[sldev] iPhone/iPod Touch as a Second Life I/O device

[Lawson English]

Matthew Underwood wrote:
>> And the slow network would bother me.  Do you really want an EDGE device for SL?  I'd be more tempted to do something on EV-DO with Windows Mobile.
>>
>> However, on a similar note, is there any progress on the SL thin client?  I remember reading in January that LL was expecting there to be a public beta available in February.  I'm looking at my calendar and it appears to be May, with no thin client alpha or beta in sight.
>>
>> Chris J. Breisch
>>     
>
> >From what they replied with it appears they want to develop an
> interface to interact with SL.  To capture the OpenGL output and
> stream it to the device then use the motion/touch to interact with the
> client.  So then you could assume that you would be over an 802.11b or
> g network.
>
> I would love a thin client, most people would probably migrate over in
> a few moments of hearing about it if it was even halfway more stable
> then the official one now.
>   


How thin is "thin?" Logging onto SL and keeping Ruth there indefinitely 
takes less than 350 lines of Python. 
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Presence_Code_Python. Group IM won't 
take that much more, assuming I ever figure out the details (my Python 
group-IM-bot has about 700 lines total, but is not quite working).

If you're not interested in 3D display and don't care about being Ruth, 
implementing most features in SL would be relatively thin. libsl's 
biggest bloat is an optimization to create about 100K lines of inline C# 
code to handle  packet processing for all packets as fast as possible.


Once the new login procedure using Agent Domains is implemented, even 
Ruth goes away since you will be able to handle group IM and inventory 
management without having a presence in a simulator and you'll need to 
implement packet-handling only for those specific packets associated 
with IM and Inventory. If you want lightweight clients that can navigate 
in-world, you'll still need to worry about Ruthiness (baking textures) 
and handling 3D info, unless you can convince LL to provide a separate 
CAP to the mini-map info.  I made a humorous remark about a 2D 
side-scroller SL at the OpenSource office hours a while back, but for 
smart phones, being able to at least see your avatar on the mini-map in 
relation to other avatars may be all that you need for at least SOME 
level of social interaction.


Lawson