Hi, Firstly, thank you for all the responses, it gives me a good starting point.
On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 7:16 AM, Dr Scofield <[email protected]>wrote: > > as we are looking at similar OpenSim applications, i'd be interested in > learning > more about this study. any links that we could follow up? Hi Dr S, I'm afraid I don't really have anything much more related to OpenSim than is posted on this thread. I have found some interesting work on other projects though. Some interesting proprietary examples for inspiration are an Israeli company called GeoSim <http://www.geosim.co.il> and the new virtual Berlin in Twinity <http://twinity.com>. Google Earth Enterprise<http://earth.google.com/enterprise/earth_enterprise.html>& Earth API <http://code.google.com/apis/earth/> provide practical solutions to some GIS tasks, though not really a virtual world in the sense of OpenSim. There's some very interesting standardisation work going on at the Web3D Consortium <http://web3d.org> under the X3D-Earth<http://www.web3d.org/x3d-earth/>working group, though they haven't publically published anything since 2007, their work is ongoing and they are collaborating with the Open Geospatial Consoritum <http://www.opengeospatial.org>. As for OpenSim, I'm still exploring (though I'm running out of time). The Orcas island example that Nebadon posted a link to is quite neat (or at least the improved version<http://blog.simgis.com/2008/09/11/usgs-terrain-in-opensim-a-gis-approach/>linked to from the blog post) and the Berkeley simulation from lidar images also provides a good example. If anyone has time for a quick response, I do have some more general questions about OpenSim. *GIS Import* As far as I can tell the examples given so far are all essentially creating terrains from raster data. What I'm more interested in is creating accurate models based on vector map data, particularly in the UK from Ordnance Survey MasterMap data. I've not yet seen any examples of this kind of thing. *Asset Import* A basic question, how does OpenSim natively represent geometry? What data format or data structure does it use? Presumably people have experience importing assets from a variety of formats? COLLADA? 3DS? X3D? *Asset Library & Manipulation* Does OpenSim have the same kind of experience as Second Life for being able to pick 3d assets from an asset library and manipulate them in real time in the scene? Can multiple avatars manipulate the same object? *Map Size Constraints* How does this work? Is it one 256x256m region per machine, with them linked together? *In-world Communication* Presumably OpenSim has the same kind of IM as Second Life? I've been reading on the mailing list about VoIP support today, it seems it's coming? *Running Costs* Does anyone have any figures for how much it costs to host OpenSim regions in terms of hardware etc.? I remember the story about a Second Life sim alledgedly using more power than a typical Brazilian! What are the typical hardware system requirements? *Skillset* What kind of skillset would be required for a developer embarking on a project using OpenSim? C#? What else? Thanks for your input everyone! Regards Ben -- Ben Francis http://tola.me.uk
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