New World Notes

Philip Rosedale Tracks Mouse Latency on Google Stadia & NVidia NOW

Philip Rosedale recently posted a cool hack for tracking system latency: Basically, you perform an action with the user interface, then track how long it takes for the system to register that action by recording cause and effect on your smartphone in super slo-mo, then counting up the total video frames, and doing some basic math:

Multiple the number of frames counted by 4.1 to give you the number of milliseconds of round-trip latency. For example, if you counted 10 frames, that would be 41 milliseconds.

He recently tested mouse latency on the new streaming services Google Stadia and NVidia NOW (see above) running one of the Witcher games, and came up with this startling figure:

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Aslan's Amazing Pics With a Japanese Aesthetic

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

Aslan’s photostream is filled with luscious pictures with a Japanese aesthetic. I am not just thinking of the avatar and the clothing, but also the style of photo with various oddments orbiting the avatars in a swirling pattern of beautiful mayhem. I also love the rich sumptuous colors in this picture.

Janus VR Pivots from Startup to Open Source Community-Run Metaverse Project

Janus VR the web-based metaverse startup may be over, but that's not the end of Janus. James Baicoianu, the startup's former principal engineer, recently passed me this announcement, hosted not on JanusVR dot com, but on JanusXR dot org:

A core group of passionate fans have stuck with us from the beginning, and we're eternally grateful to them for accompanying us on this journey. Seeing their creations take shape is what motivated us to keep building all these years, and JanusXR.org will ensure that this content - which belongs to the community, not to us - can still live on.

Baicoianu tells me it's quite affordable for Janus to remain operational as a volunteer community operation:

"[O]ne of the benefits of how Janus' systems were built is that it costs us very little to keep the server infrastructure running - keeping the worlds up costs us less than $100 per month," as he puts it. "The expenses for Janus as a company were mainly payroll, our projects have been open source for some time -- as the lead developer of JanusWeb I plan to continue working on that as my open source project (as it was before I even joined Janus) I'm funding this out of my own pocket for now, I don't see it being a hardship unless suddenly we find new-found success that we never saw as a company, at which time we'll consider additional options."

But even if that doesn't happen, Baicoianu sees a future for the underlying technology he and his team created:

Flickr Forbids Free Account Users From Promoting Any Commercial Activity -- Including Virtual World Commerce from Second Life

We talked about how Flickr has been pushing its users to go Pro to stay in business, and now the company is apparently stepping up that pressure, forbidding free users from posting images which promote any commercial activity -- not just real world commerce, but virtual world commerce too. That move has roiled the huge community of Second Life users who rely on Flickr for sharing their virtual world screenshots, much of which feature SL fashion. 

"For free accounts," as a Flickr representative recently informed an SL content creator (see screengrab), "linking to a store in Second Life is considered commercial activity. Linking to a blog that links to a store is also considered commercial activity."

Many SLers are upgrading to Pro accounts while grumbling; others are vowing to no longer include any links in their Second Life fashion images on Flickr, and just list store names in the credits. Some leading fashion brands in SL, which typically offer free content to bloggers who feature their works, are no longer stipulating that their blog images be posted to Flickr.

Whether this is a good way for Flickr to stay afloat is subject to debate, but it's notable that the Second Life community is large enough on the image sharing platform that the company is actively setting policy around virtual world commerce:

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: Araceli Soto Tells Moving Stories With Second Life Images

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

Araceli Soto’s photostream is an emotional journey through her Second Life. As someone who fast forwards through ASPCA commercials and will never watch Don’t F**k with Cats, this picture warmed my heart. The quote from Anthony D. Williams is a good match for the snapshot, “When humans act with cruelty, we characterize them as 'animals', yet the only animal that displays cruelty is humanity…”

Survey: What "Heavy Hitters" Did Linden Bring Back to Improve Second Life?

Linden Lab's confirmation of recent layoffs last week included this incredibly intriguing line:

[W]e had to say goodbye to a few employees, but at the same time we also strengthened our team by bringing back some heavy hitters who will help make Second Life better than ever. 

Assuming this phrasing is accurate, it's two or more people formerly with Linden Lab, or currently with Linden Lab but working on another development team, such as Sansar, Tilia, or Blocksworld. Or perhaps it might even include a Second Life content creator who has since left the platform. And "heavy hitters" implies that an announcement will be made, and that many/most SL users will know who they are.

