Intelligent integration of Social
Networks and Advanced 3D
Virtual Worlds Pål Frogner Hansen, [email protected]
Producer, Funcom VerdIKT Conference, 26. April 2012
The Project
Norwegian title: ”DreamWorld - sømløs integrering
av nettbaserte 3D-spill og sosiale nettverk”
Period, April 2010 – Dec 2014
Participants
Funcom
Høgskolen i Narvik (HiN)
Goals:
Reduce the gap between Social Networks and Advanced 3D Virtual Worlds using Dreamworld Engine
Integrate them
The two players
Facebook as we know it
Facebook as we know it
Facebook as we know it
Facebook as we know it
MMOs as we know them
Facebook vs MMOs...
Equipment
Hardware requirements
Software requirements
Platform independence
Data amounts
Install time
Size on disk
Game start-up time
In-game zone transfer
Social Friends lists
Friends activity sharing
Immersion technology
Graphics quality
Audio quality
Athmosphere
Syncronization
Playfield format
Physics sim/3D calc
Backend complexity
Backend service
One world
Facebook vs MMOs!
Equipment
Hardware requirements
Software requirements
Platform independence
Data amounts
Install time
Size on disk
Game start-up time
In-game zone transfer
Social Friends lists
Friends activity sharing
Immersion technology
Graphics quality
Audio quality
Athmosphere
Syncronization
Playfield format
Physics sim/3D calc
Backend complexity
Backend service
One world
Facebook MMO's
No Yes, normally. Often very high.
Standard browser (/Flash) Buy/download + install executable
Yes (limited on some games) In general: No
Instant Lenghty (hours)
Barely anything 30 GB+ (example from a 2008 game)
Fast Slow and lengthy
Instant or fast Slow and lengthy generally
Extensive functionality Basic friends list
Extensively covered Limited, but picking up
Simplistic Often very high
Simplistic (Stereo) High Production value (even 5+1)
Surf and chat? Immersive, 3D virtual world
Yes, but simplistic Global sync/movement prediction etc.
Simplistic (normally) 3D virtual worlds with vast landscapes
No (in general) Yes (even synced on servers)
Normally simplistic (3rd party) Complex (latency, bandwidth, collision)
Yes Generally split up (based on traffic)
Wouldn’t it be cool if...
You could be able to instantly play an MMO without install?
Or explore the vast game without waiting (loading)?
Or access Facebook, or Facebook-features inside the MMO?
Or you could play advanced MMOs in a regular browser, possibly inside Facebook?
You could access all this without having to buy the most expensive gamer-PC out there?
Or just: Get the best from both worlds!
Our focus areas Data compression HiN*, Funcom
Multi-resolution resources HiN*, Funcom
Fast data loading and streaming Funcom
Low end-rendering Funcom
Intelligent resource download system Funcom
Seamless World Adaption Funcom
Social Networks Integration Funcom
Web Launcher Funcom
Browser in game Funcom
One-world, one-server, backend support Funcom
“Remote Playing, Fullscreen Streaming”-service evaluation Funcom
Multi-platform support Funcom
* Two PhD degrees: ”Methods for user guided compression algorithms” and “Methods for geometric
modeling - surfaces and volumes”. BOLD: Most effort was needed here
Now and future
Dreamworld technology foundation goes back before year 2000, and is constantly being improved
Some of the work in this project will be utilized in The Secret World (TSW) at its launch this summer
Some of the work must wait as it is not ready or too risky for TSW (but may be enabled in a later update)
Some features (=utilized results) will only ”shine” if a game is built properly around the solution we end up with. Next Dreamworld game?
Some results will likely require bigger investments to be utilized commercially
Last slide