Project Wonderland

*** This is a continuing blog entry ***

I stumbled upon Sun's open source Virtual World, Project Wonderland (https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/#involved-dev). There are several aspects of this project that appeal to me: [1] java-based, [2] business-oriented as opposed to social-oriented, [3] currently backed by a large company.

Given the IBM threat of late, who knows how long [3] will be a reality.

I've installed and played a bit with v0.5 (http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Javadesktop/ProjectWonderlandDownloadBuildSourcePoint5) and though the project is only in its infancy, the team has made some solid strides.

Here are the steps for creating a new Virtual World:

1. Go into the Web UI (http://localhost:8080/wonderland-web-front/admin), under "Manage Shapshots" and make current "Empty World". That will restart your server (and then you should restart your client). When you log in, you should get just the skybox.

2. Next, would be to import any artwork. Currently, this is done through the Tools menu but, in a Mirror World, would be uploaded via a service. kmz is supported, which is just dae files bundled up with the textures. More details can be found on the ProjectWonderlandArtImportPoint5 page. When you click Deploy to Server it bundles your artwork up into a WL module and uploads to the server. (But this technical detail should be hidden from the user).

3. Then you can use the Cell Palette to add any other functionality to the world. We currently have a few add-on modules, e.g. an audio recorder and svg whiteboard. (There are some standard things in your cell palette too, such as the microphone, virtual phone, etc). You can then position these components as you like.

4. You can take a "snapshot" of the state of the world via the web UI, since if you kill the "ant run-server" process, all your work goes away (for now, to be fixed at some point).


Importing artwork and other world components

First you need Google sketchup. When you use sketchup you can download, from the google warehouse, files that will usually be .skp files. An alternative is to create your own models. Within Sketchup use the 'export' feature to export the file as a .kmz file. Then you can import into Wonderland (ver 0.5) directly.

Usually it will be so LARGE that you cannot see it. If the original scale is 1.0 you will want to reduce it to about .025. So, when you're importing from within Wonderland, leave those dialog windows open that allow you to adjust the X,Y,Z and size of the object. Once you find it, then you can put the object where you want it using those settings. If there is a simple method to mouse drag it around, I haven't figured it out nor seen it. This is what I have managed to do on my own, so far.

It does work, even for someone graphical app challenged like me. Just dink with it some more and don't hit the OK button until you have the object placed exactly where you want it and the size you want. It WILL be an exercise in patience.

Until next time