[Opensim-dev] robot simulation

[dan miller]

> WRT to SL being a "game" platform, therefore using physics for added 
> realism but not for function: that may be true of Linden Lab's SL. I 
> hope the people here in OpenSim break away from that whole "fantasy 
> game" philosophy. Some fantasies -- social, technical and scientific -- 
> end up having a huge positive impact in the real world. Those are a lot 
> more worthwhile supporting than sex beds and warrior tales (not that 
> there's anything wrong with that, but ... choose your game!)

Ditto and Amen to that.

If we can get a quorum of developers interested in this, I'd love to get our
own IRC channel (opensim-physics?)

I think I was a bit cup-half-empty with jordi last night.  I want to
reiterate that what he wants to do is very much something that I feel
Opensim should *eventually* support.  My concern is really just the state of
the code, and the fact that I know from experience that most of the core
developers are much more concerned with getting the underlying architecture
together than in worrying about the subtleties of physics and simulation.

I almost hate to suggest this, but it may be the case that some sort of
development branch focusing on more sophisticated physics would be in order.
 I've found that the constant flux of development at the db and
client/server layers makes it rather difficult to try anything radical -- by
the time you have something interesting going, you have a big hurdle in
merging it back into trunk without mucking up something people are depending
on.  This forces physics development to be rather conservative.  Teravus and
others are doing great work, don't get me wrong -- but they are basically
just trying to add SL-compatible features, and keeping current with the rest
of the team.  There may be room for a more speculative branch of
development, that isn't worried about grid mode or inventory, but just
focuses on how the physics layer actually works, and how it could be
improved.

Just a random 2.5 cents

-danx0r