Aktuell wird ja gerne mal über die Nachfolger von Second Life geredet und geschrieben. Dabei werden allerdings in der Regel Plattformen ins Feld geführt (z.B. Entropia), die nicht wirklich vergleichbar sind. Anders liegt der Fall bei HiPiHi! Diese virtuelle Welt kommt aus China und darf wohl als Second Life Clone bezeichnet werden.
HiPiHi war lange Zeit eine Closed Beta und jetzt kann man sich immerhin schonmal bewerben - was ich dann auch gleich mal getan habe. Interessant zu der Plattform sind die 10 Anmerkungen von Centric, der offensichtlich schon in den Genuss eines Accounts gekommen ist. (via Metaversed)
10. It’s surprisingly fast. Even though it’s served from China, we’re seeing 75-100fps typically on a midline system. Of course, the maximum concurrency is low, so we’ll reserve judgement on heavier use for later.
9. Water effects are quite nice. From the reflections, to the distortion of your avatar when you’re underwater, this is nicely done.
8. You swim!!! Yeah, that’s built right into the system. Take a dunk and you end up swimming through the water, complete with realistic sound effects. No scripts required!
7. There’s weather. There are days when it rains. The water ripples, dulls, and loses reflectivity. The palette of the world slides to gray. It may not be everyone’s, er, cup of tea, but it’s nice to see some variation.
6. On the fly ground retexturing. Yeah, I know, now I’m getting developer-geeky, but it’s neat to be able to pick a tool, set the size, pick a texture, and redo your plot on the fly.
5. It’s a contiguous world. Want to swim from the mainland to the islands? Go right ahead. Want to fly from one side of the world to the other? Sure.
4. The flight engine. Whoever did their helicopter knew their stuff. This is responsive, nicely realistic, and very usable. Also, the helicopter appears to be made of irregular prims, which is neat in and of itself.
3. Inventory preview!!! Yes, you can see what’s in your inventory (and relative size) before you whip it out and surprise yourself. This is a great feature.
2. The distance algorithms. Yeah, it’s clear that fog is covering something up, but again, it’s nicely done. The world melts away rather seamlessly into a fog of brilliant white, like there’s always something just on the edge of your vision, waiting to be discovered.
1. The whole surreality of spending time in a Chinese virtual world. It’s a helluva trip. The very fact we’re wandering around in virtual worlds from every corner of the globe and comparing their relative merits is hugely exciting. And then there are the random people who walk up and start speaking Chinese . . .
Ich muss sagen, dass sich das alles sehr spannend anhört und ich gespannt bin, wie es sich anfühlen wird. Sehr interessant klingt auch das Inventory Preview Feature. Habe dazu auch prompt einen Screenshot bei Flickr entdeckt.
Es kommt der Startscreen und ein Ladebalken und dann ist es wieder weg.
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