Second Life and Virtual Worlds
At the recent VWBPE 2015 in Ebbe Linden’s (Altberg) speech he mentions voxels. This suggests, at the very least, the Lab is looking at voxels for possible use in NGP (Next Generation Platform – SL’s probable successor). But, what does that mean for us? And what is a voxel?
In the comments of one of my articles in the series Max Graf pointed me to the web site Procedural World. They are big on voxels and use then in ways that may be similar to what we could see in NGP.
This is the tenth and final article in the series. In this one I touch on WHEN. The ideas I gleaned from Ebbe Altberg’s, Linden Lab CEO, speech at VWBRE 2015 that touched on aspects of the coming Next Generation Platform (NGP) and from what history I know of Second Life.
I started this series with these articles:
First, no one knows, not even the Lindens. I am sure they have a timeline and are working to keep to it. But, this is cutting edge software development. The Lindens are the most experienced people in the business. No one else has as much experience with user created content in an MMOG as the Lindens. No one.
The FCC has published the new rules they plan to implement. We have seen this routine before. We have history to tell us what is going to happen. It is not going to be pretty.
History and art mix in this case to predict the likely future if Net Neutrality stands. Even former supporters are lining up to fight it.
The history is the history of railroads and government regulation of them in America under laws VERY similar and in some cases the same laws and goals stated for Net Neutrality. The art is from a book written by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (published 1957). Many discount her book as the ravings of an ultra-conservative pro free market advocate. Few realize she spent years researching what she wrote about the railroads and laws of the day. Many are told she was pro-big-business. She was pro entrepreneur and free market.
When she completed her book that used railroads as a major element in the story she sent the manuscript to a ‘railroad expert’ of the day. She wanted an accuracy check. After reading the manuscript the expert asked her, “Do you realize all the laws and directives you invented are on our statute books already?”
This is the ninth article in a series (3 Pages). In this one I touch on ACCESS. The ideas I gleaned from Ebbe Altberg’s, Linden Lab CEO, speech at VWBRE 2015 that touched on aspects of the coming Next Generation Platform (NGP) and what history I know of Second Life.
There different types of access in virtual worlds. One aspect of access is providing a user interface for those with various handicaps and disabilities. This becomes a broader and more interesting consideration when we factor in VR. At some level we will all be keyboard and mouse handicapped when using VR headsets. This may explain why Ebbe seems to see VR and PC’s as distinct platforms.
This is the eight article in a series. In this one I touch on SCRIPTING. The ideas I gleaned from Ebbe Altberg’s, Linden Lab’s CEO, speech at VWBRE 2015 that touched on aspects of the coming Next Generation Platform (NGP).
I started this series with these articles:
On scripting languages Ebbe says were going to have C#. He didn’t say in this speech but, I am certain the Second Life scripting language, Linden Scripting Language (LSL), will NOT be in NGP. While this will be hard on those that have learned programming starting out with SL’s LSL, for the rest of the world it’s going to be a good thing. I think overall it is a good thing for the future of NGP to have C#.
I started this series with:
This seventh article in the series is about what I gleaned about the types of users the Lindens see using their new product from the speech at VWBRE 2015 that touched on the coming Next Generation Platform (NGP).
From Ebbe Altberg’s, Linden Lab CEO, statements we can see that how content is made for NGP is going to be similar to Second Life’s. It’s not clear to me but this may be a hint that we will also have prims in NGP. Voxels are mentioned. So, the basic ‘prim’ for NGP, if we have prims, is likely to be different from prims we have in Second Life. I mean we may have a cube. But, how the cube works or is technically represented is probably going to be different.