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

[Fleep Tuque]

I think Doug's experience pretty much sums up my own.

I remain interested in and supportive of OpenSimulator because it is open
source, it's the only platform cracking the "metaverse" nut, and it's the
only platform that supports certain use cases (like collaborative
prototyping).  I remain hopeful that it will evolve beyond its current
iteration to eventually be much easier to use.  But after 10 years of
introducing Second Life and OpenSimulator to probably thousands of people,
at this point, it's clear to me that the vast majority of faculty can't or
don't want to use it in its current format.  Even if they have a use case
that might take advantage of the platform's capabilities, the learning
curve and support overhead is still just way, way too darned high.

We switched to Unity three years ago for 99% of our work at UCSIM.  The
types of scripted (or even open-ended within certain parameters) scenarios
and simulations that most faculty want are much more easily achieved in
Unity than OpenSimulator.  The programming and scene creation tools are
much more powerful (one word - PREFABS*), we can deploy it in web browsers,
on tablets, or as standalone programs, and the technical support costs are
much, MUCH lower for my team.

As others have said, Unity does require professional level skills to be
able to create content, but after a certain point, so does OpenSimulator or
Second Life.  In all the years we supported both SL/OS, how many faculty
wanted to learn to create content anyway?  A very very small percentage.
 Most faculty, unless they are in a discipline that already requires some
3D modeling or design skills, have zero desire to learn how to make 3D
stuff.  If they have the desire to use simulations or immersive learning
experiences, they either want someone else to make it for them, or they
want to use a very simple easy-to-use toolset to put their own scenarios
together quickly.  They don't have the time or desire to develop expertise
in yet another domain.

I still think OpenSimulator has plenty of promise, and I don't think it has
to be an either/or choice.  It's always about choosing the right tool for
the job.  If you need open ended sandbox building capabilities,
OpenSimulator is the right tool.  If you need synchronous virtual meeting
space with spatial voice, OpenSimulator is still probably the best tool.
 If you're interested in the emerging metaverse, OpenSimulator is the only
tool.  Unity doesn't do any of those things well.  If you need a single
player scripted simulation experience, however, Unity wins hands down.  If
you need to be able to deploy to web or mobile, Unity can do that and
OpenSimulator can't.

Personally, I'm hoping that both platforms become easier for the amateur
over time, and that some of these new interface devices will improve both
immersiveness/sense of presence, AND make content creation easier.

I guess we'll see, but in the meantime, I think both platforms are useful
tools to have in the toolbox.


* About prefabs - If you don't know the concept, a prefab in Unity is like
a template object that you can deploy many instances of in a scene, and
then if you need to update or modify the object, you just modify the
template and it updates all the deployed instances in the scene.  So for
example, you build a lamp post and put a hundred copies of it in your
scene, then later decide you need to change the model.  Easy presto, change
the template and it changes all 100 lamp posts in your scene.  This is
probably one of my top 10 wants for OpenSimulator.  You don't realize how
much time you waste updating content in-world until you start using Unity
prefabs.


- Chris/Fleep


Chris M. Collins (Avatar: Fleep Tuque)
Center for Simulations & Virtual Environments Research (UCSIM)
Division of Innovation & Partnerships, Research & Development
UC Office of Information Technologies (UCIT)
University of Cincinnati
400 University Hall
PO Box 210658
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0658
chris.collins at uc.edu
(513) 556-3018

