[Opensim-dev] thinking about a viewer

[Frank Nichols]

I am all for revolutionary, but the issue would be that a method of
bringing legacy users along for the ride "easily". I do think that running
on "enhanced" 10 year old technology is not in our best interest for 10
years from now. The longer we wait to upgrade, the bigger the bump is going
to be and the more people that are going to bail and move on to one of the
alternatives.

What OS has is the ability for "anyone" to run a sim on their machine at
home to "anyone" renting a server(s) to run a grid of almost any practical
size. You can start small and get your feet wet and grow and how you grow
is up to you. Most other solutions (except forks) don't offer that
accessibility. I would hope that a new viewer would bring with it new
server functionality - to solve some issues. For example, probably 95%
[SWAG] of support issues for new users trying to run their sim at home
revolves around the modem/router issues... Would be nice if it wasn't so.



On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 9:08 PM, Mister Blue <misterblue at misterblue.com>
wrote:

> I've been seriously thinking about creating a new viewer project. But with
> Maria's survey[1] and all the different virtual world announcements
> happening and the lively OpenSimulator vs Unity discussion on the
> opensim-user list, I'd like to open up the discussion to the OpenSimulator
> development community[2].
>
> LL is making a new world and viewer (closed and proprietary as far as I
> know). HighFidelity is making a new world and viewer (open source with
> commercial 'grid services'). Unity 5 will have a multi-platform web viewer
> and a new multi-user backend (pricing not announced). There are various
> wonderful open source virtual world projects (realXtend, Virtual World
> Framework, ...) as well as many emerging technologies (xml3d, html5,
> asm.js). There are several forks of OpenSimulator (Aurora, ArribaSim, ...)
> that have made many enhancements to the base system. Add to that several
> successful virtual worlds build on OpenSimulator (inWorldz, Anvination,
> Kitely, ...) as well as a few packaged distributions of OpenSimulator
> (Diva, ...). Add to that the many SL/OpenSim third party viewers based on
> the LL viewer. And that's just in our sphere. There is much more happening
> in the gaming and education and training communities.
>
> So, what could a new viewer add to the mix? Whatever a new view does, it
> approaches the question of what OpenSimulator should be three years from
> now.
>
> For me, there are two basic choices[3]: evolutionary change or
> revolutionary change.
>
> Evolutionary change says to build on existing OpenSimulator. Make due with
> the existing LLLP (Linden Lab Legacy Protocol) and improve vehicles, make
> installation and use easier and add an easier to use and improve viewer.
>
> Revolutionary change would be striking off on a new virtual world
> architecture. It could have LLLP support but only for downward
> compatibility and to keep that community and content. But other questions
> arise: How would one build a viewer/virtual world where a HiFi avatar could
> stand next to a SL avatar? How could content be delivered to a viewer so it
> is displayable but is not in the original, copyable form? How to leverage
> the distribution and power of 'the cloud'[4]? How could one make
> hypergridable grids across the many virtual worlds?
>
> What do you  think? Evolution or revolution?
>
> -- mb
>
> [1]
> http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2014/08/survey-better-vehicles-search-most-wanted-in-opensim/
> [2] I see this expanding to other forums eventually.
> [3] With a lot of gray area in between
> [4] I'm always amazed by Google Maps -- it displays the map with traffic
> overlays and I can zoom in and out with almost immediate response. Why
> can't a virtual world viewer do that?
>
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