I blogged about AI-powered NPC conversations from startup Convai last year (see demo below), and today's there's news that Linden Lab will use this technology in Second Life:
Convai has joined forces with industry giants such as Frost Giant Studios, Linden Lab, and Carbonated to integrate AI NPCs into their games. These collaborations underscore the growing demand for AI-driven characters in gaming and virtual worlds, with Convai’s technology driving engagement and utility for end-users.
“We’re excited to partner with Convai to bring its conversational AI into Second Life to add new and exciting engagement experiences to our community,” says Brad Oberwager, chairman of Linden Lab, in a statement. “This partnership is just the latest example of our ongoing commitment to innovation in virtual worlds as Second Life has been a pioneer and leader in the establishment of digital economies, cultures, and communities. These AI characters can not only ease the learning curve for new users by providing necessary information, but also help entertain and engage them by giving them a tour of the virtual world, carrying out different actions based on conversation, and connecting them with other players and characters.
Emphasis mine. Given the particular wording, the likeliest use case for Second Life is addressing the first-time user experience, which remained the core friction point for growing the virtual world's user base. Roughly 99% of new users never return, overwhelmed by the complex user interface, and the intimidation of a virtual world that's not a traditional game with clear goals/rewards. An AI-powered Liaison Linden could definitely help address some of this challenge.
Then again, that doesn't mean AI is the panacea to Second Life's core problem!
For one thing, LLM-based NPCs will be notoriously unreliable and need quite a bit of training not to hallucinate. For another, I'm concerned that starting new users off with an NPC companion will distort their impression about Second Life culture, which is all about actual live users and live user communities. Finally (to judge by the demo above), the NPC interactions are still very much in the soulless, uncanny valley area.
Then again, I'm also open to the possibility that an AI companion will be less stressful than dealing with a live human assistant/volunteer, especially for new users who already feel overwhelmed, and want some time by themself to get acclimated.
Anyway, we'll see. MMO game designer Damion Schubert made some interesting points when this tech was first unveiled:
Storytelling in games is ALREADY much harder than other forms of media because we don't control the pace of delivery, or (frequently) the order players encounter story nuggets. Hell, we have to deal with players putting down their controllers for a week and reengaging.
As such, narrative design is an incredibly important and incredibly delicate design field. Because it's about the EXPERIENCE and not the NARRATIVE.
It's not going to be achievable simply by about firing all your writers and replacing them with robots.
Or to apply it to Linden Lab, growing the user base is (probably) not going to be achievable by adding robotic community managers!
Please support posts like these by buying Making a Metaverse That Matters!
For all your "This is Fine" meme needs across all realities -- and good god there so many occasions for this right now -- Mad Pea Studios has this animated stool which comes with a cup of coffee and a cartoon bubble. (Raging fire not included.) Also: "The raging flames are part of the attachable stool and they come with sizzling fire sounds as well!"
It's now available from Mad Pea Studios for L$199 at the EQUAL10 shopping event (direct teleport here), though that means wading through a lag of shoppers, and is somewhat hard to find at first.
"From the event landing point, walk towards the center of the event," a Mad Pea team member advises. "At the sponsor ad wall turn left. You will find our booth on the left-hand side, it's the one on fire!"
I'm secretly hoping this becomes a Second Life-wide Flickr meme for Cajsa to blog (hint hint) -- and that original artist KC Green says this is fine, too.
And do post your "This is fine" photo links in Comments!
Update, 4/18: Corrected fire effects feature!
Hat tip: Gogo.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
My Thing: About My Second Life is a decor blog by Hitsu Ruby. Reading Nook is her most recent post and I want to live here. Sure, it’s a garden shed so there is no kitchen or living room, but look at the books! The sky and trees feel very familiar for this Oregonian. All those windows would be wonderful for the people, maybe not so much for the books, but this is for book lovers, not necessarily book collectors. Be sure to check her post to find out who made all those lovely books and plants. [To teleport, click here]
For more decor , click here:
Vending Machine gives us a closer look at what we can see from the Reading Nook which is visible in the background of this picture. These are part of a series of posts about a scene she set with a bus stop, these vending machines, a small outdoor aquarium also visible here, and the reading nook. I love the way her landscaping and design is relaxed and natural with a few wildflowers and just the right amount of messiness. [To teleport, click here]
My Thing: About My Second Life is a fabulous decor/fashion blog. She decorates with what she loves, not what is at the current sales events. Her blog is very spare, which I like. There are her posts and on the right side, a link to her profile, a search bar, and her archives. She does not provide links to the items, but I found all I searched for on Marketplace. I would recommend adding a link to her Flickr in her blogger profile so people can find her. If she has other social media, she should also add them to that profile. If you love outdoor decor that is warm and welcoming, you should definitely follow My Thing.
All images copyright Hitsu Ruby
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.) Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
Stream starts at 4pm PT today! Watch on YouTube, or join us in-world:
Teleport link: VWBPE Auditorium - Canopy Waterfall
Teleport link: VWBPE Auditorium - Floating Gallery
We'll take as many audience questions as possible, just post them in text chat.
Also! Thanks to my publisher Wiley, there's a special 35% discount on the print addition of my book. Here's the details:
And if you want a signed autograph plate from me, message me your mailing address, and I'll send one to you anywhere that Forever World stamps cover!
One day famed game designer Raph Koster awoke to discover that his classic book, A Theory of Fun, had been turned into a plug-in for ChatGPT. Which was somewhat strange, because Raph Koster had not authorized his book to become a named discourse in ChatGPT. In fact, he only found out about the plug-in because it showed up on Google/Google Alerts.
So his immediate reaction was an ambivalent, "Uh..."
I located the creator of the plug-in. Who as it turns out, was a game developer and educator in Asia. And his specific reaction was: "😱😱😱"
He told me the plug-in was created for a game design course he's teaching, and he was thinking about incorporating queries about games through ChatGPT for it. He chose Raph's book, he explained, because it was small enough to fit into ChatGPT. (He also incorporated writings by fellow game designers Marc LeBlanc and Nicole Lazzaro.)
In any case, he added, the plug-in was only meant as an experiment and wasn't intended to be published. (I am therefore not linking to it nor listing his name.)
While this specific instance seems to have been an innocent mistake, it's also an early warning sign of a future trend: Well-known authors' works ingested into ChatGPT and other LLMs without their permission, but still represented as their work and thoughts.
As for Raph, he has ambivalent thoughts about the experience, and what it means for the future of copyright, and his own work:
"I have mixed feelings," Raph Koster puts it to me in an DM exchange. "If a person read my book and then posted summaries, or was interviewed about it -- I usually feel happy about that. There are many examples of just that -- one came out on YouTube just a few days ago!" (See above.)
"So what's different if an AI database ingests it?"
