This page is dedicated to collecting information related to 3D worlds, primarily within the scope of the web revival and the web!

A 3D World is a digital space that is created in some sort of 3D engine, typically you can explore it by moving around and clicking on things. In the Web Revival these worlds are often small and are intended to load quickly. Most web based 3D worlds are created using X3D or Three.js

Examples of 3D Worlds:

• Melon's Crow Island
• Cinni's Entrance of Exit Gallery

A virtual world is a simulated world; to be a true virtual world sit must be multiplayer and it must have a memory or persistence. In a true virtual world you can login, see other player, make changes to the world, and those changes should still be there when you return in the future. A virtual worlds does not need to be 3D, it can be a 2D world.

An Example of a very simple 2D virtual world is Melon's Virtual Worm.

Quoted from @Melooon on the forum

Soo, virtual worlds are supposed to have 3 key qualities (aside from being in a computer); the world should continue to exist/change/evolve when you are not playing; changes one player makes to the world should affect the world for everyone (and remain after everyone has left); and the world should allow for multiple players to enter the world at once. Those are the three qualities that give a world life verses it being a plain save file in a game.

So, for example, Animal Crossing; I think counts as a virtual world, because events in the game occur even if you are not playing (this is actually fake in AC, since it just backdates events when you load your next save file, but Im ok with that as a valid version of time); plus AC has the ability for multiple players to enter the town/island.
On the flip side, a game like Grand Theft Auto V is not a virtual world because it does now allow these things (although GTA Online is).

I say that because it's an important point I missed in my old post, and I think it can really open up the options for virtual world making! For example a webpage like MelonTown is (loosely) a virtual world (some people might disagree), but it does satisfy the definition, because its a digital world that exists when no one is there (you can buy land plots even when the town is not loaded), and multiple people can visit it (even though they are only viewing it). The leaky homepage ring 100% satisfies the definition of a virtual world, and so by proxy, any web page that is in the leaky ring is a virtual world.