The realXtend 0.3 release is out with a bunch of exciting new features! Click here or on the screenshot above to see the reX video.

Also, RealXtend launched a public avatar service – avatar.realXtend.net If you are interested you should sign up soon. Jani Pirkola, Project Manager for realXtend, told me:

We will get 100 first in to test our worlds and systems and give feedback for us. The limit is because we don’t want to drown if there are too many people.

I signed up on Friday and tried out a number of the innovations including the avatar generator and the teleport that allows your avatar to move between different reX worlds. Also, I used the inworld skype to chat with the reX team. The friend list is now global, meaning that regardless which realXtend world you are in, you can see the online status of your friends. And, if you already have skype installed on your pc you can call other people from the world. Just right click them and select “call” from the menu. realXtend also have their own voice application in development. Jani explained some more about the Skype integration:

If the other person wants, he can also define his real phone number as his contact info, then your skype call will be routed to his mobile phone, for example. realXtend welcomes all millions of skype users to virtual worlds!

In the picture below I am creating Tish Shute (my avatar in reX) in the avatar generator. There is a selection clothes that are real 3D meshes and they adjust to your body. Also reX has added new male and female models and a lot of skins and clothes for them. You can adjust their muscularity and body “fat” and create really nice looking characters.

The speed at which relXtend has been bringing out new features has already begun to attract a lot of interest. Many reX innovations do not exist yet in other virtual worlds, and a dynamic community of developers is beginning to gather in the realXtend Google discussion group. As the content creation tools improve, the new features will, I suspect, begin to catch the attention of content providers.

Jani noted:

The workflow to make more clothes is still quite painful, you need to use a handful of tools to accomplish a good cloth. We will put instructions on how to make clothes on our website when they are ready. I think some content providers should get interested. Making the skins is easier. And if you use Facegen, you can get really nice looking faces and heads for an avatar. It is still possible to use the bone system to scale parts of avatars bigger or smaller and to create something totally different, like godzilla sized avatars. They are awesome!

You can also download the Facegen software on the rex site and after you have generated your 3D likeness use it in the avatar generator. There will be a “how to” on the site soon. But obviously the reX team have been using FaceGen already and Peter Quirk figured it out himself. The picture above is of reX founder Juha Hulkko. I met Juha in reX, Friday, chatting with the reX team just prior to the launch.

Realxtend are using the IKAN (“Inverse Kinematics Using Analytical Methods” from the University of Pennsylvania. Jani Pirkola, Project Manager for realXtend commented:

IKAN was by the time we found it licensed “free for non-commercial use” which is incompatible with GPL license we use because of the Linden Viewer. However, they were very nice and provided the IKAN for us (and thus for everyone) as GPL. So big thanks to IKAN!

There is future development planned for the Inverse Kinematics as on its own it doesn’t deliver very natural movement:

IK movements look a bit awkward as they are but if you could use IK to partly control the keyframe animation that would be good. That is something we don’t have. But now that the IK system is in place, it is the natural next step. Did you see our task list for 2H 2008? I think there was something said about making IK feature complete.

Virtual worlds pioneer, Peter Quirk of No There There has done an extensive exploration of the new release including “how to exploit the Google 3D warehouse to find models and create Ogre meshes from them. As Peter notes the version is marked alpha code so the reX team are looking for feedback and making improvements all the time.

I did successfully teleport over to the ENSAD sim (being developed by Professor François Garnier and students of Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs de Paris) with a couple of the reX team members during my visit!

Modular Integration of realXtend Innovation into OpenSim

There has been some concern (see Justin Clark-Casey and Dusan Writer) about the integration of reX code into OpenSim.

Jani Pirkola told me that the idea for modular integration originally came when chatting with Adam Frisby about OpenSim philosophy, “that it could be a generic engine for any kind of viewer.”

Jani explained:

The idea of the modules came up because originally realXtend did many of the changes directly to OpenSim core, which is not a good way to do changes. Instead it is much cleaner to do them into modules that can be loaded on demand.

For example, the realXtend viewer could have its own protocol plugin called clientstack at OpenSim and that way it won’t interfere with SL Viewer.

