Austin Tate's Blog

Vue is a virtual educational and research institute bringing together all those interested in the use of virtual worlds for teaching, research and outreach related to the University of Edinburgh.

Second Life is a virtual worlds platform provided by Linden Lab in California. The Vue regions in Second Life have been available for over 10 years since 28th May 2007. A timeline of events is available at http://vue.ed.ac.uk/… and over the years we have arranged between us a variety of funding for the shared areas from Development & Alumni, Informatics, IS and the Vet School. Having maintained “Vue” as a core region now for over 10 years the usage now does not justify continued funding which even at educational rates costs $1,770 a year for a full region and $750 a year for one of our lower capacity regions.

Vue Regions on OpenSimulator – Openvue

It is worth noting that the whole original 9 region Vue mini-continent as it appeared at its maximum extent in Second Life with some enhanced areas is essentially replicated on an OpenSimulator grid.. in fact on several such grids. One hosted on servers in Informatics… called Openvue… and another on the “OSGrid” openly accessible free to use test grid. These “open” versions of the Vue virtual world facilities have been available since September 2007, A timeline of events is available at http://vue.ed.ac.uk/openvue/… so also for over 10 years now. They provide many of the facilities available in Second Life, including the same type of voice services used in Second Life provided free due to the support of non-profit and educational establishments by Vivox.

Visit Openvue by getting a (free) avatar on OSGrid at http://osgrid.org and then travel via the “HyperGrid” to hop://virtual.aiai.ed.ac.uk:8002/Openvue/128/128/20 (copy that “hop” into the Firestorm Viewer location bar or find the region on the Map).

Local avatars on Openvue are only necessary for builders and owners of regions. Contact Austin Tate if you are a member of the University of Edinburgh and feel that is useful to your projects or work.

How to Continue to Use a (Temporary) Facility on Second Life

Second Life continues to be available, and it is still possible top create and use a freely available avatar to visit facilities in Second Life. It is just the Vue paid-for regions we are no longer maintaining.

Sandbox regions in Second Life are available to test building and can act as a facility where a temporary facility can be rezzed.. such as a copy of “The Venue@Vue” as used for virtual graduations, MOOC class meetings, etc. As a suggestion try “Sandbox Exemplar” first to establish it as a first preference for Vue related meetings on such a Sandbox… but there are lots of other sandboxes. You can find them by typing “sandbox” as a region search term into the Second Life viewer Map tool.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sandbox%20Exemplar/124/142/28

Vue Regional Planning Authority (VRPA)

I would like to thanks the present and past members of the rather grandly named “Vue Regional Planning Authority” (VRPA)* which is the people from across the University of Edinburgh who raised funds for the Second Life Vue regions an were involved in the design and creation of the facilities. the group continue to be involved in explorations of other virtual world platforms in their own Schools, groups and across the University for the potential benefit of others.

*name suggested by Hamish Macleod.

• Sian Bayne (E-Learning, Higher & Community Education)
• Marshall Dozier (Library)
• Ian Graham (Management School)
• Hamish Macleod (Centre for Teaching, Learning & Assessment, Education)
• Fiona Hale (E-Learning, Higher & Community Education and Information Services)
• David Richardson (Informatics)
• James Stewart (Research Centre for Social Sciences)
• Austin Tate (Informatics & AIAI)

Previous Members:

• Aghlab Al-Attili (Edinburgh Stanford Link & Entrepreneurship MSc)
• Mike Clouser (Edinburgh Stanford Link & Entrepreneurship MSc)
• Dawn Ellis (Corporate Communications & PR)
• Naomi Nunn (Development & Alumni)
• Jessie Paterson (Divinity)
• Morag Watson (Information Services & Library)

Vue Experiments with other virtual Worlds Platforms

Even before Second Life began to be used across the University, groups in Business Studies, Education and Artificial Intelligence/Informatics had been exploring virtual worlds platforms for a range of educational and research project uses. Platforms (now long gone) such as “There” and commercial virtual world simulators such as “Forterra” had been in use, and Second Life itself had been used even in its very earliest incarnation. When we began using Second Life for Vue purposes we could not have imagined the platform would remain stable for such a long period (over a decade and it is still available). We envisaged moving onto new platforms as they arose and experiments have taken place with quite a lot of potential platforms, not all of which made it to full open public release. A number of these experiments are documented in my earlier blog posts.