"Not much, really. Except that I don't know if the AI database bought a copy, if you know what I mean. But it's possible OpenAI did! It's also possible it was just scraped from a pirate ebook site.
"This case goes a little further -- training an AI specifically on one work then issuing it publicly feels like the creation of a derivative work. There are bounds on derivative works, in copyright. I don't think those bounds are very clear for a trained LLM, but selling it would probably exceed the bounds.
"Copyright law is gonna break -- it was already bent beyond recognition by digital content in general. Which is something I've been talking about for years (you might remember my articles about CopyBot back in the day, or my long talk just about this issue." (Here's my own article on CopyBot, a program that was able to replicate user-generated commercial content in Second Life, and subsequently banned.)
"I am too familiar with remix culture, oral culture, or for that matter the history of culture, to think that cultural works getting swallowed up by other cultural works is evil," Raph goes on. "In fact, it's usually good and creates more culture. But the compensation mechanisms for cultural product are another story. How much cultural content is only enabled by the ability to profit from it? And what will we lose if creators cannot profit anymore?"
Those are many unanswered questions! Then again, they are currently being answered in US courts.
For myself as an author, I definitely do not want my copyrighted books ingested by LLMs without my consent, nor turned into a plug-in. I'm not even sure I would license them. LLMs are quite literally designed to produce mediocre average results, and I like to think my books are not that. (Let alone LLMs tendency to hallucinate, i.e. produce output attributed to me that I didn't even write.)
I'm also incredibly skeptical that the fair use doctrine has any validity in the context of LLMs. Fair use is intended to encourage editorial commentary and critique, which itself implies authorial intent. (I.E., by a human author.)
I'm overjoyed when my writing is cited at length in a review by a smart person who actually read my books, even if their take is critical.
When it's randomly, automatically hoovered up by an LLM? Not so much.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Zambrotta Zadark lives such an adventurous life, I wonder how they find time to take their fabulous pictures. Here is Zambrotta in “Days”, riding a hoverboard of the future with their face covered, about to toss a smoke bomb. This reminds me of a Black Bloc protester, though their clothing is not anonymous enough. Also, their tats show through the sheer shirt and their hair is visible. Still, the vibe is there. I also love how they used a filter to change their SL screenshot into a panel in a graphic book that I hope is being written at this very minute.
For more adventures, click here:
“Awakening of Excessive Power” is well-named. There is a lot to like about this picture. It could be confusing but Zambrotta includes some important visual cues to help us separate the subject from the setting. Notice that the setting’s colors are all yellow, pink, blue, and white while the subject is silver with red lights. My assumption is that entanglement of wires, fans, and compressors over their shoulder is actually part of their suit because it uses the same lighting scheme, with the red lights. While most people would crumble under the weight, I see that Zambrotta also has ten weapons in one hand and I presume they can raise their hand without a forklift. Again the red lights. And then there are the red lines that Zambotta has drawn to further affirm that connection. So, yes, this is truly excessive power, if they can move.
This is one of Zambrotta’s most popular pics. It’s over 4 years old which can be a long time in how things look in Second Life. This still feels fresh, though. Particularly, the humor. It’s called “Saturday Night Fever” and I swear they are doing a dance number. The main character seems to be dancing, one hand raised, a finger pointing to the sky. He is turned to the side and has one leg canted. If this isn’t John Travolta in a cyber-suit, it’s a close approximation. I just love it. I also love the background of stylized city skyscrapers and the yellow lines delineating the floor and ceiling and their reflections below. It’s amazing and fun. What could be better?
Zambrotta Zadark has a photostream full of adventures. There are so many different characters and possible stories that a person could get lost in imagining what is going on. They create many characters and they are all complete. Zambrotta doesn’t just put on an outfit, but creates and entire scene. And it’s great.
All images copyright Zambrotta Zadark
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
Lately I've been helping develop a very cool sci-fi action game (in my highly biased opinion!) which includes working with the creative director on putting together a presentation deck to show publishers and others.
Inevitably we've been using Midjourney to create prototype images for the deck -- which gave me a first-hand demonstration on the limitations of generative AI as a visualization tool.
One aspect of the game involves a sci-fi cyberpunk commando performing CPR on a fallen comrade. So something like this at right (image via Wikimedia commons), but, you know, science fiction-y, cyberpunk-y, and more commando-y.
Here's one of the first images we got:
OK this is super sexy, and I'm glad these two crazy kids found some time for love in an uncaring world. But that's not what we're looking for!
"Midjourney doesn't have like pics of combat medics / EMT workers doing mouth-to-mouth?" I asked the creative director.
"I'm trying! Seems to have a loophole in the no smut directive."
"So a prompt like 'imagine combat medic performing mouth-to-mouth on dying soldier' gets us bupkus?"
Actually no, it got us more than bupkus -- or less, depending how you look at it. Because prompts like that took us straight into "Aliens, but porn" territory:
"Vasquez! Don't you die on me now! Not until I put my sweet sweet loving on you."
Then the commandos gave up on CPR entirely and went right into a three-way:
And so on and so forth, Midjourney happily spitting out pics like this by the dozens or hundreds. I had assumed the platform would have trained on all the many actual CPT training video and images online but somehow it didn't -- or it did, but those got drowned out by porn and gratuitous sexiness.
Eventually we found one or two images that more or less worked, but it took quite a bit of digging. Specifically over 50 tries generating four images each.
And in the end, I had to wonder if it might have been more cost-effective for better results to... you know, pay a Photoshop artist to spend 15 minutes adding sci-fi commando bit to that original Wikipedia image.
After all, generative AI programs are designed to produce the most mediocre results from the web. Or the sexiest!
Here's a handy PBR mirror effect tutorial for users of Black Dragon, the third party Second Life viewer optimized for high-end graphics. As presented by SL YouTuber Macmilow, it's a fairly straight-forward process. And as you'll see above, the term "effect" is doing some serious heavy lifting, as the "reflection" is very much not real time and not a genuine one-to-one reflection. Still useful (as Macmilow notes) for use with fashion and water images where you want some reflective coolness.
Compare and contrast with this tutorial for setting up a PBR mirror effect in the official third party viewer.
If you have other PBR tips or even PBR-powered images to share, please plug away in Comments!