I was interested to know some more about whether the idea of a build tree and mix and match plugins was already a part of OpenSim’s design. This kind of flexibilty to add or drop different features to builds according to different applications is necessary to accommodate the vast amount of innovation that needs to go on to figure out which are going to be killer apps in the future

I talked to Adam Frisby (one of the founders of OpenSim and CTO of Deep Think), Zha Ewry (IBM) and Justin Clark-Casey (IBM), about the integration of realXtend’s innovations as modules/plugins. OpenSim architecture is pretty good already for implementing mix and match plugins and “to make plugins deeper and richer” is one of the key goals. Adam pointed out OpenSim “is already doing core functionality as plugins – teleports are handled as plugins, and instant messaging and chat certainly are.”

Adam noted there many exciting possibilities that mix and match builds could create for OpenSim:

Adam Frisby: It would nice say to take the meshes from reX and say the set up and easy way to get a sim on line from Tribal, and you mix that with plain OpenSim and you have a fantastic combination.

Zha Ewry: And it is going to be that kind of evolution – we are going to cherry pick from the fifty or sixty creative things the four of five things which turn out to be killer apps. This is how open source projects win or die.

Zha Ewry: Increasingly there is no good reason why everything you do shouldn’t sit into either region code or the modular plug in code. Occasionally we are going to find that you can’t factor a bit of code out because there is some piece of the core that hasn’t been exposed right and then we are going to have to go and do that.

Tish Shute: And how does this model work for interoperability?

Zha Ewry: The Interoperability is almost entirely plugable. There are two or three bits that aren’t at the moment because of the way they entwine deep in… some of that is a matter of figuring out how to do it right and some of it requires a discussion on how we want to manage a couple of messy issues, e.g. what does it mean to host an avatar that is not authenticated by a local authentication? How do we want to handle that data structure? But there is absolutely no reason why the ability to inter operate wouldn’t be done as regions and plug code.

Just to give one example, when we figure out how we are going to fetch assets from off of Linden Lab’s asset server that is going to look like something that plugs in to the asset framework. ie. instead of gong to MySQL, we have a plugin that goes and fetches assets stored on a remote grid.

All of this functionality needs to be done in a way that can be factored as much as possible. So that you can say, I want this from this tree, this from this tree, I want to be able to fetch assets, I want to use the currency module from this tree, and that so that can produce an OpenSim with this set of features. You may be only able to get it with say these three clients but that is what you need and those are the clients that can work with what you need.

Adam explained that the goal is to put the entire realXtend functionality as plug ins on top of OpenSim as very discrete modules, e.g, a module for doing the meshes, a module for their voice chat, their avatar logins, but the goal is to be able to take these and mix and match them with everything else.

I asked Justin to comment when I saw him in the OpenSim Office Hours meeting in Wright’s Plaza, OSGrid, a packed meeting that included Hamilton and Tess Linden and a dynamic discussion on interoperability between the Linden Lab grid and OpenSIm. See Zha Ewry’s blog post, “Happy Jumping Ruths…..Interop takes a step,” to see just how far this work on interoperability between OpenSim and the Linden Lab grid has come!

Justin Clark-Casey: I think that when OpenSim and realXtend first met, there was an intention that realXtend would be integrating all the features and fixes they produced directly into OpenSim.

My motivation for writing my original post was really as an update to the situation as it had started out in February. Though it did prove too difficult, in the end, to integrate their code, I still think they could have spent some development time extracting basic core bug fixes and sending them to us – we really have received no code from them.

This is fine in itself – there’s a very good argument that value-add code should exist as external plugins and shouldn’t make it into the OpenSim core. It just frustrates me somewhat that people talk about doing stability fixes (as realXtend did in one of your interviews) and then don’t spend time to contribute them back them back.

Regarding modularity, this has been one of the core aims of OpenSim for a long time. We want to produce a generally useful platform and not just a Second Life server. I think the vision that Adam has outlined is workable, though I think our module code has quite a lot of evolution to go through yet. But it’s good that realXtend have contracted Adam’s company to do this – Adam certainly knows what he’s doing and the requirements that realXtend have should mean that some time will be spent on developing the module system within OpenSim. In this way, realXtend will be (albeit indirectly) contributing to OpenSim.

Just to be clear, from my understanding of what Adam has said, the new realXtend modules themselves will not be distributed with OpenSim. I’m assuming that instead realXtend will make a seperate distribution of OpenSim core + their modules.

