Project: Myworld Aims to Model Entire World in VR

Software technology company Realtime Worlds has announced an ambitious new virtual world called Project: Myworld. The project, which has apparently been in secret development for some time, will allow users to build no less than the entire real world in virtual reality.

Project: Myworld starts with generally available map information to automatically create the basic features of landscape and buildings. Users can then edit the in-world structures to make them more closely resemble those in reality, from shape to textures.

Within the modelled world there will be a variety of mini-games, however the main target of Project: Myworld appears to be social networking. It describes itself as being “the Placebook for a next generation of social games” which “turns the real world into a 3D social gaming experience”. Watch the video below for some ideas on ways this could be used.

Project: Myworld is expected to go public next year, a closed beta programme will be announced soon.

Update 18/8/2010: Since I posted this a fortnight ago, Realtime Worlds – maker of Project: Myworld – has gone into administration. As of now, Project Myworld is believed to be effectively dead.

Update 20/8/2010: It’s reported that Realtime Worlds has rehired some of the Project: Myworld developers who lost their jobs when the company went into administration. So the project may still rise from the dead.