Enter ScienceSim. A team of researchers and technology strategists, funded by Intel’s server business and working with OpenSim open source technology (which celebrates its second birthday today).. had a goal of creating an environment for experimentation in virtual worlds. We wanted a turnkey kit that companies or researchers could download and develop specific applications in virtual worlds, data visualization and analysis.
ScienceSim enables customizable physics, optimizations to achieve better scalability, and can serve as a testbed for data visualization and control for science experiments like fusion reactions, biomedical applications, geophysical, intelligence analysis.. to name a few potential areas of work. As our CTO said in a previous blog, the Intel team is working with the Supercomputing 2009 conference to have folks develop academic material around this platform and have a forum to discuss these efforts and how they fit towards building a 3D internet of the future.
Today we are publically inviting others to come to ScienceSim and investigate its use for building collaborative visualization tools.. Within ScienceSim’s world you’ll find some starting buildings, templates for forums and conference centers and the like. We hope to get voice technology up and running soon so more powerful collaboration is possible.. BUT.. the most important things you’ll find aren’t “in” the world — they’re in the way the world is made and run. ScienceSim provides the basic building blocks (client viewers, installation utilities, management tools, etc) and new technologies that enable broader interoperability through content sharing. Interested people can quickly bring up their own worlds on their own systems and experiment with creating 3D worlds of their own.
One way to visit ScienceSim:
I clipped the below from http://sciencesim.com/wiki/doku.php/gettingstarted.
Not exactly as easy as a SURL but:
The standard Windows Second Life® Client available from Linden Labs is the most stable client. Download and install it on your desktop or laptop computer. You will need to edit the shortcut used to start the client in order to access the ScienceSim server. Create a shortcut by right clicking on your desktop and selecting “New” then “Shortcut” from the menu. Copy the following into the location dialog:
"C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -loginuri http://sciencesim.com:8002 -loginpage http://sciencesim.com/scisim/loginscreen.php -helperuri http://sciencesim.com/scisim/
