Just in time for the weekend, VRChat for Android is now freely available here on Google Play.
I'm an iPhone nativist myself, but if you do have an Android, dear reader, I hope you give this app a try and report your experiences back here.
Prior to this, it was in closed Alpha and only available for VRChat+ paying subscribers. Despite that, it's already been downloaded over 50,000 times, mostly by subscribers. (Which is another way of saying that there are upwards of 50,000 paying VRChat+ subscribers -- and probably at least double that number, factoring in all the VRChat+ subscribers who own an iPhone.)
And yes, the Android app supports VOIP and text chat, the VRChat team just confirmed with me. I suspect that will be the main use case for mobile, since it's PC and VR are better for immersion, exploring, and content creation.
The VRChat peeps tell me the Android app has been mainly for social interaction:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Marta Spada’s blog I Got It makes me happy. Her post Feels Intentional some of my favorite things in Second Life — clothes. Seriously bloggers! Unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s winter. Put some clothes on. I love her outfit, though there is something illogical about a long-sleeved, mock-turtle-neck sweater that’s cropped so your tummy gets to freeze. I also love that she pairs her fashion pic with some decor. Now that is right for the season.
Several items are at Kustom9. It closes December 10th, so hustle.
It's been a week since PBR was launched in the official Second Life viewer, but so far its impact on the user community seems to be all over the place. So here's a survey to collect user reactions (take on a laptop/PC for best results)!
On the one hand, we have creators like Walton Wainwright enraptured by the graphic improvements:
Along with helping promote user-made islands made in Fortnite, Epic just added a LEGO game expansion, Rocket Racing (from the creators of Rocket League), and Fortnite Festival, a Rockband-type multiplayer game mode from the creators of that franchise, to the core Fortnite experience. (Watch above.)
Longtime game industry reporter Stephen Totilo has the rundown on his Axios newsletter, where he also notes that Fortnite brought in 100 million active players last month. Stephen gave me a chance to explain how this fits into Epic's attempt to evolve Fortnite into the Metaverse:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Pavel Stransky is an experimenter, mostly with light, but also with depth of field, overlays, and filters. He takes his pictures in an older version of the Black Dragon viewer as he has not made the shift from WindLight to EEP yet.
He described his process for the above picture to me this way: “Created in Black Dragon, where I played with the focus and then tried different options and adjustments in Photoshop until this image was created. I take photos exclusively on BD. I may surprise you, but I don't use EEP. Fortunately, I have a very old version of BD, which does not yet have EEP.”
For more pics, including a very happy accident, click here:
This spectacular montage machinima may seem like a big budget commercial for Second Life (and it's definitely more dazzling than the actual ad Linden Lab paid for in 2021), but it's actually more interesting than that:
It's a showreel of ads for top metaverse brands inside the Second Life economy, created by Teal Aurelia, a recent art school grad whose machinima tribute to SL artists last year went low key viral across the community.
Since then, she's crafted herself into a creator of video ads for Second Life brands that align with her own aesthetic focus:
"Really I'm here to film monsters and magic and defiant women," as Teal tells me. "I usually only accept commissions from brands that suit those cinematic visuals, so it's just a process of weaving their work with mine rather than trying to film what I hope a brand represents."
To put it another way: The most watched Second Life machinima now are Second Life brand ads by Teal. While live "let's play" type videos can garner many more views, self-contained narrative SL machinima shorts typically earn a several hundred/a few thousand views.
But by my rough count across her main social media channels (Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, etc.) Teal Aurelia's ads have attracted well over 350,000 views. While her clients haven't shared subsequent sales figures, "most clients have come back to me to request multiple commissions," she says. "So I take that as a good sign?"
Some of Second Life's top brands -- i.e. those grossing over $1 million USD a year -- have even offered to hire her exclusively as their full time ad director. "It's amazing anyone would ask me that, but I really think my videos have only been successful so far because I work alone and make what I love."
I actually think if any company hires her full-time, it should probably be Linden Lab itself, but that's just me. In any case, the success of her video ads illustrates the importance of advertising metaverse platform-based content outside the platform, across the asynchronous social media ecosystem.
