We have all heard about people putting text only viewers for SL and OpenSim in web browsers. The idea of using a browser to visit virtual worlds is to avoid having to download and install a viewer, thus making it much easier to get people into virtual worlds.
Well, it seems there is a full viewer being built on HTML5. It is being tested with OpenSim now.
Maria Korolov has an article up about it on Hypergrid Business: PixieViewer puts OpenSim in Browser. Now that is something.
Maria says, “Because it uses standard HTML 5 technology, it should be accessible on mobile devices such as Android tablets and iPads, though users were having problems getting it to work today.”
So, that could give us a 3D viewer for SL on mobile devices.
Maria says a special module is needed for Pixie Viewer to work. She says this module is server side. Whatever, she speculates it will not be compatible with Second Life unless Linden Lab adapts the module to SL. I would think that would be something the Lab would do. But, that probably depends on how much work it would require.
An interesting aspect of the technology is that a 3D scene in a browser can be sent to a 3D Printer to generate a RL model. Now isn’t that fun?
You what? 3D print what ever is in the browser view? That’s something to be concerned about.
People have no idea what 3D printing means in regard to possible problems…
Low end 3D printers sell for US$700.
A “viewer in a browser” will never provide advanced (or simply, seasoned) users with enough features and flexibility.
It might however help newbies retention and, of course, allow mobile device to access Second Life and OpenSim grids in a decent way.
It’s a good thing, as long as it won’t incite grid owners to abandon development and/or support for standalone viewers, and as long as the sim server bandwidth and computing power consumed by the “browser-viewers” is not overwhelming (I’d bet it currently is) and impacting users of other viewers by badly increasing lag (one of the advantage of “heavy” clients like standard viewers when compared to “lightweight clients” like OpenGL in a browser, is that the “heavy client” uses the user’s computer power to alleviate the load on the service provider and network).
Good points. But, everyone seems to think mobile is the way to go and they are racing down that path.