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
In Spring, my fancy lightly turns to thoughts of flowers. This seems the perfect time to check out the Flickr group Flowers of Second Life, with nearly 800 members. I was immediately struck by Wurfi’s picture of Scotch broom at Bella’s Lullaby, mostly because I wondered why someone posted a real-life photo in the group, but then I saw the title and recognized the sim, a favorite for photographers. He kindly provided a teleport link so you can check it out and verify that this is, indeed, Second Life. [To teleport, click here]
For more Flowers of Second Life, click here:
Fearne Moffett’s picture from Pemberley highlights some beautiful Queen Anne’s Lace or wild carrot. It’s such a beautiful, delicate flower and it shows up like little bursts of light in the shadowy darkness of the woods. It’s really quite a lovely picture. She also provided a teleport. [To teleport, click here]
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row…” Prins Evergarden posted Remembrance on November 11th, Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1918, a war that more than decimated the population in many countries, killing altogether around 17 million people. The poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae forever tied poppies to remembering the fallen. [To teleport, click here]
Daffodils are the hardy harbingers of Spring and the warmer weather to come. This vibrant cluster was shot by RigTorok McGregor who has several lovely pictures of flowers. I decided on the daffodils simply because they are the Springiest of Spring flowers. He also provided a SLurl [To teleport, click here]
Paul’s Spring Dance makes me smile. It is just so bright and lively. The sunlight shines through the leaves and brush making the drops of morning dew on the branches sparkle. The red and white daisies intermingle like couples on a dance floor. It’s going to be a lovely day. [To teleport, click here.]
Flowers of Second Life is my favorite kind of Flickr group.It has a specific, easily understood focus - flowers. It has rules and everyone follows them which means the moderators work hard to keep the group to its rules - flowers must be the focus and a SLurl must be included as well as a few other sensible rules. You should check it out and definitely submit your flower pictures.
All images copyright the various artists
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
"With Vision Pro launched, companies must talk about XR, nausea and gender" is a new Gamesbeat editorial that's an expanded excerpt of my new book, highlighting the most shocking thing I discovered while writing Making a Metaverse That Matters:
Meta, from what I can tell -- and I've brought this up with several senior executives, including former Oculus CTO John Carmack -- has not done any substantial research into a gender component around VR and nausea, first raised by danah boyd and backed up by several subsequent studies.
Specifically: that females have a strong propensity to get nauseous in VR.
I cannot overstress how flummoxing an oversight this is on Meta’s part, and for the tech world as a whole. Meta paid $2 billion for a piece of technology intended for a mass consumer market, even though reputable research suggested it tends to make half the population literally vomit.
My hope is tech reporters with large publications pursue this question with executives at Meta and other companies in XR (including now Apple). Anytime an article or news segment features images of women and girls happily enjoying an HMD experience, the media outlet is actively helping to obscure this extremely important, live topic.
Interestingly, there's some Linden Lab overlap to this question. Avi Bar-Zeev was a very early Linden (and most recently, helped develop the Vision Pro for Apple), and Meta's entrance into VR was driven by Second Life's co-founder:
To date, my only direct response to this question from someone associated with Meta has been from Cory Ondrejka, a veteran engineer and co-founder of the virtual world Second Life, who was a VP at Facebook back in 2014, where he led the social network’s move to acquire Oculus.
Ondrejka told me that he knows of no research conducted by Facebook/Meta on this topic — but he’s well aware that VR nausea based on sex differences is still very much a live question.
“I mean, danah’s a friend, so of course I knew about it,” as Ondrejka put it to me recently. “[T]he opportunity for Meta has always been to have a scale of resources to be able to do much deeper research on this question. This is all still such an early moment in VR, there are tons of things we don’t understand about how people react to this. If I was ever in charge of VR stuff again, I would be paying for these studies.” (Ondrejka is no longer with Facebook/Meta.)
... For the most part however, companies in AR/VR aren’t running similar studies on their own products — or just as concerning, sharing them in public. Hence Avi Bar-Zeev’s call for them to share their data. He’s also recruiting people in the industry to join his non-profit XR Guild, to discuss this and other pressing issues.
“On the point of gender differences, I hope companies can share more open research on this,” Bar-Zeev told me recently.
If they don’t, he adds, “we should assume they’re worried about something, or they just don’t care.”
Read the rest here and please consider sharing!
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
デビル, which Google translates as Devil, is definitely drawn to the macabre, but he also creates lovely, bright, and winsome pictures like “Call of the Ocean.” He is swimming under the fish, almost in the background -- though his bright blue and purple fins guarantee he will never be overlooked. I love the school of tiny orange fish gliding above him, almost like jewelry.
For a more macabre pic, click here:
“Poltergeist” is definitely a scary picture. He’s broken through glass and shards are flying. Whatever protection that offered is gone, and he looks hungry. I mean, he’s all mouth, he must be hungry. There’s blood on his teeth and his hands. He may have fed recently, but it was not enough. I love how the glass radiates out and how the pieces of glass are colored by blood. It’s really an amazing pic.
“Invasion” seems to catch our hero defending his home planet. Probably from those aliens who have not, it turns out, visited us. At least, the US Army said so last week. He must be in another multiverse from this one. I love how he outlined his hand, almost as though making a cartoon. It makes it so specific and important in the picture.
デビル has a fun timeline. He’s all sorts of nonhuman species from that gorgeous sea creature above to the monstrous head of teeth in the second picture. He’s a Samurai playing music and more than one scary monster. It seems he loves cosplay and he does it very well.
All images copyright デビル
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
Sanny Yoshikawa が、New World Notesのなかから、毎月おすすめのバーチャルワールドニュースを日本語で紹介 します
Sanny Yoshikawa covers the monthly virtual world highlights from New World Notes for virtual Japan.
