First Technical Look at the Second Life Client

An anonymous reader writes "Second Life is a virtual world, maintained through a combination of client software and hosting servers. It has the unusual quality that nearly all of the content is user-provided. It is also unusual in that Linden Labs recently announced the release of its client software as open source. This is something that is rarely, if ever, done in commercial MMO apps. This article introduces the client (or "viewer" in Linden terminology) and explores the Second Life development environment."

Comments

Re:Why wouldn't they open up the client?

[Rei]

Perhaps some contributors to the client, now that it's open source, can make the rendering engine not look late-90s. I'm not talking poly counts or texture detail, which would be constrained by bandwidth. I'm talking about how flat everything is. I don't know what their lighting and texturing models are, but they need first aid. :P

Re:Payola

[jofny]

Because some of us have more patience than the typical myspace (or, apparently, some slashdot) users. Walk out onto a random downtown street in NYC or another big city and the chances of you having the exact same experience there as you described Second Life's initial moments as being (minus the offline bit) are pretty high. There is plenty of really worthwhile content there, but it's not going to be served up to you as you apparently expect it to be. If you want to be passively entertained, get a video game or drown your brain with tv.

Re: yeah!

[Lord Bitman]

See, on the internet, I can look at one thing at a time through a pinhole, so if I don't want to see something, I can just reposition the pinhole and look at something else. In a 3d environment, I have to walk around without a box on my head. If I'm to be exposed to things in my peripheral vision, why would I even bother to stay online instead of going outside?!

Re:ads

[lilomar]

See, the problem is that it isn't supposed to be a game. It is supposed to be, quite literally, a second life, that is, a place, online, where you can do pretty much anything you can do in real life, plus. I tried SL a while back, expecting a really cool "game" I didn't like it. It wasn't a game. But that doesn't mean that you can't appreciate it for what it is.