VENICE3D.NET  
 

History of the virtual world

My name is Hans and i live in Belgium, in de virtual world i use the name Panne (citizennumber #4340), and i am in Aw-Europe since september 2005 , first as a tourist, and later in december 2005 as a citizen. Since october 2007 i'm the worldowner of a virtual world. I had won this virtual world by participating at a game in Aw-Europe (www.pakjesjacht.nl) , and 1 year later i have paid in order to obtain the virtual world (the paysite of Aw-Europe is Awexchange.com). The world first had the name "Cultures" and was rather small : the world size was a p10 , this is 400 cells in total , or 40.000 m², but it was large enough to build 'Mini-Venice"

At the end of december 2007 , the was the grand opening of the virtual world : Mini-Venice had been build upon only 150 cells , but the world already had more than 8000 objects, because all buildings are reflecting in the water. Then you could already see the Saint Marc Square with the Campanile, the basilica St.Marc, the Dogues Palace, some canals and also a mini-version of the Grand Canal , but still without the Rialto bridge.

The world is also multilingual , just like this website. In order to maintain the world well-organised, i have used panels for each language in different colors. Here you have a picture of the St.Marc Square, built with standard objects and standard textures.

In may 2008 Mini-Venice has been rebuild, but now on the entire p10-world of 400 cells. The maint change was the fact that the St.Marc Square has been turned by 45 degrees. After that there was a large free space in one corner, was the isle of San Giorgio Maggiore could be built. The Grand Canal has been doubled in length and arrives till the Rialto Bridge. There is also a space for the Santa Maria Della Salute and the Arsenale. The map of the renewed Mini-Venice looks a bit more similar to the real Venice map.

Here you have the entrance to the Grand Canal and in the background you can see the domes of the Santa Maria della Salute. Here you can see very well that the building are reflecting into the water. The gondolas are a gift of Bambolina, she lives in Messina (Italy) and she has done a lot of modelling work for Nuovita, an italian galaxy, which uses the same activeworlds-program as we use in Aw-Europe.
Here you have the Rialto bridge which you could find in the virtual world in 2008 : apart from the gondolas and the lamp-posts , the whole world was built with the standard objects that can be used in Aw-Europe : the Rialto bridge has been built with 120 objects. For the use of "own objects", you need to have you own object path, this means you need to have webspace on the internet, upon which you can upload your objects using an ftp-programma.

 

Now there is also a small beach : in real, Venice has also the Lido beach, but this place located on an separate isle at a small distance from Venice. Below at the left : the towers of the Arsenale, at the right the isle San Giorgio Maggiore, both built with standard objects.

In december 2008 the world did participate at the christmas quest (then the world still was called Cultures). The xmas quest is a contest which is organized every year in Aw-Europe : several worlds are participating and several players win their own world. Here you can see "The italian kitchen" : in this recipe game the players needed to indicate which dishes were italian.

The xmas quest is also called the hunt , and it's a contest in which you need to click upon as many parcels as possible. The winners get free citizenship and the best ones also get a world during 1 year. Tje contest is also often at Easter (then you need to click upon Easter eggs) and also sometimes there is a contest in september. The website concerning this game is called Pakjesjacht.nl.

As from april 2009 the building were gradually replaced by building with picture-textures. Here the Ca d'Oro , one of the first palazzi which has got realistic textures. Some parts of the textures were 'cut out', for that the mask-command has been used. Another method is to use png-files, which are masked already before, and both masks and png-files can be uploaded in your object path.

In october 2009 the world Cultures expands to a p20 , this means 1600 cells instead of 400 cells (=160.000m²). The world has been rebuilt again completely, in order to have a better map orientation. As from now there is a canal between Giudecca and Zattere, the Grand Canal has been enlarged and the route is almost complete now, in the shape of a reversed S. A lot of realistic textures have been added. The Accademia bridge still consists of standard objects.

The Saint Marc Square is surrounded now completely by realistic textures, the Campanile is still built with standard objects.

 

The Rialto-bridge is still built with standard objects, but the Grand Canal is surrounded by nicely textured palazzi.
Upon this pictures the Dogues palace and next to it the Bridge of Sighs.
Here the Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti. In the meanwhile this building has got better textures and the building besides of it have been put on there right location.
In Januari 2010 name of the world Cultures changes into "Venezia" . Lots of palazzi have already realistic facades, but the Santa Maria della Salute still has been built with standard objects.

As from 2010 gradually, some modelled objects have been added to the world , such as the Campanile, the StMarcs-basilica and the Rialto bridges which i have been offered by Kenneth (citnr #5555)

May 2010 : i have bought the domain name "3dvenezia.com", and i can start to design and develop a website for the virtual world.

As from july 2010 on the St Marc Square , there are monthy trivia games, but at the moment in dutch. In october the Saint Marc Square has been rearranged, by which the square is wider than before.

 

In october 2010 there is again an expansion of the world : Venezia is now a p30 , (= 3600 cells or 360000m²). The world has been rearranged again. The Grand Canal has now a very long route, along which you will find more than half of the palazzi. The St Marc Square gets a trapezium shape instead of a rectangular shape , just like in reality. Some modelled objects have been added such as the Campanile.

Around the Saint Marc Square, you will find realistic textures now, and the standard objects have been replaced, which means that the number of objects per cell is reduced. As many buildings as possible have been put on their real location : here you have the Marciana Library and La Zecca.

On this pictures you have the Rialto Bridges, and besides of it some palazzi, which have been moved to their real location as from january 2011, and they have been replaced by the buildings which you will see there in reality. The Rialto bridge consists now only of 2 objects instead of 120 standard objects.
Since november 2010 there is also a modelled Accademia bridge, realized with the help of Maurizio (citnr.#8105) from Mexico.
The St Marks basilica has been beautified with these masked textures .
In february 2011 i have got some help of Attila (citnr#8298) from Milan (Italy). He modelled these nice gondolas , the basilica Santa Maria della Salute, the Scalzi bridge and the Calatrava bridge. Attila is also an important co-worker and modeller for the italian galaxies Italcity and Nuovita.