Open Source License Specifics - Core Viewer Enhancements

[Macrocosm Draegonne]

I was reading up on Blender history, and the format of license it has, it seems parts or all of the code can be used in other apps, so long as said app is also free and Open Source.  Does the SL Viewer have a compatible license for that scenario?  Like we could bring in EEVEE, PBR, Fluid Dynamics, Particles, Lighting, Hair/Fabric, Physics, Procedural Textures, Matcap, or any (few or many/simple or complex) other aspects useful to enhance the viewers abilities?

Blender 2.8 has so many amazing features, yet they've removed the game engine, it could be great for SL/OpenSIM to fill some of that void, which will be large considering the legitimate hype around blender 2.8.  Creators will want a nice clean way to get their stuff into the realms they're building for, slick blender to realm pipelines could be built on the stack with local development that looks like "in world" for the given realm, basically a custom workspace for each game/realm.  This is speaking in a future hypothetical sense where the stars align of course lol.  For now, Im much more curious about the earlier point on using some of the blender rendering tech in the LL/OpenSim viewer. 

I would wager the more of the blender rendering tech in use, the more likely those using blender would consider popping a build into new cloud SIM offerings of various types, for the various LL realms, or other grids.   That and wow how much dev time would that save to modernize some things in the viewer?  Sure would still be a huge task, but a lot of good is done and opensource already.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Macrocosm Draegonne

[Macrocosm Draegonne]

A few 2.8 real-time render effects examples.

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by Macrocosm Draegonne

[Macrocosm Draegonne]

Here's another great compilation, does nobody know if the two licenses are compatible? 

Sure the blender stuff is not meant for a game per se, but its actually meant to handle a whole lot more and still be real-time effects, including physics,  such tech in SL/OpenSIM would scream speed wise, because things are more optimized, hehh.  If the licenses are compatible it would mean mega huge tech modernization is readily available, and by working with another awesome opensource community too, plus those same blender folk are already all over the SL/OpenSIM community.

Imagine having micropolygon displacement! (Tessellation)  It performs amazing already in the current blender, 2.8 screams by even faster, and there are tons of features like that that would make any game brilliant, im keen on procedural textures too, many things could be textured with zero image files to upload/download/serve.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Macrocosm Draegonne

[Solar Legion]

There is no reason to incorporate Blender into the Second Life client. None.

Want to?

Make it yourself.

[Paul Hexem]

15 hours ago, Solar Legion said:

There is no reason to incorporate Blender into the Second Life client. None.

Want to?

Make it yourself.

Without looking at the OP, I'm not so sure that statement's true.

I've certainly seen complaints that more and more creation is moving out of SL to other programs and that people would rather see it happen in-world.

[ellestones]

On 11/10/2018 at 6:38 AM, Macrocosm Draegonne said:

I was reading up on Blender history, and the format of license it has, it seems parts or all of the code can be used in other apps, so long as said app is also free and Open Source.  Does the SL Viewer have a compatible license for that scenario?

the licenses are compatible yes for you/me/us to merge the source codes ourselves. Would LL ever do this themselves ? Probably not. Incorporating GPL license code into the viewer code would mean LL losing control of the viewer code base which is not something I can see them wanting to happen

[Solar Legion]

4 hours ago, Gadget Portal said:

Without looking at the OP, I'm not so sure that statement's true.

I've certainly seen complaints that more and more creation is moving out of SL to other programs and that people would rather see it happen in-world.

Irrelevant. 

There is no need to incorporate an entire modeling program into the Second Life client. None. 

A tool set for in client creation? Sure. An entire modeling program? No. 

Further, there are the varied Third Party clients to consider. Oh and lets not forget that some already complain about the size of the client program as is. 

That is not even getting into the changes to the graphics pipeline that would be required for some of the suggested components... 

No. Just no. 

[Phil Deakins]

23 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

There is no need to incorporate an entire modeling program into the Second Life client. None. 

That's absolutely correct, but this little chat between you and Gadget started wrongly. You stated that "There is no reason to incorporate Blender into the Second Life client", but nobody was suggesting it. What has been said is that Blender does allows chunks of it to be used, and what Gadget ought to have said is that we could make good use parts of Blender in-world.

[Paul Hexem]

5 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

That's absolutely correct, but this little chat between you and Gadget started wrongly. You stated that "There is no reason to incorporate Blender into the Second Life client", but nobody was suggesting it. What has been said is that Blender does allows chunks of it to be used, and what Gadget ought to have said is that we could make good use parts of Blender in-world.

Yeah, that.

[Macrocosm Draegonne]

7 hours ago, Solar Legion said:

Irrelevant. 

There is no need to incorporate an entire modeling program into the Second Life client. None. 

A tool set for in client creation? Sure. An entire modeling program? No. 

Further, there are the varied Third Party clients to consider. Oh and lets not forget that some already complain about the size of the client program as is. 

That is not even getting into the changes to the graphics pipeline that would be required for some of the suggested components... 

No. Just no. 

Im actually talking about rendering, but yeah there are other features built out in there too, a lot of which would have no good being in a game lol.  Realtime rendering Lighting/Physics/Particles/Tesselation/etc... is the point of my curiosity ... SL is already based on opensource code with upstreams, no new thing in that at all, even has some similar upstreams to Blender in OpenGL.  Sl probably has many other opensource upstream bits too, especially in the server stuff, which i've yet to look at personally.

SL already has a great in-world building with prims, that can iteself be expanded on in its own unique way.  No need for meshing in world though IMO, if you want complex use blender, in 2.8 you can mimic the SL environment, so it feels like in world fairly easily.   The only "creation" thing I would think neat to include is creating procedural materials, that could reduce bandwidth usage a lot, & inspire some unique creations.  ...and then of course the existing SL creation tools would be all shiny fast and hq, lighting, texturing, physics, etcetera. Edit: Maybe not physics, but that is in blender too, though im not sure its proper for games vs other solid options.

Last Edit lol:  All this is only a curiosity, open source projects can go all sorts of directions over time.  What got me intrigued was the real-time rendering in blender 2.8 thats so fast it can even be used in a full featured editing software.  The thought is in a game perhaps it would fly even faster due to optimization and such, or totally not at all, I am agnostic to outcomes, especially when brainstorming.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Macrocosm Draegonne