This article explains some of the scope of this project
Officially splitting this experiment in virtual reality (technically not a “game” as the “goals” are not defined, unless the player has their own goal in that world) into two “Phases”.
Neopangaia : AMON and UMMO
Futuristic near photoreal (in optimal form, which is using our custom hardware) virtual world encompassing (eventually) earth and other solar system bodies (including interplanetary travel using not 1:1 scale. Inspired by Metaverse and all sorts of virtual realities or artificial AI
Inception was the last I saw, because even though it represented worlds of dream, to me it represents virtual reality (if done performance capture style for the characters, of course). I’m a fan of CGI only rotoscoping. I’m a huge fan of acting as an artform. I believe CGI has the potential to enhance, focus, and manifest it in ways far beyond film, that haven’t been done yet. Age of the actor becomes irrelevant.
As an artist, penciler, sculptor, actor, choreographer, and painter, I have a different take. The more I work on this project, the more I appreciate individual artists and actors behind film and stage projects.
Meaning you do hand animation using traditional animators with captured actor performances as a base.
We try not to simulate as much as represent in a different medium.
Traditional animation of the highest quality characters we can get. That also means some usage of premade mocap files, but primarily I am going for something more akin to surrealistc (Dali) than realistic.
Performance is in the whole body. In ways that human minds perceive differently than technology or any type of camera. I often wonder what the actors imagine, more than what their body, as the body of a dancer, does in response.
And at the same time more human looking characters than either “The Incredibles” or “Clone Wars” (both influences on me as much as old Dreamcast games and their more simplistic textures but clean polygons).
The virtual world will become more detailed and surrealistic as it develops. A place real world races and borders, and at the same time, still having deep ancient archetypes behind all that transpires, it’s own society and it’s own mythology for each group.
We will use real world terrain as a basis.
There exists something akin to the “Internet” within this virtual world, therefore making the computerized elements of that reality something that does not suspend disbelief, but instead connects to reality.
We can integrate HTML into the engine itself (yes a simulation built on top of a game engine).
There are sections of that virtual world that cater to every sensibility from pure learning to video game action, to art, research, and other adult content, just like any other more Open World, such as Second Life.
But this virtual reality has a unifying design style, story, and rules underneath it’s virtual reality that are constant. This makes it more like the Holodeck with lower technology and a larger scale than a “game”
Mythology https://underworldmmo.wordpress.com/myth/
HP Lovecraft and 士郎 正宗, Shirō Masamune are two of the primary artists whose conceptual ideas allow me to tie the various world mythologies, time periods, and fantasy/science fiction elements together like Bookends.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urotsukidoji
Urotsukidōji (うろつき童子: 超神伝説, Urotsukidōji: Chōjin Densetsu?, lit. “Wandering Kid: The Legend of the Super God”
That defines the full range of activity that would happen in game in a select few areas, much like Second Life or other similar world cater to and have space for all levels from purely educational content to truly “adult content”
For the most part, expect the style and level of story and content to reflect the mythology of the area.
Hence people of different moral guidelines or interests might gravitate to certain areas.
None of the traditional modern races exist n neopangaia. Much like Star Trek, there are analogous races that embody different trace elements of each culture, on a totally proprietary level.
This is analogous to individual stories by individual authors, and I believe can often be more effective than the attempt at a politically correct (meaning agenda free or opinion free ) assessment.
Archetypes
Two Phases :
Phase 1: AMON
Engine: UDK (eventually Unreal Full License)
Target Date: December 22, 2011
Aleph Maya Oni Nanashi
aleph (roughly translated as first)
oni nanashi (roughly translated namless spirits)
Amon uses modern FPS Engine to introduce participants to the future MMORPG called Neopangaia (UMMO) regardless
In our products, players will (eventually) be able to select their viewable desired levels of graphic violence or other adult content, and the engine will modify in game graphics and action to represent and support that level only.
This solution was developed when this project was in “Open Development” 2005-2008. During that time we surveyed and had daily discussions with hundreds of players, parents, and fans who voted on the game’s exact design.
We are emulating film in many ways, in the design, so I think it only fair to be able to create a virtual world capable of rendering literally every fact of the film world, in some places. Areas and locations themselves will have individual ratings and descriptions of the content, much like the ones that precede television films before they start.
This is only necessary for marketing and business purposes (and honestly, sometimes I don’t care for the very graphic, this product should be enjoyable regardless of taste or culture.
My favorite company was Electronic Arts. Years ago I used to dream of a game like Starflight.. where you are not a star-ship, but an individual.. eventually gaining Silver Surfer/Superman level powers.
I expect Maximum players per “server” or “instance” to be 64 regardless of engine. This will allow maximum reality behind the characters and such. Finding out if I can get a license to make this game on UDK should give me a guesstimate to what would be the result later if I approached a major console company once we have large numbers behind us.
I would hate to have to ignore consoles altogether, which I have to do for this first version.
Being internet download and credit card only will all;ow for easy age verification.
Players can move from server to server, instance to instance, and there will be multiple levels for players to explore, so that should allow for deep interesting interactivity.
UPDATE: Code which allows efficient connectivity between UDK and a database. Ironically the one chosen was SQLite (why it never showed up in my searches, as a previous purchaser/user of large scale and small deployments using everything from Microsoft SQL to MySQL)
This means we will be able to have most of the significant rpg elements in this project as well as persistent servers and character movement between servers much easier, while still havign the limits of 64 active players per instanced area.
I will take a cure from sliders (and others) and have duplicate servers for each area/city be slightly different from other versions of the same space/reality.
That should become very interesting.
Two Phases :
Phase 2: UMMO
Initial Target Date: December 22, 2012
Unique Massive Multiplayer Online
Engine: (Targeting Unreal Engine 3/4)
By extending the FPS engine used for Phase 1 or developing our another engine (and reusing assets and game logic/design elements from Phase 1), we are able to rapidly develop the massive version by simply extending to the geography and upgrading to a larger maximum character per zone.
The end result will allow 1:1 scale virtual Earth and Solar System.
Hardware :
Standard:
Thee engine used for Phase 1 is capable of running on all three hardware platforms AND handheld devices. Whether or not we will receive the support or sales to allow that to be manifested ins unknown.
In a worst case scenario, we can use the UDK to allow free use of the project (thus it would serve only as a form of free marketing and word of mouth to generate funding for Phase 2). It would be much more valuable than a dozen commercials, so would be wise financially regardless.
UDK Base Default is Microsoft Windows, so I know that platform will be available regardless (worst case scenario for me and it will end up being free for you, so either way, the customer wins).
Custom:
We have designed our own portable console for playing UMMO using three displays in either a height or width focused configuration and running multiple video cards.
Also available in 9 screen configuration with the same photorealistic texturing and polygon level but more real estate. This allows true 1:1 Real:World/Virtual World interaction (using multitouch once we have SDK access).
The AMON version will cover the timeline of the post apocalypse war period, approximately between not far from now and 600 years later, which is when Neopangaia-Phase 2 is released.
ummo - adult mmo rpg sim 