Teleportation between OpenSim and Second Life has been accomplished. Last night, Ruth arrived on the OpenSim grid…FROM Second Life.
According to Zha’s Virtual Musings:
This wasn’t a normal login. All three Avatars had been logged on via the Agent Domain in the Linden Lab Aditi test grid. The Agent Domain took a “place_avatar” request from the client, and issued a “rez_avatar” request to the OpenSim, which handed the Agent Domain the necessary details so it could relay it to the client, and permit a login. We’re all Ruth, because we’re not yet syncing the agents with openSim inventory yet. That’s just a small matter of programming… (Well, that’s what we programmers always say.) We have no inventory, and we’re stuck on the single region. But.. It’s a very nice first step.
Image from Zha
Nice to see that Ruth has not entirely left us. Ability to teleport between the two grids does not currently mean that your hair will come with you.
So, with a certain inevitability, everything’s soon to be fair game?
Some day soon just take any inventory item from SL’s main grid into OpenSim, which has no permissions system, and make it your own – then take it back into SL for fun and profit?
If/when that becomes possible doesn’t it open up yet another can of IP worms? If Linden’s T&C’s honour the creators IP but also allow Linden to make use of any inworld item, then don’t Linden seem to claim some kind of ownership of every Inventory item? Wouldn’t moving inventory from Linden’s grid to another automatically be classed as content theft or piracy? Would Linden take action or ignore it?
Interesting, but it sounds like quite an unfair game to me…
Well…yeah….that’s the worry right? It’s like those pipelines I’ve pointed out before where you can “port” your builds in SL onto other platforms. Supposedly, you can only do this with items you own, but really, a good work-up of 3D Print Screen or OGLE will have you covered eventually.
However, I’m not entirely sure that’s what Zha means in the post:
“We’re all Ruth, because we’re not yet syncing the agents with openSim inventory yet. That’s just a small matter of programming… (Well, that’s what we programmers always say.) We have no inventory, and we’re stuck on the single region. But.. It’s a very nice first step.”
It might be more along the IBM model – what is made behind the firewall, stays behind the firewall. (Hmm…sounds like a slogan for Las Vegas, who knows WHAT is going on over on those IBM sims anyways – they’re all MAD CRAZY I tell you!)
But, the idea of at least being able to move your avatar effortlessly around even if they leave their inventory behind but “resynch” to the inventory on the other grid is promising. Universally portable avatars with locked off inventory – I guess that’s the dream, but sure, Eris, also think it’s a few code lines away from “and bring your inventory too”.
I have some doubts about the idea of a universal grid which we (as avatars) traverse effortlessly – and it’s not just the technical challenge it presents.
It’s touted as a logical next step, and technically maybe it is, but my question would be what’s in it for the companies that would be footing the (considerable) bills? Why would they buy their own branded virtual world if all its content can walk out the virtual doors and onto someone else’s grid? On the other hand what’s the point of another ‘user-created’ grid when SL already does that and all the content is portable and headed your way for free anyway?
To be a significant player you’d have to offer something different or better but portable content means you can do neither because whatever exists on one grid can move onto another. I guess you could compete by offering better build tools but then you’re competing against the plethora of existing 3D app’s – assuming importing external content gets easier. That leaves one last option – compete by being cheaper. Cheaper than Open Source? Good luck with that…
A universal grid is a nice developer’s dream, but, at the moment, I can’t see who’s going to pay for it – or why anyone would?
Yeah….I’m with you. The next breakthrough isn’t a world that’s an incremental improvement, or open source, it’s something a lot deeper than that.
This could help explain why the Lindens got into the land development business with Bay City…they have to present a compelling reason for the continued viability of the Second Life main grid…especially as OpenSim grids are so darned cheap.
Eris,
if you are concerned about grids, permission systems and IP issues, you simply should attend AWG meetings and discussions and read previous transcripts. I’d say that the issues you’re talking about are being addressed.
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group
Yup Dusan, and whatever the next seismic shift is, it’s almost certainly going to be something we haven’t thought of yet – which is the fun of it!
Yup Morris, I think you’re probably right – plus there are rumours that Linden want to start zoning SL. Sounds like a good idea as long as they don’t try to retrofit zoning onto existing mainland – there should always be unrestricted areas too, that’s another part of the fun.
Personally, I’d love to see a mainland continent made up from high spec’ sims. Instead of having 4 sims per CPU like OpenSpaces, couldn’t we flip that and have 1 sim per 4 CPU’s, would that work? So we could have regions capable of hosting say 100+ avatars without collapse. Then make that continent a zone for clubs, music venues, galleries or shopping – a sort-of Manhattan for Second Life! Imagine how much they would get for those parcels!
Thnx for the link Opensource, it’s certainly a fascinating area. Personally, I think I’ve become reconciled to the fact that future virtual worlds won’t have decent IP protection, I’ve heard too many dev’s saying it’s too difficult (uhu…) and that there are laws to deal with that kind of thing. Of course laws tend to work best in areas where there’s enough money to pay lawyers, so that pretty much rules out your average micro-economy.
The thing which does keep occurring to me is…imagine if Microsoft or Apple owned the working(ish) fundamentals of a new virtual world platform – you think their first reaction would be to open source it?
I’m not suggesting that corporate greed is the answer for virtual worlds but Linden sometimes seem to be headed down an equally myopic but opposite route with some kind of happy-clappy Googlicious Californian Tao ideology blinding them to the possibilities, both commercial and philanthropic, they actually have.
[...] leemos en dusan writer’s metaverse ya es posible realizar teleports entre Open Sim y Second [...]