3pointD.com

VRoot flags a press release from the Caligari Corporation about their trueSpace7 collaborative 3D design software, which is being showcased at Siggraph 2006. Caligari calls it the “first and only 3D software application to feature real-time collaborative authoring technology, allowing remote product design teams, and graphic artists to create, manipulate and edit 3D objects within a shared virtual workspace, over the broadband internet.” (Although we blogged about this tool from Autodesk that seems to pre-date it.) With a $595 price point and what looks like support for the 3DS format, it sounds pretty useful, though the real-time collaboration is what’s most exciting here. Too high-end for most virtual-world residents? Maybe. But as the ability to import objects into virtual worlds grows, stuff made in apps like this is going to become increasingly tough competition for the designers who work only with tools native to those worlds — tools that are orders of magnitude less sophisticated.

When I posted the other day about going to the Supernova conference in San Francisco (I leave tomorrow), I forgot to mention that you’ll be able to virtually attend part of the conference by logging into Second Life this Thursday. And, probably not coincidentally, it looks like you’ll get a branded heads-up display when you attend, something that’s going to become more common as third parties become more closely integrated with the virtual world experience (see below).

As Jerry Paffendorf points out, the Electric Sheep Company (a sponsor of this blog) will put on one of its mixed-reality events, broadcasting Supernova’s Connected Innovator’s Showcase (held in association with TechCrunch) into SL on Thursday afternoon. (More details on the SL forums.) The showcase features a dozen forward-looking companies, most of which will be “launching or making significant announcements at the conference,” according to Supernova, so if you’re interested in what they have to say but can’t make it to the conference, this could be a good way to get the early news. It’s too bad the rest of the conference isn’t being shared this way, though. But I’ll be liveblogging most of the sessions I attend, so stay tuned.

One of the interesting things about this broadcast (if that’s the right word) is that it looks like attendees in Second Life will be given a branded heads-up display to facilitate the session. (more…)

bud.com is a “passively multiplayer online role-playing game” being developed by former uber-blogger Justin Hall in which your character progresses not by slaying Orcs and gathering gold, but by surfing the Web. (Thanks to Glitchy for the link.)

This is a massively multiplayer online game that rewards you with experience points and levels for daily activities. Reading news, checking webmail, browsing a concert schedule, trolling photos, each of these web activities leaves a signature trace on the user’s avatar.

I love this idea. Basically, you level up simply by going about your daily business on the Internet. But there’s more. (more…)

Over at the Metaverse Sessions site, John Swords has posted a keynote speech by venture capitalist Joi Ito in which the avid World of Warcraft player talks about “monochronic” and “polychronic” time, and gives the audience a look into the crowded world of his computer’s desktop. (I liveblogged the presentation at the time.) It’s a very interesting take on how Ito interacts with the real and virtual worlds at the same time, and definitely worth a listen. (You can listen here in the sidebar if you like, or on the site.)