DEVMAP, an abbreviation for “developer map,” is a virtual world created with a modification of the Quake3 game engine. Originally developed for DEAF04, DEVMAP is feeded with live streaming video, images and sounds captured from events and artworks mapped onto the virtual spaces.

The user creates an avatar and as s/he roams the space digitally, the virtual 3D environment –developed from an open-source Quake III game engine– responds, and is enriched by information gathered from the real space. Visitors share the same virtual space, see each other and can chat with each other but every visitor sees his world in a unique way depending on the personal choices they have made.

DEVMAP is part of an ongoing investigation into the possibilities of virtual public environments and their possible direct relationships to current events.

By Thomas Soetens and Kora Van den Bulcke, from Workspace Unlimited.

Video, 2, 3 and 4.

Via Selectparks.