What you're looking at below is the proposed design for the new business school of Rutgers University. Created by the internationally acclaimed design firm Ten Arquitectos, it's depicted here not as a real world model or an artists' 2D illustration, but as a scale reproduction created in Second Life:
As commissioned by the University, the translation from schematic plans and illustrations to a building in Second Life was done by RL/SL architect Keystone Bouchard (Jon Brouchard IRL), who writes about the process on his blog, ArchVirtual. "Looking at an illustration of a building is helpful, but being able to invite anyone, anywhere in the world to experience the design in an immersive, realtime environment is better," he argues there. Looks a great building in both realities. An even more detailed replica will soon be created in OpenSim, the open source spinoff of Second Life.
Update, 4/27: Just heard from Keystone, who comments on this build he helped create: "Architectural projects on this scale almost always instigate a certain amount of conversation and debate, and the iconic nature of this design concept will certainly make it no exception. Love it or hate it, I hope the the virtual model will help serve as a catalyst for that conversation, and help students and faculty more fully understand and experience the design in a more holistic or honest way than can be achieved with any other illustration method."
Update 2, 4/27, 11:05am: Keystone tells me the Second Life prototype was commissioned by Rutgers, not the architects, I've changed the title from "Major Architecture Firm Prototypes Building Design For Rutgers in Second Life and OpenSim" accordingly.
So I'm betting that the building and filming weren't done with Viewer 2.0.. And they are going to do the final build in their own OpenSim.. are you taking notes Linden Lab??
Posted by: Juko Tempel | Monday, April 26, 2010 at 12:56 PM
Actually, they are using viewer 2.0. You can tell when they are looking at the media board and it's using Shared Media.
Posted by: ELQ Homewood | Monday, April 26, 2010 at 01:42 PM
So, it was built in viewer 2.0 (or at least the media board was), as well as being filmed in 2.0, or you couldn't see it. And the avatars were using the board, so they had to be using viewer 2.0 as well.
Posted by: ELQ Homewood | Monday, April 26, 2010 at 01:44 PM
Did anyone like the buildings?
Posted by: Nalates Urriah | Monday, April 26, 2010 at 03:18 PM
They could have used one of KirstenLee Cinquetti's S20 viewers... with the LL 2.0 layout, shared media and the (lacking in LL 2.0) suppression of the UI for machinima; although the slight letterbox hints that the UI deletion may have been done in post processing. Anyone know?
As for the buildings, I liked them enough that now I want to walk through them in sl and the more fully detailed version coming to OpenSim.
Posted by: Robward Antwerp | Monday, April 26, 2010 at 06:03 PM
I stand corrected. I do believe that prototyping, simulations and usability studies like this are exactly the sort of thing Second Life is great for, but still wonder how usable Viewer 2.0 is for achieving this efficiently. So much of the feedback I've seen involves 'workarounds', builders seem to hate it, and this video doesn't show the UI as any Viewer 2.0 user would see it.
Posted by: Juko Tempel | Monday, April 26, 2010 at 11:35 PM
This is the first build I did entirely within viewer 2.0.
I was reluctant, and it took several days to get used to, but so many other assignments I'm working on are being designed specifically around viewer 2.0 functionality that I needed to make the switch ASAP.
It has definitely grown on me, and now the old viewer is the one that feels awkward! An added bonus is that enabled shadows are much more stable in viewer 2.0 on my machine for some reason, which I really enjoy - haven't crashed yet!
Posted by: Keystone Bouchard | Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 08:08 AM