 and welcome to the 2013 Open Simulator Community Conference. Today's speaker will be as well known by just about everybody in the room, I'm sure, and all around OpenSim, Sonny Salamander, also known as his real life name is Thomas Bouchard. He is an IT consultant from Germany, his day job. He works for a well-known company in the healthcare sector. He does tasks related to collaboration of knowledge sharing. One of his key goals in the virtual world is to lower the hurdles that come along with new technology and make it easier to access and to use by sharing the knowledge generally used to actually function in the virtual world. He founded and registered PyTech, a German limited company, and moved the project to an official business in 2013. Please welcome Sonny Salamander. Hello all. Can you hear me? I'm hoping that you can hear me. Yes, they can. I've got claps on the screen. Yeah, that's cool. Okay, so I will start with my little presentation about the pixie viewer. And thanks for introducing me. So we can skip the first two slides of my presentation, because the job was already done. And this would be the agenda. I hope it is shown on the screen below me. Yes, it is. That's great. Okay, so I first want to talk a little bit about how pixie viewer was created. And pixie viewer was created in July 2012, where I started the development of a browser based viewer just for fun, you know. And in February 2013, I did a test. And I did a tweet. A tweet that changed my life completely. I created a web cheer browser in the virtual world itself. I just wanted to let my friends know that I found a way to display 3D content on my iPad. But you know, you cannot keep the secret if you posted on Twitter. And overnight I had more than 300 new messages in my mailbox and my Twitter account. So then I kept on in March 2013. I published the alpha version of pixie viewer. And suddenly I had more than 500 visitors for the alpha version of pixie viewer. And yeah, I was thinking about, so wow, there's a huge demand on this. And this was the time I had to continue with the project of course. And then later in April, just a month later, I had 1200 registered user and a lot of communication with companies and that want to use the pixie viewer and about the network behind and so on. I will talk later about the network structure. And today pixie viewer is used by more than six companies around the world. And they are all using the pixie network that I will talk also later about. I called it pixie grid because it matches the pixie viewer term, you know. So and there are some myths about the name how pixie viewer was established. So you can choose one of them. So pixie comes from pixel or pixies come from the pixies that are at night active and you have to revolt overnight or if not do nasty things with your stuff. And they did of course. Or if it comes from a former known pixie viewer that was created in the 50s. Maybe you have never seen this. But they already had a stereographic viewer for slides. So I believe this is one of the beginning of the 3D 3D thing. And my first intention was to connect a grid to a browser based viewer. So I have seen a lot of grids taking the effort and so on. But it didn't not really happen. So I would like to have a link sent by email. For example, click on it and want to be inside a virtual world. And I did a lot of work. I started creating something like a street view for virtual worlds. And I was watching others providing fake viewers via the internet like okay, click here and in the real you download a full viewer. So this didn't work for me. And I thought, hey, there must be a solution. Browser is getting better and better. The performance is jumping up like 100%. We have the technology. It's getting better each iteration. Each iteration of the browser of Google Chrome. For example, Google Chrome is one of my favorite browser. But Firefox is short behind. And each new release of browsers and also of mobile devices. And that's amazing. If I look at my iPad or my iPads that I have, hey, they're getting better each day. Each iteration they release a new product. So and I believe that we can put virtual worlds onto this devices. Okay, next slide. A little bit about the architecture of the pixie view. So pixie view is a multiple three tier application. So and it cannot be run on a single device only. So this means you cannot run pixie viewer on your mobile phone completely because it requires a backbone and it requires an API to connect to to connect. It requires internet connection, of course, and a connection to the pixie grid, like I call it, to the API, which is available in Europe for consumers today. And for customers, also, we are the virtual private network that I will show you later. And I would like to explain the different tier levels. We have the first tier that is the viewer itself. The viewer is loaded from the internet and it's completely in JavaScript code. And I will release the viewer by CC by NCSA license. And this enables you to modify and value back changes you made. So and it's very easy to modify a JavaScript client, you know, it's much more easier than to modify a coded client that you download somewhere if you ever have tried, you know, what I'm speaking about. But this is not all of the show. The second tier is a public API that the viewer is connected to. I'm currently working on a description about the API so everyone can use it. So this is something like a public thing that you can talk to with your software. Either if you're using pixie viewer in JavaScript or using your own services, doesn't matter. The API is open for everyone. And the API will let you register accounts, log in and will connect you to the 3d content. And the third tier, this is much more deeper. This is an application server that I call often, this is my backbone. This is running in the background, a server in Germany. I'm going to replicate this to the network, what we will see later. And normally you don't