JimT wrote:
> Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
>> ... modelers will be like this:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8&fmt=18
>>
>> --
>>                                                           - Warp
> 
> Not that I'm an expert, but modelling in Second Life, though still very painful,
> does have the sense of being in there.
> 
Yeah. Other than the fact that its no where "near" the detail level, and 
you have no mesh generation/lathe functions, procedural texturing, or 
"simple" means to add multiple colors, there is a lot of similarity in 
what this showed and what SL uses. And, frankly, there isn't anything 
"preventing" the addition of missing things like lathe, procedurals, 
etc., other than the unwillingness to add them, and issues of 
"ownership" of the result (how do you own what is just numbers fed into 
a texture maker?). And, there are huds, I have one, that use inworld 
data to rotate, align, etc. objects too. You just select the two you 
want to have touch, and, within the limits of what SL can allow for it, 
tell the tool, "Align these to the edges.", and "poof", it happens.

The only thing novel here is using 3D tools/huds, linked to the 
character, and your own hands, to do what is currently done using a 2D 
interface, and a mouse. And, it doesn't require a "lot" of gestures. 
Most of the stuff the guy was doing was "bring up object pallet, select 
prim type, create prim by "grabbing" the corners of the one you want to 
add, then stretching to size.", or, "bring up color pallet, then pick 
'smart color', then tap what ever you are coloring. (which presumes a 
system smart enough to 'guess' that you are coloring a door, and that 
the general human preference is to 'paint' the frame darker than the 
door)", or, "Pick lathe tool, make basic shape, drag polyline to form a 
complete shape.", etc.

Its all "doable" with existing systems, save that the graphics just 
isn't *there* yet. Well, that and the processor power and bandwidth 
would be hell... But, if you presume a dedicated server, just to run one 
virtual "sim", which used something like the OnLive render/video stream, 
tech, it looks more plausible. The biggest limitation, as which I also 
have with OnLive's idea, is, "How many people could you really have in 
there at one time, without needing a super computer to do the 
rendering?" Presuming you could render say 50+ views, in real time, with 
"decent" image quality, the toolset is the *trivial* part of the whole 
thing.

-- 
void main () {

     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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