[Opensim-users] Branded opensim viewers

[Diva Canto]

I don't know about "branding" viewers, that's a whole other issue. But 
regarding the process to make these environments easily accessible to 
newcomers, I have some advice.

A setup guide with painfully clear instructions works very well for 
people who have never used this system before. I'm making the one I 
wrote publicly available for non-commercial use, feel free to direct 
your users to it:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~lopes/opensim/SingularitySetupGuide.pdf
I usually send this setup guide by email along with the two URLs that 
people need, one in step 1 and the other in step 4. In the email, I let 
them know that they will need those URLs in those steps.

So far, I've had zero problems with people configuring things and login.

Interacting while inside the world is another story, as these 
environments are extremely confusing for people who aren't used to them. 
For those of you designing educational settings in opensim, my 
recommendation is to design your environments so that people have a lot 
less degrees of freedom than what these viewers provide. For example, 
have people login to an environment with chairs/sits, and immediately 
have them click on a chair and sit down. The chairs should have scripts 
for controlling their cameras, so that they look at exactly the right 
thing, whatever that is.

I wrote about some of these design issues here:
http://tagide.com/blog/2013/03/design-and-implementation-of-a-virtual-collaboration-environment/

I've made peace with the fact that we have a complicated client software 
that people need to install and configure. The way to mitigate the 
complexity for newcomers is threefold:

(1) avoid the Grid Manager altogether and use the grid textbox for the 
login URL, which, thank god!, the Singularity developers already did;

(2) provide setup guides that are as clear as possible (we're not the 
only ones doing this, btw; many web conferencing systems also require 
software installation and configuration); and

(3) design your environments so that they are as simple as possible -- 
these environments have too many degrees of freedom, but it's possible 
to reduce them.


On 2/19/2014 7:45 AM, Dr Ramesh Ramloll wrote:
> Kay, I think there are a number of things that need tailoring in 
> addition to the ability of adding a grid (which as diva pointed is 
> available in singularity). For my user base, no one will ever be 
> interested to do even that (no interest => will never learn). I was 
> hoping for some configuration file that can contain the needed custom 
> data e.g. list of names of regions, urls to pictures of various 
> regions etc.. and once the user downloads the viewer+drop the custom 
> config file in the same folder, the config file is read and all the 
> important pieces set on application launch. So may be working with tpv 
> developers can help .... I definitely think that the only things the 
> casual user should know is how to navigate, click/touch, and voice 
> chat. The rest is for us.
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 9:41 AM, Diva Canto <diva at metaverseink.com 
> <mailto:diva at metaverseink.com>> wrote:
>
>     Singularity already has this.
>
>     On 2/19/2014 4:42 AM, Kay McLennan wrote:
>>     As an alternative to re-branding 3 different versions of a viewer
>>     (to match 3 different operating systems) each time a viewer is
>>     upgraded, would it be possible to develop viewers that utilize
>>     web browser-like addresses (?).  What I have in mind is being
>>     able to type (or copy) a grid's login URL directly into the
>>     "Grid" text box.  In this way, there is no need to:  (1) re-brand
>>     viewers; or (2) go through all of the steps needed to add a grid
>>     to a viewer via the "Grid Manager" feature.
>>
>>     Again, wouldn't it be easier to develop viewers that enable users
>>     to simply type a grid URL into the grid name box (?).
>>
>>     -- Kay
>>
>>
>>
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>
> -- 
> 'Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin.'
> *Rameshsharma Ramloll* PhD, CEO CTO DeepSemaphore LLC, Affiliate 
> /Research Associate Professor/, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 
> 83209 Tel: 208-240-0040
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