Well it has been a while, but appropriate for the stage of development.  I have 5 binders of graphical references, drawings of the "3 level" details, and documentation.  starting to scan in the references for textures.  As a very interested observer of the industry it is exciting to see many programs popping up to make 3D engines available to the little guy.  Unreal is implementing their terrain engine and the ability to add up to 120 times the detail of Unreal Tournament.  This is exactly what Nemo's Mind needs.  The Microsoft X- Box console promises to bring us to a new level and of course the reality is that the PC is never more than a few months behind any development in consoles.  Though it is hard to see the difference between the X-Box and my PC as far as the internal structures - "Is it a console or a computer?" is already an old argument.   All these developments mean true art is right around the corner.  i love this industry because money isn't the only driving factor.  Many times it is obvious that the love of the art is the only thing keeping many projects and hardware moving forward!   To the future!!

The latest big development in the maturing of the Net and 3D.  Real Networks of streaming audio and video have partnered with the Lithtec engine to provide developers and small "garage" projects an avenue of tools, 3D engine, game code, showcase and sales.  They hope to have a rack of episodic games updated continually by us wannabe creators for the downloading public.  Not quite the same thing as the aim of Wild Tangent to support streaming 3D but we can assume that what market one creates the other will follow.  So we celebrate the validation of the new market and another step closer to having some great tools to make our virtual worlds by using the game industries tools

c ya     Kevin

The Tools of the future!!  Here are some examples on the evolution of 3d world editing tools (fluid dynamics is always a good litmus test).  It is exciting one year to see plug-ins into the tools to simulate waves.  And a plug-in to simulate fire.  Most of these at this time are slow and it can take a lot of time to get several frames of animation or even to make a still shot.  But the competition keeps stepping up and the evolving of the tools is evident.  Some great physics engines are already in use that can put all these aspects of the world into one package.  Add that to the advent of real time tools, meaning the ability to move a light within the world you are creating, and immediately see the results, and the reflections off of the surfaces.  So to extrapolate this:  In 5 years you will be adding details to a ready made world with a sun and moon moving across the sky, with clouds.  Want more wave action coming into your beach and make those clouds move faster, and deform faster?  Simply talk to your work station, "Change the wind direction to come from the north-east and make it a speed of 20 on the surface and speed 100 at cloud altitude.  The physics simulation will be impressive but still leaving you the ability to do creative details versus sticking to straight realism.   And the other half of that tool revolution to come after the voice recognition is the dance of the hands.  With voice I tell the view to rotate and back up.  Then I say that I am going to add beach.  I reach forward with my right hand and a digital version copies the exact same movements.  Like throwing down clay.  Too much?  Scoop it away.  Want more boulders on the transition from sand to forest? "Give me boulders".  And sprinkle them onto the landscape.   The popularity of world building tools could be a popular as any God game.

While waiting on Wild Tangent I am using a basic strategy for making textures.  Save several stages for the future!!  Save one image with just solid colors with out detail textures.  This may be useful later on for making a bump map or even to use as the primary texture and do all the detailing later on with either multiple polygons or very detailed bump mapping.  A bump map is a gray/black and white image to match up with your color textures.  The 3d engine uses it to fake the height of different parts of the texture casting shadows on where your gray scale image says your lows and highs are.  Another big save will be the image with the details.  It is important to make sure that your work is not saved with just fake shadowing painted in.  Later on you are stuck with all that work and using a better engine that can make those shadows dynamic and you are stuck with fake ones painted into your past work.

c ya     Kevin

Since January we have seen the Alpha and Beta of the Wild Tangent Game Driver (world editor).  It now includes a terrain maker that looks very promising.  They added and now have 4 tutorials included and their web angle is growing.  At the Wild Tangent web site they have shown their technologies ability to make audio  3D interpreters and even games playing within a web browser.  They have some financial backing and will probably go public next year.

About tools.  Terragen was great for making terrain to import into the Wild Tangent editor and also good for scenery for sky boxes.  Perhaps their color map tools can also be used in the WT editor to put a texture on your terrain.  But an easier tool for either making bump mapping or terrain shapes is Leveller.  To get to know a tool, use the undo button a lot.  This is probably the single most creative tool in any artistic program.  Knowing you can experiment and just backup is a great habit to get into.   Creativity will be yours.  One habit I have that really helps to get into the tools of the industry is to bounce as much as possible from one program to another.  You will learn something from every program that can be applied to all others:  photo editors/graphic programs, modelers, world editors, terrain makers, or even web page authoring tools.  Learning powerful programs can be frustrating so you must find a way to make it fun for you.  for you it might mean buying 5 books on just one of those programs and learning it inside out and making your career on that one specialty.

The first non-beta version of Wild Tangent will be out soon.  It is already powerful in its  ability to key frame animate any of its  details.  Once you learn the key framing you can make lights pulsate.  Structures rise up out of the ground.  Fly a camera along a path before inserting your player control.  And as in their tutorial make a pond lily move as if slowly moving with a current of water.

