Second Life Open Sources Client

An anonymous reader writes "Just noticed that Second Life released their client under the GPL today, and that they're up to 2.4 million users. Article says that 15% of users contribute scripted objects."

now we just need open source servers. -nt-

[Suppafly]

-nt-

WTF?

[A beautiful mind]

In total, the software for Second Life comprises five gigabytes of source code, according to Joe Miller, Linden's vice president for platform and technology development.

Is this a joke? I doubt that even if you include every texture and animation and sound file in what they call "source code " that it would be this much. Smells fishy.

Excellent? Maybe ...

[eldavojohn]

Really, this is a great step towards "Cyberspace" á la Snow Crash. Open Source and, eventually, Open Standars will vastly spur development of this technology.

I'm generally positive about this move also. However, I played Second Life for a couple weeks back when it was coming out and, it's quite clear that Linden Dollars are directly equivalent to USD in some ratio. Now, one thing I've learned about MMORPGs like World of Warcraft & Ultima Online is that the client needs to be protected. What better way to protect it than to open source it, right? While I am of that opinion when it comes to other software, I feel that this just presents many problems for the server side of things. From the article,

But now, says Linden CEO Philip Rosedale, independent programmers will be able to "modify it, fire it up and sign on with it." The company gave Fortune exclusive access to executives in advance of the change.

Ok, so this is good unless hackers figure out how to modify the code to just perpetually make them Linden dollars. This isn't a combat game and position hacks really wouldn't do anything for you since you can fly anywhere in the game anyway. But I'm still a bit worried about people being able to look at the code of the client and abuse some action or property that is left responsible to the client and, in this manner, they gain an edge or amass Linden dollars.

Perhaps my fears are unfounded but I would imagine that the servers would be heavily taxed if everything was going on server side. I mean, let's say you make a product. It's possible this creation process is left to your client and then the server is informed of the new object and persists it. Well, wouldn't it be profitable to make a client that just keeps notifying the server of new objects that sell well in the world? I'm not too clear on the crafting process in Second Life but I imagine it takes resources.

I've heard a lot of comparisons of Second Life to Snow Crash but I'm not sold yet on this step being purely progress forward. I don't even think I could think of server software that could handle all possible clients without the processing and network traffic getting exponential.

Re:Excellent? Maybe ...

[Cheesey]

I think this is a surprising move, but for a different reason than client-side hacking, which is always unavoidable (although made easier by releasing source).

LL make their money by selling server space. You can't just connect your own server to SL - it has to be one of theirs. The network is closed. All of the PR and astroturfing that's been coming out of LL recently is aimed at getting more people to invest in SL space: the more investors there are, the more the space will be worth. They're trying to drive a homesteading boom like the one that happened in the early days of the Web, when companies started to go online.

Now people could create a SL client that can connect to an alternative SL universe: one where the servers are free software clones of the original SL servers. This makes SL an open standard. That means we can all join in and host our own stuff without having to pay LL for a server. The system is open - we can join for free.

Presumably LL are relying on "their network" being the best, so people continue to pay them for something they can now do for less money elsewhere. Bit like AOL and Compuserve assuming that their internal networks would always be worth more than Internet access.

Re:Excellent? Maybe ...

[thygrrr]

> Ever heard of aim-bots? Those work with closed-source clients.

Yeah, but it's actually just a "tool" that happens to break a "game". SL is not a game. It's a crude early version of cyberspace, and hence has performance, security and stability issues galore. However, it's the best there is at the moment, and, quite frankly - it's mind-boggling what some people pull off with nothing but finite state automatons and parametric geometry.

>On the other hand, it looks like the Linden folks are still working on server controls to make sure stuff doesn't run out of >control. Flying penis storms, grey goo, that sort of thing.

Yes, that's necessary, and it's good. Their Grid defense has become much better in the recent months, and grey goo type attacks can rather quickly be contained.

>Hey, it's the first beast specifically of this type. There are a lot of hard lessons you learn by being first.

Yes, it's the first beast of this kind, and the lessons learned are invaluable - and very tough.

Open Source good, but IP now dead

[Baavgai]

Second Life has a curious economy. People make money by making stuff and selling to others, but it's all virtual stuff that must be run on the client. While some object code does live on the server, everything required for visual rendering must be revealed to the client at some point.

A look at SL history will show various incidents of people figuring out how to work around content protection to copy it unhindered and the vicious controversy that ensues. Now, there is simply no such thing as graphical Intellectual Property. Open client code should mean open copying.

