Today I was given a sneak peek of the as-yet unreleased Vastpark Creator by the man behind it all, Everyday Interactive Networks CEO Bruce Joy. For those who have signed up at the website, the first group are being given a chance to try out the tool this Thursday.
To get an idea of what to expect, click the image above to see a full-sized screen capture. What you're looking at is a scene that I composed of objects freely available on the Vastpark network that I found using the search bar on the left. All I had to do was double-click the object, select it from my mesh list on the right, and use the intuitive move/rotate/zoom tools to set the positions. I had the option to turn physics on or leave them off, and dictate how much weight each object has.
I had set a group of barrels up near the top of the mountain and hit the Interactive Preview button several times to see what would happen. Every time the barrels tumbled down in a realistic way, and reacted randomly as they fell. Sometimes they would all slide in front of my props and off the screen, sometimes one would get stuck behind the barn, and other times they would all end up around the windmill. That little bit of randomness not only made the whole scene seem more realistic, but it would make future interaction with the world that much more interesting.
Bruce Joy sees the target market for Vastpark as very broad. While anybody can create a fully functioning and useful world in a matter of minutes, advanced users will be able to take advantage of the Lua scripting language (also used by World Of Warcraft and the upcoming Metaplace) to redefine how the world works and what things do. If uploaded to the Vastpark network, those scripts can then be used by the rest of us as well.
Another essential component of Vastpark is the importing of data from third party tools. While this tool isn't used for managing avatars, I did find out that they can be completely imported from scratch from Maya and scripted any way you want to with Lua. The shape, size, complexity and visual theme of the avatars will be completely up to the users who design them.
One feature that I really liked was the "share" button. The files that the worlds are saved in (using the .park extension) are really small, and with one click can easily sent to a friend via email. The big stuff like textures and sound samples are downloaded automatically from the Vastpark network when you open the file, further encouraging people to share the assets that they create. Joy indicated that an announcement about content syndication was coming, although we'll have to wait to hear the full details of what he has in store for us there.
This is only the first of several tools Vastpark will be rolling out over the next few months exclusively for those signed up at the website, so sign up while you can. The hope for an open beta sometime shortly after Christmas.
Originally running under the project codename "Worlds Collide", the virtual world platform of VastPark has just progressed into the Beta stage and is accepting applications for anyone who would like to try it out. The platform is built with simplicity in mind, allowing the average user to log in and create a world in minutes.