[Opensim-users] Hoping for a fearless comparison of opensim vs unity 3D

Fri Jul 18 21:21:02 UTC 2014

Dear Alan,
Thanks, could you share with us if all the funcationalities, scripting,
behaviors in the opensim region were also translated into the unity scene?
I have had many people tell me what you just said, and they walk away with
the impression that all functionalities are maintained, I just wanted you
to confirm.
Ramesh

On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 5:16 PM, Alan Miller <alan.miller at st-andrews.ac.uk>
wrote:

>  We’ve developed a system which translates an OpenSim region into a UNITY
> scene. If there was interest it could be made available. Though support
> would be low key.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Alan
>
>
>
> *From:* opensim-users-bounces at opensimulator.org [mailto:
> opensim-users-bounces at opensimulator.org] *On Behalf Of *Dahlia Trimble
> *Sent:* 18 July 2014 22:12
> *To:* opensim-users at opensimulator.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Opensim-users] Hoping for a fearless comparison of
> opensim vs unity 3D
>
>
>
> Unity and OpenSimulator are not designed to cover the same application
> space. Uinty is designed for mostly single player gaming and adds a few
> features to help support multiplayer; whereas OpenSimulator is more
> designed for multi-user shared collaborative experiences. You can build a
> multi-user shared collaborative environment with Unity but it would require
> extensive development as it's not really designed for that purpose.
>
> Regarding physics, Unity has client-side physics. Whether this is "better"
> really depends on the application. For a single user game, client side
> physics can provide a more realistic experience as it's not affected by
> network communication time and physical actions/reactions occure relatively
> instantly. However, client-side physics brings about a new set of
> challenges in a networked, collaborative environent. Consider the following
> scenario: You have a space shooter game where asteroids are moving towards
> earth. Players fly around in spaceships and fire weapons at the asteroids
> trying to deflect them. Player A fires a weapon and the projectile strikes
> the asteroid, deflecting it and scoring a point for player A. While this
> happens, Player B also fires at the asteroid, destroying it. Due to
> networking delays, player B's computer did not receive the event signaling
> player A firing at and deflecting the asteroid until after player B had
> destroyed it. Both players believe they deserve the score but only one
> could have hit the asteroid. Had these events been processed by a central
> server, both players would have observed the events in order and it would
> be clear which player would deserve the score. Such situations are why
> multi-user shared environments usually rely on central physics and event
> processing. This is one area where Unity could use additional development.
> There are, however advantages to having some client side physics even when
> many interactions are controlled by a central server, such as some avatar
> animation effects. I believe there's a lot that could be done to make the
> SL/OpenSimulator experience appear more realistic by adding more
> client-side physics in areas where it clearly helps.
>
> I've had a fair bit of experience with interfacing Unity to OpenSimulator
> in the past; I wrote a Unity based web viewer for OpenSimulator a few years
> ago for a company named "Rezzable". Around that time I was also
> experimenting with mixing client-side and server side physics and I learned
> quite a bit about what can go wrong with trying to share client-side
> physics over a network.
>
> Regarding collaboration, Unity's editor is a single-user application.
> Editing your environment and using it are completely different situations.
> In OpenSimulator, they are combined into the same experience and others can
> observe world building in real time and participate in the process.
>
>
>
> To recap: Unity is really designed for games, and OpenSimulator is
> designed for shared, collaborative experiences. If you want to develop
> single user games or limited multi-user games, Unity is probably the best
> choice. For shared experiences, OpenSimulator pretty much works out of the
> box.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 10:07 AM, Dr Ramesh Ramloll <r.ramloll at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I am starting this thread so that I can get some of your thoughts on this
> matter.
>
> Most of the time, from what I read, and from what prospective clients tell
> me, Unity 3D is so great! why don't you develop in unity 3D. Yes it runs on
> tablets is a big plus. This I do understand. It has better physics, yes
> clearly.
>
> What I am not sure about, and I hope you can share your thoughts,
>
> is whether it would be possible to create a collaboration centric, avatar
> centric application in  unity 3D. What I mean, is that whether you can have
> within a unity 3D world, avatars using objects to create new ones
> *collaboratively* , whether you can provide users with the ability to
> change their environments in natural ways, whether objects can be collected
> and shared, whether you have a shared white board, or collaborative
> document editing within a unity 3D world. And if yes, how long will it take
> to make these happen, may be it has already happened, do let me know with
> pointers to examples.
>
>
>
> And btw, why is it that I havent come across any voice chat demos of unity
> 3D applications that  run in a browser. I am thinking if Unity3D is really
> top notch, why have these things not appeared already as applications (may
> be they have, and I haven't seen them, please point to examples, if you
> know of them).
>
>
>
> And most importantly, what does opensim offers that unity 3D does not,
> that you think is important for users out there, from various domains, such
> as education, training etc...
>
>
>
> p.s. the thoughts about HighFidelity and all these new stuff coming up
> .... I still don't know, if all these wheels are going to be reinvented,
> the scene is really too messy to contemplate. It is becoming really hard
> for us developers to pick platforms. We don't have infinite resources, and
> we feel that we don't even get a chance to discuss application level
> stuffs, when the underlying platforms are already shifting so arbitrarily.
>
> Thanks
>
> Ramesh
>
> --
>
> '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
>
> LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/rameshramloll>, DeepSemaphore LLC
> <http://www.deepsemaphore.com>, RezMela <http://www.rezmela.com>, Google+
> profile <https://plus.google.com/103652369558830540272/about>
>
>
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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
LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/rameshramloll>, DeepSemaphore LLC
<http://www.deepsemaphore.com>, RezMela <http://www.rezmela.com>, Google+
profile <https://plus.google.com/103652369558830540272/about>
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