Adobe Flash is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Flash displays text, vector graphics, and raster graphics to provide animations, video games, and applications. It allows streaming of audio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera input.
A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities and communicate with others. These avatars can be textual, graphical representations, or live video avatars with auditory and touch sensations. Virtual worlds are closely related to mirror worlds.
Active Worlds is an online virtual world, developed by ActiveWorlds Inc., a company based in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and launched on June 28, 1995. Users assign themselves a name, log into the Active Worlds universe, and explore 3D virtual worlds and environments that others have built. ActiveWorlds allows users to own worlds and universes, and develop custom 3D content. The browser has web browsing capabilities, as well as voice chat, and basic instant messaging features.
NASA WorldWind is an open-source virtual globe. According to the website, "WorldWind is an open source virtual globe API. WorldWind allows developers to quickly and easily create interactive visualizations of 3D globe, map and geographical information. Organizations around the world use WorldWind to monitor weather patterns, visualize cities and terrain, track vehicle movement, analyze geospatial data and educate humanity about the Earth." It was first developed by NASA in 2003 for use on personal computers and then further developed in concert with the open source community since 2004. As of 2017, a web-based version of WorldWind is available online. An Android version is also available.
jMonkeyEngine is a game engine for developing 3D games written in Java. It uses shader technology extensively and can be used to write games for Windows, Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, Android, and iOS. It uses Lightweight Java Game Library as its default renderer and another renderer based on Java OpenGL is available and supports OpenGL 2 to OpenGL 4.
SpeedTree is a group of vegetation programming and modeling software products developed and sold by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV) that generates virtual foliage for animations, architecture and in real time for video games and demanding real time simulations.
Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a variety of desktop, mobile, console and virtual reality platforms. It is particularly popular for iOS and Android mobile game development, is considered easy to use for beginner developers, and is popular for indie game development.
The Multiverse Network, Inc. was an American startup company creating a network and platform for Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse's stated aim was to lower the barrier of entry for development teams by providing a low-cost software platform for online game and virtual world development.
Blue Mars, a 3D massively multiplayer virtual world platform developed by Hawaii-based Avatar Reality, allows 3rd parties to create virtual worlds, MMOG games, simulations, shops, businesses, entertainment venues, clothing, custom avatars, furniture, virtual homes, and other items. It consists of four main parts: the client software, the Sandbox Editor SDK suite, the website, and the host servers. It is often compared to Second Life, since both are virtual social worlds allowing user-created content. According to Jim Sink, CEO of Avatar Reality, "Blue Mars was inspired by a vision of the future when the power to terraform whole worlds is within our grasp. The name Blue Mars represents possibility and hope."
Twinity is a 3D online virtual world. Initially developed by Metaversum GmbH, it is currently held by ExitReality. The game offers its population, called Twinizens, to navigate around virtual (historical) versions of real-world cities, also called a mirror world or a Metaverse. A public beta began in September 2008 with the release of the first virtual city, Berlin, which later was followed by Singapore, London, Miami and New York. Twinity is built on BigWorld Technology and its economy is based on a free-to-play model.
nDreams, Ltd. is a company that develops and publishes video games. It is located in Farnborough, Hampshire in the United Kingdom. The company was formed in August 2006 by former SCi and Eidos creative director, Patrick O'Luanaigh. Since formation, the developer has worked on numerous projects for different video game platforms, initially PlayStation Home, the virtual world on Sony's PlayStation 3 console, where they grew to become one of the leading publishers. From late 2013 nDreams began working on content for virtual reality (VR) headsets, such as Sony's PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. nDreams has stated that they are now entirely focused on developing content for virtual reality.
Vortex Studio is a complete simulation software platform. It features a high-fidelity, realtime physics engine developed by CM Labs Simulations that simulates rigid body dynamics, collision detection, contact determination, and dynamic reactions. It also contains model import and preparation tools, an image generator, and networking tools for distributed simulation, accessed through a desktop editor via a GUI. Vortex adds accurate physical motion and interactions to objects in visual-simulation applications for operator training, mission planning, product concept validation, heavy machinery and robotics design and testing, haptics devices, immersive and virtual reality (VR) environments.
The virtual world framework (VWF) is a means to connect robust 3D, immersive, entities with other entities, virtual worlds, content and users via web browsers. It provides the ability for client-server programs to be delivered in a lightweight manner via web browsers, and provides synchronization for multiple users to interact with common objects and environments. For example, using VWF, a developer can take video lesson plans, component objects and avatars and successfully insert them into an existing virtual or created landscape, interacting with the native objects and users via a VWF interface.
Metaio GmbH was a privately held augmented reality (AR) company that was acquired by Apple Inc. in May of 2015 for an undisclosed amount. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, with subsidiaries in San Francisco, California, New York City, New York and Dallas, Texas, Metaio provided a software development kit (SDK) for programming PC, web, mobile application and custom offline augmented reality applications. Additionally, Metaio was the creator of Junaio, a free mobile AR browser available for Android and iOS devices.
Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms. It was released on March 28, 2016.
WebAR, previously known as the Augmented Web, is a web technology that allows for augmented reality functionality within a web browser. It is a combination of HTML5, Web Audio, WebGL, and WebRTC. From 2020s more known as web-based Augmented Reality or WebAR, which is about the use of augmented reality elements in browsers.
Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development in VR applications. Users can either build their own viewer from simple, low-cost components using specifications published by Google, or purchase a pre-manufactured one. To use the platform, users run Cardboard-compatible mobile apps on their phone, place it into the back of the viewer, and view content through the lenses.
VRChat is an online virtual world platform created by Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey and operated by VRChat, Inc. The platform allows users to interact with others with user-created 3D avatars and worlds. VRChat is designed primarily for use with virtual reality headsets, such as the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest series, SteamVR headsets, and Windows Mixed Reality, but is also usable without VR in a "desktop" mode designed for either a mouse and keyboard or gamepad.
Sinespace is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online Unity 3D-based platform created and published by Sine Wave Entertainment. It enables users to create and sell 3D content and interact with others as 3D avatars. It was beta launched in November 2016 and teamed up with Unity to make its SDK available in the Unity Asset Store in March 2019. It supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, but is also accessible through PC, Mac, Linux, and Chrome web browsers.
NeosVR is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online, virtual reality application created by Solirax. It was released for free on Microsoft Windows via Steam on May 4, 2018, with support for several VR headsets.
