Muds and more

RELease 1.0, Nov 15, 1995

MUDS AND MORE

A year ago, we searched the Internet for software to front-end some things on the Net that were fun but difficult to use, particularly MUDS and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). To our frustration, there was very little such software around, and what did exist added only marginally to the experience of using those systems.

A lot has changed in a year. Suddenly, interesting multi-player systems are sprouting like weeds; the Internet is alive with them. Most of them take an entertainment perspective, though a few companies are piloting more serious uses. The systems, architectures vary widely, from MUD enhancements linked to VRML worlds (Pueblo; next) to serverless, souped-up text chat (PowWow). Microsoft is playing in this space as well, with an offering that will be announced soon (see page 12).

PUEBLO: ELEGANT INTEGRATION OF SPACES

Pueblo, from Cupertino, Ca-based Chaco Communications, is a multimedia MUD client. If you visit ordinary MUDS using Pueblo, you get a few capabilities that make MUDS easier to manage and navigate (e.g., a hierarchically organized list of all MUDs, an editable history buffer and a macro language). If you visit a Pueblo-enhanced MUD,(3) you get 3D, Web and MIDI audio functionality. The result, while a bit slow in its beta release, is startlingly good (see screen shot, opposite).

The Pueblo browser can have multiple panes, depending on how the MUD owners have used Pueblo technology. In the example above, one pane shows a space rendered in 3D using VRML, the other pane has the text that would normally scroll by in a MUD -- with HTML tagged text! You can use your mouse to move through the 3D space. The panes are linked in interesting ways. Click on the text description of available exits (in the lower pane) and the VRML browser loads the new scene. Any scene or object can have a tag or MIDI audio associated with it. The 3D view won't include participants' avatars until VRML supports that feature.

Chaco's Website has a list of MUDS that have been enhanced with Pueblo functionality. (Xerox PARC's LambdaMOO has not; in Pueblo, it looks like other text MUDs.)

Social interaction and persistent places first

In the quest to design a platform for multi-user virtual spaces, building atop a MUD makes sense from many perspectives. Top of the list is the fact that a MUD is a social engine. Adding social spaces and interaction methods as an afterthought is much more difficult than beginning with them. In addition, MUDs offer lots of functionality, including an object store, programming language, meta tools, state preservation, place definitions, and navigation and dialog methods.

There are, of course, plenty of drawbacks. Current MUDs aren't appropriate for robust, commercial delivery of online spaces. Given their genesis as hobbyist systems, they are notoriously complex to program and sluggish under heavy loads. Chaco and other companies are working to develop better MUD engines.

From SDKs to social spaces

Dan Greening and four other people who were previously the core of the Novell Appware Foundation Group founded Chaco. When Novell management decided it didn't want to be in the software development kit business, many of the engineers in the group went to Netmanage. Itchy to control their own destinies, they pooled their funds last January and went on their own.

Greening and his team see Chaco as a software engineering company, not a media developer or service provider. Chaco is looking for companies to license its technologies, which also include VR Scout, a VRML viewer that runs under Windows 3.1. In fact, Chaco is already profitable from software licensing revenues from companies such as Mastersoft, Netmanage, Strategic Mapping and Velocity.

The Pueblo system offers dynamic updating: It can download modules of code that add new functionality and run them right away -- a handy way to do product upgrades. Now that Netscape 2.0 offers features such as frames and in-line applications, Chaco will be shifting development from its separate browser toward integration in Netscape. However, the Netscape browser will not be required.

MICROSOFT'S (VIRTUAL) SOCIAL SPACES

One of the initiatives bubbling away inside Rick Rashid's Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft is Linda Stone's Virtual Worlds Group, which includes several diehard MUDers, character animators and 3D-world designers. The team is working on new kinds of online social spaces. Over time, they plan to offer several kinds of virtual social spaces, several of which they are ready to debut.

Soon Microsoft plans to announce the team's first product, which enhances MSN's chat feature with visually distinct 2D and 3D virtual spaces and avatars. The Virtual Worlds Group expects outside artists and developers to create more avatars and places, as well. Stone has been thinking about creating warm, tactile and fun virtual spaces for some time. To her, most 3D graphics worlds have too many sharp edges. The early designs for Microsoft's new system succeed nicely: They don't look much like any existing virtual worlds, and they have a flowing, whimsical, friendly feel.