VR and Latency: Carmack’s Thoughts
This post originally appeared over at our sister site Metaverse Health. John Carmack is a bit of an icon in gaming circles, and he's also one of the people that's supporting the Oculus VR consumer headset that's on the near horizon. I'd very stupidly assumed (having not read any biographical details on him until today) that he wasn't that deep into the coding / science of things like this. He's just posted a nice piece of work on the challenges of latency … Read More
Vale: ABC Island in Second Life
As I wrote a few weeks back, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's presence in Second Life is about to come to a close. The 22nd September sees the curtain fall, but not without some festivities prior. Particularly this Saturday 22nd September when the final party occurs. (Here's the SLURL to teleport to ABC Island) I've been an admin on the island (in name only - I've had no active involvement really) since 2008 and I've seen it evolve and grow over … Read More
Philip Rosedale spruiks new venture, talks down Second Life?
If you've followed the exploits of Linden Lab's former CEO and current Chairman over the past year or so, you'll know he's been off creating something new. The New York Times has run a profile on that venture, Coffee and Power. That venture seems interesting enough and leverages heavily the virtual currency model used for Second Life, in this case to purchase or receive payment for goods or services. It's very similar to a bunch of other services, though … Read More
SLACTIONS 2012: Call for Papers
Research conference on virtual worlds - Life, imagination, and work using metaverse platforms November 2012 http://www.slactions.org/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/SLACTIONS-Life-imagination-and-work-using-meta verse-platforms/242464792497177 http://twitter.com/slactions CALL FOR PAPERS The metaverse is emerging, through the increasing use of virtual world technologies that act as platforms for end-users to create, develop, and interact, … Read More
Virtual Ability Island: Big Week of Activities
Longstanding hub for health and community services information, Virtual Ability Island, has a big week of activities ahead that I wanted to give a plug to. First, the summary of the events: Virtual Ability Community Events, week of Feb. 4-10 **Events marked are open to the public. All other events are for VAI community members and their invited guests. TUESDAY Feb 5 2:30pm SLT- Woodget's Weekly Quiz Night- VAI Sanctuary Beach Cafe WEDNESDAY Feb … Read More
Queensland Flood Relief in Second Life
Two years ago, a number of Second Life vendors got together to raise funds for the Victorian Bushfire victims. Thanks to another bunch of dedicated people, coordinated by Brisbane-based Kat Johnston, there are a range of things you can do to raise money for the Queensland Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. It's all under the banner of Extend A Helping Hand (EAHH), and there's two large ways to make a difference: 1. Attend some of the great events planned, … Read More
Recent Stories
Virtual Ability Island: Big Week of Activities
Longstanding hub for health and community services information, Virtual Ability Island, has a big week of activities ahead that I wanted to give a plug to. First, the summary of the events: Virtual … [Read More...]
Bible-based Virtual World On The Way
Interesting little announcement / press release - mostly for some of the claims being made or assumptions on approaches of a range of other virtual worlds for children. I also find it fascinating that … [Read More...]
Linden Lab’s Amazon Bundling Bungling
Tateru Nino has a great piece on Linden Lab's announcement that they are selling Second Life bundled with packages of content. Read it for yourself - I don't think it's possible for me to agree more with … [Read More...]
Procrastination and Virtual Worlds as ‘Work’
I just wanted to briefly post a piece as I'm more than acutely aware that it's been well over a month since anything new has appeared here. It's definitely not due to a lack of interest in virtual worlds, … [Read More...]
Vale: ABC Island in Second Life
As I wrote a few weeks back, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's presence in Second Life is about to come to a close. The 22nd September sees the curtain fall, but not without some festivities prior. … [Read More...]
Mayo Clinic in Second Life
Looks like an interesting session of the non-profit commons in SL this Friday: This Friday, September 14th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Brian Kaihoi (Svea Morane in SL), of the Mayo … [Read More...]
ReactionGrid retreats from OpenSim
Hypergrid Business has an interesting piece on the change in direction for ReactionGrid. We've followed them closely over the years (including our distinctly retro interview with CEO Kyle Gomboy back in … [Read More...]
The future of the Metaverse: If there has been a failure, it is ours
A great piece from www.botgirl.com on Linden Lab's recent moves: Fleep Tuque posted a fascinating essay yesterday with the provocative title, "Why Anyone Who Cares About the Metaverse Needs to Move … [Read More...]
Project to Improve Graphics Rendering in Second Life
Via Linden Lab One of the challenges that virtual world creators face is the trade-off between rich visual detail and geometric complexity. Ideally, by adding more and smaller faces to an object, … [Read More...]
ABC Island to Close in Second Life
It's not surprising but sad all the same: the wonderful community-driven project that is ABC Island in Second Life, is to close on the 22nd of September. The island has been a staple of the Australian … [Read More...]
The End of the Second Life Community Convention
A great piece from Fleep Tuque: You may have read the official announcement that AvaCon is not organizing a Second Life Community Convention this year. This post is not an official anything, it’s just … [Read More...]
Daden Unveil Oopal
Oopal (pronounced oo-pull) is Daden's latest offering: a web-based editor allowing you to place and edit objects in a 2D environment, which will then roll out to the 3D environment (currently OpenSim and … [Read More...]
