Virtual worlds afford interesting research environments for HCI, CSCW and related research areas. Successful online multiplayer games show the possibilities and continuously push the technical boundaries. More ‘serious’ approaches focus more on (business) collaboration and real-world application areas.
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Second Life is a well-known example for a successful virtual environment implementation. Well-known companies, such as Intel and Microsoft, have their own representations. But owning land and ‘building’ is not free in Second Life. Here, OpenSimulator offers an interesting alternative for conducting research in your own setup. OpenSimulator offers all the features you know from Second Life with on important difference: it is open-source.
Of course, it takes some setup work until you can actually log on and and create your own fancy-looking shirt for your avatar. Here’s what we will do:
- Setup Ubuntu Linux 9.1 (still in Alpha stage, should work with 9.04, too)
- Download and compile the latest (trunk) version of OpenSimulator
- Setup OpenSimulator in ‘grid mode’ using MySQL
- Download, compile and setup FreeSWITCH for voice chat functionality
I came across some difficulties during these steps and I hope to provide some guidance for people willing to try the latest available version of Ubuntu (Mono, MySQL, etc.), OpenSimulator and FreeSWITCH (1.0.4).
The next post will get you started with the Ubuntu Linux and necessary packages.
Tags: OpenSimulator · Second Life · Ubuntu · Virtual World1 Comment
Did you ever get this written? Is it out on the OpenSimulator WIKI?
Thanks in advance.