FriendsHangout 3D Virtual Chat Moves into Public Beta

Hello,

We are very excited to announce that after 14 months, FriendsHangout.com is finally moving into Public Beta on June 1st.

I thought I would give you guys a little heads up that the site is updated now, so perhaps you can help us check things out now and make sure we did not miss anything obvious

FriendsHangout is a 3D Virtual World site based on Unity 3D where users can explore, chat, play games and more.

You can visit the site at
http://www.FriendsHangout.com?FHID=Unity

or go directly to the game here
http://www.friendshangout.com/3dchat.php?FHID=Unity#play

So far we have the following scenes ready to play with dozens more on the way.

1. Island Paradise

Visit our beautiful island paradise. Explore this amazing scene by following nature trails through out the mountains. Ride a jet ski, jump ramps, race with other users. Can you keep up with the dolphins? Have a drink at the tiki bar. Listen to island music and dance the night away. You'll NEVER want to leave!

When I first saw the Island Demo for Unity, I KNEW Unity 3D was our best choice for a game engine for the web. This scene will be very familiar to any Unity developer as all we did was dress up the demo a little and add a few features of our own. We are proud to pay homage to this wonderful piece of art!


2. Space Station

You KNOW we HAD to have a Shoot'em up in Space Visit our SpaceStation and check out all the levels, see if you can find the Alien creatures hiding in this scene. Journey outside and try your skillz at 'Asteroid Hunting' or just marvel at the very cool music and scenery!


3. Future City

What will life be like in the Future? We have tried to take a 'Hollywood View' of what may be in store for us. Yep in our future, everyone can fly their own Hovercraft, travel out to the WasteLands, and have a Party where ever you go! Be sure not to run into the Blimp or Flying Bus and stay away from the downed telephones lines in the Wastelands.


4. Pirate Cove

Argghh Matey! Join us for a treasure hunt in this amazing scene. Find what's in store inside our Caves, Shoot a Canon on our Pirate Ship and be sure to say hello to our Parrot! Not sure what to do? 'Jump off a Cliff' and begin your tour the right way with our cool HangGliders.


5. Aztec Ruins

Feel the beat of the drums! Explore the Aztec Ruins, Climb the mountains to our beautiful waterfall. Run to the top of the temples to get a view like you have never seen before. Switch modes and take your Dune Buggy for a spin in the desert area. Also check out the crashed airplane and helicopter near the beach.


6. Snow Globe

Get your coat on, cause it's gonna be chilly! Enter our Snow Globe scene and venture though the buildings inside the globe. Enjoy sitting by a warm fire. Race a friend on the Luge Track and earn tokens along the way. This scene is loosely based on a design by the good folks at unwrong.com, thanks for the Inspiration guys!


7. Poster Gallery

We have created an Amazing 3D gallery that you can walk through, view posters in various categories and even visit links where you can purchase these posters at huge savings. Members of FriendsHangout can even create their own 3D gallery of photos they upload to their account!



We have many new scenes coming like, the Western Town, Haunted Mansion, The Aquarium, The Magic Hideout and more.

What do we have planned for the future?

Well we have many more scenes on the way, but we are also working on an API that will allow other Unity developers to use our system to create their own virtual worlds.

You will simply load your assets into our template and we will handle the rest, avatar, interface, networking, etc. 2D 3D Graphic artist will also be able to link into our system and help create items that other users can use in their own scenes.

These will be available in our virtual store where developers can sell their items to others. You can start out with something simple like a room, but build up as much as you want, buy a block, a city, country, or even your own world that you can then resale land to other members. Large companies can even create an entire Galaxy and resale any or all parts they wish.

We want to set this so developers can make real money in our virtual worlds and will even be able to share in ad revenues.

To find out more be sure to sign up for our developer newsletter here.
http://www.friendshangout.com/developer.php


Please check out all our scenes and give us feed back as we go so we can make this the best it can be.

I also wish to thank all the folks here in the forums for all the help. We NEVER could have pulled this off without such a great team of people willing to share their ideas.

Enjoy,
Jeff White
Visual Inspirations Inc.
www.FriendsHangout.com

 

fantastic first impression... smooth loading... very well layed out gui and controls...

i visited the island and the space station... lots of fun, but i didn't see anyone else... :cry:

being the first one is sometimes a bit isolating :wink:

will 'test' out more and give some additional feedback later...


--Mike

 

Congrats on the launch, you guys have been working on this for quite a while and it's good to see it being released.

 

I tried Island Paradise. Wow! First thing I noticed was the great music and graphics. That is a beautiful island you've made there, and i've got to say you really got the water right. You totally nailed the look of a coral reef underneath that water!

I had some difficulty with the controls, they seemed unresponsive. It was really hard to just hit the ramp on the jet ski. I think it may have been server related, since the music was skipping too.

I will try again later, since I really want to explore these amazing worlds without any frustration from the controls. This is a really cool project you've got here, definately one to watch!

 

Thanks guys, yeah we have worked hard on it to get it just right. We still have a ways to go and a lot more work to do, but its slowly starting to come together.


Keep us posted on any bugs, comments and or suggestions you may have as we move forward...

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Hey Jeff - congratulations to going into beta with FriendsHangout. This turned out really cool - so right on!

I noticed one little bug in the Island Scene: When you take the jet ski to the inner parts of the island and go to the end of where water is, you can get stuck on the land, with the jet ski.

 

Thanks Jashan,
well I thought we had got all the stuck areas fixed COuld you take a snapshot of the area and email to support@friendshangout.com

I went up both sections and did not get stuck, but if you can send a screen shot I can pass it on to the programmers to fix asap...

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Walk not so easy.

 

Minevr,
not sure what you mean by "walk not so easy"

DO you mean that it is sluggish when you walk, or that the animation has problem? COuld you explain in more detail?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Walking animation is a bit sluggish actually..but you're off to a great start overall! How many people are working on this?

edit: Oh I have to say so far I really dislike the music (and it's very loud!)...probably you can turn that off in the options though right?

 

We have 3 full time , 3 part time people working on this.

The music has a volume control plus we will eventually have a way where you ca upload your own music...

Jeff

 

I do feel that the music should be purely instrumental rather than inclusive of vocal elements. Some great scenes there and it's good to see another networking project.

I hope it goes well. :]

 

Cool deal, I'll be sure to check this out later today!

 

Super stuff Jeff - happy you launched!!

 

Thanks Thomas, we could have never got all the networking done without all your help!

Jeff


SFS + Unity3D rules!

 

Congrats! That's a huge undertaking and you guys pulled it off nicely

Good to see Smartfox playing nicely with Unity, too!

 

Thanks Jeff, its been the biggest project I have ever worked on for sure.

Smart Fox is working beautifully for us and glad we went in that direction...


Jeff