Three-D
…so I had a bunch of Year 9 boys explore and build in a region of our locally hosted OpenSim [Open Simulator is a Secondlife clone] and it was … interesting, let me explain.
Their first in-world task was to make their avatar look like them. OS Avatars, like 2L, allow for customisation of everything from brow line to “package” size. Problem #1 – the default avatar is “Ruth” a rather well endowed female [I mentioned this was year 9 boys, right?] so we first had to construct new body parts – a new shape [this includes ability to gender-reassign, humanoid limbs, humanoid morphology – 2 of many things, one or others] and a new skin, and then “wear” these to replace the system-owned ones. If you make your own body parts, you are then able to customise them – add body fat, postion the love-handles appropriately, trim that jowl, cleft that chin and so on. Adding new eyes, hair and thankfully clothes and you have a functional articulated and clothed humanoid.
What I found interesting was the the differences between perceived appearance and actual appearance. I guess this is an interesting time for Year 9ers, body image changing wildly but most got gross morphology right and when tuning the finer detail, their mates were saying “no, you are not that fat” and “you are actually a little taller than that” and so on. I guess we all have differences between how we perceive we are and how we are perceived by others [in my mind’s eye, I am a ripped, svelte, athletic build – stop sniggering].
Their next task was to construct an artefact from their textiverse world in 3d so that it “looked like something”. They were free to upload textures [whereas in 2L you pay for each upload], sculpt from primitives and composite geometry. I am delighted to say they took to this task with great skill and determination. It is interesting, the in-world building tools are very similar to those they were familiar with in Bryce [a 3d modelling package we used earlier in the year] – it is nice when a skill set is transferable and the kids make the connection – productivity soars when you do not have to spend time on basics and can concentrate on the “meta”.
Movement, flying, camera re-positioning, manipulation of objects [scaling, rotating, skewing, sculpting etc] were new, as OS like 2L uses controls in very different ways to games these kids are used to. We all had equal building rights, could [but interestingly didn’t] edit each others creations and the spirit of open sharing of skills, peer mentoring and deep discussion were common.
In nearly no time we had buildings, sculptures, furniture and other mystery objects that are well crafted, to scale and in some cases highly detailed. This is amazing, given how little time in-world they actually had. The true power of well-featured builder environments is partly to do with how much control builders have, how familiar they are with underlying skills and whether they can see in their minds-eye what they are attempting to build.
We hope to add to their in-world experiences in the next unit, which is about game making and game environments – the compare and contrast between OS and Unreal Engine will be interesting as the building skill set in Unreal is very different.
What did I learn? Time management is important – quality takes skills and time, having them build right up to the bell meant shut-down and general housekeeping was untidy and rushed. They liked it, once they realised it was place not game [OS has little in the way of game play engine, although it has physics, animation and multimedia capability, little in the way of weapons, monsters etc., and I lost count of the number of times I had to answer “you cannot” when asked the question “how do I attack x”]. I handed over a landmass to them and they looked after what was already there, adding new stuff responsibly and with care, without me having to do much in the way of management – this surprised me a little, but again, reaffirms my belief that kids take to tasks that are interesting and relevant and are generally naughty when they are bored … something to note perhaps?
