Welp, there goes the neighborhood

[Venkman]

Google enters the immersive 3D social net.

If this was two years ago, I'd be wondering for Linden right about now. However, having seen a whole bunch of half-finished things come from Google in that time, I'm not so sure. I am sure it'll be cool. But whether that cans it for everyone from SL down to Active Worlds remains to be seen and is much less a guarantee than it might have been.

Edit

Any object you add to a room can have a hyperlink attached to it. And each room you generate gets its own unique URL by default. Therefore, you can link you rooms together. So if you create a room(s), post it here and I'll add it to my hub, which anyone can visit here:

http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-4875528315724871590

[schild]

SIGNING UP. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

[schild]

ALRIGHT. WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKS TOOK THE USERNAME SCHILD. WHO WAS IT.

On a lighter note. This is f'ing amazing. Like. Yegods. Wow. Look at what they've done.

[Venkman]

The tech is good enough I suppose, a nice Flash-like rendering technique atop a 3D engine. A number of these types of games offer largely similar experiences though, with similar browser/world interconnectedness.

The part that DOES interest me is that this isn't a small company aspiring to be SL. This is a company for which SL's business would be a mere rounding error.

That alone isn't enough though. Google has a huge library of half pregnant things. This could as easily go that route the moment their techs lose interest. Until and if that happens though, some great stuff.

Will/does it integrate with Sketchup? Will you be able to embed Youtube? You can add hyperlinks to any object placed but I'd like to seehuw far they go with total Google system integration.

[Simond]

ETA on "Pool's Closed"? 

[JWIV]

ALRIGHT. WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKS TOOK THE USERNAME SCHILD. WHO WAS IT.

On a lighter note. This is f'ing amazing. Like. Yegods. Wow. Look at what they've done.

What the fuck? Where's my goatee?

[schild]

The tech is good enough I suppose, a nice Flash-like rendering technique atop a 3D engine. A number of these types of games offer largely similar experiences though, with similar browser/world interconnectedness.

The part that DOES interest me is that this isn't a small company aspiring to be SL. This is a company for which SL's business would be a mere rounding error.

That alone isn't enough though. Google has a huge library of half pregnant things. This could as easily go that route the moment their techs lose interest. Until and if that happens though, some great stuff.

Will/does it integrate with Sketchup? Will you be able to embed Youtube? You can add hyperlinks to any object placed but I'd like to seehuw far they go with total Google system integration.

Already can embed youtube. My room has rickroll on Loop. In guitar hero. HUR.

I'm trying to check limits on picture frames. There's a shocking amount of gadgetry and scripting going on. Gonna take a couple weeks to pick it all apart.

[schild]

ETA on "Pool's Closed"? 

Already made a pools closed room. Got bored. I'm on my 4th room now. /snore

the room designs are the worst things here. Light years behind Sony Home.

[schild]

Animated gifs do not work. Maybe really small ones do.

/mrHat Trick.

[Viin]

Do we have an F13 room?

[tmp]

If this was two years ago, I'd be wondering for Linden right about now.

It's chatroom with 3d avatars, quite different focus from SL and its free ability to create things. IMVU on the other hand is probably pretty screwed.

[MikeRozak]

How is this different the Active Worlds (circa 1994) or any of the other infinite number of graphical chat rooms? Other than being by google and all flash-y. It's pretty and easy to get into, but I don't see how it's different enough that it won't become a large world filled with lots of rooms and no people.

[Viin]

It's chatroom with 3d avatars, quite different focus from SL and its free ability to create things. IMVU on the other hand is probably pretty screwed.

You can make things, just not script them (yet). I believe it uses Google SketchUp objects.

[Venkman]

If this was two years ago, I'd be wondering for Linden right about now.

It's chatroom with 3d avatars, quite different focus from SL and its free ability to create things. IMVU on the other hand is probably pretty screwed.

I reference SL because one thing that holds it back (after the furries and the really-just-not-interesting parts) is the requirement for a client and how dated the whole thing looks. Lower the barrier of entry and make it look better though...

Lively has a client too, but it appears to be a thin client or just some installed API or something. Nothing like a full client app.

How is this different the Active Worlds (circa 1994) or any of the other infinite number of graphical chat rooms? Other than being by google and all flash-y. It's pretty and easy to get into, but I don't see how it's different enough that it won't become a large world filled with lots of rooms and no people.

