ABSTRACT

  General-purpose virtual world platforms are having a surprising effect in the old practice of systems modeling and simulation: its massification and webification. A visit to any virtual place in Second Life -like worlds shows sophisticated virtual constructions with non-trivial dynamic behavior that have been set up by ordinary people who neither used professional 3D modeling and simulation tools, nor consider themselves as programmers. Many of those virtual constructions are imaginary systems that could not survive the laws of physics. However, more and more people are experimenting with these virtual worlds to model, simulate and visualize real-world systems, for a number of purposes: historical reconstruction, rich 3D interfaces to physical equipment control,

urban planning, and scientific visualizations are just a few. This gives an overview of all this experimentation, and analyzes the ways by which it improves the state-of-the-art professional tools. It also presents some of the systems engineering and software engineering challenges that this practice brings to the table.

 

Keywords:  Virtual Worlds, Modeling, Simulation, 3D Visualization

 

1. INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

2. OPENSIMULATOR
  The OpenSimulator project (OpenSim for short)

 

2.1 In-World Scripting

 

2.2 Server-Side Application Modules

 

3. CASE STUDY 1: PRT SYSTEM

 

3.1 Modeling the Real-World Objects

 

3.2 Simulation
3.2.1 Sensing

 

3.3 The Immersion Factor

 

4. CASE STUDY 2: STELLARSIM