slides for Buzz's graduate database class

1. Create Your Own World
^
Richard Hackathorn
richardh@bolder.com
R.D. Hackathorn

2. Outline
• Wandering around Second Life
• Features of a Virtual World
• Various Virtual World Platforms
• OpenSim – Open Source
• Avaya Web.Alive – Browser-Based
• Unity3D – Flexible Gaming IDE
• CryEngine – High End
• Immersive Intelligence
• Fun Things to Do
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 2

3. Wandering around Second Life
• http://secondlife.com/
• First light circa 2004, 20M + currently
• Chakryn Forest
• NOAA Virtual Islands: Real-Time Weather
• Galactic Plane Mural
• Asteroid Strike on Mars
• Info Vis of ‘Death & Taxes’
• SL Showcase
• SL Marketplace
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 3

4. Features of a Virtual World
• Immersive 3D space
• Avatars: edit appearance, clothing…
• Communication: IM, voice, documents
• Social: groups, friends…
• Open viewer architecture, many alt viewers
• Multi-language
• Currency, marketplace, economy
• Land ownership
• Performance, stability, growth
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 4

5. Various Virtual World Platforms
• Gaming MMO
 WOW, etc, etc
• Social MMO
 Second Life – the 800 lb gorilla!
 Others… Active Worlds, Blue Mars, IMVU,
Onverse, Kaneva, Utherverse
 OpenSim and its variations
• Gaming IDE
 Unity3D, CryTek CryEngine
• Collaborative Conferencing
 Teleplace, Web.Alive,
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 5

6. OpenSim – Open Source
• http://opensimulator.org/
• Open-source multi-platform, multi-user
3D application server
• Has a varied community behind it
 Intel Research is parallelizing the architecture
 IBM has contributed code
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 6

7. Avaya Web.Alive – Browser-Based
• http://avayalive.com/
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 7

8. Unity3D – Flexible Gaming IDE
• http://unity3d.com/
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 8

9. CryEngine – High End
• http://www.crytek.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNWj8HmWwQ
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 9

10. Immersive Intelligence
• Create your own Data World
 Visualize the patterns and trends in the data
 Collaborate based on shared experiences
• Holistic
 Explore the details in the context of the whole
 Micro to macro…and macro to micro
 Zooming through levels of detail
 Render the entire database…all terabytes of it!
• Creative information metaphors
 Visual objects shaped by data attributes
 Rendering the natural/familiar to abstract/unusual
• Persistent world, always on
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 10

11. Fun Things to Do
• Play with Second Life
 Free registration!
 Browse/explore with the SL Showcase
 Find a community with similar interests
 Build an interesting thing; buy a similar item
• Play with OpenSim
 Execute the binary on your laptop
• Play with Web.Alive …for 5 minutes only!
• Play with Unity3D
 Download IDE, load/play samples, watch tutorials
R.D. Hackathorn Slide 11