Adam concurred that the Rex code will be not be merged with OpenSim and on the opensim tracker, only the improvements to OpenSim core will be. The Rex modules will be distributed by Rex themselves only.

Much of the coding for the integration of realXtend’s new code with OpenSim will be done in Deep Think’s new Shanghai office. But Adam will handle the integration plug ins to the OpenSim trunk personally. Plugins into different build options will enable, for example, taking a piece from RealXtend, taking a piece from Tribal, taking a piece from DeepThink, mashing it together with OpenSim-Core, and producing a usable result.

Adam noted:

The code we’re doing for Rex makes that possible with their components, and hopefully lets us improve the core at the same time to make it support other peoples work in the same manner.

It is jaw dropping the number of new features that realXtend has brought to the Second Life â„¢ (A registered Trademark of Linden Lab) open source client and OpenSim server tech in only a few short months. Last week the Rex team posted a video showing inverse kinematics, character morph controls, and clothing physics- see here. And, this week they have revealed their latest feature – the integration of Facegen (see the video here or click on the screenshot above).

I attended realXtend’s recent open meeting in Second Life. The Rex team answered questions to an eager crowd that included, the Second Life avatar, G2 Proto, of Kyle “G” the lead developer from G2 (see here for more on their hardware and networking division). Kyle “G” is currently involved in a collaborative effort with Microsoft to explore the abilities of the C#/.NET based OpenSim software. He is spearheading efforts with the Second Life Microsoft .Net User Group to create the Microsoft’s new developer community OpenSim grid – Project Manhattan. Kyle seemed very interested in the work of realXtend! I have an in depth interview with Kyle from G2 and Zain from Microsoft that details their vision for Virtual World Developer and Platform Evangelism on Open Sim. I am transcribing this and will post soon!

Interview with Jani Pirkola

Jani Pirkola, Rex’s Project Manager, kindly took some time to answer a few questions in the middle of this very busy and exciting time for Rex. The new Rex video showing the Facegen integration has just been posted on the Rex media page. Jani said:

It is almost scary as it is so real! I really start to see that we are approaching something so real as in Snowcrash or Otherland series of books. You can also make yourself look younger or older, different gender or race.

Tish: Wow!! Congratulations to the realXtend team you really have shown the world what can be done with the open source Second Life client and achieved what many considered impossible at this stage! These two new avatar tech videos are awesome!

Jani: Well, the main focus of our work at the moment is on Avatar. We have integrated Facegen so that you can use photos from your own face to create your own avatar.
We are just about to release new versions of viewer and server, and we start to host public avatar storage and authentication services to promote the future internet and avatar portability.
Now we have a lot of work to do on planning. But we are going to focus on three tracks:

1) a base track to fix stability issues.

2) a user experience track to make it look extremely good.

3) a collaboration track to do all the document sharing stuff.
In the new software release we have some cool new features. For example, you can have friends list working no matter where you and your friends are, so it works across realXtend grids and worlds. The same is true for your personal inventory, you can have that too with you when you teleport to different worlds.

Tish: One of the great things Rex has done is to offer so many new and great features so fast that you have for the first time created a situation where content developers have a significant new incentive to start working in an OpenSim grid. Are you beginning to see interest from content developers?

Jani: Yes, I have received many contacts for example from architects, they see the value of using real 3D models in virtual worlds. Professor François Garnier of Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs de Paris is one of the early adopters of realXtend platform in their art productions.

Tish: Obviously SL has a huge lead on content production and will probably offer licensing to open grids that want to share content at some point? But, what new models for content production do you see emerging in the Open Metaverse?

Jani: From Second Life users we have heard some complaining about the IP rights issue. They would die to have that feature on realXtend. But we have a plan for this; We could make an object rights server, that keeps SHA1 hash values of all the assets and licenses how to use that asset plus information about which users are allowed to use that asset.

Then it is possible to build a feature to the viewer that users can check if someone is using stolen or bought jacket. That creates a social pressure instead of trying to technically prevent copying. Technical prevention is always going to fail in the end, so we need to use social pressure instead. For example, If everyone could check whether an asset is owned or stolen, someone who is representing a company would not want to use anything stolen on them.

