Dual Universe
I am a Kickstarter Funder for the emerging MMO orientated Dual Universe platform. Dual Universe Alpha 1 usage is subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so this blog post only provides useful links and publicly posted images and videos by Novaquark, the developers of Dual Universe.
Diva Wifi for OpenSim 0.9.1.0
OpenSim 0.9.1.0 changes the .NET Framework in use from 4.0 to 4.6. As at 12-Dec-2018 the sources for Diva’s addon modules are based on .NET Framework 4.0. Small changes are needed to the *prebuild.xml files in those sources for DiVi addon modules (and hence Wifi) to work with the latest versions of OpenSim. Check the GitHub Diva downloads directory as updates are likely once 0.9.1.0 is available as a stable OpenSim release.
Diva Canto provides the popular “Diva Distribution (D2)” precompiled version of OpenSim which includes a number of addon modules. One of these is called “Wifi” and provides a web front-end interface to OpenSim running in “Standalone” or “Grid mode with “Robust” services.
Wifi is documented on the OpenSim Wiki at http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Wifi through which links can be found to Diva Canto’s download and source areas on Github. Wifi serves web pages which provide services such as:
- Account creation, optionally controlled by the administrator
- Configurable default avatars for new accounts
- Account updates by both users and administrator
- Account deletion by administrator
- Password recovery via e-mail
- Simple user inventory management
Wifi as an OpenSim Add-in
Up to OpenSim 0.8.0, Wifi was available as an add on module via compiled .DLL libraries which could be enabled for Standalone and Grid setups. From OpenSim 0.8.1 onwards, a more flexible “add-in” library mechanism that was already in OpenSim has been improved and Wifi now is provided as an add-in under that mechanism. This does mean that the build and configuration process is different.
Diva Canto has provided a blog post which describes the new Wifi mechanism and how to build and configure it, mostly geared at Unix/Linux users.
Wifi for OpenSim Robust Grids for Windows Users
In case it is helpful to those running Robust grids under Windows, I describe here the mechanism I use to build, configure and run Wifi on our own grids.
- Download the OpenSim source distribution as a zip file from one of the following:
- OpenSim Source Code – Stable Release
- OpenSim Source Code – Developer ViewGit (noting the risk of code in a state of flux)
and unzip the source code to a suitable location. Note there is a folder called “addon-modules” at the top level (same level as the “bin” directory) which only contains a README.
- Obtain the source of the Diva addons via
and unzip it to a temporary area. Copy the contents of the “addon-modules” from that area into the main unzipped OpenSim directory top level addon-modules directory. Take care as there is another directory “bin/addon-modules” which is NOT the one you want to copy to.
- The following Diva addon modules are require for Wifi to work… the others are optional for uses beyond the Wifi interface and may be omitted…
- 00Data
- 00DivaInterfaces
- 01DivaUtils
- 1DivaOpenSimServices
- 20WifiScriptEngine
- 21Wifi
- You can now build OpenSim as usual, and the addons will also be automatically compiled. E.g., in a Command Prompt shell “cd” (change directory) to the top level of the OpenSim unzipped directory and then run “runprebuild.bat” followed by “compile.bat”. The resulting bin directory contains all you need and will have in it the addon Diva modules including Wifi.
- Added 2015-11-24: The latest versions of Wifi allow for extensive localisation with several provided languages and instructions on how to add further languages. A script (Unix .sh or Windows .bat) is now included in Wifi which creates a .dll file containing the resources used when the Wifi module starts up for localisation. These are unpacked using the Windows SDK “ResGen.exe” utility which must be accessible via the Windows PATH environmental variable. Run it at addon-modules/21Wifi/Localization/make_languages.bat or .sh.
- Before you run Robust.exe and OpenSim.exe, configure Wifi for your requirements by editing bin/Wifi.ini (but see the section “Disable Wifi in OpenSim.exe” below for a suggested improvement). Since Wifi.ini sets Wifi as disabled by default, you will have to explicitly enable it and change necessary information to access your OpenSim data base, set your administrator avatar name and e-mail, etc.
