Thursday, April 28, 2011

Security Advisory

Recently ReactionGrid has experienced a littering of prims about others regions.
We have managed to ban the user and are watching the grid for suspicious activity.

Please alert us at http://metaverseheroes.com by submitting a support ticket using the subject line Security Alert and please reference the region(s) name(s)

If you are experiencing trouble logging in please visit http://metaverseheroes.com and submit a support ticket.

In an effort to prevent these sorts of mass dumping of prims on your regions please turn off build when you are not on your regions and building.

We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Prevention is key.

Thanks!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

1939 New York World's Fair Opening Celebration

Seventy-two years ago, on April 30th, 206,000 people gathered across 1,216 acres, an area that only a couple years earlier was an ash dump. But on that day, thanks to four years of hard work and planning, those people were able to glimpse at the future, for they were attending the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair.

This year, from April 30 through May 7, we will celebrate the Opening of the World's Fair in the Virtual World of ReactionGrid. This is the first time an event commemorating the Fair's opening in a virtual world has ever been done. While only a few of the pavilions have been constructed so far, this is an opportunity to see the Fair, and to actually be a part of it. Walk through the Trylon and Perisphere, view Democracity, and travel down the Helicline. Visit the New York City Building, the Belgium Pavilion, and Westinghouse Electric.

For a preview of some of what has been done on the Grid, there are 4 movies on http://www.1939nyworldsfair.com/worlds_fair/WF_ReactionGrid/grid_videos.htm.

During the Celebration Week, there will be live talks and shows about the Fair: Below is the initial schedule for the week.


SATURDAY APR 30

Time: 10:00 am PDT

Theme: Opening and Welcome

Location: NYC Auditorium

Presented by: The ReactionGrid Team


Time: 11:00 am PDT

Theme: King & Queen of England - Visit to the Fair, Written by David Cope, Fair Historian

Location: NYC Auditorium

Presented by: David Schwartz, PhD.


SUNDAY MAY 1

Time: 1:00 pm PDT

Theme: Trylon & Perisphere

Location: T & P - walking tour

Presented by: Joey Vas


MONDAY MAY 2

Time: 11:00 am PDT

Theme: About the Fair:A talk about the Fair beginnings, the Fair Corporation, changes from 1939 to 1940 and a some facts about the Fair in general.

Location: NYC Auditorium

Presented by: Paul M. Van Dort


TUESDAY MAY 3

Time: 10:00 am PDT

Theme: Westinghouse Electric

Location: Westinghouse Auditorium

Presented by: Ms. Shirley Manning


SATURDAY MAY 7

Time: 1:00 pm PDT

Theme: About the Fair:A talk about the Fair beginnings, the Fair Corporation, changes from 1939 to 1940 and a some facts about the Fair in general.

Location: NYC Auditorium

Presented by: Paul M. Van Dort


More talks will be added in the next couple days, including someone from the New York Public Library. For a current schedule visit: http://39wfblog.1939nyworldsfair.com/


For information on ReactionGrid visit: http://www.ReactionGrid.com


Join us in celebrating the 72nd Anniversary of the Opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Jibe 1.2 Release

While it's not been long since the 1.1 release of Jibe, this week sees the arrival of 1.2! We have added a couple of new features and an important bugfix for users on the newer SmartFox 2X platform.


Bug Fix:
  • Fixed bug with SFS2X where a user left on the Loader scene would timeout and get stuck in the dressing room

New Features:
  • Introduced own name tag over head, which you can choose to use or hide in your scene configuration - this was one of the most frequently requested items from our users!
  • Option to disable the extra idle animations on the avatars - the system that is in place could be used in a similar style to a basic animation override system that gives avatars who are standing still a little more movement. Some of our Jibe users prefer avatars to stand still when they are idle, so a new checkbox will disable the AO.

We have several more features in development at the moment, including a simplified system for using other avatars in Jibe, replacing the models we have supplied. We expect this will form the core of a 1.3 release in the next few weeks once that system has been fully tested!