Some current platforms under investigation include:

• OpenSimulator
• Sansar
• Sinespace

In preparation for the presentation on OAR Converterpresentation at the Open Simulator Community Conference 2017 a speaker preparation event was held on 11th November 2017 on the Conference OpenSim Grid…

Each presentation is also allocated an Expo Booth on OSCC Expo Zone 3… hop://cc.opensimulator.org:8002/OSCC Expo Zone 3/101/58/26

Richard Bartle, virtual world and MUD pioneer, spoke at “The Delphi Talks” in the Sinespace event plaza on 26th October 2017.

On this test, my online virtual world avatar personality Ai Austin appears to be mostly “Explorer” which sounds just about right!

The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology

You are 100% Explorer

What Bartle says:

♠ Explorers delight in having the game expose its internal machinations to them. They try progressively esoteric actions in wild, out-of-the-way places, looking for interesting features (ie. bugs) and figuring out how things work. Scoring points may be necessary to enter some next phase of exploration, but it’s tedious, and anyone with half a brain can do it. Killing is quicker, and might be a constructive exercise in its own right, but it causes too much hassle in the long run if the deceased return to seek retribution. Socialising can be informative as a source of new ideas to try out, but most of what people say is irrelevant or old hat. The real fun comes only from discovery, and making the most complete set of maps in existence.

You are also:

• 53% Socialiser
• 40% Achiever
• 7% Killer

This result may be abbreviated as ESAK

The Virtual University of Edinburgh regions as they appeared in Second Life at their maximum extent and as they are replicated on the OpenSimuator-based Openvue grid has been converted via the OAR Converter into Unity3D and then provided into the Sinespace virtual world platform.

Vue – Original OpenSim Region Map

Vue – Unity Editor

OAR Converter can take an OpenSimulator Archive (OAR) and from it create textures, meshes and terrain suitable to import into a Unity scene. The converter has been created by Fumikazu Iseki (Avatar: @Fumi.Hax – @fumi_hax) and his colleagues at the Network Systems Laboratory of TUIS in Japan with support from Austin Tate at the University of Edinburgh.

• OAR Converer converts from OpenSimulator Archive (OAR) to Collada files for use in Unity3D.
• This software was developed by Fumi Iseki, Austin Tate, Daichi Mizumaki and Kohe Suzuki

OAR Converter can run on Linux and Windows and source code is available. Full instructions for compiling and using the source code version on these platforms is available via the TUIS Wiki OAR Converter Page. For convenience a version with Windows UI is also available as a ready to run package.

Quick Start Instructions for OAR Converter with Windows UI

OARConvWin is OARConv with Windows UI. OARConvWin converts OAR file of OpenSim to Collada (dae) files for Unity3D.

Download the OAR Converter for Windows latest version from http://www.nsl.tuis.ac.jp/xoops/modules/xpwiki/?OARConvWin&ml_lang=en [<a href="http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~ai/unity/oarconv/"Local Copy]. Latest Version at the time of this blog post in September 2017 is v1.0.6 (at 2016/5/11) which is based on oarconv-1.4.4

For straightforward conversions, simply follow these steps:

Import to Unity3D

You could follow the video instructions in this YouTube video by Fumikazu Iseki.

Project Base for OAR Converter Projects

Once you have successfully tried a conversion and understand the elements, you may wish to create a base for any future OAR conversion… which can include all the steps except for the drag and drop in of the actual DAE converted content. Do this yourself to incorporate the very latest OAR Converter content, scripts and Unity assets. You can if you wish save this as a “unitypackage” to incorporate into future Unity projects.

