Avatar puppeteering has unexpectedly turned up as a source-code branch in the Second Life viewer source repository. This is still a largely abandoned feature, but the code is being put in front of open-source developers to see if they can actually do anything with it.

It is important to stress that the code is far from complete or fully-tested. There is a simulator on the Aditi (preview) grid which has some matching code written for it (the simulator is called Puppeteering - and may only be accessible by logging directly into the sim). The simulator code is also unfinished, insufficiently tested, and likely not stable. If none of that dissuades you, and you'd like to play with this code, then good luck!

Learn more about Avatar Puppeteering.

Back in the day, when Kevin Alderman (Second Life's Stroker Serpentine) was selling his hugely successful and popular virtual Amsterdam setting, he hinted that he was moving into a related line of business. Well, we know now what business it is that he's been getting into: wearable, affordable, consumer-grade motion-capture suits.

Frankly, the expensive professional capture systems that have largely been de-rigueur for motion capture for most of the history of the art require a ton of space, huge amounts of computing power, and that you dress like a luge sled pilot that's been infected with evil-alien-mime DNA and is being assaulted by amorous Pythagorean solids. Those days are soon to be over.

Alderman's company Strocap is working on a simple, wireless, wearable motion-capture suit that doesn't make you look any more retarded than the average outfit of expensive athletic gear. You can wear this with regular clothing -- or without it, depending on just exactly what sorts of motions you want to capture.

Avatar Puppeteering (also known as Expressive Puppeteering) was shown off at Linden Lab's inaugural Second Life Views session back in 2006. Since then the project has presented the occasional teaser, though the news was handed down in September last year that the puppeteering project was on hold while the focus was on bug-fixing. We asked again in the new year and we were told that it was still 'on hold'.

With recent teasers from Jeffrey Ventrella, the mastermind behind this project (and behind flexi-prims we understand), we did a bit more investigation, and we think that 'on hold' is something of an understatement.

When this blogger first came back to Second Life in 2006, Linden Lab was organizing their first SL Views group. When they flew the focus group to San Francisco, that session was about avatar puppeteering. Residents have not heard much about it since then.

However, Jeff Ventrella, who was brought on to LL for this sole purpose (He also invented flexi-prims!), released a quick simulation video on YouTube today, complete with a website link for more information about it. For those unaware, avatar puppeteering involves natural joint movement and ragdoll-physics. Could this mean that it will be introduced in 2008? We can only hope!