If you want to know how to make a sky box (the far off background in those 3D environments) then do the tutorial that comes with the WT editor at WildTangent.com.   If you want to open your eyes then do these tutorials.

c ya     Kevin

What a break!!  Refreshed after the holidays.  Been doing research on the tools which I will spell out here when they are actually used.  I feel that next editor release coming out soon!  As each month goes by this industry and its tools become easier, cheaper, and more creative.  This project just might become a one person project for the first few years.  But the promise is the same to bring all the ins and outs of the experience to this update.  Someone will come along someday and be the first to follow all this information to make their own virtual world and with tomorrows tools - even easier.  To the future!  Feeling like 2000

c ya     Kevin

Well here is the scoop - Wild Tangent and the Genesis3D engine appear to be worth waiting on.  In a few weeks the next version of genedit will be out.  The plan at this time is to start making the height maps for the terrain.  So when that tool arrives I will have a process to tell you about.  For the moment I am taking advantage of a rare opportunity to chill out.  I personally view that as not an easy task for any body who fancies themselves as developers.  So I am polishing that skill at this very moment.  But I am still trudging along on the outlay of the whole virtualworldnews.com site.

c ya     Kevin

• Virtual World News is functional - both sides of this web site lean on and legitimize each other
• exciting development for the cultural and themes side of the design document - Have made contact (Jules Verne!) with a mail list for a Jules Verne society.  It contains a lot of good documentation and hopefully some of these members can give some input on the themes and even the design of Nemo's Mind.  Even if only one or 2 members show interest it will be great input!
• still improving on the web site presentation design of the design doc
• inches from registering this puppy to the directories and search engines!
• What do you make of this little surprise?  What is this?
• one of the new web pages is "Leagues" a collection of Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" stuff from around the web

c ya     Kevin

• Been busy this week - changed the front door to show the integration of Virtual World News and Nemo's Mind as having the same goal to bring on the 2nd generation virtual worlds
• Also added an agenda to spell it all out for the 2 parts of the site - this will be useful as the vision for myself as I continue to improve the communication of the design document and for the future team that will use the document
• On the Design document I added 10 illustrations from the original Jules Verne novel
• Added an index of indexes so the reader can explore the design document in various paths that fit their interest and personality
• Hooked up the Forum (link goes to the Nemo's Mind section) so readers can comment on the design document and the contents of the news area as an alternate form of feedback
• Added an index of illustrations

c ya    Kevin

• Wild Tangent has announced they will further develop the free Genesis3D version 1 and Genesis3D version 2 will be available for free use by small time developers - David Stafford just posted his new site Jet3D.com and his version of version 2 will remain free with out any restrictions - Jet3D will become even more community based open development than previous kind of like the development of the CrystalSpace engine (another open development 3D engine) - things are looking good on those fronts - even more choices for the engine Nemo's Mind will use

• found a beautiful digital model of the Nautilus submarine at 3DCafe.com - trying to track down the original author, Syd - here is the first glimpse - need to research the use of a model using the Disney version - it may be hard to create a submarine that will have the features of the nautilus/cuttlefish creature without looking like the Disney version - they went off the novels approach that the submarine looks like a sea monster and then by going off the name Nautilus you end up with the giant eyes (the giant round parlor windows on each side of the submarine - and the fins along the top and bottom - one possible improvement on the Disney design would be to get rid of the tentacle styled point on the front end since the front end of the cuttlefish is sharp anyway - also the combine the steering compartments 2 windows into one by moving the fin and cockpit apart (in the Disney design the fin and cockpit are attached and forces to separate windows, looks cool but not the best for the actual explorer in our program to use if they wish to pilot the Nautilus
• in the process of changing the front door to the site - so going to virtualworldnews.com brings you to a bigger screen with the philosophies behind the Nemo's Mind and Virtual World News meshing - I will also loosen up the initial presentation of Nemo's Mind to give different avenues for readers to explore the site and move away from the initial screens being just design document centered concept/treatment pages - the project presentation needs to adjust to the fact that it will become a web site exposing the program and not just the design document for it - I think this will make the web site a better template for those who wish to borrow the set up to hype future virtual world projects

c ya next week    Kevin

c ya next week    Kevin

c ya next week    Kevin

c ya next week    Kevin

• add more graphics to the 3 level pages
• flesh out the 3 level plan
• finish up the G3D resources page
• set polygon limit on avatars
• set scale of levels
• set limits on texture sizes
• set responsibilities within team on the initial 3 levels
• set up communication and data sharing procedures and archiving
• start soliciting team members through out the internet - this will probably have lots of attention on this weekly update page
• looking forward to sharpening the design document through the input of the Genesis community and then the industry - first publicizing stop is the Genesis Forum - will put their input on next weeks update

c ya next week    Kevin