- To allow tailoring of Wifi for your own grid, a directory “WifiPages” at the same level as the “bin” directory may be used where you can place specific *.html and any image/* files which will override the default equivalents in bin/WifiPages. The following pages can be overridden:
- footer.html
- header.html
- links.html
- splash.html
- termsofservice.html
- welcome.html
- image/*
Disable Wifi in OpenSim.exe
With the default locations suggested in Robust.[HG.]ini.example and OpenSim.ini.example for the add-in configuration and registry locations, the addins are picked up by both Robust.exe and OpenSim.exe and use the same configuration for both. This means that if Wifi is enabled in Wifi.ini it runs in both Robust.exe and OpenSim.exe. This is not what is wanted for a grid and means that Wifi is served on the OpenSim default port (usually :9000) as well as the grid services port (usually :8002).
Hence, the following is the configuration used on Openvue and AiLand grids to allow for separate enabling of Wifi for Robust.exe and disabling Wifi for OpenSim.exe. Wifi.ini is MOVED from bin/Wifi.ini to config-addon-robust/Wifi.ini. These configuration settings may be useful as a basis for what others might wish to use…
-------- Robust.[HG].ini ---------------------- [Startup] RegistryLocation = "." ConfigDirectory = "./config-addon-robust" -------- OpenSim.ini--------------------------- [Startup] RegistryLocation = "." ConfigDirectory = "./config-addon-opensim" -------- config-addon-robust/Wifi.ini --------- ; Copied from Diva's Wifi.ini with [WifiService] Enabled = true ; and changes for your data base, admin avatar and grid environment ... -------- config-addon-opensim/Wifi.ini -------- [WifiService] Enabled = falseCheck your Data.MySQL.dll in Robust.[HG.]ini
In configurations for Wifi before the 0.8.1 add-in, Diva.Data.MySQL.dll was used as the “StorageProvider” both within the Wifi modules and for other Robust services. This is no longer necessary. The default StorageProvider = OpenSim.Data.MySQL.dll can be used for all normal Robust.exe services as configured in Robust.[HG.]ini as Wifi itself picked up the StorageProvider separately from that stated in Wifi.ini.
Update of Diva Addons for OpenSim 0.9.1.0 onwards – using .NET Framework 4.6
OpenSim VR Viewer Under Development – Resources
Resources related to a new open source OpenSim content VR Viewer under development by Melanie Thielker of Avination and others…
Open Source VR Viewer for OpenSim in Development — Low Cost Alternative for Social VR Projects, Blog Post: December 10, 2018…
https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2018/12/opensim-vr-unreal-viewer.html
New open source VR viewer for OpenSim may be coming soon…, Blog Post: December 10, 2018…
https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2018/12/new-opensource-vr-viewer-for-opensim-may-be-coming-soon/
https://github.com/opensim/opensim-viewer
New viewer for OpenSim-based worlds. Originally using the Unreal game engine. Currently it uses the Xenko game engine for rendering.
To be visited in virtual reality with Melanie Thielker’s new viewer, the OpenSim regions first have to be converted to a format compatible with the Unreal/Xenko Engine. There is no support yet for getting the regions directly from OpenSim servers, or for having avatars in the scene.
Melanie Thielker’s presentation at the openSim Community Conference (OSCC’18)…
https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=ASojvwabJpY&feature=share&t=2034
OpenSim VR Viewer via OARConverter, Unity and SineSpace
An alternative way to view OpenSim content in VR would be to convert OpenSim Archive (OAR) files to Collada mesh via the OAR Converter Tool, import that to Unity and then publish the content into a SineSpace scene. [Sinespace Resources]
Dreamgrid – Outworldz Dreamworld – OpenSimulator
Dreamgrid is an easy to use OpenSim platform created by Fred Beckhusen, aka Ferd Frederix. It includes MySQL, Dynamic DNS name provision, OpenSim 0.9.1.0 Dev, 1, Diva’s WiFi admin interface and a wide range of add on modules. It sets up a virtual world grid with HyperGrid capability along with options to load a range of alternative content via OpenSim Archive (OAR) and Inventory Archive (IAR) files. It includes a simple update mechanism.
