Question for Ebbe for Sept 13th Town Hall - Sim Archiving

[Pixels Sideways]

My bad -- missed the deadline on the official forum so hoping someone at LL will see this.

 

I have been creating full sim experiences for art and edu in SL since 2008, primarily on the LEA sims.   I've also visited sims throughout SL in the 10+ years I've been in SL.   So many wonderful places that are gone.  While this has long been the transitive ephemeral nature of Second Life, it doesn't have to be.

I've discussed with many artists and content creators and having the ability to archive a full sim -- a special kind of inventory where you can select and rez an entire sim exactly as it was -- all the terraforming, content, etc. -- would be pretty awesome.  

This would be especially great for sims created by people who are no longer active in SL or have passed away.  When someone creates a full sim experience, they could archive it and choose some options such as, if I am no longer active in SL, I give my permission to LL to exhibit my work" so that the sims could be handed off to LL as legacy exhibitions so they could be razzed periodically for new residents to explore and be inspired by.  

This would also be wonderful for RP and and exhibitions by groups or individuals to be able to swap out sims.   

The cost of a full sim in SL is still very expensive so having the ability to archive sims and swap them out would expand the use of full sims.

The LEA sims, for example, if they had been "archived" would be able to provide some amazing full sim exhibitions from the past.  Within a few minutes, an exhibition that took someone months to create could be easily recreated.   

This would also allow people to rework old projects to update with mesh, etc., using the previous sim as a template.

I have no clue how much storage an entire full sim full of content, scripts, etc., would take up on a server if it was "zipped."  

There would obviously be some kind of fee that people would pay to have full sims archived.  It should be very nominal though.   

I think this would also be an economic advantage.  People who are struggling to fund one full sim are not going to get another one to create more experiences unless they are willing to scrap all their work on the current one they are using to create a new full sim experience.  

However, having the ability to archive an entire sim -- and being able to easily reinstate it -- would encourage sim owners to make more use of their sims -- and create or purchase more content for several different sims that could be archived.  

So that's my question.  Can LL set up some kind of full sim archiving capability?

Thanks!

pixels

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by Pixels Sideways
to fix some awkward sentences

[Garnet Psaltery]

That's an amazing idea.

[Callum Meriman]

9 minutes ago, Pixels Sideways said:

I've discussed with many artists and content creators and having the ability to archive a full sim -- a special kind of inventory where you can select and rez an entire sim exactly as it was -- all the terraforming, content, etc. -- would be pretty awesome.  

The lab have this ability. Note how the Gardens of Apollo came back from the many years dead.

The *biggest* issue is no-copy protection. Such a feature would need to have strong content protection built in so people can't use it as a way to duplicate gatcha rares.

[Parhelion Palou]

 A few years ago I spent about 6 months doing a complex region build on a homestead region I was renting. I linked the components together as much as possible, stored the location in the description, and took the pieces into inventory. The landlord (one of the Chungs) was kind enough to download the terrain map and send it to me. A more automated method would be nice, but it would have to be for the owner's use only. Nobody else would have the rights to use the pieces in the builds.

The other problem is restoring the terrain ... I tried it last year on the region I own. What you get is not quite what was there before ... the tool doesn't have enough information to precisely reproduce the original terrain. I spent many hours finding and fixing most of the problems. The region would have to be in very bad shape before I'd do that again.

[Chic Aeon]

Since the question thread is close, your best bet would be to attend the meeting (this to the OP) and ask your question after the cameras stop rolling :D. 

[Luna Bliss]

12 hours ago, Parhelion Palou said:

What you get is not quite what was there before ... the tool doesn't have enough information to precisely reproduce the original terrain.

Yes that is the most annoying thing about trying to copy a sim...the terrain conforms to a grid and that grid is not tight enough. That's one reason why I prefer to rez a prefab sim for my customers after they apply the .raw rather than just hand it all over to them -- I can go in and fix the terrain. Would love to have OAR's that could transfer to others, but I imagine the perms problem would be pretty tricky.

The only solution it seems is to go to prim/mesh ground in order to capture it all in a rezz box, but this increases the LI. Fingers crossed sculpts don't increase in LI too much, as my 256m tall sculpt waterfalls might be too costly in LI then, and would surely increase if created in mesh.