Next Gen

A wiki area to discuss a possible next generation OpenSimulator.

There are many people and groups who have forks and OpenSim side projects. MisterBlue on 14-Feb-2022 suggested puling these side projects together and make a new and improved future OpenSimulator.

MisterBlue is creating a new protocol and viewer that initially works with OpenSim. A new viewer is a first step toward breaking away from the chains of Second Life compatibility.

The list of requested features from attendees of OpenSimulator Community Conference 2021 (OSCC21) is a good starting point.

• OSCC21 Audience Feature Suggestions

Misterblue 20220215: This effort is to invigorate and advance OpenSimulator for the most recent rediscovery of metaverses. The goal is not to re-engineer everything to create the ultimate metaverse. The goal is to address large features that are limiting OpenSimulator's deployment and use. In the end, there will be a divergence from complete mimicking of SL.

There will be incorporation of technologies like:

• popular asset creation tools (mesh editors, UI designers, etc.),
• standards (identity, avatar formats, asset formats, etc.),
• modern infrastructures (containers, monitors, etc),
• encryption (end-to-end encrypted chat, signed storage, etc), and
• storage systems.

That's all grand vision, but on more practical grounds, the OSCC21 feature suggestions break into:

• Use of popular asset formats for world and avatars (FBX, GLTF, VRM, etc)
• Use of popular external asset creation tools (Blender, etc)
• Updated user documentation
• Improved in-world asset representations (trees, PBM materials, etc)
• Incorporation of hyped metaverse tech (VR, text-to-speech, etc)

And add to these operational features:

• Easy to install and operate (db management, etc)
• Better access control (connection control, user management, etc)
• Security (for inter-grid and inter-user communication)

Standards and Metaverse Standard Groups That Might Be Interesting

• VRM Avatars, Github: humanoid avatar format popular with vtubers, VRChat, etc
• Infinite Metaverse Alliance
• Open Metaverse Interoperability Group