N-Sided Launches Avatar Creation Tool for Virtual Worlds

N-Sided announced this week the launch of a new offer for its QUIDAM avatar creation system. QUIDAM lets developers create character models that can be exported with meshes, textures, maps, and bones to major formats like Maya, 3DS Max, COLLADA, and more. The new offer is geared toward virtual worlds and priced based on the number of active users in the world, starting at €1,950/year for worlds with under 10,000 active members.  Several virtual worlds have partnered with N-Sided to use QUIDAM, according to a company representative, though none are public yet.

Right now QUIDAM is meant to be used in development to populate worlds with NPCs or stock characters, offering more complicated and detailed tools than most avatar customization options. N-Sided is also looking at consumer-facing applications, though.

"We are also working on middleware technology so that users can directly use our technology in the virtual worlds. With our technology embedded in the virtual world application, users will be totally involved in the creation of their avatar and will be able to do things that they have never been able to do before," said Morgan Gautier, Marketing & Sales Manager. "This is not ready yet but it is a priority project for N-Sided."

This is the first offering from N-Sided geared towards virtual worlds and MMOs, but Gautier says the company has been interested in the space for some time and has been engaged in R&D.

Comments

[Mark Young]

It seems odd to me that a DCC tool deserves a fee proportional to the user traffic after the fact [of creation]. What value does the avatar creation system offer at runtime beyond polygons and keyframes that could be created by any other package?

[N-Sided]

The N-Sided offer allows people to use full 3D content - and not only images or animations - directly in their VW applications for real-time 3D.
Creating a single character can take many days. With N-Sided solution you will be able to produce thousands of characters ready for virtual experiences in a matter of days.
Please, contact us directly if you need any details!
The N-Sided team

[T. Gordon]

A fee for the software and then more fees to use the models in virtual worlds?

Heh.