[X3D-Public] Virtuality Uber Alles

[Chris Thorne]

On 11 December 2010 09:33, Russ Kinter <pyth7 at verizon.net> wrote:

>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: x3d-public-bounces at web3d.org [mailto:x3d-public-bounces at web3d.org]
> > On Behalf Of GLG
> > Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 7:38 PM
> > To: 'X3D Graphics public mailing list'
> > Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] Virtuality Uber Alles
> >
> > >When compared with the features of Second-Life/Open-Sim or
> > >Wonderland any would-be VRML/X3D MU server system faces
> > >staggering odds.
> >
> > Hello Russ,
> >
> > That maybe so. It certainly 'looks' that way from a
> > short-term perspective. As you know, MU servers are not easy
> > to build. But don't forget, much investment capital found
> > its way to VW's. I call that the 'Virtual Worlds Bubble'.
> > Let's wait until that runs out and dry. See who is still
> > standing.
> >
> > Do you remember when proprietary systems such as AOL,
> > Compuserve, countless BBS's and online business information
> > databases more or less ruled the world? Most if not all of
> > them eventually fell flat and had to give way to open
> > standards, with very few exceptions. I'd say that most
> > popular virtual worlds today actually ARE the "would-be's" -
> > simply taking advantage of fast deployment and speed to
> > market - and I fully expect them to eventually fade away,
> > being replaced by open standards based worlds (such as with
> > X3D). I'm definitely not loosing any sleep over this. Unless
> > complete novice (which is the case for many users in today's
> > virtual worlds), and especially as the market matures,
> > people and businesses will want to 'own' their worlds just
> > like they do their Web sites today, not relegating that kind
> > of power over to any particular company. Companies have
> > tried repeatedly to promote various systems and/or
> > languages, but in the end, open standards win. A few, such
> > as Sun Microsystems, realized the dilemma and were able to
> > turn loose their IP (i.e. Java), but I doubt today's
> > proprietary virtual worlds are in that position, even though
> > some are trying to do just that. Again, no lost sleep. It
> > isn't really their game, historically and ultimately THEY
> > are the copycats, and it is hard for copycats to succeed in
> > the long run. To each its own; X3D will never die.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Lauren
> >
> Then this format is really sunk MU wise since both Open-Sim and Wonderland
> ARE open-source. It's sunk Mafia-style with concrete boots too because with
> Open-Sim and Wonderland everything is open-source, while in the case of
> X3D/VRML MU systems Contact, Octaga Player, and Instant Player are
> proprietary. The one attempt at trying to open the MU market for X3D has
> been ham-strung by allowing the protocol for the NetworkSensor Node to be
> proprietary.
>
yeah pretty much agree with Russ.
There is really no apples for apples comparison here because, in addition to
the slow/hamstrung progress with network protocol standard support there has
been nothing in the standard development for the server side and no
consortium lead open server sdk. For the technologies to be comparable (with
SL etc) these two things would have to be just as mature as the rest.

That said, having a sever standard and sdk would not be that critical if the
protocol part was done well because many things like deep matrix etc could
fill that void. It does make me cringe, though, to recall that Pesce,
Kennard and Parisi had the foresight in 1994 to attempt to get a cyberspace
protocol accepted by the w3c and the budding virtuality industry.


chris

>
> tc
> Russ
>
>
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