Other World Notes: Why Second Life Users Should Try Friends Hangout, the Unity-Based Virtual World (Besides the Special Offer NWN Code!)

Visiting Sunny Daze in this Friends Hangout world (direct link)

Use this link to get a special virtual currency sign-up bonus for use in Friends Hangout, the new web-based virtual world running in the Unity 3D plugin, which I wrote about earlier this week for Social Times. Friends Hangout comes with Facebook and Bebo integration, and gives registered users a space to customize and share online that's 1 million square meters, and according to the developer, can hold up to 10 users (30 if you become a paying customer.) I've tried it out some, and find it fairly impressive for an early Beta virtual world, with lots of room for improvement. One feature I particularly like: You can visit individual worlds with a single click, and enter as a non-registered guest. (Which I'm doing above, as a redhead babe, chatting with an avatar named Sunny Daze, who has a pet cat she bought from the Friends Hangout store.)

I recently talked with Jeff White, the Tampa-based developer of Friends Hangout who's hoping it'll appeal to virtual world early adopters -- and perhaps just as important, more investors besides himself.

Why would Second Life users be most interested Friends Hangout?

Uses the latest technology with Unity, that allows us to easily upgrade, plays in a browser, better graphics, much cheaper [then Second Life]. [W]hat SL charges $195 for a full region per month [Actually, $295/mo. for a private region - Ed.], we give away for free. However we are just launched so we have many things to add before we can say we are at the level SL is, they have been around a long time, and have some great features, but we are moving quickly and listening to feedback and what users want. So now is a good time to tell us what you like or would like to see.

After the break: More on world plans, scripting, and developing offline with Unity

Friends Hangout worlds support audio streaming (as above)

World Plans

[Each user] world is 1,048,576 sqm. Premium members can have a basically unlimited size. We will have Portals soon that connect all the worlds. Right now, there is a bookmark option, that will save a custom playlist of your worlds. Once Portals are complete you can visit any world on your bookmark or those of friends, plus there is a way to go into any world from the Members page... [T]he plan is to basically give away worlds so they have more land to buy more items to put on. We will have options to build galaxys and even a universe.

Advantages of Friends Hangout for Unity developers

Anyone that uses Unity can link into our system as well, they can build their worlds directly in Unity then port it over, so they create the content and we supply the coding, interface, avatars, networking, web hosting, etc.

Will there be a scripting system?

Yes we will have an API that programmers will be able to call. That's a little way down the line, but yes, it's part of our system.

Comments

[Matthew Perreault]

Any word on whether they have the functionality for live music?

[Hamlet Au]

Well, one of the worlds was streaming an Internet audio channel, so that seems possible. I'll invite Jeff to discuss here.

[Robustus Hax]

They need some sort of 3d Mouse plugin or a mouse camming mode where you can pan around and explore without the static camera mode following behind the avatar. Voice and mouth moving would be excellent. And also a new web site please, contact me if you need to Jeff, I would love to come up with an idea for the site, but currently looks like a blend between a free dungeon and dragon MMO and some bought template. Otherwise I really love the potential here.

[Jack]

You have a typo you said 195 per month for a full region in SL ... SL charges 295 per month not 195.

[Jeff White]

Unity uses the OGG format for audio, so if the live music stream can be sent in ogg format, then yes it will be able to handle Live, right now we have the option ofr Premium users to upload mp3 or wav files that they can use, we convert them to ogg on upload...

[Alicia Chenaux]

Actually, it is $195/month for a full mainland sim. The private regions are $295/month.

[Hamlet Au]

Good point, though an FH world is more comparable to a private SL region.

[Jeff White]

The left & right mouse buttons left you move the camera pretty much anyway you wish, the left pans around avatar, the right, moves camera up and down and steers avatar left and right, the mouse wheel also lets you zoom.

As for the design, well I learned a long time ago, some people will like it, some will hate it. Same with the name, some love it, some hate it, But we like it so at least for now, it stays :)

But hey send me some sample ideas, maybe you can change our minds...

[Jeff White]

AS for the price, hey guys, its not really if they charge $195 or $295, it's that ours is FREE :)

[Veeyawn Spoonhammer]

I know everyone rolls their eyes at us Linux users but the fact that the Lab supports Linux with their client is a huge plus. I'm enthusiastic about Unity...someday I'll get to try it.

[J Ballard]

Unity3D doesn't like Linux/Unix. They said Linux doesn't have a substantial market share that it doesn't make business sense to developer for it. That is the same thing businesses said about Unix-ran Internet connections and browsers right before the DotCom boom. Lesson obviously not learned.

[LokiLoki]

I could not get it to work in safari browser, when i did get it to work in Chrome i got bored and impatiant before i managed to get anywhere interesting.... So for me, not much different from SL.

If i am to move to another Grid or world, i want to be able to recreate my Avatars look, and since im a child avatar, not gonna happen in friends hangout. My avatar is my facebook page, My Myspace.

[Jack]

Works fine on Linux as Unity is designed on Mono which is an open source multi platform implementation of .NET

I got it to run fine on Safari as well. The thing is that I really don't see what the brew ha ha over this is.... What is the difference whether I have to wait 5 minutes like I did before I could do anything or whether I wait 5 minutes for a client to download and install.

To me there really is no benefit to this except the price and the fact that it reported I was getting 80 FPS...

[Adric Antfarm]

I'm sure it's a great thing and just as superior to Second Life in every way as we are told Blue Mars is, but I'm sticking with Second Life because I know those encouraging others to flee for whatever reason during the dark days leave the grid a better place with their exit.