have to bother with it. So this is just running in the background. But this thing is doing most of the CPU work and so on for you. It stores your data and so on. Okay, let's go to the next slide. This is the network that I have created with pixie viewer. Pixie viewer has a worldwide internal network with a lot of API nodes. Public node currently is the login EU at pixie viewer.com that you can find on our blog. But we also have nodes ranging from San Francisco to New York, Germany and Australia and Japan. And currently working to get a connection to New Zealand because New Zealanders have a problem with their internet connection. They have to pay international traffic if they go outside. So this is a challenge for me. Currently, they do have a local installation running for one of our schools in this little green. So for the nodes, we only create nodes with one gigabit internet connections or more, of course. We just want to make sure that we have a low latency whatever you are connected from. We will see later why because this is a thing that is related to head mounted devices. So we need a low latency. So and while we are running the back end, it's almost connected at 10 gigabit, but the connection to Japan has only two. So I'm a little bit disappointed about this, but I cannot change it at the moment. I'm looking about next slide. Okay, prim conversion. Open simulator is a data source. Open simulator can be connected in different ways. As you see in the slide, we have four options to connect open simulator together with Pixie, fewer in the Pixie grid. The first option is we can have an ORL import that completely imports a scene that you have created somewhere. We also can connect live to an open simulator region and this must be mapped within our network. Mapped means the region must be registered with us and we will forward the login information then for you. So and then you can connect and the third option is that we get the data directly from the database, but this is not really an option because this is delayed. This only helps if you say, for example, okay, I've built a region and I want to replicate it into a Pixie view, for example, because this is not live. This will only be imported once or twice. However, you choose it. So and the fourth option is a SIM plug-in, but I do not develop this anymore because it's a complex thing and I believe the other options are good enough to connect. This was the wrong slide that I was showing you. I believe this is the slide for the prim conversion or something went wrong. No matter. Okay, I will continue with this slide network we had. Open simulator is a data source. Yeah. Oh, prim conversion. This is slide seven. In general with Pixie view, all prim data is converted into mesh. You need to keep in mind. So everything what we get from open simulator will be converted into a mesh format. And it's a little bit tricky to convert this all and the conversion work is done by the clients. You cannot imagine, but it will work. So and if they have done the conversion, they store it back to the backbone using the API. For the conversion, Pixie viewer is measuring clients network speed and browser capabilities and powers. So it will pick the most powerful clients to do the conversion. And if none is available, the backbone will do the conversion. Of course, someone must do that job. But in general, normally there are a lot of clients available that can do that job. These are not tablets and mobile phones. But if someone looks in with a high speed internet connection and powerful your computer, he will do most of the job. And then it's thought back and made available for all others. So going to slide A, a little bit about creativity. Go creative. With Pixie viewer, you can have not only one renderer that shows the virtual world. You also can have or install a second one. And this makes a lot of fun. And I built with my typing class a 3D view for virtual worlds. Just mount your iPhone 5 or 4 in front of your typing classes. And get some lenses. If you want to know where to get lenses, contact me please. They are very important. And you can have a very cheap viewer, a 3D viewer for your virtual world. Okay, next slide. Next slide is about encryption and content protection. So since every content is converted into a mesh format, it is made available via HTTP. So that means everyone could download your creations. This is one thing that comes along with the new technology. And I'm not sure how to avoid this. If you have any ideas, please contact me. But of course, I'm not blind and I'm not looking away from this topic. We have created something. So maybe I should not tell you. But the reality is that we add a watermark into each texture and into each mesh. So we can detect when it was delivered and to who. Maybe this makes it a little bit more secure. But in reality, also in Open Simulator, it is that you can download everything that you want. Just use the right tools. And there are pixie viewer comes with a different permission system. Some of you might know maybe a SharePoint. And in SharePoint, you have a visitor group, a members group and administrator group. And the same way works pixie viewer. So you can define visitors, members, administrators. Okay, next slide. Okay, next slide is also about encryption and content protection. In its standalone version, pixie viewer does do client-to-client encryption. Yeah, I think he is free. Can anybody hear me? Okay, okay. All right, everybody. We've had a little technical difficulty here, a little glitch in what's going on. We're trying to bring him Sonny back online. Yeah, there he comes. Hello. All right. You're here. Can everybody hear us? Continue. Is it public to the audience? They can't hear Sonny. Clap if you can hear Sonny. Here. Perfect. Sorry, I was disconnected somehow. We were at slide 10 about encryption. What I wanted to tell you is that pixie viewer in its standalone version supports client-to-client encryption. So