[Opensim-users] objects undergoing continuous change

[Frisby, Adam]

I would like to be easier to integrate and edit region modules using our OpenSim API.

Exposing some of that functionality to user scripting (but obviously under controlled environments) and being able to recompile and run new modules on the fly would be a very cool feature to have.

Adam

From: opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de [mailto:opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Diva Canto
Sent: Wednesday, 12 November 2008 7:58 AM
To: opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
Subject: Re: [Opensim-users] objects undergoing continuous change

I have written a region module that does traffic simulation. Here's a video produced by my students:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNDcurLP1w

That was back in late August; the opensim API has changed considerably since then and I haven't had time to update my module yet. I didn't use physics; it was all done with periodic updates to the objects' state, just like in traditional simulation. It works pretty well, only starting to break when there are more than 2 avatars in scene; the breakage is because we have the server behind a home DSL, so packets start getting lost.

In general, for doing tradional simulations forget about using inworld scripting. Even if the scripting engine was already working well, which is not, that introduces a lot of unnecessary overhead. Moreover, it also imposes a programming model that is an obstacle to simulations (for example, not being able to hold references to objects and having to interact with them via llSay functions). The opensim API, on the other hand, is a joy to work with (how many times have I said this? :-)

Diva / Crista

Paul Fishwick wrote:

Justin Clark-Casey wrote:



Yes, things are stored in memory with a regular flush to database that occurs every 15 seconds.  However, I suspect that

objects with the physics attribute are not currently persisted (from a recent thread on opensim-dev).









I am curious as to whether it could become possible (in a standalone

server or

in a grid with only one person) to do continuous visual updates for moving

objects (physical or otherwise). I have tried a few experiments, such as a

continuously moving block using LSL (setpos) and after a few seconds, the

behavior becomes erratic (for example, the box shoots off somewhere or

disappears entirely from the region).



I realize that having fast moving visual objects does not lend itself

well to sharing

state, but there are some instances where one wishes to simply launch a

region

or grid and do more traditional simulation (as one might do in OpenGL)

whether

or not the object states are shared, or on the frequency of sharing. It

would be nice

to have this "standalone continuous object motion" as a switch-based or

deltatime-specified capability.



Thoughts?



-p





 * Would it (or is it) useful to have some scripts run on the client

rather than the

    server for less server loading? For example, could ODE run on the

client





I think that some minor stuff is done client side already (such as flexiprims).  However, I suspect one runs into

difficulties when objects can affect each other, since you would have to start communicating all this information back

to the server and somehow synchronizing it with changes from other clients.



However, I am not an expert in this area.













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