As we all know, we have already achieved this in some areas with the new export perms,pixelviewer and hypergrid, but for a long time Opensim was playing catch-up with technology. These days, there is less and less noticeable difference. But for grids to ever appeal to more than the converted SL crowd and its already converted core users, its going to have to offer MORE than SL presently offers. Any commercial grid aiming for long-long-term success NEEDS to consider these issues sooner rather than later.
Now, before I start, I dont want people to think this is a thread where I am suggesting/demanding these things are implemented soon, or suggesting that it is in some way priority to do these things or anything like that. Some of these ideas may not even be possible. This is just a thread for people to throw out ideas, discuss what they would like to see. A flight of fantasy,
as it where.1. Avatar 2.0 - A concept that has sent chills down the spines of content creators grid-wide in SL for years is the idea of updating the default avatar to be less, well.....horrific. I think this is the single biggest improvement any grid could go for, and does not have to be painful for creators, so long as the existing users can switch back and forth between their old avi and the new type. Imagine if a grid provided a halfway decent avi with a nice range of customization options out of the box. The default avis most places use these days were not up to task when they were implemented. Nowadays, they are downright off-putting.
2. Better default content - Ami mentioned this in the thread directly below
. The old linden trees and other freebie stuff should be chucked out and new stuff put in its place. Doesn't have to be mind-blowingly amazing stuff, but just up to a decent standard for today's expectations of a virtual world.3. Voxel Terrain - This would be a tricky one, but a very cool. Imagine being able to raise a mountain, then hollow it out. With voxel based terrain, you would be able to have much more control over your island. I am sure someone is going to come along and tell me why it cant be done and bust my bubble
lol If we cant do that, then at least look at the 4-terrain texture limitation.4. More Materials - Call me premature, with the full material module pending proper implementation any day now, but I was somewhat disappointed to see LL only implement Specular and Bump. Seeing things like Glow, Displacement, Occlusion would be great and turn some heads for sure.
Well, thats about all I can think of for now. I am not quite sure where I expect this thread to go, but I am sure there is an interesting conversation to be had here somewhere
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Again, changes both server and client side with additional data for the landscape and the way it is edited and rendered, plus changes to the height detection code, breaking physics objects that rely on it, and other issues.. However - It is relatively trivial to replace a terrain with mesh or other components, but it can't look as nice without multitexturing/shaders.
Texturing it on the other hand - oh dear, we need that multitexturing and shaders again. Of course, doing it properly with actual editing and displaying in viewer would be MUCH harder