this is the strongest encryption that you can imagine. Especially in the days, some things were revealed that maybe someone is reading your private things. And since it is paced in Germany, we don't have a problem to completely encrypt this stuff of communication. And yeah, you have the right of privacy. And we have a special encryption. We are not using SSL or something. We are using a completely self-invented encryption thing that covers public chat and private IMS. And audio and video conferencing is also secured. But by SSL, you know, weak, as we learned from Mr. Snowden, has a master key. It seems there's a master key for all the certificates out there. A lot of people have thought about, but it seems to be true, unfortunately. Okay, so we learned encryption is weak for scenes. And I also cannot make sure that we have an end-to-end connection once we are connected to OpenSimulator because the client and the other users that are connected to the grid cannot be secured. So I cannot exchange keys or something. So it will break somewhere. You can see it at the slide where the key is with the red X. Okay, let's go to the next slide. So, oh, I love this topic, 3D printing. I love this really much. I partnered with, I materialize about, I don't think nine months ago, very great people. They're very helpful. And can you imagine that you can print everything that you have built in OpenSimulator or in Second Life, for example, if you can import it into OpenSimulator. So I have created an example. So you just go inside a red box and everything. What you rest there, you can print with just a click and you can choose from different materials. It's ranging from plastic to stone. They really have stone things. And you can also color it. Try it on. Okay, and then this is not the last slide. All right. No, it's not the last slide. Okay. There's one left. Let me find the last slide. Okay. So the last slide, I don't find it. I cannot get forward or backward anymore. Not sure. So the last slide was about the release plans for the consumer version of PixiDig or PixiFewer. And I want to tell you that we will release a PixiFewer for commercial things before Christmas, 2013, of course. And as they removed that slide, yeah, this could probably be because it will never happen because they will arrest me for encrypting the internet. That could happen. Okay. I guess now we'll take some questions and answers. It always starts out slow. And as people think of what they want to say, if you would either I am me or put them in chat, either way, we'll try to get through some of them. Just talk to me. So I will answer all questions if I can. One question is, I'd like to understand the bandwidth requirements to the viewer as compared to OpenSim. Yeah. This is a big difference because I cannot expect from mobile clients, for example, that they do the same bandwidth job like a home computer does. So, and that's the reason why the most powerful clients are rendering the scene and saving it back. Okay. And is PixiViewer available for testing now? PixiViewer is available through our blog. You can log into the European node. That's the public node at the moment. Okay. One question we have is, you notice that they're using some three JavaScript terminology and code. If PixiViewer is using 3JS for rendering, if so, what are you doing to increase your rendering capability? Can you say it again, please? Alright. PixiViewer is using some three JavaScript terminology and code. Is it using it for rendering? And if so, how are you going to increase its rendering capability? I'm not sure if I understand this question right. So, yeah, I have included the 3JS library, but I have extended it a lot and I've created a lot of code around it. So, not sure what your question was, Matt. I think what he's looking for is if it's using 3JS for rendering, is there any way you can increase or will you plan on increasing its rendering capability? No, they aren't. I have coded libraries with amount, I don't know, 50,000 lines of code along with the 3JS. So, I'm just using a little bit of this. So, this is not relate on this library. So, this is just a helper thing, doing some rendering and passing data to it. But the most thing is happening with my own code. Oh, I believe I forgot this. The PixiViewer will be open source. Did I mention this? Because I believe a JavaScript client is easier to maintain and to change for all the people here. So, everyone can make his own view or implement functions that we dreamed of, maybe. You know? That's good to know. All right, we have another question. You mentioned the clients do the prim to mesh conversion. Is that a port of prim measure or some other? No, it's not a port. Okay. This was coded by me. And it was created. I'm reading the prim data wherever I get it from. I can get it from a sim module or from the database or from open metaverse client. And with this prim data, I'm creating completely new prims that are more efficient than the second life or open metaverse prims are and convert it back to mesh. And once one client has done this job, it is saving back. Or if we do have a dynamic thing, then everyone has to render this, unfortunately, or someone will not see the result. So, we are in the early stages of this. But this will grow, I believe. All right. And I'm assuming that also is going to be open source. Yeah, the viewer and the JavaScript will be all open source. Yeah. Including the renderer for the prims. And I also see a question about where actually the keys stored. Is there a central depository for the encryption keys? No, they are not central stored, of course not because we are doing a client to client encryption. So, this is this will never happen. Okay, can you talk a little bit about how this might be useful for educational users and what they might how it might benefit them? Well, when I look at the companies that are currently using pixifume. Okay, it's a lot of work, of course, because we don't have the user