MUV601 - Robin Le Couteur - 2018

Assignment 3 Initial Progress - Blog 2 Model This project started with me testing SketchUp model imports. To do this I made a simple terrain feature in SketchUp, then exported it as a COLLADA .dae file. Here is the model in SketchUp: While exporting is was important to make sure that the settings were right. The notable ones are 'Export Two-Sided Faces' and 'Triangulate All Faces'. These were not enabled by default and meant that I got weird graphical glitches such as faces not being visible on both sides and additional faces appearing from the original faces not being triangulated. After importing successfully, this is how it appeared in Second Life: With confirmation that imports were working properly, I made a keyboard in SketchUp and imported it into Second Life. I had to make sure that on import, the LOD settings for it were set to be full LOD for any view distance. This is because the keys would distort at a distance and their sh...

Assignment 3 Initial Planning Chosen Option The option I chose for this assignment content creation with interactive complexity. I'll be making an interactive music display that involves a giant piano keyboard that people can walk on to make sounds and some other interactive elements. The purpose of this project is to create a fun, friendly environment where people can be creative with music and sounds. it can be enjoyed as an individual, or it can be used by a group to experiment with collaborative creativity and to just have fun. This project has possible educational uses as well to teach music concepts in a fun environment. The six interactive complexity requirements I will be including in this project are the following: A scanning system that will detect the presence of an avatar then interact with the avatar in some manner An instance of scripted communication with an avatar via main chat An appropriate particle system The presentation of a dialog menu with...

Join and participate in a community within a virtual world. The community I joined was The Velvet(Found here: http://secondlife.com/destination/the-velvet ), which is a music venue. I chose it because as a musician and music lover, I felt like it was a community I would appreciate. The purpose of this community is to provide entertainment in the form of music and dance. The Velvet hosts different performances by different DJs and always has some music playing for the enjoyment of its visitors.   Interaction 1 The first time I went to The Velvet, I was greeted by a dancing bot and a myriad of signs to let me know what was on. Lots of signs and information:   The dancing bot:     Something I immediately noticed was that there was no music playing event though there was a sign saying that the radio was playing music. I decided to work that out later as I didn't have much time for this visit before I had to go somewhere in real life. I the...

Demonstrate your understanding of the need and the means for protecting Intellectual Property in a virtual world. What is intellectual property(IP)? A definition from this site sums it up well: https://m.esa.int/About_Us/Law_at_ESA/Intellectual_Property_Rights/What_is_intellectual_property ”Intellectual Property (IP) refers to the protection of creations of the mind, which have both a moral and a commercial value.” Basically IP is anything intangible that someone has created that has some sort of value. Laws on IP give creators exclusive rights to financially exploit their creations or reap the benefits of their creations in any way. IP laws enable creators to control the use of their creations by only allowing people to use or sell them with their permission which can be granted at a cost or for free in some cases, but generally with some terms of use to protect from unintended use. How does the permissions system help protect IP? In one of my previous blogs I talked...

Second Life Community Standards In this blog I’ll be talking about the Second Life community standards. These standards are clearly explained in this post: https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/403539-community-standards/ The official document containing the SL community standards can be found at this link: https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/community-standards The purpose of these standards is to make sure that everyone treats each-other with respect and ensure that everyone has a safe and fun experience. The post linked above sums it up nicely:  " The goals of the Community Standards are simple: treat each other with respect and without harassment, adhere to local standards as indicated by simulator ratings, and refrain from any hate activity which slurs a real-world individual or real-world community."  If you violate these standards, you can be suspended, and even permanently banned from Second Life if you repeatedly offend. The six communi...

Second Life Permissions Second life has a permissions system to protect intellectual property. These permissions dictate who can do what with the things you make. The following description is from the SL wiki: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Permission “The system is designed to foster the best possible content and sanctify the best possible experience in Second Life. We track four basic permissions - move, modify, copy and transfer. The move, modify, and copy permissions can be applied to four categories - owner, group, everyone else, and next owner. As described above, these permissions can be applied to different groups of people. This means that you can change how your content gets distributed or not distributed. I’ll now explain the four basic permissions: Move This permission controls whether an object can be moved in the world. If a user has been given move permissions, they can drag the object around/change its position inworld. If the user does no have move...