Speed-Paving the Metaverse
by Pixeleen Mistral on 14/06/07 at 3:25 pm
Rez a residential layout in six seconds – less than 1000 prims span the entire island sim
by Tenshi Vielle, metaverse technology reporter
Billie Scaggs has been in seclusion for the past two weeks while online, developing his mega-rez system that will, eventually, simplify the problems landowners experience in quickly dividing and building out suburban-style sims. He calls his project “Sim Roads,” and it may just change the face of Second Life as we know it – or at least make sim development quicker.
Billie Scaggs can pave entire islands now
SLH: Ok, so, how long did it take you to get this far?
Billie Scaggs: this has taken approximately 2 weeks including 3 tear down and start over incidents
SLH: Where did the original idea for your project stem from?
Billie Scaggs: well, from trying to solve a problem really. When you get a sim its rather desolate and takes time to build a walkway or even try to workout a generalized layout. Some land barrons offer a preloaded terrain file that is a 4096 beach setup. So i figured, why not go the other way. I thought that if someone created a “sim in a box” it would help solve the problem by providing something for estate owners to build off of. Plus the time it takes to layout and build a sim can be daunting. Most just want to hurry up and rent out a majority in order to offset the tier. Keep in mind that even though this has taken 2 weeks to do, i only spent 2-3 hours per night on it
SLH: That didn’t take quite so much programming time as I thought. You made the rezzers, right?
Billie Scaggs: well the rezzer itself took 3 months. I subcontracted that out and gave my suggestions and the overall path i wanted to go with it
Life on the residential grid
SLH: How do you think this will change the face of SL?
Billie Scaggs: honestly, i never thought that it could or would. It may be a hit, it may be a flop- at the end of the day its going to come down to how the community receives this. But if it does, it will give those who use it the ability to rapidly deploy a sim whether it be commercial, residential or miscellaneous. Rezzers in SL are limited to 96m, but its all about solving a problem
SLH: And you said this rezzer handles what now?
Billie Scaggs: it can span over multiple sims. Although the communication is a bit slow.16 parcels that can be split up into fours and keep the overall feel.
Talking automated pavement with Billie
SLH: So you could drop this in one sim, and have it process over the adjacent three – but, as you said, communication is a bit slow so it might take a bit of time to fully rez cross-sim
Billie Scaggs: yes, there are other issues that need to be addressed from a technical standpoint. In order to test something like this, you need a lot of space. Everything works in theory, but i am working towards testing this
SLH: Essentially, then, you are still in beta, although any rezzer that spans an entire sim is really quite revolutionary.
Billie Scaggs: Yes. The single-sim portion works flawlessly.
Although the rezzer is not commercially available yet, Billie suggested that land developers drop a notecard on him in-world. High speed sim development may be just what the Second Life needs to help house those that aspire to life on a grid.
Who Cares
Jun 14th, 2007
I don’t liek that guy’s tattoos.
JTG
Jun 14th, 2007
rezzing cross sim a problem my ass
jethro
Jun 14th, 2007
This is an interesting application if you’re a smalltime suburban developer, but hardly revolutionary. Autorezzer tools capable of deploying across multiple sims have been around for years, not to mention the capability to deploy multiple instances of the same complete estate build. (How many duplicate islands do IBM and The L Word have? I forget.)
But honey, I’m sure you’re on top of these things, and after all feather boas are the height of fashion, too.
joe
Jun 14th, 2007
The Omega Concern has a Sim wide packer/rezzer on the market already. Works great!
Billie Scaggs
Jun 14th, 2007
I never thought this story would see the light of day, but as i make my way through the american airport system, i see it appear. I never did get a chance to pass along the movie clip, but it was taken about the time the single rez system had proven itself to be stable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqkY7oFG4Jw
Thats under 1,000 prims over a 256X 256 mega prim. Since then i have gone way of the 3,000 – 6,000- and 12,000 prim route for testing prim drift, sim lag and other annoyances builders in SL hit. So far 12,000 prims can lag up a sim pretty badly,script perf gets down to an amazing 4.5 but it did not crash my class 5. Once the scripts go inactive, the sim recovers in about 10 minutes.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 14th, 2007
“They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.”
Prokofy Neva
Jun 14th, 2007
“Tenshi Vielle, metaverse technology reporter”
I thought you were on the fashion desk?
Rezzing stuff on sims like trees and buildings has been around for ages. blaze Spinnaker had a kit that could rez out stadiums, buildings, roads, trees, etc.
The problem is that it met sim borders where the Lindens have fire lines and where stuff happens, but I watched it even cross those sometimes, he would demonstrate it.
One of the issues a developer would have to address is that buildings that all look like…they were all rezzed out of a box like a cookie cutter…is not what people always want to live in or work in. They want more unique customized spaces, not a lot of grey ashphalt.
urizenus
Jun 14th, 2007
fashion. technology. in the grand scheme of things what’s the difference these days. Tenshi’s new title: SL technofasionista.
