The array of specific goals from individual projects have led the Consortium to identify a subset of shared infrastructure requirements to be implemented during the two-year time frame in the common networked virtual worlds platform. The infrastructure development goals are threefold: 1) Create a template Unity3D development environment that will enable the core participants of the Consortium to quickly create Virtual World experiences based on a shared development environment; 2) Create a robust Content Management system that will enable Consortium members to add the full range of associated assets required for a complex Virtual World experience; 3) Develop a malleable front-end that can be installed at any host institution to allow readers to browse the available projects while also providing persistent and direct URIs to the Networked Virtual-World based arguments\u2014in fact, a multi-dimensional variation on a traditional article\u2014as proposed in the individual projects above.<\/p>\n
The Unity Development Template\u00a0<\/b>is a shared code base that new projects can adapt to suit more specific needs. \u00a0The shared code base, shared widgets, and shared 2D, 3D, and sound assets will be made available to Consortium developers via installations of the Unity asset server. \u00a0Since Unity3D is not inherently a Virtual World, the code-base will contain the necessary scripts to enable a client\/server and peer-to-peer networking solution. The client\/server system will support the robust release of our in-virtual-world articles. A shared server for \u201creaders\u201d of the articles will always be available and accessible. The peer-to-peer model, however, supports rapid and reliable deployment of locally served systems. The first computer accessing the content is, in effect, the server in our peer-to-peer system\u2014already operational in beta form in our prototype. \u00a0In addition, the template will contain the avatar selection code, and core functionality for networked data types, such as avatar motion and interaction. Lastly, the shared template will contain the scripts that enable geo-reference of the Virtual World 3D and the manipulation of avatars and objects via KML\/GML-based feeds.<\/p>\n
The Content Management System (CMS)\u00a0<\/b>will be developed in two phases. \u00a0Our prototype uses a simple, multi-platform html\/javascript code base for display of the virtual world. The data, comprising individual Unity builds and KML files with geo-located views for each paragraph are managed through a simple Dropbox shared file structure. \u00a0This phase one solution is not robust, but it does enable initial testing and work of the Consortium to proceed without waiting for the development of our scalable CMS. In phase two we will integrate the platform into a Drupal-based CMS, to manage each project\u2019s Unity builds and KML\/GML files for a) narrative, b) programmable avatars, and c) in-world objects.<\/p>\n
The Virtual World User Experience\u00a0<\/b>will consist of an in-browser \u00a0navigable 3D world, and where appropriate, a set of layered narratives running along a right or left-hand column. \u00a0In our current prototype form, simple navigation involves either reading and clicking through the narrative, which will then move the reader\u2019s avatar to a new location based on associated geographic metadata.<\/p>\n
The in-world navigation will support a picking mechanism, a suite of virtual world navigation affordances (detailed in the Technical Specifications section below), while a surrounding, html\/javascript-based wrapper will handle the geo-referenced narrative, derived from a KML\/GML feed in our CMS. Building on our initial prototype, the Consortium has elected to offload the bulk of text, image, and video interactivity to the browser rather than develop an additional in-world browser. \u00a0By taking this step, much of the interactivity accompanying the \u201creading\u201d of an argument can be manipulated via a standard suite of html, javascript and css, lessening development time substantially while simultaneously increasing the versatility of the developed platform. \u00a0The virtual world becomes a content viewing window that might in future be exchanged with a geo-aware browser plug-in, such as that provided by the Google Maps\/Earth API (Application Programming Interface) or even a new virtual world system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Shared Platform Platform Development The array of specific goals from individual projects have led the Consortium to identify a subset of shared infrastructure requirements to be implemented during the two-year time frame in the common networked virtual worlds platform. The infrastructure development goals are threefold: 1) Create a template Unity3D development environment that will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-full.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-338","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422,"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338\/revisions\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualworlds.etc.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}