[Opensim-dev] TSB Feasibility Study: Online Virtual Worlds for Urban Regeneration Consultation

[Ben Francis]

Hi,

Firstly, thank you for all the responses, it gives me a good starting point.

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 7:16 AM, Dr Scofield <DrScofield at xyzzyxyzzy.net>wrote:

>
> as we are looking at similar OpenSim applications, i'd be interested in
> learning
> more about this study. any links that we could follow up?


Hi Dr S,

I'm afraid I don't really have anything much more related to OpenSim than is
posted on this thread. I have found some interesting work on other projects
though.

Some interesting proprietary examples for inspiration are an Israeli company
called GeoSim <http://www.geosim.co.il> and the new virtual Berlin in
Twinity <http://twinity.com>. Google Earth
Enterprise<http://earth.google.com/enterprise/earth_enterprise.html>&
Earth
API <http://code.google.com/apis/earth/> provide practical solutions to some
GIS tasks, though not really a virtual world in the sense of OpenSim.

There's some very interesting standardisation work going on at the Web3D
Consortium <http://web3d.org> under the
X3D-Earth<http://www.web3d.org/x3d-earth/>working group, though they
haven't publically published anything since 2007,
their work is ongoing and they are collaborating with the Open Geospatial
Consoritum <http://www.opengeospatial.org>.

As for OpenSim, I'm still exploring (though I'm running out of time). The
Orcas island example  that Nebadon posted a link to is quite neat (or at
least the improved
version<http://blog.simgis.com/2008/09/11/usgs-terrain-in-opensim-a-gis-approach/>linked
to from the blog post) and the Berkeley simulation from lidar images
also provides a good example.

If anyone has time for a quick response, I do have some more general
questions about OpenSim.

*GIS Import*

As far as I can tell the examples given so far are all essentially creating
terrains from raster data. What I'm more interested in is creating accurate
models based on vector map data, particularly in the UK from Ordnance Survey
MasterMap data. I've not yet seen any examples of this kind of thing.

*Asset Import*

A basic question, how does OpenSim natively represent geometry? What data
format or data structure does it use? Presumably people have experience
importing assets from a variety of formats? COLLADA? 3DS? X3D?

*Asset Library & Manipulation*

Does OpenSim have the same kind of experience as Second Life for being able
to pick 3d assets from an asset library and manipulate them in real time in
the scene? Can multiple avatars manipulate the same object?

*Map Size Constraints*

How does this work? Is it one 256x256m region per machine, with them linked
together?

*In-world Communication*

Presumably OpenSim has the same kind of IM as Second Life? I've been reading
on the mailing list about VoIP support today, it seems it's coming?

*Running Costs*

Does anyone have any figures for how much it costs to host OpenSim regions
in terms of hardware etc.? I remember the story about a Second Life sim
alledgedly using more power than a typical Brazilian! What are the typical
hardware system requirements?

*Skillset*

What kind of skillset would be required for a developer embarking on a
project using OpenSim? C#? What else?

Thanks for your input everyone!

Regards

Ben


-- 
Ben Francis
http://tola.me.uk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-dev/attachments/20090125/535d1626/attachment-0001.html>