Here's a look at some recent favorite ads, along with some more Teal insights on her creative approach:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Issa Avon posted a picture of a beautiful modern home that nestles into the landscape. While not identical, it is so very much like Fallingwater, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright home. From her description, it is a rented home. Home rentals in SL have leveled up since I rented an 87 prim house on the Linden Ocean. That waterfall is amazing. I just love everything about this picture. Issa is the owner of Nova Rentals, so perhaps you can get on a waiting list.
For more of Issa Avon’s lovely landscapes, click here:
Above: Best Fortnite Island nominee Murder Mystery by Alliance (Island Code: 8513-2892-9361)
The 1oth annual Game Awards are announced here in LA on December 7th, and while the show has been attracting more viewers than the Oscars since 2018, this year includes another milestone -- the first award for user-generated content on a metaverse platform. Specifically, The Best Fortnite Island of the year, with 10 nominees for community-created islands built in the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
Created and hosted by Geoff Keighley -- who back in the day, worked with me on an editorial project devoted to modding communities in gaming -- it's a great addition to the Game Awards, recognition that UGC/metaverse platforms are a growing force in the game industry as a whole. Hopefully we'll see this become an official category in future Game Awards, across many platforms. (User-made Roblox experiences, I never tire of pointing out, are as popular as many top AAA games, and have become incredibly ambitious in recent years.)
Among the Best Island nominees is one close to my heart: Murder Mystery (Island Code: 8513-2892-9361). It was created by Alliance, a creative studio that's featured in my book for its innovative work creating branded Fortnite experiences for top brands like Doritos and Joe Biden's 2020 Presential campaign. (Seriously.)
Since launching Murder Mystery, Alliance CEO/co-founder Mackenize Jackson (aka MackJack) tells me it's been played over 4 million times in its first two months.
"We hit 1 million players in the first week of release," she tells me. "We’ve had a lot of players engaging with the game, making content, and we’re excited to continue making future content updates on the game!"
As the name suggests, gameplay is highly multiplayer and plot twisty:
UPDATE, 9:00PM: The Napoleon outfit featured in most of the following images is still available on the The Fifty sim through December 20th -- click here to teleport.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
I noticed there are a lot of pictures of Second Life users dressed up as Napoleon, or a simulacrum of Napoleon, just as Masa Plympton did here, showing off her "Emperor uniform" which recently went on sale in-world.
Of course, I did then search for “Napoleon” across my Second Life Flickr channels, though oddly enough, I found more pictures when I searched for “Emperor.”
He is a fascinating character to roleplay, isn’t he? Though many people may only think of him due to the new Ridley Scott/Joaquin Phoenix movie, he had such a profound effect on Europe, far beyond his conquest. He had judges rewrite the laws of France, establishing equality before the law. It was not just adopted in France, but also in several places he conquered, and it was very influential on Louisiana’s laws, making it the only state not using English common law.
For more emperor cosplay, many in Masa's Napoleon outfit, click here:
Here's the results of last week's survey, asking how much generative AI will change movies, music, and metaverse platforms. By and overwhelming 65%, the majority opinion is that AI's impact will be nominal, and that generative AI programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney will just become one of many other high tech tools in our creative tool chest. Less than 1 in 4 said AI's impact will be "radical".
So I guess that settles it!
Though in fairness, with just 26 responses, this is a pretty small data sample -- most other New World Notes surveys get 200-500 responses. So maybe these results indicate most readers are very unsure on the topic. (Or maybe don't really care either way?)
What went wrong with ‘the Metaverse’? An insider’s postmortem is a new guest essay I wrote for VentureBeat, and I hope you consider reading and sharing on social media! The quotes around "the Metaverse" are intentional, because I'm talking about the straw man version most people in tech have been toying with recently, not the actual execution. Opener:
It’s now two years since Facebook changed its name to Meta, ushering in a brief but blazing enthusiasm over “the Metaverse”, a concept from science fiction that suddenly seemed to be the next inevitable leap in technology. For most people in tech, however, the term has since lost its luster, seemingly supplanted by any product with “artificial intelligence” attached to its description.
