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VastPark, Twofish Elements and TurboSquid

April 4, 2008 By Lowell Cremorne

The announcements keep on coming out of Virtual Worlds 2008, with Australian-based VastPark using the fourm to announce some further developments.

The most interesting announcement to me is the license agreement with Twofish, Inc. They provide an economic platform for ‘online entertainment properties’ called Twofish Elements™ . It’s an ecomonic engine that claims to be “an exclusive technology that powers online economies by allowing partners to simply and dynamically control banking and inventory policies”. That’s obviously not a lot of detail but it certainly does add another string to VastPark’s bow, allowing end-users to create their own real cash or virtual currency economies. Settings such as pricing, scarcity and product information can all be tweaked by the user.

The second announcement involves the establishment of a relationship with 3D model provider, TurboSquid. VastPark users will be able to insert content directly from TurboSquid’s catalog of nearly 200 thousand 3D models, presumably for a price.

During our interview with VastPark CEO Bruce Joy last weekend, he alluded to some of these developments and like any such announcements, it’ll be fascinating to see them actually come to fruition. What looks particularly encouraging is how comprehesive the VastPark offering is looking. If the interface allows for realitively easy content creation, this is likely to me a successful business model.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Filed Under: Alternatives, Australian News, Business Tagged With: , ,

Episode 2 of TMJ Podcast – VastPark special

March 30, 2008 By Lowell Cremorne

We’ve got Episode 2 of our podcast live a week after Episode 1, mainly due to the opportunity to interview VastPark CEO Bruce Joy.

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It’s an interview of more than 30 minutes but Bruce has some fascinating insights on VastPark’s development and the virtual world business in general. There’s also some brief news snippets and a preview of Episode 3.

For details on how to automatically receive these podcasts, check our podcast page.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Filed Under: Alternatives, Australian News, TMJ Podcasts Tagged With: ,

VastServer announced

March 21, 2008 By Lowell Cremorne

VastPark is continuing its steady journey to open beta, with the company claiming a successful stress test of its servers. Additionally, they’ve also announced VastServer: “Similar to a web server, VastServer serves up IMML, an XML based Virtual Web equivalent to HTML. It acts as the message rely between all the users on the site so they can interact with each other and see what others are doing online in real time.”

VastServer launch

It requires a Windows machine with .NET Framework 3.0 to run with no mention of future Mac or Linux compatibility. VastServer is being touted as non-demanding in terms of computer specs, allowing end users to create virtual worlds “much like Skype conversations”. The real test of those claims will coomence with VastPark’s April 10th open beta launch. The usability of the client application will give a taste of how VastServer may perform as well.

We have an interview pending with VastPark CEO, expect to see the results of that in the coming week or so.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Filed Under: Alternatives, Australian News Tagged With: ,

VastPark close to open beta

March 7, 2008 By Lowell Cremorne

VastPark has been developing under the radar the past few months but today announced an upcoming stress test of the VastPark servers and browser software. April is touted as when the open beta will be launched and for the first time there’s been confirmation of future support for the Mac platform.

vastparkstresstest.jpg

The full announcement:

“VastPark is finally going multi-user!

Getting very close to Open Beta

We are calling on you, our closed beta community, to help us. Did you know we’re planning on releasing our whole platform as an open beta in April?

Before we can release a number of our tools, we need to run a stress test to put our server and browser software through its paces; this is where you come in.

Come online

We need as many of you as possible to join us for the test. At the test we’re going to make some really cool announcements about VastPark which we think you’re going to love.

How do you get involved?

You will need to download the alpha version of the VastPark Browser (available the day prior to the test), and then join us during the test time.

The test runs at 5.30-6.00pm PST, Wednesday 19th March.

Have a look at the chart below for your local time:

San Francisco Wed 19th March  5.00-5.30pm
Austin Wed 19th March 7.00-7.30pm
New York Wed 19th March 8.00-8.30pm
Cologne Thurs 20th March 1.00-1.30am
London Wed 19th March 12.00-12.30am
Mumbai Thurs 20th March 5.30-6.00am
Singapore Thurs 20th March 8.00-8.30am
Melbourne Thurs 20th March 11.00-11.30am

Please add the local time for the test in your diary and if you can join us for the test. We will send out a reminder newsletter the day before testing. For any questions or comments, please visit our website forums.

Thanks for being with us during this next big step!

We look forward to seeing you online.

The VastPark team

We’ll say it one more time to avoid confusion: The software for the test is not going to be available online until the day before the test. We will send out a newsletter before the test to help remind you of the event. Right now, all the software is Windows only but we’re working on bringing VastPark to the Mac. Yep, we heard you Mac lovers and we hope to make announcements about this in July!”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Filed Under: Alternatives, Australian News Tagged With:

Metaplace is hotting up

January 17, 2008 By Lowell Cremorne

Back in September 2007 we mentioned that Metaplace was a new kid on the virtual world block. That kid is growing up pretty quickly and in an interview this week, Metaplace founder (and virtual world guru) Raph Koster states that widespread access to Metaplace should be available by April. The likelihood is it’ll be free for users to build small virtual worlds, with costs kicking in as your world grows.

Metaplace is a service aimed at people designing their own worlds and potentially making money by charging others for the services they offer, with the ability to cash out virtual currency accumulated. The ‘create your own world’ approach reminded me of VastPark, and there are similarities. There’s a brief conversation on the two here.

I love the idea of being able to create my own world but the actual task seems daunting. The ease of use of the toolset will be crucial – it’s hard enough building basic structures in Second Life let alone trying to construct a whole world. On assumption we could all successfully build a world, what type would you build? I’d love to hear your suggestions / thoughts.

Thanks to Virtual Worlds News for the heads-up

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Filed Under: Alternatives, General News Tagged With: ,

VastPark creator – a glimpse

December 8, 2007 By Lowell Cremorne

I haven’t heard a lot from the VastPark team recently but I did notice this video from them:

Pretty impressive stuff from a platform in beta. Have you applied for the closed beta? If so, we’d love to hear about your experiences.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Filed Under: Alternatives, Australian News Tagged With:

VastPark evolution continues

October 16, 2007 By Lowell Cremorne

VastPark is a platform we’ve covered a number of times, mainly because of its Australian roots. There’s been some further development occur, with launch of forums and some new features in the software itself:

1. Support for 3D audio and ability to script sound effects to occur on certain events.

2. Chase controller: “Attach objects to each other. Have objects (mesh, cameras, etc) chase other objects. The system generates smooth chasing automatically. Set up a solar system, have planets chase the suns rotation, or a barrel knocking over brick, or a car towing a trailer, or birds chasing a darting moth and a camera chasing the birds. Furthermore, this feature now allows you to create a 3rd person camera in which will follow an animated avatar.

3. Normal Mapping: “Normal mapping is used to add detail to shading without using more polygons.”

It’s great to see development occurring at pace and with the growing focus on interoperability between virtual worlds, VastPark has some significant opportunities before it.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Filed Under: Alternatives Tagged With: ,
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