ActiveWorlds embeds on Facebook
This is cool news — Activeworlds has a Facebook app now.
They’re best known for AlphaWorld, of course, but ActiveWorlds hasn’t been inactive since then. They switched over to a browser plugin model for their client a very long time ago. I’ve often commented that Second Life is clearly a descendant of AlphaWorld, even if SL doesn’t actually draw direct inspiration from it. For example, in ActiveWorlds you build by cloning objects — not exactly prims, but similar. One cute difference is that you claim land in ActiveWorlds by laying objects on it. As in, completely covering it up. 🙂
There’s a sizable library of stuff made for ActiveWorlds already… and you can run your own servers. But it’s certainly orders of magnitude more complex than what a Facebook user typically encounters. It’ll be interesting to see what the adoption is like given that the most popular “virtual space” app on Facebook is this.
(I also note that “open standards” is the latest buzzword — it gets mentioned in this press release, and it’s not exactly relevant).
7 Responses to “ActiveWorlds embeds on Facebook”
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[…] Rick Broida wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBut it’s certainly orders of magnitude more complex than what a Facebook user typically encounters. It’ll be interesting to see what the adoption is like given that the most popular “virtual space” app on Facebook is this. … […]
Let’s see how the Google SN coalition stacks up. Platforms for development seems to be the buzzmeme du jour. Standards can make a difference there.
Will respond to the standards topic at 3DCheap later. Trying to push software out the door to demo today. We’re not that far apart except my view of history is a bit different and I don’t know how one guarantees lifecycle by splitting the behaviors from the objects.
Haggar’s push to the OpenAjax model for the IP participation agreement is the most interesting development at VWInterop. Them that understand the legalese should be looking at that hard.
I’d like to know on what planet the activeworlds .rwx and .seq file formats are standard or open. I build stuff for the activeworlds platform daily and the learning curve and number of steps necessary to bring objects in-world is ridiculous.
The only existing software applications that I know of that can be used to generate .seq animations (the only way to animate an avatar in AW) are Credo Life Forms, which has long since stopped being developed, and even then only through a similarly unsupported and outdated file compatibility plugin, and Accutrans, a file conversion utility without any animation tools of its own.
I don’t think we are that far apart either.
As far as lifecycle — if there’s one guarantee, it’s that underlying behavior is less likely to become obsolete than rendering. A huge huge amount of behavior is not even visible. AI apps, database integration, web interoperation, user interface and interaction (not necessarily the visuals, but the actual inputs and outputs)… all that stuff can and should be abstracted and written in something that is already widely used. That gives it the best shot at having long lifecycles — and makes it portable too.
Rendering just mnvoes so fast that tying to any one format or even expecting it to have a long life feels like King Canute.
Worth reading Andreesen’s latest post on the Open Social stuff. Nothing like the Facebook threat to get a coalition of otherwise-competitors to play nice together.
I’d like to be able to know whether the FB tie-in with AW is actually a function where you enter the world and start building right out of your Facebook page, or whether it’s more like the SL/FB tie-in widget, where you merely see which of your friends are online and have a picture of your avatar.
[…] this be the bridge between social networks and the 3D web? It is a pretty prescient move. As one of Raphs’ commentators says, “Platforms for development seems to be the buzzmeme du jour.” I’m very curious to see how […]