For more information on upgrades from previous releases of Jibe, or any other technical questions about the platform, please drop me a support ticket via MetaverseHeroes!


Chris Hart
CTO, ReactionGrid Inc.
http://reactiongrid.com


Saturday, April 9, 2011

Jibe 1.1 Release

I'm pleased to announce that Jibe 1.1 is now available to all our Jibe customers. For anyone on 1.0, you can download the update pack to 1.1 from our central downloads site. This upgrade is a small change set but includes some important bugfixes and some great new features, including:

Bugfixes:
  • Changing scenes no longer breaks private chat between avatars
  • You can now return to the dressing room at any time to change your appearance
  • Appearance now persists across logins via simple cookies -your appearance choices will be remembered as long as the world file name is not changed
  • Chat history to web page improved
New features:

The biggest new feature is that SmartFox 2X support now included in Jibe 1.1. We've been using the SmartFox 1.6.x server platform as the network provider for Jibe worlds since our first release, but with the Jibe 1.x platform architecture, we are able to implement additional network providers and offer customers more choice in which network provider they use. Each platform has its own set of features that customers can consider for their worlds. In Jibe 1.1 we now support the following platforms:
For our Jibe Atmosphere and Moon customers, we provide the network infrastructure for your worlds on the SmartFox platforms. For Mars and self-hosted you have the option to choose from any of these platforms. We will offer both SmartFox platforms as our standard option, but Photon is an alternative you can use if you prefer it. In future, we'll be looking to implement ElectroServer as another supported platform.

For more information on upgrades from previous releases of Jibe please drop me a support ticket via MetaverseHeroes and I'll happily explain what is involved in upgrading. Anyone interested in learning more about the technical aspects of the Jibe platform is welcome to contact me any time.


Chris Hart
CTO, ReactionGrid Inc.



Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Jibe5 Monthly Contest-Summer 2011


Have an original idea for a 3D multi-user virtual world?  Send it to me, Kyle G, for consideration for a free 6 month self-hosted Jibe license.  Be detailed in your concept explanation as we are just looking for whatever matches our mindset each month.


This is for non-commercial, non-production projects.  There is no user- registration or other web tools provided with this special.  Only Wiki and KB support is included.


We will help you get setup with Jibe and only ask for progress reports as you develop your concept we can share with others.  Hit me up with ideas!


Kyle G
CEO ReactionGrid Inc.

http://jibemix.com
http://reactiongrid.com

Friday, April 1, 2011

The Affordances of a Virtual World in your Browser


Is running a virtual world in a web browser really that big a deal? If you have to download a browser plugin, then why not just download a standalone application? What's the point of having a virtual world sitting in a webpage? Does it really make any difference?

I hear these questions a lot. So let me share a few of my recent experiences with Jibe and setting up my own web-based Jibe world.

I need to get folks into my Jibe world quickly.
Ah right, it's just a URL.

I can't overstate how powerful it is to be able to give out a URL and tell folks "just click on it and you'll be in my virtual world." And even though they have to download a Unity plugin to make it work, the whole process still happens within the web browser itself.

Think about how much time you spend each day in front of your web browser. If you're like most folks, a web browser is probably always open on your computer. Which means that anything happening in your web browser is always right at hand.

And since my Jibe world is just a URL, I can make it something short and easy for me to remember. Easy for me to quickly jot down on a piece of paper, too. I just write or type bit.ly/Jibe_Pathfinder and that's it.

I need to add links to useful info for people visiting my my Jibe world.
Oh wait, I can just add that as HTML inside the webpage where Jibe lives.

Since my Jibe world lives on a plain old webpage, I can easily add additional text and hyperlinks that appear around the Jibe world on the page. Tweaking a web page like that is a snap, even for a web-wrangler like myself who uses a pretty basic HTML editor.

I want to use Google Moderator and Dabbleboard with people in Jibe.
Hold on, I can just embed them next to the Jibe world on the webpage.

Again, my Jibe world lives on a plain old webpage. Which means I can use iframes to embed a useful web-based application and have everyone see it while they are inside my virtual world. And there are a lot of great web-based collaborative tools out there.

