Solipsis
Encyclopedia
Solipsis is a free
and open source
system for a massively multi-participant shared virtual world
designed by Joaquin Keller and Gwendal Simon at France Télécom
Research and Development Labs. It aims to provide the infrastructure for a metaverse
-like public virtual territory. Relying on a peer-to-peer
architecture, the virtual world may potentially be inhabited by a theoretically unlimited number of participants.
model rather than the traditional server-client one. Additionally, it aims to give users more flexibility in designing interfaces and content in their individual segments of the virtual world.
, but some communication services may be added to one for interaction between entities.
The virtual world is initially empty and is only filled by entities run by end users' computers. All Solipsis nodes are functionally equal, and no preordained infrastructure is required. This eliminates as far as possible any restrictions on the content or functionality of the world.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
system for a massively multi-participant shared virtual world
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
designed by Joaquin Keller and Gwendal Simon at France Télécom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
Research and Development Labs. It aims to provide the infrastructure for a metaverse
Metaverse
The Metaverse is our collective online shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the internet...
-like public virtual territory. Relying on a peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
architecture, the virtual world may potentially be inhabited by a theoretically unlimited number of participants.
Motivations
A central objective of Solipsis is to create a virtual world which is as independent as possible from the influence of private interests, such as server ownership. In order to achieve this, it is based around a peer-to-peerPeer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
model rather than the traditional server-client one. Additionally, it aims to give users more flexibility in designing interfaces and content in their individual segments of the virtual world.
Main principles
A Solipsis entity is a basic element of the virtual world. To exist, an entity should run a node that may be controlled by a navigator. Nodes are self-organized in a pure peer-to-peer network, in which relationships depend on virtual proximity. A navigator is mainly a graphical user interfaceGraphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
, but some communication services may be added to one for interaction between entities.
The virtual world is initially empty and is only filled by entities run by end users' computers. All Solipsis nodes are functionally equal, and no preordained infrastructure is required. This eliminates as far as possible any restrictions on the content or functionality of the world.
Current status
Solipsis currently consists of:- A peer-to-peer protocol over UDPUser Datagram ProtocolThe User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
. The Solipsis protocol gives a node the ability to broadcast its presence within the virtual world. Moreover, this protocol aims to guarantee the maintenance of some global properties. - A node-navigator interface, which takes the form of an APIApplication programming interfaceAn application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
between the node and the navigator. Currently written in XML-RPCXML-RPCXML-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism. "XML-RPC" also refers generically to the use of XML for remote procedure call, independently of the specific protocol...
, this interface allows a navigator to control a node and to retrieve information on its virtual surroundings. - A basic implementation of a Solipsis Node and a Solipsis navigator licensed under the LGPLGNU Lesser General Public LicenseThe GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
. The navigator features a two-dimensional representation of the virtual world. The design of current interface resembles YackPack, an interactive system developed at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Interaction between entities consists only of chatOnline chatOnline chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
. - Some other services, which implement blogBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, some identity fields for social networking, file sharingFile sharingFile sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
, and graphical chat.
See also
- Snow CrashSnow CrashSnow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's other novels it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy....
- OSMPOSMPThe Open Source Metaverse Project, or OSMP, was a multi-participant shared virtual world online platform. This platform was free and open source software co-founded in 2004 by Hugh Perkins and Jorge Lima....
- Croquet projectCroquet ProjectThe Croquet Project was an international effort to promote the continued development of the Croquet open source software development kit for creating and delivering deeply collaborative multi-user online applications....
- Second LifeSecond LifeSecond Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...