Second Life Faces Open Source Challenges 198
ruphus13 writes "Linden Labs has talked about Open Sourcing aspects of their platform for a while, but have not always followed through. Now, the OpenSimulator project has been gathering some solid momentum, and this was followed by an announcement by IBM that showed interoperability between OpenSimulator and Linden Servers. What this means is that you can use a Second Life client to log on to an OpenSim server. Beyond that, anyone can run their own server. 'Working with the protocols derived from the official Second Life client, and a knowledge of how Second Life works, these people have implemented their own compatible server code.' It is only a matter of time before users will be able to move profiles, virtual goods, and other elements of their 'second life' on to any server in a truly open world, thereby threatening Linden Labs' virtual world experience. With Google and Sun at the fringes of this space, things are going to get very interesting, virtually speaking."
What's really going on... (Score:5, Interesting)
The reality is far from what the submitter is claiming. Open sim has always used the SL client for access, and there are no plans for anytime in the future to allow people to transfer content on/off the SL grid to an Open Sim system.
The IBM test involved a single OpenSim setup where bridge software IBM is working (with Sun) allowed a person to exit SL, and simultaneously login to a OpenSim system. NOTHING was transfered, the avatar shows up in OpenSim in Ruth form.
Linden Labs has clarified that this was a proof of concept test, and that they would like to expand it in the future, but those goals are a good bit off.
What IBM and Sun are working on is a handshake/system protocol for a transient user ID which online systems will recognize and auto negotiate log-in, and if you don't have an account, make you a default account on the new system. eg, you cross over from SL to WOW and if you don't have a WOW account, you start out in a default configuration based on some personality preferences you have preset.
Calm down people, nothing to see here, move along.
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:1, Interesting)
I knew someone who took an online class. The instructor sent out an email a few weeks before the start of "classes" giving detailed instructions for how to download and log into second life. Their "classroom" was in second life. The instructions went on to say that the virtual avatars had to be dressed properly in appropriate avatars, show up in the classroom on time, and not engage in private conversations. All lectures would be given via chatting through the game. I only found out because said friend had never heard of second life. I explained to him what it was all about.
Needless to say that individual quickly dropped from that class.
So to answer your question, under-qualified holders of worthless masters degrees use second life to (unsuccessfully) create a semblance of academic credibility in a futile attempt to mitigate their self-loathing by substituting a virtual classroom for the real one no accredited university would ever let these pretentious assholes have.
Honestly, how desperate for a power trip are such people as to force mid-to-late 20 year olds into a mockery of a traditional rule-centric "classroom" in a game primarily used for sexual gratification between human/animal hybrids.
Re:Other servers won't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This may all end in tears... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:3, Interesting)
There are about thirty English language university campuses in Second Life. Most of them seem to be used as advertisements to get you to attend, with information about the buildings that they reproduced. There was one by the geology department of an Indiana university, I think. I didn't notice the ones I visited using them for class learning, though a few did have virtual classrooms that looked abandoned.
I noticed that Cisco helped make a virtual model of the planned Palomar Hospital, so that local residents could log into Second Life, go there, and offer criticism. NASA and NOAA, a U.S. government agency that studies the oceans and atmosphere, have virtual land in an area called the "SciLands," near the University of Denver Biology Department. An International Spaceflight Museum built by Second Life residents has scale models of rockets and missile technology like the Proton rockets. There's an attempt to simulate Google Earth in 3D going on, and a Mars terrain-based region there, too.
Second Life may have a lot of furries, flying penises, and the less renowned screaming goatse-textured cube mountains, but they tend to concentrate in the Welcome Areas, in clubs, and in areas where security functions aren't enabled. The people I meet in Second Life also use less Internet chat speak than the ones I see on IRC. I think that's because when you're in even a virtual simulation of face-to-face talk, using slang and emoticons feels awkward.
Potentially, Second Life could be good for learning other languages. Did you know that the English speaking countries make up less than half of Second Life's active user base? Reuters [reuters.com] says 31% are American, 13% are French, 11% are German, 8% are British, 7% are Dutch.
