NxtGen Media - The Freeman View

OpenSim

Lately, I have been working with OpenSimulator (OpenSim for short). OpenSim is an open source project dedicated to providing an open platform for the realization of virtual worlds. OpenSim is compatible with SecondLife and is in alpha phase of development, but looks pretty good. It is developed using Mono and runs on Linux, and Windows. My interest in it is because my company wants to get into virtual worlds. We had a few projects running in Second Life, and now my company want its own world. OpenSim looks like the ticket.

Another interest is that there is another virtual world project called RealXtend that is attempting to get Flash working within OpenSim. Second Life has scripting, but it is rather limited. Having the ability to use C# and Flash inside of a virtual world is very compelling.

So far I have gotten a test server up with OpenSim running and was able to get connected using the SecondLife Viewer and run around in the virtual world and it is pretty impressive. We were able to create some character animations, and load them right on the character just as you would in Second Life. So in essence, it’s like having your own version of Second Life for your personal use. Lots of work to do on it, but it looks promising at this early stage.

-DCF

Unity3D, Wow!

I just finished working on a Flex app, and for the most part I have come to like Flex a little bit more. I was working with ZendAMF and was able to get everything wired and working without too much stress and strain. Still a lot left to learn and I just might consider using Flex Builder over Flash Develop when doing Flex projects, but not for Flash simply based on my established work flow in FD.

While I was out hunting up a way to figure out why my app seemed to be working, but was failing silently, I came across a blog post on Diamond Tearz talking about Unity3D. I had heard about it, but never thought much of it to look into it. Figured it was yet another 3D engine with a web plug-in. Upon further post reading, I find that John Grden and Andy Zupko, top dogs of Papervision3d and Infrared are very excited about it, to the degree that they think Adobe should buy company. To that I say wow!

Up until SilverLight, Flash really did not have any competitors. With the release of Flash player 10, there are many of us that were more than a little disappointed with its 3D offering. With the heat turning up on web app development, and Unity3D now in the mix, I hope Adobe can ante up because the game is getting intense. Unity3D does web, Wii, and iPhone. Granted it does not have the penetration of the Flash player, but if Unity3D apps are simply better it won’t take long for that to change. There is just no good reason why we can’t be having a better, richer 3D web experience both on the dev and user side. The hardware is there, it’s just that the leading software tools are not, yet.

That all being said, Flash does video and 2D REALLY well. For web apps and 2D games, it is a great tool. I expect Flash to eventually have much better support for 3D, but in time. 3D is just not as important enough for Adobe at the moment, particularly when we’re talking about applications shifting more to a web focus in time.

Unity3D \m/’s - Adobe should buy them

Unity3D vs Flash Or Not- Blogosphere Roundup

Unity3D

-DCF