★New World Notesでは、広告主になってくださる、カスタマーベースを拡大したい日本のブランドを募集しています。メタバース関連のブランドであれば、Second life、VRC、Clusterなど、プラットフォームは問いません。興味のある方は、お気軽にお問い合わせください!★
Philip Rosedaleは、彼のFairShareのデジタル通貨ユニバーサル・ベーシック・インカムプロジェクト(2023年のインタビューはこちら)をSecond Lifeを使ったミーティングと、とてもアクティブなDiscordで展開し始めています。
FairShareサーバーはすでにかなり活発でチャットも盛んなので、Philipは新しいユーザーに自己紹介をするよう勧めています。そして他のメンバーにスポンサーになってくれるよう頼めば通貨グループに入ることができます。(そのためには、Introsチャンネルで"/join "と入力してください。)
通貨グループのメンバーになると、FairShare通貨のベーシックインカムがもらえるようになります--この通貨はすでに使われ始めています:
「今はまだ実験的なものです。」とPhilipは言います。「人々はお互いに投票し、収入を得、他のサーバーと取引し、一発で他のみんなにまとまったお金を与えるような、ユニークなアイデアのデザインが推進されます。」
実験段階ですが、FairShareは現在すでに商品やサービスの購入に使われています:
「古いノートパソコンやコンサルティングの時間など、いくつかのものが購入されています。」とPhilip Rosedaleは教えてくれました。
ここはまた、FairShareの背景にあるより広範な経済思想についてPhilipとおしゃべりする場所でもある。最近の#Generalでのチャットで彼はこう言っています:
貨幣のない社会を作ろうとすると、それにもかかわらず貨幣が発明され使用される暗黒市場が頻繁に生じるようだ。これは、自由市場が中央計画よりもはるかに効率的に資源を分配できるからだと思う。というのも、市場ベースのシステムでは、(全員が)より大きな計算能力を使えるからである。
FairShareのアイデアは、市場が重要であることを尊重しつつ、私がプレゼンテーションで説明したように、再循環する手数料/収入によって、富める者がより富む傾向に対抗することだ。大規模で複雑な資源プールが中央計画によって効果的に管理された歴史的な例はないと思う。
中央の行為者が害をなすリスクが生じないようにするために、ある種の分散型台帳が将来の貨幣形態に必要であることには同意する。しかし、新しい通貨を継続的に印刷し、均等に分配する手段も必要であり、コモディティ通貨(金、ビットコイン、イーサリアム)はそれをサポートしていない。そこで私は、FairShareでその仕組みを追加することを提案している。私は、ビットコイン(あるいは他のコモディティ)を裏付けとすることが望ましいという意見には反対だ。別の言い方をすれば、すでに分配が不平等になっている基軸通貨を使っても、不平等を改善することはできない。
非常に高いレベルでは、まず、世界の基軸通貨(現在は米ドル)が、BTCのような固定供給のデジタルトークンに徐々に取って代わられる未来を想像することができる。そして、個人やコミュニティは、基軸通貨を直接使うか(例えば、ライトニング・ネットワークのようなものと直接取引するか)、フェア・シェア通貨のようなものを作るかを選択しなければならない。フェア・シェア通貨では、より小さなグループ間の相互信用と信頼が、リスクをプールするために使われ、取引トークンを得るために基軸通貨を借りる必要なく、価値のある通貨を集団で作ることができる。
Philip Rosedaleは、技術的にも体験的にも目を見張るような、そして首が痛くなりそうなデモをもとに、Apple Vision Proのハンズオンレビューを書きました:
テーブルに肘をついて、手のひらに顎を乗せていたこともあった。というのも......それほど重いのだ。私は大柄で丈夫な人間なので、このようなものを身につけるのは慣れている。しかしこれは長時間の使用には重すぎる。ストラップが1本のため、顔を強く締め付ける必要があり、Qusestよりも顔との接触部分に違和感があった。
問題なのは、Vision Proをきつく装着しすぎると、髪が傷む可能性が高いということです。また、Vision Proのブランディングによれば、これはプロフェッショナル用、つまり1日8時間使用することを想定しています。
「Quest、Magic Leap、Varjoのような他のデバイスと同様に、産業トレーニングのような狭い分野で使用されるだろうと予測している 」とフィリップは結論付けました。
その通りだ!と、Wagnerも言います。そして、Appleがより軽量で安価なヘッドセット・デバイスをすぐに作れるというシナリオを想像するのは難しいでしょう。
読者の皆さんはどうですか? もしあなたがVision Proを試した(または買った)のであれば、コメント欄で感想を教えてください。特に、既存の仮想世界や、Vision Proを中心に構築された新しい仮想世界で、Vision Proを使用することを想像できるかどうか、興味があります。
Philip Rosedale Demos Vision Pro, Deems It Too Heavy & Isolating For Mainstream. How About You?
昨年の12月にWagnerは、2024年に主要なメタバース・プラットフォームが買収されると予想しました。このニュースはそのすぐ後に発表され、ディズニーが少なくともそのうちの10%を所有することになりました:
The Walt Disney Company とEpic Games は、愛すべきディズニーの物語と体験のリーチをさらに拡大する、まったく新しいゲームとエンターテインメントの世界で協力します。ディズニーはまた、この複数年にわたるプロジェクトと並行して、15億ドルを投じEpic Gamesの株式を取得する予定です。
世界トップクラスのゲーム体験と『Fortnite』との相互運用に加え、新しい永続的な世界は、消費者がディズニー、ピクサー、マーベル、スター・ウォーズ、アバターなどのコンテンツやキャラクター、物語で遊んだり、見たり、買い物をしたり、関わったりする多くの機会を提供します。
「Disneyは、Fortniteで彼らの世界と私たちの世界を融合させる可能性を最初に信じた企業の1つであり、ポートフォリオ全体でUnreal Engineを使用しています」と、Epic GamesのCEO兼創設者であるTim Sweeneyは述べています。「今、私たちは、DisneyとFortniteのコミュニティを結びつける、永続的でオープンで相互運用可能なエコシステムを構築するために、全く新しいことに取り組んでいるのです。」
相互運用(interoperable )という言葉からは、Fortniteの既存の1億人以上のプレイヤーが、この新しいDisney/Epicの世界にかなりシームレスに飛び込めることを強く示していると感じられます。このニュースのほかにも、EpicはLEGO、Rocket League、そしてRockbandのクリエイターであるHarmonixとのパートナーシップについて最近発表しています。
Wagnerはこのニュースに、メタバースの風変わりで、インディーズで、草の根的な精神が、さまざまなプラットフォームで弱体化するのではないかと心配になったという感想を述べています。例えば、ディズニーがメタバース・プラットフォーム・ビジネスに直接関与するようになったことで、今までのようにユーザーが作品のファンのために作った作品は、すぐに消されてしまうかもしれません。
しかしそれ以上に、事実上メタバースの大衆向け化が進むことでしょう:
RobloxやFortniteは巨大で、そのユーザーベースは圧倒的に若い没入型3Dゲーマーで構成されています。Fortnite上に構築されたディズニーブランドの世界は、彼ら以外にも広く魅力的であり、よりカジュアルなゲーマーでありながら、ディズニーの膨大なIP/コンテンツ・ライブラリーの熱心なファンという、より大きな層を取り込むことができることでしょう。
この大衆化が、Fortniteのプラットフォームですでに活動している、インディーズクリエイターの支援となることを願います。
Disney & Epic's New Fortnite-Interoperable Universe Is The Mass Market On-Ramp The Metaverse Needs
この写真の女性は実在しませんが、埋め込まれたSecond Lifeアバターは実在します。SLのファッショニスタ、Juicy BombのGogoさんは、このアバターをベースにして、本物そっくりのシミュラクラを作りました。
この画像を作るために、Gogoさんは、SecondLifeのスクリーンショットをLeonardo.AIにアップロードしました:
「使い方は簡単で、無料のデイリークレジットを使えば3-4枚の画像を作成できます」と彼女は最近のPlurkの投稿で説明しています。
そのステップは次の通りです。
ほかのSLユーザーもアバターでAIを使って実験しています。面白いことに、Second Lifeのアバターのほうがリアルに見えることもあります。GogoさんのチュートリアルはSecond Lifeのアバター用ですが、他のプラットフォームのアバターでも面白い結果が得られるでしょう。
Tutorial: How To Make Your Second Life Avatar "Real" With Leonardo AI
これは 2023年5月のBusiness Insiderの愉快で見当違いな「死亡記事」のことです。
Business Insiderがメタバースの「死亡記事」を発表してからまだ12ヶ月も経っていませんが、ここで振り返ってみましょう:
皮肉なことに、シリコンバレーでは「AI」が唯一の主要バズワードになるはずでした。しかし、問題はここからだ:
基礎となるテクノロジーをほとんど理解していないバズワードは、期待を裏切る運命にあります。メタバースは、藁人形的な概念を持つ人々によって「死んだ」と宣言されました。しかし、話題性が薄れた後も、プラットフォームとそこに価値を見出す人々は繁栄を続けたのです。
In Case You Missed It, Saying "The Metaverse Is Dead" Is Officially Dead
JMoF2024で「3D動画技術でリアルのきぐるみをVRの世界とつなぐ企画」 きぐるMixedReality やったよ!!
