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Tech Demo Videos

by Dallas 26. June 2012 08:53

Hey everyone,

We have been hard at work for months on a new version of the 3D World, and the time has come to reveal our first tech demo video.

 

In this video, you will find highlights of some of the features we are implementing:

The Street - We wanted to show The Street in our new Unity environment so everyone knows that we will be able to convert current areas and regions into the new version of the 3D World. This is still preliminary, and there is lots of work to be done, but this is a great example of how the world will be transformed, but still keep the same look and feel everyone is familiar with.

Dynamic Lighting – An extension of the previously shown video on the new weather system, but now you can see the affects of that system on the avatars and environment in the 3D World. 

Interactive Trigger actions - This is a system that can trigger ‘events’. What you’ll see here is an avatar entering a group of pigeons. When the avatar reaches a certain point, the pigeons fly away. This will allow us to create very dynamic and real environments in the new version of the 3D World.

Shadow Mapping - In the new version, one of the coolest additions is Dynamic Shadows. If you watch carefully you can see the trees and avatars casting dynamic shadows throughout the video.

Scriptable Game Play - One of the main focuses in the new version is allowing Users to create applications with Javascript. In the video is a chess game, which was created with Javascript and then implemented into our client. This is a small example of the flexibility and interactivity that the new version of the 3D World will bring. 

 

Included is also a tech demo which showcases an outdoor amphitheater. This is a sneak preview of how much potential there is for lush outdoor regions. Enjoy!

 

Stay tuned to the Dev Blog, as we’ll be releasing more and more information in the coming months.

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Demonstrations

User Generated Content

by Dallas 14. June 2012 10:11

So we’ve been asked to provide some details on what types of things will be able to be user generated in the new platform. I’ll outline here a few of the things that we’re planning; however, keep in mind that at this point nothing is final and things may change during development. We make no guarantees that what we mention here will remain done in exactly this way, this is just our current wishlist and what we have planned.

 

Textures:

 

Of course we will keep supporting uploading of textures. Users will be familiar with this from the re-texturing options from the current client. We do however hope to include a lot more tools that allow users to do some texture editing INSIDE the client. We’ve been experimenting with things such as changing the hue and brightness of textures, layering multiple textures on top of each other, and allowing projection of decals onto surfaces all inside the client. We’ll also be using more advanced shaders; users will have access to specular, bumped, parallax and more advanced shaders. For those looking to gain some advanced knowledge on these new advancements to texturing, the Wikipedia pages on them can tell you more about what we’re talking about:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specularity

 

We’d also recommend checking out game development forums and tutorials for more information on how create spec and normal maps for your future texturing!

 

Objects:

 

This is the first of the brand new options we’ll have in the new system for user created content: we’re planning on supporting uploading of your own props and meshes. This is considerably more difficult then just retexturing an existing mesh, but we’re confident that many of our users will have the talent and dedication required to learn the skills.

 

The simplest type of mesh that users will be able to upload will be one for a prop. If you want a new couch and none of the currently available couches in the client look exactly the way you want then you can use a 3D creation software of your choice to create one to your exact specifications and then texture it as mentioned above and upload it to the system. The engine that we’re using currently supports OBJ and FBX file formats, which are two of the most common formats exported by 3D software, so you should be able to choose which creation suite to use. The VWW Art team prefers to use Maya, but we also recommend Blender as a cheap (free in fact!) alternative. The downside to using blender is it does not support FBX file formats and only OBJ.  

 

A much more complicated type of mesh that can be uploaded are character meshes themselves. We don’t want to go into detail about this too much yet because it’s still in development, but we plan on letting people upload their own clothing meshes as well, therefore greatly increasing the capabilities of clothing designers. If you wish to start working on your skills in this department, we recommend checking out some tutorials online for Character Modeling and Skinning (which is the process of attaching the mesh to the bones used in animation).

 

Recommended website:

 

3dbuzz.com

 

Animation:

 

Finally we also hope to support uploading animation files to be played on your character. Now we have a special treat for you all here... we're releasing a few files for you to play around with! By clicking the download link below, you can download a zip file which will contain the working Male and Female skeleton files, along with a short video explaining how they're going to be used. We won't be providing animation tutorials of our own (at least not right now anyway), but you can use these skeleton files to practice your own animating talents for when the system is released! Currently the team uses 3DS Max, Maya and Motion Builder to do animations. Unfortunately our new system uses FBX file format therefore Blender is not recommended. Until further notice there is no other alternative.

 

Download link!

www.utherverse.net/downloads/Utherverse_Animation_Example_Package.zip

 

 

Recommended website:

 

3dbuzz.com

 

Regions and Scenes:

 

We will not talk too much about this at the moment until we have further knowledge of how this will work. But this has been brought up in our discussions and when we have more information we will share it with everyone.

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Articles