Comments on: Interview with Ogoglio’s Trevor Smith

By: Ordinal Malaprop

Ordinal Malaprop — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:07:39 +0000

Java seems like a reasonable choice at this stage to me. After all, Runescape, which is Java-based has become immensely popular, and it’s a generally well-known language for developers.

By: Trevor F. Smith

Trevor F. Smith — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:57:19 +0000

Benny, as the document you reference notes, I'm not limiting the platform to Java. The protocols and data formats are all platform neutral. I'm using Java applets and Java3D because today they provide the most widely distributed accelerated 3D plugin. Other technologies are on the horizon (e.g. OpenGL bindings in Gecko) and when they are in common use the platform will support them.

By: Benny Hit

Benny Hit — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:07:24 +0000

From your website….

“Though the number of Flash plugin installations is huge and growing (in large part because of its new video codecs) it lacks 3D libraries and does not take advantage of accelerated 3D hardware. It is possible to write a software 3D engine for Flash but in all likelihood Macromedia will eventually ship one and in the mean time it would severely limit the detail of 3D scenes in our prototype.

Sun’s Java plugin is the only browser side technology with a large number of installations and accelerated 3D libraries. Though there are large flaws in using Java Applets (discussed below), they “just work” on every computer Apple sells and on most Windows PCs. IT departments often install Java in their standard desktop images or upon request by employees, and due to Sun’s marketing of the Java brand users are somewhat likely to recognize the name in the case that a plugin installation is necessary.

That said, choosing Java Applets for the Ogoglio prototype is not without painful consequences.”

First of all why limit yourself with Java, and as for the 3d libraries, I mustn’t be aware of a lot of them if Sun and Java are doing more than Macromedia and Flash, can you direct me to where this amazing revolution is taking place? And explain why Sun is one of the companies to set up in Second Life?

By: GoBloggit

GoBloggit — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:52:53 +0000

Interview with Ogoglios Trevor Smith

Open-source products tend to be driven by what features the user base is actually asking for vs. those being determined by a commercial software companys profit motives. Another open-source advantage is freedom from vendor dependency, the seemi…

By: Trevor F. Smith

Trevor F. Smith — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:10:27 +0000

Oridinal, on the 2D web there are different creation tools which require different skill sets, so most people using the web can quickly edit a wiki or write a blog post but it takes more time and effort to write HTML or learn to glue together Javascripts. The same range should be possible with web based 3D space platform. You might be interested in the development page, which details some of the technical criteria for the platform we're developing.

By: Ordinal Malaprop

Ordinal Malaprop — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 16:05:12 +0000

Interesting. I wasn’t aware of this project before. I’m interested in the last paragraph which I have much sympathy with – trying to out-SL SL is unlikely to work, your public face will always be one or more steps behind as long as SL keeps developing, which it does, and you will always appear the inferior competitor. And using existing technologies and protocols could be a huge advantage for public takeup. The question is really, how easy is it going to be for people to create things and participate? Having a wonderful platform on open technologies is all very well, but if it really requires one to have a computer science degree and six hours free a day to build anything worthwhile….