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

[Ai Austin]

My own experiments with Unity a while ago can be found via this link 
to Unity related posts in my blog...

<http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/?s=unity3d>http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/?s=unity3d

A reasonable single post summary is at

<http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2011/12/07/i-room-in-unity3d-with-multi-user-chat-voip-and-collaboration-tools/>http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2011/12/07/i-room-in-unity3d-with-multi-user-chat-voip-and-collaboration-tools/

This included a bit of work with multiuser servers including SmartFox 
and Proton (the free to use versions for up to about 50 avatars), 
voice alongside the application, use of a shared whiteboard and 
presentation tool alongside not inside Unity, etc.

I created a simple I-Room virtual collaboration space as a learning 
exercise, and scripted some teleporters, web page and image serving 
screens, etc.

Tipodean did a Collada mesh conversion for me of the OpenVCE 
collaboration region from an OAR and we moved that into Unity for 
tests but with no scripting.  You can try Tipodean's systems and 
their other demos at
See http://converter.tipodean.com/unity3d/index.html

You might also look at the work John (Pathfinder) Lester has been 
doing in Unity3D and the Jibe framework for multi-user interactions, 
but that is commercial and not available as open source.  See 
http://reactiongrid.com/what.aspx

And I believe that the next version of Unity will incudes a 
multi-user server setup. See http://unity3d.com/5

The issue as I see it is that such systems will be isolated islands 
with small or separate user communities. It will take some time to 
build new communities such as we have with Second Life or OpenSim/Hypergrid.