But the true story of the Metaverse’s rise and fall in public awareness is much more complicated and interesting than simply being the short life cycle of a buzzword — it also reflects a collective failure of both imagination and understanding.
One point I haven't discussed in awhile goes to what I believe is a gender bias that's cost the industry -- and Meta in particular -- tens of billions of dollars:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Kilolo Jenkins’ blog Class & Sass has always been a true slice of SLife blog. In a recent couple of posts she’s included her sister Pookie. The above picture is from Plate Training, a post recounting what happened to the Thanksgiving Dinner stuffing. I am so tickled by the food stains and mess. That’s what every Second Life needs, a little mess.
Food Mess on Pookie’s Face & Hands: ~:DudaDreams: Smash The Cake
After much anticipation (at least by me), the developers at Build a Rocket* have just unveiled on Twitch an extensive teaser of their new metaverse platform, Everywhere. The studio was founded by Leslie Benzies, formerly president of Rockstar North, lead developer of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, so I've been wondering how a team with a stellar background in AAA open world sandbox games would far creating a very open virtual world.
Watch above -- the audio doesn't fully come in until 8:15, a new sizzle reel starts at around 11:30, and actual live gameplay starts at about 16:00 in.
While it looks very much like a video gamey experience in the vein of Core, the team emphasizes that Arcadia, the platform building tool, enables any kind of creation. ("If you just want to build a house, you can do that," as one of them says.) We also get a glimpse of the Arcadia user interface, which does look impressively sleek and user-friendly.
The team seems to be striving to create a single shard experience, or at least the simulation of one, linking various experiences with portals that players can travel through; so that's further intriguing.
My only negative hit from this preview is a lack of diverse avatars:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Rwah Yeatly seems to have captured my desperate difficulty in trying to choose just three pictures. “Calling 1962” is a perfect pop art expression of the Sixties. Her description is also a delightful bit of self-deprecation:
I am absolutely top notch when it comes to using carefully created original items, with absolutely epic animations, for something completely different as was intended by the creator. Or simply mess an item up beyond recognition. I am proud to announce that I did both for this picture.
Service announcements from our exchange:
A chair was resized and a telephone was maimed beyond anything. The rest of the stuff was only abused a wee bit.
Now do your duty, all 3 of you who actually read this, and follow the trail.
For more absolutely original avatar pics, click here:
VRChat finally launched official monetization last week right before the Thanksgiving holiday, so it's likely most metaverse folks in the US missed this long-awaited, much-considered feature. (It was announced last May.) Here's the basic gist:
Paid Subscriptions allow everyone in VRChat to directly support the creators they love with dramatically less friction. At the same time, Paid Subscriptions also empower creators to build far more interesting creations with their supporters in mind. Creators can now easily create VIP rooms in their instances that only their subscribers can access. Or maybe they could have a special car or jet that is only available if you’re a supporter. Or maybe supporters get a special icon above their head in their instances. Or, for event runners, priority or exclusive access to your events!
How Do Paid Subscriptions Work?
All VRChat players can now purchase VRChat Credits with real-life money. You can spend these on certain perks that creators set via Groups. Generally, you’ll go to a creator’s Group page, click the “Store” button, and then be presented with a list of things you can purchase. These individual perks are known as Paid Subscriptions! You can purchase one for a certain amount of time: say a month, three months, a year. These are currently not recurring – but will be in the future!
Notable for NWN readers, the payment processing is provided by Linden Lab spinoff company Tilia. So Second Life and VRChat now share the same payment back-end.
Even more notable, the VRChat creators only take 50% of revenue from these paid subscriptions, with 30% going to the platform (Steam, etc.) and VRChat the actual company taking just 20%.
As I've written before, there's well over 1000 VRChat creators already monetizing on other third party platforms (YouTube, Patreon, etc.) , so the question is whether they'll also add this official payment channel.
So I asked some of them! Here's takes from three top VRChat creators, which roughly fall into the Good or Mixed category:
"I think we will look back on this as another milestone in SL history, as impactful as the introduction of sculpties, or mesh, or material texturing," Max Graf, longtime 3D content creator, tells me. Often gruff or outright cranky about Second Life as a platform, Graf is pretty bullish with this update, with some qualifiers: "It is a really good start, though I am most excited about revisions and updates to this process going forward, especially how it will affect environments and terrains. PBR is a massive step forward for SL."
