Cable Beach
NewsNovember 5, 2009: Downloads are available for the second release (1.1) of the Cable Beach Launcher helper app. This version includes a graphic user interface that allows you to customize which viewer will be used and can support any viewer application that understands SL-style command line arguments. Grab the new version on the Downloads page.
August 4, 2009: Downloads are available for the first release of the Cable Beach Launcher helper app; a small C# application that can handle cablebeach:// URIs and will search for a Second Life™ based viewer to launch. This launcher will make the Cable Beach login seamlessly transition from the web to the 3D world. Grab it on the Downloads page. July 1, 2009: The first draft of the Cable Beach core specification is available on the wiki: CableBeachCore1_0 June 30, 2009: realXtend releases the first developer preview of their new platform, including a backend service architecture built on Cable Beach technology. From the release: "Taiga is comprised of ModreX running on OpenSimulator for real-time 3D application hosting, and CableBeach for federated authorization and content distribution" June 28, 2009: A sneak peek of realXtend's new viewer and server platforms, codenamed Naali and Taiga. Cable Beach forms the backbone of the service architecture, enabling cross-world identity and inventory.
May 29, 2009: A demonstration of the Cable Beach authentication flow. This was originally previewed at Stanford's Metaverse U event.
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Introduction
Virtual worlds are made up of a complex stack of services that operate together to deliver a complete immersive experience. The approach taken so far is to build an entire vertical stack of services including user account management, content distribution servers, inventory hosting, simulation servers, simulation coordinators, and more. As virtual worlds grow in both popularity and complexity it is no longer always desirable to only build so-called "walled gardens" of services. Cable Beach provides the glue to bind virtual world services together, whether they exist alongside one another in a data center or across the Internet run by different organizations that have no preexisting relationship. The primary focus of the architecture is on the following:
- Let service providers specialize in what they do best. To address the growing scalability demands of the web, service providers have evolved into providing narrow but high quality services. You wouldn't expect a social network to also provide the best search engine service on the web.
- Use existing standards. Many of the challenges in virtual worlds are broad issues that are also being addressed by the web community. Instead of creating new parallel solutions, Cable Beach attempts to leverage as much existing technology as it can to enable better compatibility with other architectures, both today and in the future.
- Give virtual world administrators more flexibility, not less. No use case is viewed as more or less valid than another, and the system does not favor any particular setup. Building a walled garden is just as easy as building a completely decentralized world, or any combination of the two.
The core of Cable Beach is the definition of a virtual world login protocol and a standard method of defining virtual world services. The implementation available at this site consists of a login server and another server for assets and filesystem services. Initially, this implementation is targeting compatibility with the OpenSim project using a custom OpenSim extension called ModCableBeach. Additional connectors for other virtual world systems are in the planning phase.
Motivation
- The barrier to entry for creating and running a virtual world is too high. Even with popular platforms such as OpenSim, grid administrators are taking on a monumental task of overseeing many or all of the above services when only a simple world simulation is needed.
- The all-or-nothing approach of the current protocols prevents the development of a robust virtual world ecosystem, where many specialized services are provided. Today's large stakeholders in content hosting, content delivery acceleration, identity services, and social networking have no means of entry to the virtual worlds space.
- Due to the walled garden nature of current worlds, third party services such as search and digital content creation tools have been almost entirely locked out of virtual worlds.
Vision
We envision virtual worlds modeled after the current World Wide Web, with millions of independent administrative domains. Content will be spread across millions of small, independent domains as well as aggregated on large domains supporting millions of users. A rich community of value added services and the free and open exchange of content will weave the network together, much as the Web 2.0 movement is tying the web together today. Every organization can choose what services they will run themselves, what services will be provided by third parties, and which third parties will provide services. Additionally, the content rights decisions are placed in the hands of the content hosts. With the proper authentication, users are free to move assets to wherever they roam.
Data services will become as important as data hosting itself. Just as search engines and content portals have changed how we use the web, services that can plug into a common interface in asset hosting will change how we use virtual worlds. Auditing services can provide an approach to rights management and traffic analytics. Existing caching techniques and services that have been built for today's web content can be leveraged for delivery of rich virtual world content.
