IBM og selskapet bak Second Life, Linden Lab, har lykkes med teleportering av brukere (såkalte avatarer) mellom ulike virtuelle verdener.
Dagens gjennombrudd er et kvantesprang innen utviklingen av 3D verdener. En åpen standard for interoperabilitet gjør det mulig å knytte ulike virtuelle verdener sammen. Brukere kan med dette bevege seg sømløst mellom 3D plattformer, på samme måte som nettsider i dag er hyperlinket mot hverandre.
IBM og Linden Lab samarbeider tett for å utvikle tredje generasjons internett i mange ulike prosjekt. Ved å teleportere en avatar mellom en Second Life Beta Test Grid og en OpenSim virtuell server har selskapene lykkes fjerne en av de største ankepunktene mot virtuelle verdener.
Test Griden brukes av Linden Lab og deres brukere for å teste ny funksjonalitet og øke ytelsen i Second Life. IBM og Linden Lab vil fremover samarbeide tett i utviklingen av åpne protokoller og plattformer som øker nytten for virksomheter i virtuelle verdener.
Det er ennå offentliggjort når selskapene vil rulle ut denne nye muligheten for alle brukere av Second Life.
Les mer i vedlagte pressemelding.
Linden Lab and IBM Achieve Major Virtual World Interoperability Milestone
Open Grid Protocol Enables Avatars to Teleport Between Second Life and OpenSim Virtual Worlds
New York, NY & San Francisco, CA, July 9, 2008 – Linden Lab®, creator of the virtual world Second Life® and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have successfully demonstrated virtual world interoperability by teleporting avatars between the Second Life Beta Test Grid and an OpenSim virtual world server. This represents the industry’s first quantifiable milestone for virtual interconnectivity and follows a series of joint announcements Linden Lab and IBM have made regarding their intent to jointly develop projects that advance the 3D Internet.
The Second Life Beta Test Grid is a test environment used by Linden Lab and Second Life Residents to test new features and improve overall performance. The interoperability protocol was tested and deployed on the Beta Grid and the companies have not announced plans or a schedule for when it might be made available to the public or tested on the main Linden Second Life Grid.
IBM and Linden Lab are committed to exploring ways to expand the capabilities of virtual worlds and to meet the industry-wide demand to develop platforms and protocols that will make these environments appropriate for enterprise use. Interoperability is an important facet of this mission and the recent work of IBM and Linden Lab’s development teams is an important proof point and step in that direction.
Teleporting an avatar between platforms has the potential to have a significant impact on the future of virtual worlds. An open standard for interoperability would allow virtual worlds to interconnect so that users can cross from one world to another, just like they can go from one web page to another on the Internet today.
“Interoperability is a key component of the 3D Internet and an important step to enabling individuals and organizations to take advantage of virtual worlds for commerce, collaboration, education and other business applications,” said XXX at IBM. “Developing this protocol is a key benchmark and has the potential to push virtual worlds into the next stage of their evolution.”
“IBM and Linden Lab both support an interoperable approach and see the industry moving to an interconnected model in the future,” said XXX at Linden Lab. “Interoperability is important not only for enterprise use but also has the potential to improve overall scalability and stability.”
At present, IBM and Linden Lab’s protocol does not enable virtual content and assets to be transferred between worlds. While focused purely on teleporting avatars at the moment, an announcement regarding content could follow in the near future.
For more information on the Architecture Working Group
visit: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group
For more information on OpenSim
visit: http://www.opensimulator.org
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