'Google Earth is not alone,' said Micazook founder Michael Fotoohi.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)LONDON--Micazook, a start-up trying to bring some real-world flavor to virtual worlds on the Net, plans to publ timberland waterproof shoes icly launch an online realm it calls Project X for now.
"A beta will be out in the next few weeks," Michael Fotoohi, managing director and one of the prime programmers behind the timberland pro work boots project, said at the Image Sensors Europe conference here. By then, he said, Project X should have a real name instead of its present placeholder.
Project X attempts to overlay the free- timberland shoes wheeling style of Second Life over a model of the real world. The company has obtained high-resolution imagery for many parts of the world, combined it with data for where roads are located, and used it as a foundation for the virtual buy timberland boots world.
Think of it as Google Maps Street View populated by avatars.
The imagery is useful in an aerial view, but if you want to see a 3D realm when on the ground, members of the virtual world will have to build the timberland work shoes buildings. Fotoohi said the process is relatively simple--about 10 to 15 minute per building, including the addition of graphics to spruce up the wireframe's realism.
"We like people to come and gucci coats build Earth," Fotoohi said Thursday. The general idea is based on Wikipedia, which has shown the possibilities of letting people produce their own content.
Virtual worlds have gained some measure of populari gucci mens clothing ty, but they can be a tough sell. Second Life is alive and kicking but not generating the excitement it once did. Google's Lively was canceled altogether during a moment of belt-tightening. And Fotoohi said has had trouble raising timberland oxfords funds from venture capitalists who said they weren't interested until he demonstrated a large membership.
Micazook has various plans for bringing in money. A big one is a 30 percent tax on any tra cheap evisu jeans nsaction--sales of property or virtual goods, for example. Another is ownership of a building, which costs $4.99 per month.
Although Fotoohi is excited by the possibility of building a virtual version of the re timberland smartwool sandals al world, there are big limits to how closely the two correspond. Anyone can own a property in Project X, for example, regardless of who owns it in the real world.
To protect against virt timberland slippers ual vandalism, moderators will be empowered to keep up standards, he added. Those who do well with buildings can be named as new moderators by existing moderators, crowdsourcing the chore.
One thing Fotoohi is particularly p louis vuitton sneaker boots roud of is high-resolution avatars--typically constructed of 7,000 to 10,000 polygons for high detail.
Unlike Second Life, Project X runs in a browser. It relies on a plug-in, h black vandal owever, that lets the software take advantage of 3D graphics hardware acceleration.
The beta will launch with three cities: New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
And what will people do there? Na vandal shoe turally, at the current private stage of development, Fotoohi's demonstration of Project X couldn't show one possible attraction, chatting with others there. Another possibility: games, including poker.
Stephen S gucci jackets hankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, su gucci jeans percomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank, or contact him through Google Buzz. Topics: Web 2.0, Browsers and extensions Tags: Second Life, mapping, virtual worlds, Google Earth, Micazook Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Facebook Twitter推荐阅读：