[Opensim-dev] Direction of Opensim and its relationship with viewers

[Cinder Biscuits]

On 9 Nov 2013, at 13:38, Taoki wrote:

> More technically, this is why I believe a non-SL viewer will never 
> exist: First of all, everything would have to look almost the same, 
> since we wouldn't want those using the SL viewer to see something 
> different than us. Terrain, primitive shapes, texture effects 
> (transparency, shiny, bump, glow), avatar meshes (customized body, 
> clothing, skins, attachments), the sky (day / night cycle and 
> windlight settings), LSL functions with client-side effects 
> (llSetText, llTargetOmega, etc) would all need to match. Once the 
> world looks fine, you'd need to implement tons of other unique and 
> complex features... such as media and web pages on prims, main map and 
> minimap, the text and voice chat systems, and so much more. The 
> details and eye candy would need attention too, such as a GUI and 
> shaders (for HDR, shadows, depth of field) that can rival SL's. Even 
> if someone had the time and energy to do all this as a FOSS 
> application, they'd end up with a reverse-engineered version of the SL 
> viewer that has little differences... meaning they wasted months doing 
> something that's already there. In the end, any client for Opensim 
> could only be Second Life, even if rewritten from zero and under a 
> different name.

Non-SL based viewers *do* exist though.

> Considering this, I'm curious why it's better for Opensim to aim at 
> being a general platform, rather than simply a server for the SL 
> technology. And why the dev team doesn't create an official Opensim 
> Viewer based on the latest version of SL, while of course allowing 
> custom viewers like Firestorm to work too. Is OS still intended to 
> work with other designs, and why / how? Does it risk distancing from 
> SL viewers at some point, in hopes of a viewer written from scratch? 
> Or does it intend to support a collection of different virtual world 
> programs somehow? Also, what would happen if third party viewer 
> developers ever got bored of supporting Opensim?

A lot of these questions were addressed in the OSCC Viewers and 
OpenSimulator Panel this year http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/38459235

> This is not to say what must or mustn't be done, since I'm far from 
> having the knowledge and position to decide such things. But sticking 
> to just SL and being closer the development of its viewers is 
> something I thought would be a good initiative. I still feel that a 
> change is needed, and that Opensim isn't reaching its full potential 
> for some reason... which made me wonder if among other problems, some 
> might have similar concerns about Opensim's colder relationship with 
> viewers, and the lack of something specific officially intended to 
> work with it.

Not sure what you mean by colder relationship with viewers? As the 
OpenSim compatibility developer for Firestorm, I've never felt that way. 
Whenever I've had a question, many people have been welcoming and 
willing to help. As far as development for platforms go, Linden Lab has 
been far more cold, secretive, and outright aggressive towards third 
party viewers than the OpenSim Core team.

Kind regards,
-- 
Cinder