As that suggests, there's been some reported issues with PBR for Mac users (see below). But for now, Max has some starting tips/links for creators who want to play with PBR:
"It does not work on terrain yet, and at first a lot of things are going to look odd, like water, which is a hot mess right now. Eventually terrain will include smart materials but not yet. It will most likely be a different texturing method in world (as opposed to the current hi and low corner limits) as well as GLTF. Reflection probes are critical to PRB really working as it should.
"Blender has smart material /PBR capabilities, but if you do not already have that, Material Maker, s a free, open source app that does a very good job doing what Substance does, without a sub, because fuck Adobe. Adobe does have one tool I would suggest, however, and it is free." (OK, so don't fully fuck Adobe.)
Here's a before/after tutorial from Max on adjusting water for full PBR effect:
She wrote a little about herself on her Flickr About page:
I love exploring all the beautiful places in SL and taking pictures, usually landscapes. I cannot claim any real skill or artistry but I do try to do justice to the spaces I am privileged to wander. Every picture is a memory, a moment of joy and I love that I am able to share these with you.
Well, if the person who created “Ghost" cannot claim artistry, the word has no meaning.
For more extraordinary EEP landscapes, click here:
Here's a survey on how much generative AI will change important parts of human culture, inspired by a debate posted last week. In case you missed it, read the different perspectives below here:
Roughly summarized, one argument suggests AI will totally remake our conception of movies and other culture, replacing many or most creative humans along the way. Another argument suggests AI will become just one tool, much like programs like Photoshop did in previous years -- and humans will still be central to creating culture.
Read the debate summary after the break, take the survey, and expand the conversation in Comments below!
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Svelte Blessed takes the most amazing landscape and decor pics. She also lists her credits. I love “The Tom Cat” who is sleeping on that battered, old nailhead chair. I love it.
I asked her how she got such intense color and detail:
“I start with a clear large image using Black Dragon and adjust the WindLight for every picture to create the angle of light and shadows I desire,” she told me. “I use Photoshop for post-processing and often spend a long time on each image, starting first with composite work, then tones, and finally refining details. My key piece of advice is to not be afraid to change things as you go. If something isn't working or [not] ‘popping,’ try something new, go back a few steps and try something new.”
When Charles Bristol was born in 1921, the electric guitar did not exist, and slavery was a living memory still, related to him by grandparents who worked beneath the lash themselves. But as fate would have it, Mr. Bristol would nonetheless live to see a black man made President, and perhaps just as unexpected, see himself made into an avatar, so he could extend his decades-long music career into something called the metaverse.
Second Life became Mr. Bristol's latest venue thanks to another blues musician, known in-world as Etherian Kamaboko,, who lives near him in North Carolina.
Accidentally coming across Mr. Bristol playing blues changed own my career course:
Cyber Monday special for the immersion fan in your life: I'm giving away my autograph plate to anyone who buys a copy of Making a Metaverse That Matters. I'll even write a special (short!) dedication message to you or a special someone.
Here's how to get it!
1. Get a copy of the book (if you haven't already) here:
After discussing how AI might change movies and music, Adam Frisby and I debated how it could alter the future of the Metaverse. It's topic both of us have long been thinking about, Adam as CEO of Sine Wave Entertainment (creator of metaverse platform Sinespace) and myself as the author of The Making of Second Life and Making a Metaverse That Matters.
Wagner James Au: How about metaverse platforms? How much will gen AI transform them? Roblox I know is already experimenting with it for graphics, but how much will it change the overall experience in the next decade?
Adam Frisby: Probably; the general rule of thumb is: do big datasets exist for the job being replaced. In the case of metaverse platforms, you've got primarily the following jobs done by creators:
- 3D modelers
- Animator
- Texture artists
- Riggers
- Scripters
- Environment artists/level designers
Those are the game industry job titles, but it is analogous to virtual worlds. Of those; there are compelling high quality AI tools already for animation.
![[Deadwool] Emperor uniform](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53351162213_02bc2dbfeb_z.jpg)
