The first 'big ticket' item I splashed out on after starting my first job was a Nintendo 64 gaming console. GoldenEye 007 gave me great entertainment for a few months but I don't even remember if I bought any other games after that.
Fast forward 10 years and you'll have heard me recently talking up Second Life. But ironically, as Linden Labs' virtual world breaks the 200,000 members threshold and makes the cover of Business Week, I find myself getting bored with it. Why am I initially drawn to these 3D environments like a kid to a candy store only to lose all interest after a while?
The combination of Google Earth and SketchUp have given me the answer to that puzzle. The capability to immerse myself in and navigate around a virtual world is what inspires and delights me, not the 'gaming' aspect of it. What I've longed for since I first experienced 3D immersion with my Nintendo 64 was, not an escape into a Second Life-like fantasy but Neo-like powers in a simulated reality, a holodeck, a First.5 Life.
Finally the ordinary computer user has the tools at hand to both pilot and help build a convincing digital rendering of the real world. SketchUp is an amazing piece of software but it still takes alot of work to put together a model like Robin Blandford's wonderful facsimile of Howth Harbour. Project forward a few years however, to a time when we all have 3D input devices for the PC like the Nintendo Revolution (Wii) controller. We'll be able to mould our digital models as easily as children shape play-doh. Not only that but a 3D controller will facilitate much more natural maneuvering of the virtual world.
Then we'll all be neo-navigators of First.5.
Technorati Tags: second life, virtual reality, sketchup, google earth
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