VWORLD History

VWORLD is an independent development studio whose core activity is the development and licensing of VWorldTerrain© technology.

First foundations of this technology were laid at the beginning of the year 1996, when Vincent Pourieux, former games industry veteran at Infogrames and now CEO of VWORLD, hit upon the idea of devising algorithms which would enable to create large terrain from procedural equations. First visual results were encouraging, and Pourieux decided to add DEM data parameters to his equations in order to achieve more realistic results.

In 1997, Vincent formed the CPU Software R&D studio and dedicated himself to research and development on the technology. A few months later, he was producing a first real-time 3D terrain simulation using satellite databases. From that first simulation (Italy in 3D) derived a new concept, and Vincent decided to take another step: to simulate the entire Planet. The technology was therefore named V-world. In 1998, graphics took a great leap forward, and V-world technology was used for the first time in a car racing game called Speed Demons.

In 1999, CPU Software was running a first mock-up of the entire Earth in real-time 3D on PC. Vincent had been adding new capabilities to V-world, such as a dynamic weather system, the management of the vault of heaven, as well as the rendering of seabeds and management of Autonomous Life Forms (ALFs). At the time V-world technology was making use of the GTOPO30 DEM database

1998

1999

In 2000, Vincent met Jean-François Lévigne, a multimedia engineer at M-Sat, a company specialized in the treatment of satellite imagery in true colors. Jean-François therefore offered to add his data processing expertise on a common project: in 2001, the edutainment software Eingana, first simulation of the entire Earth in real-time 3D, was released on two CD-ROMs to the general public. Eingana, "the Earth has got a twin sister!" was awarded Fnac Golden Arrow in 2002.

1999

In 2001 also, CPU Software laid the foundations of an innovative city extrusion process which made use of aerial databases: the city of Lyon was thus reproduced in real-time 3D from aerial data. V-world technology was also used within the framework of a research project on 3D mouse motion capture initated by the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).

2001

2002

2003

In 2002, V-world technology was chosen for the development of the massively multiplayer on-line role playing game Dark and Light. It formed the basis of the game's client engine, allowing creation of the game's world, and rendering of its terrain and vegetation. Other components of the technology were also used, such as its dynamical weather system or its ALFs system. Thanks to its use of V-world, DnL featured in 2003 as “the largest MMORPG you’ve ever seen”.

2003

2004

2005

2005	In April 2004, VWORLD succeeded to CPU Software. The VWorldPowered label was taken and the corresponding website dedicated to marketing the technology appeared. V-world was then renamed VWorldTerrain.


In 2006, VWORLD developed the vieWTerra application program interface, allowing its users to create their own applications on the entire surface of the Globe, with an unprecedented level of detail and feeling of immersion in the 3D real-time replica of landscapes.

From 2007 to 2011, the vieWTerra API became a complete development platform which, through its viewer, its different tools and software development kit offers various additional functionalities such as: streaming of terrain data from a server, connexion of mutiple users embodying avatars on a common network, real-time extrusion of 3D buildings offering procedural texturing.

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