Spliff
Admin
843
Jan. 2003
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On another forum someone mentioned that ActiveWorlds was similar to There. I briefly looked at their page (will look more tomorrow). Let's discuss what distinguishes There from a program like ActiveWorlds that seems to be well established -- running for several years now.
Here's there website: < http://www.activeworlds.com/index.asp >
From what I read there so far it doesn't look like they have any of the cool transports that There has. Has anyone tried this other virtual world? Thoughts?
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ZzeusS
Members
48
Jan. 2003
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I just tried it. It looked exactly the same as when I tried it 2 years ago. Not gonna dis it because the people that work on it put their asses on the front line before everyone else. It's just not for me.
Maybe a closer comparison would be Second Life, < http://secondlife.com/login/splash.php >
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Karey
Members
35
Jan. 2003
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I tried Second Life, but I just had no luck with it at all. The graphics were primitive and ugly--I mean I was ugly ugly. It was also really slow, I would just freeze. I guess they are trying to use peer to peer napster stuff to do the server tasks? Well, it didn't seem like it worked to me.
The game is very ambitious. You can create anything. But it's just not as friendly. I'm a total social gamer and people didn't seem to want to talk as much. I spend most of my There time just standing around Karuna chatting with newbies.
And there are already some really nasty fights on their bulletin boards.
Oh and this is funny, about 10 seconds after entering the Second Life world, I turn around and I see this guy, and he has the same name, so I ask, and he turns out to be someone from my old guild in Everquest, from like a year or two ago!
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ZzeusS
Members
48
Jan. 2003
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I can definitaly say I enjoy There more than Second Life. SL seems to be interesting at first, since you can create anything, upload textures and sound, and really go wild creating things. But soon you have small cliques of people who want to control everything and think they know it all. The part about buying your land and having neighbors is kind of neat, and I had sort of been interested in developing for SL, but it's HARD. There is no offline tool, it's not very social, and as you said Karey it's pretty clunky. All that time spent developing your avatar and you might see one or two people ingame flying around off in the distance. As I remark to everyone else that's in both "If it had There graphics, physics, and social events with SL's creation tools and land ownership, it would be perfect."
There's just loads more fun. If I had to pay to teleport anywhere like in SL I would go nuts. Now if There had a bankroll stipend like SL.. that would be something  I already burned $30 right off the bat buying crap...
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Karey
Members
35
Jan. 2003
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I remember about 5 or so years ago I was trying to get out of the pink collar ghetto of desktop publishing and word processing and into IT and I had used unix in college, so I tried out linux to see if I could figure out how to get a web server running. Well, it seemed like everyone was doing their own thing and nothing seemed to work together. And I'd ask things like why don't you add some feature to your word processor and someone would reply "oh that's not important for editing code." Well yeah, great, it's all about you! But what about the rest of us?
Second Life reminds me a lot of the early days of linux. It's all hodgepodge, it doesn't work very well, and it's based on unproven and primitive technology. But it's super ambitious and really appeals to that tinkering mentality. I went back to Windows and I suspect I'll stick with There.
Though second life is up 7 days a week :-)
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Guest
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Has anyone tried out Muse (www.musecorp.com)? It's not a game and there is little random social interaction at this point, but the site creation tools are pretty cool--and all free. I'd be curious to hear what you guys think.
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CrystalShard
Members
380
Feb. 2003
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AW is now trying to do something similiar to Second Life - a new world, called NewAW, will require you to buy land and objects before building. Its going to have its own credit system, and the usual ways of getting credits. They're saving most of the new features of the next version (AW 3.4) to that world, so for now AW looks exactly as it used to be. I'm not a big fan of credit systems and having to buy things, but i'm saving my 7-day free trial citizenship to when that world opens to try it out. I'm curious about the technical improvements they mentioned.
Other then that, AW did have some major improvements since 2 years ago, mostly in the Bot SDK and terrain support. You can program bots that will control the entire world and change it according to the user action, thus mimicing Object Interaction - something which is not built in into AW.
The reason you do not see, and will not see any vehicles in AW is just that. There is no object interaction support. Objects will not bounce over each other or fall due to gravity or whatever. The only movements are pre-scripted or bot-controlled, and thus are usually limited or lagged. Also, Avatars cannot "wear" or "embed" other objects on their own fixed bodied. AW doesnt see an avatar as a "base" with "cloth" objects and "tool" objects - it sees it as just that. A single object, loaded straight from the 3D model file. And finally, AW has no physics, period. The only physics apply to the avatars, and that says they "fall" if there is no ground under their feet or if they're not busy flying.
There is taking the entire jackpot in all of these cases.
And finally - you cant affect certain sectors. There can put different rules or "settings" to 3D sectors of its enviroment, AW cant.
AW does have some good points, however. I'll ignore the fact that some of those points cost big money, though: First, an almost total freedom at redesigning your enviroment. You can load any model of your choice into the world, clone it, rotate it (entire XYZ axis is now supported. Its new), whatever. You can also change its texture in a limited fashion. You can also change the ground and sky, and embed URLs and WAV or MP3s into the world. Design freedom is a Good Thing. And the best part: Its all live. You dont need to go out and compile anything. There seems to have these abilities, but for now most of them seem to be limited or locked away so I cant really try them out and say anything on the topic.
Another good point is multiple world linking. While There is a single huge planet with islands - AW is a "universe" (hub server) with multiple small or medium worlds (world servers), which can be hosted either by AWCom or the owning users. This is good again, because it allows for better designing freedom.
