OWW: 1.1 - ‘Hello world’ - Break all the rules update!
OWW: 1.1 - ‘Hello world’ Someone once said:"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." That someone was Van Gogh. While not being a game developer he describes the creative process very well.
Hello Artinauts! We’ve been so busy we forgot to actually tell the world about our recent updates(!) and all the things we added/fixed in the past 12 months. We may be silent and introverted but rest assured we are nowhere near done with the Artiverse. So please accept our apologies and check out these cool new features in the game!
PS Ever wanted to show one of your artworks on a phone because you didn’t have a gaming PC nearby? Well... Did you know you can use your OWW account on KULTURA.art? It’s a web/mobile interface that gives you access to your in game art collection, comments and notifications + some special features. It also has DAISY and art collected on KULTURA will show up in your OWW account. Give it a go…
Broke all the rules:
Expansions removed - no limits, run free :)
New FreeForm rotation method with holding mouse button - 360 degrees of freedom - hold left mouse button and move the mouse.
Ability to reset a gallery - ever wanted to nuke a gallery? Start fresh? Please be careful with the red button (you can find it in the main menu on your gallery list)
Carpets to set spawn points in your gallery - those innocent (‘welcome’) carpets are connected to GPS satellites and allow you to set visitor spawn points if precise targeting.
Complexity meter - showing the expected performance of your gallery - if you care about those things.
Stickers! Customise your space even more (we didn’t think it was possible but hey :)
Improvements and optimizations:
Dramatic performance optimization (we did a lot), tons of it - Loading performance, graphics, UNREAL engine updates, tons of assets optimised, networking, replication, rendering etc.
New main menu UI - a fresh coat of paint (and some ceramic coating!) never hurts.
Your game account is now synced with the website (KULTURA.art) - you can log in with the same credentials, and it's perhaps easier to review your collection on a more convenient website. Ability to like art in game (replacing wishlist)
New cursor (!!) looks much better now.
Arrow assets now can be mirrored - so three lefts make a right now :)
Localization updates
Change the building distance (asset placing) - with a mouse wheel scroll
Bug Fixes:
Music volume balance on loading
Artefacts on building/deleting assets effects
Fixed avatars having wrong material
Head bobbing finally removed (yay!)
Economy problems (wrong income, NPCs not leaving cubes, incorrect charge for buying assets), now sorted.
Login and registration problems - fixed!
Fixed galleries search bar working incorrectly when gallery name has special symbols
Fixed Environment tool not working when you are far away from the starting position
Fixed free camera not showing your own avatar
Fixed artwork preview in inventory not showing some info
UI could get unresponsive after viewing user profile - fixed
Fixed avatar visibility bug when switching between first person and third person
Fixed bugs with Portals (not being able to set destination, portal UI not opening in some cases)
Fixed bugs with granting building permissions
Fixed water shader producing artefacts on some graphic cards
Fixed how long usernames appear to fit some narrow UI holders
Fixed visual bugs for mirrored assets
New Assets:
44 Stickers
New trails effect masks
71 new frames
“Invisible neon” walls, floor and ceiling
New assets available at Dealers in Piazza
tons of new assets in the pipeline, stay tuned
Stay tuned for even more exciting news, SOON™
KULTURA Ex Machina London, June 2023
‘In no particular order’: June 2022 OWW Competition Winners Announced!
We are delighted to announce the winners of our June 2022 gallery building competition.
It was a joy to explore and immerse ourselves in the galleries and to see the wonderful worlds this diverse and creative community produced. All of the Stikipixels were thoroughly impressed with the standard, scope and ambition of the galleries, well done to all those who built one.
While everyone's a winner in our eyes, we chose the following 10 winners for the June 2022 competition - in no particular order:
4swift2 by swift2
This gallery was more in the FX heavy vein but is expertly constructed by someone who knows how to build in a labyrinth style. It has a great use of light and reflective surfaces that make it very photogenic.
Basalt Black Gallery by juliencfernandez
We felt this was the perfect example of a 'small but perfectly formed' gallery and that it showed an obvious ability to build well using the assets and it didn't feel overly cluttered and demonstrated a good use of space, colour form etc
Can Fla by flanagan
We were impressed with this gallery because it is built around a central hub and has many impressive architectural flourishes - We think the builder made good use of light and reflective surfaces and glass again to create a feeling of ambience, and it has very much a ‘chill’ and look at art vibe
Inside my head by gutfeeling
We liked the abstract and geometric forms of this gallery, it almost has the feeling of a mad scientist lab feeling which we appreciated a lot and it is certainly interesting as an unconventional gallery space with unique forms and details. Megaron by krfn
This medium sized gallery was very consistent in style - it is a solid portrayal of a classical style of gallery with some nice touches such as a homely room with a fireplace.