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, I do.
Every time I see something posted to Slashdot regarding Secondlife, its always the same.. "I can't believe anyone uses this..." or "I logged on for 10 mins and it was so laggy/lame/crap".
I use SL to chat to people, sure I could use an IM client, but quite frankly, I like being able to walk around things that people have created. Yes, theres a lot of crap out there, but theres also some great user content. I also make my own stuff, it gives me a little room to flex my creative muscle and share it too. Sure it can be laggy and crash, but let's not forget our favourite OS (linux of course) hasn't always been a dream to use, and I've been using it for 13 years.
There are obnoxious people in SL, and yes, obnoxious people use linux too! Shock! Horror! They exist outside of myspace and secondlife.
I guess my point here is, I don't mind that you don't like it, but there are people here that do, and dare I say it, enjoy logging in and exploring the SL universe. If you logged in for 10 minutes and then logged off you may just have missed out on actually enjoying playing a so called game without needing to frag something.
Of course, this is Slashdot, where people voice their opinions.
This was mine.
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:2, Interesting)
Live music venue! As a musician, I find it quite an effective outlet because I can create an environment and perform in it.
Others give feedback, they enjoy it greatly as well.
Re:My biggest problem with Second Life... (Score:4, Interesting)
"Nope. more often than not it's multiple sims running on an underpowered server. Most people buy the cheap-o option which is like a quad-core opteron with 24 other sims running on it.
Umm, you have no idea what you're talking about. There is no "cheap-o option" if you want to connect to the SL grid - currently all server space on the main grid is leased directly from Linden Lab and each simulator has a processor core dedicated to it and runs on an individual server instance. Running Debian IIRC.
Parent is absolutely right - a big reason SL has such inconsistent performance from sim to sim is that many of the builds are NOT done by professionals with performance in mind, and use needlessly costly scripts and high numbers of visible prims. Even more so, people will use insanely large numbers of insanely hi-rez textures, which not only adds download time but also works video cards much harder than a proper game does just in terms of shuffling gigabytes of texture data back and forth.
Re:Worst programming environment EVAR! (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, we have Second Life, which COULD be a totally awesome tool for learning OO... except the scripting language is like a crippled version of Basic.
You might want to look into Croquet [opencroquet.org] then. It's based on Squeak, "worlds" can be distributed easily among various hosts, and it's open source. It's mostly designed as a collaborative / teaching tool. I'm always surprised that it never seemed to really take off.
Possibly not visually as slick (although...) as 2nd life but has *much* more potential.
Re:I can see it now... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Other servers won't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, as someone who actually runs a content development business, I can easily explain the returns to you.
Second Life is great for Direct Marketing - users show very high levels of engagement. These days, brand managers are increasingly realizing that the $50,000 30-second spot is dead.
Advertising is a lot like teaching - you have a message to convey, and you want people to get it right, and to take their time. Buying a slot of time on TV supposedly gets to a lot of people, but less and less people actually watch TV. The average TV watcher is 50. The average SL user is 30. Internet is picking up where TV left off, so Internet marketing becomes more and more important.
Apart from that, TV time is too expensive. Television networks are expensive because they pay a lot for content. Second Life relies mostly on User Generated Content, so it's cheaper. You get rid of a middleman, sort of. You still have a (much cheaper) infrastructural middleman - Linden Lab - and of course you have a content / promotional team. But you can talk to people directly, and it's a far more personal and interesting experience than raw text IMs or emails.
If you try to directly engage a consumer out on the street, they're going somewhere or just distracted, thinking about their own lives, you generally do not want to talk to salespeople on the street. In Second Life, people are there because they're bored, they have some free time and want to meet other people, or share fun experiences with others.
A corporate-sponsored event can be a lot more entertaining than an amateur event. A single person will usually not build a whole sim and design/code up a companion website where people can have a fashion contest and submit their entries. We successfully reached about 75% of the target audience with one such event, and registered a total interaction time of 6 hours per person per week. That's like getting people to voluntarily watch 720 TV commercials a week! A banner ad usually only has a clickthrough rate of 0.1% at most.
