Really

Wednesday, I joined a bunch of other virtual world enthusiasts for the first VastPark multi-user stress-test. VastPark is one of several virtual worlds platforms that’s currently in development. VastPark seems similar to Multiverse, in that it offers tools to create virtual worlds, that can be accessed using a standard client.
The VastPark creator tool has been available (to beta participants) for a while, but Wednesday was the first time we got to try the VastPark browser to access a multi-user world. The model is that you create 3D environments called ‘parks’, which are then hosted as multi-user worlds using “VastServer“.
The stress-test nicely demonstrated the difficult position new virtual-world platforms are in: trying to make sure they get the fundamentals right while trying to catch up with established platforms like Second Life (SL has the opposite problem, trying to stay ahead in the features race while at the same time re-architecting their basic infrastructure).
The VastPark direction seems to be:

• Open source VastServer from the start (allowing users and corporations to host their own virtual worlds).
• Use a peer-to-peer network architecture for scalability. VastPark announced that they are licensing a “decentralized network engine” from NICTA, that will enable millions of concurrent users.
• I asked if anybody was working on interoperability with OpenSim, and Craig Presti, VastPark Lead Developer, said they were “thinking about it”. The question wasn’t that serious, and the answer may not have been either,but it certainly wasn’t a flat denial of the possibility.
• The VastPark worlds are described using a markup language called IMML, base on XML. Using IMML rather than some hidden internal structure could make interoperability simpler, as well as tasks like importing and exporting content.
• One of the stress-test participants discovered that clicking on the blue buttons floating in the room started a Skype chat. It would be easy to speculate about whether this feature indicates future in-world voice using Skype, or tight integration with other applications in general.

However, we’ll have to wait some time before we can see any of the VastPark ideas in a usable form. Though it was a lot of fun to see the platform in its current raw state, it was hard not to wonder how Second Life and Multiverse (and Qwaq and MPK20…) will evolve while VastPark is still implementing basic functionality. Hopefully the different virtual world platform developers are not in a race to reach a specific destination, but are instead using different approaches to explore different parts of the space.

Thanks to the VastPark team for letting us bash on their software - If you missed the fun, take a look at some of the screenshots from the event, and prepare to sign up for the Open Beta in April.