequent pressing of the nose button causes the lights in the head to flash varying colours.

Virtual iDog

The latest creation, I-DOG AMP (Automated Music Personality), is aivalable in four colors.  Plug it into your music player and get stereo sound – louder than before – when he plays your music through his built-in speaker! Control the volume with his tail and rock out! And with cooler moves than ever before, this doggone-good dancer taps his paw to the beat, bobs his head, wags his tail and gets his ears movin’ and groovin’!

A virtual I-DOG (digital representation of the new I-DOG AMP’D) can be downloaded from the Tiger Electronics website for MAC’s and PC’s. Virtual I-DOG dances in synch to the MP3 music files stored on your computer. Browse for a song using Virtual I-DOG’s interface and play a tune to watch him groove.

Blink 3D : a multi-user Web based 3D virtual worlds platform

Posted on by

Blink 3D

Blink 3D®, a platform for creating multi-user Web based virtual worlds and 3D environments has been developped by Pelican Crossing. Blink 3D can be used for: Virtual Worlds, Games, Education, Virtual Heritage, Business, Online Stores, Machinima, Product Marketing and 3D chat.

Blink 3D is available in different editions including a free Ultra Lite edition. Blink 3D’s drag and drop, point and click interface makes it is easy to learn and you don’t have to program if you don’t want to. You can use 3D primitives to quickly build your world or you can import your models from a wide range of modeling products. If you are a programmer Blink 3D has the most extensive API available on the market today.

Version 2.0 of Blink 3D was released on June 27th, 2008.

Pelican Crossing was founded in 2001 by Clive Jackson. The companies initial focus was add-on products for Adobe Atmosphere. However with the demise of Atmosphere in Dec 2004, Pelican Crossing stepped into the resulting void with Blink 3D.

IMVU : the leading global 3D community

Posted on by

IMVU

Founded in 2004 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA, IMVU Inc., is an online destination where young adults meet new people in 3D. In public beta, the company has already reached major milestones including 20 million registered users, 100.000 registered developers, and $1 million in revenue each month. Members of IMVU have fun meeting new people with similar interests and expressing themselves through personalized 3D avatars, themed rooms, one-to-one chats, and the creation of new and unique virtual products. With over 1.5 million user-generated virtual items, IMVU offers the world’s largest catalog of virtual goods. Revenue is derived from the direct sale of virtual credits, which are used to purchase virtual products such as room decorations, clothing items and hairstyles.

Nabaztag “Aenderhues”

Posted on by

Nabaztag André

Aujourd’hui mon Nabaztag “Ouschterhues” a accueilli un frère, le Nabaztag “Aenderhues”.

Signé par André, c’est  le premier love graffiti communicant, édité en série limitée. Célèbre pour son Mr. A, l’artiste André, né en Suède en 1971, dessine dès son plus jeune âge sur les murs de sa maison ou de son école. Arrivé à Paris, en 1981, la rue est devenue son atelier. André, armé de ses bombes de peintures dessine sur les murs des villes son icône fétiche, Monsieur A. Avec son grand chapeau, ses longues jambes, son regard en croix, son sourire à pleines dents, l’arrogant Mr A exporte de New York à Hong-Kong en passant par Londres, Berlin et Tokyo, son message d’amour et ses Love Graffitis. En 2005, il a signé une série limitée de téléphones portables Mitsubishi.

série limitée

Monsieur André est aujourd’hui gérant de boites-de-nuits très chics de Paris (Le Baron, Le Paris-Paris, L’Hotel Amour, La Johnsson etc…)  et il a créé un shop à Paris, au Palais de Tokyo, appelé BlackBlock. Ces lieux et tout ce qui ce fait de plus cool à Paris sont regroupés dans l’association La Clique.

Virtual World of Kaneva

Posted on by

Kaneva

The Virtual World of Kaneva is an Internet-based virtual world first released in beta form in mid 2006. It competes with Second Life, IMVU, There, Active Worlds, and the erotic-oriented Red Light Center. It is developed by Atlanta-based startup Kaneva, using the Kaneva Game Platform. Unlike the more generalized Second Life or the more communication-based IMVU, the Virtual World of Kaneva focuses primarily on virtual shopping and entertainment. In 2008, Kaneva added the ability to view videos both on web profiles and inside 3D televisions in-world. According to its own statistics, the Virtual World of Kaneva possesses over 800.000 members and over 10.000 communities.