vSide is an Internet based 3D virtual world launched on May 15, 2006. The game is currently in its public Beta phase. Initially developed by Doppelganger, Inc., a studio founded in 2004,the game was acquired in June 2009 by ExitReality, Inc., which is the current owner and developer. Inside the game’s universe, users are called “vSiders” and can interact with each other through social networking, celebrity entertainment, boutique shopping and self-expression. Membership is free.
ExitReality provides “next generation social entertainment” with vSide, where in-world activities and engagement focus on music, entertainment and fashion. vSide is designed to be an online social environment where teenagers can hang out in real-time with their friends in public and personal spaces. It is based both on professional and user-generated content or design. A major part of its concept is users hosting their own events for others to participate in. It has won the “2007 Top 100 Private Companies to Watch” award from the 2007 On Hollywood Conference and the “CNET Top Five Selection” from the Under The Radar Conference 2007.
In addition to encouraging teenagers to express themselves through personal spaces or “apartments”, vSide also encourages users to express themselves though social gestures and connections, including who they hang out with, where they’re “seen”, where they base their personal space, and the activities that they engage in. Also vSide offers an extensive character customization system with over five million different clothing combinations available for free. Avatars can be additionally personalized through the purchase of virtual apparel.
vSide is build on a heavily modified Version of the Torque Game Engine based on TGE 1.3.5. Its backend is written in Java, which is connected to MySQL via the Hibernate Java library. vSide was initially built for Windows, the experimental Mac OS X Alpha client was released as of The Music Lounge Beta 6 in November 2006. The buildings were built and lighted with 3D World Studio and GarageGames’s Torque Constructor. vSide’s DTS objects which are likely smaller objets have been built with Autodesk’s 3ds Max. vSide uses cel-shading for rendering.
System requirements
Minimum
Internet access
512 MB RAM
72 MB HD space (Windows Installer)
124 MB HD space (Mac Installer)
Video card with 128 MB VRAM or better
Recommended
Broadband Internet access
1 GB RAM