And finally: You can get your own World or Universe servers, thus starting your own universe hub. At There, there is only one place to be: And thats the There planet. You cant get your own There system. Its a commercial effort designed to bring money, not to advanced anything to do with VR. AW is abit better in this point because it started out as a system for improving VR in general, but after its original company dumped it and Circle Of Fire bought it, it became a yet another "bring money home" project. Some say COF saved AW from dying... I wouldnt be so sure.
So thats about it.
AW has great technology potential, but they're only using it for basic building around and chatting. There has really good technology (with an abit mysterious potential for now), and although they too are focusing on social interaction, they seem to be much more determined then AW to use their tech to allow more complex things then just "chatting and building around". Unfortunatly, both companies are focused more on themselves then contributing to the VR scene in general... and thats a real shame.
(.... I typed too much again!!  )
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matt05
Members
96
Mar. 2003
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I tried AW earlier tonight for the first time. Unattractive graphics and little interaction hurt it. There looks much better and I can't wait! I looked at SL and at least the graphics are better looking but of course you have to sign up to be a beta tester. Seems that some of you don't like SL so here's my offer: If you have an SL account kickin around maybe lend it to me. I know you're worried about your password and stuff but maybe change it if you can just to be safe. I won't try and hack other accounts like this one simply b/c I have no reason to and I don't know any other things you would be signed up for. So if your trusting message me and if I ever get into There I'll drop you some $T for being so nice. I'm just a guy anxiously waiting for There and I wanna try similar things like it to pass the time waiting for the grand daddy of them all. Plz consider   THNX
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Melora
Members
130
Feb. 2003
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Is there a difference between outerworlds.com and activeworlds?
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matt05
Members
96
Mar. 2003
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i tried AW earlier and now im on OW. The browser has the same AW logo on it. Aside from a few avatar actions they r identical
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Ariadne
Members
467
Feb. 2003
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I had a play around in Second Life last night, after being accepted in even though they had said they weren't accepting in international playtesters yet and although I love the way you can alter the appearance of your av, there are so many sliders and it doens't cost anything, and flying is cool I got annoyed with the way my av walked like a constipated chicken and the graphics just look ugly. I went into There straight afterwards and it felt so nice after playing Second Life.
 "Cake or Death?" ~ Eddie Izzard
Come join my There yahoo group! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThereMeetingPlace
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CrystalShard
Members
380
Feb. 2003
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Active worlds is the owner of the server and client technology. They lease and sell their technology to other companies that would like to have their own 3D chat system. Outer Worlds is one of those companies that bought their own Universe server, and that give their own clients to their users.
Thus, Active Worlds and Outer Worlds are 2 different companies, but they are using the same tech. Other such companies are Dreamland Park, Cybernet Worlds, and etc'.
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matt05
Members
96
Mar. 2003
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What a bummer I wanna play There, and as suspected nobody would lend me their SL account which is understanble. It would just be til I got accepted by either There or SL which might not be that much longer. C'mon ppl plz help me out? Email me or message me or something if someone wants to help thnx
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Ariadne
Members
467
Feb. 2003
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I think that would be a bad idea Matt and doubt many people would do that, you could abuse their account and cause them to lose it and to ask a complete stranger to take that risk is a bit much. C'mon, can't you just wait? It's only a couple of weeks. SL was quicker for me, only about 2 weeks I think compared to over 3 for acceptance into There.
"Cake or Death?" ~ Eddie Izzard
Come join my There yahoo group! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThereMeetingPlace
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matt05
Members
96
Mar. 2003
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Bah! I know it was unlikely but I had to try
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KittenKat
Members
266
Mar. 2003
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I don't personally like Second Life that much but my hubby insists it has potential... when I played it was very slow, and no marrter how many sliders I played with my avatar still looked like someone has stepped on her face... over and over again... the in-game building system is pretty cool though, albeit complicated... some people have built some really amazing things!!
I got into the There beta the same day I applied  but had to wait a few weeks for Second Life. I'd loan ya my account but I think my hubby would kill me!! lol KittenKat >^..^<
CEO of OY!
http://fergusonv.com/there
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Squeaker
Members
192
Feb. 2003
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Second Life is in an earlier stage of beta then There (if I remember correctly) so I think it is kind of hard to really compare them straight across the board but that may just be me "The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skills, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter - or at least, most minds are."
-Severus Snape
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matt05
Members
96
Mar. 2003
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Kitten tell ur hubby that I'll pay him some SL cash if there is such a thing maybe that will change his mind You played TSO? Do you have any chars in Jpines? I used to play. Disco Stew baby! If your in Jpines ask about me I'm famous and check on a place called the Sugar Shack. It's my old pad I'm wondering hows its doing...
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animalcrossing52
Members
333
Mar. 2003
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I tried Active Worlds, and ditched it in favor of another galaxy called Newfoundland. AW seems kinda... plain compared to There. It's fun at first, but you get realllly bored after some time.
P.S. I'm talking 'bout getting bored of AW, not There.  You are an Intrepid-class Scout, Starfleet's frontline sentry. You're a bit of an enigma. Your grace and intelligence may go unnoticed, but people rely on you for your insight and ability.
Avatar name in There: Henry_Wu
C program run. C program crash. C programmer quit.
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Tonie
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April 08 2003, 6:27 pm |
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I just tried AW, and I thought the graphics were terrible. The avatars were small, and I think There is alot better 
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