Blue Mars is a virtual world platform that was initially promising for professional collaboration but faced challenges. It aimed to eliminate heavy clients by using cloud rendering, but these plans did not come to fruition. As a result, the company restructured to focus on mobile platforms and smaller environments with multiple concurrent users, aiming for profitability through social and fashion applications. The virtual environments industry continues evolving rapidly with new platforms and features emerging frequently.

1. Benchmark of Vi t l Worlds for
B h k f Virtual W ld f
Professional Collaboration
10.6.2011
All things virtual -seminar
Teemu Surakka

2. - ProViWo – Criteria
Professional • Task oriented
Collaboration • Avatar
and Productivity • Suitable for use case
in Virtual Worlds • Virtual environment

3. Ambient
Environments Enterprice OLIVE EON Coliseum
Performance
VCS Teleplace Cranial Tap
Avaya
web.alive Green Phosphor
Open Qwak 3DVIA Scenes
ProtoSphere
3DXplorer
Open Cobalt Edusim
VenueGen
V G Assemblive
A bli
Jibe
Prototerra
Open GeoSim Cities
realXtend
Wonderland
Unity 3
Open Source OpenSimulator InWorldz Second Life Blue Mars Proprietary
Icarus Studios
BigWorld
Twinity
ActiveWorlds
3B
Habbo
ExitReality Nuvera Online
Entropia
Social Kaneva
Universe

4. Case Blue Mars – many things to learn
For large events (approx
(approx.
100 participants):
+ graphics
+ each region can support
thousands of
simultaneous users
i lt
- Extremely heavy client
- Complex SDK

5. Blue Mars on the “news”
TechCrunch (08.11.2010) Blue Mars Looks To OTOY’s Clouds To Take 3D
Worlds Mainstream
”The problem so far: in order for someone to wander around a Blue Mars world, a user typically
p , yp y
needs to download a hefty native client. That’s fine for big games that people want to play, but
nobody is going to take the time to download and install this client for, say, a 3D world that’s been
created as part of a marketing campaign. But soon Blue Mars and the companies using its platform
will be able to embed these virtual worlds as part of a normal webpage, with no download
needed.
needed ”
Blue Mars Company Blog (08.11.2010) Blue Mars runs on the Cloud! Remote
rendering demos using OTOY technology!
"It will eliminate the barriers to entry for Mac users, and for people without the necessary
graphics capabilities to run Blue Mars. It will also make Blue Mars portable, essentially able to run
on anything that can stream a YouTube video, including iPhone, iPad, Android, or Google TV."

6. Blue Mars on the “news”
Andromeda Media Group (15.01.2011) Requiem For Blue Mars
“In what can be seen as an unexpected move on Friday, Avatar Reality (makers of Blue Mars)
announced their intentions to restructure the company and focus mainly on mobile platforms. This
will, inevitably, come at the expense of the PC client many currently use, and over time the PC
client will be phased out entirely in favor of the iOS (Apple) mobile client application and
possible web client.”
“In August 2010 th i plans f utilizing OTOY cloud rendering f Bl M
“I A t 2010, their l for tili i l d d i for Blue Mars did not come t
t to
fruition, and as a result the delay in implementing that solution caused the company to more
or less fold.”
“As it turns out, and rightly so, with or without OTOY in use, the cost of rendering and streaming
g y g g
Crytek level graphics costs far more than the company could sustain, and by all means more
than any content creator was willing to pay to have hosted.”

7. Blue Mars is dead. Long live Blue Mars.
ONLand Blog (19.01.2011) Wake up to Reality –
Why it’s not all doom and gloom in Blue Mars
“To this end, Avatar Reality appear to be starting out small
To end
with avatar sharing and focusing specifically on fashion,
but will be extending over time to rendering smaller
environments, developing housing and creating social
meeting places for numbers of avatars to congregate.
Indeed, Jim [Sink – f
S former C O specifically mentions
CEO] f
multiple con-current users can be rendered
simultaneously using current mobile devices. One only
needs to look at the success of PC titles such as the Sims
to realise how profitable this could be for Avatar Reality
and their investors.”

8. Case Blue Mars – Takeaways
• Platform suitability for the use case is essential
• The VE Industry is changing fast
• We have decided to focus on four different use
cases of virtual environments in this report. We
provide some examples of virtual environments
relevant to these use cases and reasons why we
think they are relevant
relevant.

9. Process
Use case lens
Business needs funnel Good examples

10. Use Case 1: Small Collaborative Meetings
These meetings are still the most common use cases of virtual environments
in professional setting. With small collaborative meeting we mean the use of
a virtual environment for a meeting to share ideas discuss and
ideas,
collaborate with a help of adequate set of tools such as brainstorming
tools and shared whiteboards.

11. Use Case 2: Large Events
Large events usually consist of different types of tradeshows, fairs and
large meetings. In addition to the reduction on travel costs, virtual
environments can offer built in tools for efficient networking and for
built-in
generating leads.

12. Use Case 3: Learning and Training
This use cases require the possibility to customize environment to create
scenarios and simulations as the objectives might vary significantly from
case to case. Successful cases rely on the engagement of the participants
and sense of presence. This is something more than just high quality
graphics – for example being able to personalize your avatar and to work
effortlessly are just as important aspects.

13. Use Case 4: Product Development and
Process Simulation
This use focuses on the use of existing 3D content in the virtual
environment and having interaction with the content. I addition, t
i t dh i i t ti ith th t t In dditi to
support collaboration in the environment, the platform should have various
collaboration capabilities, such as presentation screens with adequate
document support or white boards.
pp

14. Alive and Interactive
https://blogs.aalto.fi/allthingsvirtual/
p g g

15. Alive and Interactive – fast paced industry
New environments:
Kitely (20.4.2011)
Open Qwak (3.5.2011)
New features:
Blue Mars mobile app (10.3.2011)
ue a s ob e ( 03 0 )
Assemblive 2.0 – scripting & attention focus (13.3.2011)
New server technology for realXtend (2.5.2011)

16. Alive and Interactive – additional viewpoints
(security)

17. Alive and Interactive – hands-on session