Have any of you seen <a href="https://www.bluemarsonline.com/" target="_blank">this</a> yet? (Hard to see, but that's a link.) Blue Mars, currently in development, appears to be a persistent online world a bit like SL, but with truly stunning visuals and realistic avatars. It uses the CryEngine, will allow users to develop content, etc. etc.

I just registered as a beta tester, so hopefully I'll be able to report back with more news later. I played around in Second Life for a while, but the visuals didn't really appeal all that much. I guess it's just a personal thing, but the appearance of SL sort of killed the immersiveness for me. The Myst series was always outstanding in that regard, and it Looks like Blue Mars will provide even better visuals, along with the MMO capabilities of SL, etc.

Just curious - it looks like fun, and like a lot of you I'm drifting along, waiting for a new challenge to fill the hole that Uru left.

Mowog

<! :#FF8C00--> "color:#FF8C00"><!--/ >I hadn't heard of it, but truth be told, I'm not looking for any MMO to fill any void. I'm really enjoying / treasuring single player experiences lately.

Having said that, it does look interesting. It'd be nice if the website revealed more information. <!--colorc--> <!--/colorc-->

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm really enjoying / treasuring single player experiences lately.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I certainly understand. Actually, even though I enjoyed the MMO aspect of SL, most of the time I spent there was engaged in solo exploration. Like a lot of other Myst fans, I'm pretty introverted. So while I like socializing up to a point, I enjoy spending a lot of time solo too, just absorbing the worlds - rather like taking a nice long walk by myself.

Later,

Mowog

I was just poking around the Blue Mars forum, and found the following by the CEO of parent company Avatar Reality -

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As a platform technology development company, everything we have built is simply to:

+ Technically demonstrate what the technology can do, and

+ Provide examples for 3rd-party developers who will use our platform to create a wide variety of worlds, environments, businesses, games, entertainment venues, artwork, and more.

Therefore our buildings, content, animations, A.I., clothing, avatars, etc. are all designed to test the capabilities of the technology, and as examples to show developers how to create them.

None of this content is intended to make any kind of statement, nor should they be interpreted as making any kind of social, sexual, architectural, animation, or any other statement. These are simply technical examples created by nerdy engineers (the vast majority of them are guys). Avatar Reality will not be making much more in the way of content because we need to focus on finishing the platform and development tools. Also, we will not compete with our 3rd-party devs by creating content.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

All of which is very interesting, because the intent of Blue Mars - that is, to serve as a platform for third-party developers - might not be a bad example for Cyan to pursue for the future of Uru. In fact, now that I've spent some time exploring the existing Blue Mars worlds, which are astonishing, it's easy to fantasize about what Uru fans; or Cyan themselves; could do to further the Uru cause using the Blue Mars platform. Seriously, there's no comparison with the visuals in Second Life, which looks downright cheesy in comparison.

I may have mentioned earlier that Blue Mars uses the Crysis engine. The visuals are mind-boggling and thoroughly immersive, but at the cost of being quite resource-hungry. I'm hoping to install more RAM and an up-to-date nVidia card soon, as Blue Mars is pretty laggy on my PC, which normally has no problems running Uru, etc. smoothly, at full resolution and with all the settings maxed.

That said, the Blue Mars platform is still very much in development, and the open Beta began only recently. It will be a while before things really start to happen.

Cheers,

Mowog