P-0: Virtual World Concept: Update 10: Awesomium Integration

Awesomium is a HTML user interface engine. Essentially, it allows a program to access the internet in the same way that a web browser can, and display a web page, play a flash video, etc. This is obviously extremely powerful, and it can be used in various ways with virtual worlds and virtual reality technology to increase immersion.

I first came across Awesomium a number of years ago, and found it very easy to use. The only reason why I didn’t integrate it into T3D at that point was that the version of visual studio that I was using to compile torque couldn’t compile Awesomium, and the latest version didn’t compile T3D. Now, that has changed, and Awesomium should be fairly easy to integrate into T3D.

There is a paid resource HERE which does exactly that, and even allows for easy communication between Torquescript and Javascript, and allows for interactive gui’s using HTML and Javascript to be used as textures on game objects.

I am still in the early stages of my Virtual World project, and I am not certain exactly how I want to achieve total immersion. The way I would envision a technology like Awesomium being used in my case would be to allow users to perform computing tasks without leaving the game world. So, for example, they wouldn’t need to quit the game (breaking immersion) to check emails, browse a website, communicate on facebook, twitter, etc. Since more and more of a computers tasks are now web-centered or at least web-compatible, integrating a web browser into a game engine would allow a user to do everything they needed to do on their computer from within the game world. So, instead of the virtual world being just a program that is run on the computer and then quit, it essentially replaces the operating system, and becomes an always-on ever present virtual environment which can communicate and integrate with the real world when required.

I think this has the potential to dramatically increase the immersion in virtual worlds, and increase suspension of disbelief.

The only problem that I can see would be integrating these “real-world” tools with the virtual world itself. If you are building a realistic world, how do you explain these web browsers, email apps, etc? There are a few ways of doing it. The easiest way would be not try to integrate them with the setting and backstory of the world. Just allow the user to interact with the virtual world as normal, and create a web browsing window whenever they need to. This isn’t realistic, but it will break immersion a lot less to do this than to have the user quit the game and check their email, then start the game up again.

A better way to do this would be to integrate the web browser technology with the game world itself. So the user could interact with a computer in the virtual world, and use it to access real-world websites. Additional websites designed to be accessed in-game could also be created in the real world, and could be accessible from both in game and out of the game. This would provide excellent immersion, it would appear as if the virtual world bridges the gap between the virtual and the real.

This of course will not work if the game is set in an era which doesn’t have computer technology. In that case, some creative solutions specific to that world would need to be used to integrate the technology.

My current project is set in prehistoric times, as I discussed previously, so any integration of web browsers would need to be overt, since there wont’ be computers in game for the player to access. However, I intend to simulate the development of human civilisation and society as much as I can, which, eventually, will include more modern, and possibly even futuristic technology. This project is intended to be a “Virtual Universe” after all.