Tenshi Vielle
Jun 14th, 2007
It’s in the f’ing air, Prok. You can still have your precious trees and tranny parties down below. I am usually on fashion desk, but when I get a lead I take it.
There are no buildings in this particular rezzer. It’s streets, grass, and mailboxes. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, one could add houses, but that deters from the fun of it.
Uri… I’m not sure I like your title. It sounds like a disease. And as I’m just getting over a bad bladder infection… let’s keep the nasties away!
like_ummm
Jun 14th, 2007
ya – i dont liek his tattoos neither – but i also dont like his absurdly proportioned chest and waste. i also dont like his glasses – i always hated matrix glasses since i first set eyes on them – they dont fit properly. i dont like his vacuum-cleaner jaw-line. i dont like that he is a baldy. i dont like his t-shirt. i dont like how he holds his hands a few inches away from his hips. i dont liek how he is looking out of the corner of his eye at the camera.
i would say that the thing i dont like the most would be his tattoos. The thing that i dont like the least would be his t-shirt.
like_ummm
Jun 15th, 2007
how about ‘technofashiobladderinfectionista’? That sounds soooo good!
Thraxis Epsilon
Jun 15th, 2007
The prim.Blender Importer (which at it’s heart is a rezzer) can rez and move items to any location on a sim from 0,0,0 to 256,256,768 (ie. the entire sim) and has been available for quite some time.
Lewis Nerd
Jun 15th, 2007
As a developer directory listed builder and landscaper, I dont feel at all threatened by this. I pride myself on unique hand built projects to the customers specifications, rather than simply duplicating a standard offering to the designers spec and slapping a logo on it like some of my competitors.
Billie Scaggs
Jun 15th, 2007
@ Lewis
This is is by no means intended to “threaten” anyone. At the end of the day, this was a personal project of mine that is starting to take a life of its own. Many rezzers that are commercially available have a 96m limit which this one turns its nose upto. Have you ever tried rezzing 15,000 prims in less than 60 seconds? Most can handle 3,000 prims, but a standard sim grinds to a halt.
Tenshi is a good friend of mine and i asked her for feedback on this project to determine if it were even a viable offering. She saw an unintended story and decided to capture the moment. shh Prokofy – please bite your toungue
The ultimate goal of the rezzing system is to bring to market a new type of system. One that is smart enough to detect sim borders and react accordingly by offsetting the sections that fall in the “fire line”, plus enable the movement of really large builds without the need to ask for a grid monkey to bring your sim back online. As with anything new, there are bugs that need to be worked out.
Tenshi Vielle
Jun 15th, 2007
Honest to pete, I’ve received more IM’s after this article than I ever have.
I need to point a few things out:
1) The Herald is not a personal blog. Therefore, I do not write consistently enough to constantly review new products. TO THAT EFFECT:
2) While I will take ideas for new stories, I refuse to do a story (Herald) on something people have made just because they asked me to.
So – stop IM’ing me unless what you have is really interesting. You know who you are.
Jimbo Quality
Jun 15th, 2007
“fashion. technology. in the grand scheme of things what’s the difference these days. Tenshi’s new title: SL technofasionista.”
Hey, how come I’m the only Herald reporter who doesn’t have a title? is it because I’m special?
Lewis Nerd
Jun 15th, 2007
Shortbus special, I believe, Jimbo.
Lewis
Inigo Chamerberlin
Jun 15th, 2007
Hmmm, a tool to put down a grid of roads (roads? er… oh, nevermind) on a dead flat 256×256 sim
How clever. There should be an award for such a innovative automated method of wasting a sim.
Flix Saiman
Jun 15th, 2007
I have created Sim in-a Box. its the ulimate sim building tool. its a must see to really appericate the entire package..
ill include a short youtube clip.. but you can visit us on SiB island.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SiB/123/122/122
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YrLSNmPCHM
urizenus
Jun 15th, 2007
We need more technology writers. Anyone out there want to step up to the plate on this? And by technology writers I mean people who write well (preferably in the new journalism syle) and who are not technology fluffers.
Tracy Welles
Jun 15th, 2007
It will never replace a true gaphics artist and hand picked and hand crafted professional work.
All this is is a quick let the land barrons make a quicker buck.
It will never replace a true graphics person or an SL company that produces quality work.
Tracy
Tenshi Vielle
Jun 15th, 2007
What’s the pay?
Flix Saiman
Jun 15th, 2007
our new commerical is now up..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcrgOj43wQI
so you want more than just grey buildings how bout the ablity to create and custom design your sim the way you want to (using our prefabs of course).. this isnt designed for the avid builder but for sombody who wants a sim up and a running in an hour instead of weeks.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 15th, 2007
>preferably in the new journalism style
Define? Do you mean the old new journalism or the new new journalism?
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