Observatory by helioworld
We found this gallery to have an interesting well formed layout, and again it also explored a science lab type theme effectively
The End of the World as we know it by Shan Show
This gallery impressed us all with its complexity and scope. We liked how it uniquely mixed organic forms with a classical architecture style in an interesting and engaging way.
The Halls of Liminus by good mourning
A fantastic 'theme based' gallery - It starts off dark and bizarre and we all liked the idea of making a gallery exploring liminal spaces.
The Eternal Garden by Kaleidoscopicdragon
Another Thematic gallery - The Eternal Garden is a linear journey gallery which is heavily about evoking an experience or atmosphere for the player - the end of the gallery with the tree is especially impressive for photos as it uses minimal shapes for maximum effect.
The Great and Secret Gallery by experientia
This was a very funny surprise for us all and amused us a lot, the mosaic is also very well made and impressed us.
Prizes have already been given out with exception to art codes and extra gallery slots. We are working on assigning these as we speak. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if there are any issues or if you have any questions.
Well done to you all!
Keep on creating, keep on building, Keep on Occupying White Walls!
GALLERY BUILDING COMPETITION!
Over the past year there were tons of updates and cool new assets added to the game so we feel it’s a good time for a new trailer, featuring cool player galleries. And... you guessed it, we need your help!
WHAT IS IT?
We’re launching a gallery building competition to showcase the limitless possibilities of art (and OWW), endless player creativity and just for fun.
We want to see ‘showcase’ galleries that can be used to impress people who don’t know about OWW and its special vibe.
RULES/REQUIREMENTS
⚀ The only rule is about size, it should be a new gallery with no more than 100 expansion cubes (should be enough, less is more etc :) ⚁ It can be in any style/design in fact the more original the better ⚂ Keep an eye on the Complexity meter; try keeping it green or yellow - please 🙏 ⚃ Featured galleries should not be changed until the end of 2022
TIME
Starting NOW until June 14th!
REWARDS
Rewards for every player who enters a gallery: ⚀ 2 million cubes ⚁ An additional gallery slot ⚂ One cool (unreleased) car statue
REWARDS FOR ALL WINNERS
(where we feature your gallery in the new game trailer) ⚀ 10 Art upload codes (you can gift them if you'd like) ⚁ Another additional gallery slot (2 extra total) ⚂ Added to the gallery featured screen until at least the end of 2022 ⚃ 3 additional unique statues (so 4 in total)
Increased gallery slots to 5! Changed the way new galleries are unlocked and increased the number to 5 (buy with cubes instead of leveling up. 1st slot is free, 2nd - 150k, 3rd - 600k, 4th - 2.5M, 5th - 5M)
Bug Fixes:
SoundCloud Fixes (third time lucky)
Fixed camera movement while standing still (so called head bobbing)
Camera collisions against the walls
Fixed Azerty keyboard layout bugs
Fixed height of the camera while standing and crouching
Fixed wrong server movement corrections (so called Rubber banding)
Fixed NPCs running speed
Fixed avatar feet collisions to stay on top of floor
Fixed bugs with lights assets not casting light on some occasions
Fixed bugs with saving action bar state
Fixed money change animation freeze
Fixed text asset size not changing
Fixed visual artifact when NPCs spawn near reception desk
Fixed input settings reset to default
Fixed enigmas edit mode
Fixed login credentials not saved in game
Fixed spawning in world origin instead of near reception desk
Fixed ability to place text assets
Fixed the issue with the enigma notification sent to everyone
Kultura Updates:
General
Introduced Likes and Dislikes
Vault is no longer a part of Kultura - was replaced with Likes
Activity feed
Notifications
Help menu
Added covers to the Board comment section on the Discover page
Changed the way you can scroll Comments section on Discover page
Long artwork description now collapsed by default
Added support for line breaks on texts in Kultura
Added support for email login
Collections section on Discover page now has arrow buttons for better navigation
Reorganized and updated navigation bar
Added ability to better manage used and remaining art codes on profile page
Added live chat and help menus
Improved search logic to give better results
Daisy and Maisy AI
Greatly improved “Find similar” loading speed
Optimized and improved Daisy algorithm(now 6th generation!)
Boards
Added the ability to reorder artworks on boards
Ability to add curational text to artworks on boards
Slideshow mode (board presentation)
Added page of boards which contain specific artwork
August OWW: 9.9.0 Stability update! Better late than never!