— ととがんま (@totegamma) January 10, 2024
今までにない試みでいろんな試行錯誤があったけど、VR世界からも一緒に盛り上がれて最高だった!!
来て遊んでくれた方、本当にありがとうございました!!!!!#JMoF #VR_JMoF #Resonite pic.twitter.com/NZpRaZBcDU
このデモ動画は、登場する人物のほとんどがファリーで、日本語のサイトにあるものなので、英語話者には少々わかりにくいかもしれない。これは、Kinectモーションディテクターのバッテリーを使用して、現実の人物をボリュメトリックアバターに変換し、仮想世界に「テレポート」するミクストリアリティープロジェクトだ。(この仮想世界はResonaite)。
Kiguru MixedRealityと呼ばれるこのプロジェクトについて、説明を紹介します:
*原文ではDeepLで翻訳したブログの英語訳が引用されていますが、ここではGammalabから直接日本語の記事を引用します。
きぐるMixedRealityは、AzureKinect3台から得られる深度つきのカメラ映像をリアルタイム配信することで、VRの世界に立体的なきぐるみの姿を表示する、3Dビデオ通話の企画です。
これで、VRの世界からもきぐるみを鑑賞したり、あいさつをしたり、エアで無であったり、一緒にVRアバターと写真を撮ったりすることができます!
近年Generative AIなどの成長もうけ、より高精細なボリューメトリックビデオを撮影・再生する技術が開発されていますが、その閲覧にはどうしても専用のソフトウェアが必要になってしまいます。 Spatial Clipの良いところは、品質はそこまで高くないながらも、Resoniteという多くの人がすでにPCにインストールをして利用しているソフトウェアですぐに体験できるというところですね。
Spatial Clipは、動画の撮影にTFPortalでも使っているAzure Kinectを使っています。これは、かなり精度の高いデプスカメラで深度つきの動画を得ることができます。
しかし、カメラ1台だけだときぐるみのごく一部しか映せません。そこで、きぐるMixedRealityではKinectカメラ3台を用いて、それぞれの映像を組み合わせる方法を取りました。
3台のKinectデバイスを必要とするため、必ずしも一般消費者向けのものではありませんが、現実世界のカンファレンスに参加していて仮想世界を 「訪問 」したい人にとっては、(動画が示唆するように)かなり楽しそうです。
NWNでAIを使ったファインアートの作品(Nettrice Gaskins以外で)を募集したところ、あまり数は集まりませんでしたが、素晴らしいアーティストが発掘されました。Niceauntiesは、さまざまな人工知能プログラムを通じて、彼女の家族構成やシンガポール/中国の文化を表現しています。上の『We Are Good』のように:
「We are Good」は、「Auntieverse」を舞台に、孤独な2人の登場人物が互いの中に仲間を見つける物語だ。香港を彷彿とさせる密集した街並みの中で、猫の顔をしたおばちゃんとおばちゃんの顔をした猫の出会いが起こる...。この物語は、アイデンティティ、つながり、喜び、安らぎといったテーマを探求している。このAI映画は、Dalle3、Magnific.ai、Runwaymlの各プログラムで、Niceauntiesによって制作、アニメーション化、編集された。
ハワイに住む父方の中国系アメリカ人の大家族の中で育ったWagnerは、文化的なレベルでこの動画のイメージにすぐに深く共鳴し、とにかく楽しいと言います。
1980年代、シンガポールの国家建設期に生まれた「Niceaunties」の中のアーティストは、家族の中で影響力のある女性たちによって形作られた子供時代を経験した。幼児期から9歳まで、両親が働いている間、祖父母、叔母、叔父と一緒に暮らした。
この文脈での「おばちゃん」とは、年上の女性を指し、機知に富み、規則を守り、伝統主義で、意見しやすいという特徴を持つことが多い。おそらく開拓時代の緊縮財政に由来するこの「生存メカニズム」は、しばしば「おばちゃん」をお世辞にも良いとは言えないイメージで描く。しかし、この作家はその本質的な不公平さを認識し、おばちゃんを身近な方法で最善を尽くす人としてとらえ、時には善意で勝手なアドバイスをしてくれる人物として見ている。
Wagnerは、これこそ、MOMAで定期的に展示されるに値する芸術的野心と実行力だと評価し、このような好例がもう少しあれば、AIアート懐疑論者から熱烈な擁護論者になるだろうとコメントしています。
これはバース大学によるかなり重要な研究であり、我々が市場で目にするものに学術的な重みを加えています: バーチャル体験に関しては、グラフィックのリアルさや没入感(視野の広さ)よりも、プレイヤーの感情や主体性(つまり、世界と有意義に相互作用する能力)の方が重要です:
最先端のグラフィックスと、通常ハイエンドのヘッドセットによって実現される視野と視覚的リアリズムは、信用に値するVR体験を作り出す上で比較的重要でない場合がある。それよりもはるかに重要なのは、仮想環境内でユーザーがどのように感じるか(例えば楽しいとか怖いとか)であることが、この研究で明らかになった。この研究の主任研究者である Crescent Jicol博士は次のように述べている: 「ヘッドセットやスクリーンをより良いものにしたり、仮想世界をよりリアルにすることには多くの資金が投入されていますが、ユーザーの感情体験を向上させることにもっと力を入れる必要があります。」
この特定の研究は、300人以上のボランティアを対象にVRで実施されたものだが、おそらくこの結果は、フラットスクリーンの3D体験にも同じようにきちんと当てはまるでしょう。そしてまた、没入感のあるグラフィックのリアリズム自体が、最も人気のあるゲーム/仮想世界につながるわけではないことは、すでに分かっています:
RobloxやMinecraftが大人気で、ハイエンドグラフィックのAAAゲームより勝っている理由の一端はここにあります。AAAゲーム業界は一般的に、「子供向けの安い/無料のゲームだからだ」と言ってこれを否定するが、それはプレイヤーの主体性や感情の重要性を見逃しているからです。
VRでも同じことが言え、最も人気のあるゲームのほとんど(ほぼすべてか)は、ハイエンドのグラフィックよりも、プレイヤーの関与と感情に重点を置いています。
例えば、比較的ローエンドなグラフィックのマルチプレイヤーゲーム「Gorilla Tag」が大ヒットしたとき、VR業界の多くの人々は驚きました。しかし、当然でしょう: あなたはゴリラになって(喜び)!鬼ごっこ(主体性)するのですから!