You couldn't do this on the web - there's no associated identity, so no fashion contest. You couldn't do this IRL - too much trouble to actually dress up and go somewhere, plus people are way too shy for that. Hence, Second Life!
We also had a little Viral Marketing experiment, which was also wildly successful. On the web, you don't really have an integrated micropayments system. In Second Life, with the L$, you can have automated systems that instantly reward people for spreading leaflets. We ran out of money really fast, and will try to do something like that but with 10x more money soon :)
We additionally use Second Life for meetings, recruitment and training. It's fairly easy to see how a lot of flights cost more than $1000, and you don't even need a whole sim. With the current oil madness, telepresence becomes more important and cost-effective. Academic research has demonstrated much higher levels of attention and message retention for students/trainees that took their classes in Second Life over the control group. It's a lot cheaper to organize a virtual recruitment party than to rent a hotel conference room and hire a catering service. Etc. :P
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:3, Interesting)
What happened to Slashdot that this was modded insightful and not funny?
Seriously?
Why is everybody ripping on sl? Does nobody appreciate the "geek" factor of what it is? I keep up on news for it because the idea of it is awesome. A metaverse? A 3d browser? A place where someone can define a virtual world for me to walk around in? A place where I can go see a vision of people's ideal places to live? I can look at how people would portray themselves given no constraints (other then what content providers have made).
Sure, there are limitations, sure there is a metric ton of BAD content, but SL Works(TM). I can get in it for free, and do most everything except keep my shit on the ground 24-7.
I don't know why everybody is so hung up on what some of the user bases is doing there and not the potential that SL is. I mean seriously, is there ANYTHING like sl even in development? Croquet? I guess?
There is nothing in existence quite like it, and I find that reason enough to check beck every few months and see what they are doing.
And now open source simulator? Awesome, i was expecting Open SL Client or something, not a server!
As soon as they smooth out the server a bit with more dev time, I'm going to install and run one on my other computer. Then I'll spend time making random ass artificial life creatures that run around and do random shit.
You know, like that island Svarga in secondlife that has its own eco system programmed in by one guy where there are pollinating bees, clouds, plantlife growing in specific area, all in a closed system..
Or the fish, the one who created schools of fish that evolve certain genetic dispositions as they breed over time, flocking together and running from predators that also sustain themselves on the schools of fish.
While i'm at it, have you seen the giant cube that is a building with 4 dimmensions? Your buddy sits in one room, you walk left 4 times and come in the right side of the cube. You walk up or down, you eventually walk into the room upside down on some stairs.
There is shit like this all over secondlife. So why? What is the purpose of all this? Because its fucking geeky and fun. I can't belive NOBODY on this "NEWS FOR NERDS" is going to sit there like a bunch of football jocks and make fun of secondlife.
Seriously, why don't you stop posting on slashdot and do something cool like posting on your tech blog about how you were shocked and disgusted to find out that people like something different then you. (Ha you thought i'd say "go watch a football game, fooled you).
Re:Does anyone actually use Second Life? (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I like SL because people can build beautiful artwork -- reproductions of 1850's-era Japanese teahouses, for instance -- that I can wander through without having to, y'know, fly to Japan.
It's also nice that since I've assiduously ignored all the morons and loudmouths and hung out patiently, I've met and become friends with a mechanical engineer who teaches computational flow dynamics and who answers lots of questions; a DJ who has great taste in music and has introduced me to a dozen bands I would never have heard of; the bass player for a punk rock band that I've now gotten to see play live; and someone who is building his own plane (which I plan to do) and can show me, with SL models, what he's having problems with construction-wise with his RL plane. Again, without having to fly to California or Iowa or Georgia or Florida.
It is vaguely possible I could have met all those people in various places online, if I had the patience and tenacity to go looking. On SL I didn't have to: I just kept hanging out and they met me.
And, by the way, I've never paid a dime to use SL. Why would I? That's stupid. It's free if you don't want to 'own' a piece of 'land', whatever THAT means.