But, for convenience, a Unity 5 base “unitypackage” has been created which includes the required Editor/SelectOARShader.cs, the water layers and the Unity 5 Standard Assets “Ethan” character with simple movement and attached camera. An alternative with the Blender open source Sintel movie character and attached camera setup as indicated in the OARConv YouTube video is also provided at…

http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~ai/unity/oarconv/

Make a copy of the base project you created or a new unity project, import the chosen unitypackage as a base, and then drag the OAR Converter produced “DAE” directory into the Unity Project Assets area, add the DAE folder assets and those in the DAE/Phantoms folder to the hierarchical view panel. Adjust the position of the chosen character and attached camera to suit the region, save the project, save the scene, and you should be good to go.

Further Information and Resources

• OpenSim OAR Convert to Unity Scene Blog Post by Austin Tate on 30th August 2015.
• OpenSim OAR Convert to Unity Scene with Windows Interface Blog Post by Austin Tate on 24th October 2015.
• YouTube video by Fumikazu Iseki. First part of this video shows the use of the Linux converter, but the part from [2:23] onwards gives an example of importing the converted DAE/Collada folder contents and merging that with a Unity project/scene including a water surface.

OAR Converter License

License (2016 11/19) – OAR Converter Copyright © 2014-2016 Fumi.Iseki, Austin Tate, D.Mizumaki and K.Suzuki
http://www.nsl.tuis.ac.jp/, All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following
conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of the OAR Converter nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
• Please respect the copyright of content providers when using OAR Converter.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Timeline 15th September 2017: Final Entry to Saturn Atmosphere… 6:32 am EDT (3:32 am PDT) Thrusters at 100% of capacity; high-gain antenna begins to point away from Earth, leading to loss of signal. Event received on Earth at 7:56 am EDT (4:54 am PDT). Times may vary after atmospheric drag.
Event for enthusiasts on Space City region in sinespace
NASA Public Television Live Stream [UStream], [YouTube]

To celebrate the 15th September 2017 end of the Cassini Mission to Saturn, I have placed a 3D model of Cassini to realistic scale on the Space City area in the “Space City region in Sinespace grid. This uses one of the freely available 3D models from NASA. The area is being used for a farewell party for Cassini and to watch the live feed from JPL as Cassini soars into the atmosphere of Saturn. You can koi in in a Windows or Apple Macintosh desktop viewer (preferred) or in WebGL in a suitable browser like Firefox or Chrome.

• Download Sinespace – http://sine.space (Desktop for Windows and Apple Macintosh
• http://sine.space/locations/space-city
• Sinespace “Space City” region – screen contents

Resources

• NASA TV – Live on UStream
• NASA TV – Live on YouTube
• NASA Feed on Twitch.tv (During Grand Finale may be Cassini in NASA Eyes)
• Cassini Grand Finale Video [3:40]
• Download NASA’s Eyes – Space Mission Simulator. Choose Cassini Tour and select “Now” and “Cassini Locked on Saturn” to view Cassini current position and follow the spacecraft inwards.
• NASA eBook – The Saturn System Through the Eyes of Cassini [PDF, iBook, Kindle MOBI, EPUB]
• NASA Raw Images – for Final Images Available

Go to http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2017/09/15/cassini-grand-finale/

I recently took a tour of the OpenSimulator-based FrancoGrid on its Fest’Avi 2016 region – as it prepares its 2017 festival. This involves the creation of open source avatars in a show case area. A very nice visual feast.

• FrancoGrid Fest’Avi 2016 Announcement
• Fest’Avi 2016 Introduction – YouTube [1:10]
• Fest’Avi 2016 Complete Tour – YouTube [28:21]
• FrancoGrid Fest’Avi 2016 Region Information

The RGU Oil Rig 3D model and virtual world environment in OpenSimulator create by the team involving Jo-Anne Tait and Colin Hetherington at Robert Gordon University (RGU) Oil & Gas centre in Aberdeen Scotland has been ported to Unity3D via the OpenSimulator OAR Converter Tool and provided in the Sinespace virtual world platform. Recently the region has been augmented by wave effects, sea wash around the oil rig legs, sounds sources, lighting and the replacement of the active information “i” signs for training purposes.

