Web page on a prim? That's so old school. How about whole computer on a prim? Specifically, access and control of remote computers from within Second Life via Virtual Network Computing and the new LLMedia API. That's what is promised by this application created by Aimee Trescothick, which uses the API to access several computers at once. As shown here, Aimee uses it to edit and dynamically share an OpenOffice document within SL, and then even cooler, remotely access a computer ... to log into Second Life within Second Life. "[T]hese will in future be accessible on the surface of a Second Life prim in the same way as a parcel media stream," Ms. Trescothick writes. The potential for practical applications and freeform coolness seem enormous. Last week I asked, What do you want to do with LLMedia API? Maybe this week's question should be, "What do you want to do with Aimee Trescothick's LLMedia VNC Plug-in?"
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If you play SL from within SL, does the lag increase arithmatically or exponentially?
If it were somehow frictionless, I could see building a portal nexus linking to various other virtual worlds. That's a degree of interconnectivity that moves us a medium-sized hop towards metaversiality.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 06:44 AM
Make me a HUD so I can login 4 times and switch between my alts with alt+tab. :))
Posted by: Kabaka | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 07:54 AM
Ah a tiny little bit of smugness - I finally beat NWN to a story having blogged this yesterday http://blog.knowsense.co.uk - of course, having it here means someone might actually read it ;-)
Don't get your hopes up though - I use SL sometimes over VNC by necessity, it's practically useless - VNC isn't designed for video-style whole page updates but more for desktops where only a small amount of info normally changes at once. However, for that application, as I mentioned in my post, it uses a LOT less bandwidth than the only current alternative in SL which is to stream your desktop as video. So for demoing software, teaching programming, sharing a document... this would be great and I can't wait until the plugin is released and the viewer supports it.
Posted by: Richard Meiklejohn | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 07:59 AM
A great accomplishment - congrats - but lack of friction does seem key - to make such a tool even more attractive - would love to give it a try...hats off to the maker again...
Posted by: KipYellowjacket | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 07:59 AM
Mesh and Media = Possibilities
Posted by: Metacam Oh | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 09:37 AM
Looks like Qwaq may get a bit of competition now.
Posted by: Dedric Mauriac | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 09:42 AM
I think this would be great for a virtual data center setup. I use Amazon EC2 on occasion and it would be nice to build a model of what the machines look like and how they're connected...then, by touching them, activating VNC to actually work on them.
This is awesome.
Posted by: Veeyawn Spoonhammer | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 10:52 AM
A very cool way to bring Second Life down to 1 FPS!
Posted by: Peyote Short | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 04:10 PM
Thanks for the comments everyone :) I've been a bit snowed under with the interest this has generated today!
Posted by: Aimee Trescothick | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 05:01 PM
The low frame rate seen in SL in the video is mostly due to me finding shadows shadows irresistable, I probably should have turned them off for the demo. The remote machine running the SL client there is only a laptop with 2GHz Core2Duo, and a NVidia 9300M, which isn't really up using shadows.
It should have relatively little impact on the frame rate of your local viewer, only about the same as viewing a normal media stream, probably even less so than at the moment, as the media rendering now happens in a completely separate process, rather than in the viewer.
While the frame rate across the network with shadows off is still not great, it is better than in the video. As Richard says, this isn't really intended for running another SL client through, it's usefulness is more for sharing desktop applications, or providing remote assistance. The same sort of situations where systems like Webex, AT&T Connect, Apple Remote Destop, LogMeIn etc. would be used currently. It could prove particularly useful when mentoring new users for example, to see what they are seeing and provide guidance.
One novel fun use I have in mind, is to use it in conjunction with a VNC server running on an Android phone, or an iPhone, this would allow you to replicate and actually use your phone with your avatar in Second Life. Not particularly useful at the moment, as with the media stream tied to the parcel, it would only work on a parcel that is set to display it, however that limitation may well be removed in future.
Posted by: Aimee Trescothick | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 05:41 PM
A much better achievement than any flash plugin project!!!
Posted by: Negko deVinna | Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Does anyone have any idea when a server/client combination will actually support the concept of focus for a prim surface, and for that surface to receive mouse and keyboard events? Seems to me we would need that to deploy this.
Posted by: Richard Meiklejohn | Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 02:16 AM
Update: I now have it working in the Second Life client itself, so I do now have my live desktop on a prim in world :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aimeethyst/3860441800
But as Richard surmises, so far it's view only as the client is not yet sending events back to the plug-in, unlike the test application which does.
Posted by: Aimee Trescothick | Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 05:18 PM