New World Notes

Nylon Pinkney Is Online: The Three Levels of "Being Online"

Cajsa’s Flickr Pick: SL Screenshots Edited With an iPhone Into Visual Art

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Mayumi Sugarplum’s recent Flickr stream is an exploration of editing and experimentation on Second Life photos she took in the past. “At the Seashore” reminds me of a Degas painting of dancers. Her photostream is also a testament to personal resilience and the creative drive. She has been ill for some time and is no longer able to work directly in SL to take her photos. She is using her iPhone and iPad to edit old photos from years ago. Each reimagined photo links to its original so you can see how she took those pictures and cast them anew in a more impressionistic and surreal framework.

Watch: A Second Life Clock That Runs Entirely On Virtual World Physics

What you're looking at above is something quite amazing: In development for over 10 years, it's a virtual world clock that operates entirely on Second Life's internal physics: "I made a functioning weight-driven pendulum-regulated escapement in 2009," creator Emilin Nakamori tells me, "which as far as I know was the first unscripted, self-regulating mechanism ever made in SL using solely physics."

So while it ia a virtual clock, it operates very much like a real one: "[T]here is a weight assembly, which powers the escapement using a rack engaging a gear. The escapement slows the fall of the weight by swinging, with a period of about 7 seconds (which is why there is no seconds dial), and it in turn powers the reduction gears for the minute and hour hands. I had to make some scientific experiments to determine such things as is there inertia in SL physics (there is) and what the acceleration due to gravity is (about the same as in RL, though things reach terminal velocity quickly)."

Creating this clock to function as well as it does in Second Life took two things -- a book from the 19th century, and, well, a more recent physics update from Linden Lab:

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: The Naturalistic Virtual Photos of Brandon Taselian

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Brandon Taselian has one of the most lifelike and naturalistic photostreams of any Second Life enthusiast I can think of. I think he may create composites from real life street photos and his SL pictures. “Streets of California” uses the Rule of Thirds, though is a bold move, the subject is moving out of rather than into the frame.

Watch: Stadia, Google's OnLive-Type Game Streaming Service, Unveiled

As promised last year, Google is unveiling its 3D game streaming service at GDC right now -- meet Stadia:

Data centers make Stadia possible, but what sets the system apart is how it works with other Google services. In a world where there are more than 200 million people watching game-related content daily on YouTube, Stadia makes many of those games playable with the press of a button. If you watch one of your favorite creators playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey, simply click the “play now” button. Seconds later, you’ll be running around ancient Greece in your own game/on your own adventure—no downloads, no updates, no patches and no installs.

In other words, like the late-lamented OnLive, but with the world's largest global server network to back it up. And as with OnLive, we will almost certainly see virtual worlds like Second Life and future worlds using this service. Perhaps not coincidentally, Second Life co-creator Cory Ondrejka is now Tech Advisor to the CEO at Google.

Live unveil at GDC after the break:

VentureBeat Features Sinespace's New All-in-One Virtual World SDK Now in Unity Asset Store

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi has an in-depth post on the launch of the Sinespace SDK as an official Unity Asset Store Partner, which the proud NWN sponsoring partner is announcing this week. Key grafs:

The Sinespace SDK includes key features for rapidly creating AAA-quality games, including Build Kill Repeat, an open source, fully modifiable combat system, and content from top Unity vendors and Sinespace partners Dexsoft-Games (3D Models-Textures), Gaia, and Archimatix.

The Sinespace SDK instantly optimizes 3D experiences for play on PC, Mac, Linux, Oculus, Vive, Android and WebGL. (Support for iOS and consoles coming soon.) Unlike other open game worlds, Sinespace is architected to fully update all content with every Unity update.

Developers can upload and sell assets from their existing single-player games — or use them in new multiplayer titles. For instance, when Warren Spector made a special guest appearance in Sinespace, his team uploaded 3D models from his latest Unity game into Sinespace.

“I’ve been developing virtual worlds since I was 12,” Frisby said. “Twenty years later, I believe this is finally the start of a metaverse worthy of the name.”

Read the rest here. Here's a video tutorial for customizing the Build Kill Repeat combat system:

I Came to Second Life Looking for Cybersex; I Stayed for Creating & Community (Comment of the Week)

Amid all the talk about Adult content in Second Life (helpfully illustrated by Nylon Pinkney), Cindy Bolero makes an important point:

This is the reality: Many, if not most new users heard about the sex, log in, and are looking for it. It's up to greeters at venues or attractions to understand that. You can be mean and ban them, or you can tell them to open the search window and/or suggest an ideal Adult place to go.

