Post by Morreion on May 18, 2010 8:22:49 GMT -5
Blue Mars official site
Blue Mars (Wikipedia)
Blue Mars is a 3D massively multiplayer virtual world platform currently in open beta. It falls in the general category of social virtual worlds allowing user-created content.
The platform being developed by Hawaii-based Avatar Reality allows 3rd parties to create virtual worlds, MMOG games, simulations, shops, businesses, entertainment venues, clothing, custom avatars, furniture, virtual homes, and other items. It consists of four main parts: the client software, the Sandbox Editor SDK suite, the website, and the host servers.
The client software is a free download, and includes the "Welcome Area", face editing area, default avatars, clothing and animations. Additional cities to visit are optional downloads via a "Places Browser". New cities and updates to existing ones are offered as downloads when they become available.
The editor suite is a free download after upgrading to a developer account. It currently consists of seven editors with specialized purposes (Block, Body, City, Cloth, Furniture, Item, and Shop) and a developer version of the client software for testing.
Both the client software and Editor suite utilize the CryEngine 2 rendering engine originally developed by Crytek. The video game Crysis also runs on CryEngine 2. The graphics engine is being modified by Avatar Reality, and features not part of a combat game but needed for a virtual world are being added. Content can be created on many 3rd party 3D and graphics programs so long as they can output a COLLADA interchange file format 3D model or TIFF image format. They are then converted to CryEngine native .cgf and .dds formats via the provided development tools.
The website provides account registration, access to player inventory and friends lists, and member and devloper forums.
The host servers deliver city data files, individual item and avatar files, and player interaction and updates when logged in. In the future they may also provide rendering for users without adequate graphics cards.
The platform being developed by Hawaii-based Avatar Reality allows 3rd parties to create virtual worlds, MMOG games, simulations, shops, businesses, entertainment venues, clothing, custom avatars, furniture, virtual homes, and other items. It consists of four main parts: the client software, the Sandbox Editor SDK suite, the website, and the host servers.
The client software is a free download, and includes the "Welcome Area", face editing area, default avatars, clothing and animations. Additional cities to visit are optional downloads via a "Places Browser". New cities and updates to existing ones are offered as downloads when they become available.
The editor suite is a free download after upgrading to a developer account. It currently consists of seven editors with specialized purposes (Block, Body, City, Cloth, Furniture, Item, and Shop) and a developer version of the client software for testing.
Both the client software and Editor suite utilize the CryEngine 2 rendering engine originally developed by Crytek. The video game Crysis also runs on CryEngine 2. The graphics engine is being modified by Avatar Reality, and features not part of a combat game but needed for a virtual world are being added. Content can be created on many 3rd party 3D and graphics programs so long as they can output a COLLADA interchange file format 3D model or TIFF image format. They are then converted to CryEngine native .cgf and .dds formats via the provided development tools.
The website provides account registration, access to player inventory and friends lists, and member and devloper forums.
The host servers deliver city data files, individual item and avatar files, and player interaction and updates when logged in. In the future they may also provide rendering for users without adequate graphics cards.
Blue Mars experiencing slow but steady growth (Massively)
Blue Mars entered a scaled open beta back in September, and we've not heard a lot from that quarter since then. It's still there, though, quietly doing its thing and keeping its fans happy. Jim Sink, the CEO of Honolulu-based Avatar Reality, spoke recently with Honolulu Weekly about where Blue Mars stands today.
Blue Mars has a fairly small audience of around 100,000 and adds roughly 10% to that figure every month. Part of the reason for the small audience is the limitations given by the game itself, but Sink hopes to change that in the near future: "The current version of the game is slow on older PCs. We're adopting a new technology called the Cloud Fusion Server this summer though that will allow anyone to play Blue Mars online."
Blue Mars has a fairly small audience of around 100,000 and adds roughly 10% to that figure every month. Part of the reason for the small audience is the limitations given by the game itself, but Sink hopes to change that in the near future: "The current version of the game is slow on older PCs. We're adopting a new technology called the Cloud Fusion Server this summer though that will allow anyone to play Blue Mars online."