Standing around in a 3d environment looking at 2d documents hanging on virtual walls has always left me scratching my head a bit. Especially when those 2d documents need to be dynamic and collaborative. Why not use the right tool for the right job? Have the 2d content live on the webpage, and have the engaging 3d content in the 3d window. That gives you the best of both worlds, and both can exist on the same webpage.

I need to track visitors to my Jibe world. How do I script that inworld?
Oh duh. I can just add Google Analytics to the webpage where Jibe lives.

Took me about an hour mulling things over before I suddenly realized this one. A quick copy/paste of the Google Analytics javascript code into my web page, and I was done.

For those of us used to using virtual worlds as standalone applications, you can see how realizing the real power of a virtual world in a webpage requires unlearning some things. You don't need to do everything inside the 3d world itself. You have the power of other web-based applications right there on the same page.

And I haven't even touched on the more complex affordances of Jibe and the web. Like being able to tie in preexisting web-based registration systems on the backend. Or being able to integrate Jibe with a preexisting web-based content or learning management systems.

A virtual world on a webpage is awesome simply because the web is full of awesome tools.

And they can all work together.



How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Unity Asset Store

It's important for people to identify their own talents and cultivate them whenever possible.

And likewise, it's important for people to realize where they lack talent.

Personally, I'm terrible at 3d content creation.

I've tried very hard to learn various 3d modeling programs in the past, and I continue to push myself at doing my best to use them. But I've pretty much accepted the fact that, aside from being able to whip up the basics, I definitely lack the artistic talent and technical prowess to create beautifully detailed 3d models from scratch. I'll always be a hack.

But that's OK. I've stopped worrying about it.

Because the trick is to accept one's limitations while finding ways to work around them.

My Best Friend in Jibe: The Unity3d Asset Store

I've recently been learning how to use Unity3d to create my own multiuser virtual world on the web with Jibe. And I just started using the Unity Asset Store.

The Unity Asset Store is a place to buy things you can import and use in your own Unity3d projects. Anyone can submit items to be sold, too.

Pretty neat, right? Well, it gets much more interesting.

The clever folks at Unity decided to integrate the Asset Store with the Unity editor.



So while you're busily working on your world in the editor, you can simply pull up the Asset Store from the menu, search for something, buy it, and have it immediately dropped into your project file. And if you lose or break something you previously bought, have no fear. The Asset Store remembers that you bought it and can send it to you again whenever you like.

Of course, anyone can find 3d models for sale or freely available on many different websites. I do that all the time, and it works great. But it can sometimes get complicated depending on different import settings and optimizations. With the Unity Asset Store, I'm guaranteed everything will work in Unity3d. And the store is right there for me to access while I'm actively building my world, at the precise moment I need new content.
"Hmm. I need wildlife in my Jibe world. Like rabbits."

"Oh look, there's one in the Asset Store."

"Done."
I get excited about technology. But I get even more excited when I find tools that have a very positive philosophy behind them. The Unity Asset Store is a great example of how the folks at Unity are thinking very carefully about how to best empower people who want to create engaging 3d experiences. Connect, integrate, and build communities where everyone can best leverage their unique talents. That's a great philosophy in my book.

Jibe + Unity3d = Sharing your World

At ReactionGrid, we like to think we too have a very positive philosophy. We give people the tools to create and then share their virtual worlds with others. Being able to easily publish your vision on the web is pretty amazing, and I'm having a great time putting myself in our customers' shoes. Learning by doing.

Visit my Jibe world and see if you can find my fully rigged and animated mesh models of rabbits, courtesy of the Unity Asset Store. I'll be using them and other animal models to tell a little story over time for folks exploring my Jibe world.



Creating fun and immersive learning experiences through storytelling is something I can do pretty well. Thankfully, I don't need to be a 3d model expert to create engaging experiences in Jibe.

And guess what? Neither do you.

Join our Jibe and Unity3d Discussion Group and learn how easy it is to get started!