December 31: Paris Hilton In Virtual Worlds With Exitreality (Read more...)

Just a quick note: Paris Hilton will host a 3D party using ExitReality tomorrow December 31. Read the details and enter the 3D world from here:

http://www.bongovirusnye3d.com/

Cobalt: Open Source P2P Virtual Worlds Browser And Construction Toolkit (Read more...)

Cobalt is a free and open source virtual world browser and construction toolkit, based on Croquet.
Cobalt is currently in alpha phase, and will enter in beta in Summer 2009.

Cobalt is a free and open source metaverse browser and construction toolkit for accessing, creating, and publishing hyperlinked multi-user virtual worlds.  Powered by Croquet technology, Cobalt uses P2P messaging to eliminate the need for virtual world servers.

With it, you can create and share deeply collaborative virtual worlds that run on all major software operating systems. 

It may be used for multi-user virtual workspaces, game-based learning and training environments, or even just for fun.

There are already projects based on Cobalt, like Edusim, that is focused to education. You can see that Cobalt, just like Croquet, has strong virtues for virtual reality applications:

And here's another video that shows Cobalt being tested on a 13-foot by 5-foot multi-touch visualization wall equipped with six high-definition projectors located at the Renaissance Computing Institute engagement center at Duke University

Finally, here you are some web URLs to start learning about Cobalt:

Cobal Blog:
http://thefutureinvented.blogspot.com/

Google Group for developers:
http://groups.google.com/group/cobaltcroquet

Community Portal for users and developers:
http://cobalt.ning.com/

Realtime Arts Formed to Serve Virtual Worlds and Visual Simulation Industries (Read more...)

Realtime Arts, a creative agency providing professional computer graphics production and training services, announced on December 15, 2008, its formation as a limited liability company (LLC). The agency serves the virtual worlds, serious games and visual simulation industries. These serious applications leverage high-performance interactive 3D computer graphics technology, similar to that used in the latest video games.

The company was formed in San Francisco by two individuals, Christian Greuel and Aaron F. Ross, for the purposes of building a world-class digital content creation studio and providing instruction in the skills of the trade.

“We believe that our unique combination of production and training offerings places our customers in a position to benefit from the current economic conditions.
By working with remote teams, we offer our production clients excellent value. At the same time, we are helping to train creative individuals around the world who desire to improve upon their existing skill sets, without the need for increasingly expensive travel.”
-Christian Greuel, President of Realtime Arts.

Realtime Arts' initial clients as an LLC include software developer Blue Newt Software and graphics hardware giant NVIDIA®. The company is currently in discussions with key platform, development and training partners, with the intention of securing a leading market position. Announcements on this topic are expected to be released in early 2009.

Greuel is an artist and producer with 15 years of experience in the field of interactive 3D computer graphics. He has previously held positions with Timeless Cities (VP Production), Planet 9 Studios, LEGO®, and virtual reality pioneer Fakespace Labs.

Ross, who serves as the Director of Training, is an Autodesk® Certified Instructor for Maya® and is the author of three books on 3ds Max® animation software. He has nearly a decade of experience teaching college courses in 3D computer animation, video production, and audio.

Both Greuel and Ross hold Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees from the California Institute of the Arts®, the interdisciplinary art school created by Walt Disney.

Production services offered by Realtime Arts include 3D modeling and animation, programming, scripting, project management, concept development, and design documentation. Particular expertise is offered in urban simulation, geo-referenced terrain, and CAD format conversions. The company's production pipeline utilizes open formats such as COLLADA™ and X3D™, preferred by a growing number of 3D rendering engines and virtual world platform, such as Forterra OLIVE™, Multiverse, Wonderland, Qwaq Forums, and the Xj3D Toolkit.

Training offerings include customized courses in digital content creation and design visualization. Classes draw upon real-world knowledge gained in actual production environments and are taught in either of the leading 3D graphics packages, 3ds Max or Maya. Realtime Arts supports training for a wide range of disciplines and industry specializations such as animation, architecture, games, geospatial, graphic design, industrial, scientific, virtual worlds, visual effects, and visual simulation.

For additional information on Realtime Arts, visit:
www.realtimearts.com

RealXtend: Open Source Virtual Worlds Platform (Read more...)

realXtend is a free open source virtual world platform with which you can create your own applications using it as a base.

There are 2 main products in this platform:

• The realXtend viewer, that is GPL licensed.
• The server, that is BSD licensed, and is based on the open source OpenSim server software.

The server has a sample virtual world that you can use as it is, or you can modify it to suit your needs. realXtend also offers free, high-quality content for your own worlds.

They're providing this for free in the belief that "the true value of the interconnected 3D worlds is in the applications, not the platform".

Present features:

• OGRE rendering
• Particle effects
• 3D objects, lights and shadows
• Integrating web pages within virtual worlds
• Desktop application sharing (VNC) to share your applications with other users
• Voice chat
• Scriptable teleports between worlds
• Second life compatibility mode for use in SL and Opensim worlds
• Sprites
• Address field in client login screen to select world
• Python scripting to make your own applications
• Free-form non-humanoid avatars
• Avatar generator to import your own avatar design and modify your appearance
• Avatar attachment tool to help set objects to your avatar
• Unlimited amount of attachments
• Teleports between realXtend and SecondLife
• Media library for world builders

Roadmapped features:

• Direct3D rendering for better performance
• Support for OGG Vorbis
• Support for video (other than quicktime)
• Avatar generator and attachment tool integration to rexViewer
• OGRE materials support
• Improvements to in-world building tools
• Weather support
• Integration with skype/google spreadsheets/openoffice
• Avatar face/head animation based on live video camera data
• Lip synch for VOIP
• Clothing physics
• Vehicles support

Here you are a video that shows an overview of realXtend:

And here's another that shows an avatar customization process:

Now, some additional links for your investigation:

Developer Community: http://community.rexdeveloper.org/

Wiki: http://www.rexdeveloper.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

AWSource: Your VW Resources On ActiveWorlds (Read more...)

AWSource has an Information room that is focused on the metaverse, and contains blogs and links to many kinds of resources. This world is free and open to the public, and has no limit on simultaneous users, thus being a very good place to hold meetings.

AWsource itself has 26 information rooms featuring world weather, biometrics, news, technology news, and so on.  Suggestions for new topic specific rooms are always desired.

Jaque Davison, known as Lensman in ActiveWorlds, has explained in the AVW, how to get to AWSource:

"To get there, download and install the Activeworlds Browser.
Sign on and after arrival at AWGate world click the tab on the upper left of the browser and select the worlds tab.
Scroll down the list till you find "AWSource" . Click it.
Upon arrival at AWSource look right of the arrival point for the "World Teleports" sign click it then locate the metaverse sign and click that to arrive at the information room.
You could just walk south form the initial arrival point or use the ram warps which are blue glowing disks to speed to to the world teleports platform."

You can contribute to the friendly ActiveWorlds community by adding resources to AWSource. If you have any favorite VR service (blogs, newsgroup, worlds, Universes etc.) send the link to Lensman64@aol.com  and it will get posted.