Study Suggests Emotion & Player Agency More Important Than High-End Graphics In Virtual Experience
Click here to teleport to an impressively lush and detailed new Second Life sim based on Tsurugajo Castle in Japan, often called "Samurai City." While there are many similar locations in SL (there's even an entire samurai-themed RPG!), this one has a special hook -- it's funded by the Japanese government, via its tourist agency:
This is the first time that a Metaverse project is being carried out in a specific location under the direct control of the Japan Tourism Agency. The idea is to spread it across the country as an advanced tourism model that utilizes digital technology.
The project is also launching a Tsurugajo Castle in Fortnite. I'm curious how the project will drive real world tourism to Japan -- and if the agency wants to fly me there to investigate, I'm totally down! -- but I appreciate the forward-thinking here. Not sure if it's intentional, but this is launching right when a new Shogun mini-series is premiering in the US.
More from the project's website:
Tsurugajo Castle, towering in Aizu, known as "Samurai City," is a historic castle located in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early Edo period and served as a vital stronghold in the Aizu region from the Sengoku period to the end of the Edo period. It built fierce battles, particularly during the Boshin War. Today, its grandeur has been reconstructed, becoming a popular tourist destination visited by tourists and history enthusiasts.
Much thanks to Sanny, my awesome Japanese translator and investigator!
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Scarlett Libido is a Flickr microblogger with a distinctive style. Recently she has been creating a foreground with her hand and it’s an eye-catching way to frame her pictures. It’s also a great way to show off her nails and that cocktail in her most recent post, Cheers!
For more of her gorgeous looks, click here:
In This is our family, the pieces that complete the other half of my heart, the foreground is the story. She’s featuring that gorgeous bracelet and the pose. We know this because she uses depth of field to tell us.
Did you notice she gave the dates of the TSA event? I love it when people do that. She credits everything from the setting to her makeup layers. She’s a bit hit or miss with providing links in her credits, though she provides links to her sponsors. I like her style and this new style of framing her pics that she is experimenting with. I also like that she is telling the story of her Second Life with her partner when they go out shopping, sledding, and just living life.
All images copyright Scarlett Libido
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
In this excerpt of Making a Metaverse That Matters, we explore the importance around naming a metaverse platform. Notably, Second Life (now with 500,000+ players) launched only 2-3 years before Roblox (now with 350 million+ users):
Another core friction point for Second Life mass adoption is not technical or related to the UX, but perhaps the most subtle and the most profound of all: Calling it “Second Life” in the first place.
The virtual world’s naming, led by early Linden Lab business developer Hunter Walk (now a highly respected venture capitalist), seemed to make sense at the time. As I wrote in The Making of Second Life:
“A lot of the game worlds were verbs which described what you’d be doing,” as [Walk] recalls it now. “You know… ever-questing! I wanted the name to be a vessel that people could fill themselves, that would be evocative of the promise of the world, and then put that responsibility upon the user to fill the promise.
"It’s such a strong notion, it’s such an idea: everybody wants a second life. You see more and more people with avatars and screen names,” he told [Linden management]. “I think if we hit our stride we can sell this. It won’t be geeky. It’ll be ‘Of course, why wouldn’t you want one?’ Because it doesn’t have to be better or worse, it doesn’t mean your first one is lame or great, it just means it’s different, and you can be somebody different, and do something different.”
His original suggestion, “Life 2”, was then massaged by the team into “Second Life”.
In fullness of time, we can confirm that consumers do generally prefer metaverse platforms named after verbs, or at least strongly imply them: Minecrafting, building blocks and forts in Roblox and Fortnite, VRChat-ing, and so on.
Looking back at it now, was it a mistake to name the platform Second Life?
Next: Hunter and Philip Rosedale reflect.
“I don't know,” Hunter Walk answers after a long pause. “It is a profitable startup, but it obviously did not fulfill the reach and potential that I hoped for. It feels right to ask in retrospect: Did that seem too geeky, describing what it was as opposed to what we needed it to be? I'm not sure a name with a different product would make a difference…”
From my vantage point, calling it Second Life created a double blade of skewed expectations, alienating most potential users (especially gamers) while also attracting a niche of people who did very specifically want a second life -- which alienated the first group even further.
"I think that's totally true,” Philip Rosedale says, when I run my analysis by him.. “The very idea that it was a second life and that it was separate from your first life and maybe that reflected, you know, memetically or negatively on your real life.
“I didn't think about it at the time, because in my mind, I was only thinking about the Second Life," Rosedale says, emphasizing the first word. “I think we also thought it was going to be a temporary problem.”
Adds Walk: “Maybe the way some people reacted to the name reflected on what we were prioritizing in terms of what the world would be like, and led us down the path of making a microverse and not a metaverse."
This is also true: To the extent that the name was embraced by the dedicated user base, many or most of them interpreted it to mean a kind of roleplay luxe life they want but cannot have in the offline world -- which is why the virtual world now teems with virtual seaside mansions, high-end shopping malls, and sexy nightclubs. (This direction was also shaped by the choice of default avatars -- but more on that in another.)
Paradoxically, while the name Second Life did contribute to the virtual world’s lack of growth, it also helped attract excessive media coverage. With their game-like monikers, no competing metaverse platform, even those far larger in terms of users, have received anywhere near the same level of outside attention.
Without that name, observes Philip Rosedale, “[H]ow else could we have done it, and gotten the kind of fascination that we did get? I don't know that if I find a time machine [to change it], I'd hit that button. Because I don't know what other name I'd use.”
Please read (or hear) the rest of my book:
Bottom image via Metaversed.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Duraya creates such intriguing pictures, I had to ask her how she does it. It’s clear she combines Second Life screenshots with her own sketches, but I was curious if she also used AI and other methods. She was kind enough to pick three of her pictures that illustrate her three main approaches to creating an image.
“I joined SL out of curiosity and for socializing and stayed mainly for the wide field of creativity it offers,” Duraya tells me. She started making screenshots in 2021 and over time, learned how to use all of SL’s tools. “So from playing with WindLights and shadows I gradually added various ways of post processing until finally taking up using AI too.”
