Van Gogh and the User Generated Content buzz 7
Inviting you into a metaverse without user-generated content would be a little like inviting Van Gogh to a paint-by-numbers party. Individual creativity is the key to a thriving, evolving online community; it’s also the lifeblood of a virtual world, even a young one. Of course Just Leap In will support our users’ content; the big question is how we’ll do it, and how we plan to set ourselves apart.
In our Just Leap In world (the InVerse) UGC can take many forms, ranging from personalizing spaces and props with pictures, textures and video (as we currently support) to the ability to leave comments and communicate with other community members (coming soon).
Then there is the deeper form of UGC where people can create original 3D geometry and textures for their use, or to share with others. It’s this last aspect I’m posting about today.
In the near future, we will be releasing a set of tools to a small beta group that will allow 3D content creators to add new assets into the JLI world, and we’ll do it in a way so that we’re not building a walled garden. Our direction is to leverage open standards and existing professional tools and skillsets—not to create yet another set of modeling tools and techniques for people to learn.
By using industry-standard tools for data transport and shader visualization, we can enable creators to be quickly productive at a high level of quality and use their familiar, mature commercial 3D authoring products or free/OSS packages. Following this path also allows content created in other contexts to be easily adapted and imported in to the JLI world.
Ultimately, as we roll out our pipeline over time, it allows us to focus on the creative new features for users in the JLI world, and not writing expansive 3D tools and reinventing wheels.
Our published toolset will be a twin of the tools our internal artists use, which means content creators will have the same ability to create content that we do. Since we are all using the same tools, we will be more responsive to fine tuning and expanding our users’ productivity and keeping them up-to-date as the tools they use evolve.
For the technically inclined, our first release of UGC 3D tools will include a set of XSI properties, RT shaders, a custom fbx exporter that adds some JLI ‘sauce’ and a Mac/PC JLI viewer, with full documentation. Users of Maya/Max/Blender/etc. can tap into our fbx pathway to create JLI-compatible data as well. In subsequent releases, we’ll be considering adding Collada support, which in combination with fbx will further broaden the number of 3D packages that can be supported. We are also open to collaborating with third party tool creators to broaden further the abilities for our users to create.
Let’s continue this conversation in the comments. Let us know your thoughts, and what you’d like to see.
-Nereus
Director of Visual Development | Leap In Entertainment
Comments
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One thing to note: 3D virtual worlds are platforms for the spurring of tremendous creativity. But creative results fall within such a wide spectrum. Take Second Life (SL) for example. A number of created content in SL is truly awe inspiring and then there are those creations that really - are good, however, it's like a 3 million dollar home plunked right into a ghetto sometimes. I don't mean to be cruel but I believe that a company really needs to set standards (for whatever it is) and stick to it. Personally, if I were a business seriously thinking of getting into a virtual world space then I would really scrutinize the standards of the platform and the types of people that are on there (mainly 'content'). I AM in Second Life but as a serious business I would not want to be associated with it. Perhaps SL needs to create another GRID called Second Business where there ARE no BSDM and furry avatars walking around - my opinion. I understand that JLI is an open platform and the beta phase hasn't exactly defined YET what types of people will be joining. I DO see JLI as a great platform for SERIOUS get togethers, networking, even having a company presence. I just hope that JLI will not have *trashy* content like Second Life and Google's Lively. Please JLI set the high standards for the future of 3D platforms. note to self "I'm SO going to get bashed for this comment." With that said - bring it on :o)
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WTF? Who in the world is going to use these complex tools? Who is your demographic for UGC? I'd deadpool this idea right away and focus on making JLI actually work in my browser. Right now, it's totally unstable and flaky.
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@James: Could you drop us a note (via the Contact link) about which browser you're having compatibility issues with? We should be pretty stable with Firefox 3, Firefox 2 (latest updates) and IE 7. Safari support is coming soon...
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I like your decision to support standards for UGC, since I view the interoperability between different 3D worlds as the most important challenge of the next 5 years. My questions are: - what exactly do you mean by "tap into our fbx pathway"? Will there be a converter from Maya/Blender/3DMax to your UGC tool? Or what would I have to do to get an object I designed in one of those apps into JLI? Is there scripting involved or do you provide export/import tools for certain 3D formats? How about avatars and their motions (Poser?) - what about avatars and their profiles: do you have plans involving Dataportability? OpenID? - how about exchanging UGC between users? Will I be able to create a chair and then give it to another user/sell it to another user/publish it in a library/charge money for it? Sooo many questions, I am sorry, but that's what I am asking myself :-)
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Hello all, wonderful work you're doing. Carmen turned me onto this link, I hope you won't mind me offering up my 2 cents. I think you're moving in the right direction. For me, I see Virtual Worlds as a fascinating case, because they are - in essence - based heavily on online video games, and yet they in many ways (so far) have focused on re-inventing the wheel. Perhaps because many of the designers getting into them have come to the table from a Corporate World - SecondLife - Development path instead of a Gaming - Corporate - Development path. Never underestimate the hundreds of thousands of hours spent in the gaming community perfecting user interfaces, creating engaging online games, and exploring data compression and graphics engines. Thus far, a standard solution trying to tap into how to engage Virtual World users is to give them a piece of the world that they, themselves can create. Which is wonderful and necessary piece. However, don't underestimate one of the biggest lessons from online gaming - the power of realism. Not necessarily visual realism, but realism in the way you interact with the world. Consider Counter-Strike, Halo, World of Warcraft, Everquest and Everquest II. Each of these games has been immensely popular and gone through several incarnations. As you prepare to try and draw in a general market and to compete for the pre-trained gaming demographic's attention take the time to study the gaming predecessors closely for a sociological viewpoint. What about WoW or EQ2 creates an environment so profoundly immersive that addiction and romance is a common place occurrence? If we were to use the MMOGs as an example, the ability to customize your environment is on par with the ability to have your own apartment in the game, tweak your character and the trade skill system - so, where's your action? How can you continue to tweak and add greater functionality while not diminishing usability and where is the balance between aesthetic material you introduce and a mixture of user generated material? It's late and i'm a bit groggy but those are my initial off the cuff thoughts. I'll be checking back and am eager to discuss the subject in greater depth.
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It's definitely an interesting problem. User created content can help to keep innovation going within a community, but it also tends to degrade into a (literal) pile of swarming dicks if the number of pranksters outweighs the number of While I'd love to see an import function supporting modern mesh and texture formats, I still worry about things going the way of Second Life (though the requirement of an external modeling tool may put off the casual troll). Really, the only way to fix it is to try to assemble a community in which the genuine content creators outmass the jokers and vandals. Best of luck!
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Sounds like a great project. User content and building a community where people can thrive is something to be proud of for sure.
