[Opensim-dev] avatar system or similar

Thu Apr 10 20:19:49 UTC 2008

Hi,

Some comments how realXend has implemented things:

2008/4/10, Michael Wright <michaelwri22 at yahoo.co.uk>:
>
> I haven't been able to find too much on how the RealXtend avatar system is
> really going to work. And while in some ways I think its a step in the right
> direction,  it also seems to limit a lot of things. I'm not so sure you
> should alway have the same avatar for everything. Or should completely cut
> the "region servers" out of the whole process. If I teleport to a region
> that has a role playing game, maybe my avatar should automatically change
> (at least clothes, but maybe body as well) to fit into that game. So the
> region has to be able to have some say over the avatar.

The current realXtend login process gives a control point for region servers
as well. When a user logs in to a region, the viewer sends URL to user's
avatar storage. The region then sends that URL t other viewers so that other
user's can see each other's avatars. It is possible that in e.g. a strict
role playing world, the region uses it's own avatar storage which stores a
special avatar for just that user. Then the region server sends URL to that
avatar storage instead of the one that viewer sent to the region. If we want
to get really smart here, it would be also possible to combine something
from the user's regular avatar to the role playing game avatar to achieve
nice results... e.g. using face form from user's regular avatar but
otherwise using region specific body and clothes.

I have the same sort of thoughts about inventory. While it should not be
> centralised, the regions do need to be able to (with permission) do certain
> things, like maybe a region gives you a extra set of folders for use in that
> region, but they disappear when you leave it. I am also not sure there
> should be just one inventory set for each user. Why not a number of sub sets
> that can be combined etc. Maybe the region could restrict access to only a
> certain set, which might be a set that it provides, when in that region; no
> space ships when in that serious business region.. Inventory really needs to
> swap to a more url based system.

We are just thinking how to build all this in realXtend. Currently we have
thought that each user will have a region specific inventory and a personal
inventory. The personal inventory is stored at avatar storage so it will
travel with the avatar.

Also we need to remember not everything will be interconnected. There will
> be some applications (or possible grids) that want to be separate from
> everything else.
>
> So I don't think we should be forcing any centralised system on people.
> And yes from what I've read, I actually think the realxtend avatar system
> sounds too centralised, but that could be because I don't know enough
> details of what is planned. I'm not saying its wrong, it just doesn't fit
> all possible uses. So we need things to at least be modular.

Currently realXtend components have been designed so that there are no
centralized control points, it would be really a bad planning to build such
an architecture on that kind of centralized assumptions. In realXtend
architecture, everyone can set up their own avatar storages and user
authentication services and decide to trust or not to other user's
authentication services.
If a virtual world hosting company wants to make a completely walled garden
solution with realXtend, that is also possible. They can set up their own
avatar authentication and storage and trust no-one else's authentication
server (there is a basic allow/deny setting for this).

Having said all that, of course I think a lot of people and applications
> will want to have shared resources like these. Just we have to be careful in
> how they are implemented. And for opensim at least, that should be a open
> process/design that everyone can be part of.

A team of people almost always reaches better solutions over individual. All
the different use cases should be covered in a great care. I hope that
realXtend initiative with the distributed avatar architecture is being
refined with the OpenSim community involvement. I am sure that there are
still many things that need addressing. The realXtend code is available at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/realxtendserver/ and as I mentioned in my
earlier mail, we will have a new version, which is based on current OpenSim,
soon available.

Best regards,
Jani Pirkola
realXtend program manager

*Sean Dague <sean at dague.net>* wrote:
>
> On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 08:50:33AM -0700, Diva Canto wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > What happened to realXtend's "avatar system"? Is it being integrated
> > with OpenSim?
>
> Short answers. I don't know, and no. The process for code coming into
> OpenSim is to put a patch in mantis. I haven't seen any proposed
> patches in this area in mantis.
>
> > From where I stand, that, or something like that, is a major
> > architectural requirement for virtual worlds to get serious. Without the
>
> > ability for people to get an identity+inventory that they can port
> > around through different organization's grids, this is not going to be
> > that useful. I see a lot of interest from organizations to set up their
> > own virtual worlds under their control (so, their own grid'ed regions),
> > but if people have to get accounts with them to visit, this is just not
> > going to work for serious usages - period.
>
> Hence you've created the paradox. :)
>
> * We want everything connected
> * We don't want to trust a single authoritative source for info
> (otherwise you'd be on Second Life)
>
> Honestly, this is a hard problem to solve, and one that seems a bit
> beyond the current scope. That being said, implementations and research
> in this area which work with OpenSim are always welcomed.
>
> > I understand there's a ton of stability work to be done, but this
> > particular architectural decision is really important, even
> > (especially?) at this early stage; we all trust stability will happen
> > over time.
> > Is there anything that I can do to boost the efforts in that direction,
> > besides sending this email?
>
> Sample peer based User services that allow cross talk would be useful.
> The moral equivalent of OpenID for virtual worlds (because you need more
> than just what openid provides).
>
> -Sean
>
> --
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> Sean Dague Mid-Hudson Valley
> sean at dague dot net Linux Users Group
> http://dague.net http://mhvlug.org
>
> There is no silver bullet. Plus, werewolves make better neighbors
> than zombies, and they tend to keep the vampire population down.
> __________________________________________________________________
> _______________________________________________
> Opensim-dev mailing list
> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Yahoo! for Good helps you make a difference<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailuk/taglines/isp/control/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51947/*http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Opensim-dev mailing list
> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-dev/attachments/20080410/6178875a/attachment-0001.html>