Features
This set of features will be updated over time. The current features are included in the software you can download and are based on VastPark Platform v0.94.
VastPark Platform
The VastPark platform enables you to build multiuser virtual worlds online and immersive media applications that can run online, offline and behind a firewall. The platform includes a set of technologies and tools that create the equivalent of the Web and enable you to create and run immersive virtual worlds & interactive social media events.
- Elegant & extensible virtual worlds platform
- Suits virtual meetings, elearning, gaming, visualization, architecture and more
- Easy to for web developers to setup and run (follows the same logic as Web technologies)
- Run offline, online or behind a firewall
- Software is free to download
- Freeware (Friendly end user licenses - like Firefox)
- Open source libraries
- Open specifications (IMML and more)
- Highly distributed solution
- Royalty free for commercial use
- End user software (2 options)
- Desktop player (Only 8 Mb!) - AVAILABLE NOW
- Web player (Coming mid 2009)
- Windows (Available) & Mac (Coming 2009)
- Austomatically streams content, media, widgets and plugins as required
Programming
- IMML
- Lightweight abstract markup language suits real time interaction and platform interoperability
- Easy to read, schema-based XML
- IMML stands for Immersive Media Markup Language
- IMML is a light weight powerfully abstract language that can express complex interactive scenes, timelines, triggers and events in real time
- 3D models, cameras, primitive shapes, timelines, transformations, physics, sounds, animations, parent child object relationships and even interactive widgets and plugins are already a native part of IMML. This means you can now achieve much more with only a few lines of script
- IMML is an open specification that enables anyone to create their own software that reads and writes IMML
- People are using other languages (e.g. Python) to compose IMML files
- VastScript
- Fully sandboxed scripting system
- Supports LUA scripting syntax (See Lua.org)
- Plugins
- Using plugins you can address external web services as well as the whole VastPark system: sounds, images, movies, 2D and 3D models and primitives, collision detection, rigid body physics, multitasking, and even rendering engine functions, shaders and more.
Player
- Easy user interface
- Supports http:// and vp:// web addresses
- Automatically started from vp:// links in web pages (if user has Player installed)
- Fast DirectX 3D engine (On the horizon: OpenGL support)
- Physics engine (ODE)
- Automatic content download, caching and expiry
- Automatic networking
- Supports VastPark Plugins
- Talk directly to DirectX and other low level functions or external services
- Expose your own API to be called and used via IMML and VastScript
- Coming: Login and group-based permissions
Server
- Supports an unlimited number of virtual worlds per server
- Scales to support large numbers of users and network updates per second
- Handles different worlds and world elements all requiring different network update rates
- New virtual worlds are automatically served after upload of the .imml file
- Automatically relays network updates to new and existing users so everyone sees the same status of networked elements
- Works with Badumna P2P system for highly scalable serving of content where VastPark Server acts as the first peer for your world
- Chat server (Configured to run for each multiuser world)
- Open Source edition
- Commercial freeware edition
VastPark design tools
VastPark offers a complete virtual world/immersive application design environment with:
VastPark Publisher
The Publisher is a 3D model publishing tool that features a metadata editor, live previewing of models and easy uploading online.
- Login and select which group you are publishing to
- Publish new models
- Includes automated FTPing models into your groups online storage
- Set the permissions on who can add your content into their worlds
- Update existing models and their metadata
- View models added by other members of the group
- 3D mesh preview
- Group administrator interface (web-based)
- Set limits on user permission controls
VastPark Creator
The Creator is a "Dreamweaver"-style WYSIWYG design / code view editor to simplify virtual world/immersive application building. The VastPark Creator is simple enough to be used by anyone with a basic knowledge of 3D and web development or design. It is freeware. Target audience: Developers/designers.
- Quickly develop and test interactive 3D scenes
- Generate worlds that run online (single user or multi-user) or offline/kiosk
- Coming: Login and group-based permissions
- You can use your own FTP program to upload your scenes to your preferred storage/server
- Upload to your account on a VastPark Server to run as a multiuser virtual environment
- Library
- Access content you have permission for
- Search by type: Models, skyboxes, scripts, plugins, etc
- Library tab is accessible in Design view
- Properties
- Graphical listing of properties of an element
- Note: Many elements do not display their full options via the Properties tab, but all options are accessible directly via IMML
- Properties tab is accessible in Design view
- Design view
- Add content from the Library (Models, skyboxes, scripts, plugins, etc)
- WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)
- IMML view
- Syntax highlighting script editor
- Code-auto completion makes coding in IMML a breeze without prior knowledge
- Interactive Preview
- Debugger (NEW feature)
- Enables you to search on just the element in the scene you're needing to watch
SDK - Software Developer Kit
- Free
- Includes developer documentation
- Quick overview
- Discover more about creating plugins that can radically extend the VastPark platform
- Working examples
- Visual Studio 2008 project to get you started quicker
VastPark.com website
The major features of VastPark.com includes:
- Community forum
- Downloads including link to latest snapshots
- Blogs and news
- Showcase
- Documentation includes a growing list of sample scenes and tutorials and (COMING SOON) a community wiki
- List of official VastPark Developers and ways you can join the program
Old Features list (To be integrated into new list)
Feb 2009: This section is out of date and will be integrated into the list above.
