3D Weather Data Visualization in Second Life 62
An anonymous reader noted that the Second Life media blitz continues by saying that "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) with Aimee Weber Studio just unrolled a sneak preview of their educational project in Second Life (due to open in mid November). This appetizer of things to come features the three dimensional visualization of live weather (now on display at the Science Center)." Don't go there expecting that they have like every doppler radar in the US updating in realtime or anything, but it's actually a practical real use for Second Life.
Practical? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
For $19.95 plus shipping, I'll send you... (Score:2)
When it's white, it's snowing outside.
When it's wet, it's raining.
When it's...
Easier than getting my wife to check... (Score:2)
* expletive laden response *
"Does that mean it is cold, or just cold in hell?"
Already done (Score:1)
Weather layers for Google Earth (Score:4, Informative)
US weather radar layers for Google Earth [gearthblog.com].
3D pseudo-real-time global clouds layer for Google Earth [gearthblog.com].
And while we're at it, weather radar data for Canada [ec.gc.ca].
Oh yeah.. you can't use GE at work (as clearly specified in the license), so use the great (and open source) NASA World Wind instead [nasa.gov].
Re: (Score:2)
Take your hippie ways back to the 60's and leave my virtual worlds alone.
I want cutting edge, razor sharp, earth shatter reality.... and I want it to gut your belly so I can watch the virtual steam rise from the wound.
Now, off with you and your voodoo symbology!
Re: (Score:1)
Second Life? (Score:1)
What about a solution which already works during first life?
Why is Second Life getting all this buzz now? (Score:1, Interesting)
I've tried this out several times. It's free and even THEN it's not worth it. Now I have about the quickest high-speed internet connection and yet it still just sits there for a few minutes downloading everything you walk or fly through. Go to a new place, it starts downloading again....forever.....Ok, so I know it's not all just about
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
It's an interesting platform for lots of other things too, which is what TFA is about. You're comparing it to something that it's not, which explains your confusion.
Re: (Score:1)
It might become another damn waste of time and money. Oh wait; it already is.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Waste of time? Certainly. But the hackers who wrote that bit of code? Not a waste of time at all. Second Life is an infant right now, just trying to figure out what is going on.
Re: (Score:1)
Performance wise I tried that place out. On a dual core 3ghz machine with 4 gigs of ram and a 7900gtx nvidia card it was a bit slow in places. The graphics were nice but it reminded me of a cross between Active Worlds and There. Somehow that cross gave me pretty poor performance although I did have my visual range set to around 120m. I cut it back to 60m and it was slightly better.
Object creation and manipulation is interest
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
I guess you never learned to use the search feature either if all you went to was the places with the highest number of people "Popular Places" Don't go there! Would you judge the usefulness of the internet as a whole based on just visiting porn sites? People like you are why I keep begging the Lindens to add the equivalents to "newbie quest givers" to the welcome areas and help islands. So that the people don't "get
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds great. I can't believe I've been missing all this pr0n! And the graphics ought to be just right for me; all the stuff made after "15 years or go" gives me motion sickness. This ought to be easy on my head and stomach. WooH
Re: (Score:1)
Another Second Life story? (Score:2, Interesting)
For those who have never tried it: don't bother, it's not that cool. Unless you really enjoy 3d modelling and scripting, it offers nothing over regular text chat.
In 10 years, we'll have the network and the machines to handle everything that the Second Life guys are trying to do, and they'll be hailed as "pioneering" and "ahead of their time". But honestly, it kind of sucks.
interesting for about 3 minutes (Score:2)
In the very early days of the Internet there was a project that looks strikingly similar to Second Life - I think it was around 1998 or so and the concept and look and feel was the same. Anyone remember the name? They got a little venture funding and the site never took off - it suffered from the same "Ok,
Previous Project was Traveler (Score:1)
WorldsAway? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
1998 isn't the very early days of the Internet.
Re: (Score:2)
a brief response from a person involved... (Score:3, Informative)
I wouldn't call this project abandoned as much as it is still under development. Reading the previous comments, my answer to having easier ways to find the temperature outside is "YES." :-) I recommend turning on a TV, reading the newspaper, or surfing to a web site of your choosing. This visualization should be considered a beta with the intention of showing what Second Life (or technologies like Second Life) may be capable of in the future. (Slashdotted before prime time, ouch)
NOAA and ESRL are looking at Second Life as a possible platform for educational outreach as well as visualizing some of our data much of which is inherently 3D rather than 2D. Our island, which will have more of a focus on education rather than data visualization is slated for opening in the middle of November. If you are interested in more information you can visit our web site (also under construction) at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/outreach/sl/ [noaa.gov]
Eric
Thank you for avoiding calling this "game news" (Score:2)
3d Weather simulation though? I'm sure we've had that in multiple places. a large scale version is Flight simulator X which can now pull live weather data every 15 minutes from Jensen.com (A major flight tool provider). And even better with Flight Sim you see exactly how that works in real life.
Though how they present it in Second life might be interesting, I'm finding that now it's even less of a game (not
Re: (Score:1)
overexposure (Score:1)
Never mind realistic weather in Second Life... (Score:1)
And the thought of interacting with even more poorly rendered avatars which only represent real humans' own invented alter egos is
This interweb thing...it'll never last (Score:1)
It sure won't... (Score:1)
You're right. Gopher is much better than (Score:1)
Honestly... (Score:1)
Sheesh
Re: (Score:2)
Doh! (Score:1)
So yeah, Second Life sucks, Half Life doesn't. Thanks for pointing that out
Another option (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Gray (Score:1)
What I saw in my first few minutes there was not the NOAA link I originally signed up for...which by the way, kind-of sucks. But I found an International Space Museum that offered crude, but better than I've come across inside views of the space shuttle, Virgin galactic, and even the mon
when will Google Earth get live weather? (Score:1)
Second Life? Account needed? (Score:2)
As I understand, "Second Life" (or "SL"), is a "Game"? It is sold by a third-party and uses network servers to allow player? Isn't there a subscription fee for access (besides the outlay for the initial game software)?
If NOAA is working on a project to display their publicly funded data in a virtual setting, that will be displayed in SL, will people be able to access this data on a "free account" in SL, or is the outcome of this project only access
Re: (Score:1)
A quick jaunt to secondlife.com you would have seen a big orange box proclaiming membership is free.