Ben Goertzel, Novamente, said that if someone steals his AI pet dog, it is a dead dog without the AI that runs on his server. Philip Rosedale was in agreement on this point also. Philip said much the same thing when he attended our Open Source Virtual Worlds panel at VW 2008.

If you really want to protect some content, you need to have server side functionality attached to it. This combined with our idea of using asset hash on a server, we think would boost the content creation.

realXtend offers possibility to use OGRE meshes and world is full of ready made 3D models that you can convert to that format. So that solves at least part of the initial egg-chicken content problem for realXtend.

Tish: Some people are proclaiming the notion of a virtual economy is dead, others say that virtual economies still have legs. What is your view on this?

Jani: First of all, I am an engineer, so economics is not my cup of tea. Still it seems that virtual money is successful in many games and virtual worlds. If it can be tied to RL money, that can be a source of many problems, like money laundering. I am not ready to say it is dead, but we might have to wait to see what future brings in this area.

Tish: There is a lot of work on interoperability going on right now. I even heard that Qwaq is considering working on interoperability with OpenSim! And I heard Rex is in talks with Solipsis. What are Rex’s goals for interoperability? I know in order to develop some of the super cool features of Rex you are not currently integrated with the OS trunk. But Adam Frisby mentioned to me a way you could remain integrated with OpenSim but still have the freedom to be the trail blazers of the future. Could you tell me more about your plans for compatibility with OpenSim in the future?

Jani: Yes, right now we are in warm talks with Solipsis to figure out how to co-operate the best possible way. Lets see what comes out from that. Their technological ideology is the best I can think of, combination of both client-server and peer-to-peer to get best of both of the worlds.

The focus in realXtend is to lead the development. There is a secondary goal to be interoperable whenever it makes sense. I just heard from Adam that the latest OpenSim is rock solid, so that is a big incentive for us to continue our efforts to modify realXtend code to be compatible with them. The goal here is to make realXtend as modules for OpenSim for easy integration.

Tish: Rex has blazed the trail with facilitating the import/export of meshes! But large meshes from programs like 3D max, while they create totally new opportunities for applications and content development, can be time consuming to work in and often require a lot of time on the import /export work, and they can be difficult to fine tune in world. One of the dreams for the future might be prim meshes that would bring the best of both worlds together (prim and mesh) do you see this as a possibility? I have heard many obstacles from bandwidth to graphic card inadequacies. But as Rex now has a reputation for doing the impossible I am asking your view on whether prim meshes are on the horizon? If not what are you doing to make meshes more flexible and easy to work with in world?

Jani: That is an interesting idea, and we have toyed ourselves with it already. It is definitely not impossible, though we have not made any decisions whether we will implement it or not.
We are going to do a lot of improvements to world building tools and add new possibilities like projectors, and things that are familiar from game level editing tools. Mesh selection is going to be fixed, for example. So you can expect much more in the area of world building. We are doing a lot of world building ourselves and have found it too cumbersome at the moment.

Tish: OpenSim is definitely the fastest forward moving kid on the metaverse block. I know that the Rex avatar server is out and the Rex grid open. But, as I have a Mac I have no first hand experience, so I am interested to know how well things are progressing re stability, concurrency and ability to scale?

Jani: Those are currently the weak points we have, but we are going to attack also these in the near future. The stability is number one, it is a must for every application out there.

Tish: OpenSim is beginning to get a lot of interest from major corporate players. IBM, Microsoft, Intel, are three of the big ones. How do you think this will effect Rex and the developing ecosystem of OpenSim?

Jani: I think you could compare OpenSim and realXtend to operating system and a windowing system. realXtend is built on OpenSim, so every big company who starts to use OpenSim, will consider using realXtend as well. By using realXtend, you actually use OpenSim server plus some modifications we have done to enable all the new features.
I am sure that OpenSim and realXtend benefit each other as the whole ecosystem looks richer that way.

Tish: Recently I talked to several key metaverse developers in Japan and the integration of 3D immersive and mobile tech is very much part of their vision. But Japanese cell phone habits make the possibilities for interesting integration very rich. In Europe and the US what interesting directions do you think this integration with 3D immersive and mobile could take?

Jani: That is something we have given a lot of thought to, but we haven’t found a clear answer yet. One idea is that there could be communication application that you can use to have presence in the virtual world even when you are on the move.