Her first approach is pure Second Life with minor post-processing touch ups.
She starts by “taking pictures in SL and using WindLights that help me approach my idea of the result I seek, refining with different graphic programs – I usually use more than one. Either it stops here or I add some small gif, like a few strands of moving grass or a bird blinking its eyes and so on. It enlivens the image and as this is a virtual world we are less limited here in the way we express ourselves. I simply loved the forest and the dark and mysterious mood the WindLight added to it.”
For two more Duraya images and methods, click here:
“Routinely Repairs” illustrates how she will build a set for her picture that is then shot in Second Life.
“Second is creating a scene for expressing something that would not be found in SL this way. I make a background – lately often using an AI image based on pictures I had taken before – thus visually prompting the character and colors it should have. Then I use my building skills adding any kind of objects needed for getting the right effect and atmosphere.
“Further on I change my avatar to make it my model and last I add a pose. Then it’s like taking any other picture – shoot, crop, post-process, done.”
Duraya illustrates the need for social repairs that are constantly necessary in an inegalitarian society that values beauty over character. Her title “Routinely Repairs” makes me think of the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam or “Repair the World.” Tikkun Olam is understood today as an obligation to work for social justice, not just for one’s personal benefit, but for society as a whole. (Although I am not Jewish, I used to subscribe to Tikkun, a magazine devoted to the concept of repairing the world.)
After digging into AI options and learning how to work with them, she starts to combine SL screenshots with a gen AI-based image.
She will combine screenshots with an AI image to add a certain effect. Sometimes she creates a completely different AI image to get the result she wants.
“I mostly layer these images and redo and change over and over again until my vision and the picture click. There is a lot of discussion ongoing about the use of AI and I guess some of it is legitimate. But then it's just another tool you can use like a brush or a camera, so if you master it to some extent and make it help visualize your inner pictures it's just a new process of creating.
“The 'eyes' I made for a contest where songs (The Night Has a Thousand Eyes) had to be turned into pictures. I didn't like the song much but I loved how it inspired me to make this picture anyway”
Duraya is an artistic adventurer - experimenting with new forms while using Second Life as her palette. I love how she combines her screenshots with her own drawing and with AI.
As she explains it: “The degree of freedom for creativity increases from only having the option of choosing the subject (dark forest taken in SL), angle, light and so on to create the shot. The second approach (repairs) already leaves more space for inspiration and reconsidering, bringing a subject into being that only exists inwardly – the last is almost unlimited, sort of communicating with a device that immensely influences the creative process, I enjoy it as much as a good conversation with a treasured friend.
“So one ends up being a virtist (whoever I stole that term from please forgive me, it’s just perfect) creating virtual art in a virtual world.”
Hurray for the virtists!
All images copyright Duraya
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she ia retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
Inevitably, VRChat can already be accessed through Apple Vision Pro (kinda sorta). There's no official optimized app yet -- and the official Rec Room app for Vision Pro hasn't launched yet either -- but if you're willing to do some workarounds, you can. Here's details from top VR YouTuber Bradley Lynch, who got this going:
Whatever you do, be careful, this is seriously not tested stuff, and maybe check your Vision Pro warranty/TOS first.
"It works great for me," Brad tells me. "I started getting used to using finger gestures to move around and stuff. It works great for me. I started getting used to using finger gestures to move around and stuff."
The fact that Vision Pro can run both AR passthrough and a VR app like VRChat leads to some cool new interactions -- watch:
Vision Pro's playspace limit of 1.5m is A LOT more arbitrary than you would expect
— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) March 1, 2024
Even if the passthrough fades in, the headset STILL tracks your location compared to your center stage...
My friends in VRChat can watch me/my avatar go across a house's multiple floors! pic.twitter.com/hQlGCImNV1
"Vision Pro's playspace limit of 1.5m is A LOT more arbitrary than you would expect," as Brad put it. "Even if the passthrough fades in, the headset STILL tracks your location compared to your center stage."
In other words, you can walk through your house with your Vision Pro on... and your VRChat avatar follows your movement, even levitating off the ground while you go up your stairs! (Watch above.)
If all this sounds way too complicated for now, you could always try running the iPad version of Second Life on Vision Pro.
Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education has been pioneering immersive pedagogy for years, so I'm super honored to be giving a keynote talk at their annual conference next week.
Held March 14 at 4pm PT, here's the info and teleport links:
Despite, or because of, all the hype and backlash around the Metaverse in recent years, many myths around the concept persist -- even among longtime virtual world fans and educators. For instance: "There's no definition of the Metaverse and it doesn't exist", “The Metaverse must interoperate across the Internet”, and “Photo-realistic human avatars and world graphics are the Metaverse’s end goal”. Drawing from his new book Making a Metaverse That Matters -- and 20 years working in virtual worlds, beginning at Linden Lab -- Hamlet cuts through these myths while painting a sustainable and inspiring vision for virtual world educators.
If SLurl is full, try these locations:
Much more info here. Held in Second Life and streamed to YouTube, attendance is free. Here's info for existing and new users:
You can visit the main VWBPE Gateway region in Second Life by going to this teleport link. From there we have friendly greeters to help you find your way, have lots of swag to add to your inventory, and general information about how to get around the conference venue and more. Are you entering Second Life for the first time? On the main campus of the Rockcliffe University Consortium there is a gateway to enter Second Life which includes a welcome and orientation area. There you can quickly learn the basics to navigate in Second Life, and when the conference opens in March, the Gateway can be your starting point to go to the VWBPE conference. Create your new SL account here.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Rei2 Aya is a woman of action and adventure. Her stream is full of anime-inspired pictures of her with her weapons drawn, always in motion, always prepared for anything. We don’t know if she’s on the side of good or evil, but with her sweet smile, I’m going to guess good. Besides, don’t almost everyone think they are on the side of good? I love the swinging movement of her ponytail and how the yellow light shines on her ponytail. There is this intent bright light and then the black shadows working together to make Rei2’s avatar so bold and exciting.
For more of Rei2’s martial pictures, click here:
Gen-12 is stunning. Again, bold and blinding lights are used to highlight. She is posed mid-movement. You can see it in her pose and the swing of her hair. I love how the light on the tunnel reflects on her, showing her in her vivid reds.
“Come on, let’s start the game with me” takes the same sensibility from the future to the past - the Wild West. She’s wearing a steampunk style blouse and corset, armed with a gun, tossing some bullets in the air while books are flying. The light still blazes, from skylights this time. She appears to be facing an unseen villain in a law library. I wonder what the game is.
Rei2 Aya is an outstanding photographer. She mostly does amazing cyberpunk, but I love that she surprises us with historical roleplay pics as well. Her pictures are full of action, and I am sure she is going to have many more adventures.
