realXtend Enables Metaverse-to-Metaverse Teleportation... Via Linked Objects! (Updated)

According to Jani Pirkola, Project Manager with realXtend, the OpenSimulator-compliant virtual world platform, his team has added a feature that makes it possible to teleport from within realXtend directly into Second Life or another OpenSim world.  To do this, you bring up realXtend's address bar, and type in an HTTP-style address.  Typing in "rex://world.realxtend.org" for example will send you to realXtend's log-in URL.  ("llMapDestination("sl://cisco", <76, 173, 142>, ZERO_VECTOR);", for example, sends you to Second Life.)  That's quite a kludge of code, but here's the additional beauty feature: evidently you can create objects in realXtend that are embedded with links that take you to other worlds.  When you click the link, the viewer brings up a log-in window; enter in the avatar name and password associated with the other world you're going to, and the teleport process begins.

Read more about it here. I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but if it works as described, this is another significant milestone for interoperability.  Combine this with a cross-world message bridge (which I only wrote about a few weeks ago) and you have basic multi-world connectivity.  At this rate, we're bound to see even more breakthroughs before the year is out.  Much mahalo to Pier at Koinup for the tip!

Update, 11:00am:  Per Jani's clarification in Comments, corrected log-in code.  Also in Comments, former Linden CTO Cory Ondrejka expresses disappointment that this process depends on a "'Trust us, give us your username and password'-antipattern that is seen so often on social networking sites."

Comments

[Koinup Burt]

I'm reading with great interest these news related to Open Sim, RealXtend and other interoperability functionalities.

Probably we are in the middle of a shift between a Second Life centric era to a more wide open era with several players in the arena. Metaverse users will have soon more accounts in several virtual worlds, and they will jump from one to another more easily than now.

Probably we should start to look at virtual worlds as clusters of websites connected in some way one each other

[Jani Pirkolla]

Quick correction: you can write the login url to the address bar, like rex://world.realxtend.org
the llmapdestination is used from inside a script.

[Cory Ondrejka]

It is a pity that projects like this rely on the "Trust us, give us your username and password"-antipattern that is seen so often on social networking sites. If only there was a way to provide central identity and login services... oh, wait...

[magggnnus]

woot! things ARE progressing :D

[Rui clary]

Yes Cory, Something like an OpenID thing, is missing.
Then we will have full interoperability betwen Worlds

[Hamlet Au]

Thanks Jani, noted the correction!

[Jani Pirkola]

realXtend login model is made so that it is possible to integrate OpenID later. Also, anyone can run their own realXtend authentication server and have their identity at their own hands completely.
realXtend architecture was planned from the beginning to support true 3D internet and to eliminate any possible corporate centralized control points to empower users instead.

[Ann Otoole]

mmox is werkin on it. Or trying to anyway.

Of course there will never be any secure single sign on until DNA fingerprinting is commonplace and incorporated into the input devices. I doubt I will be alive when that is normal.

Fact of the matter is you can't really trust anyone with anything since social engineering will put the bad guys on the inside copying everything to flash drives anyway.

In the meantime use a disposable alt to jump around the metaverse. And change passwords every day. If you are worried about it that is.

Right now the question seems more to be will any of this fine and fun stuff with little main stream business value proposition even survive the next 2 years of economic catastrophes.

[AldoManutio Abruzzo]

I'd be more impressed if it the realXtend efforts were less Windows-centric ... I and my department are very interested in the use of alternatives to SL, but are adamant about the use of platform-agnostic or non-Windows solutions where ever possible.

I can almost deal with the client situation ... call me when at least the server will run on something other than Windows.

[Jani Pirkola]

Dear Abruzzo, you didn't leave your phone number! realXtend server side is being ported to run as a dll on top of vanilla Opensim -> runs on everything where Opensim runs, including Linux. The work is called modrex.
The viewer can be run on linux with wine
and later there is coming a native cross-platform version.