Second Life: An Emerging Technology for 3D Websites

Veiw figure View Figure

2.2. Inventory

All the objects you create are stored in inventory. Inventory in Second Life can be referred to as a storage box. It stores everything owned by an Avatar. All the objects either created by avatars themselves or bought from market places are all stored in the inventory. All avatars have their own private inventory which is visible to them only. No one else can see it except the particular avatar.

2.3. Linden Scripting Language

Second Life has its own language called Linden Scripting Language, commonly known as LSL ^[7]. It is an event- driven language, which has its own events and functions. All the functions and events are present on the official wiki website of Second Life ^[5]. For example, few functions regarding Avatar are llAttachToAvatar to attach objects to the avatar. Similarly, there is another function called llDetachFromAvatar to detach objects from avatar. There are many numerous functions available to be used to interact with the environment. Scripts are written to bring objects to life. For example, to convert a simple glass into a money bank, we need to write a script using the appropriate events and functions. Scripts can directly be written inside SLViewer in an editor, this is convenient because it makes let the user see the effect of the script on the particular object then and there. It also makes it easy to catch the errors in the run time.

Figure 2. LSL Code Environment

Download as

Veiw figure View Figure

2.4. Animation

Animation enables an avatar to perform some sequence of actions. For Example, An avatar has gone to a library and wants to sit on a table and read some book. As soon as Avatar will sit on the table, sitting Animation will get triggered and Avatar will get into the posture of reading a book. There is lots of software to create the animations like Qavimator, Mixamo.com, Poser, but we prefer to use Qavimator ^[11] because it gives the user friendly environment. Figure 3 depicts the environment of Qavimator. It is also called bvh animation editor, because the extension for animations accepted by Second Life is .bvh. Qavimator is widely used software because it is easily adaptable by letting the users to change each and every position of the body, from head to feet with respect to x, y, and z axis. Many types of animation can be created through this and can be imported to the SLViewer for applying to the objects.

Figure 3. Snapshot of Qavimator

Download as

Veiw figure View Figure

2.5. Textures

A texture is used to give a real face to the objects. They are like covers which are wrapped on the object to make them look real. For example, if an Avatar has created a beach chair, then they would like to give it a light colored stripped-fabric texture. The software used to make textures are GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program ^[12], Photoshop, ArtRage2, Genetica, Texture Maker and more, but we have preferred GIMP.

2.6. Currency

Second Life has its own currency called Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars can be bought in exchange of US Dollars. Nowadays, USD 1 = L$ 250 ^[13]. Residents of Second Life can create, buy and sell items in the virtual world. They can attend classes to learn about building in SL, attend concerts, party all the time and they can go to market place and do shopping. Marketplace has all type of stuff. They can be bought in exchange of Linden Dollars or for free. Business can also be conducted in Second Life, people can sell the objects created by them, and can give tuitions, sell land, rent land, teach in some school, and can do much more.

3. Implementation Using SL

We have mentioned in previous section that Second Life is an emerging technology so it keeps on changing very often. Because of its changing factor, all of its content is scattered over the internet which ends up making its users, especially the beginners confuse. Millions of residents, who are using SL since a very long time have invented their own way of explanations which they do by blogging it either on SL blogs or they have created their own forums. This makes it cumbersome and burdensome to find an exact thing. Here is an easy way to learn SL.

Figure 4. User's View

Download as

Veiw figure View Figure

Figure 4 describes the introductory steps a user has to follow while stepping into the world of Second Life. The first thing a user should do is to register themselves to Second Life forum by logging in to their official website www.secondlife.com. The users are required to give their personal information including first and last name, email address and gender. Users will be asked to choose an avatar, which will represent them in the virtual world of SL. User can change the avatar later or they can create one themselves.

There are two types of accounts for a user to register as: Free and Premium. To be a Premium member a user has to pay registration fee in dollars. This type of account lets a user to buy a land where they can build their buildings and conduct the activities. Whereas free account is a limited account and the objects created by free users will not be permanent. Once user becomes a SL member, now they will require buying a land where they will be allowed to conduct any activity they like. The last step is to download the SLViewer. For users having free account is not required buy land but they can start directly. The major disadvantage of being a free member is that a user does not have their own land to work for. They have to be teleported to sandboxes, which are public places that allow residents to create objects. This is similar to the real world that no one would allow some other person to build a house or conduct any other activity within their premises. People have to buy their own properties even in Second Life.

Figure 5. Developer's View

Download as

Veiw figure View Figure