If anyone tries CircumReality on Linux Wine or a Windows emulator on the Macintosh, please tell me. I'd like to do what I can to get CircumReality to run on Linux and Mac.

Note: CircumReality is not yet done! This is a test release.

Click here to download CircumReality, approximately 130 MB.

I haven't put the 64-bit version of CircumReality up because it's not in high demand. If you have 64-bit Windows and wish a copy, E-mail me.

One person reported difficulty downloading from this site; If you're having difficulty with this download site, please tell me and I'll point you to another location.

In order to keep the file size small, the main CircumReality download has small versions of all the text-to-speech voices. These don't sound as good as the large versions of the voices, however. If you have a dual-core computer with 2 gigabytes of RAM running 64-bit windows, and have paid for the full version of CircumReality, then you might wish to download the large voices. (Note: During the alpha/beta, if you want to try the large voices then just E-mail me.)

Click here to download the high-quality English text-to-speech voices, approximately 700 MB.

Pre-release 2.10 (5 August, 2008)

CircumReality isn't finished yet. I'm making this version public so that I can get feedback from game designers and adventurous players.

Feel free to download and play CircumReality. Just be aware that it isn't finished, that it has bugs, and that there isn't much content; you'll probably run out of stuff to do after an hour. You may want to check back every 3-4 months to see what has changed. (My next planned content release is in late September.)

Expect crashes. User accounts will occasionally be deleted. The world server may be down (because it crashed); if it is down, please E-mail me so I can get it back up!

The current release has small world that should take 30-60 minutes to complete.

If you play it, please send me feedback on the following:

• What you think about the gameplay? - CircumReality's gameplay is unusual. It's like a combination of interactive fiction, a computer role-playing game, a MMORPG, and interactive storytelling. In the intro (the content that's up), there is no combat whatsoever.

• What were the confusing bits? - The intro-section gameplay is supposed to be easy. If it isn't, or anything is confusing, then please tell me.

• How long did it take you to complete? - I guesstimate that it'll take 30-60 minutes to complete, but I'm not really sure. Some feedback from players would really help here.

• What did you think about the download size? - It's around 100 megabytes. Is this too large?

• How is text-to-speech? - Is it understandable? Is it good enough, or ultimately distracting?

• Bugs - Please report any bugs.

As I see it, the biggest problems with CircumReality are:

1. CircumReality's gameplay isn't like your standard MMORPG (or adventure game). I think that different gameplay is an advantage in the long run, but players may be annoyed when they don't get to slay hoards of orcs. (If you create your own world, you can make gameplay that's as MMORPG-like or adventure-like as you want.)

2. CircumReality uses text-to-speech, which at its best sounds like a bored telephone operator. There are advantages though, but I'd like to hear your opinion about text-to-speech.
   
   Having said that, my text-to-speech is improving. Here are some samples over the past few years. March 2008, March 2007, May 2006, March 2005, October 2004. Of course, the year-to-year changes won't be as dramatic in the future.
   
   Note: I have just spent the last few months improving text-to-speech and graphics performance. Text-to-speech is about as good as it will get for the final release... unless I can think of any more algorithm tweaks.

3. The graphics are slow since I'm rendering on the CPU, not the graphics card. There are a number of reasons why I've taken this direction, but I'd be interested in hearing how annoying/bad the slow graphics are.
   
   On the "bright side"... Computers are getting faster all the time and CircumReality won't "ship" until early 2009, and is designed for a long life. In two years, processor speed will be a non-issue.
   
   Note: I have just spent the last few months improving text-to-speech and graphics performance. Rendering speed is about as good as it will get for the final release... unless I can think of any more algorithm tweaks.

Please send comments to Mike@mXac.com.au.

Thanks