http://ucsim.uc.edu



On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 7:33 AM, DrDoug Pennell <drdoug.pennell at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Kay,
>
> I think what Tom meant (and definitely what I meant) is that adapting and
> changing objects on the fly in real time by more than one person is not
> needed. What I referred to as collaborative content creation - two or more
> people/students creating things that did not exist previously in world.
> Updating resources such as a textbook in Unity and rebuilding the
> environment is a quick and painless process. I rebuild my simulations on a
> regular basis to change a character or access a different AI data set. I
> just create a new URL for the new sim.
>
> I completely agree that students don't have time to fuss with virtual
> world simulations that are not relevant to their courses. Nor do they have
> time to spend on orientation activities needed just to learn the interface.
> Anything that makes the experience easier and more relevant is desirable.
>
> It seems like your environment is working well for you and your students
> so there is no need to switch. That is probably true for most folks on this
> list.
>
> Doug
>
> On Jul 20, 2014, at 10:24 AM, Kay McLennan <mclennan.kay at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 11:45 AM, Tom <tom.willans at bessacarr.com> wrote:
>
>
>> ...For many educational uses adapting and changing objects is not
>> needed...
>>
>
> While it is true that some types of educational simulations are well
> suited for static simulations (like a virtual tour of the inner workings of
> a human body part or a historic recreation of a city), static (Unity
> platform-like) builds are completely ill-suited for the types of online
> economics and business studies college courses I teach.
>
> Even the online courses that utilize extensive instructor- or
> institution-created materials always simultaneously utilize a textbook (to
> insure the transmission of the relevant portion of the course-specific
> common body of knowledge).  In turn, the textbooks I utilize in all of my
> courses change each year.  Sometimes the textbook changes simply involve a
> [maddening] re-sort of the chapters (to enable the publisher to change the
> edition and sell more new copies of the text).  Still (and more
> importantly), it is often the case that the material in the textbook
> changes (and these changes need to be reflected in the course materials and
> activities).  For example, social media marketing is now one of the most
> important components in the field of marketing but was barely mentioned in
> textbooks even as recently as a few years ago.  Similarly, the cases in
> business ethics textbooks continue to change at an almost exponential rate
> owing to the abundance of new real work examples of unethical behavior
> (think GMC, BP, the financial meltdown, GMOs, fracking, and more!).
>
> Further, college students (including traditional and non traditional aged
> students) are pressed for time and require course-specific learning
> simulations only.  That is, students do not have the time to explore
> virtual world simulations that are only tangentially related to the course
> learning objectives.  Rather, the virtual world learning simulations have
> to be graded activities that are worth their time (in the sense of being
> detailed and expansive enough to contribute specifically to their
> understanding of the course material).  Again, in the same way high quality
> college textbooks and online course sites require continual updates and
> upgrades, high quality virtual world simulations need to be updated and
> upgraded -- to contribute specifically to students' understanding of the
> course material.
>
> Also (and this is a BIG item), I am constantly thinking up (and testing)
> new types of virtual world learning simulations.  In other words, my view
> is that it would be too limiting to be only be able to create a simulation
> once.  In contrast, right now, I currently have about 40 or more different
> types of virtual world learning simulations "in play" [read:  that I
> collect student feedback data on (based on student -- Likert scale-based --
> views on the interactivity, engagement, and contribution to learning
> outcomes for each simulation -- see some of the early data collected at:
> https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/student-survey-data-2)].
>  Note:  Over the years, students have provided excellent and surprising
> feedback.  For example, in the basic economics course I teach, I thought
> students would be keenly interested in the Free Trade Game I built (with
> each student the president/king/queen/dictator of their own island nation).
>  However, the in-world PP slides (from my lecture notes that are also
> uploaded into my course site) and the in-world vocabulary flash cards were
> rated markedly higher than the Free Trade Game in every category.
>
> Note:  My college-level students almost universally [first] say they need
> asynchronous virtual world learning activities ONLY (in keeping with how
> all of my online courses are asynchronous).  However, after the students
> get some experience with the virtual world learning activities, they almost
> universally request real time meet-ups in-world!  That is, one of the main
> attractions of virtual worlds continues to be the ability to interact with
> others in-world.
>
> Finally, while I keep trying all of the different available virtual
> platforms, to date (and for the reasons detailed above), I believe the
> OpenSim platform is the best fit for my online college-level virtual world
> learning simulations.  [Still, I will confess to being particularly taken
> with the genius and intuitive "ease of use" of the smartphone control panel
> or interface feature in the Cloud Party virtual world viewer.  That is,
> while the Firestorm or Singularity or other OpenSim viewers work perfectly
> for me (and I do NOT think a virtual world viewer has to be
> browser-based!), I wonder if a second type of OpenSim viewer (that is
> geared for a beginning user only) might be needed (?)...]
>
> Best,
> Kay
>
> *Kay L. McLennan, Ph.D.*
> *Professor of Practice*
> *School of Continuing Studies*
> *Tulane University*
> *kmclenna at tulane.edu <kmclenna at tulane.edu>*
> *e-Teaching in Virtual Worlds @
> https://sites.google.com/site/fvc13mclennan/
> <https://sites.google.com/site/fvc13mclennan/> and
> https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/
> <https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/>*
> *e-Course Teaching Schedule & Syllabi @ http://www.tulane.edu/~kmclenna/
> <http://www.tulane.edu/~kmclenna/>*
>
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