High Fidelity, the new virtual world venture from Philip Rosedale, is currently in a limited Alpha phase. However a blog post from High Fidelity’s Dan Hope opens the door a little to those who are outside Alpha to get a limited peek at what’s going on under the hood. The post, Introducing The New Documentation Resource, invites anyone who wants to contribute to the documentation, to do so.
The reason why the Documentation Resource is so important is explained in the blog post :
This section of our site covers everything from how to use Interface, to technical information about the underlying code and how to make scripts for it. We envision this as being the one-stop resource for everything HiFi.
What’s more, we want you to be a part of it. We’ve opened up Documentation to anyone who wants to contribute. The more the merrier. Or at least, the more the comprehensive … er. And accurater? Whatever, we’re better at software than pithy catchphrases. Basically, we think that the smart people out there are great at filling in holes we haven’t even noticed yet and lending their own experience to this knowledgebase, which will eventually benefit everyone who wants to use it.
Even if you don’t want to contribute, browsing through the documentation will give you an overview of where High Fidelity is heading, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work some things out. Indeed you don’t even need to be Inara Holmes either, however Inara also has a blog post on this subject and that post includes images.
The documentation resource reveals that High Fidelity uses the JavaScript syntax, linked to their JavaScript API, which means that if you’ve got experience with coding in JavaScript you’re likely to be able to cope with coding in High Fidelity. There are example scripts, tutorials on customising your avatar, such as how to create Blendshapes or Shape Keys for your Avatar, how to build a client for Mac, Windows, Linux and more.
However one word of warning, the documentation is incomplete, for example the part about Smartphone devices simply states :
We have a handful of Alpha-stage apps built for iOS, with companions for Android planned. At they moment they aren’t our primary focus, but check back here for further details as they arrive.
However even that is useful because it tells us that Smartphones are likely to play a role in High Fidelity in some way. However the section about hand controllers is more complete with information on how the Razer Hydra can be used with High Fidelity. Then we go back to motion controllers and find that the Leap Motion information is far from complete. However people have been using Leap Motion in High Fidelity.
By opening up the Documentation Resource to anyone, the High Fidelity team will hope that some of the documentation will be updated. They are also not expecting everyone to be a skilled technical writer and will reward ideas themselves in the right circumstances, as explained in the blog post :
In fact, you don’t even have to write something to contribute. If you see a need for addition or clarification in Documentation, add a job on Worklist, which will help point other contributors to potential needs. If it gets picked up and completed, you get paid!
The Documentation section of our site is really a living document, and we want it to grow and improve with the software itself. Help us make this happen. Whether you want to contribute or just learn more about what’s going on, head over to Documentation and tell us what you think.
Worklist is also worth keeping an eye on if you want to get a peek into what’s happening in High Fidelity and if you think you can assist, you can bid on a job and get paid real money for it. However whether or not you want to contribute, the Documentation Resource provides an insight into High Fidelity to anyone who is interested, so if you are interested, go take a look.
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