Now a night time version has been provided. Scripts to provide a realistic day or night skybox provided by Adam Frisby at Sine Wave and a changing day/night cycle have been used for experimentation. But the initial “Oil Rig at Night” is a dark late at night fixed time scene.

Visit using the Sinespace desktop viewer or in a WebGL compatible viewer (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox) via…

• http://sine.space/locations/oil-rig
• http://sine.space/locations/oil-rig-night

Oren Etzioni at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence has requested feedback on the following NY Times OpEd:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/opinion/artificial-intelligence-regulations-rules.html

I provided these notes to Oren on 8th September 2017:

I think its good to have a wide ranging discussion on these matters and to involve the general public. Scare stories could lead to the many potential benefits of AI being lost if there is a negative reaction to the threat that systems can pose… much like happened with GM crops in Europe.

I am not sure that talking of “human operator” is quite the right model. I see future AI systems and robots as “agents” and think the “agency” model is a useful one to include when talking of future AI and robotic/autonomous systems. I think the notion that responsibility lies with the “deployment” or “authorisation” of the agent could help some of the discussion. The idea that such agents are subject to the same laws and regulations and treaties as any other human agent is a good one, and one you cover. Of course that varies by region, and in some lawless or less constrained “off shore” (future “off world”) locations such constraints could be lessened to the detriment of others. So introducing a chain back to those organisations, companies, or individuals who “deploy” or “authorise” the agent may be useful.

Remember, as I am sure you are very aware, that Isaac Asimov’s stories were a warning that the defined three laws could not anticipate all contexts.

My own main concern is the concentration of technology and robotic systems in the hands of a few oligarchs and global companies as systems and devices replace workers. The lack of a social and cooperative approach to this worldwide, and competition for one country or one company to be the “winner takes all” could lead to social unrest and very serious issues. So I am glad to see folks like Bill Gates and others raising issues of taxation on systems and robots in just the same way that there are taxes on workers to pay for the social infrastructure of regions, countries and the world.

Dueling Dragons (US spelling) is a two track “duelling” (UK English) B&M suspended roller coaster at Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios Orlando. The ride is themed as two dragons… Chinese Fireball (Fire) and the other Hungarian Horntail (Ice).It was opened on 28th May 1999 and was converted to become Duelling Challenge in 2010. After some accidents related to injury cause by loose articles, the coaster ran without the synchronisation of the trains from 2011 until the coaster closed on 4th September 2017.

The roller coaster can still be experienced in virtual reality via the NoLimits2 Roller Coaster Simulator.

Dueling Dragons by Z617Jason

This is my favourite fan-produced version of Dueling Dragons from NoLimits Exchange.
http://www.nolimits-exchange.com/coaster/dueling-dragons/10261

• Watch Ice POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MmD7zk4X6o
• Watch Fire POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqWrwcYLTQY

Dueling Dragons by duduchianca

This version of Dueling Dragons has been modelled by “duduchianca”. He made the twin coasters by modelling one continuous loop which switches station sides half way through. A few issues with trains being allocated to track sections or “blocks” and hitting one another needs to be fixed. The simple fix is to change the number of trains from 6 on track to 2 in the editor… then you can ride “ice” and “fire” alternately without any stops.
https://nolimits-exchange.com/coaster/dueling-dragons-dragons-challenge/3750.

Some Observations from sinespace Interactions

1. Chat tool has some issues… scroll bar seems not to work when you have more tabs than the current size window allows. Hide button largely covers the last entry unless you are VERY careful with mouse to avoid it.
2. It would be good to show your OWN avatar labels (maybe on by default even if they can be hidden) so you know what shows to others.
3. Yellow names show for sinewave folks(?). Suggest friends are coloured (say green or blue)… so you know who is a friend of not from before.

A new Sinespace event plaza is being created… at “The Delphi Talks” region. See http://delphitalks.com

Metropolis is an OpenSimulator-based grid open to anyone to create a (free) avatar, rent land or (at no cost) add on their own hosted regions (similar to OSGrid in that resepect).

