[sldev] Re: [svc] Back end features (was: New viewer released) (Callum Lerwick)

[Argent Stonecutter]

> The whole "grid" thing is a rather un-necessary forcing of real world
> limitations onto a virtual world. Simulators should be able to "shape"
> themselves any way they like, and link to each other through a web of
> portals, negotiated between the simulators themselves with no
> centralized control required or desired.

First, the decision to make the grid geographical was a deliberate  
and cultural choice. It's unusual... most virtual worlds have been  
linked the way you describe... but it's unlikely to be changed.  
Creating non-euclidean connectivity within the grid is hard, and  
tools to make it easier (like llTeleportAgent) have been repeatedly  
deferred.

Second, there's a lot of other ways SL forces real-world limitations  
onto a virtual world. Making avatars significantly larger or smaller  
than the normal human range is difficult, and non-humanoid avatars  
require all kinds of tricks.

These all seem to have come out of the influence of the book _Snow  
Crash_ on the principle designers of SL.