But who? Hence this survey! I hesitate to speculate openly, but a few obvious candidates come to mind:

Top 5 Posts from Last Week Including Linden Lab Layoffs & A Reality Melting Unity Demo

• Virtual Currency Transactions, Real Tax Compliance: Inspired By A True Story
• How That Amazing Unity Demo Dissolving Reality Into Pixels Was Made
• Linden Lab CEO Confirms New Round Of Layoffs; Cuts Include Kona Linden, Company's Last Link To Second Life's Glory Days
• Janus VR, Startup That Aimed To Build The Metaverse, Closes
• Manticore Lays Out "Creator Revolution For Games" Vision For CORE

Celebrate Valentine's in Sinespace This Weekend With Parties, Music & Prizes

It's Romance Week in Sinespace! From today and throughout this coming weekend, the proud NWN partner is hosting 10 events with a love and Valentine's theme: Sing a love song for 100 Gold, wear your best lovely costume in a contest for a chance to win 3500 in Gold prizes, and much, much more. All the details are here on Sinespace's official blog.

 

And don't forget to visit the Welcome Centre to take a romantic pic with a special someone in the kissing booth -- and win a Valentine's-themed deely bopper!

 

Speaking of fun things to do together, don't forget Sinespace's referral program is still open:

Virtual Currency Transactions, Real Tax Compliance: Inspired by a True Story

Cajsa's Friday Fashion Blog Choice: The Amazing Miaa Rebane

Miaa Rebane’s eponymous blog is one of my favorites. The home page is laid out like a high-end fashion magazine with pictures, texts, and a quote from Gianni Versace that every fashionista should take to heart. What? Am I going to include the quote. Nope, you have to go look for yourself.

One thing you will notice right away: Miaa loves color. Her pictures are supersaturated, an effect you can get by duplicating your picture and layering it with soft light, usually, or overlay. She posts a teaser photo like the picture above on Facebook, Flickr and Instagram, but that is just a tease. Her blog post is overflowing with exciting and beautiful pictures of the decor and the outfit. In fact, there are eleven photos that highlight different elements of the teaser photo.

Take this detail from the above blog post. It features a gorgeous handbag and a vase of flowers. I am a total handbag fiend and have far more than is healthy, though since I retired, I have to content myself with putting one box in storage and taking out another to freshen my collection. The handbag was released at Mowie and is at @Kustom9. It comes in blue, peach, and brown. Kustom 9 just closed, so you will have to watch for it on Marketplace as there is no physical store. The vase is from Plaaka (Glass Vase Poppy).

How That Amazing Unity Demo Dissolving Reality Into Pixels Was Made

Last week's post on Ruben Fro's amazing "melting reality" Unity demo dazzled many. Fortunately, he recently shared with me some of his creative process that made it possible:

"So, I’m using 360 cameras to record streets and daily life, then I use a series of scripts to analyze all the frames, choose the best ones and do further optimizations before sending everything to the photogrammetry pipeline that recreates a point cloud model. After that I’m running it in Unity using a geometry shader I developed to render point clouds in a more cinematic way."

The effect isn't merely meant to be visually impressive, but also evocative of how we experience reality:

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Doddy Delivers Striking Virtual Landscapes & Still Lifes

Doddy’s photostream is extraordinary, rich in striking landscapes and still lifes. “Simplicity and a Quiet Mind” struck me as particularly beautiful. She shot it at Kindred Spirits sim for a photo contest. I love its quiet simplicity even though I am practically repeating the title. I love how the metal spokes and the handles are about the same size. I like the repeating round shapes, the wheels, the urn, and the bottom of the vase.

Linden Lab CEO Confirms New Round of Layoffs; Cuts Include Kona Linden, Company's Last Link to Second Life's Glory Days - UPDATE, Linden Lab Publicly Addresses Layoffs, Claims They Won't Negatively Impact Second Life

Pictured:  With Kona Gurion & his dog Moxie at Linden Lab in 2008; inset, Discord announcement from Linden's current CEO from yesterday 

Update, 2/13: On its official blog, Linden Lab finally acknowledged the layoffs, claims they won't negatively impact SL, and suggests there was some recent notable hires of past Linden staff to help:

[W]e had to say goodbye to a few employees, but at the same time we also strengthened our team by bringing back some heavy hitters who will help make Second Life better than ever. 

