![]() Most kids in 2022 would look at this and see how primitive it all looks, but in 1997 it looked like I’d pulled off some Carmack-level sorcery and jumped ahead a couple of graphics generations. That pool of light on the ground is a custom texture with a hand-drawn shadow. But real-time lighting and shadows were not feasible on the consumer hardware of 1997, so I had to fake the light. You just make a lamp and stick a light source under it. I talked about some of the Metatropolis rendering tricks back in 2009 during my procgen city project.Īt 1:44, you can see a streetlamp on a corner. I realize the Metaverse is a bit cringe and out-of-touch today, but I made Metatropolis in 1997 when this stuff was still sort of hip and forward-looking. In my defense, the book was a lot more relevant in 1997 than it is today. Like Facebook’s Metaverse, I named the place after the virtual world in Neal Stephenson‘s book Snow Crash. At the 1:20 mark, the author jumps to Metatropolis. I made some of the stuff you’ll see in this video. Then in 2001 I was moved to the programming staff and I began working on the software itself. In the 90s I did a little of everything: I made 3d models, created texture maps, built environments, provided tech support, and authored tools. I was pretty checked out by the time it was over, much more concerned with this website and the work I was doing at the Escapist. So my job sort of fizzled out rather than ending abruptly. For the last 6 months I was working part-time on again / off again. This software was my life for about 16 years, from 1994 to ~2011-ish. Recently someone sent me a link to this video, where the author takes us on a tour through my old stomping grounds: Active Worlds: The 27-Year-Old Virtual World You Haven’t Heard Of
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