How NodeWorld works

NodeWorld is a social VR platform where every server belongs to its community. One account opens all of them: on every server you meet the same friends, wear the same avatars and keep the same messages.

Your account#

You create your NodeWorld account on app.nodeworldvr.com, with an email or with Discord (see Create your account). Its username is the name everyone sees. You must be at least 13 years old.

The game signs in to the same account with a short code typed on the website (see First launch), on each device you play on. Your friends, your messages, your avatars, your profile, your favorites, your home world, the language and your privacy and notification settings are kept on your account: they follow you on every device and on the website. What stays on one device is listed in Settings.

NodeWorld's central services#

Every game and every server talks to NodeWorld's central services. They:

• sign you in, on the website and in the game;
• list the servers and their worlds in Explore;
• keep your friends, your messages, your notifications and your avatars;
• decide who may come in where: who can join an instance, who is banned from a server, who may enter an 18+ place;
• tell the game and the servers when a new version is out.

They run no world: the servers do.

Servers#

A server is a program that someone runs for their community, on a PC or a Raspberry Pi (see Hosting a server). It runs the worlds its host chose. When you enter one of its worlds, your game connects straight to that server and downloads the world's files from it the first time.

A server has its owner and the co-owners the owner adds; they can ban a player from it. A server listed publicly shows in Explore, in the game and on the website.

Worlds#

Creators build worlds in Unity with the NodeWorld SDK (see Creators). A world can have FL# scripts, which run on your device and on the server, in the FL# interpreter, a sandbox that keeps them away from your device (the FL# sandbox). Your game checks every file of a world against its manifest before it loads anything (refused worlds). A world has files for each platform: Windows, Linux and Meta Quest.

Instances#

An instance is one copy of a world running on its server, with its own players. Whoever starts an instance owns it and chooses who can join: Open, Social, Friends, Invite or Hidden (see Instances and privacy). The host of the server sets how many players fit in an instance of each world. An instance closes a little while after its last player leaves.

Your home world#

The game takes you to your home world when it starts, and when you choose Go to my home world. A home world is a world that its server offers as one, on a server that NodeWorld lets welcome players at home. The first time, NodeWorld picks one of them for you. To change it, choose Set home on another home world, in the game or on the website.

Your home instance is yours: it starts as Hidden, and you choose who can join it. When its server is down, NodeWorld takes you to the same world on another server that offers it.

Your device#

NodeWorld runs on Windows and Linux PCs, with a VR headset or on your screen with keyboard and mouse, and on Meta Quest (see Install NodeWorld). Worlds and avatars have files for each platform: an avatar without files for a device shows as the default avatar there.