Highlights
Amazing New chat! Private messages! Out with the old, in with the new!
Private messages
Follow users
Brand new tutorial - Optional, not obligatory!
The tutorial can be viewed at any time by pressing F1
Now more visual
All assets (except for vendor) are unlocked from first login
Animations
New character animations (including sprint (shift+w) and crouch (c) )
New effects when interacting with objects
New build and destroy effects
Assets!
We dug deep in our basement and revived 348 assets, 331 are available right away!
Building Styles range from Japanese contemporary, Asian, Neon, Suprematic, Ultra colored, and new zero gallery assets and updates. (Tip, search any of these names to see the full sets)
17 new assets sold at the vendors
New and updated starting gallery, including graffiti!
Optimizations!
Gallery loading speed greatly improved
Fixed occasional fps drops once a minute or so
UI Improvements
Search the asset collection by clicking the collection name in the building inventory
Inventory is now sorted and grouped by collections
Pagination added to all inventory tabs
General Improvements
Expansions now increase by 50 cubes (down from 100) and no longer decrease, to a max of 50k each.
Desk opening now lasts for 1 hour, up from 30 minutes
Updated help menu
Bug Fixes:
Multiple fixes for various settings (video/sound/input)
Ceilings are no longer dark on one side
Large art inventories should no longer crash or freeze the game.
Changing audio output (like plugin in your headphones) should no longer cause a crash
Fixed red post box sometimes wouldn’t teleport you from Plaza
Process should now close in Steam after exiting the game
Enigmas should now work again
All interactive objects now save their state
Kultura Updates:
Front page (Discover page?)
Mobile improvements
Ability to resend confirmation email
Updated codes purchased page
Board editing page improvements
Kultura for Artists page
Various UI fixes
Stay tuned for even more exciting news, SOON™
StikiPixels London, December 2021
Director builds astonishing new art gallery from scratch during lockdown
[previewyoutube="r5c40O3_xG4;full"]
Many museums have created online galleries during the pandemic. But Pere Izquierdo Tugas, director of the Consorci del Patrimoni de Sitges, in Catalonia, has gone one better, creating a complete virtual version of the exhibition centre itself.
Pere Izquierdo, 57, an archaeologist and art historian, loves technology. “I'm a digital native,” he says. “I started using a computer in 1975, at the age of 12". Thus, when he discovered KULTURA/Occupy White Walls (OWW), a new online art platform and game with 80,000 galleries already created by players, he realized that he had found the right place to give visibility to the museums he directs and the art collections in them.
“We have an interesting collection, but it's not well known,” he explains. "Visitors are surprised when they see it". He first thought OWW would be just a way to show the collection during the lockdown. He then realised it could be a permanent way to show the centre and its collections to a wider global audience.
OWW is built around its pioneering art discovery AI that 'finds art you'd like, even if you don't know what art you like’. This is how it has already attracted tens of thousands of ‘non artsy’ gamers to engage with art and create their own virtual display spaces.
"Our mission is to spread art and OWW is an excellent opportunity to reach out to those who would love art but may not be very familiar with museums," continues Izquierdo. “We especially focus on young people, many of whom think that museums are sad and serious places. We must make them understand that we exist and make the works of art in our museums more popular ".
So he rolled up his sleeves and started building in his free time the environments of Sitges' museums by himself. Thus, was born a parallel architectural complex where you can spend a few hours among masterpieces of all times.
“First, we made a parallel version of the Sitges museums to show the paintings in rooms similar to the real ones.” I looked for the OWW elements most similar to those in reality, even if our decorations are very particular, so in part, it is my reworking. There are mosaics, stained glass windows, ceramics, freely inspired by those of real museums."
The online visit starts with the presentation in the Piazza dei Miracoli, one of the central places in the game. A short presentation tells the story of Sitges and its vocation to be an artistic and cultural centre. In an environment of great atmosphere, part of the square’s futuristic architecture, it is explained how, in 1891, Santiago Rusiñol, an artist of great charisma, first came to Sitges, a Catalan village near the sea, and created the cradle of Catalan Modernism. Rusiñol knew, and corresponded with, with all the great artists of Paris, from Toulouse-Lautrec to Degas.
One must-visit place in the game is the Museum of Cau Ferrat, Rusiñol’s home studio. It is an extraordinarily dense museum, with 2,700 objects in 400 square meters, including five Picassos.
