Comments on: Reaction Grid: Building Community, Nurturing Business, and Throwing Tomatoes

By: Eilif Trondsen

Eilif Trondsen — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:41:11 +0000

Pam:
Thanks for your response. I know the RealXtend guys (was on a panel in Finland in January with Antti Ilomaki of Admino Tech, one of the two companies behind RealXtend) and have also had some interactions with Peter who has become very involved with OpenSim. I should make a point of reading Peter’s blog more often, as he does a very nice job with it. I heard recently from Henrik Bennetsen that they have decided to hold MetaverseU at Stanford in late May and they will then most likely give a more indepth review of where Sirikata is at and what we will see coming up later this year and beyond.

Thanks again.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:55:05 +0000

Eilif From what I can tell, the developers of the initial Second Life software - which served as the foundation of the Open Sim software - must not have realized there would be a huge demand for the import/export of 3D models from CAD programs. So unfortunately they did not build in this capability nor did they make it easy for the software to be modified to allow for it. However, the good news is that Realxtend seems to be working on incorporating these capabilities into the Open Sim software. There are several people in Second Life who seem to have the most up to date news on these efforts, and I would point you over to their blogs as great resources: The Arch by Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard in Second Life) No there there by Peter Quirk I think you will find a wealth of information just by following these two blogs. As for Sirikata, I just recently introduced to this platform at the last Thinkbalm event I attended. It definitely looks interesting and seems to have a very realistic interface. My own belief is that the platform to be most widely adopted will most definitely be one that allows for easy and seamless integration of CAD objects. But the other requirement will be that it allows for simple hosting, installation, implementation, adaptation, and maintenance in a manner similar to how Web sites are now handled. Thanks for your post!

By: Eilif Trondsen

Eilif Trondsen — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:50:18 +0000

Thanks for this very helpful description of Reaction Grid. I am slowly gaining a better understanding and appreciation of the nature of the “OpenSim ecosystem” (including the many different public grids as well as private grids build on OpenSim tech–including the fascinating work that Oliver Goh and his colleagues are doing with Shaspa), so your article on Reaction Grid and how it meets your more engineering interests, was great.

I do have some questions that I would love to see you or others from the Reaction Grid comment on:

– To what extent can various complex 3D models from 3ds max and similar programs be imported into Reaction Grid and other OpenSim grids?

– If they cannot (yet) be imported (“as is”), how much work is required?

– How do you see the capabilities and evolving features and functionalities of OpenSim/Reaction Grid compared to something like Stanford’s very interesting and emerging platform of Sirikata?

Thanks.

Eilif

By: Chris Hart

Chris Hart — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:11:42 +0000

Thank you so much for such a wonderful review of ReactionGrid! You really have captured exactly what we are trying to achieve with the grid. We never set out to be an SL replacement, having talked for a long time before we launched the grid about how much more could be done to model and represent real world data, structures, discuss engineering concepts and develop ideas collaboratively in a virtual space.
And we love having social gatherings, since it provides us the chance to meet up with other Gridizens, laugh at silly old films, while also testing out streaming media to multiple avatars, and balancing server load and stability under stress. We can then pinpoint any weaknesses and work on improvements for subsequent events.

Thanks again!
Chris Hart – ReactionGrid Developer & Co-owner