Building Web 3.D - the Wii, wherefore and the PS3 Supercomputer

Following on from yesterday's post, was musing on the MetaGoogleverse and what would really be required to run Web 3.D, and I decided that as well as a webservice you would probably need powerful virtual reality processing devices in the home. Ten years ago that would have been very expensive, but two newly released games devices are very interesting for doing this from a low cost/ease of use standpoint.

Firstly, the user device...the Wii is winning friends and influencing people, but the real lesson to me is that VR end user gear is now do-able at reasonable price and considered commercially interesting - see here for e.g. I don't know how easy the Wii will be to repurpose yet, but I'm sure time and the hackforums will tell.

Secondly, the processor - people have been talking about this since the PS3 architecture became clear, here for example, and the NCSA did put together a cluster of PS2s as well (see here)

I blogged on this awhile back, the architecture of the PS3 for its price (in US dollars anyway, it looks like a rip-off in the UK right now) gives it formidable power, and it will support Linux so its an interesting opportunity to get a really powerful machine up and running with not too much effort.

(Or would be if we could get our hands on them in Europe, they are not officially on sale for a while yet.)

It looks like one can run Linux machines as virtual parallel computers (see here), even over GB ethernet, so if one had a few of them at home....

Now, for processing power what can Amazon's Web Services do for Web 3.D entrepreneurs?

In addition, the Vancouver based International association of Virtual Reality Technologies says it will launch an initial phase of its Neuronet, optimised for linking online virtual worlds and big media users.

This is turning into a space to watch for all the broadband virtual mediaheads out there.....