| Voice |
Introduces the “proximity based” usage model—voice usage that is based on and altered by changes in physical in-world proximity. Allows the ability to talk to other avatars on “voice-enabled” land, when you see a microphone icon. Requires stereo headphones with a microphone. (now available)
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| Mono |
An open-source implementation of the .NET Development Framework. Provides the ability to export API calls to programming languages other than C—Python, Perl, Ada, and Java, to name a few. Will allow languages other then LSL in world. Expected within several months.
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| Sculptable Prim |
A prim with a shape determined by a texture—its “sculpt texture.” Sculpted prims can create organic shapes that are not currently possible with Second Life’s prim system. (now available)
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| SLlib |
An open-source project that provides a communication API for packet transfers between SL and the 2D web. It’s an effort directed at understanding how Second Life works from a technical perspective, and extending and integrating the metaverse with the rest of the web. Press announcement expected this month.
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| Search engine |
Google-like search capabilities inside of SL. The Electric Sheep Company currently has a beta bot that “basically crawls the (Second Life) grid and then figures out what we want to pull, what we want to save.” Cory Ondrejka (CTO of Linden Labs) said in an in-world town hall meeting in December: “We are in the early technical and interface design period on search, but expect to be hearing more about it in (the first quarter of) 2007 with a goal of rolling (out) new search in” the second quarter.”
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| Text-on-a-prim |
Create and edit text on a prim. Currently text must be captured as an image and uploaded. Currently expected along with Web-on-a-prim.
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| Web-on-a-prim |
Display and interact with a web browser on a prim. Currently in the LL “new feature” queue and prioritized below scalability and grid stability according to a recent statement from Linden Lab.
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| Enhanced security |
Enhanced encryption, secure private channels, and more fine-grained permissions. Currently, privacy is an issue on “mainland” parcels (shared server space) unless you own an island (dedicated server). Currently in the LL “new feature” queue.
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| Easy backup and restore of objects |
Maintenance of object inventories integrity and the ability to export inventories (possibly by parcel) to off-world media storage. Mentioned by Alem Theas during his talk.
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Web services interfaces
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To/from SL to the 2D Web—longer-term APIs expected to become available to developers as open source through SLlib. This may include APIs that allow the connection of non-LL servers to the grid.
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