Why be helpful to these rude characters asking for sex? Because some will eventually get over that curiosity and become customers and contributors. The SL economy needs all the help it can get.

She speaks from, ahem, personal experience:

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Katzencie Creates Striking Silhouettes from Sims 4

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I did not know you could make cool screenshots in The Sims. Of course, last time I played The Sims, avatars were busy peeing on the floor or self-immolating. Tombstones in the backyard proliferated. Katzencie ♡ is obviously more competent at The Sims than I can ever hope to be. I was drawn to "Life is too short to blend in" by its 1960’s sensibility. It’s not just the pop art silhouette, but the “Mod Squad” pose.

Top 6 Posts Last Week: A Virtual World Pioneer Passes, Rawls' Theory of Justice & MMO Design, SL's Branding Problem, 30K Dual Universe "User" Concurrency, and Why SL Home Tours Tend to Be NSFW

• Nylon Pinkney Is Online - Why Second Life Home Tours Are Usually NSFW-Ish
• Watch: Dual Universe Handles 30,000 Concurrent "Users" On A Single Planet
• Watch One Of Second Life's Biggest Fans Explaining Second Life's Own Bad Design & Branding Decisions
• Can Rawls' Theory Of Justice Help Us Design Fairer MMOs?
• RIP Fran Serenade: Senior Citizen Who Helped Pioneer Use Of Virtual Worlds To Recover From Parkinson's Symptoms, Dies At 91
• Linden Lab Needs A Heavily Regulated PG-13 Continent In Second Life -- And More SL Presence Of Linden Staff & Mentors

Nylon Pinkney Is Online - Why Second Life Home Tours Are Usually NSFW-ish

Watch: Dual Universe Handles 30,000 Concurrent "Users" on a Single Planet

Dual Universe, the upcoming, crowd-funded, single shard MMO which some argue is the closest thing we have to a metaverse, just published this new video which strongly suggests they have an honest shot at that metaverse title: A stress test of 30,000+ "users" on a single planet, on an MMO that plans to have hundreds of planets. (Details on his blog here.)

I say "users" because almost all of the 30,000 are simulated, along with some actual players -- Dual Universe lead developer Jean-Christophe Baillie estimates hundreds of those.

"This is not a significant number (most people were not interested in participating in a test), " he allows, "but what matters is that everyone was invited and we have witnesses! It's not just a tech test done behind closed doors."

By point of contrast, Eve Online and Second Life, the two top single-shard grandaddies, manage peak concurrencies of about 40,000-70,000 players total. Whereas Dual Universe's stress test suggests many more than that can be handled across its galaxy.

To judge by the video, the stress test could handle many hundreds in the same proximate space (i.e. within a hundred square meters), but JC speculates they may have to add some promixity limits when they launch:

You're Invited: Sinespace BKR Launch Party & FPS Map Contest at Unity HQ!

If you can be in the Bay Area next week Thursday night and you're reading this on New World Notes, lead dev Adam Frisby and his team at Sinespace (a proud sponsoring partner of this blog), you are cordially invited to their BKR Launch Party at Unity HQ one block from GDC.

BKR (for Build Kill Repeat) is Sinespace's new open source, completely customizable combat system, so Adam is unveiling an FPS map design contest with a celebrity game developer judge to be announced there.

Go to Sinespace's blog for the RSVP link and more info on Sinespace at GDC.

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: The Kawaii Cool Images of Sugar Imp

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Sugar Imp gives us pure kawaii joy in "Cherry House". Animals gather around the subject, even sitting on her head. She's sitting in a cute little sidecar made of a wood produce box. It's all bright, colorful, and happy.

Even in her "Sexy Nightie" photo, Sugar Imp's kawaii spirit comes through:

Watch One of Second Life's Biggest Fans Explaining Second Life's Own Bad Design & Branding Decisions

"I have a full-ass real life but let me tell you when I want my down time to myself, just log in, talk to my friends, do some dumb shit, play some games, blah blah blah, make my videos, that's what I want to do in my spare time."

