New World Notes

New Essay: I Tell VentureBeat What Went Wrong with "The Metaverse"

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:

 

Friday Fashion Blog: Class & Sass, Kilolo Jenkins’ Slice of Second Life

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
• Food Stains: .:LBM:. Diner Cooking Prank Kit
• Food – Junk Food, 
• Served Sides: Food Fight Throwers
• Pookie’s Plate: Buffet Trays

For more of her hijinks, click here:

Watch: Build a Rocket Boy Studio Unveils EVERYWHERE, "A World for Your imagination"

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:  

 

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Rwah Yeetly Turns Screenshots Into Striking Pop Art

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 Adds Monetization Option for UGC -- Here's What Three Top Content Creators Think of It

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:

PBR Officially Part of Second Life: Here's Starting Tips for Creators Interested in Playing With Physically Based Rendering in the Virtual World

Beholding a PBR in the Rumpus Room sandbox region

At long last, physically based rendering (i.e. PBR, i.e. reflective surfaces and such) are officially part of Second Life, integrated into the latest update to the official viewer. To see the PBR effect in all its glory first-hand, click here to teleport to the Rumpus sandbox regions.

"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:

Here's How Custom Environment Filters (EEPs) Can Beautifully Transform Second Life Screenshots

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

Pooka’s picture “Ghost” left me awestruck. It has this ghostly feeling as though it is a place out of time. It reminds me of the old Chinese painting masters. [To teleport, click here.] It may seem very different because she uses an EEP -- for Environmental Enhancement Project -- to create the environment. Helpfully, Pooka tells us what EEP she uses. I love that! 

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:

Survey: How Much Will Generative AI Change Movies, Music, and Metaverse Culture? Read the Debate, Take the Survey!

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:

• How Artificial Intelligence May Change Metaverse Platforms.
• How AI May Change Movies and Music. 

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!

Beautifully Lit Second Life Home Decor Images by Svelte Blessed, Who Shares Details of Her Technique

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.”

For more fantastic pics, click here:

Monday Memory: Charles Bristol, the Metaverse Bluesman Who Changed the Course of My Career

Video by Toxic Menges

From Charles Bristol's Metaverse Blues: 87 Year Old Bluesman Becomes Avatar-Based Musician In Second Life (2009):

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: Get Making a Metaverse That Matters, Get My Autograph Plate and/or Social Media Shout-Out!

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:

• AMAZON
• BARNES & NOBLE
• BOOKSHOP (benefits indie stores)

2. Contact me on social media 0r e-mail me your mailing address. (Info below.) 

3. Be sure to include any special dedication/message you want.

Allow 2-4 weeks for receipt, especially outside the US!

And if you're getting a Kindle/e-book or the audiobook verision on Audible or Audibooks.com, I can still send a digital "signature"-- here's how:

Top 3 Posts Including: Books That Informed Making a Metaverse That Matters, Debating AI's Impact on the Metaverse & Popular Culture

• How much will AI transform culture? Part 1, music and movies
• How much will AI transform culture? Part 2, metaverse platforms
• These 5 Excellent Books Helped Inspire My Writing Of Making A Metaverse That Matters

How Artificial Intelligence May Change Metaverse Platforms -- And Challenge Creators Who Make Their Living from Them

Above: Meeting BunnyGPT, one of the first NPCs hooked up to OpenAI's LLM

Read Part 1, Will Artificial Intelligence Totally Transform Culture & Intellectual Work? 

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.

Here's a tool from 2018 [watch below]:

Here's How Thanksgiving is Celebrated in the Virtual World of Second Life

Today's post sponsored by Bad Unicorn, creator of hilarious holdables & creative chaos for SL friends

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

It’s that time of year again, time for us to eat our way through multiple courses of delicious food with friends and family. Or, as it happens, to pose artfully with pixel food in anticipation of eating those pixels with friends and family. Here, Nikki Heron, shares her Thanksgiving preparations including a turkey the size of a small child. Are there pixel ovens big enough to hold that bird? 

For more giving thanks, click here:

Will Artificial Intelligence Totally Transform Culture & Intellectual Work? An Engineer & Author Debate. Part 1, Music & Movies

Pictured: Barbenheimer meme created through generative AI programs Midjourney and Gen-2 

In the near future, will we keep wanting to watch Hollywood movies like Oppenheimer and Barbie, works of visionary highly personal art by beloved human artists -- or will much of their work be replaced by generative AI programs?

In recent months I've been having a friendly Whatsapp debate on that question with Adam Frisby, CEO of metaverse platform developer Sine Wave Entertainment, one of the smartest technologists I'm lucky to call a pal. Even though Adam takes a highly AI maximalist position on that question!

