Original author(s) | Open Wonderland Foundation, Sun Microsystems |
---|---|
Preview release | 0.5 User Preview 4 (2010-0_5_A4)
/ May 2010 |
Written in | Java |
Operating system | Cross-platform |
Platform | Java |
Type | Virtual world, 3D computer graphics, Collaboration |
License | GPL v2 with the "Classpath" exception[1] |
Website | openwonderland |
Open Wonderland (originally Project Wonderland) is an open-source toolkit written in Java for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business. Open Wonderland is completely extensible; developers and graphic artists can extend its functionality to create entirely new worlds including adding new features to existing worlds.
The vision for Open Wonderland is to provide an environment that is robust enough in terms of security, scalability, reliability, and functionality that organizations can rely on it as a place to conduct real business. Organizations should be able to use Open Wonderland to create a virtual presence to better communicate with customers, partners, and employees. Individuals should be able to do their real work within a virtual world, eliminating the need for a separate collaboration tool when they wish to work together with others. Individuals should also be able to tailor portions of the world to adapt to their work needs and to express their personal style. The types of collaborations that can happen within the space include audio communication, live desktop applications of all kinds, and eventually collaborative creation of world content (both graphical and procedural).
Project Wonderland had been funded by Sun Microsystems since its early development. On January 27, 2010, Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle[2] who decided to cease funding.[3] Project Wonderland continued as an independent community-supported open-source project named "Open Wonderland".[4]
The Open Wonderland toolkit's client/server architecture supports the creation of a wide range of interactive, dynamic virtual worlds. This is made possible by a flexible module system. This scheme allows developers to extend not only the Wonderland client and server, but also to package up artwork and complete worlds as easy-to-install modules. Modules can also be written to connect Wonderland with an unlimited number of external services.
Security and federation are two other key features provided by the Wonderland toolkit. Open Wonderland worlds can be secured behind a corporate firewall if desired, and they can integrate with an enterprise's existing authentication and identity management infrastructure. By default, a module is provided to connect to LDAP authentication systems. For fine-grained security, any object within an Open Wonderland world can be associated with an access control list to govern which users can see, interact with, or edit the object. These access controls are hierarchical, so access can be applied to a single object in a space or to all objects within a room, building or other enclosing 3D structure. Security is a server-side function. This means that objects are never sent to a client that does not have permission to view the object, making it more difficult to defeat the security system.
Federation enables users of Open Wonderland worlds to navigate from one world to another through a number of different user interface mechanisms. These worlds can be dramatically different from one another in terms of content, code, and the organization that runs the server. For example, a user might start in a corporation's virtual lecture hall and walk through a portal to a university's submarine simulation. The lecture hall might have modules installed for virtual microphones, slide show presentations, and business intelligence analysis, while the submarine simulation may include a fluid dynamics module, a working submarine console, and integration with telemetry data from a real submarine. While much of the code to run the Open Wonderland worlds is shared, the specialized 2D and 3D programs that run in these worlds are not shared. Wonderland's federation scheme, which takes full advantage of the Java Programming Language's ability to dynamically load code, means that when a user moves from one world to another, the necessary missing code is downloaded on an as-needed basis. Additionally, users' avatar information is stored on their local system so that their avatar goes with them from one world to the next.
Open Wonderland features tight integration of immersive, high-fidelity stereo audio. Using the open source voice bridge, 'jVoiceBridge', not only do you hear recorded audio in stereo at CD-quality, but you also can hear other live people at this quality. jVoiceBridge adapts to allow remote users with lower bandwidth connections to use lower audio fidelities, including telephone-quality.
If you are having a conversation, the high-fidelity audio allows you to hear people's voices coming from the appropriate directions, as you would in the real world. Since voices or other sounds become softer as you move away from them, Open Wonderland easily supports multiple, simultaneous conversations within the same virtual space.
A wide range of audio-related modules can be created using jVoiceBridge. For example, an in-world virtual telephone allows users without access to a computer to dial in to meeting in an Open Wonderland world. Virtual microphones, audio recorders, and a cone-of-silence for private voice chat are other examples of audio-related modules. In addition, recorded audio can be associated with objects in the world, including simulated characters. This allows virtual world developers to create a rich audio experience for visitors.