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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    integrating virtual reality into KDE
From:       Raphael Langerhorst <raphael-langerhorst () gmx ! at>
Date:       2004-08-12 5:58:02
Message-ID: 200408120758.02999.raphael-langerhorst () gmx ! at
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Hi all!


This relates to this: http://dot.kde.org/1090909286/
(For more info: http://www.g-system.at)

What do you think about having a client interface for this virtual reality in 
KDE? In particular the question "where to put it" also arises [games,edu, a 
new science module, or network, ..].

This is what I have in mind:

The server system will be a losely distributable system. This means that there 
probably won't be a central server cluster - which we couldn't afford right 
now anyway. So it's possible to drive the server system by the community, or 
"users" - those with a little bit of bandwith available. The world itself is 
then managed by many individual sites around the world. Because of the 
modularity of world content this *should* be possible [low traffic between 
hierarchy levels].

Now, we can assume that KDE desktops are also distributed around the world. By 
providing a client interface to this virtual reality as well as a server 
configuration utility (to run such one server instance as mentioned above) 
the whole virtual reality could become a nice and easy accessible place for 
all KDE'ers.

The virtual reality servers as two main purposes:
* a scientific playground
* a "online game" [it's more about experiencing a fully dynamic, evolving 
virtual world rather than "classical" online games]
  * this would also serve as a meeting place for people - a kind of Kopete.

* later I'm also thinking about accessing the system from within this virtual 
world. This would especially mean communicating to KDE with D-BUS [or DCOP if 
it is still in use] and thus allowing for a virtual work [or whatever] place 
without having to leave this virtual world.


I think this would be a nice feature of KDE, something that is not yet there. 
Regarding the range of purposes this VR (virtual reality) serves I'm not sure 
where this would go. The base system (and server system) will stay 
independent of the KDE desktop [=not in KDE CVS] and if this base system is 
installed, the client interface (and server config utility) should be 
compiled into KDE. If the system stays small [in source code] we might 
provide a copy of the G System in the kde module itself.

I think this should go into either of these modules:
* games
* network
* a new science module?
* a new virtual reality module?
* edu [since this is where science apps currently go]

What do you think?

What do you think about this integration in general?


Regards,
Raphael
 
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