Unity is very cool, no doubt about it and if I was working on a commercial game, Unity would be a good choice for a browser-enabled teaser version of that game. The posts by Ener in the last week showcasing Unity as a viable way to share OpenSim content are compelling for what the future may hold for OpenSim-based virtual worlds.
Mesh-based 3D graphics will always look “better” than primitive-based graphics and . . . will always take longer to create.
However, there are a large number of nicely made mesh models to satisfy many needs – just like Getty Images has a very large catalog of photos. If you only use stock models, you risk ending up with a vanilla virtual world. Using a mix of stock models with your own models can yield great results because many things in our real world are “stock” such as phones and cars.
Even with that possibility – I’ll stick with OpenSim for our current needs because of the rapid development it allows. The video below shows a hotel lobby I built in about eight hours which includes an hour creating textures. From the phone to the pens to a somewhat odd chandelier, almost everything was created in one work day. Exceptions are my use of Ener’s equisite Espresso machine, cafe sets, and Aeron chair.
The trade off between photo-realism, and development time and cost, makes OpenSim my choice for now.
originally posted at iliveisl