Virtual World White Paper: Excerpt from The Metaverse 2.0 by Clive Jackson

Clive Jackson the creator of Blink 3D and inDuality has some very specific suggestions regarding the development of the Metaverse. He has compiled these in a comprehensive white paper entitled Metaverse 2.0. You can download the entire document from his company website, Pelican Crossing, Here. (http://www.pelicancrossing.com/WhitePapers/TheMetaverse20.pdf) . Pelican Crossing is development firm working on creating a browser plug-in that will allow users to jump from one 3D environment to another with ease. For more information on this and his other products you can read a recent interview with SLENTRE.COM here. (http://www.slentre.com/blink-3d-and-virtual-world-software-creator-clive-jackson-discusses-the-new-web-3d/)

A RECIPE FOR THE METAVERSE 2.0

By Clive Jackson
Based on my vision of the Metaverse 2.0, I have tried to highlight below some of the key elements needed for the Metaverse 2.0 to exist. It will also look at how our product Blink 3D can be successfully used to implement the Metaverse 2.0. Blink 3D is a complete system for creating and viewing 3D environments that can be published and viewed on the Web. Although not required, it is helpful if readers have an understanding of the basics of Blink 3D, in order to better understand this section.

No barriers to entry
3D Environments are ideal places for companies to exhibit and sell their wares. However, one needs to be careful not to setup barriers that prevent potential customers from entering the environment. There are two main barriers that often exist.

The first is that the potential customer may be required to download additional software if they do not already have it installed. This barrier will exist until such time as the chosen technology becomes so popular that the majority of potential customers have already installed it for other reasons.

This is the chicken and egg problem, one that Macromedia faced with Flash. The approach was not to force people to download flash but to offer them a choice of the Flash version or the regular HTML version. The same approach can be applied to Web 3D, in fact it is probably easier to implement.

The second issue is that the potential customer may be required to register before they can enter a 3D environment. This means they have to fill out a form, divulge more personal information and probably respond to an email to confirm their email address, all before they can visit the 3D environment. This is certainly a buzz killer!

Because Blink 3D environments are placed on a regular Web server, anyone with the Blink 3D plug-in installed can enter them. Of course controls if needed can be put into place to restrict access.
Programmable & customizable
Virtual worlds, i.e. the Metaverse, are not just about static 3D images; it is about the richness of animation and interaction. Software used for creating the 3D environments must have a way to add interactivity and animation. This can be done using point and click style interfaces in conjunction with Behaviors or with a programming interface.

Blink 3D includes over 80 Behaviors with more being added. But not all programming interfaces or API’s (Application Programming Interface) are created equal. Some implementations only offer very limited functionality where others, such as Blink 3D, have extensive API’s.

For example, the Second Life API only has a few functions for physics, mainly for applying a force to an object. The Blink 3D API exposes 17 classes for things like physical materials, joints, motors, springs, dampers, sensors, wheels and collision handling. This sort of functionality is essential for anything but the most basic of games.

This ability to have a very granular level of control over the 3D environment becomes very important when trying to create complex 3D environments and especially games. But the API must also be subtle enough for simple applications such as displaying a Mayan vase or a molecule that users can view and rotate with a mouse and cursor keys.
Richness and variety of content
When looking at some of the 3D environments that exist today, two words come to mind: Dull and Boring. Many 3D environments look the same; they use the same colors, the same lighting techniques, the same shadowing techniques. In fact they look like they were all built by the same person with only 10 working crayons left in their Crayola box.

The Metaverse is sometimes a virtual reflection of the real world. We need to look at the richness of the real world and see what it is that we like about it. Why do people travel? One reason is to see the richness and diversity of other cultures. This will be the same reason that attracts people who want to explore the virtual world. Make it all look the same and people will soon get bored. Oh and by the way, adding a palm tree and some wooden huts does not count as richness and diversity. Just imagine exploring a 3D version of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, complete with all the color and richness that was in the film. That would be worth a visit.

There are a couple of keys to the creation of interesting and varied 3D environments.

