Registering a World with the Multiverse Network

From Multiverse

Overview

Multiverse maintains a central directory that contains entries for all worlds in the network. This enables players (end-users) running the Multiverse Client to connect to your world. When a user runs the Multiverse Client, the Client updates itself, and then displays the Multiverse Network login page, with a listing of available worlds. The user selects a world and then enters their Multiverse username and password to login. To add your world to the Multiverse world directory, you must register the world.

During development, it is also convenient to use the same mechanism to enable developers and testers to access your servers. You can create a listing for your world, but not make it public, and your testers run the Multiverse Client with the --world option. See Running the Client from the Command-Line for more information on running the Client from the command line. When your world is ready to be deployed (also sometimes referred to as "going live"), you can easily set your world to public access in the directory listing.

If you are just doing local development and testing, that is, running the servers on the same machine as your Multiverse Client, you don't need to register your world.; you can use the world settings file.

Procedure

To register a world:

1. First, register for a developer account, if you have not already done so. You will enter an email address and a password for your account.
2. Then, visit http://www.multiverse.net/developer/worldmanager.jsp?cid=4 and login with the email address and password that you entered.
3. Click the "Add New World" link, and enter the properties of your world:
   • World ID: a unique identifier for your world. Must contain between four and 64 characters: letters, numbers, or the underscore character (_).
   • Listing name: A "readable" name that will be used in the directory listing. This name should be relatively short and may contain spaces and punctuation marks.
   • Description: Brief description of your world that can be several paragraphs in length.
   • Server name: DNS name or IP address of your server system (if you are running distributed server configuration, this is the name/IP of your proxy server). Tip: To find your server machine's IP address, on the server machine open a web browser to http://whatismyip.com/. Note this site won't work properly if you are behind a firewall.
   • Port number: TCP port of your world server. This corresponds to the multiverse.worldmgrport property setting in your servers.
   • Include in public directory?: Whether to display the world in the Multiverse public world directory once it is approved. See Public worlds below for more information.
   • Patcher URL: Address of the web page the Client will display when it is downloading world assets. IMPORTANT: This URL must conform to the rules for URLs outlined below.
   • Media URL: URL of the world's asset repository. IMPORTANT: This URL must conform to the rules for URLs outlined below.
   • Logo URL: This will be used for the logo image on the default login page. It should reference a JPG or GIF image that is no larger than 150 pixels wide x 90 pixels high.
   • Detail URL: URL of a page (hosted anywhere, but typically on your website) that provides more information about your world. It will be displayed in the login page when the player uses the --world command-line option. See World login page below for more information.

Submitting this form creates a directory listing for your world in the Multiverse master database, and you can start accessing your world as described below (using the Client's --world command line option).

Public worlds

When you check the Include in public directory checkbox an automatically-generated email will be sent to Multiverse. We will then review your world for inclusion in the public worlds show in the default user login page. You world must be consistent with the Terms of Service and ready for public consumption.

After you request public listing, and Multiverse approves it, your world will appear in the default login page, enabling anyone to enter it. The default lgoin page lists worlds that are both specified to be public by the developer and approved by Multiverse. Multiverse does not review private directory listings (worlds not specified as public).

World login page

Default world login page

The world login page is displayed when you run the client with the --world command-line option. If you have not entered a Detail URL for your world registration, the world login page will just display the world description and the login form, for example as shown at right:

However, if you have entered a Detail URL, the page will display that content, for example as shown at left:

World login page with Detail URL content

The Detail URL content is displayed in a scrollable iframe 580 pixels wide and 450 pixels high. If the content is taller than 450 pixels, the iframe will display scroll bars, as shown in the example. The content displays best if constrained to a width of 580 pixels or less. See the example below.

Example Detail URL

Here is a simple example of Detail URL HTML:

<html>
<head>
<title>Multiverse Fantasy World</title>
<style type="text/css">
.page {
  width: 540px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0 0 0 10px;
  
}
.heading {
  font-size: 16pt; 
  font-weight: bold;
  font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  margin-left: 30px;
  margin-top: 20px;
  margin-bottom: 20px;
  }
p.text, .text p {
  font-size: 10pt; 
  font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  margin-left: 0px;
  padding-left: 20px;
  padding-right: 10px;
}
.pic {
  margin-left: -10px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body bgcolor="white" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" bottommargin="0" topmargin="0" class="page">
<div class="heading">Multiverse Fantasy Demo World</div>

<div class="text">
<p>
The <i>Multiverse Demo Fantasy World</i>, is not a full-featured game, but it 
provides examples of the capabilities of the 
Multiverse platform, created in a just few weeks using the Multiverse developer tools.
Of course, your worlds can use far better models and effects to look as good as 
you like, and have all your custom code for sophisticated behavior and gameplay.
</p>
<img src="http://www.multiverse.net/images/fw2crop.jpg" class="pic">
<p>
The Multiverse Fantasy Demo World is a small virtual world that demonstrates 
some rudimentary gameplay elements, including quests, inventory, combat, 
teleportation, mob spawning, patrol activity, and aggression.
The Fantasy Demo World media assets and code are freely available 
for developers to download and learn from, use, and modify as they wish.
</p>
<p>
Fantasy Demo World includes trees from <a href="http://www.speedtree.com/">SpeedTree</a>® 
from IDV.   SpeedTree® provides  high quality trees and foliage tightly integrated into 
the Multiverse platform.   SpeedTree® provides 30 species of trees free for noncommercial 
use to Multiverse developers.  
Please contact <a href="http://www.idvinc.com/">IDV</a> for more infomation.
</p>
<br>
</div>

</body>
</html>

Client access

Once a world listing has been created, access it with the Multiverse Client as follows:

MultiverseClient.exe --world world_ID

where world_ID is the unique world ID entered when you registered the world.

The --world command line option suppresses the world selection list in the Multiverse Network login page. In this case, the Multiverse Client connects to the specified world after the player supplies a username and password. This works the same whether the world is private or public. You may want to use the --world option and a unique desktop icon to create a shortcut to your world during testing or after it is public.

Alternatively, players can access your public world via the world selection list in the Multiverse Network login page (once your world has been approved by Multiverse).

Editing world registration

After you've created a directory listing for a world, it will be shown in your list of worlds. Once you are logged in to the Multiverse developer area, you will see all of the directory listings associated with your developer account. You can then edit any of the directory listing information for a world. If you change information for a public listing, your listing will need to be reviewed and approved again by Multiverse.

You can also delete a directory listing you previously created if desired.