It isn't. In fact Active Worlds has a leg up for supporting even better 3D within browsers. And Facebook already has YoVille, which is a good looking Flash (not 3D) MMO as well.

For me, like I said, the big part is that this comes from Google. But otherwise, that's just about the only thing that makes it interesting.

[Viin]

Someone help decorate this: http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-5249530916033536866

[Margalis]

Looks like Bratz online.

[Viin]

nvrmnd

[Venkman]

Schild, if you want to post your current room(s), I'll link it into my Hub:

http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-4875528315724871590

Not much of a hub, just linkouts to Viin's place and one of my two other rooms. But I figured start small 

[tmp]

You can make things, just not script them (yet). I believe it uses Google SketchUp objects.

Ahh i thought they only allow 'certified content' in, from safe sources/vendors and whatnot. If anyone can make the stuff, what was the time-to-penis?

[Viin]

You can make things, just not script them (yet). I believe it uses Google SketchUp objects.

Ahh i thought they only allow 'certified content' in, from safe sources/vendors and whatnot. If anyone can make the stuff, what was the time-to-penis?

Actually, I'm wrong - no one can yet. But I bet that's where they go (they look like sketchup objects and rooms). There's a reporting option for objects already setup to report inappropriate items.

[Lantyssa]

Interesting, though I'm annoyed it won't even let me try using SeaMonkey since it's Mozilla based.

[schild]

oh god that f13 room is killing me. I'm decorating mine, will give link when I'm done.

[schild]

Anyone figure out how to optimize a photo for a picture or picture frame? I resized a bunch small as all get out but it still gets stretched and fucked up.

[nurtsi]

"Lively is not ready for your platform.

Lively requires Windows Vista or XP with Internet Explorer or Firefox." 

[Trippy]

That's odd that it requires Windows. So many people use Macs over at Google.

[schild]

The only African-American avatar has an afro with a pick in it? If
you're not going to offer documentation for contributing avatars, you
might want to think about rounding out the selection available. I mean
ASAP. Unless you strategically subscribe to the philosophy that bad
press is often good publicity...

I'm not easily offended, but I flinched when I didn't see the link to
Page 2 of the avatars. This comes off as alpha-phase internal stuff,
and this project is getting covered in the New York Times. Hop to it
and round this thing out a bit, suckas!

lol

[Trippy]

[schild]

I was all ready to type out a response about the female body avatars and that I hope some of them had sand in their vagina. But I didn't. Because I don't want to be banned from... Google?

[Ratman_tf]

I was all ready to type out a response about the female body avatars and that I hope some of them had sand in their vagina. But I didn't. Because I don't want to be banned from... Google?

Bragging rights. You can always use AskJeeves after your banniation. 

[Rendakor]

"Lively is not ready for your platform.

Lively requires Windows Vista or XP with Internet Explorer or Firefox." 

This. While on Windows XP using Firefox. Does Google not like my old version?

[Tale]

So is this Niniane Wang's secret project?

[Venkman]

I still find it wierd how they implemented walking.

This doesn't feel like a project that's been under development for 2+ years. It feels like something folks at Google were using their 20%-time-on-side-projects to work on over 2+ years. That's not a bad thing per se. It's just that smaller companies have launched much bigger projects in less time than that and gotten to a state of completion beyond what Lively currently is.

And I really don't get the timing of the announcement. It's not like this has a lot of street cred to the E3 crowd, not up against all the Blizzard announcements at least. What was the point of talking about something incomplete today rather than waiting until it was closer to not being in beta*

* Because it's not like Google ever takes stuff completely out of beta  

[Trippy]

So is this Niniane Wang's secret project?

Yes it is:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/be-who-you-want-on-web-pages-you-visit.html

[Trippy]

I still find it wierd how they implemented walking.

This doesn't feel like a project that's been under development for 2+ years. It feels like something folks at Google were using their 20%-time-on-side-projects to work on over 2+ years. That's not a bad thing per se. It's just that smaller companies have launched much bigger projects in less time than that and gotten to a state of completion beyond what Lively currently is.

According to Ars Technica this is a 20% project:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080708-hands-on-googles-lively-social-3d-world-is-20-percent-done.html

[Viin]

oh god that f13 room is killing me. I'm decorating mine, will give link when I'm done.

Hey! What's wrong with wallpaper with skulls all over it!?

Also: anyone can decorate that room, so if you don't want to make your own feel free to throw some furniture around.