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Virtual Worlds - The story of two waves - 2.5D vs. 3D

By George Jobi (Intel) (6 posts) on October 28, 2008 at 12:09 pm

I had been analyzing the Virtual World market as part of our over all Connected Visual Computing efforts for some time and had been noticing a very important trend. It is very interesting how the split is between the two types of client technologies targeted for rendering the world.

Virtual World Adoption - Two Waves

2.5D Play based worlds with maybe 3D Model/Graphics but generally single camera view are extremely popular today. These tend to be built using Flash or some form of browser based technology. Club Penguin is good example of it.

While 3D based worlds generally require thick clients and have full 3D  graphics & model, usually supporting unrestricted camera views and full 3D play . SecondLife was the pioneer there but now we have tons of competition.

If you look at the adoption data there are two waves happening. While 2.5D world with wide user base (>150m users) certainly has crossed the “Chasm” and is now attracting lot of players and technologies including Google Lively. The 3D started with a bang (Second Life) is very slowly getting traction. What seems to be happening is that we are beyond the euphoria stage and now real businesses are happening. 2.5D with its wider user appeal is leading the creation of Usages, Business Models and new ecosystem of players. This is establishing virtual world as yet another medium to interact with end-users/customers. The early players seems to be firms with "Existing Content" and "Merchandise" vendors who are extending into this medium. Content and "Experience vendors" like Disney & MTV have already staked out big claims while other media companies follow.

I think what is going on today is that new ecosystem is forming with existing mass technology that is pervasive and easy to deploy. It is only matter of time when "Interaction Technologies" and others start bringing the experience in full 3D. The trick seems to be to get the experience seamless and as painless for end-users as possible.

What do you think? Does Virtual World technologies need to be 3D based for wider adoption or we need to still work with good enough and still need to figure out bigger non-technology issues around business models and " How one makes money" ?

Categories: Gaming, Social Media & Virtual Worlds, Visual Computing

Comments (5)

October 28, 2008 8:23 PM PDT Simon Newstead

Hi there, I think that a lot of the reason for the 2.5D success so far is the simplicity of use for the users. No large downloads, easy interfaces, and no difficult open 3D camera control seen in worlds like SL, which are ok for technical inclined but not as easy for mainstream users. However 3D web sites/worlds will pick up a lot, as they address those issues, which they are. Looking at many new NDS or Wii 3D games, they have made the 3D experience a lot easier to use and control. And many new 3D offerings like our own 3D Fashion Avatar at http://www.frenzoo.com are going for the web plugin approach (also the same for Google Lively), which is a lot easier for users than a large standalone client download..

October 29, 2008 11:57 AM PDT George Jobi (Intel) Total Points: 505 Status Points: 5 Brown Belt

Simon, Thanks for your comment and yes totally agree. You are absolutely right the 3D interaction paradigm is a mess for the mainstream and once we have that figured out 3D applications will really take off. Progress by Wii, Apple and others are finally getting there. I had been really impressed how well Apple had been expanding the pallet of gesture interfaces to Mac OS X and others. Also agree on the standalone client. Plugin and extension based approach is what will win out. Good Luck with Frenzoo

October 29, 2008 4:56 PM PDT Seth

I agree with Simon, in that 2.5D is similar enough to the 2D OS interface that it's not much of a learning curve for new users. This is especially important with young children and pre-GenX adults. On the other hand, most young adults and teens are comfortable with interacting with a 3D virtual world, because they play 3D games. Gamers have the skills to quickly and intuitively navigate in a first or third-person 3D interface by manipulating the two-stick controller or keyboard/mouse interface. As the gamer generation becomes older, being able to navigate in 3D spaces will eventually become commonplace, even necessary, much like using a keyboard and mouse is today. Eventually I see 3D navigation becoming ubiquitous, although perhaps not in areas like PC OS interfaces, where being able to work with a multitude of windows simultaneously seems to require a 2D plane. Perhaps the plane will be wrapped around a 3D cylinder as a continuous loop? The possibilities are intriguing.

October 29, 2008 10:39 PM PDT William O. Glascoe III

Developing and commodizing the "killer" 3D human machine interfaces live gloves, voice commands interpreters, and wands will help with the 3D worlds nDimensional interface challenge. I'm still looking for the kewl diagram that shows gap or awkwardness of existing HMI to ...worlds' avatars and controllable objects/environments/events. I've been investigating a specific 3D application concept for the last 18 months part-time that wants to leverage the ISO/IEC Extensible 3D (X3D) specification. I believe the 3D based worlds will really take off once the technology of Life Graphs built from XML databased Scene Graphs are engineered into e-commerce via an unified product ontological model. Between the payment card industry, Uniform Code Council, and other stakeholders who see the value in extending value chains of 3D CAD (distilled or repurposed) to the end user/consumer/buyer's LifeGraph, the 3D based worlds will be for just the short-term sell.

October 30, 2008 9:24 AM PDT Justin Gibbs

I think it mostly comes down to ease of install. Most 2.5D virtual worlds use Flash, which most people already have. However I think over time the limitations and similarity between the 2.5D virtual worlds will push users to explore 3D based worlds more. Video games followed a similar evolution to 3D.

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