Intelligent integration of Social

Networks and Advanced 3D

Virtual Worlds Pål Frogner Hansen, palfh@funcom.com

Producer, Funcom VerdIKT Conference, 26. April 2012

The Project

Norwegian title: ”DreamWorld - sømløs integrering

av nettbaserte 3D-spill og sosiale nettverk”

Period, April 2010 – Dec 2014

Participants

Funcom

Høgskolen i Narvik (HiN)

Goals:

Reduce the gap between Social Networks and Advanced 3D Virtual Worlds using Dreamworld Engine

Integrate them

The two players

Facebook as we know it

Facebook as we know it

Facebook as we know it

Facebook as we know it

MMOs as we know them

Facebook vs MMOs...

Equipment

Hardware requirements

Software requirements

Platform independence

Data amounts

Install time

Size on disk

Game start-up time

In-game zone transfer

Social Friends lists

Friends activity sharing

Immersion technology

Graphics quality

Audio quality

Athmosphere

Syncronization

Playfield format

Physics sim/3D calc

Backend complexity

Backend service

One world

Facebook vs MMOs!

Equipment

Hardware requirements

Software requirements

Platform independence

Data amounts

Install time

Size on disk

Game start-up time

In-game zone transfer

Social Friends lists

Friends activity sharing

Immersion technology

Graphics quality

Audio quality

Athmosphere

Syncronization

Playfield format

Physics sim/3D calc

Backend complexity

Backend service

One world

Facebook MMO's

No Yes, normally. Often very high.

Standard browser (/Flash) Buy/download + install executable

Yes (limited on some games) In general: No

Instant Lenghty (hours)

Barely anything 30 GB+ (example from a 2008 game)

Fast Slow and lengthy

Instant or fast Slow and lengthy generally

Extensive functionality Basic friends list

Extensively covered Limited, but picking up

Simplistic Often very high

Simplistic (Stereo) High Production value (even 5+1)

Surf and chat? Immersive, 3D virtual world

Yes, but simplistic Global sync/movement prediction etc.

Simplistic (normally) 3D virtual worlds with vast landscapes

No (in general) Yes (even synced on servers)

Normally simplistic (3rd party) Complex (latency, bandwidth, collision)

Yes Generally split up (based on traffic)

Wouldn’t it be cool if...

You could be able to instantly play an MMO without install?

Or explore the vast game without waiting (loading)?

Or access Facebook, or Facebook-features inside the MMO?

Or you could play advanced MMOs in a regular browser, possibly inside Facebook?

You could access all this without having to buy the most expensive gamer-PC out there?

Or just: Get the best from both worlds!

Our focus areas Data compression HiN*, Funcom

Multi-resolution resources HiN*, Funcom

Fast data loading and streaming Funcom

Low end-rendering Funcom

Intelligent resource download system Funcom

Seamless World Adaption Funcom

Social Networks Integration Funcom

Web Launcher Funcom

Browser in game Funcom

One-world, one-server, backend support Funcom

“Remote Playing, Fullscreen Streaming”-service evaluation Funcom

Multi-platform support Funcom

* Two PhD degrees: ”Methods for user guided compression algorithms” and “Methods for geometric

modeling - surfaces and volumes”. BOLD: Most effort was needed here

Now and future

Dreamworld technology foundation goes back before year 2000, and is constantly being improved

Some of the work in this project will be utilized in The Secret World (TSW) at its launch this summer

Some of the work must wait as it is not ready or too risky for TSW (but may be enabled in a later update)

Some features (=utilized results) will only ”shine” if a game is built properly around the solution we end up with. Next Dreamworld game?

Some results will likely require bigger investments to be utilized commercially

Last slide