So, Second Life is still here and still strong. We’re continuing to invest in its future and you’ll see the results of our commitment this year as we roll out a new mobile companion app, new Linden Home themes, performance and usability improvements, and a number of other new features and enhancements. The ability to change names will be available in the next few weeks, too. 

Original post below:

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Asahi Kanzaki's Amazingly Posed Images

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

Asahi Kanzaki’s photostream is a joy from beginning to end, not just because of his imaginative pictures, but because of the stories in his descriptions. In “To Hell with the Name” Anashi depicts a popular Japanese romance meme called kabedon. I love the humor in this photo. It reminds me a bit of Fred Astaire’s Ceiling Dance or perhaps some extreme planking, whatever his reference, he suspends the avatar horizontally across the hallway with several witnesses to his declaration of romantic affection.

Janus VR, Startup That Aimed to Build the Metaverse, Closes

Another metaverse shoe was dropped yesterday, this time by James McCrae, the CEO and co-founder of Janus VR, a Toronto-based startup which raised over $1.5 million according to Crunchbase. McCrae's stated reason for the closing is regulatory: 

I write to inform the broader community of our intent to dissolve the corporation, Janus VR, Inc., at the end of Q4 2019. It is no longer feasible to maintain our corporation status in Canada and the US given the expenses this will incur each year (as it relates to legal, accounting, patent/IP filings, etc.)

It's likely the startup could have stayed afloat with additional funding, but apparently that funding never came. Sad to say, this is one of several startups attempting to build the metaverse, as detailed in a 2016 profile:

"Inspired in part by Snow Crash’s Metaverse, James McCrae and Karan Singh sought to build a network of VR portals within which users can collaborate, communicate, explore, and even create new 3D content."

This follows High Fidelity and also Sansar scaling back their own metaverse-minded efforts considerably, despite having much more funding. 

When companies close up shop, they often reveal some interesting insider details. And according to McCae's announcement, Janus VR attracted some decent user numbers:

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Anu Papp's Powerful, Deceptively Simple Photos

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

I love Anu Papp’s photostream. “Out Beyond” (above) is emblematic of her style. Unadorned simplicity with emotionally evocative power achieved through both the avatar positioning, the angle, and the use of light and shadow. This picture is shot from above over her shoulder. Their faces and bodies are closely held, dancing. He holds her hand delicately and appears to be listening as she speaks in his ear. The intimacy of their positions is amplified by the shadows that close in around them.

Manticore Lays Out "Creator Revolution for Games" Vision for CORE

Many readers jumped on last week's alpha tester invite offer for CORE (now over, alas), the Unreal-based "digital playground and community" from startup Manticore. At the time, I didn't know many details about Manticore's vision for CORE, other than their intent to offer monetization options for creators. Fortunately, reader "vwfan" points to a Manticore blog post published during last December's holiday dead zone, which actually lays out that vision quite a lot:

Like Flickr? Now Would Be a Good Time to Help Keep It Operational

The image-sharing site Flickr was first founded as a feature for a virtual world, has always been welcoming of images created in a virtual world, and remains a go-to service for countless users of virtual worlds. But as rumblings last December made plain, the company behind Flickr is struggling to keep the digital lights on. This from a recent Flickr blog post:

I hate to start with the money because even though this is a business, we prefer to spend our time focused on building features our community will love. But, as [CEO] Don’s previous message made clear, running the world’s largest photography community requires funding to cover our operational costs, so we will need to continue to focus on this area to ensure Flickr’s health.

To do that, there's always the option to upgrade to a Pro subscription, and to encourage fellow Flickerers to upgrade as well. Perhaps more appealing to some, there's also Flickr's new hardcopy print option.

Top 8 Posts from Last Week Including: Two Brain-Melting Unity Demos & A New Bryn Oh Machinima

• Nylon Pinkney Is Online: Plague, Inferno, Riots... Electronic Arts
• Watch: Amazing Video Made In Unity Converts Reality Into Dissolving Pixels
• Second Life Community Joins Worldwide One Billion Rising Campaign Protesting Violence Against Women
• Watch: Mirror's Edge-Like Parkour Game Created In VRChat By A Furry Aerospace Educator
• Exclusive New World Notes Offer: Manticore Wants Virtual World Fans For CORE, Its Upcoming, Unreal-Based Digital Playground & Community
• Watch "Pretty", Bryn Oh's SL Machinima Ode To Humanism & Obsolescence
• Watch: Brain-Melting Unity Demo Becoming Reality-Creating Puzzle Game Called Viewfinder

This Sunday in Sinespace: Welcome, Orientation & Avatar Makeover Party for New Users & Creators!

