Online game community has been popular for years. Recently many virtual worlds are Flash-based and can run directly in web browser. The latest Flash player 10 and ActionScript 3 gain a performance leap from older Flash player and ActionScript 2. The memory consumption is around 50 percent more and the script performance is around 10 times faster than ActionScript 2.
Thanks to the performance enhancement and the binary socket connectivity support of the latest ActionScript, building Flash virtual world is possible for even independent Flash developers.
In this chapter, we will discuss the benefit of developing Flash virtual world. We will also discuss different connection methods between Flash clients and compare different server solutions.
A virtual world is a digital environment that is similar to real world. Many users can log in to the virtual world and walk around in a virtual city or interact with each other. They can interact with others in different ways such as collaborating, chatting, or playing together.
Let's see how virtual world is used in different areas.
Virtual world connects users in real time so that they can socialize in this virtual environment. They can collaborate with others in an online meeting or virtual workspace. Users can even share their thoughts by Voice-over-IP chatting or whiteboarding.
MPK20 (http://research.sun.com/projects/mc/mpk20.html) is one of the virtual workspaces from Oracle, previously Sun. It facilitates several features to target business users. Users in MPK20 can join a briefing with a PDF presenting, join a group meeting or even drag in documents from a computer to share between users for discussion. The following screenshot shows the virtual workspace from MPK20:
Students can play in a simulated reality environment in virtual world. In this environment, students are given some tasks to complete. They can collaborate with other students to complete the tasks assigned by teachers. The students may learn things by immersive learning when solving different missions inside the virtual world.
People can play games with others in virtual world. They can play against other players in real-time battle or team up to play against the missions from the online game. They may also exchange items and establish relationships like in the real world.
The following screenshot is from an online game called Mini Fighter (http://global.netmarble.com/minifighter/). It is a virtual world where players can fight against a lot of players at the same time in a 2D horizontal environment.
