Bright Canopy Startup Promises Second Life Streaming So Great, "You Won't Miss SL Go"

Bright Canopy is the name of a brand new service in beta which offers streaming Second Life "straight to your device - Android, iOS, Chromebook, Mac, Linux, anywhere", promising that even though SL Go is gone, "You won't miss it."  

That's a bold statement, but it's backed up by two Silicon Valley figures leading the project: Bill Glover, Founder of Bright Canopy, was a Senior Java Architect at Sun Microsystems (among many other impressive roles/companies), and Canopy is using technology from Frame, a widely-covered Valley startup which enables software to run from a browser, and counts giants like Adobe and Siemens as other clients.

Glover isn't just an established technologist, but a longtime Second Life user (avatar name: Chaos Priestman).

"The idea behind Bright Canopy is to make sure that anyone who wants to get into SL can do so on the hardware they have at a price they can afford," he tells me. "I think SL is wonderful, creative place and it has a lot more to give the world. I met my wife at the Blarney Stone in the Dublin sim. We've been married for almost seven years now. That's over 1000 SL years. I've met people there I never would have met otherwise, and seen prim hair that will scar me for life. Everyone should have that opportunity."

Now with Bright Canopy, everyone may get that chance. Here's a look at Glover in Second Life's Dublin sim, running Bright Canopy:

"These are max graphics settings on mainland sims," he tells me, "and I had next to no lag over a wifi connection on a low-end laptop. (Your mileage may vary, this is beta and I'm only 87 miles from both the server and Linden Lab.)"

More details: "We're not locked down to 720p, you can cut and paste, you can upload textures. Sound works, and we hope to have voice soon. I plan to support international payments, Bitcoin and possibly even Lindens. We also hope to keep the price as affordable as we can and still sustain the service with room to grow and improve."

As I said, Canopy is using Frame as a platform, and is working directly with founder/CEO Nikola Bozinovic to run it:

"It's very exciting to see that he was able to recreate a huge portion of SL Go functionality within 24 hours (including some marked improvements, like better resolution or file upload/download)," Bozinovic tells me, then adds: "In many ways, this is the reason why we built Frame in the first place (a background story here): To let customers focus on their apps and business, while providing the best app delivery platform. We're very excited to see where Bright Canopy is going to take this." As I said, other Frame customers include tech giants like Adobe and Siemens. (Read more about Frame here.)

So with that kind of fire and brainpower backing it up, I'd say Bright Canopy has at least half a chance to deliver on its promises. Click here to sign-up, and see for yourself.

Via SL Reddit.

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Comments

[Better then Ezra]

Sorry some of us cannot expose our passwords /ISP/real life name & info to just any old startup

They need to be linden lab approved with safe guards for residents & insured.

Also prefer firestorm viewer and team who worked on that special viewer.

Sorry but i am seeing people think this might be a gold mine while rushing to piece something together. when in reality it took 2 years of development for SLGo to be fully integrated with SL.

[zz bottom]

I never needed the use of Sl Go and always thought that the money one would spend there allows to buy a very good desktop computer, able to run Sl in at is best.
But being reading many comments about users that did made the best of it i must say:
The fact that only a few used it does not mean one should not look for options.
Glad a few are opening the path for those.

[Mondy Bristol]

@Ezra: From what I can make out in the screenshot, they are using Firestorm.

As for ISP info and IP details..meh! I have a Google account, facebook,Twitter, subscribe to numerous blogs and forums. All that info is out there. Presumably the info between client and server would be encrypted or not available to general employees of the company, just like it is to people at Onlive or LL. As there are no details in the web page at all then I'll reserve judgement until I see specific T's & C's.
It's just a shame for me that they didn't seek out beta testers in the SL GO group. I've been using it for a year and would have jumped at the chance.
Oh yes, my computer died a few months ago. To save up and buy a decent replacement would take me at least a year, SL GO allowed me to carry on logging in on an old laptop that isn't even capable of running the regular viewer (seriously, it was so crap that the whole family screamed at it) Luckily I was able to get mine replaced with a £400 computer that lets me use mid to high settings with materials enabled fairly comfortably, but still subscribed to SL go as running around on Ultra with shadows and materials is nicer than mid settings. Not everyone has £500+ or the equivalent USD for a system capable of Ultra.

[Orca Flotta]

Isn't it encouraging to know there are people out there who still believe in the possibilities and opportunities of SL and bet on its future? I wish the labbers itself would show such entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit.

@ Mondy Bristol: it's not the fault of the rest of the world that UK has such unbelievably steep hardware prices. Hmmm, maybe you should have joined the €uro, just like all the other - much cooler - kidz. A transparent market is a good market.

=^.^=

[Mom Knows Best]

They need to be approved by the lindens before anyone should use.
Who knows how hacker proof this will be compared to onlive who had the staff with systems in place to scale up 10k users if needed.

For me to give them full access to all my identity?. then only the lab will be able to verify it being safe for residents.
only a legitimate business will contact linden lab attempting a per-approvel or even asking the firestorm team to look under the hood for transparency sake.

offering to work directly with linden lab would be a no brainier here for legit business as the lindens made no money from the last service then what will this business have to be afraid of or have to hide..

I only had trust in SLGO because Ebbe Linden & the Firestorm Team had trust in it. as a customer that was the confidence needed to use the service.
anyone other service is suspect until they have that kind of business credibility backing the public offerings.

[Amanda Dallin]

I agree with Mom Knows Best about wanting LL to approve this company first like they did OnLive. I suppose Sony has all the info OnLive collected on users.

[Jo Yardley]

From the screenshot, this isn't with graphics set to ultra and allowing that is one of the things that made SL Go so interesting for me.
I want shadows, light effects, everything.

[zz bottom]

Jo, for that some already advised, invest on new hardware.

[OnLive JDub]

I'd love to get behind this service, if its performance is as stated above (as good or better than SL Go). I've signed up for the beta and I encourage anyone else from the SL Go group who can, should do the same. I'm hoping privacy won't be a deal-breaker if they are able to pass-through all SL info, as SL Go did, with the ability to pay with $L. Also, if Bright Canopy & Frame intend to earn trust, they will absolutely secure sensitive material and refrain from spamming, selling email lists, etc. In case you are wondering - SL Go passed through all CC/billing info directly to our merchant processor. That data was never stored under our control. Also, all actions happening in world was never captured or stored by OnLive. Only network connection drop-outs, service reliability, patch updates, etc.

As for all the data OnLive/SL Go did collect (new user registration for CC/PayPal) allow me to confirm: All OnLive customer data DOES NOT belong to Sony now. Only the technology patents were sold to Sony. I am responsible for importing all user data (email addresses, etc.) on April 30th to stay as part of the OL2 Inc., owned property.

Again - I would love to test and provide honest feedback for this new SL solution. If OnLive/SL Go wasn't able to keep users enjoying SL, on full graphics, then I am happy to support anyone else who can. ;o)

I too came to SL because of work, but I'm hoping to stick around to help the community as much as possible. I've met some really great folks who I'd love to help see all the beauty, that SL brings. Best of luck to all of you!!

-Jeff

[Arton Tripsa]

With all respect, I am confounded that some folks think this will only be 'safe' if LL approves it. I had an appalling security experience with my LL account in SL. (I have actually deleted most of this message because I am too scarred to talk about it in public.) I applaud the fact that many of my friends who don't have high powered machines, like I do :-), cos they have no big upfront money for a new machine, may be able to have a better SL. Good on you, Chaos. Just make sure Bright Canopy can reach Australia also, LOL.