Why SL makes me sad...

Sometime in the future, next Sunday, AD...

Maxx Monde is selling 3D towers. Not as objects in world, but as RPG objects for table top games. As playsets for action figures. As prototype models for a design firm. Think I'm kidding? ZCorp might agree with me.

3D printing. Second Life could actually, really, honestly be a tool for collaborative 3D building. With exporting, the right drivers, and a $25,000 printer(1) you could run a custom art studio from your house.

But, and this is why I sniffle, SL is a world. It's a game. It's not a collaborative tool, because having it as a tool is wrong.

*sigh*

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1. A CD burner used to be $3,000. 5MB of drive space used to be $20,000. Technology gets cheaper.

Whaaaaaaaaat?

Stuff like that makes me all tingly inside!

I'm a bit confused, Jarod. What is stopping people from using SL as a tool right now? Obviously there are people in-game using it to help sell real world items, and there is also potential for artists to use SL to model objects, take photos, manipulate the photos, etc. (as some are doing now, as well).

You seem really disappointed by the way SL is being used or handled or whatever, and I'm not entirely sure why. SL is pretty new, maybe it will just take a while to grow into or toward what you think it should be.

Jarod, Sl is many things. Including several different kinds of tools. AND, it can be collaborative.

Mmmm, I think it depends on what you want SL to be

For me SL is not a game but another place, like some foreign country to visit. Many people in SL just enjoy themselves and play games there, but the SL environment itself seems to be more generic.

From this point you should not feel sad. I feel it is very thrilling that SL is a place where people can produce and export goods to RL. It makes the virtual reality more real and gives people more options to stay in it longer. The more goods and services SL exports the more value and meaning it gives to that place, to its people and the relationships between those people

We each have our own thoughts about what SL is and how it is used/run/played and the diversity seen within SL is a testament to that fact. One person's vision is another's nightmare...

That said, I feel that SL is what ultimately YOU make of it

Charlton

i think jarod feels dissed by the fact that we can't export the 3d objects we create inworld. that would not be a difficult feature to add. ll just refuses to do it.
that's okay of course it's their company etc...

it'll be a deciding factor when the competition arrives.

whatever the overall plan is, it seems to hinge on having a closed world. i'm frankly suprised that they're going to the trouble of implementing rpc. i suppose it just turned out to be a whole lot easier than writing to a notecard.

anyway, i'm pretty sure that's what jarod is talking about.

On a slightly unrelated matter, did anyone go to the ZCorp link? I had to because I was urious to see how that would work. Anywho, it's rather interestin gto see how they go about making 3d models out of digital data, and in something that you could feasibly fit into a small office. Sorta Spiffy. There's a demo that ake s about 2 minutes that is sorta interesting.

Then again, the cheapest machine they have starts at just over $25k.

If its the same 'printer' I read about in a news article, it takes 6 hours to print a coffee cup, and then you still have to bake it in the microwave for a few minutes to get rid of the wax.

oh just drink the wax devlin. it won't hurt you.

Can't drink it. The wax is part of the coffee cup till you cook it out.

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Beryl Greenacre said, "What is stopping people from using SL as a tool right now?"

Nothing. I use it as a tool. Whining and moping was just my best strategy to get people to agree that SL could be used as a tool. If I'd come out and said, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to 'print' objects from SL," peope would have told me that that was irrelevant or complained that I was trying to ruin a leisure activity with commercialism.

Beryl Greenacre said, "You seem really disappointed by the way SL is being used or handled or whatever, and I'm not entirely sure why."

Handled. I don't see SL being around in two years, and that makes me kind of sad. There are three or four things that could be changed right now to firmly lock SL as the dominant 3D interface of tomorrow -- open protocol, SL Client API, exportable models, independant "back yard" client -- but they're all patently ignored. That's what makes me grumpy.

Khamon Fate said, "anyway, i'm pretty sure that's what jarod is talking about."

Jarod Godel's talking can be whatever you want it to be about. The beauty of Jarod Godel's talking is that it's what you make of it. If you find a flame in it, it's a flame. If you see prophecy in the madness, it's prophecy. Jarod Godel's talking is very dynamic.

i saw this product about a month ago or so. the first thing i thought of was, 'wow.. imagine if i could "print" stuff from SL'

imagine the amazing things that could be done!

Starax' sculptures being printed in 3D!!!

having a build you made printed.. then when someone asks you about you can say, 'oh, that? it's a model of something i made in Second Life'!

have an invention in mind? build it in SL, export, print. there you go, bring it to the patent office and voila!

of course, what would probably not be possible anyway is something that could prove to be rather lucrative.. not to mention fun. it would be too cool if we could 'print' our avatars as 3D models!!! ..imagine..