On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 2:05 AM, BGB <cr88...@gmail.com> wrote: > if clients use their own avatars (which are bounced along using the > webserver to distribute them to anyone who sees them), and a persons' avatar > is derived from copyrighted material, there is always a risk that some > jerkface lawyers may try to sue the person running the server, or the author > of the VR software, with copyright infringement (unless of course one uses > the usual sets of legal disclaimers and "terms of use" agreements and > similar). >
I can think of two more problems. First, there will undoubtedly be avatars shaped like giant billboards, dicks, and other objectionable material. Unlike signatures on bulletin boards, this will be a lot harder to police since avatars move around. Second, we probably want the ability to stylize avatars as they move between worlds. For example, some worlds may prefer a cell-shaded art style. When I was pursuing this back in 2003-4, I was looking into possibilities such as CSS for 3D - not just for avatars, but for the world itself, so that people could support proper world mashups. My ideas there were more along the lines of providing a sort of 'DNA' for the avatars and 3D worlds, describing them in a common ontology, with variations from a norm (male, female; height, body-shape; crooked-nose, snub nose; etc.) and sometimes tweaks or non-standard extensions per world. This would allow developers of the world to prevent 'literal' dicks from entering their world. It would also allow people to become non-humans (e.g. werewolf, vampire, or orc, ... or dick) when they enter certain worlds... i.e. to take on various roles in common games. > > games is a major application area for 3D, but the more open-ended world > that is non-game systems is a much bigger problems, and the relative merits > of 3D are much less obvious. > Yeah, 3D tends to be rather sparse of informational content. Today, I'm interested in possibility of augmented reality... e.g. look through your Tablet's video camera, and see a mixed camera/3D rendering of the scene. A few pictures of a printer in context, along with meta-data about location and network address, and we might be able to drag and drop documents onto a 'visible' printer in a 3D space. There are a lot more privacy issues, of course, with augmented reality - i.e. keeping people out of our homes and businesses unless they belong there.
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