- Download and Instructions – https://www.outworldz.com/Outworldz_installer/Grid/
- Source – https://github.com/Outworldz/DreamWorld
- A presentation on Outworldz DreamGrid given at the OpenSimulator Community Conference 2018 by Fred Beckhusen on 9th December 2018 is available at https://www.outworldz.com/Secondlife/OSCC/
Addon Modules
I-X – Intelligent Technology
This blog post is intended to provide a quick overview of our work on I-X – “Intelligent Technology” and especially its application to intelligent planning systems using I-Plan and its underlying ontology.
Austin Tate and the Edinburgh Planning Group
Firstly a brief introduction. I am Professor of Knowledge-Based Systems at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the University’s Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI). More information via http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/.
AI planning has been a topic of active research at Edinburgh since the 1960s and I have been exploring this area since the early 1970s. The Planning and Activity Management Group within the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh is exploring representations and reasoning mechanisms for inter-agent activity support. The agents may be people or computer systems working in a coordinated fashion. The group explores and develops generic approaches by engaging in specific applied studies. Applications include crisis action planning, command and control, space systems, manufacturing, logistics, construction, procedural assistance, help desks, emergency response, etc.
Our long term aim is the creation and use of task-centric virtual organisations involving people, government and non-governmental organisations, automated systems, grid and web services working alongside intelligent robotic, vehicle, building and environmental systems to respond to very dynamic events on scales from local to global.
More on our planning technology, research and applications projects is described at http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/plan/
I-X – http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/ or http://i-x.info – is a systems integration architecture. Its design is based on the earlier O-Plan agent architecture. I-X provides an issue-handling style of architecture, with reasoning and functional capabilities provided as plug-ins. Also via plug-ins it allows for sophisticated constraint management, and a wide range of communications and visualisation capabilities. I-X agents may be combined in various ways, and may interwork with other processing capabilities or architectures especially where hybrid cognitive systems are joined to algorithms and data driven sub-cognitive modules where they can all work in an “intelligible” and human level explainable manner. I-X supports applications orientated towards “synthesis” tasks where such as design, configuration and especially planning. It is especially designed to support mixed initiative work between people, robots and computer systems working in a cooperative fashion.
An introductory paper to the approach is available here…
Tate, A. (2000) Intelligible AI Planning, in Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XVII, Proceedings of ES2000, The Twentieth British Computer Society Special Group on Expert Systems International Conference on Knowledge Based Systems and Applied Artificial Intelligence, pp. 3-16, Cambridge, UK, December 2000, Springer.
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/documents/2000/2000-sges-tate-intelligible-planning.pdf
In a nutshell, all aspects of agent capabilities, activities, tasks, objectives, etc are represented in some way as a specialisation of a set of “issues”, a set of “nodes” (think activities in a planning context or parts of a designed object), a set of “constraints” of various kinds and a set of “annotations”. We write this as . I-X, our systems architecture, essentially just uses its computational capabilities to handle issues, apply nodes, manage constraints and interpret annotations.
Ontology – Issues, Nodes, Constraints and Annotations
Here is a quick intro style paper on the idea of treating all aspects of task specification, planning, environment modelling and lower level activity as “constraints on permissible behaviour” and our Ontology for plans, activity, agent capabilities and all things like that (though it actually is more general and applies also to designed artifacts, scheduled things and configuration tasks).
Tate, A. (2003) : a Shared Model for Mixed-initiative Synthesis Tasks, Proceedings of the Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Intelligent Systems (MIIS) at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-03), pp. 125-130, Acapulco, Mexico, August 2003.
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/documents/2003/2003-ijcai-miis-tate-inca.pdf
My work on hierarchical planning over the years led to a very simple abstract ontology suitable for objectives, tasking, activity specification and capability modelling which is intended to be as flexible (and additive) as required for any application. The concepts within the ontology have been a core of standards such as NIST Process Specification Language (later an ISO process specification standard), etc. We call this – it is an ontology suited for any “synthesised” thing… and allows for design, configuration as well as planning applications. which allows for a set of constraints on behaviour where the types of constraint are “issues” to be addressed, “nodes” (which can be thought of in a planning context as “include activity” constraints, “constraints” themselves (in a planning context usually time, and object co-designation/non-co-designation and sometimes spatial), and “annotations” (which we use to capture underlying gIBIS style rationale of how issues/tasks are turned into selected activities under the constraints).
