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Just Leap In Puts a Virtual World in Your Browser (The Startup Review)

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:30:16 +0000

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Just Leap In

20-word Description: Just Leap In brings innovation to 3D worlds on the Web, combining simplicity, next-gen visuals and physics, multimedia sharing and social networking.

CEO’s Pitch: We use the Web every day to check on friends, browse multimedia and news, and discover new people. Just Leap In aims to bring that daily simplicity to virtual worlds, on any webpage. When you land in JLI, we want you to feel like you’re smack in the middle of a social community where you can express yourself, upload multimedia, and link to friends - not in the middle of an empty island. And unlike other Web-delivered virtual worlds, we’re already delivering next-gen 3D graphics and physics to both Mac & PC, Firefox & IE.

Mashable’s Take: The concept of a virtual world in terms of a graphical, game-like environment doesn’t particularly suit my interests. Yet I find Just Leap In, a beta release launched out of Vancouver, Canada, offers a surprisingly rich experience in terms of interaction with objects and visual detail of most everything involved. What’s more, all such interplay is accomplished within one’s browser.

Now, it should be said that there is a software download necessary to browse Just Leap In’s dimensions. But it is available for Mac and PC users, and the time it takes to install said download and begin enjoying what’s been created is a simple matter of restarting Firefox/IE.

Gamers familiar with the mouse-plus-keyboard setup will have little trouble adjusting to the set of options shown in the controls panel. But it’s a bit unintuitive so far as the use of the mouse cursors is concerned. You may find yourself wanting to change your view with your cursor, but that cannot happen. At least it is not possible on the Mac side of the equation. Instead, you must use your keyboard to do so. JLI’s creators instruct the user to complete a Ctrl+click+drag maneuver for something called “mouselook,” but this process is evidently disturbed by a very similar Ctrl+click trigger that brings up a Reset/Set Start/Revert Texture menu of choices.

If you’re willing jump this hurdle, though, you will find Just Leap In an appealing alternative to Second Life and its competitors. It’s browser-based nature makes it something of a stunner. The physics engine is a treat, and visual detail again is an outstanding highlight. A look at the world in full-screen is pretty remarkable when one considers the setting in which the application is operating.

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