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Infinite Browser Universe Manyland Hits 8 Million Placed Blocks

Posted by timothy on from the pretty-big-place-you've-got-here dept.

j_philipp (803945) writes Manyland [Here's the twitter feed and a FAQ] is an HTML5 / JavaScript-based MMO universe created by a community and two indie developers from Europe. Everything in the world can be freely drawn and placed: From the cars, animals, plants, houses, bridges, to everyone's own bodies. Like Wikipedia, by default areas are editable by everyone (and removing a block leaves dust which can be used to undo the removal). Since the opening a year ago, over 100,000 different creations have been made, and now, over 8 million blocks placed. Some features are for logged-in users only, but the whole thing is free to explore for everyone, and it's just sucked away quite a few minutes for me.

41 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Infinite universe with 8 million blocks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Lets see, that is exactly 0 blocks per cubic light year. Sounds pretty empty.

    1. Re:Infinite universe with 8 million blocks? by NotInHere · · Score: 3, Funny

      60^-1 plutos per cubic light year aint much. More than 8 million blocks yes, but our universe is pretty empty too.
      http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=...
      http://www.wolframalpha.com/in...

      If you've ever been stuck between two superclusters you know what I mean.

    2. Re:Infinite universe with 8 million blocks? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, and no gas station in sight...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. If Minecraft is anything to go by by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

    So, 8 million blocks, and 100,000 creations means 80 blocks per creation. If Minecraft is anything to go by, that'd be the equivalent of about a 5x5 house that was 4 blocks tall...and had no roof. I suppose that's a "creation", but if that's all they're averaging, they're not doing so hot. Pretty much everyone I've ever seen play Minecraft manages to do better than that in the first few minutes, and by the end of their first sitting, they've usually expanded on it substantially.

    1. Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by by khellendros1984 · · Score: 4, Informative

      It looks like you also draw the individual sprites that make up the blocks, so there might be a 2-block "creation" that's a motorcycle for your character to ride. It's all in 2D anyhow, so 80 blocks goes much further than if you had to account for a 3rd dimension.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    2. Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by by j_philipp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Oh you're right, this is not yet the scale of Minecraft, it's also very different, as you will see when exploring. Every distinct block is hand-drawn by the person, ranging from 19x19 pixels to 38x38 per drawing, with multiple animation cells and sometimes scripts attached to blocks, and numbers indeed don't measure the great things people have built... have a look at this screenshot gallery or explore the world and its many areas a bit to get an impression. Here's the City of Twilight or Green Mountain for instance, which you can add to too.

    3. Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by by j_philipp · · Score: 2

      (Sorry, City of Twilight link should be this)

    4. Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by by j_philipp · · Score: 2

      Some people are building a continuous airlevator into the sky. I believe I've been as far as 50 kilometers up high. The quest continues!

    5. Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by by JWSmythe · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you find one that goes too high, it'll send you to intermission. I went for quite a while, and there was always something there. It's like My Little Pony, Minecraft, and Mario Brothers were thrown in a blender and thrown on a Geocities page. :)

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    6. Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Eww. I'm eating here.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. compilers, have you heard of them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    HTML5 and JavaScript universe on a C++ compiled browser, that's not interpreted enough. Yo hipsters I heard you like JavaScript so if you run Manyland in WebKit.js you can interpret while you interpret.

    1. Re:compilers, have you heard of them? by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      actually browser vendors have. they use stuff called like "LLVM" to do "JIT". If you browse the site with IE 6 though, YMMV. There were javascript performance wars, and nowadays browsers are pretty advanced.

    2. Re:compilers, have you heard of them? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Performance is not so much a problem as that stuff looks like it would run on a 486SX (if the 2D graphics card were fast enough)
      Bigger problem is that the game is unreliable - though factors such as using Wifi may make it so.
      There was a pianpo keyboard near the spawn. Game can't decide which mouse button plays the piano, and whether striking a key works immediately, never or plays a delayed sound. A couple minute later after climbing up like 100 meters, I hear some piano notes again.

  4. Giant 2D side-scroller by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is Minecraft reduced to a 2D sidescroller. With the graphics of the 2D sidescroller era.

    If you go too far down, you can fall off the bottom of the world.

  5. Re: how to run Manyland server? by prefec2 · · Score: 1

    Hey jerk. If you want one write your own. Maybe you can also ask them if they share the code. However, the idea behind such universes is that you do not split things up.

  6. Even there by behrooz0az · · Score: 1

    I found a room made by animeholics. Guess I really have an addiction problem.
    And this world is gigantic, took me a while to find the edge.

    --
    Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
  7. Re:n/t by gigne · · Score: 1

    yep same here. It isn't even like I have many tabs open in Firefox, and I would rather not use Chrome.

