Startup building the open-source “operating system” of the Metaverse

  base: org/sim
  dimension: real
  procedures:
    room:
      - for: 
          range: [w, 1, walls]
          block:
            - makegeom: [cube, 1.0, 0.5, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]          
    house:
      - for: 
          range: [b, 1, bedrooms]
          block: 
          - room:
            walls: 4
      - for: 
          range: [b, 1, windows]
          block:
          - cutgeom: [quad, 0.25, 0.25, 0.25, b, 0, 0]

In the early days of There, Inc., I was recruited by them, and was in on some early design discussions. They wanted to build a planet-sized 3D virtual world with physical simulation, with all the scaling problems that implies. My comment was "Now let us all join hands around the world", which produced groans. (Doing physical simulation across a cell boundary is hard enough, but if the users can force you to have to do it across N cells, you have a real problem.)

For that system (and for Second Life) the assumption was that all the servers were in the same data center, with low inter-server lag. Trying to do this with home servers and lag in the 100ms and up range is going to suck. However, a distributed system where all sites are hosted in data centers on the same continent with low-latency connections might work.

Now they have to deal with the security problems, the delay problems, etc. They also need a really big MMORPG to exercise the system. Something like a planet-sized version of Minecraft would be a good test. The rules are simple and users create the content. A tougher test would be to create a simple, but huge, driving game, using Open Street Map, "seamless.gov", and topo data. Then load it up with automated traffic and let people drive in it.

That condition describes the state of the two technologies, but doesn't, to me, strike as an actual problem.

"Real-time collaboration of disparate entities through video / voice / instant message is sufficiently inferior to physically present collaboration as to be a detriment to ____" would be a problem, for example.

I definitely agree that it's really cool tech, and would be great if a truly seamless MMO virtual environment were possible.

But, perhaps past attempts have sputtered out for lack of a few actual problems providing impetus for the task. Building something awesome should be reason enough, but often seems to fall short of what's necessary to see an effort succeed.

Edit: I didn't see other comments in a similar vein as this one that you've already replied to, so, I do consider the notion "asked and answered".

I struggle to come up with problems that VR solves as well, and really like the likening of it to paper or video as a communication medium.

Though, maybe we limit our exploration of its possibilities by trying to fit it into that or other existing mental schemas.

The problem is, how the fuck do you make it fun?