Introducing Virtulo.us

[[email protected]]

Hi Everybody. 

Virtulo.us is an online authoring and hosting service for creating interactive games and simulations. We have a full online editor that lets you build and publish games, architectural walk throughs, or just share and view 3D models. Virtulo.us is built on a lot of technologies you've probably heard of, including three.js, ammo.js, the Ace editor, plus some secret sauce. 

Honestly, this thing is pretty beta, but I think it's grown to a point where real people can use it.  I'd love it if you all would kick the tires a bit. 

I've built a simple game demo - this is just the bare beginnings of a platformer. I've set the settings so you can anonymously edit. Please note that changes you make won't be saved unless you create an account and use the "copy to my account" button. Check out the editable game demo here: https://virtulo.us/1/vr/worlds/1FVo6B

Here's just a few tips to help you get around:

• Use the play/pause in the bottom right to play and reset
• A three-button mouse is highly recommened, but not necessary
• From the dropdown menu, choose "Activate Camera" then "camera1 (1)" to look from the game camera
• Select the squid monster thing, then open the "ScriptEditor" from the "windows" dropdown. Click the "Tick" method to see a bit of the code. Feel free to mess with it.
• The platforms all share a script - open the editors with the "Editors" tab on the right, open "hierarchy" and find "Script1". In the script editor you'll see the code for the motion under the method "collision". Again, feel free to mess with it.
• You can upload new 3D models after you create an account. The companion 3D asset service is at https://virtulo.us/1/3dr/ui/models/all/0 . Thanks to the guys at OpenGameArt for that demo content. 

Please take a look - I'd really love some feedback. Also, if you want to upload some 3D model, that would really help get things started. Over time, I'll add more content. Also check out the docs link - the documentation is sort of a mess, but it still might be useful.

[bdekk]

Seems like an interesting engine, although very similar to for example Unity. What would be the uniqueness of this platform compared to other game engines? 

[[email protected]]

Yup, great point. 

One major difference is bringing the authoring tools into the browser. I know there are just a few other tools out there that do this. Whether or not that's actually valuable is a question for users. I've definitely worked with organizations in the past where installing software was forbidden, so such a solution is the only one possible for them.

I do think there are some benefits in collaboration - you might notice that multiple authors can interact with the toolset in real time. We even have a bit of a system for voice and video chat, so authors can talk, discuss and debate while quickly iterating ideas. 

Finally, if you're going to deploy a multiuser game in HTML5 that's built with a desktop tool, you still have to worry about hosting, network stuff, CDN stuff.... Virtulo.us is a one stop shop for all that.