    --
    Signature v3.0, now with 42% less memory usage.
  8. Very 80s looking by msobkow · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but that looks like 1980's level graphics to me, maybe at the level of the early Amiga games. Not impressed.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:Very 80s looking by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but that looks like 1980's level graphics to me, maybe at the level of the early Amiga games. Not impressed.

      Out of interest, have you ever complained about "games these days" being "all fancy graphics and no gameplay"?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:Very 80s looking by msobkow · · Score: 1

      Nope. I love a good graphics show. But I don't really play games any more, so I can't speak to their playability.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    3. Re:Very 80s looking by msobkow · · Score: 1

      I owned an Amiga, you whelp, so I saw plenty of them.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    4. Re:Very 80s looking by antdude · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with old school retro graphics?

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  9. struggling by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

    Can we still slashdot things?

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
    1. Re:struggling by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      Can we still slashdot things?

      Virtualization now allows admins to just add servers quickly to handle the load - still gets noticed, though. Didn't you see the "Welcome Slashdotters" sign?

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
  10. Why is 8M a milestone? by Quarters · · Score: 1

    Why not 5M or 10.15365M? What makes 8M a number that needs to be announced & celebrated?

  11. um... by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

    It's the Commander Keen MMO
    I'm not impressed

    1. Re:um... by Mr+Foobar · · Score: 1

      I was actually thinking Crystal Caves or the original Duke Nukem.

      Kinda fun, though, I logged and and created some stuff. No one minded. Wish I could do that in WoW.

      --
      -> I dislike sigs...
  12. Another infinite browser universe sim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Omega See it in action here.

  13. Similar to Habitat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of Habitat.
    http://web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Virtual_Worlds/LucasfilmHabitat.html

  14. They surpassed Minecraft in stuffs and griefing by AlabamaCajun · · Score: 2

    Within the 2 minute time I was transported to several different lands most likely the system overload. Then once stable, something left on the trail by others morphed me through several different avatars and turned off aswd. Then out of nowhere I was transported to someones trap. I rarely played mario so I;m not familiar with the powerups. Great place to get your mind sucked away.

  15. the hell? by BringsApples · · Score: 1

    universe? umm... no. If they choose to look at it that way, then why not look at slashdot in that way? letters/words/ideas... all blocks, placed by people, edited by others, leaving dust...

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
  16. Re:Yesterdays webdesign? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Same on FF on Linux with NoScript permitting their main site, netdna, and Google APIs but not Google Analytics.

    Given the comments here, I'm not going to waste my time to figure out which combination of whitelisting gets the game to work but forbids raping my privacy.

  17. Thanks Slashdot...for making me hooked on ManyLand by MindPrison · · Score: 2

    I never knew of this universe before I read it here, I decided to try it out on my Linux box, and it worked straight away.

    Unfortunately I ended up building areas for hours and hours, before I knew it...I think I ended up rebuilding Hyrule's many castles, doh! Thanks a lot, yet another addiction I really didn't need in my life.

    Phun aside, I'm thinking Little Big Planet here, except in LBP we could even create our own games (simulate Pac-Man, Tetris..space invaders etc...) and people came up with the coolest stuff - and before you knew it...there was MILLIONS of levels in LBP. I think that's whats missing in this game, but hey...maybe there already is something similar there...and I just didn't find it?

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
  18. Re:Thanks Slashdot...for making me hooked on ManyL by sosh101 · · Score: 2

    Possible in manyland too! See e.g. manyland.com/newpolis manyland.com/blancnoir manyland.com/livingisland (there are loads more)

  19. Doesn't work in IE 6?? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Those developers must suck. Every corporate app works just fine so that must be it.

    Phb boss: Files bug report

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  20. Re:Thanks Slashdot...for making me hooked on ManyL by j_philipp · · Score: 1

    Also try Interactings in Manyland, a way to add behavior to your block: http://manyland.com/info-inter...

  21. TRWTF: EOL'd desktop OS connected to Internet by tepples · · Score: 1

    The real WTF is that the firewall in front of your Windows XP machine even allowed this site to resolve.

    Windows XP has vulnerabilities that Microsoft will never fix. So please don't use IE on XP on the public Internet. If you must use corporate apps on XP, use a firewall to make sure the machine communicates only with those corporate apps.

    1. Re:TRWTF: EOL'd desktop OS connected to Internet by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      (Un)fortunately the transport layer for the internet is extremely inefficient at transporting smell. If it were made from air, it might be a bit better, but its fiber.

  22. Re:From europe? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    he means free healthcare.

  23. User-extensible, eh. by Shag · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a MUD, only graphical. Not sure how many MUDders are still around and have enough free time to appreciate it.

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  24. Under 30 seconds. by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    Next article?

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"