A simple virtual world selection tool, known as World Finder,
has been created by virtual world specialist's Daden Limited to
help businesses and organisations choose between competing
platforms for their projects.
World Finder is based around 12 key virtual world features which
have been chosen as they highlight the biggest differences between
available virtual world platforms. The rating of each world against
these features are based on Daden's extensive experience of nearly
a hundred virtual projects over the past 5 years.
David Burden, Daden's MD said, "Although we've seen some
platforms fall by the wayside those that remain are getting
steadily more powerful, so it's actually harder to make the right
choice. World Finder was designed to capture our feelings as to the
relative strengths of each platform and to make it easier to show
clients the pros and cons of each in any given situation. Having
created the tool as an app it seemed sensible to share it with the
wider community."
The 12 features assessed by the tool are:
• Whether users can build and customise in-world
• Quality of graphics
• Size of area modelled
• Ability to customise the client
• Whether the user is represented by an avatar
• Whether its for solo or group use
• Whether it runs in a browser, mobile or just as a PC
application
• Whether it can be deployed on servers behind a
firewall
• The robustness and security of the code
• Whether you can import existing 3D model
• Whether the vendor is stable, and the user community well
developed
• and of course cost!
David continues "We were keen to make sure the criteria were an
even balance of user, technical and commercial features. All too
often the debate about virtual worlds is solely about technical
issues like visual quality and bandwidth".
The initial version of World Finder focuses on the 4 platforms
supported by Daden in its work with clients: Second Life, OpenSim,
Vastpark and Unity. Later versions of World Finder may be extended
to include other virtual worlds and game engines.