Tag Archives: Unity

Interactivity in Virtual Worlds: Using Triggers in Jibe and Unity3d

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The physical world around us is responsive to our presence.

The same experience can be recreated in virtual worlds.

You just have to learn a few new tricks.

Those of us designing virtual worlds want to make them as engaging and interesting as possible.  There are many different ways to accomplish this goal.  You can start by creating a visually interesting space.  Make it beautiful to look at.  Fill it with things that move and look alive.  Encourage exploration by rewarding people with fun things to discover.  And never forget the power of sounds.

All of these methods will help you design a virtual space that is engaging to visitors.  But at some point you’ll realize that you want to build a world that is responsive to the people who are exploring it.

Looking and listening is fun.  Interactivity is even better.

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Jibe 1.1: Test our new camera controls at my chicken testing facility.

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Jibe 1.1 is now being rolled out!  Here’s more info on what’s new.

We’re very excited about the update.  In addition to some other new features and lots of bugfixes, we’ve expanded how the camera works in Jibe.

To try out our new camera controls, just visit my Jibe world and look for the big sign and big chickens set up near the default landing area.

No chickens are being harmed in this test. I swear.

The chickens are all making chickeny sounds, and you’ll be able to hear them more clearly as you zoom your camera in on them (your “ears” are attached to your camera).

Please send us a ticket if you have any feedback or notice any bugs.  And for more info about camera controls, be sure to read this page on our wiki.

Thanks, and have fun!

-John “Pathfinder” Lester

Collaborating using web-based tools with Jibe: Animations and iTween

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I recently wrote about some of the affordances of having a multiuser virtual world displayed in a webpage.  To illustrate this, here’s an example:

Left to Right: Twitter + Jibe + Dabbleboard

A multiuser Jibe world can be embedded in any webpage.  So what you see in the above screenshot is a webpage that has a Twitter widget on the left, my Jibe world in the middle, and a shared Dabbleboard on the right.  If you’re wondering how I did this, you can simply visit my Jibe page and take a peek at the HTML source.  Pretty simple stuff.

I’ve just started learning how to use a great tool called iTween.  It’s a powerful and easy to use animation system for Unity created by Bob Berkebile, and you can pick it up for free in the Unity Asset Store.  I’ve also been using another free Unity tool called the iTween Visual Editor, created by David Koontz.

These tools allow you to animate and move anything in the Unity editor, which can then be uploaded into a multiuser Jibe world. You create waypoints in the virtual environment and can see lines connecting each waypoint so you can easily visualize the exact path that an object will move along.

I’m a total newbie at all of this, so I love meeting people to discuss ideas and brainstorm.  Recently, I was in my Jibe world and wanted to show someone else my ideas for different pathways I was planning to lay out for my flying dragons.  We walked around my Jibe world together, checking out what I had already set up while talking on voice.

Then I had an idea.  I pulled up an aerial screenshot of my Jibe world’s terrain.  Dropped it into the Dabbleboard.  Drew some lines on it to show my plans for some new pathways.  The person I was meeting with then added some lines and waypoints of their own to the Dabbleboard to illustrate their own ideas.  You can see some of the results in the above screenshot.

Bingo.  Collaboration.

It was a great experience for me to be able to walk and talk with someone while we explored my Jibe world and simultaneously sketched out new ideas.  Really simple, and really powerful.  And a fun way to learn, too.

If you know of any other web-based tools that might integrate nicely on a webpage with Jibe, please let me know in the blog comments or join our conversations in our Jibe-Unity3d Google Group.  Thanks for sharing your ideas!

-John “Pathfinder” Lester

Why a Virtual World on a Webpage is Awesome

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Is running a virtual world in a web browser really that big a deal?  If you have to download a browser plugin, then why not just download a standalone application?  What’s the point of having a virtual world sitting in a webpage?  Does it really make any difference?

I hear these questions a lot.  So let me share a few of my recent experiences with Jibe and setting up my own web-based Jibe world.

I need to get folks into my Jibe world quickly.
Ah right, it’s just a URL.

