Raph’s Website » Vivaty implements X3D in Flash

Vivaty implements X3D in Flash

September 22nd, 2009 (Visited 1678 times) Tags: flash, vivaty, web3d, x3d

First, the link to the blog post:

Vivaty in Flash (Sneak Preview) « Vivaty Blog.

It isn’t a full version of Vivaty — you can chat with one other user, and the space does not look customizable right now. There’s effectively an “upsell” to the plugin-based client.

The Flash version of Vivaty is a great way to get introduced to the experience, explore parts of the world, and meet new people. Currently, you can hangout with one person at a time, but you’ll soon be able to build up your friends list, and mingle inbetween both the full Vivaty experience and all of the big parties and events and the more intimate scenes that are in the lightweight version of Vivaty.

– from the FAQ

The rendering looks pretty darn good for Flash 10. I wasn’t able to find a way to go look for a specific other person — looks like it does random matchmaking right now. And my avatar (and theirs) went invisible after a while. It is nonetheless an impressive technical achievement. According to Tony Parisi in the comment thread, this is literally a port of their X3D client:

From the outset, we made a conscious decision to use X3D as our delivery format for the 3D. As you can imagine, that made the task of developing our Lite application much easier, essentially a port. And of course since so much of our service is driven by the back end, it was really just a client port plus a slight simplification of the content.

That comes from a discussion in the comments to the blog post, where people are attacking the project on the grounds that X3D is all about open standards, and implementing it in Flash is a betrayal of core principles. These people need to get a grip. An open standard that is used by effectively no one (statistically speaking) is no standard at all regardless of what bodies back it. The sad fact is that technical superiority, openness, and official acronyms have zero to do with whether something really becomes a standard, which is all about getting lots of people to use it.

The way Vivaty are approaching this uses Flash as a gateway to the full experience. If this lines up with the way it has gone for others who have tried this, the Flash version will get dramatically more usage than the plugin version.

(Thanks to len for the heads-up!)

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Tweets that mention Raph’s Website » Vivaty implements X3D in Flash -- Topsy.com wrote on September 22nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm:

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Game Flash. Game Flash said: RT @raphkoster New blog post: Vivaty implements X3D in Flash http://bit.ly/hwdos #flash #3D #vivaty #x3d [...]

Tony Parisi said on September 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm:

Raph

Thanks for the shoutout. We’re doing our best here.

As a recovering standards addict, I have to agree with your assessment on that score.

One day at a time…

Tony

Raph said on September 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm:

It really does look like a great technical step, Tony, congrats!

I did see I still need to persuade you on the value of the 2.5d spaces in today’s market, though.

Matt Mihaly said on September 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm:

Hello Kitty Online does something like this too, with a limited Flash version of their download game available to play during the multi-hour download.

Tony Parisi said on September 22nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm:

Dude you’re killing me

There’s really no need to persuade me on the value of 2.5D. I said we wanted to do something *different*; that’s not a value judgment.

And there is no reason, by the way, that we can’t also build a 2.5D client with what we have developed here. The 3D canvas that we render into is just one of many client-side components we built to make this work. That could be swapped out if, say, we decided to lower our production value…

Raph said on September 22nd, 2009 at 1:31 pm:

Matt: several folks have done it. MTV did it with their Luguna Beach world and a partnership with Gaia, for example.

Tony,

Or raise your usability.

Just teasing, you know.

len said on September 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm:

This reads like frats that decide during rush week to pool their funds to buy more kegs of PBR to recruit more pledges in total than they can do separately. At the other side, the Greeks outnumber the GDIs and then they can go back to geek baiting.

It’s a good move. Some content builders lose some expressive power but gain some lifecycle insurance and web 3D advances on the one platform everyone has. That’s a win win for everyone but the CAD vendors and they aren’t paying attention anyway.

The challenge in the social network space is to overcome the fact that it tends toward serial monologues and party invites, not virtual spatio-temporal located chats. OTOH, that seems to be a challenge of creating compelling events as Raph does well.

cube said on September 22nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm:

its not the tech, its always the content offered and the people viewsing it. thats why its the MEDIA not the TECHNOLOGY that makes money/vs spends it in this type of buisness market.

surprise surprise.

old lessons still unlearned.

and enough “standards” symantics;) feels like 1999 again.

Tony Parisi said on September 22nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm:

Yeah I know you’re teasing Raph. But it’s so much fun.

Larry, keep ‘em flying. No argument here, content is once and future king.