Unity3D: Where the Metaverse is Going?

A year ago I posted my belief that OpenSim is the future of the Metaverse, because there were no really good competitors.  Well there is a competitor that could quickly take over and replace OpenSim, OR it could enhance OpenSim and give it what it needs to become the 3D web.  I’m not sure which, and a good case could be made for either.

Unity3D is a gaming graphics platform that does not need a powerful computer to run on, can be run as an embed on a web page, or can run on many smart phones.  It efficiently handles complex shadows, water reflections, transparencies, atmospheric effects, and complex mesh objects.  Scripting can be done with javascript, and needed assets can be loaded on the fly, so no need for huge downloads.  3D objects can be imported from practically any source.  While it can’t compete with the latest graphic engines, it looks really good.  Unity3D is NOT an MMO or Virtual World platform, but one can be built to fit in, and some already have.

Currently, I know of at least 6 3D Virtual Worlds that use unity3D graphics: Friendshangout, Frenzoo, Gojiyo, NuVera, RealLifePlus, and ResLive.  All are in the early development stage, and none generating a lot of traffic.  Two of those were developed by The Sine Wave Company which will set up commercial Unity3D virtual worlds for anyone for a price.  Reaction Grid, which runs an OpenSim grid for businesses and educators, has created a Unity3D based grid called Jibe which is still experimental, but offers a place to host your own Unity world.

At least 3 companies are providing avatars for Unity3D based worlds. Evolver, N-Sided, and DigiMi (Daz3D).

So you would think with all of this activity going on with Unity3D that this would mark the beginning of the end for OpenSim/Second Life as a platform for the 3D web wouldn’t you?  While it could be the case, OpenSim has some major advantages of Unity. First, its free. Second, it scales well in that you can (usually) have a hundred avatars in a location at the same time without having issues.  Third, it is a lot easier for players to develop and build stuff in OpenSim.  It seems that if we could combine Unity3D’s low overhead graphics and mesh support with OpenSim’s multiplayer infrastructure, that we would have something really awesome.

Turns out, this is already being done.  For starters, Tipodean Technologies has developed a web based client for SL and OpenSim allowing you to visit Second Life or an OpenSim based location in a web browser, without a client. It works by converting SL/OS objects at a location to be viewable in a Unity3D web embed.   It is still very experimental, but showing a lot of promise.  Secondly, we have the Rezzable people who have figured out how to take whole OpenSim regions and turn them into unity3D regions, and they can do this on the fly, so if something changes on the OpenSim region, it changes in the Unity3D view too. Here is a demo of this at Heritage-Key (you will need a Heritage-Key login to try it).  The bottom line is that Unity3D and OpenSim are very much compatible.

The ultimate OS/U3D integration would have the graphical virtual world built in Unity3D, and have OpenSim handle the MMO/Assets/Inventory/Communication back end.  That way both would service their strengths.

If you are interested in becoming a 3D Virtual World developer of some sort. learning Unity3D is going to be an important step.  Here is a good overview of Unity3D development from an SL perspective, and here is what I have been told is an excellent book for beginners.

3D Virtual World News and a Quick Peak at NuVera

Time to look around the smaller 3D Virtual Worlds and see whats happening.

First up is news from back in January I failed to hear about until recently.  Blue Mars has apparently stopped development of the PC client, which essentially means the beginning of the end of that world.  As I pointed out before when I reviewed Blue Mars to begin with, the real promise of the world is a gaming platform in a common world.  What I believe really dragged the world down was the push to turn Blue Mars into another Second Life.  There was a lot more promise in making games on the CryEngine2 platform and allowing common avatars to jump from game to game, but somehow that direction never really got developed.

Instead what we got is an iphone app, and in the transition it lost its virtual worldliness.  Its a free app for avatar building and sharing your avatar with your friends, and 3D chatting.  Instead of chasing Second Life, they are now chasing IMVU.

I got the app for my ipod touch and discovered that my PC login worked, and my avatar moved to the ipod just fine.  I just do not find the app to be that interesting.  I’m not holding out a lot of hope for the new direction.  It works as a novelty, but I do not see any long term success.

The PC version still works, and the various cities are still open, but who knows for how long?  I would not be surprised if the plug is pulled on the PC virtual world by years end.  With CryEngine3 SDK being released for free, Blue Mars’s advantage as a game platform disappears.

Ah well, not all metaverse experiments are destined to succeed.

Onverse Marketing

And speaking of metaverse experiments, a booth at the local mall caught my eye.  I took a picture of it with my ipod.

Yes it is a booth promoting Onverse.com, one of the many 3D Virtual Worlds I have played around in.