I can’t overstate how powerful it is to be able to give out a URL and tell folks “just click on it and you’ll be in my virtual world.”  And even though they have to download a Unity plugin to make it work, the whole process still happens within the web browser itself.

Think about how much time you spend each day in front of your web browser.  If you’re like most folks, a web browser is probably always open on your computer.  Which means that anything happening in your web browser is always right at hand.

And since my Jibe world is just a URL, I can make it something short and easy for me to remember.  Easy for me to quickly jot down on a piece of paper, too.  I just write or type bit.ly/Jibe_Pathfinder and that’s it.

I need to add links to useful info for people visiting my my Jibe world.
Oh wait, I can just add that as HTML inside the webpage where Jibe lives.

Since my Jibe world lives on a plain old webpage, I can easily add additional text and hyperlinks that appear around the Jibe world on the page.  Tweaking a web page like that is a snap, even for a web-wrangler like myself who uses a pretty basic HTML editor.

I want to use Google Moderator and Dabbleboard with people in Jibe.
Hold on, I can just embed them next to the Jibe world on the webpage.

Again, my Jibe world lives on a plain old webpage.  Which means I can use iframes to embed a useful web-based application and have everyone see it while they are inside my virtual world.  And there are a lot of great web-based collaborative tools out there.

Standing around in a 3d environment looking at 2d documents hanging on virtual walls has always left me scratching my head a bit.  Especially when those 2d documents need to be dynamic and collaborative.  Why not use the right tool for the right job?  Have the 2d content live on the webpage, and have the engaging 3d content in the 3d window.  That gives you the best of both worlds, and both can exist on the same webpage.

I need to track visitors to my Jibe world.  How do I script that inworld?
Oh duh.  I can just add Google Analytics to the webpage where Jibe lives.

Took me about an hour mulling things over before I suddenly realized this one.  A quick copy/paste of the Google Analytics javascript code into my web page, and I was done.

For those of us used to using virtual worlds as standalone applications, you can see how realizing the real power of a virtual world in a webpage requires unlearning some things.  You don’t need to do everything inside the 3d world itself.  You have the power of other web-based applications right there on the same page.

And I haven’t even touched on the more complex affordances of Jibe and the web.  Like being able to tie in preexisting web-based registration systems on the backend.  Or being able to integrate Jibe with a preexisting web-based content or learning management systems.

A virtual world on a webpage is awesome simply because the web is full of awesome tools.

And they can all work together.

-John “Pathfinder” Lester


How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Unity Asset Store

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It’s important for people to identify their own talents and cultivate them whenever possible.

And likewise, it’s important for people to realize where they lack talent.

Personally, I’m terrible at 3d content creation.

I’ve tried very hard to learn various 3d modeling programs in the past, and I continue to push myself at doing my best to use them.  But I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that, aside from being able to whip up the basics, I definitely lack the artistic talent and technical prowess to create beautifully detailed 3d models from scratch.  I’ll always be a hack.

But that’s OK.  I’ve stopped worrying about it.

Because the trick is to accept one’s limitations while finding ways to work around them.

My Best Friend in Jibe: The Unity3d Asset Store

I’ve recently been learning how to use Unity3d to create my own multiuser virtual world on the web with Jibe.  And I just started using the Unity Asset Store.

The Unity Asset Store is a place to buy things you can import and use in your own Unity3d projects.  Anyone can submit items to be sold, too.

Pretty neat, right?  Well, it gets much more interesting.

The clever folks at Unity decided to integrate the Asset Store with the Unity editor.

Hello, my friend!

So while you’re busily working on your world in the editor, you can simply pull up the Asset Store from the menu, search for something, buy it, and have it immediately dropped into your project file.  And if you lose or break something you previously bought, have no fear.  The Asset Store remembers that you bought it and can send it to you again whenever you like.

Of course, anyone can find 3d models for sale or freely available on many different websites.  I do that all the time, and it works great.  But it can sometimes get complicated depending on different import settings and optimizations.  With the Unity Asset Store, I’m guaranteed everything will work in Unity3d.  And the store is right there for me to access while I’m actively building my world, at the precise moment I need new content.

“Hmm.  I need wildlife in my Jibe world.  Like rabbits.”

“Oh look, there’s one in the Asset Store.”

“Done.”

I get excited about technology.  But I get even more excited when I find tools that have a very positive philosophy behind them.  The Unity Asset Store is a great example of how the folks at Unity are thinking very carefully about how to best empower people who want to create engaging 3d experiences.  Connect, integrate, and build communities where everyone can best leverage their unique talents.  That’s a great philosophy in my book.

Jibe + Unity3d = Sharing your World

At ReactionGrid, we like to think we too have a very positive philosophy.  We give people the tools to create and then share their virtual worlds with others.  Being able to easily publish your vision on the web is pretty amazing, and I’m having a great time putting myself in our customers’ shoes.  Learning by doing.

Visit my Jibe world and see if you can find my fully rigged and animated mesh models of rabbits, courtesy of the Unity Asset Store.  I’ll be using them and other animal models to tell a little story over time for folks exploring my Jibe world.

Creating fun and immersive learning experiences through storytelling is something I can do pretty well.  Thankfully, I don’t need to be a 3d model expert to create engaging  experiences in Jibe.

And guess what?  Neither do you.

Join our Jibe and Unity3d Discussion Group and learn how easy it is to get started!

New Group to discuss Virtual Worlds on the Web using Unity3d and Jibe

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I’ve just started a new Google Group for folks interested in creating virtual worlds on the web using Jibe and Unity3d.   You can join it here.

Unity3d is a very popular professional game development platform for creating 3d environments.  Jibe is a platform that we’ve developed at ReactionGrid to allow anyone to deploy multiuser virtual worlds on the web that are built with Unity3d.

Unity3d and Jibe have some really cool affordances for developing immersive and interactive projects, particularly for educators.  The worlds are accessible from a web browser, voice and text chat are both available, all content is based on industry-standard mesh models, and you can write scripts in C# and JavaScript.  There are also ways to integrate a Jibe world with web-based CMS /LMS systems, and future versions of Jibe will also support deployment on things like iPads and other mobile platforms.

I’m not a professional 3d content creator, and I can barely script my way out of a paper bag.  But I’ve managed to create my own Jibe world online.  Learning Jibe and Unity3d is not insanely hard.  Anyone can do it, really.

Which is precisely why I’ve started the Jibe and Unity3d Google Group.  I’ll be posting my own experiences to the group and sharing resources that I’ve found very useful.  Bring your questions and creative ideas.  Let’s build a supportive and helpful community together!

And if you’d like to listen to a presentation I recently gave at VWBPE on the educational affordances of web-based virtual worlds, Jibe and Unity3d, please take a look at this video:

My Office Hour in your Browser

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Welcome to Jibe!

We’ve been working very hard at ReactionGrid on our virtual world platform called Jibe.

Jibe is a great way to give people access to virtual worlds through a web browser, and future versions will support mobile devices and even game consoles.  You use the Unity3D editor to create environments in Jibe, and I’ve been having a lot of fun learning how to use it as well as finding cool places to get reusable 3D mesh content.

I now have my own Jibe-based virtual world online and accessible by anyone who wants to visit.  So I’m officially expanding my weekly Office Hours to include a couple new meetings each week that I’ll be hosting in my Jibe world.  See my Office Hours webpage for all the updated details.

You can visit my Jibe world even if I’m not around.  Just open it in your web browser and have fun exploring.  I’m still building it out, so please mind the mess.  I plan to add some fun games and hidden secrets in the future.  Hope to see you there!

Sitting at my workbench in Jibe. And yes, having a fire that close to my spaceship is probably a bad idea.

Hypergrid Adventurers Club meet #20: Discussing web-based virtual worlds and exploring Jibe / Unity3D

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At a recent club meeting, some folks mentioned they were interested in learning more about web-based virtual worlds and possibly taking a tour of one of them.

So today, our discussion focused on web-based virtual worlds.  And instead of traveling the Hypergrid, we made a special visit to a Jibe-based Unity3D world.

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