Update, 2/7: The event will be streamed on Sinespace's Twitch here.

This Sunday (February 9) at Noon PST/3pm EST in the Assembly region (above, find by clicking Explore), the staff of Sinespace (a sponsoring media partner of New World Notes) are hosting a welcome party, orientation, and avatar makeover session for people who've recently joined the virtual world as a user, creator, or both!

IMPORTANT NOTE: For the best experience at this event, download Sinespace's 1B49 preview viewer at this page. 

The Sinespace team will be there live to answer all your questions about getting the most fun and creativity out of Sinespace's many features and creative tools, including the shop. With a special free 1 month subscription giveaway (with 600 gold total in four weekly stipends) and avatar makeover party where everyone can show off their favorite looks and their customization tips!

Speaking of orientation, there's a new Sinespace avatar customization guide available in .pdf -- click here to download. Download Sinespace Avatar Customization Guide

Nylon Pinkney is Online: Plague, Inferno, Riots... Electronic Arts

Watch: Amazing Video Made In Unity Converts Reality Into Dissolving Pixels

Dissolving Realities Vietnam #1 from Ruben on Vimeo.

In today's mind-melting demo, a Vietnamese street seems to dissolve into unreality right before our eyes. Created by Ruben Fro, who captured and converted the real location into a 3D data model through photogrammetry, then ran that through Unity 3D, where reality becomes a point cloud that can be melted into its underlying pixels at a whim.

Cajsa's Choices: A Stylish Male/Female SL Fashion Blog Called Blond

Blond is a stylish and innovative fashion blog brought to you by Grant Valeska. Grant shoots several pictures and uses a composite on Flickr to tease the blog post which features the outfits used in the composite. On the blog’s main page, another photo is featured to encourage you to click through to the post and the risque photos are clearly marked for times when you may be at work or around small children. This photo is a teaser for “Alien Invading” featuring a fabulous hat and jacket. 

What is really cool is how well Grant styles two different outfits to complement each other so perfectly. It’s virtuoso styling. Do you like this? Well, what about this? Two outfits, one theme, and one post. I was drawn most to the outfit on the right and the post has an amazing crop for a headshot. 

• Jacket: Ascend – Ronnie Puffer Jacket (Black)
• Gloves: Ascend – Neel Biker Gloves NEW @ FAMESHED!
• Hat: NOIR – Vinny Winter Cap NEW @ ACCESS!

Grant also shoots fashion shots with his female persona:

Second Life Community Joins Worldwide One Billion Rising Campaign Protesting Violence Against Women

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

“SL: One Billion Rising Campaign” is an emotionally evocative image created by Valenska Voljeti as a reminder of the coming One Billion Rising Campaign protesting violence against women that happens in Second Life as the worldwide event happens throughout first life. It will take place on February 14th -- details for the SL event on the Facebook page here.

Valenska's image description contains quite a bit of information on the event in both worlds:

“Every February, we rise – in countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable."

Valenska Voljeti, by the way, is an amazing Second Life image creator. Here's a couple more of her works:

Watch: Mirror's Edge-Like Parkour Game Created in VRChat By a Furry Aerospace Educator

I got my @VRChat map onto Oculus Quest! :Dhttps://t.co/KS5xHvI3wv#VRChat #OculusQuest #MirrorsEdge pic.twitter.com/KonK0DZ7B2

— Hiyu 🚀 (@HiyuMarten) January 28, 2020

I told you about the guy who created in VRChat a heist game with bullet-time in VRChat, now here's another impressive use of VRChat's development tools: A parkour-style challenge map in VRChat inspired by the hit game Mirror's Edge, which is also playable in VRChat's Oculus Quest app. Click here to start parkouring.

It was created by Hiyu Marten, who tells me it was actually pretty simple to make the parkour leaping and vaulting gameplay action possible: "This is just stock VRChat where I set higher values for run speed, jump height, and player voice chat distance," as he puts it.

Possibly related: In his real life job, Hyu is an expert at Newtonian physics, in the sense that he's a furry aerospace educator. Yes, seriously: