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Features and Benefits

Open Cobalt Alpha offers much of its intended functionality, however it is still under development as alpha software.

Features and Benefits

  • Free (no subscription or licensing fees)

  • Open Source (MIT License)

  • Fully customizable (for advanced simulation development/deployment)

  • Multi-platform (runs on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux)

  • Private virtual worlds (no more griefers)

  • Navigable 3D hyperlinking between virtual worlds
!
  • Enterprise directory access (LDAP)

  • Works over LANs and within Intranets (no need for Internet access)

  • Integrated text chat (Jabber)

  • In-world voice chat (speak with other users through VoIP)

  • In-world web browsing (access to FireFox and other browsers via VNC)

  • In-world annotations (text and audio)

  • Collaborative document sharing/editing

  • Save/restore virtual worlds (just like documents)

  • Virtual world self-publishing

  • Access to remote applications (via VNC)

  • Basic end-user content creation and editing

  • Mesh and texture import (.kmz, .obj, .ase, .vrml)

  • Media import (add .mpg movies to your spaces)

  • Scripting (Smalltalk/Squeak)

  • Custom avatars/animation (via Collada/Ogre 3D workflows)

  • OpenGL-based graphics engine

  • OpenAL
                    

Its multi-platform!







A Free and Open Art Path

Open Cobalt supports content created in free or open source authoring applications. You can compose rich Open Cobalt spaces without buying or licensing expensive software and reuse your 3D assets in whatever virtual world technology you please.

Free 3D authoring tools 
Sketchup  
Blender  

Free 2D image editing tools 
Gimp  
Paint.net (Windows only) 

Free Audio Editing tools 
Audacity 

Free 3D Content Repositories 
If you prefer to use content created by others, Open Cobalt's support of both the .kmz (Google Earth models) and COLLADA file formats gives you access to the huge repository of free 3D models available at Google's 3D Warehouse. 

What Makes Open Cobalt Different

The Open Cobalt application is a type of 3D browser that can be used to access and modify a network of interlinked 3D virtual environments in much the same way that web browsers are used to access and edit web based content on a distributed system of web pages or wikis. Users can access Open Cobalt virtual worlds on local area networks, intranets, or even across the Internet without any need to access anyone else's servers. Just like with web pages or web sites, Open Cobalt worlds can be hosted from all over the Internet by anyone - and for free.  You can set up virtual spaces and interact with others of your choosing with no hosting fees, licensing or virtual land lease costs. Open Cobalt's ability to leverage peer-to-peer technology as a way of supporting interactions within virtual worlds is a major point of difference from commercial multi-user virtual world systems such as Second Life where all in-world interactions are managed by central servers.
Think of Open Cobalt as
a tool for accessing and interacting with virtual workspaces
that can exist anywhere on the Internet
(rather than a virtual world in itself)

in the same way that you

think of a web browser as
a tool for accessing and interacting with web pages
that can exist anywhere on the Internet
(rather than a web page in itself)

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