Stand-alone SL client

Pulled from this thread:



I think this is a cool thing that the Lindens can do this, and then the idea hit me: Why wouldn't it be possible for all users to do this?

Granted, maybe not a whole sim's worth of workspace, but I know there are times when I'd like to play with some scripting ideas or texturing ideas or building ideas and it would be nice to have a small private place not dependant on the main grid (lag/griefers/downtime/asset server issues/etc)

So thought I'd pose the question here (and sorry if I'm posting something tossed around a million times. I'm too lazy to search at work ):

Would you want a small stand-alone version of SL for working on projects before uploading them to the main grid? Why or why not? Would you be willing to pay extra for this service/priviledge?

Discuss.

YES! Nothing would be more appealing to me than a local mini-simulator in which I could script and build. Add in the ability to upload local objects to the main grid and you have just increased SL's utility and my productivity ten fold.

Think of it! No lag. No waiting for inventory. No endless stream of IMs. I could work during travel or commute.

Naturally, they can't do this because someone will reverse engineer the thingamajig and then it will all be over.

~Ulrika~

I've seen this discussed several times on the forums before, and while I agree, I think it opens up the bigger can of worms of personal backups of LL's asset server, and I didn't want to get into that argument again. Just wanted the idea of a stand-alone (as in completely separate) client for experiment purposes only.



This is always possible, even with a completely networked and non-solo program (see the multiple copies of various MMORPG that have "private servers" or the infamous bnet case).

However, However, it is already in the TOS (I believe) that you cannot reverse-engineer the SL client/server software, so LL would be able to go after people legally should they want to do that, and besides, with an initial membership cost of SL at $0 right now, I don't see the rationale for building another online grid.

And I personally think the ability to experiment without having to worry about server resources/griefers/etc would improve the quality of things that make it in-world.

Maybe I'm optimistic and naive though.

Understood. I fully support that idea as well.

~Ulrika~

There are huge infrastructure questions with this, but the basic idea is pretty awesome. Allowing anyone to esentially run a private mini-sim would be awesome.

Thats unlikely to happen anytime but I don't think it would be too hard to let clients run their own offline, unconnected sandbox with frozen assets, which would be great for testing and developing stuff quietly.

I would really want something like this. It would make it much easier to bebug scripts without all the poo.

Even if there was no way to "import" or connect I'd love to test and build even if it meant rebuilding and copy and pasting scripts.

The technology already exists, as the Lindens use this for their own testing purposes. I don't see why a modified version couldn't be released to the general populace, or at the very least, available for a nominal fee.

Yes. Like a developer's sim that only allows a single avatar at a time. I'd pay for that.

~Ulrika~

Won't this be the same issue as an offline sandbox persay? Only thing I don't know about, how can we transfer our made items on our stand-alone clients to the maingrid?

Like security issues and such?

This idea has been posted in several threads and I didn't want to get that far into that debate. Just the idea of having a place where you could experiment with textures/scripts/building concepts without any actual power to transfer objects between the offline and online versions of the client.

Granted, it wouldn't be used as much for building (unless you used one of the backup scripts to create a notecard of data), but I figured for testing out scripts and textures, it would be ideal to have this small playground.

Bump - this is a fantastic idea. Even if they couldn't allow us to "connect" the two and upload stuff made offline due to some security / rev engineering stuff, it would still be useful to test out scripts/clothing/ect while offline, without having people wander by and grief, ect, ect...

All I ask is a simple stand-alone client that has SL's prim building/editing tools, with an import/export option, save to file option, plus able to run at the same time as SL.

- If I need to be someplace in SL for a while that's no-build, or where building is rude, so I could work on the side.

- If my sim is inhabitable for building at the moment (severe lag, or disconnected) (I consider the public sandboxes always inhabitable).

- So I could have the privacy needed if I was working on a market-sensitive product.

- So I could build if the broadband was out for a while.

- So I could build on the laptop when away from an SL-capable/connected computer.

- So I could back up my work in case of any of your happy magical "asset oopsies" occur.

- Because since we can back up sounds, animations, textures, and even scripts, that maybe at this point we should really be able to back up objects, because needing a third party object data collection system is annoying.

Why The "Offline Sandbox" Idea Is Good::

- Zero Lag (hardware rendering notwithstanding)
- No interruptions from IM or Greifers
- Build whatever, test whatever, less odds of taking the grid down with a mistake.
- Less bandwidth intensive.

Potential Issues::

- Duplication of no-copy items, and Asset logistics.
- Reverse-Engineering of the Sim.
- Potential loss of revenue since less people would buy private islands?

[ OMITTED: raving and ranting about stuff I know little about ]