They have just knowingly crippled one of the their models of avatars getting money from other avatars. The "steal this avatar" client will be out in a week, I'd wager. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Re:What's a Resident?

[jejones]

The music depends on what whoever owns that portion of land you're on decides to provide, if any. Believe me, if you want to hear techno or rap or electronica, it's there in plenty. (There's a goodly number of singer-songwriters doing live shows, and they're pretty darned good, too.)

I agree about the graphics; LL promises that they'll improve them and I guess we'll see whether they're serious about it.

I hope that the OSing of the client will lead to a lot of UI experimentation and improvement, and maybe even improved graphics before LL gets around to it.

Are you representative of SL residents in general? I don't know; I have no idea what fraction of them misuse the phrase "begs the question."

Re:Open Source good, but IP now dead

[Anonymous Coward]

There are already "steal this avatar" clients... this release will mean nothing. As the Lindens keep pointing out to the various hysterical fuckwits who scream about copying... if you make Linden dollars out of selling fucking 512x512 textures to people, good luck, but don't be surprised if it that revenue vanishes in the end. THAT LITTLE SQUARE OF PIXELS IS MY INTELLECTUAL PWOPERTY... is common... paraphrased, obviously.

The SL economy will be built on one thing: services. Everything else has always been worthless in the long term... the fact that a few people made a fair amount of money early in SL's history has kidded lots of mugs that they can get rich by selling endless numbers of little icons.

Re:Wonderful news!

[Thumper_SVX]

I like this comment because I am a Second Life user, builder and scripter. I enjoy it, but only as a pastime.

I must say that I think this is a good thing (the opening of the client) especially because the SL client is a REALLY bad multi-threader. On a multi-core CPU (a Macbook Pro, both under Windows and OSX) it runs one core up to 80% or so constantly and leaves the other core essentially idle. This is according to Menumeters CPU gauge which I have constantly running (backed up with info from Activity Monitor) under OSX and TaskMgr under Windows. Sure, threading it might not help under some circumstances... but I have seen it peak out the core on some occasions (especially in a busy area). Maybe some coders can find some nice ways to thread some of the processing and make it a bit more efficient on this architecture.

I'd also be extremely interested in a different object-building interface. How about a dedicated object-building client? That would be incredibly cool... being able to build objects (even offline?) and then put them into the SL world. I think that with some of the great modeling tools that are out there we can have some great clients for creating some really cool stuff in the SL world. And being able to focus just on the object you're building would be incredibly cool as well; I constantly battle trying to select multiple objects when trying to link them and end up selecting some background object, or even my avatar and having to deselect that as well. Really frustrating.

I think this opening of the code is a great thing. Let's hope there are enough interested parties to make some really good use of it.

Re:Excellent? Maybe ...

[Cheesey]

Of course you could run your own private server, like the Construct in the Matrix. You could do things like the "jump" program and "learn karate". But unlike the movie, you can't carry your guns from the fake fake world to the real fake world.

Ah, good point. An interoperability problem. That would reduce the value of a private server.

I suppose it might be possible to come up with an open standard for object exchange, so that objects could be moved between suitably configured servers in the alternate universe. This would not provide any protection against copying though, and there would still be no way to move things into the official network.

Frankly, I'd rather pay them to host the servers than to try to host my own. What with all the griefers making life miserable for the server maintainers, it hardly seems worth the effort to try to run your own public server.

The counter-argument is this: the network would be more valuable if it was mostly composed of privately-run but publically available servers. How rubbish would the Web be if, for example, MySpace was the only company that could host a website? I dare say the WWW revolution wouldn't have happened if client and server software hadn't been freely available.

Re:Excellent? Maybe ...

[ischorr]

They're not first - Activeworlds has been around for years (I first used it in 97 or so).

http://www.activeworlds.com/ [activeworlds.com]

Re:Excellent? Maybe ...

[Simetrical]

Presumably LL are relying on "their network" being the best, so people continue to pay them for something they can now do for less money elsewhere. Bit like AOL and Compuserve assuming that their internal networks would always be worth more than Internet access.

Or perhaps they're relying on patents. If they have appropriate ones, they could shut down any OS alternative service providers.

Re:Excellent? Maybe ...

[innocent_white_lamb]

Becasue no software is ever developed outside of the USA, and no servers are run anywhere else either,right?