[Opensim-dev] thinking about a viewer

[Butch Arnold]

Hi All,

While I believe the graphics potential of Unity compared to Opensim is 
far greater, I would prefer seeing WebGL quality of graphics.
I personally think the quality of graphics is very poor in the Linden 
based viewers compared to other technologies that are available.

I also think a viewer with the graphics capabilities of WebGL would be a 
great boost to OpenSim.. even if it is a simple "Exploration Only" 
viewer for now.
If we could produce a WebGL based viewer capable of simple exploration 
and chat, it could be used as a building block for a more advanced 
viewer as we move forward.

A smaller, less ambitious project like this might become fruitful much 
sooner than a more robust project.

My biggest concerns with OpenSim is that since we are currently tied to 
the graphics capabilities of Linden based viewers we will not be an 
appealing platform for more serious projects.

I have worked on some projects where the main complaint has been the 
quality of graphics we can obtain from the current viewers, often times 
these projects have been eventually converted to a "Unity" scene as that 
allows a better graphics experience.

While a "Full", "Robust" WebGL viewer may "Burden" current computers, I 
do believe the graphics quality of WebGL to be a very appealing 
direction for us to follow, and as time progresses, if we have a simple 
WebGL viewer that is working, we can ramp it up with a few more features 
here and there.

-My 2 cents-


On 8/11/2014 10:06 PM, Frank Nichols wrote:
> Imagine diving into a pool of water like that in your VW.
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 10:04 PM, Frank Nichols 
> <j.frank.nichols at gmail.com <mailto:j.frank.nichols at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     This is nothing compared to the others, but be SURE to include
>     this kind of water ( also WebGL ) - :)
>
>     http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/webgl-water-simulation/
>
>
>     On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 9:07 PM, Mister Blue
>     <misterblue at misterblue.com <mailto:misterblue at misterblue.com>> wrote:
>
>         There is a lot of WebGL stuff happening out there. I thought
>         I'd mash some existing code together and create a simple
>         viewer to generate some test numbers and proof points, but it
>         seems that every time I click on another link I find another
>         amazing WebGL project.
>
>         Some samples:
>         Blend4Web (http://www.blend4web.com/en/). A small company that
>         makes a Blender plugin and a browser view. You build your
>         world in Blender and can output html or js and then walk
>         around in your world in the browser viewer. The viewer itself
>         is GPL.
>         Cesium (http://cesiumjs.org/) Cesium is a JavaScript library
>         for creating 3D globes and 2D maps in a web browser without a
>         plugin. It uses WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics, and
>         is cross-platform, cross-browser, and tuned for dynamic-data
>         visualization. Cesium is open source under the Apache 2.0
>         license. If you go to the site above, you orbit with the ISS.
>
>         Also fun talks at Siggraph next month:
>         *Progressive Streaming of Compressed 3D Graphics in a Web Browser*
>         A solution for fast progressive streaming and visualization of
>         compressed 3D graphics on the web. The approach relies on a
>         dedicated progressive-compression algorithm and a plugin-free
>         solution for streaming, decoding, and visualization by the web
>         browser, which relies on an optimized parallel
>         JavaScript/WebGL implementation. (Guillaume Lavoué,Université
>         de Lyon, LIRIS CNRS)
>         *Earth in Google Maps: Rendering Trillions of Triangles in
>         JavaScript*
>         This talk gives an overview of the rendering technology used
>         to render Google Earth's massive dataset in a web browser
>         using JavaScript and WebGL. (Janne Kontkanen, Evan Parker;
>         Google Inc.)
>
>         The WebGL area has matured a lot since I last looked at it a
>         year or two ago.
>
>         Just had to share.
>
>
>         On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 3:32 PM, M.E. Verhagen
>         <marceled9 at gmail.com <mailto:marceled9 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>             There are a lot of double buttons and menu options in the
>             current viewers.
>             For instance the top bar has got the parcel name and so
>             does the second bar. (inlcusive all the restrictions
>             buttons ... double ...)
>
>             The bottom bar starts with the Nearby chat button ... wich
>             does exactly the same as the balloon button.
>
>             Wow that certainly adds to the complexity.
>
>             It would be better to get complete get rid of the ui, by
>             making a second window with just all the buttons seperate
>             from viewer window. Just the black top bar with the region
>             and current opensim name would remain.
>
>             Maybe even an UI app for on the ipad or android can be
>             made. (wich would then direct communicate with the viewer
>             window)
>
>
>
>
>
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