The promise of Web 3D

Patrick Cox writes in TCS Daily that Netscape is about to revolutionize the web again.

Similar to how the Navigator browser -- with its HTML development tools -- liberated the web from proprietary ISPs like AOL and Compuserve over a decade ago, Netscape is developing a new set of tools they're calling Multiverse that will let you create your own virtual worlds (ala World of Warcraft), while making them compatible with those created by other developers:

Their plan is to provide virtual world creators the client, server, and development tools to create an MMO world. The entire technology platform is free for non-commercial use, so academics are paying nothing to create economic, architectural, sociological and other simulations. For-profit enterprises would pay royalties, but only when their games or other applications collect money from consumers, not before.

This is significant because, until now, creating a complex virtual world required tens of millions of dollars in initial development costs alone. The Multiverse technology, currently in beta-testing, claims to lower the cost of virtual world production to a fraction of its current stratospheric level. For many purposes, such as personal online spaces, there would be no cost at all.

Most importantly, however, all these Multiverse-based worlds, and many are already in development, would be compatible. With the Multiverse client software, users will be able to access any virtual world built using the company's technology. Virtual worlds will become, in effect, ubiquitous. The Metaverse.