It looks like an official Linden Labs release of the server software to Open Source may be a long wait, but in the mean time there is serious play on the OpenSim project as some new partners are coming aboard adding features that simply do not exist in the LL version of Second Life.

Wanna import standard 3D files to SL? Customize the skeleton structure of SL avatars for more variety? Radically improved rendering?

A company called RealXtend is working on exactly that via the OpenSim project.

Hmm, very interesting. We could soon see OpenSim result in a better platform than Second Life itself!

Consider what they are doing here:

• next gen game rendering engine
• 3D mesh importing into the game. There is built on nothing but mesh’s, meaning anything in There can be easily ported to this. Leave prims behind!
• Completely customizable avatars, even down to the mesh level. We could see Poser quality avatars replacing the current SL ones, but not only that we could have avatars with their own custom skeletons — in other words any kind of creature you can think of. Fully articulate hands are doable for example.
• They also have an avatar import method, meaning you can move from one open sim based platform world to another without starting from scratch.
• Add in the Windlight environmental effects, and the Second Life 2.0 is here!

Metaverse News opensim, platforms, realxtend, secondlife, video