All images copyright Rei2 Aya
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
Watch this cool new VR prototype from Philip Rosedale and his son August, the latest project from his new studio, dubbed IRL (for In Reality Lab). As you can see in the video above, this is virtual reality without a head-mounted display, powered by massive high definition display screens, and an apparatus that keeps the user's head in place -- and tracks their motion.
As he explains on his blog, one goal with this new Rig is to create a new way of experiencing and interacting in VR that doesn't cause motion sickness:
When you are wearing a VR headset, a gyro in the device senses your head’s rotation and presents the appropriate change on the screen just a moment later. But this tiny time delay causes a disagreement between what your eyes see and what a different part of your body senses - the ‘vestibular apparatus’ just inside your ears. This slight error, unfortunately, triggers nausea due to an evolved behavior that is widely believed to be an adaption keeping you safe from drinking too much alcohol (which our animal ancestors had access to through fermented berries) or other poisons.
Now imagine that instead of having you wear VR goggles, we had you lying comfortably on a headrest which also keeps you from turning your head at all (imagine a really deep memory foam pillow), while surrounded by big monitors. Then, when you try to turn your head, the headrest detects the force your muscles are producing, and updates the view on the monitors to turn to one side or the other appropriately. Your eyes get the visual feedback they expected, which feels very much like turning your head!
And because your head isn’t actually moving at all, the secondary system your body uses - the vestibular system mentioned above - doesn’t report the slightly different version of the rotation that makes you sick.
Much more here. Philip writes that the Rig has been tested on about 20 people, all of whom report experiencing much less nausea than from a classic HMD VR experience.
In a follow-up message, Philip tells me the volunteer demographics were about 60/40 male/female, across a broad age range spectrum. The gender variable is very important due to a strong propensity of females to get nauseous in traditional VR.
One obvious use case is for people who are paralyzed or otherwise confined to one position. Indeed, Philip compares it to the "link bed" from Avatar, used by the movie's paraplegic hero.
The Rig, by the way, is actually an updated prototype of "The Rig" that Philip built in 2000, which drove the original inspiration for creating Second Life:
Rosedale filed a patent for his Rig in 2000, and for a, time Linden Lab worked on turning it into a consumer product -- for instance, for use in arcades and theme parks. But as I explained in my book, it was at this point that the company pivoted into the MMO/virtual world business with Second Life:
“The logic was: the hardware project could maybe be used to grow a $100M company in a very competitive ‘PC accessories’ market with low profit margins,” as [Linden Lab developer Andrew] Meadows puts it, “but the software platform could launch a $1 billion company with higher margins. Also, we suspected no one was even thinking about similar hardware at that time, but we knew people were trying to build virtual worlds: we could punt the hardware into the future when we would be able to throw more resources into it.”
In other words, rather than build The Rig, they started evolving the software that was used to demo The Rig -- which ultimately became Second Life.
Wonder if a new world will be built to work with this new Rig.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
ℕadej Dae creates extraordinary images focusing on landscapes and avatar portraits. Her landscapes are close and intimate, a single tree, a few flowers or grasses, often in silhouette or in striking colors. “Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year” is a striking picture and perfectly captures the quote with all the leaves on one side turned to their autumn colors and then the bare branches of winter. The leaves are blowing all about swirling in the wind and fog.
For more of her extraordinary landscapes, click here:
“Ici, coule une rivière” is breathtakingly beautiful. That violently green sky lowering over the desaturated rocks, grass, and boat while the river and the lily have a different, cooler green. This divides the picture, not just into three parts of sky, land, and water, but into three colors (or lack of color) which create different emotional landscapes. It’s gorgeous.
“Réinventer les couleurs” reinvents the sky in an egg-yolk yellow, the transient color of sunrise and sunset. The land is in silhouette, the land and brush are in stark relief against the fog and sea. It’s such a striking picture and I love that flash or red in the foreground. Is it a light leak, a campfire.
In her pictures, ℕadej Dae uses light, color, and shadow to define the contours of the landscape. In her portraits, she does something very similar, hiding and revealing parts of the face or body. She blurs and sharpens the picture to direct our eyes. It’s all deeply deliberate and well-imagined. I would call it magical, except that would discount her skill. .
All images copyright ℕadej Dae
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.
Suggest Flick images and Flickr feeds to Cajsa Lilliehook! Tag your picture with #CasjaNWN -- or tag Cajsa Lilliehook on Flickr by adding her to the photo.
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a sixteen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I wrote this post prior to Thursday’s news, and is not directly related to that or any other specific company or situation. Please read it only as important background information to help explain why, generally speaking, companies often don’t address internal controversies in public.
I’ve seen various controversies within the virtual world/gaming user community light up across social media over the years, some of them involving serious (if unconfirmed) allegations involving the companies themselves.
When this happens, it sometimes leads angry user community members to ask: “Why isn’t the company announcing anything about these allegations publicly?”
Speaking very generally -- and this reflects my own experience working for various virtual world/online gaming companies over the years, when situations like this happen -- there’s often a very good reason for the radio silence.
Here’s some considerations that often come up in cases like this:
When the allegations are serious enough, for starters, the company’s legal team tends to take over the entire show, ordering a company-wide STFU.
Often this is a very smart (if frustrating) move: The company is juggling staff obligations, workers rights claims, their reputation with the industry and in the media, and so on.
Then there’s the allegations themselves. Saying anything about them publicly may prejudice any eventual legal claims that crop up.
This move also tends to be self-reinforcing. If the company lawyers are saying STFU, staffers become very leery of trying to overrule this order. Whoever even attempts to do so may find themselves on the chopping block. So the silence becomes even more silent (so to speak).
But what happens if serious allegations are somehow confirmed?
Radio silence may still rule even then. If they involve management or employees, the implicated people may just be asked to leave quietly. The goal here would be to avoid a wrongful termination lawsuit, or bad press, or both.
Also: Publicly firing an employee/manager can expose the company to defamation/slander lawsuits.
None of this silence is very reassuring to the user community, and may even provoke more angst. Often the company staff is very aware of that, and frustrated that they can’t say anything publicly.
At most, the company may put out a highly anodyne public statement like, “We’re aware of some very serious allegations, and are investigating them.” And leave it at that.
And while it may be frustrating, I recommend not assuming the company isn’t taking those allegations seriously. If it’s any consolation, they’re often the heated subject of closed door, board-level discussions -- discussions that few beyond those doors will ever know about.
It’s happened before, and it will happen again. It’s surely happening right now within thousands of companies and organizations around the world, from a small plumbing company in Peru to the White House in Washington.
Comments note: As this post relates only to general company policy, please refrain from discussing any current specific situation or personnel.
Above: Cyberspace as depicted in the Robert Longo/Keanu Reeves adaptation of William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic (via GNDN)