An I-X system can “handle issues”, “apply nodes”, “manage constraints” and “interpret annotations”. The idea is that the components in an inspired systems share and communicate constraints up and down, and that lower levels can communicate via partially shared constraints that can be understood between the levels (this often involves time, object = and /= ) so there can be yes, no and “maybe if” information passed between the levels to help home in on a mutually acceptable plan in a mixed initiative fashion. Great where humans, organisations, robots and environmental systems are all cooperating.
More Publications
The above papers (as PDF) and others that go into more technical details on the I-X/I-Plan system and how it uses can be found by looking for keywords in paper titles for or “Constraint” in the following documents index…
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/ix/documents/
and for our earlier O-Plan planner use of (a forerunner of the more abstract upper level ontology)…
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/oplan/documents/
Clamavi De Profundis – Tolkein Poems
Clamavi De Profundis is a family that loves to sing together and record inspiring and uplifting music. Their music is influenced by classical and fantasy literature as well as cinematic, traditional, religious, and classical music. In particular they have created some wonderful songs and videos based on poems from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold (from The Hobbit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ymgFyzbDo
Song of Durin (Complete Edition) (from The Hobbit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfoa23skHg
The Song of Beren and Lúthien – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smmy289iunY
Clamavi De Profundis have a Patreon Page where support can be given to the production of their music.
WordPress Blog Export and Import
I have been experimenting with export and reimport of WordPress blog posts and media content. If the Dashboard -> Tools -> Export was used to export “All” content and then the new destination site import occurred then I had believed that media such as images were taken over and put in the media library, but that the links/URLs in blog posts continued to point to the previous site. I now think there must be a two stage process to a full import of the posts and media.
- Import of the blog posts and media/images into the media library. [Takes a few minutes after which you are informed the import is complete.]
- Redirection of all the internal image URLs to the new local media library content. [Was completed overnight and no notice was sent to indicate this.]
An export and reimport of later content will just add new posts and media and not make duplicate entries. This is important bas the WordPress exporter seems to only allow a selective (e.g. data range) export of specific content such as posts and media, while the “All” export copies the entire blog to the export file (which is XML based). Unfortunately there can be a limit on the target site importer (15MB for the export/import file) in the case of wordpress.org. My own blog is close to that limit as of today.
I note that my image rich blog of around 700 posts when imported to a WordPress blog uses up about 1GB of space (of the 3GB limit allowed there for free accounts).
glTF
Robert Adams (Misterblue) has created the “Convoar” tool to convert OpenSim OAR files into glTF (GL Transmission Format). The following blog post goes into more detail.
http://blog.misterblue.com/2018/2018-07-01-Convoar-and-Converting-OARS
Robert explained to me that Convoar grew out of his personal project on virtual world scene simplification that he felt is needed for viewing OpenSimulator content in web browsers. Convoar is a stopping point on the way. He chose GLTF format because it is being used by Cesium[3] and other web viewer projects. Today, the 3dWebWorldz[1] project is using these OAR conversions to import into their web browser virtual worlds since there is a loader bundled with ThreeJS[2]. There are also importers for most of the 3D editing tools.
[1] https://3dwebworldz.com/
[2] https://threejs.org
[3] https://cesiumjs.org/
Example converted regions (including our own OpenVCE OAR) are listed and available at
http://blog.misterblue.com/2018/2018-07-17-Convoared-region
http://misterblue.com/oars/
That OARs page includes links to view the 3D content via the “Simple Basil” viewer intended to act as a web viewer for virtual world content including from OpenSimulator.
glTF (GL Transmission Format) and GLB (GL Transmission Format Binary)
There are 3D modeller importers, exporters and converters for various 3D Model formats such as Autodesk FBX and Collada (.DAE) available.
IO-glTF is an open-source FBX importer/exporter plug-in that converts FBX file (and any file format that FBX can read such as obj, collada, …) to glTF. This plug-in can be used by any FBX based application to import/export glTF files.