The whole upper floor of Cau Ferrat is like a temple of the arts, with the three allegories created by Rusiñol that preside over the room like three apses in a church. There are 17 paintings by Ramon Casas, another Catalan Modernist great, works by Miquel Utrillo, lover of Suzanne Valadon and father of Maurice Utrillo. Among the most important pieces are two paintings by El Greco: The Penitent Magdalene and The Tears of St. Peter, as well as a collection of medieval altarpieces.
In Occupy White Walls you can also visit the Museum of Maricel (Sea and Sky), which was originally the home of the American millionaire, Charles Deering, who had an impressive art collection and bought an entire barrio, a city neighbourhood, to exhibit its collections. There too, in the game, there are numerous works that tempt you to go and see the real museum, from Gothic altarpieces to Rusiñol's paintings. Another remarkable room is dedicated to the allegories of the First World War by José Maria Sert, the painter who created the decoration of the United Nations Palace in Geneva.
“In the game, we tried to keep the same tour routes as in the real world museums. At Cau Ferrat in the physical museum, there were explanatory cards, which we had to remove with the Covid emergency. Thus, visitors to the real museum can visit the rooms with a smartphone app that describes the various paintings. That same app can also be used for visiting OWW. In the virtual part of Maricel, on the other hand, there are signs with brief explanations. In the future, in the game, it would be great to do guided tours with avatars. Explanations of the works disseminated by the speakers present in the halls could also be envisaged (Sound cloud music/audio integration was added to KULTURA/OWW in a recent update)”.
All this is a work in progress. "We are also working on the Romantic Museum, which will soon reopen in the real world, and the Stämpfli Foundation for Contemporary Art. In the latter case, however, there is a problem of rights ", notes Pere Izquierdo.
There are other initiatives. "On the 22nd of June, we will be holding a competition in which OWW players will be invited to curate exhibitions on any subject they choose as long as they include at least 15 artworks from the Sitges collection. The prizes will include a museum catalogue, a reproduction of an artwork, and lots of ‘cubes’ – the (free) currency players use to build their own OWW galleries.
“I think this game offers endless opportunities of this kind, this is how art and museums will look in the 21st century".
“Since the parallel version of the Sitges museums opened, many people have commented on the virtual’s museum’s reception desk, saying they want to go and see the real museum,” notes Pere Izquierdo with satisfaction. "For us it means having hit the target. I am in love with KULTURA/OWW. We took a professional tool and turned it into a game, into something that can be fun for people. And it's wonderful that people can play at what we usually do as work ”.
To explore the parallel Sitges museum, download/stream the game, once logged in press T for the teleport menu and click on Sitges in the featured gallery list. Alternatively, you can explore the collection through Sitges on KULTURA.
OWW: 9.8 CloudSound update!
[previewyoutube="YqwGU2rkilg;full"]
Hello players and robots, Us Pixels have been busy working on a huge update that we are very proud to announce today. We have more cool features in the oven, stay tuned.
New:
CloudSound Add music from SoundCloud to your gallery
2 unique speakers, 2 Jukeboxes, and a turntable to choose from
4 different animation effects
Load songs from SoundCloud to anywhere in your gallery
Choose the radius distance of the music
Let visitors hear your music all over your gallery with the global setting
Place multiple speakers and only hear only closest (great for specific rooms)
Grid Snapping
Perfectly align art and objects
6 different grid snap sizes
Enable/disable snapping using the checkbox on the left
Select the Grid Rotation option to snap to the default grid
New Piazza Dei Miracoli
Formally known as Plaza, this new Piazza is unlike anything you have seen before
New starting zone
Take a walk with nature, even into the ocean, dynamic day/night sky
An easter egg, or two
Build an exhibit in one of the 16 large rooms
Mysterious vortex (New feature coming soon)
Zero Gallery
New starting gallery
33 new assets, including ladders and stone paths! (search 'zero' in inventory)
Mouse unlock
Faster building!
Use F to unlock/lock mouse, faster deleting, building, etc
Ability to interact with the UI using the mouse
Use any tool (Build,Delete,Move,Expand,Frames,Puzzles,Picker)
New vendor assets
New assets are available over the next few weeks
Tags on artworks
Added Owned and Placed tags on Artworks in Daisy
Owned shows when you have the artwork bought
Placed shows if the gallery you are currently in has the artwork on display
Improvements/fixes and optimizations:
Building Improvements
Increased the distance of Expand tool
Removed backlight from artworks and replaced it with more even lighting.