Lexy Nexen, who's one of Second Life's best and brashest YouTubers (so subscribe already), recently posted this fun if frustrating video, explaining -- via her casually cool real life self -- a key frustration with vlogging about SL: YouTube comments full of snark which more or less boil down to "LOL you're playing Second Life to have weird sex and you have no first life". She effectively addresses the second part by mentioning many cool and worthwhile places in people in Second Life (including the late Fran Serenade), but flounders a bit with the first part.

And that frustrates me: This is yet one more time one of Second Life's biggest fans feels she has to put herself out there explaining the world's bad reputation, in a way few other online game world users have to contend with. (VRChat, by contrast has a bad -- and at least somewhat unfair -- reputation for nasty trolls and an excess of anime girls, but that's different.) And the thing is, this was and is an addressable problem:

DeepMind Tech Uses Smartphone Camera to Capture User's Expression & Movement, Then Replicates It on Phone's Avatar in Real Time

From DeepMotion, the AI company which taught NPC avatars how to argue, and how to learn how to dribble basketballs, new avatar technology coming for the Samsung Galaxy S10:

Led by industry experts from Blizzard, Disney, Pixar, Ubisoft, and Microsoft, DeepMotion leverages the latest in AI technology and robotic control theory, allowing users to instantaneously animate their emojis simply by moving in front of the phone’s camera. With DeepMotion’s Digital Avatar simulation, users will now be able to use their body to express themselves more fully. The new technology will bring body language to emoji communications, which to date have been limited to facial expressions and simple head movements. Users can now capture body movement using the rear camera, or upper body movement using the front-facing camera.

More here, another video below. The demo video leaves me a bit confused as to how the avatar interacts on the phone itself -- in an app, or on the default screen, or what -- but if the real time motion capture works as well as represented, I'm impressed. And plan to check this out in person next week at GDC.

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Thyme Carter's Lonely, Tilted Second Life Images

Thyme Carter shot "She took a deep breath...and let it go" and I love it. Every picture in her photostream is so excellent I could have picked them all. I would not be surprised if this were a composite with the avatar and flowers shot in Second Life and the trees in real life, but then again, the depth of field takes the trees out of focus so they could be SL. It can be astonishing how real SL can look with Depth of Field in play.

Here's another Thyme picture that becomes more interesting by being tilted off level just enough to add interest without being irritating. If I have to tilt my laptop to see your picture, I won't bother:

Can Rawls' Theory of Justice Help Us Design Fairer MMOs?

John Rawls' Theory of Justice has inspired countless political thinkers and activists, most recently (and notably) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- but can it also help us create fairer MMOs? I explore the topic for Seed, the upcoming new world colonization MMO with a political system designed by Lawrence Lessig. Whereas most MMOs (World of Warcraft, etc.) begin in a world with an already established political hierarchy and clear divisions of wealth and power, Seed takes place on an uninhabited alien planet -- and beyond that, fans of Seed know little about what they can expect:

Although Seed is yet to have an official launch date, the Seed Discord server has attracted a thriving community of members, whose enthusiasm for the game’s progress has left the development team in awe, as would-be players avidly discuss the game features they most want to see, and even join player-created factions with competing plans to colonize the new world, the very moment that they can. All this active debate about a world that doesn’t yet exist eerily resembles the thought experiment described in John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice:

UK Second Life Users Already Planning Virtual World Brexit Parties

With the UK's Parliament rejecting a final deal, the country is careening toward a final Brexit from the European Union in 17 days. The streets of London will probably not be full of celebration, but the virtual streets of London City in Second Life plan to be kicking:

We're having a Brexit Party. Top Tunes with a leading Brexiteer DJ. Hurry on over cos 'Britain is open for business'

"I would think many people will to the party out of curiosity," London City owner and Brexit party host Torric Rodas tells me. While he's personally supportive of Brexit (like the DJ), he tells me most members of his UK-based Second Life community are ambivalent: "I do not believe that most members of London City are Leavers," as he puts it. "I believe it is still as deeply divided as the original referendum was." At least in the virtual world, any fisticuffs and general rioting won't lead to actual bruises.

Hat tip: Ysabelle Stewart

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Space Gamer Turns Star Citizen Into Screenshot Art

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Space Gamer has such high quality and professional looking Star Citizen screenshots I wondered if I was looking at a company Flickr account for a game company, but with just 58 followers (far fewer than deserved) I think that is unlikely. But take one look at "Going to sleep here" and you will see what I mean. He's using several elements of good composition including close cropping so we engage in completing the photo. The strong black and white contrast, the many geometric shapes that are featured. The closed eye placed by the golden ratio and the use of depth of field to make that eye the focal point. All these techniques come together for a strong and emotional photo.

