When I first started VR Rome I had thought to only do the Forum area and have maby 4 to 6 avatars for visitors to use. The first Rome consisted of about 1,000,000 square meters of land and now, how it has grown. VR Rome is presently 5,000,000 square meters of land and what that means in building ability is just mind boggling. Now I will be able to include most of the important buildings in Rome and in addition I will be able to add the port of Ostia and City of Pompeii. The avatars have been expanded to about 35 men, women and animals.In addition there are another 200 avatars not exclusively Roman. Objects are being created daily and Rome is expanding at an astounding rate. Nearly all of the Forum Area is complete out to the Colosseum and next will be the baths and a huge shopping complex. At this writing VR Rome is the largest private building site in the world. To put this in perspective...you could put all of the UCLA VR ROME in less than 2% of my VR Rome. UCLA has been working on their Rome for nearly 10 years with hundreds of students and professors. I have built all of my VR Rome by myself and lately with the addition of another builder. Visitors have always been welcome and no restrictions placed on their coming and going. In addition my VR Rome is a true 3D site and the only free 3D site on the internet. I realize that the original Rome was a gritty, dirty place and do have some of that in my Rome, but I want my Rome to be a user friendly place and thus it is always bright daylight, except for the tops of the mountains where they are snowcovered and the clouds billow and snow is constantly falling. Also, it is raining in one small area and I will be restricting light in that area to reflect a dreary, rainy day. As I continue with VR Rome I intend to start on a VR Egypt with a huge temple complex and probably a middleages Europe with castles, ect. I already have the objects for these builds. Now, just to find the time :o)

I have been working with VR in Activeworlds (AW) since the latter part of 1996 and thus far in the history of AW there have been exactly 3 lifetime Achievment Awards. One went to Andras from Sweden and another went to Tengel from Norway and I am proud to say that I recieved the third award on November 17, 2007. At first I thought it was for my work with VR Rome, but found out it was for starting the first online school to teach others how to build and start communities. My school is called AWSchool and over the years has taught thousands of people how to build and later the AWUniversity taught them how to create objects and dozens of other creative skills. It has been with a sense of joy that I have seen these members go forth and start worlds of their own and create thousands upon thousands of VR objects. No point in giving any names in here. I doubt that any readers of this would know who they are. One of the reasons I came to AncientWorlds was to get a little peace and quite and just "do my thing". Thus far it has worked quite well, but I am starting to pick up more and more members in VR Rome from the VR community. I had so hoped to attract some people who were more interested in ancient builds than modern VR, but I don't think it is to be. The people who have visited, from here, have seen fit to critize for the most inane reasons. "not dirty enough, too bright, not totally accurate, ect ect" When, offered an online 3D Egyptian area, complete with pyramids, sphynx, and a huge temple complex to meet in I was accused of trying to highjack members from here, even though this site would be running in their browsers at the same time. The members of this, and like, sites don't appear to have any interest in creating in 3D what they can paint in photoshop. It's beyond me. Thus far, I would not allow my VR Rome to be listed in the avaliable VR Sites in the hopes to keep it low key, but it would appear that is not to be. It has been a lot of fun in here and to the very few who did use VR Rome with a sense of joy and exploration of new/old ideas thanks so much for being part of the experiment. From this point on I will continue to build VR Rome and have just finished the warehouses on the Tiber River. I will give updates at key points, but won't make any future offers to allow anyone to create their own 3D home or Temple. Any visitors will be welcome at anytime.

You can now visit VR Rome. The download is at http://www.americagalaxy.com/ You can go ahead and become a citizen of Rome and this will give you privileges to talk to other visitors. Also, you can put the AncientWorlds site in the browser on the right side of the screen and monitor that site or any other site on the net. Use you arrow keys to move about and the + key enables you to fly and the - key will bring you to the ground. If you get stuck, just simply press the shift key to move. At the present only the forum area is completed and I am still working on the Tiber River and surrounding terrain. The only outlying buildings are some temples to the southeast and Alexanders tomb to the northwest. If you get lost click on Teleport and then home and it will take you back to the forum. Enjoy.

I presently have VR Rome up and running, but unfortunately I have a modern city in it along with trains, autos, planes, ect. Needless to say, this won't do for ancient Rome. I lost a hard drive and all of my VR Rome was on that drive and now I am searching thru files from some years ago to see if I can find what I need. It would be great if I could, but if I can't it won't matter that much. Just take a bit longer to get redone. In the meantime, I am taking advantage of the work done by UCLA and am using their models to recreate some of the buildings in Rome. Most notably the temple to Jupiter was the last one and am presently working on some of the other buildings. I have found some great marble textures for use in the temples and official buildings and am adding statues and frieze's every day. I believe I added about 20 today alone. If anyone has a favorite statue they would like to see in Rome just send me a jpg and I believe it can be done. I am pretty sure I have all of the necessary textures to apply to the buildings, but would love to get some ceiling textures and any wall paintings that would be avaliable. Anyway, for an uneducated man, I have done the best I can with the knowledge I have been able to garner from books and the internet. In retrospect I believe I have my Forum area a bit too large, but that is no matter. Just easier to move around in. I did take special pains with my home and I believe visitors will like the layout of the rooms and the paintings and mosaics. This has been a labor of love and I want it to be as historically accurate as possible. It would be great to have access to UCLA's models and I could have a 3d Rome up and running in no time. I honestly don't know what their problem is in putting one out. I know that Vesuvius wasn't near Rome, but I put it in anyway and have lava burying the town below. Yeah, I know, I can take it out later. One thing I think visitors will like is the working waterwheel at the gristmill. I am just plugging along and hope to have it open shortly.

I have been working on a VR Rome off and on for about 2 years now. You have no idea how expensive it can be. But, I do have most of the Forum area laid out and built out to and including the Colosseum. I am not totally satisfied with the Circus Maximus and will probably tear it down and rebuilt. Also, I intend on removing a couple of city blocks and replacing them with buildings that existed around 300ad. All of the terrain is done for 1,000,000 square meters and that will be as far as I go with that. No more terrain !! EVER!!! I saw a VR mill that was located in Europe and it was actually more like a factory than a mill. There were about 8 water wheels and each one went into a separate building. It was thought that most were used to grind grain. I do like that mill and may include it in Rome. Anyway, when I get a bit farther along I will post the website and you are invited to come visit.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body , but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up , totally worn out , and loudly proclaim "WOW WHAT A RIDE!"