Second Life

In response to increasing demand, the UM3D Lab has begun investigating the popular online world called Second Life.

Second Life is a virtual world in which participants may raise buildings, model and animate 3d objects and creatures, and buy and sell virtual goods. Although occupying land and buying and selling virtual objects incurs a varying scale of monthly fees, basic participation, including creating your own avatar, observing various sites and interacting with others, is free.

Transactions are performed via the "Lindendollar", a unit of currency valued at ~$L250:$US1. The actual currency value fluctuates according to the market. These virtual dollars can be purchased from third party vendors, earned by online activities, and even withdrawn from online atm's.

Educational Applications

Dozens of academic institutions from around the world have implemented some kind of geographic presence on Second Life, either as a department project or to facilitate online lectures. Classes taught in Second Life feature the Skype voice system, and although people flying overhead may prove a distraction, are open to participants from anywhere an internet connection is available.

Here is a list of schools currently participating in Second Life. Listings with an SLURL address may be visited directly using a Second Life client.

Australian Film TV and Radio School	Harvard
University of Northern Illinois	University of San Diego
This is a Second Life map of the New Media Consortium campus (click image to enlarge), comprising over a dozen islands. The NMC is driving several collaboration efforts with universities across the country. The Digital Media Commons is a member of the NMC.
An Auditorium on NMC's Campus	NMC stage with interactive slideshow displays

Development

The UM3D Lab has utilized Linden Labs' Second Life source code to develop a stereoscopic viewer which allows for a truly unique Second Life experience. This custom viewer allows the user to see Second Life in 3D on everything from a simple desktop monitor to advanced projection systems similar to IMAX theatres.

The second iteration of the viewer which will support anaglyph (red/cyan glasses), passive, and active stereo is currently being refined for release in November, 2007.

Avatar

The avatar is your representative in the game world of second life, much like the representation of the player in a multi-player video game. Although the user chooses from only a few default avatars, Second Life allows extensive customization after the fact. Doctor Tower, below, is the current rep for the UM3D Lab online.

One's avatar may be updated or changed radically at any time, not only when opening account.

Avatar interface	Face details

Modeling Interface

Second Life offers a very basic 3d modeling interface based on "prims" (short for primitives), which allows compilations of simple geometric objects. Generating and lofting splines, nurbs surfaces and other advanced modeling is currently not available. Animations are facilitated through scripting.

These prims can be created by right-clicking on the ground in a "Sandbox" area (a public access space), or anywhere your avatar has permission to create. A creation pop-up menu will appear.	Red, green and blue manipulation handles allow the user to drag the object to the desired scale. The user may snap to predetermined metric measurements which appear by default around the object.
This is an example of Rotation.	More precise measurements can be achieved by numerical input of the various parameters, under the "more" option in the interface.

Simple structures can be built fairly quickly combining several prims. A few furniture models and basic texture maps are also provided to the user at no cost.

Gallery

Under the sea	Restricted area
Unfinished ship	Vehicles for sale
Marina	Spanish Galleon
A Vivox phonebooth	Live Reuters newsfeed
Christmas in Second Life