7 Good Virtual Worlds Blogs (Read more...)

There are not too many blogs about virtual worlds, but the quality that many of them reach is quite remarkable. When a topic is not too much covered, associating is good. That's why I created a group in BlogCatalog called Bloggers For Virtual Worlds. If you have a blog about virtual worlds, virtual reality, or something related, I invite you to join.

Here are some of the best blogs that I've found. I'm a reader of some of them from a long time ago, to others I'm just a new reader.


The Psychology Of Cyberspace

John Suler is a psychologist that entered into the virtual world of The Palace to study the relationships of people inside it. Soon he was caught by the strong feeling of community they had, and became one of them (he even became a Wizard in The Palace).

http://psycyber.blogspot.com/

The Palace, 2D chat virtual world

If you read his blog and the papers of his studies of The Palace, you'll learn a lot about virtual worlds from a psychological perspective: why people make such an "human" relationship with their computers, why we use avatars and what do they show of our personality,

The Palace is an old 2D graphic chat community. They still have many thousands of users, and it uses to be many hundreds online all days. Although it's not 3D, what you learn of John Suler is applicable to any web community.


3D On The Web: CHEAP!!!

The purpose of this blog was to provide the free resources and info for worldbuilding, but it also has the thoughts and insight of Len Bullard about the Web3D.

http://3donthewebcheap.blogspot.com/

One of the creations of Len Bullard: The River Of Life.

Len Bullard is one of the people that were part of the Web3D Consortium and the VRML group from the beginning, and he's also a musician and a composer.

I use to read Len Bullard's blog, as he always gives me interesting things to think about.


MarketSaw

MarketSaw is an excellent resource for something that is hard to find: news about real-3D movies. There are also news about virtual reality. He also runs some contests from time to time in which you can win 3D hardware for virtual reality.

http://marketsaw.blogspot.com/

Bang those PCs! Virtual reality simulation. Photo by Extra Ketchup.

This is really an unique concept of blog that deserves to be read for all those who love virtual reality and real-3D movies.



Zoe Connolly's Virtual World

Zoe Connolly is, amongst other things, the Owner/Leader of the Second Life Bloggers Group at Ning, an awesome and exclusive community of bloggers that write about Second Life.

Veyron Supercharge on the left, Zoe Connolly on the right. Photo by Veyron Supercharge.

Her blog is a compendium of all the news that are generated in this community. Recently she has stopped updating this blog, but she will continue posting to her other blog.

I hope she will continue with so good quality blogs and such an important community of SL Bloggers. Both are very worthwhile for all the SL inhabitants that look for quality blogging.


Virtually Time

This list continues with another SL blog, this time one full of tips and tricks for this virtual world. As many people fin Second Life very hard to use or understand, this blog has its value in making things much easier.

http://www.virtuallytime.com/

All kind of tricks from special scripts to how-to guides.


World of Simulation

This blog covers interesting news about virtual reality and software simulations of the real world.

http://www.worldofsimulation.com/

From virtual reality hardware to flight simulators, simulation games or virtual worlds that simulate the real world.


This Virtual World

A good place in which you can read reviews of virtual worlds, news about the existing ones and the new ones that emerge. It also contains articles that verse about cool gadgets and virtual reality hardware.

http://thisvirtualworld.com/

Active Worlds Reunion And More Events (Read more...)

New events have been added to the Hiperia3D News Calendar Of Worldwide 3D Events.

The Active Worlds Reunion 2008

From July 31st to August 4th, 2008. It will take place in Pidgeon Forge (Tennessee - USA), and as it says in their site "surrounded by the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains".

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/koolccg/reunion2008/

The Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Photo by FruitBatDesigns.

The fee for this meeting for Active Worlds users includes a winery tour, a dinner in a boat, and a visit to DollyWood Park, the theme park of Dolly Parton.

Active Worlds. Photo by Daniel Voyager.

I see that people in AW really know how to have fun... Don't miss it if you are in AW.


League of Worlds

This event will be in Hong Kong University (Hong Kong - China), From October 13 to 17, 2008.

It's an international conference on virtual worlds of all kinds, and will host a colloquium on Online Simulations, Role-playing, and Virtual Worlds. Seems very interesting too.

http://www.leagueofworlds.com/

Mr. Phillip Exhibition At MixED (Read more...)

MixED has already a date for the first personal exhibition, that will be from June 25 to August 25 of this year (2008).

The featured artist will be Mr. Phillip Sand Hansel II.

Image of the opening of MixED. Image by MixED.

Mr. Phillip has been a very active member of the VRML and Web3D community of worldbuilders for many years.
He was in VRML since the beginning.He has been in the main communities of multiuser VRML like Blaxxun's Cybertown from the beginning, and did great tutorials and 3d models in his site (The World Builders Guild).
Blaxxun and VRML had no secrets for Mr. Phillip.

Recently, his background story in VRML has been published in MixED, in French and English.

As new details of the exhibition are known, I'll post here. Also keep informed checking MixED frequently.

Videos Of The Tour Des Mondes Virtuels (Read more...)

These are the videos of the Second Virtual Worlds Tour that took place at February 16, 2008. The videos show the travel of the people that joined through many virtual worlds, during hours.

The show was directed and recorded by Jack Barlett. You can see all his videos here. He has many videos that may be of interest for virtual worlds fans.

What Are Virtual Reality, Virtual Worlds, And Augmented Reality? (Read more...)

Some people misunderstand virtual reality with other notions like virtual worlds and VRML. This article is an introduction to virtual reality and what it is.

"Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one" -Wikipedia

This means that virtual reality are the hardware and software that allows the interaction of the humans with the virtual world. For example, a wired glove, 3d glasses, or the software associated with it.

Virtual reality. Photo by Marshal Astor.

The force-feedback features that are included in many gamepads can be considered a kind of home-amateur virtual reality hardware. The same can be said about the movement tracking devices that are incorporated in the Wii console.

"A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars" - Wikipedia

Here we are two new notions: virtual world, and avatar.

A virtual world is a simulated space, ambient or environment that is created inside a computer. Not necessarily it has to be a 3d world. It can be 2d, text-based, or whatever.

Virtual world. Photo by Torley.

In fact, a fantasy book in which the writer describes deeply the environment of a magic universe can be considered a virtual world depiction. And some board role playing games could be considered virtual worlds too.

Some 3d games, 3d chats, social 3d worlds, role playing games... all them can be considered virtual worlds.

Avatar is what represents the user (you) in a virtual world. Not always avatars take the shape of 3d figures that move in a 3d world. Sometimes they are 2d images, or text descriptions. And a 3d avatar doesn't need to be humanoid, it can be just a floating weapon or hand, or whatever.

Virtual reality lab. Photo by Alexeya.

As a final part to this brief introduction to virtual reality, we could talk about augmented reality.

"Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data" - Wikipedia

An affordable home system for virtual reality. Click to visit.

Augmented reality mix what is virtual with what is real. For example, you put on some 3d glasses, and walk through the street. The computer generates some monsters or people that cross your way, and you see them like if they were in the real street with you, but only you see them. This may sound a bit scary, but techniques like this are used very often in military or medical training, for example.

Vehicle simulation in virtual reality. Photo by Alexeya.

Have you had the opportunity to test some good virtual reality hardware? If you did, it would be great that you could share your experience with us all in the comments.