Decreased delay between tool usage (building, deleting, expanding, etc)
Structures now allow floors to be placed on top
Fixed bugs when some users were not able to create a second/third gallery
Duke boxes and Turntables can have SoundCloud tracks playing on them.
DAISY
MAISY (Similar) screen now shows 3 pages (36 artworks) of suggested artworks
Pagination added to Wishlist, Artist, and Collection windows.
Fixed repetition of the same artworks in DAISY over a short period of time
Fixed bug when owned artworks would appear in DAISY
Fixed bug when collection page wouldn’t show all artworks
General performance/optimization fixes
Greatly optimized loading of artworks
Improved loading speed in galleries
Optimized tutorial, made some steps skippable
Game UI and visualization updates
Mirror button moved to a side menu (M) and now clickable with the mouse
Updated visualization of player name tags
Game cursor is now more visible
Updated Help menu to reflect changes and fixed formatting bugs
A guiding quest icon has been added to the tutorial
Updated teleportation effect, no more paint!
Slightly updated Mosaic UI
Added partial Catalan localization
Search bar in inventory is now more visible
“Hide HUD” F6 toggle also hides interaction and outlines (awesome for filming!)
Updated chat hint instructions
Changed the way how the Interact/Build/Delete/Move hint is displayed. It is now attached to the object.
Other fixes:
Fixed crash when editing text assets
Fixed process not closing after quitting the game (you may need to verify game files in Steam)
A million music/sound-related fixes
Player name no longer stays in the gallery after player teleporting
Fixed some artworks that would not link correctly when shared to chat
Fixed case when gallery screenshot would not appear during loading
Fixed ability to teleport while in the tutorial (before passing the step that allows it)
Fixed registration bug when entering email with a space at the end.
Added the ability to Undo/Redo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z)
Zoom in/out with the mouse wheel
Use the right mouse button to pan the canvas
Palette was added, allowing colors to be saved (alt + click to select)
A colour history bar was added which shows recent colours used
Improvements:
Loading of galleries should be improved
Updated settings menu
Updated mosaic UI
DAISY fixes and updates
Fixes:
Music and sound:
Music is now looped on the login screen
Teleportation music and gallery music should no longer overlap
Added proper transitions to Jukebox/Turntable (and other in-game music sources)
Muted sounds should no longer play after teleport
Sound settings now affect all sounds in the game
Stay tuned for even more exciting news, SOON™
StikiPixels London, January 2021
OWW 9.6 - Build a Snowman!
New
Snowman Kit - Everything you need to create a cool snowman - that won't melt either!
New vendor assets
Candles!
Improvements:
Teleport speed ‘slightly’ improved
Animations in art UI: Daisy, Artist, Wishlist etc
Teleport search menu and gallery image loading
Loading times should be better
Bugs fixed
After some tough negotiations, DAISY agreed to release the missing artworks that she held hostage last week and will now display all artist's artworks on the artist's profile page.
The runaway asset outlines were caught and returned to their original location.
The field of view reset bug after using the free camera (F8) should be fixed (again)
Order has been restored to chat and tooltips now correctly align to the right!
Galleries should no longer catch the rare bug which returned players to their starting location when teleporting.
Fixed issue when the game wouldn’t launch if latest VC++ redist is not installed
Hello, we have a slight twist for this next contest, we are running TWO contests at the same time and for longer!
Challenge 1: Mosaics Challenge 2: Screenshots, Avatars, and Monoliths
What
Challenge 1: We all like mosaics right? But some like them more than others, and this contest is for those mosaic lovers. Create a mosaic that represents your favorite artist or location in your home city.
Challenge 2: OWW is an MMO which means that there are many players across the artiverse doing many different things, whether it is building, making mosaics, dancing, partying with friends, jumping, or even shopping at the vendors in the Plaza, there is bound to be something to catch your eye. Create an in-game screenshot/poster that shows avatars/players with monoliths (Type "Monolith" in your inventory search) in interesting scenarios across the artiverse..
When
Entries open Now - Jan 24th Winners will be chosen between Jan 25th - 8th Feb, winners will be announced by Feb 12th
Rewards
5 winners for each challenge (10 in total) will receive;
<*> Either 5 upload codes or our soundtrack DLC (Art codes can be gifted to anyone even if they don't play the game) <*> 2 million cubes <*> Mosaic contest only reward: Your gallery featured in the new teleport menu (terms apply, the gallery must be accessible) <*> A choice of one of 12 special masks, with a special halo (can you collect them all?)
Rules
All entries must be submitted by midnight EST on Jan 10th
Entries must be made entirely in-game (some minor edits outside the game are permissible for the poster entries)