To see a booth dedicated to promoting a virtual world at a gaming convention is not  uncommon, but to see one at a shopping mall, is very uncommon.  Onverse is based out of Tempe, Arizona where this booth happens to be.  Probably the only one around anywhere.  The few times I went by there was no one manning the booth, just a promotional video playing on a loop and four computers with the game running on them.  Interesting marketing strategy anyways.  I believe I mentioned in my Onverse review from a year ago, that the world is built by five guys working out of a garage.

A Quick Peak at Nuvera Online

NuVera Online can beat that, though.  The development team consists of a couple of people working in a bedroom.

I only recently found out that the program went open beta last fall.  (I used to be so up to date on these things, now months behind).  NuVera Online is marketing themselves as an adult oriented virtual world, but not in a porn way like Utherverse, more like in a no kids allowed so the adults can hang out kind of way.

Whenever I review a new 3D virtual world that still labeling itself as beta, I do not like to focus on glaring bugs that will likely get fixed eventually.  But the bug I encountered as I launched the world for the first time is too funny not to mention.

Just to show you there is still some work to be done on Nuvera, I signed up for an account (I’m Ariane there too), downloaded the client and logged in for the first time. As I was loading, I get a message “Asset not available” and it did not explain what asset.  Then when everything loads, I see this:

As you can see I loaded up not wearing pants (and yes the avatars are anatomically correct, at least the female ones), and when I attempted to put some pants on, I get “No owned products of this type”.  Yes that is one way to get me out of my pants… don’t give me any.

Luckily, I was in my free apartment where nudity is allowed.  I tried to get to “Tutorial Island” but it would not let me go to a public location without pants on.  A couple minutes passed before the freebie starter pants finally showed up.  Once I put them on, I was allowed to travel and try out the tutorial, where I learned how to change my avatars clothes. (Thanks guys, I think I figured that out on my own.)

NuVera Online is designed to be a player built world.  For $15 you can become a developer and submit textures or 3D models into the world, then sell them for profit.  With only two people building the program, they are likely going to rely heavily on player created content.  This was the founding philosophy of Second Life and it worked out for them eventually.  NuVera hopes to make money in the virtual real estate business.

I bet they at least do better than Blue Mars has.

Ten Years Online

I just discovered that not only have I been on Second Life for 7 years.  Ariane Barnes has been around as a virtual character for 10 years.  The above picture is rendered from the oldest complete “Ariane” poser file I could find, dated April 30, 2001.

Ariane has been an online character for over a decade now. The original concept came to me in August of 2000 after playing the first Alternate Reality Game “The Beast” which was an experimental promo for the movie Artificial Intelligence. I wanted to create an artificial personality on the web, a person that lives in “The Metaverse”. So I dusted off my copy of Poser 2 (I have been doing Poser since version 1), and set off to create a character.

The looks of the character was the late great Audrey Hepburn, which I attempted (badly) to recreate in 3D. The first name “Ariane” came from a character Ms Hepburn played in the movie Love in the Afternoon. The last name Barnes came from the “real” last name of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys. And thus Ariane Barnes was born.

Early renderings first appeared online in 2001.  Ariane Barnes was officially born on into cyberspace with The Sims Online in late 2002, and had a geocities website up in 2003. After dropping out of TSO due to boredom, she moved to There, then City of Heroes, then Second Life.  The Dating Simulator Game first went up in 2004 on a free ISP host and fit nicely on the 20MB file hosting limit, but did not get any attention until the site gained a domain name in 2006.  It was discovered and went viral big time (with millions of unique hits) in spring of 2007 when a link to it got posted on a popular football fan forum.

Ariane Barnes exists as a creative outlet.  Popularity has never mattered, only for personal entertainment value, as long as it lasts, which is why I don’t advertise, or put advertisements on the site.  So here is to another 10 years.

Seven Years in Second Life

A thread at Second Life Universe put up a challenge to show the evolution of your avatar.  I decided to participate.   Even though I first did this three years ago on my 4th anniversary, I thought it was worth updating.

2004: Creepy system avatar.  Some would call this a “classic” SL avatar.   For me it looked ugly, which is why I spent most of 2004 playing There and City of Heroes instead.

By 2005, we could really customize out avatars with attachments and custom skin.  Unfortunately, this made us look like we had too much makeup on.  On the bright side, we could also use custom animations, like he sitting pose I have here.

2006: Vast improvements in skin and hair. there was now full prim hair available.  The world started to look normal by now.

2007: Yet another upgrade to skin and hair, and also eyes. Hair was flexible now so it moved in response to your movements.

2008: Windlight environments, reflecting and distorting water effects added much needed realism to the world.

2009: Sculptie prims made for better looking hair, and hats!

2010: Wide screen monitor, even better sculptie hair.  And cleavage with bouncing boobs.

2011:  While shadows have been around for a couple of years, the code is now stable enough to leave on all the time without crashing, making the world even more beautiful.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to post a picture of a mesh built SL and an improved mesh avatar for 2012.