A Binary glTF file is a .GLB file such as used in Oculus Home 3D Model Content. Facebook/Oculus provide a precompiled FSX to glTF converter at https://github.com/facebookincubator/FBX2glTF/releases and there is a glTF to Binary glTF packer via https://glb-packer.glitch.me/
See instructions at https://support.oculus.com/1702745539746285/#Importing and more detail at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/3d-posts/glb-tutorials
Elf Clan
Elf Clan is one of the oldest and largest virtual world fantasy groups. It has held lands in Second Life and various OpenSim grids. Its most recent home is on OSGrid but with associates Elf-themed regions on any other Hypergrid connected OpenSim grid.
To Join Elf Clan, search for the ELF CLAN group on OSGrid or the various Affiliate Grids (e.g. Kitely, DigiWorldz, etc.), and JOIN. It’s open-join on all affiliate grids. You can join on multiple grids if you wish.
High Fidelity – Load Test – 7 Sept 2018
A load test of the High Fidelity virtual world platform took place on 7th September 2018 and at least 356 avatars were in world in the same location at peak. A lot of different tests and exercises were run, including a trivia game. The performance was very good with only a couple of losses of the sound and one or two scene drop outs when logged on from Edinburgh Scotland.
Sintel Resources
This page acts as a resource for the Blender Durian Open Source Movie Sintel Project and its Sintel character 3D models and avatars.
- More details at http://sintel.org
- Sintel Movie Download
- Blend Swap version for Blender “Cycles” Renderer by gregzaal along with links to texture downloads.
Blender Sintel Avatar Model
The Open Source Blender Project “Sintel” avatar has been used in a number of open source projects and a version is available to use as an avatar or character in environments such as Unity. E.g. from http://u3d.at.ua/ where you need to register before being able to obtain the free download.
http://u3d.at.ua/load/modeli/ljudi_personazhi/sintel_character_for_unity/14-1-0-2929 [local copy]
It can be use to replace the Ethan visual model as described above. Just delete the Ethan visual model elements (EthanBody, EthanGlasses and EthanSkeleton) and insert the Sintel model instead. Then select the original Ethan “ThirdPersonController” and in the Unity Inspector change the Animator -> Avatar to the “SintelAvatar” you have included.
Pisten Bully 3D Models
Kässbohrer Pisten Bully Models imported via Unity3D and into a range of environments…
Original Models via 3DWarehouse.sketchup.com
Pisten Bully 100 via 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com by Tomme123456789.
Pisten Bully 300 via 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com by Digital Impressions.
Fallingwater
Fallingwater in southwestern Pennsylvania is a vacation home designed in 1935 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and often thought to be one of the finest buildings of the 20th Century.
A lovely 3D openly accessible and modifiable model of the house and environment was created by Myles Zhang on Sketchfab.com [ Download Resources ] using 3D model source files originally by nottamun on 3dwarehouse.sketchup.com.
Fallingwater in Unity3D
I extracted the Collada (DAE) model of Fallingwater with its associated textures and imported those to Unity3D adding in some surrounding terrain. The trees and bushes were mostly replaced using Unity3D free assets and waterfall details were added and animated. Building and ground slighting was added, along with a day/night cycle. Doorways are not animated, so some of these were made into phantom (non-colliding) objects so an avatar can walk through them. Some pathways, corridors, doors and stairs in the house are not accurately modelled and can cause an avatar to get stuck, so some invisible barriers were put in place to help prevent this.
Fallingwater in Sinespace
The build was then loaded in the multi-user virtual world Sinespace…
Fallingwater Plans
These diagrams are included with the Fallingwater model by Myles Zhand and nottamun…
OpenSim Castle Cathedral Interior
The Epic Castle region in OpemSim (as described in this blog post) has interiors for some of the buildings created by Leora Jacobus. the cathedral includes an animated pipe organ and other interesting elements.
Second Life Crystal Fortress
The Crystal Fortress is a gift provided in 2018 to avatars with premium subscriptions to Second Life. It provided a skybox for a 1024sq.m. plot that could be rezzed and placed at any height, interior furniture and a teleportation system all themed as rock or ice crystals. A guardian dragon appears to protect the structure.
Pontefract Liquorice Festival 2018
Pontefract is a market town in West Yorkshire which was recorded in the Magna Carta in 1217. It sits within the Rhubarb Triangle and is well known for the manufacture of Liquorice and Pontefract Cakes (Pomfret Cakes). It holds an annual Pontefract Liquorice Festival. This years was on 8th July 2018.
