TMCnet News
realXtend makes a major virtual world technology platform launchAfter the first release 0.1, the realXtend reached now the release 0.2 in only two weeks. The realXtend server side components are now developed in tight co-operation with the OpenSim project. A separate open source project is started for the realXtend viewer. All the latest source codes are available via the projects' web pages. The realXtend now includes new essential features, such as the free-form 3D avatar system. realXtend is a conglomeration of both new ideas, and old ones - our goal has been to create a revolutionary product by combining the best of these. People have been waiting for someone to come along and combine features from the most popular virtual worlds for a long time. What is really unique in realXtend is the global avatar system that allows people to take their beloved and finely tailored characters with them when they visit different worlds, instead of creating a new one for each new world they decide to visit. We have combined this, with the possibility to follow links, or teleports, to browse through different worlds that can be hosted by anyone. Combined these features open up a much wider environment to new users - and that is revolutionary. "We have been testing and fixing bugs as much as possible and we have a few new major features. One of the new features is the Avatar system, under realXtend your avatar has been completely redesigned to support transfer between virtual worlds. Earlier avatar systems used by other virtual worlds have been tied to one world or grid only and could not travel with the user, "says realXtend project manager Jani Pirkola. In realXtend avatar can now be designed with a standard 3D modelling package used by professional artists and animators. Designing and animating a high quality human avatar is however a challenging task, so we've provided some sample characters to help get people started. We are also providing tools used to modify these avatars, and hope to see some creative people do extraordinary things with them. Another major feature is the ability to teleport between Second Life and OpenSim -based worlds. The teleport functionality itself is a giant leap towards the 3D Internet vision. The realXtend viewer open source project launched We chose the BSD license for all of our server side components, this is one of the most permissive licenses available, and the most important reason for this was the fact that many companies are afraid of more restrictive licensing - we're keen to see as much adoption as possible. The BSD license allows serious business use with no strings attached. The realXtend viewer is licensed under the GNU GPL 2, because we used Second Life Viewer code as a base for it. The SLViewer source code is already under the GPL so we inherited that license. We do not see this as a roadblock to business users however as business applications are done at the server side, and the client licensing is hence less important. The realXtend viewer and the server are being run as separate projects because we want to encourage standard approaches to servers and clients (viewers). There is a need for a vast variety of clients, such as embedded clients for web pages, mobile phones and other specialized environments. We want to see a tide of different compatible servers and clients, just like the web today. Separating the viewer and server development into individual projects helps support this goal. The companies behind realXtend know that there is a huge business potential in virtual world applications. To implement and deploy such an application, you need to have a technical platform. Nowadays there are many platforms to choose from, but you need to pay license fees or to do some revenue sharing. The whole success of the web started on the fact that the technology was freely available for everyone. "So we decided to create realXtend and give it to the community to help create the first de facto standard for the virtual world applications. We recognise that we cannot do this alone, so we are contributing this to open source projects, such as OpenSimulator or the Second Life viewer", says Jani Pirkola. The future of realXtend is in applications realXtend future vision remains the same; the 3D Internet will happen, and we want it to happen today. For humans it is natural to experience things in 3D and we are currently forced to use 2D desktop approach for everything we do with computers. To realize our vision, we continue to develop new technology and add things that will be really fantastic. My humble wish is that we will get more people and companies committed to the same vision and contributing their time and money to reach the common goals, just as we are doing right now. You can read more about our future plans on the Features section of our website. "Naturally we use realXtend as a project management tool; we do our regular meetings in realXtend as our team is spread across multiple offices. There is also some educational entities and companies that plan to use realXtend already. Expect some more announcements soon as we highlight some of these. The technology itself is stable enough for consumer use. When there are enough worlds up and running, browsing through them becomes attractive. Now it is down to the individual applications to make the use of realXtend meaningful for a consumer", says Pirkola. Additional information: realXtend Project Manager Jani Pirkola [email protected] OpenSim Core Developer Adam Frisby [email protected] realXtend Communications Ville Wittenberg [email protected] http://www.realXtend.org/ http://www.rexviewer.org/ http://www.opensimulator.org/ http://www.adminotech.com/ http://www.ludocraft.com/ realXtend is a partnership of two Finnish companies, ADMINO technologies and LudoCraft. They are both pioneers in virtual world development and interactive experience design. LudoCraft Ltd. is a game studio specializing in the design and development of collaborative multiplayer 3D games and simulations. ADMINO technologies develop unique, scalable virtual world server solutions. The realXtend group has now 20 personnel (programmers, designers and content creators) working full time towards the project. |