Xah Lee wrote in 2006-12-22: > Of Interest: > > Introduction to 3D Graphics Programing > http://xahlee.org/3d/index.html
Folks, i have expanded my tutorial to several pages in the past nearly two months, and thank you very much for those who have given encouragement. I had plans to write pages that actually contained Python or Perl and elisp code to demonstrate the mingled use of common languages with POV-RAY and other tools for doing algorithmic mathematical art... However, i'm posting now for one in-credible discovery that amazed me, and believe it is a revolutionary both with respect to technology, as well as its social impact. Following is my brief introduction. The web version is at: Introduction to Second Life http://xahlee.org/sl/sl.html ------- Introduction to Second Life Xah Lee, 2007-01-09 above: A screenshot of a location in Second Life. This place is called “The Future”, it is a place built by Henry Segerman ↗ built. Second Life is a online virtual world with 2 million accounts as of 2006-12, and reportedly 10 thousand users logged in at any moment. Basically, you operate a software that is a 3D world much like 3D games, but everything in the “game” is built by users, and you can interact with other users, including buying and selling virtual land with real money. What people do inside Second Life is entirely up to them (as in real life). And, as it happens, what people do mostly in Second Life are pretty much what people do in real life. The major activities are: sex, shopping, socializing, dancing. My mathematician friend Henry Segerman introduced me to 2nd life. (also because it appeared in Time Mag in 2006-12.) Henry has a 2nd life page that contains many math objects made in Second Life: http://www.stanford.edu/~segerman/2ndlife.html. Part of my interest in Second Life is to build geometric models. (See Introduction to 3D Graphics Programing) I have for the past couple years sought for a software platform/system where i can build 3D objects, with abilities to do interactive adjustment (such as moving a slide to change a surface's parameter), dynamic rotation (viewing from different angles), animations (such as morphing that shows geometric processes), and most of all, walk-thru in it as if it is a building. As far as my experiences goes, no software platform for 3D graphics are close to the ideal of what i need to do. They lack one feature or the other, or otherwise requires the programer to be a specialist with years of dedication in learning the tool. For example, Mathematica↗ has great collection of math functions but no dynamic graphics. POV-RAY↗ and 3D-modelers like AutoCAD↗ can do great in building 3D objects but they are not designed for interactivity, animations, or walk-thru. Java the programming language↗ allows one to write applets that does rotation and interactive manipulation but programing in Java is extremely unnecessarily complex and yet it is still not possible to do walk-thrus. The one class of platform that does all these, is 3D game engines. But alas, they take a dedicated game programing specialist to be able to use it. Second Life changed all this. (Note: Just for completness, my requirement for a 3D-graphics programing software system is this: • easy to use for average programers or scientists. • Easy to build geometry models, such as basic shapes like spheres and blocks, as well as surfaces or meshes of triangles. • designed for interactivity. That is, the programer can easily build buttons and sliders that changes parameters and have the object reflect these changes visually right away. • the user can easily change viewing angles or rotate the object. • The programer can easily do animations. For example, morph a sphere into a cube, or a bunch of spheres flying in space as a swarm of flies. • The ability to do walk-thru (or fly-thru). For example, if i build a fancy 3D-maze or architecture, i should be able to — say — become a ant, and walk inside the object, so as to view the object from inside and as well as getting the real experience of perceiving such a building. (Before my discover of Second Life, the platform that i was considering nearly ideal and preparing to learn, are VPython↗ and Macromedia Flash↗ (i do still plan to learn these technologies) )) Second Life is not just the answer to my mathematical fantasies, but because of its Real-World nature, being run and build by real people, and with scarily real money market of the virtual dollars it uses, is nothing but a technological revolution with great social impact. It is essentially the virtual-3D-world-wide-web dream of VRML↗ envisioned around 1995. Anshe Chung↗ is famouly known for being the first to become a (real world) millionaire by selling entirely virtual items and virtual services inside Second Life. For a encyclopedic introduction, see: Second Life↗ Here are some articles about Second Life. (note that there are a lot linked at the bottom of the Wikipedia article.) * Time Mag: “My So-Called Second Life”, By Joel Stein, 20061216.↗ * businessWeek online: INSIDE INNOVATION — IN SIDE. Second Life Lessons. By Reena Jana and Aili McConnon. 2006-11-27.↗ 2007-01-21, Addendum Recently i heard of Entropia Universe↗. I haven't taken a closer look but i think it is a competitor to Second Life. Note that Second Life may not be and is probably not the first virtual world. And, when virtual world like Second Life becomes household activity as the internet is today, it will probably not be known as Second Life or run by one single company, but diverse companies with servers all over the world, where there is a unified virtual world all the world's people can be in. (This situation may be likened to the internet circa 1995. Or, perhaps also similar when telephone was in its pioneering days.) ---- Xah [EMAIL PROTECTED] ∑ http://xahlee.org/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