![Linden Lab trademarks a new product or service … or something [updated]](/images/2012/06/Linden-Lab-trademarks-a-new-product-or-service-…-or-something-updated-150x150.jpg)
Linden Lab registers new trademark
The ever-vigilant Tateru Nino has a great piece on a new trademark registered by Linden Lab. Sounds like the casual gaming approach is about to come to the fore at Linden Lab. Whether this translates … [Read More...]
Euclideon pops its head above the parapet
In August last year I posted the last of a few articles on promising new graphics technology called Unlimited Detail. As I posted there, the team were going to ground to work on getting the technology … [Read More...]
From the wider metaverse
Game companies raise $1.54B in 2011
Game fundings destroyed the record book for fundings this year as 145 companies raised more than $1.540 billion in 2011, not counting initial public offerings.In 2011, games took center stage. Game investment … [Read More...]
Marvel announces official MMO title: Marvel Heroes
Via Scoop.it - Metaverse NewsThe Marvel Comics MMO formerly known as Marvel Universe Online has finally been officially christened. Gazillion Entertainment announced in a press release today that, due … [Read More...]
Using virtual reality to cure real-life PTSD
Via Scoop.it - Metaverse NewsDoctors are hoping that virtual reality can help cure soldiers of their all-too-real wartime traumas. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Cente has received … [Read More...]
LED mounted in a contact lens: virtual / AR displays
A fascinating video on mounting an LED in a contact lens. In the virtual worlds speher, the applications are obvious and appealing to say the least. Have a watch for yourself, but here's the video maker's … [Read More...]
Invoked computing: you really can use a banana as a telephone
Alvaro Cassinelli is an assistant professor at the Ishikawa-Oku lab at the University of Tokyo. He and his partner, Alexis Zerroug, have created a multi-modal, shared web hosting promos, a system that … [Read More...]
Yordie Sands: My Wonderful Fantasy – 2011
It's that time of year where a lot of people look back on the year that was. Over the coming week we'll be featuring retrospectives from other blogs, whether they are a broad look back at a virtual world … [Read More...]
Is OpenSim usage falling?
Today, Hamlet Au wrote a column suggesting that the OpenSim user base is shrinking — and used Hypergrid Business numbers to support his position.The short answer to his question is: No, OpenSim usage … [Read More...]
Litigating Trademark And Copyright Cases In The Metaverse | The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
In Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel, Snow Crash,[1] humans battle each other as avatars in the “Metaverse,” the collective product of online shared three‑dimensional space.[2] While … [Read More...]
Great overview of VWBPE 2012 by Daniel Voyager
Early this morning I logged into Second Life to visit VWBPE locations around the grid and started to collect notecards/freebies which was fun. As you can see today I have updated my blog for VWBPE 2012 … [Read More...]
WonderSchool streams world to a tablet – Hypergrid Business
Open Wonderland — an open source, Java-based alternative to OpenSim — is now available on a tablet. According to WonderSchool, a subsidiary of Germany’s THINSIA, clients can now access the platform … [Read More...]
American Library Association’s SL Island Closes
Libraries, librarians and library associations have historically been some of the most active nonprofit groups in Second Life, establishing an entire archipelago of library-related islands during their … [Read More...]
Kitely rolls out Vivox voice
From Hypergrid Business: "Kitely became the second commercial OpenSim grid to roll out Vivox voice today. Boston-based Vivox Inc. is currently the gold standard of in-world voice, used in Second Life, … [Read More...]
Academic Research Paper on OpenSim Community
While the nature of the firm has long been established as the dominant form of organizing for value creation, emergent forms of organizing such as the private-collective community model have recently gained … [Read More...]
This is how an augmented-reality Love Plus date feels like
One of the new functions in upcoming 3DS love-sim New Love Plus is something called Dokodemo Date, or Date Anywhere.This augmented-reality (AR) feature takes a photo of your physical surroundings with … [Read More...]
OpenSim NPCs simulate disasters
For most people, NPCs — non-player characters — are the princesses you need to save in video games, dragons you need to defeat, and shopkeepers who give advice about how to proceed in your … [Read More...]
Virtual world to help kids overcome trauma – The Times of India
Doctors in a domed laboratory in Canada are designing a virtual world where they hope to one day treat traumatized children with colorful avatars using toy-like medical gadgets.Sensory stimulation could … [Read More...]
Federal Virtual Worlds moving beyond Second Life
Several years ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintained more than a dozen virtual environments for online visitors to explore in Second Life. Now it operates just one. For … [Read More...]
3Di to launch free Unity-based world – Hypergrid Business
Japen’s 3Di, Inc., best known for their browser-based OpenSim viewers, will be testing a new, free, public, Unity-based virtual world this weekend, called 3Di Cloud.According to 3Di senior manager … [Read More...]
A marketing push
Via Scoop.it - Metaverse News Someone recently asked me to check with the Lab and ask about the “Big Marketing Push” that the Lab said at SLCC that it was gearing up for. If I recall rightly, the question … [Read More...]
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