The Alphaville Herald

Sneak-Peak at Second Life’s Future Rendering Engine – ’2.0′

by Alphaville Herald on 02/04/05 at 9:45 am

This snapshot of Second Life’s unreleased 2.0 Rendering Engine was leaked to the Herald

Ben Linden yesterday posted to the SL Forums 9 screenshots showing the current progress of Second Life’s future rendering engine. These screenshots had been scattered and hidden throughout the grid as part of a sadistic treasure-hunt but were quickly recovered by residents.

The screenshots reveal several sims in great breadth and width, displaying homes, skyscrapers and skybuilds as far as the eye can see. In anticipation, Linden Labs have begun stress-testing compression algorithms specifically tailored to the phrase, “I can see my house from here.”

The rendering engine casts SL in a new light. Residents have recognized the Second Life landscape as akin to something from a cyberpunk novel or that nightmare I had where I was falling naked and sharks were chasing me and that lego city I was building exploded.

How are Second Lifers responding to this vision of SL’s future? Thousands of sexy skyboxes now laid bare are being connected with imaginary lines to describe new constellations in which famous residents copulate. These include the recently-named Ryen’s Belt and Ulrika Major. Residents are already thinking about where they will have to go to get some privacy. The housing-development industry is currently ill-equipped to respond to the new demand for ‘sexy groundboxes’ or ‘sex-holes’.