A mobile world: SL on the move?

Today I came across this youTube video and article on TechDigest:

No, your eyes aren't kidding you. That really is the processor-shredding Second Life virtual world running on an iPhone. But how? And why is it so slow? Well, the answer is that it's a concept demo produced by mobile technology firm
Comverse.

In a layman's nutshell, all the processing is being done NOT on the iPhone, on a central server. All that's being streamed to the iPhone is the visuals - essentially, a video feed of the Second Life environment. Then, when you tap the
on-screen buttons to move, or type in a message, that's sent back up to the server for processing.

So, it's not a Second Life client on the iPhone - it's just streaming Safari-friendly video of your SL session, with you able to send your commands back in the other direction. That's why it's this sluggish at the moment, because you're one step removed.

Second Life is too resource-consuming to go mobile right now. Especially its streaming technology requires quite a lot of bandwidth to render the simulation you're in. For the time being this is a nice gimmick to show your friends, but not of any real use.

But the virtual worlds will get on the move sooner or later. For the virtual workspace to have an impact on our busy lives they will have to go mobile. It will require lighter interfaces and more bandwidth on mobile phones, but we'll get there. Why?

Well, I'm on my way to a meeting, and I'm stuck in a traffic jam. I'll be missing this important meeting. Time to pull over and log into our virtual world and do this meeting there...

Easy as Dell

Second Life needs a whole lot of hardware to run on. Small wonder that computer manufacturers such as Dell establish a presence in SL that goes beyond your regular plot. It's business to be made here, I'd say. Second Life will drive the current server architecture to the limits and will challenge manufacturers to provide more power; in core, in memory, in videocards, in multithreading etcetera.

Dell's presence is spread over various sims, which is a rather good thing, since they have a whole menagerie of different styles. The central welcome area breathes a somewhat French athmosphere with little shops around a circular plaza. Here's where you can get your goodies and can access the teleport platform.

From this platform you're transported by tamponeske shuttlepods to the other parts of the Dell sim. There's the Factory, an Oil-rig style megacomputer invoking thoughts of Sean Connery's entry into Alcatraz through the fan-system in "The Rock" and there's the Business side of life, an Auditorium and a convention center.





It's fun to enter the belly of the beast and notice the fans can't chop off your head, but the sim misses a get-back-soon invitation.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dell%20Island%203/235/159/64