What an incredibly fun and productive year it has been, designing and developing content in Second Life, OpenSim, jibe and Unity!   This year has brought in a wide range of different project types and clients to work with, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a great group of colleagues and collaborators.   Several of my most recently completed projects are still under NDA, but here is a sample of projects that are completed or in progress:
Platform, Unity3D – Client undisclosed:

Platform, Unity3D / jibe …

I first read about the concept of mixing Unity and OpenSim through a post by epredator on his Life at the Feeding Edge, and always wondered if such an experiment would ever become reality.
Rezzable recently announced that they had successfully achieved a prototype of Unity3D and OpenSim working together.
Several months ago, I had visited this same installation through an OpenSim viewer, but I was now able to visit the same installation (built with prims in OpenSim) but viewed from the web through the Unity web player.
This is very exciting news, and …

Egyptian and American architecture students recently completed a course using the virtual world Second Life to facilitate long distance collaboration within an online, realtime 3D environment.  With funding from the U.S. State Department, California-based architect David Denton, AIA Dr. Amr Attia from Cairo’s Ain Shams University, and Kara Bartelt from USC School of Architecture brought students into the virtual world, who shared and discussed design ideas throughout the semester.

The course, called ‘Kansas to Cairo,’ was originally inspired by a speech given by President Obama’s during a speech at Cairo University in Egypt …

A virtual prototype of the proposed Rutgers Business School, designed by the internationally renowned architecture firm TEN Arquitectos (frequently covered by arcspace), will soon be opening in Second Life – commissioned by Rutgers University.  A larger, more detailed version will later be opened on their OpenSim grid.  I had the opportunity to work on this project, interpreting schematic plans, sections and illustrations, which will be completed just in time for this Saturday’s ‘Rutgers Day ‘celebration – held on their real life campus, and virtual campus in Second Life.

The Second Life and …

For the longest time, I had given up on the possibility of using shadows persistently in Second Life, given that it crashed my viewer so often it wasn’t worth the hassle.  But since enabling shadows in the new viewer 2.0, I haven’t crashed yet!

While shadows definitely enhance the overall visual quality of SL, what I found more interesting is the impact it has on the actual building experience itself.   When you rez and stretch a prim with shadows enabled, it has a much deeper visual impact – more like …

While working on an architectural replication project in Second Life recently, I was using Google Street View to gain a better understanding of the building’s as-built exterior (where blueprints and CAD files fall short) and noticed that the street view pegman had a pair of 3D glasses on.

Upon clicking the pegman, the entire Street View scene turned into the classic red and white 3D scene.  Since Google is using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to create the 3D images (not stereo pairing), the scenes aren’t very high resolution – but …

I have a rather embarrassing confession to make, but I want to admit it before someone else calls me on it.  During the last half of 2009,  I was seriously addicted to Farmville.  There is no excuse, but in all fairness, it happened during the holiday season, when my freelance work in Second Life and OpenSim had slowed down (as it always does around that time of the year), and I became a virtual farmer.  I farmed.  And farmed…  And farmed…  I had to keep up with my cousin, and at one point …

Hometta, a collective of award-winning architecture and design studios, will soon be launching an opensim-based grid called ‘H-Town,’ showcasing a virtual neighborhood modeled after the innovative, modern house plans they sell on their website.

With Hometta’s stated goal of ‘improving the residential landscape, one house at a time,’ they will soon be enabling their customers to spend as much time in their soon-to-be new homes as they wish, from the comfort of their home computers.  They can invite friends and family members to explore the designs with them, and could feasibly …

A few weeks ago, I wrote about using the Unity3D game develop engine to import Revit Architecture models.  I’ve since upgraded to Unity Pro, opening  the doors to some even more powerful features.  I really haven’t had a lot of time to spend on this, but I couldn’t resist pulling up this early design iteration, and adding some lights to see how it would look.  Find the live updated build HERE.  I even stepped out my back door this morning and recorded an audio sample for some contextual ambiance (the sandhill …

Had a blast working with @mohax and Julie Sugarplum on their new EDTECH Retreat in SL! I designed it, they built it: http://bit.ly/bOATNR #
I just can't get enough of the Unhappy Hipsters! http://unhappyhipsters.com #
I feel so very – augmented… http://tiny.cc/fXPDV #
Best thing about SL 2.0 launch is that it brought back lots of old friends who haven't been in-world in ages. Welcome back! #
Congrats! RT @henrikbennetsen My next adventure is under way http://www.katalabs.com #
$900 million facility prototyped in Second Life now under construction: http://ow.ly/1brH7 #

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