RIP Fran Serenade: Senior Citizen Who Helped Pioneer Use of Virtual Worlds to Recover from Parkinson's Symptoms, Dies at 91

I'm sad to report that "Fran Serenade", Second Life avatar name of the senior citizen I wrote about in 2013, recently passed away at the age of 91. Her daughter Barbara ("Barbie Alchemi" in SL) tells me by e-mail that she's planning a remembrance service in Second Life for the many members of the community who loved her mother. "I would like to plan a day of music for her memorial in about a month," she tells me. More details are coming soon, so if you're a musician interested in performing for this service, get in touch with Barbie or register your interest in Comments below.

Fran lived a long rich life, and in her late 80s, suffering from symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, discovered that playing Second Life worked as a kind of physical therapy:

Linden Lab Needs a Heavily Regulated PG-13 Continent in Second Life -- And More SL Presence of Linden Staff & Mentors (Comment of the Week)

Expanding on the idea that Second Life needs a PG13-only content, reader Gingir Ghoststar proposes a way to make that happen:

I've said for years that if SL would provide a maintained PG to PG13 area that it would thrive. I get it, it would be work, possibly [cause] increased cost of living and [provoke] the argument "nobody wants to be told how to live" but I beg to differ. Linden Lab thrives on all the private sims that they're paid to host that are then locked down with strict land rules, building rules etc and people pay through the NOSE to live on these super landscaped country club like estates. There is a market for it. If LL could create a continent and build it up like an actual city and enforce land/build codes I can almost guarantee that it would fill up in a heartbeat.

More than that, she adds, what's really is missing is a lack of Linden Lab activity in Second Life:

Top 7 Posts Last Week: VR & SL, SL & Adult Ratings, VR & Curved Space, VRChat & Addiction, Eastshade Interview & Meet Mouthy Mrs. Mayo

• Is Second Life Too Technically Limited To Create A VR Version For It?
• Nylon Pinkney Is Online - Inside VRChatters Anonymous
• Linden Lab Calls Report On Second Life's Adult-Rated Sims "Misleading" -- But The Real Problem Is Misleading Use Of The Adult Rating
• Why Eastshade, The New Open World Where You Roleplay As A Painter, Isn't Photoshop: The Game
• Meet Mrs. Mayo: Foul-Mouthed Old Avatar Hilariously Rants & Advises About Second Life Drama On YouTube
• Watch & Boggle: Non-Euclidean Curved Space Simulated In Virtual Reality
• Linden Lab Should Have Created A PG-Rated Showcase Continent For Second Life, Instead Of An Adult-Only One

Game, Virtual World & VR Developers: Want to Meet Sinespace During GDC?

Sinespace, the upcoming Unity-based virtual world platform (and proud NWN partner!), is attending GDC this year, with co-founder Adam Frisby and crew in San Francisco for several big announcements and events. And if you are a --

• 3D game developer (especially for PC and Oculus/Vive)
• Professionally develop VR/virtual worlds/MMOs/3D experiences for  education or enterprise

-- they'd love to meet you in the Bay Area. To request a meeting e-mail [email protected] with "GDC meeting" in the header, or join Sinespace's Discord and connect with Sinespace team member ZareShadows#0001.

Watch: Gorgeous Alice in Wonderland Machinima Showcasing Animesh Cheshire Cats, Amputee Avatar

This is the best showcase of animesh since that technology went live in Second Life: Animated Cheshire cats which can move independently or attached to your avatar, controllable with a HUD. Which, of course, video creator Novata features in an Alice in Wonderland setting in SL 

Also notable to me is her avatar partner in the video is an amputee, not a choice you see very often, but a conscious one to include here:

Cajsa’s Flickr Pick: CybeleMoon's Photos Are Both Real & Virtual -- Can You Tell Which is Which?

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I saw "The Far and Away" and loved how the land was backlit in silhouette. It is emotionally evocative and so lovely. CybeleMoon has a distinctive style and it fit right in to her SL landscapes. Then I saw it was from her first life! Oops.

"A river moves within you" blends both SL and RL together in a beautiful synergistic photo. (Visit in Second Life here.)

Two more, one real, one virtual, after the break: