Yesterday we released some new features into JLI for beta testing (with many more to come!) We’d like to invite you to come try out the new content on www.justleapin.com and to share your comments over on the Forum.

The new stuff in this version (0.7.7):

Customize surfaces anywhere. You can now drag your uploaded Images, Textures and Videos onto almost any surface.

New space templates (Lost City, Treehouse, Cyberdeck, Monocle), and many new objects. Click below to sample the new Lost City template, or log in to personalize any of the new templates for yourself.

Click to sample the new Lost City template on JustLeapIn.com

New controls (mouselook, acceleration, and more).

Read on for the details.

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.

   Woman: Larry, you must meet our daughter, the debutante. She just came out.
   Rodney Dangerfield: Whoa! Put her back in, she’s not done yet!
                 - The Simpsons, “Burns, Baby Burns“

Thank you so much to Consiliera (“No learning curve at all – anybody can create anything with it in minutes”), DigitalFemme, WangXiang, UniversVirtuels, Mal Burns (“This is what we consider closest to an actual metaverse “inside” the web”), The DDM Collective, Mondes virtuels, and everyone who’s taken some time to embed a space or comment on their site or blog during our debutante week. We’re so grateful to you, and we’ve learned a lot from your comments already – the good, the bad, and the ugly. :)