The promise of 3D virtual sculpting has taken a step forward with the work of computer scientists at the Stanford Virtual Worlds Group. While aimed at platforms other than Second Life, the objective is to take the pain out of creating complex objects.

Headed by Vladlen Kolten, the group is beginning to make 3D trees in order to prove that object construction can be sophisticated without being difficult. But why trees, you might ask?

Botanists have catalogued trees in great detail over the centuries, categorizing things such as trunk width, leaf type, and limb spacing. Armed with this information, the Stanford group has created a mathematical engine that allows users to scroll with a mouse over certain attributes and creating trees. The long-term objective, says Kolten, is to improve the way virtual worlds operate and to allow the everyday computer user to create 3D objects using simple software.

The virtual world should serve as “a social network that allows you to share space and participate in experiences together,” he said. “You can form ad hoc groups that don’t require any sort of registration. You can just walk up to a person, walk up to a group of people, and start a conversation.”

Having recently made my own set of plants for a build – palm trees, jungles trees, and so on…I know the pain and agony of making the stuff, and have a renewed admiration for Heart VR, Straylight, and all the other in-world gardeners. Which also speaks to the point that no computer could ever generate a Straylight tree, and we’re likely to continue to see a split between mass and computer-automated production of virtual worlds and objects, and the craft/artist society that deepens our engagement with virtual worlds in ways that algorithmic-generated branches never could (yet).