Rise: The Vieneo Province

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Rise: The Vieneo Province
Rise: The Vieneo Province
Developer(s) Unistellar Industries
Publisher(s) Unistellar Industries
Designer(s) Unistellar Industries
Engine Proprietary, DirectX
Version Main Client

176 (Windows 32-bit)
176 (Windows 64-bit)

Platform(s) Windows
Release date 2006, 2007
Genre(s) Virtual world
Mode(s) Multiplayer (online only)
Rating(s) ESRB (rating pending)
Media Download
System requirements Dial-up 56k (or better)

256 MB RAM

130 MB HD storage

800 MHz x86 or x64 CPU (or better)

nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce4 MX or better
ATI Radeon Radeon 8500, Radeon 9250 or better

Input methods Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick,

TrackIR Enhanced Games : Rise: The Vieneo Province (2007-02-02). Retrieved on 2007-02-02.

Rise: The Vieneo Province (abbreviated to Rise) is an Internet-based virtual world that has been in development since January, 2003 and was offered commercially beginning in April, 2006. Through a downloadable client program, users interact with each other through motional vehicles and avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse.

While Rise is sometimes referred to as a game, in general it does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of a typical game. Players, often called "citizens", can visit this virtual world almost as if it were a real place. They explore, meet other citizens, socialize, participate in individual and alliance activities, and buy and produce goods (virtual property) and services from one another. As they spend more time in the world, they learn new skills and mature socially, learning the culture and manners of a virtual environment.

The game contains player-driven economics, a dynamic weather system, and a detailed terrain engine. Vieneo, the fictitious moon the game is based on, has all the typical attributes of a planet or moon and was generated using [Burrows] (2003-04-18). StarGen. Eldacur Technologies. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.

The aerodynamic and astrodynamic physics are of the highest fidelity and therefore closely mimic reality. One of the goals of many players is to fly up into orbit and look down at the large gaming arena.

Contents

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[edit] History

Rise was founded by Unistellar Industries, registered with the State of Missouri. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.

The company originally developed software for a full-scale cockpit enclosure. [Hunting] (2003-04-03). Shelter. Retrieved on 2007-07-09. The only known prototype (called 'Audrey') was lost/stolen. Due to budgetary restrictions, liability, and assembly space required, the firm has now focused on the larger audience of online gaming. [Lindsey] (2007-02-02). HobbySpace. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.

The initial alpha test version, named Planetfall, was made available in 2003 to players with initial release of the proprietary terrain engine. Due to a potential copyright infringement with Planetfall, the game was renamed and the beta version was made publicly available in 2006. The beta versions continued to focus on playability on a long-term basis. The Rise economy was initialized in August, 2006 and has been entirely user-driven since.

[edit] Technical information

[edit] Software

The Rise software comprises the Game Client (Client), Viewer (Viewscreen), and Sound (Sound Module) run by players (described below), and the servers operated by Unistellar Industries (about which few details are known, other than that the servers use RAID-5 storage). The Internet connectivity is over port 7473 (2007-03-30). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.

Every few days, a new version of the software is deployed, intending to fix problems and make improvements to usability, performance, and security. The Rise user-base is growing rapidly, and this has stimulated both social and technological changes to the world; the addition of new features also provides periodic boosts to the growth of the economy.

[edit] Rise as the Metaverse

Rise is one of several virtual worlds available on the Internet. It has been likened to SecondLife, Mankind, and EVE.

[edit] Pricing

The software is free for download but requires a subscription to access their servers. Beyond the membership plans, there is no "exchange" of real-life currency into game currency or vice-versa.

[edit] Membership plans

  • Monthly — US $5.95

Although the company has a form field for referrals, no known bonus system has been implemented.

[edit] Issues and criticisms

Because it is under constant development, and is an open environment that can be used by almost anyone with internet access, Rise has encountered a number of problems, mostly technical in nature. Problems and suggestions are submitted and addressed through a sophisticated issue tracking database called JIRA.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Rise: The Vieneo Province

[edit] Unistellar Industries

[edit] Audio and video media