Monday, July 23, 2007

WTF Is MellaniuM?

I found this video on YouTube that mentions the use of MellaniuM technology for the creation of virtual worlds. WTF I thought to myself? A new virtual world platform? A machinima platform (a competitor to iClone or Moviestorm)? What is it? The YouTube user, copper13, has a number of videos that appear to showcase this tech with the earliest video approximately a year ago. Is this something that I had not heard about?

Mission statement:
We aim to provide you with a 3D Virtual Real World that is realistic of the past, present, future, or imaginary world. These 3D worlds can be used for many applications, e.g., advertising, tourism, marketing, meeting places, conferences, engineering definition, education, entertainment, travel, architecture, etc., Trips down the Nile, Great pyramid recreation, Great Wall of China, Great Barrier Reef are some of the ambitious Virtual Real Worlds yet to be created. As first to market with Tele3DWorld™ and Virtual Real Worlds products we aim to become the world leader in Virtual Real World 3D environments, and supporting animation production.
The website mellanium.com does not seem very professional (nor Tele3DWorld). I searched for the name in some blog search engines, but a lot of the search results seem to be spam blog noise. Zero hits in a news search. The video itself is not that impressive: an off screen narrator tells us that with MellaniuM technology you can create virtual 3D networked spaces wherein upwards of 30-40 people can join in (paraphrased). Big deal, I thought, so can QuakeWorld. The video shows a nondescript LCD screen on a nameless desk (surprisingly devoid of decoration) and the narrator is never shown. Is this video even showcasing the technology they purport to make or is it simply another gaming engine?

Is this some poor entrepreneur's attempt to cash in on the virtual world craze? Is it legitimate, or something else? Spam noise with some pretty videos in order to pump up some non existent company in order to get infusions of cash? Or perhaps it's just an ARG (alternate reality game).

If anyone has any real information I would like to hear it. Otherwise, let the speculations run rampant.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
The articles referenced defines the non-games status of Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM Designs. Yes we use a popular 3D engine that will become very powerful in the development of non-games 3D environments. However, we are cash strapped at the moment and using minimum marketing methods to promote the applications.

Ken Rigby ken@tele3dworld.com

bllius said...

Well, forgive my skepticism then, but what popular 3D engine is it?

Anonymous said...

Hi
MellaniuM Design and Tele3DWorld are developing non-games 3D environments using a popular gaming 3D engine which has scalability, hi-resolution, etc. We concentrate on producing hi-quality 3D environments for range of applications, architecture, estate agencies, interior designers, etc. A number of articles referenced from the www.mellanium.com web site defines the scope of the non-game applications.

We have no intention of producing games; but edutainments is on the cards. We are cash strapped and is limiting our expansion plans and web page quality.

Cheers

Ken Rigby @tele3dworld.com

Anonymous said...

EPIC latest

bllius said...

By EPIC, do you mean the Unreal Engine or something else?

Anonymous said...

Yes a derivative of 2.5 with 3 being optimized for DX10 to facilitate NVIDIA 8800 processors.
We are in regular contact with mark and jay at Epic.

bllius said...

See, now we're getting somewhere. This is interesting.

Anonymous said...

We can demonstrate the VRWs live via SKYPE If you contact skype id joe133952 you can see the different VRWs live or if you have UT2004 we can send maps to enable entry into a VRW on a UT2004 server.

bllius said...

Hmmm...no that's ok, I uninstalled UT2004 years ago, and I don't have skype installed. It's just nice to see some clarifications now.

Best of luck!

Anonymous said...

Hi bllius,
I would certainly like to give you a demo of MellaniuM 3D environments over Sightspeed or Messenger. I am sure you would find it more than a little interesting.

Joe Rigby joe.rigby@sympatico.ca

bllius said...

All right, I may have to consider checking this out, and I may have some questions.

Email me at bllius69 at gmail dot com.