Architecture
- Highly distributed
- Cleanly designed core platform
- Plugin architecture enables infinite extensibility
- Metadata structure designed to support optimized device specific client software
- Maintains file format independence
- Web-like architecture makes it much easier to secure than complex SL/Federated models
Why abstract is important?
- Accessibility
- Interoperability
- Value for archiving
Analogy between the Web and VastPark's platform
VastPark has been built to make creating virtual worlds as simple as web pages. Many of the concepts behind VastPark can be understood as having analogies in the Web's "platform".
| The Web | VastPark platform |
| HTML (Page layout markup language) | IMML (3D layout markup language) |
| JavaScript | VastScript |
| Web widgets (e.g. Widgetbox & others) | Widgets |
| N/A | Plugins |
| Web browser (e.g. Firefox) | Player |
| Web server (e.g. Apache) | Server |
| HTML editor (e.g. Dreamweaver) | Creator |
Grow your own community
The VastPark platform is unique in offering online communities and media corporations an integrated "portfolio solution" that enables them to run multiple official virtual worlds and offer exciting community features such as user generated virtual worlds that can connect together to form an immersive community hub. The VastPark platform is the platform that offers a solution to the emerging reality where users will expect separate virtual worlds to connect seamlessly together to suit their immediate personalised requirements.
Up to now, virtual worlds and games have been "walled gardens" requiring you to download special software for each one. VastPark provides a browser application able to connect "gardens" together and enables communities to step smoothly over the "hedges". We've solved a number of the hard issues facing virtual worlds such as enabling content to be portable across worlds and be independent of worlds and enabling seamless linking between worlds...
New tools, mature framework
After 4 ground-up rebuilds since 2003, we are obviously pleased to say we're ready (yippee!) to debut the VastPark platform. Our latest rebuild and our new set of tools are coming along very well. It's been an incredible learning curve and in the process we have matured our framework into something truly innovative.
Some of the features:
- Supports a full virtual worlds strategy: Looking to adopt virtual worlds technology for your community? Want to enable your users to build their own virtual worlds out of your professional and themed content? Want to enable users to link onto your professionally made worlds with their own personally created worlds? VastPark is the platform capable of doing this. Any domain within the VastPark platform can act as a virtual universe (or "miniverse") that contains unlimited virtual worlds inside. Under active development since 2003, VastPark offers things not seen before in virtual worlds.
- Customisable Browser application: Create and run multiple virtual worlds and games that work off the same browser. We are developing an open specification for our interactive media markup language (IMML) and virtual domain specification. Our Browser software also can support tabbed browsing and standard web pages using IE's engine. The Browser is built from a core set of libraries entirely separate from the user interface, which is built upon Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). One of the benefits of this that the software is easy to customise to suit a specific client requirement.
- White label software: Communities have the option to entirely license our platform to create their own customised and branded software dedicated to their community's needs which they can redistribute.
- Device independence: VastPark is built on a metadata framework enabling any device to be supported. Right now our software runs on Windows XP & Vista (32 & 64 bit) and it takes advantage of the power and quality of experience offered by DirectX 9 and the .Net framework. But we don't intend to stop there. Yes, we own a few Macs ourselves. Our roots are absolutely cross-platform. 3rd parties wishing to integrate the VastPark specification into their software, Flash client or mobile device can contact us.
- Link seamlessly: Worlds can be linked together very easily so that users can see into the next world and move between worlds smoothly. In fact, users can even see activities of other users in connected worlds. Current link types are bidirectional and embedded links. We pioneered this back in 2004
- Host anywhere, share what you want: Domains can host content and metadata fully independently because we have developed a revolutionary syndication specification called MetaWSS. What media can be shared: 3D content, shaders, scripts, sounds and much more media to come.
- Cross-world portability: Our content syndication allows for content portability across virtual worlds (and it's useful for a range of other media syndication applications as well).
- Meta Games: How about games that can be played in more than one virtual world at once? See Widgets for our delivery mechanism.
- Widgets: Web widgets are powerful, but interactive 3D widgets are going to entertain millions. Our framework enables 3D widgets to be added into worlds at design time. Although there's much work to do on our widgets system, we can see that in the future users will be able to drag and drop interactive 3D widgets into their live environment and walk up and share a widget virally with friends. Widgets will be suitable for creating characters, running agent technologies, personalised A.I. friends, widgetized games such as seen in Facebook, etc. Interactive agencies who have a strong interest in developing such widgets and a portfolio of appropriate brand clients are invited to contact us with specific project ideas
- No marketplace lock-in: Content publishers will be able to chose which domains and marketplaces can sell/share their content and they can determine how portable their content should be.
- No currency lock-in: We believe in supporting communities having their own virtual currencies. You are free to create and run your own marketplace and currency exchange system. Want to be the Habbo Hotel of the 3D web? Great, talk to us.
- Powerful scripting: Our Creator tool offers full LUA scripting for interactivity and game logic. Component-style scripts can be shared. They can be run server side or client side. Further scripting support is on the roadmap with other popular languages to be added.
- Free download: Our browser and tools are free to download. The Creator Beta is now available (currently in limited release).
- Delivering to your favorite community: We're keen to work with developers, interactive agencies and media companies so that social networks and online communities start taking advantage of our white label solution. That's how we'll be getting the interactive experience in your hands and across more devices fastest! Power to the park!
