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Virchbuilder Packages

Types of software used to create virtual worlds.

Virchbuilder
Image from Steve Bowers

Virchbuilder software packages vary in capability; most include sophisticated AI routines but are not necessarily sophont themselves. A modosophont user may use such a software package to create a complex virchuniverse without worrying too much about the finer details.

The most basic ones give the user a number of generic 'template' virch worlds, usually of the more common types, which the user can then customise to their own needs, though usually only at a merely cosmetic level. Mid-level virchbuilders give more ability to customise the templates, giving the user control of many more aspects of the virch world. Top-end virchbuilders give the user total control of all aspects of the virch world they are building, and also allow the user to build virch worlds entirely from scratch rather than from a template. In most cases the capability of the virchbuilder also determines how much control of the properties of their world the inhabitants of the virch have once their world is running.

In most cases aspects of the virch world are specified by assigning positions along the axes of whatever virch classification system the particular virchbuilder uses and then tweaking the resultant world to get exactly the world required.

Security holes in virchbuilder software are one of the more common routes by which virch worlds created by them can be attacked. This is especially the case when the virchbuilder has given the inhabitants of a given world a great deal of control over it, when security holes allow others to take advantage of this control. Bespoke virch worlds are usually much more secure, but also take much more time and effort to create.

Virchbuilder programs used by modosphonts often resemble, and are in some part derived from, Art Generator Software using verbal or direct neural interfaces. The most sophisticated, and yet the simplest to use, are derived from transapientech packages, most of which include some form of transapient oversight.

 
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Appears in Topics
CommunicationsCybercosm, TheEnvirotech
EverydaytechHigh Tech / HitechSoftware
VirtualVirtual/Infotech
 
Development Notes
Text by Tony Jones
Initially published on 03 September 2003.

 
 
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