I see you are letting them know who sent those people in your link there so they can presumably thank you.

http://www.friendshangout.com/joinus.php?FHID=NWN

[Angela Talamasca]

Took way too long to download a mere 50 objects. Since I'm on xfinity and Hamlet just tweeted this, I can only surmise the slow load time is a direct result of scaling (or lack thereof). And why oh why obfuscate the size in the article? 1,048,576 sqm is 1024x1024 which basically equates to 16 SL sims. As for navigation? Much worse than blue mars, imo.

As for the overall site design? Visually appealing. The pix & vid galleries are a nice touch as well.

Technology wise, one thing I absolutely dislike wrt the Unity interface is the fact that it continues to follow your mouse movements when you're outside the unity viewport. So, for example, if you're attempting to click on other links on the page, your viewport goes crazy.

All things considered? Thumbs down for this SL & Blue Mars dev.

[J Ballard]

Not even supported at all for Linux. Double-checked here: http://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements

It's not pure .net app.

Content-creators that only use Linux aren't gonna waste their time.

[Chance]

13 or over, I have enough of a time with the over 18 SL crowd that acts like they are 13, pass.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

This is the second virtual world site I've visited today that seriously needs to hire/rent/buy pizza for a professional writer.

If you don't take the copy on your site seriously, nobody will take you seriously, even if your tech rocks.

[allison]

Age 13 or over? Why not just call it Grieferville and be done with it? I'll pass.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Hamlet, I know you like hyping Unity3D as the future of virtual worlds, but it's not multiplatform. No Linux, no embedded devices.

[Komuso Tokugawa]

re: Unity3D/Linux maybe not so far away
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=321344#321344 and Unity does deply to iPhone/Android platforms, albeit for a price.

But honestly, Linux, while superlative on the server still has a ways to go to replace win.osx for desktop productivity all round.

fact..please hold the flames. Linuc desktop evangelists can be worse than Apple fanboys. fyi I use win.osx.linux

Actually I would not be surprised to see a whole bunch of independant Unity3D based micro virtual worlds pop up. No reason to use friendshangout (nice as it is!), Jibe, rezzable etc if you need full control. It's feasible for small dev teams to take Unity3D and hook it up to a low cost Multiuser server (see below) for a custom project solution deployed to multiple devices/contexts (within budget reason).
There are many more use cases for what I call micro virtual worlds (current sl level of 40-100+ concurrent users) than the dream of a virtual space with 10000 concurrent users.

Multiuser server solutions for Unity3D
http://www.smartfoxserver.com/products/pro.php (Client/server free 20 person license, linux/java tcp/udp
http://photon.exitgames.com/Photon Client/Server C++/C# win server/C#
udp/tcp Good freebie use license
http://www.badumna.com./ Interesting p2p model, used by some virtual
worlds already
http://mondocloud.com/ New alpha of a cloud based solution...

Komuso Tokugawa.sonicviz
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream

[Ann Otoole]

Looks like crap. just lika all the SL wannabees. No thanks.

[Komuso Tokugawa]

rofl @ ann. I'm no fanbois of any particular tech, but evaluating Unity3D graphic potential just on the strength of friendshangout etc is a little premature.

->
http://infiniteunity3d.com/unity-3-demo-unity-bootcamp-built-by-aquiris-wow/

[Komuso Tokugawa]

rofl @ ann. I'm no fanbois of any particular tech, but evaluating Unity3D graphic potential just on the strength of friendshangout etc is a little premature.

->
http://infiniteunity3d.com/unity-3-demo-unity-bootcamp-built-by-aquiris-wow/

[Nat Merit]

Any virtual world that doesn't support the ability to move the camera around with my SpaceNavigator 3D mouse immediately feels like a technological step back, no matter how pretty it looks. I'm sure this isn't a priority for mainstream adoption, but for those of us already invested in virtual worlds it's a big factor in early adoption of new platforms.

[Breen Whitman]

Its a new generation. 3D with shadows etc, in a browser, I have had a wander round and it went smoothly. Talk about Lindens missing the bus on this one. Perhaps they need to get back to working on their new direction of viewer in browser rather than astro-turfing this thread and bagging something thats only manifestation is Philips words that they want to achieve this(in browser second life)

[Metacam Oh]

loaded friends hangout on my crappy work PC, cant say SL could even sniff that ... however funny, I love Ann's comments, rips SL to pieces, and then rips its competition to even more pieces. Love your commentary Ann but lets face it, your an SL homer.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I do wish them luck. The presentation (up to and including the name) sucks so bad that I couldn't bring myself to try it. But if they succeed, it might draw more seasoned players into the mix.

On the plus side, the search prodded me into discovering TirNua, a diverting little Facebook/Flash world that answers the question, what would happen if the Green Party took over The Sims Online? It may not be cutting edge, but I find it very soothing and somewhat deeper than Farmville and its clones.

Eye candy is nice. But substance is where it's at.

[Fuzzball Ortega]

Eh.....I'll wait. Not going to jump to any judgments on something that's just starting out. Give'em time to improve on the product and all that.

[ChiTown Streeter]

So, since I saw an affiliation with FaceBook and I still like my privacy, I will pass, until that tie is broken.

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

No flamage here, it's just that if it doesn't support Linux, then I won't be there.

[Dale Innis]

User content creation?

[Erick Miser]

Check out https://readus247.com/fix-fallout-4-face-bugs-brown-black-dark/ for fixing any mod issue. I have encounterd the issue and really got huge help from here.