Will Blue Mars Be A Competitor For Second Life? (Read more...)

This interesting article is about the possibilities that Blue Mars may suppose a real competitor for Second Life. The author thinks it won't. Read it to know the reasons.

Photo of Blue Mars by plastichansa

Simulated 3D Maze Made With JavaFX (Read more...)

This is an example of JavaFX that makes a 3D labyrinth. This is not real 3D but simulated. Source code is not available yet, but will be.

The demo includes atmospheric sounds.

http://www.jfxia.com/JFXDemos/3DMaze/index.html

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Unity Indie Now Free: Make Games And Virtual Worlds (Read more...)

The package that was called Unity Indie and now is called simply "Unity" will be free for developers of virtual worlds and games that generate less than $100,000 a year.

In their License page they say:

"Companies or incorporated entities that had a turnover in excess of US$100,000 in their last fiscal year must use Unity Pro."

Unity is a set of browser plugin (very small, 3 mb), and toolkit to make games and virtual worlds.

For modelers, Unity can read .FBX, .dae (Collada), .3DS, .dxf and .obj files.

This news appeared on this past 28th on Virtual Worlds News, and is now live. You can go to Unity's site and download your copy of Unity and start developing virtual worlds and games with it for free.

Unity was used in the development of Nurien as explained here.

http://unity3d.com/unity/

3DTotal Announces its new FREE Texture And Reference Image Library (Read more...)

3DTotal would just announced today their brand new Texture and Reference Image Library – a fantastic FREE archive of high-resolution images featuring 12,500 royalty free photos currently available to everyone without any download limitations.

Example photo

Here’s what you can do:

• Use any images royalty free within the following work definitions, either private or commercial: video games, printed media, movies, animations, websites, presentations, e-books, e-zines, advertising media, digital media – providing the images are embedded and cannot be easily extracted, so as not to be classified as re-distributing.
  
• Sell textures when bundled with a 3D model, as long as the texture has been significantly modified to map to that model only.

But you can't sell, redistribute or bundle the images in any way (apart from modifying and bundling with a 3D model).

The library is currently in beta version. Express your feedback about this brand new feature, and let them know your thoughts about this free service:  Please use this forum thread to post your feedback.

3DTotal Texture & Reference Image Library

Our Twitter Lists Just Founded: 3D Art, VRML/X3D, 3D Modeling, Virtual Worlds (Read more...)

Twitter is launching a beta feature called List that will serve as groups to put twitter users with some interest in common together.

I have just founded some for my use, but feel free to join them, follow them and make yours.

If you make or have some group related to 3D, virtual worlds, 3d modeling or 3D art, just let me know so I can join, and say it in the comments so more can join too.

@hiperia3d/art-in-3d -- For 3D art

@hiperia3d/vrml-x3d -- For X3D and VRML

@hiperia3d/worldbuilding -- For general worldbuilding

@hiperia3d/modeling-3d -- For 3D modeling

@hiperia3d/virtual-worlds -- For virtual worlds