Resources and Links

• Metropolis Web Site – http://hypergrid.org/
• Metropolis Wiki
• Metropolis Forum for Q&A, etc.
• Tutorials how to setup your own hosted region.
• Metropolis Dashboard – MetroTools and MetroResources, including Region Management Tools.

Useful Metropolis In-world Resources

• Adachi Shopping Area – Avatars, AOs, Mesh Avatars and Clothing.
• Pangea – Pandora Themes Role Play Area.

AiLand Regions on Metropolis

AiLand (the hub), Black Rock, Space City, Marineville and Outer Space.

The Sine Space virtual world “Space City” region contains 3D models and scenes from a number of Gerry Anderson TV productions…

• Supercar and Black Rock Laboratory
• Fireball XL5 and Space City
• Stingray and Marineville
• Thunderbirds
• Space:1999

Visit using a desktop viewer or in a WebGL compatible viewer (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox) via…

• http://sine.space/locations/galand

To celebrate the 15th September 2017 end of the Cassini Mission to Saturn, I have placed a 3D model of Cassini to realistic scale on the Space City area in our OpenSim grid. This uses one of the freely available 3D models from NASA.

Cassini Model on the Space City Region in OpenSim

Cassini at Saturn over the Space City Region in OpenSim

The Cassini display joins the Voyager model on Space City. The Space City region also has models of Deep Space 1, ESA Rosetta and other space related artifacts. More details here.

Voyager Planet Flyby over the Space City Region in OpenSim

Avatar name labels are not yet included in Sansar. They are useful as a means to recognise others and initiate social communication with them. Soe users have taken to creating an avatar attachment with their avatar name as a label. A 3d text model can be created, exported as FBX and uploaded in Sansar’s “My Looks” as an avatar “Attachment”.

The 3D model needs to be scaled appropriately. I used a 1m X 1m x1m block as a guide. Positioned the 3D extruded text at a little over 2m high and set its original to the 0,0,0 point, so when attached to the avatar it would sit over its head.

Sansar is a new virtual world platform allowing for virtual experiences to be visited by multiple users represented as avatars. A group of metaverse explorers meet under the guidance of bloggers and live streamers @Draxtor and @StrawberrySingh (order strictly alphabetical!) for a Sansar “Atlas Hop”. Using VR and desktop modes and exchanging experience and advice along the way using voice and text chat…

• We started at @Draxtor’s “Harvest 114” experience.
• Then visited a home base style “The Roof” experience created by LenniFoxtrot using Store and prebuilt models.
• Onto an atmospheric small barber shop space called “The Silence” created by @Omiluo.
• Ad ended up at the “Dwarven Fortress” with custom built models created by @DavidHall.

The Atlas Hop was live streamed by @Draxtor and @StrawberrySingh and a replay is available at:

• @Draxtor’s view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX3YqkOCiYU
• @StrawberrySingh’s view: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-JhVUqZPg

It was good to see again people involved in other metaverse/virtual world platform development and testing. My own simple experiences, used mostly for testing import of mesh models, are listed at https://atlas.sansar.com/experiences/aiaustin/.

OpenSimulator (often shortened to OpenSim) is an open source virtual world platform which implements most of the Linden Lab Second Life virtual world protocols and extends it in some ways convenient for educational and other extended uses. This blog post brings together some links and resources used in building virtual world regions and content in OpenSim.

Developer Resources

• OpenSim Web Site and Wiki
• OpenSWim Git Master
• OpenSim Mantis (Issue Tracker)

Prebuilt Distributions

• Diva Distribution (D2) and Wifi [Source]
• Outworldz Installer

Distributions to Allow Addon Regions for an Existing Grid

• For OSGrid

For Metropolis Grid (hypergrid.org)

OARs and IARs

Content such as scripts, OpenSim Archives (OARs) and Inventory Archives (IARs) can be found at a number of locations…

• Where to get content for OpenSim, Blog Post by Maria Korolov, June 20, 2011, updated June 28, 2017.
• Outworldz Content Collection by Ferd Frederix.
• Isis Ophelia’s OpenSim Free Resources.
• Nebadon’s OARs and IARs.