interfaces in place right now. And they are really working hard. But I'm not sure if I can tell you. Some of them are doing drone flies, for example. And yeah, on unmanned flights with devices and checking out the area and so on, they do training on the job. Yeah. Okay. And can I ask you, what is your business model in regard to the commercial lease before Christmas of the viewer? Yeah, I don't have a real business model, you know. So, there's a new term, the lean startup, you know, where you react to user requirements. This is the way I would like to go. So, that means everything must be paid somehow, the network must be paid. I'm hoping that the sponsors or the current users will do this. And if not, so we will have a little fee. Okay, we have another question. Bandwidth is really a concern given the dynamic content. Once a scene loads and assuming you're doing scene culling, the protocol used by OpenSTEM can be very small. This would seem to be require a great deal more bandwidth. Is that actually a fact? Well, the bandwidth is a problem. For example, if you're on a mobile device, you know, so you don't get the full bandwidth, of course, and you have to pay a lot of money for your network traffic, of course. But it's not a real problem. So, as fast as it is, my network will always be faster than yours. Okay. And are your avatars also converted to mesh, including the animations, or how is that done? No, avatars are currently not converted. Also, no attachments are converted. Yeah. This is a big thing that I have to work on. Is that a plan of future possibility? It's possible. But for the web thing, I believe it's not so important. I've met a lot of people that say, okay, yeah, maybe let's change my shirt or my trousers. And they don't want to customize the avatars so much. And if they want, they can go and download the full client, for example. So, PixiFue is the entry into the 3D web. And you can share it with a link, just a link. You can send it with an email, send a link to your friend, visit me in 3D. And then if you want more, then you can download the full client and customize your avatar or something. I get a lot of irons suddenly. All of a sudden, they're coming across. Good. Keep the questions coming, folks. So, people are asking me to download the source code. I will make it available the next week. Also, I will make an iOS app available next week. But you would have to contact me because Apple refuses any application that enables Safari with WebGL on. So, that's a big problem. So, I need your device number, and I can send you a link. You can download a WebGL-enabled web browser for iOS devices. It's insane, you know. But it's on the web, of course. Will there be an Android application for this? That's something to be looking at. I'm not programming for Android. I'm an iOS developer and a Windows developer and a little bit Linux. No, not really. And how many prims can you display on a typical scene in a typical web browser? I can display as many prims as you want. The problem is that the client breaks somehow. And this is a huge problem also because the terrain alone has so many triangles that a normal mobile phone will not render it. So, this is a big trick to limit the draw distance and to break up the terrain and just to display where you are currently and to limit the draw distance. So, this is the trick. And also, not to have your mobile phone, for example, rendering all the things, you know. Well, this is not an application or an app. This is just a modified Safari that has WebGL enabled. But once you enable WebGL in the Safari and publish it to the App Store, Apple says, not with us. Don't know why. They don't like it. Yeah, the question was when will the possible download the source and implement and take that and build it into separate platforms where people can explore and use that? Yeah. Okay. This will happen before Christmas this year. So, I will finish. I want to finish the API description and so on. And want to have a stable backbone and so on. Um, you need to recognize that I do it in my spare time. I have a daytime job too. And yeah, I will do my best before Christmas, 2013. Well, we sure appreciate that effort. Are there any, I was going to say, we just have a, we need to wrap up. We have about three or four minutes left. If you have any more questions, please go ahead and either I am me or put them in chat and Sonny can try to answer those in the specified time. Oh, there's a questions about the architecture and web sockets and so on. So, if we go deeper into the technology, I have canceled web sockets because they didn't work out really well. But for the future, I will implement them again. And depending on the device that connects to the API, at the moment, everything is transferred at HDDP. And this is fast enough if you have a good network. Will you open source your lip OM file client that allows live connections between open sim and picks if you're not sure because it's running on the backbone. I have to think about this. Yeah, we're doing sometimes a long poll for specific things, but mostly it's fast enough. If we go, if we have a connection times under 20 milliseconds, this works great. Also for head mounted devices. But yeah, this is the limit. Okay, that just about wraps things up. We should Dalia could provide me some code if he or she wants. Okay, that concludes this. This time our guest speaker, Sunny, please, as you get up to to leave, please just leave slowly, not all at once or stand around and talk to Sunny some more if you'd like. This presentation is brought to you by the overt group and we sure appreciate what's happening here. We hope the rest of your conference is runs as smoothly as we've seen everything else go here. Please check out, pick out the webpage and sunny. Thank you. Give Sunny a big round of applause. Great presentation. Thank you very much. Have a nice time and a nice conference. It's running for one another day, I guess. Okay, I'm standing up.