Support for shaders. If you have not heard of them before shaders are small programs that execute in real time and adjust the look of materials that have been applied to objects. Shaders are responsible for making games look so realistic by using bump and parallax mapping to make flat surfaces appear to be 3D.

Allow people to create 3D models using proper 3D modeling packages. Do not force them to create things with just primitive objects: cube, sphere, cylinders, etc. Primitives are fine for beginners but not suitable for the pros or where detailed quality meshes are needed.

Allow designers to control the lighting and shadowing in the 3D environment. Allowing them to implement night time scenes or dark dungeons or light and airy offices.

Support features like fog and particle systems. These can be effectively used to add mood to an environment.

And in case you were wondering, Blink 3D supports all this and more. Look at some of the examples on the Pelican Crossing Web site and you will see that there is quite a variety and richness to the environments already available to visit.

The richer and more varied the environments are with architectural influences from around the world, the more inclined people will be to explore them. This is a great time for young up and coming Frank Lloyd Wright wannabe architects to strut their stuff.

To create a variety of different types of 3D environments requires a very flexible product, such as Blink 3D.
Linkable
If you ask yourself what the key to the success of the Web was the answer would have to be linking:

The ability to link from one page to another on the same Web site.
The ability to link to other pages on other Web sites.
The ability for other Web sites to link to your Web site.
The ability to have links in emails and documents to your Web site.That’s a lot of links! Links also provide the way that search engine web crawlers move around the Web.

Similarly, one of the keys to the success of the Metaverse will be linking. This becomes even more important if you share my vision that the Metaverse is a vast collection of thousands and at some point millions of interconnected 3D environments built using different software products.

Any 3D content embedded in a Web page automatically has HTML linking. You can go from one Web page hosting a 3D environment to another, etc. If the 3D environment is not embedded in a Web page, linking becomes a little more difficult. For example, take the way Second Life has to handle linking. When Second Life is installed on your computer it registers a new local Internet protocol that works with your browser IE or Firefox. You are probably already familiar with the http:// and ftp:// protocols, well now there is a secondlife:// protocol. If you enter a URL that looks something like this: secondlife://reuters/127/99/25 in your browser it will start the Second Life client and then take you to the Reuters Atrium at the specified coordinates. Now, if you do not have the Second Life client installed, all you will get is an error. To get around this problem some links will route you though www.slurl.com which will first ask you if you have it installed and give you an opportunity to install it. So the full URL would be www.slurl.com/secondlife/reuters/127/99/25 With this approach, Second Life has managed to coble together a way of linking from the Web to a Second Life location, which is referred to as “Teleporting”.

Blink 3D environments do not need to be viewed in a Web browser. The Blink 3D Standalone Player allows users to view environments offline. There are additional Blink 3D Viewers in the works as well. Note, however, that even when using non-Web-based viewers, 3D linking still works. You can load an environment into the Standalone Player and that environment can link to another and another, etc.

HTML linking means that 3D environments created by different software products can be linked together. However, this does mean that every time you link to a new 3D environment you load a new Web page. This means that the user may no longer be on your Web site which may be a issue if your site gets its revenue from advertising.

There is an alternative to HTML, 3D linking. Blink 3D supports this approach which allows the Web page to remain static but the 3D content to change. The only requirement is that the 3D link points to a 3D environment that was also created with Blink 3D.

3D linking offers the following:

The ability to link from one 3D environment to another without changing the Web page.
The ability for other 3D environments to link to your 3D environment without changing the Web page.
The ability to create concentrators or portals that allow a user to access other 3D environments directly from within a 3D environment preserving the “in world” 3D experience.
The ability to load new areas of the same 3D environment providing a 3D experience that is, in theory, endless.

3D linking is the key to never ending, immersive Blink 3D environments; HTML linking on the other hand is the key to a cosmopolitan Metaverse.
Scalable and reliable
When thinking about the Metaverse, it does not take long before the issue of scalability comes up. Scalability can also mean different things to different software vendors as it relates to their implementations. Here are 2 approaches to the problem: Client and Server or Distributed.