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Engine Details

Second Life

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The Second Life propietary engine is used in the Second Life online, multiplayer chat-build 3D environment.

Author

Linden Lab

Graphics API

OpenGL

Operating Systems

Windows, Linux, MacOS

Programming Language

C/C++

Status

Productive/Stable

Documentation

Yes

Features

Scripting

LSL (Linden Scripting Language)

Built-in Editors

Terrain, model, some GUI

Physics

Basic Physics, Collision Detection, Rigid Body, Vehicle Physics:

•

Havok 4

Lighting

Per-vertex, Lightmapping:

•	Day/night light cycle
•	Coronas
•	Hardware, dyamic, colored, software raytracing
•	Atmospheric rendering

Shadows

Shadow Mapping, Projected planar:

•	Vertical angle adjustment
•	Ovalular masks
•	Avatars, large objects
•	Terrain

Texturing

Basic, Multi-texturing, Bumpmapping, Mipmapping:

•	Dynamic, palletized

Shaders

Vertex, Pixel:

Scene Management

General, Occlusion Culling, LOD:

•	LOD: avatars, prims, terrain, trees

Animation

Keyframe Animation:

•	Poser BVH
•	Wind

Meshes

Mesh Loading, Skinning:

•	Avatar skin

Surfaces & Curves

Patches:

•	Constructive solid geometry (CSG) modelling (parametric primitives--prims)

Special Effects

Environment Mapping, Particle System, Sky, Water, Fire, Explosion, Fog, Weather:

•	Cellular automata clouds
•	wind (avatar clothes/hair, flexible objects), flexible objects

Terrain

Rendering:

•	Surface patch

Networking System

Master Server:

•	Simulators (sims)

Sound & Video

3D Sound, Streaming Sound:

•	FMOD
•	Ogg-Vorbis compressed format streamed
•	Quicktime MOV video streamed
•	Doppler effect

Artificial Intelligence

Scripted:

•

LSL

Rendering

Fonts, GUI:

Features:

Ease of Use:

Stability:

Support:

Date Added

Sun, 26 Feb 2006

Last Updated

Fri, 5 Dec 2008

There are currently 5 reviews for this engine

License Name	Price	Source Code	Comments
Other/Custom	Free	No	Not for sale

Member Reviews

NOTE: The ratings and reviews below reflect the opinions of their respective authors and as such, do not reflect the opinions of DevMaster.net or its staff. The reviews are not moderated and some are completely inaccurate. Therefore, most reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. If you find any inaccurate or inappropriate reviews, let us know by stating in detail why you think the review should be removed and any links/documents that support your contention.

this should be removed

Posted by: kevinj_j at Mar 9, 2006

This is a GAME. NOT a game Engine. It allows users to upload their own artwork, true.. but it has no real business being here, this is a developer related site

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Second Life is a valid development platform

Posted by: Eep² at Mar 22, 2006

While Second Life IS a virtual environment (not a game, per se), its engine is valid as a development platform:

"Second Life is a 3D platform for developers who want to present, promote, and sell their content and applications to a broad online audience within an immersive, shared space.

Unlike other massive multiplayer online experiences, Second Life has few restrictions and provides broad and flexible content authoring experiences for developers interested in building, creating and evolving the world of Second Life.

Second Life provides our expanding developer community with ownership of anything it builds or creates in Second Life. It is yours to sell, trade or monetize within the rapidly increasing population of Second Life Residents."

(source: http://secondlife.com/developers/)

Second Life has had 2 game developer contests and its scripting language is sufficient enough to create complicated enough behavior to warrant Second Life to be classified as a development platform.

http://secondlife.com/developers/features.php for more details on its developmental features.

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Is it a game engine?

Posted by: at May 9, 2006

Second Life is a peristent world that allows users to add their own models, animations, scripts, particles, etc. For those testing out MMOG ideas, or for those tinkering with only the scripting side of an engine, Second Life could be a good fit. i.e. artists, weekend tinkerers, etc. There have been some small to medium size games built inside the world, but it is limiting in the amount of real estate you can use to build a game due to the equation in Second Life that land=money. Could you build an MMORPG like Everquest or WoW in Second Life: theoretically yes; some things would be easier or harder depending on what you are trying to do...

The benefits:
1. MMOG with users that you can test your ideas on.
2. Low cost of entry: (One time fee of $9.95)
3. Bandwidth & servers are maintained for you.
4. Users can upload their own content.
5. All users reside in the same virtual world. (No multiple game realms)
6. Linden Lab deals with server hackers & accounting not you. (Although you may need to deal with people hacking your scripts, content, & your own personal accounting)
6. Server side physics, scripting, animation, etc.
7. You are a part of the Second Life economy and can make real world money.

The limitations are:
1. You don't get the source code and are therefore stuck with what the engine can and can't do.
2. It has to be run on their servers and users must login to a Second Life client. (i.e. no private branding)
3. You are a part of the Second Life economy and can spend real world money. (This can be expensive if you lease a bunch of servers that no one wants to visit.)
4. Users can upload thier own content. (It can be ugly.)
5. Requires broadband access.

It is fairly full featured in what it does allow, when you consider what you can do with other engines without modifying the source. Plus they always seem to be adding new features. They license servers (a.k.a sims) to individuals allowing them to create their own games per se for about the cost of leasing a dedicated web server through web hosts. Seeing how web hosting has grown in the past decade, I can see real potential for Second Life. Because you can spend/make money in Second Life there are some people who make a full-time real world living just making games and content for Second Life. I believe they are the first game to encourage exchange of game money for real money. Because other users can purchase your content and you get paid for how many people visit your land, you can really make a game that pays you with only in game marketing.

For some die hard coders I know, if they didn't write the assembly themselves, they don't consider it a 'real' engine. In fact, that's the case with a lot of developers in general.

IMHO I think the real question is can you make money developing a game with it. With Second Life, the answer is yes. How much money has your engine made you?

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This is not a game engine. remove it from the list.

Posted by: Makumba666 at Dec 7, 2006

I simply can not understand guys telling Second life is agame engine. Is there any sensible person, who can think of some game level editor, like a game engine?
You can upload your data on their site - what a delight! Nonsence - game engine must aim on game creation - not on adding new modules to existing games. So, please remove this fake "engine from the list.

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This isnt the Engine

Posted by: Shadowstarr at Sep 30, 2009

You're talking more about the game then the actual engine used to create it. Which is why so many other games like secondlife have the same controls, and even look. (like Legend city). Saddly i'm unable to find the game engine anywhere now a days so I cant get you the name or information about it.

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