The document discusses virtual world platforms and provides examples of things one can do within virtual worlds. It outlines features of virtual worlds like 3D spaces, avatars, communication tools, and economies. Specific platforms mentioned include Second Life, OpenSim, Web.Alive, Unity3D, and CryEngine. The document encourages exploring Second Life, experimenting with OpenSim on your laptop, and playing with samples in Unity3D to learn about virtual world creation opportunities.

1. Create Your Own World
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Richard Hackathorn
richardh@bolder.com
R.D. Hackathorn

2. Outline
• Wandering around Second Life
• Features of a Virtual World
• Various Virtual World Platforms
• OpenSim – Open Source
• Avaya Web.Alive – Browser-Based
• Unity3D – Flexible Gaming IDE
• CryEngine – High End
• Immersive Intelligence
• Fun Things to Do
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 2

3. Wandering around Second Life
• http://secondlife.com/
• First light circa 2004, 20M + currently
• Chakryn Forest
• NOAA Virtual Islands: Real-Time Weather
• Galactic Plane Mural
• Asteroid Strike on Mars
• Info Vis of ‘Death & Taxes’
• SL Showcase
• SL Marketplace
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 3

4. Features of a Virtual World
• Immersive 3D space
• Avatars: edit appearance, clothing…
• Communication: IM, voice, documents
• Social: groups, friends…
• Open viewer architecture, many alt viewers
• Multi-language
• Currency, marketplace, economy
• Land ownership
• Performance, stability, growth
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 4

5. Various Virtual World Platforms
• Gaming MMO
 WOW, etc, etc
• Social MMO
 Second Life – the 800 lb gorilla!
 Others… Active Worlds, Blue Mars, IMVU,
Onverse, Kaneva, Utherverse
 OpenSim and its variations
• Gaming IDE
 Unity3D, CryTek CryEngine
• Collaborative Conferencing
 Teleplace, Web.Alive,
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 5

6. OpenSim – Open Source
• http://opensimulator.org/
• Open-source multi-platform, multi-user
3D application server
• Has a varied community behind it
 Intel Research is parallelizing the architecture
 IBM has contributed code
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 6

7. Avaya Web.Alive – Browser-Based
• http://avayalive.com/
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 7

8. Unity3D – Flexible Gaming IDE
• http://unity3d.com/
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 8

9. CryEngine – High End
• http://www.crytek.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNWj8HmWwQ
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 9

10. Immersive Intelligence
• Create your own Data World
 Visualize the patterns and trends in the data
 Collaborate based on shared experiences
• Holistic
 Explore the details in the context of the whole
 Micro to macro…and macro to micro
 Zooming through levels of detail
 Render the entire database…all terabytes of it!
• Creative information metaphors
 Visual objects shaped by data attributes
 Rendering the natural/familiar to abstract/unusual
• Persistent world, always on
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 10

11. Fun Things to Do
• Play with Second Life
 Free registration!
 Browse/explore with the SL Showcase
 Find a community with similar interests
 Build an interesting thing; buy a similar item
• Play with OpenSim
 Execute the binary on your laptop
• Play with Web.Alive …for 5 minutes only!
• Play with Unity3D
 Download IDE, load/play samples, watch tutorials
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 11