“Every intellectual job is at risk," as he recently put it to me bluntly. "The ones which can be easily outsourced already today, will be first. Even very prestigious, difficult and stressful jobs like C-suite execs are at risk honestly. Humans can only handle summaries, AI can handle huge quantities of raw data; long term, we're at a disadvantage.”

As longtime readers to my blog might guess, I'm highly skeptical of that -- and not just as a professional writer devoted to the human aspect of technology in the Metaverse and beyond. I've been working in Silicon Valley long enough to have heard grandiose predictions like the above before (and then maybe yet before that before). I tend to think AI will just become one more technology tool among many to produce movies and other art -- but not fundamentally change who makes them. (I.E., human producers, directors, writers, actors, and others talented artists and craftspeople.)

But maybe this time the grandiose predictions are different?

Recent news around OpenAI and Sam Altman recently re-joining as its CEO after a week of confusing tumult may accelerate the issues we discuss, given the org's heavy involvement with Microsoft. Disney, historically a very litigious protector of its content, recently asked Microsoft to remove some its IP out of its AI image program, and may ultimately see Microsoft as a potential competitor. 

Anyway, read our conservation and decide for yourself!

PART 1: How Artificial Intelligence May Change Movies and Music

Wagner James Au: I’m sure you saw that the Screen Actors Guild got the studios to forbid use of AI characters in movies and TV without the underlying actor’s permission. So that puts the kibosh on AI totally transforming popular culture, right?

Adam Frisby: Not at all. “Why pay for a real actor?”. Humans are expensive, notoriously difficult to work with, and the studios are investing vast sums in building someone else’s brand that they don’t even control.

(This is not to be callous, or to devalue artists' contributions to media - just that, as soon as a machine can do a human's job reliably and cost effectively, it will; no matter where or what that job is.)

WJA: But name actors are integral to funding and marketing movies. Even when it’s a CGI animated movie, studios depend heavily on having A list stars doing the voice work.

AF: Yeah; but that's just a matter of branding. AI can be tuned to reproducible results, studios could invest in their own stable of "actors" and probably will. There may be initial backlash -- it'll likely happen somewhere small first, TV maybe? Where novelty is okay.

It could happen via some VTuber initially. That's actually more likely -- low risk, already happening, has a human heavily driving it, someone gets a high profile from Twitch or YouTube, "stars" in something bigger -- low budget film or a TV series, as their character.

That goes on for a little while, the owner licenses the character more fully; precedent has been set.

WJA: But how would that supplant how Hollywood studios work with human actors, when they’re already bound not to use AI actors without permission for 3 years and SAG has no motivation whatsoever to change that in the next contract?

AF: AI versions of existing actors, and permission by the actor themselves. Hell, another route could be someone like Bruce Willis. Someone who for a tragic reason needs "AI help" to act again.

Or, it'll be someone who does something Avant Garde -- "The Film With 10,000 Endings"

However it happens, it'll start small. The studios are not fools. They're aware everyone in the industry is nervous. But that toehold will grow; and eventually the economics of brand name actors will be broken. Because the human actors -- and the supporting infrastructure (cameramen, etc) will be a huge expense for an ever decreasing proportion of the budget

VFX will be long gone by then -- that'll eventually be 5 guys running prompts over raw footage.

Look at this, this is pretty preliminary and early tech, but you can easily see how quickly it'll be able to do complex VFX shots [watch below]:

These 5 Excellent Books Helped Inspire My Writing of Making a Metaverse That Matters

Here's five of the best books for understanding virtual worlds and internet culture as recommended by, well, me. Featured on Shepherd, an author-driven book recommendation site, the editors asked me to write about the books that informed my own book, Making a Metaverse That Matters. 

Those include the face-punchingly obvious influences, like Snow Crash:

The OG Metaverse novel is still as smart, hilarious, rollicking, and inspirational as it was 30 years ago. I’m amazed at how many technologists talking about the concept have not read it and realized how influential and prophetic it actually is, envisioning scenes of virtual life that have since become commonplace for millions of Internet denizens...

And the less obvious guides, like Taylor Lorenz's Extremely Online:

Stunning Second Life-Based Avatar Fashion Tributes to Legendary Vogue Photographer Guy Bourdin

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

Dalia’s “Mirror” is a collaborative homage to the acclaimed French art/fashion photographer Guy Bourdin, who had an obsession with mirrors.She worked with Peuxswau, who also created an homage to Bourdin. It is always fun to see how different people shoot the same scene, especially when they have an inspiration as iconic as Bourdin. 

Could there be more Bourdin homages around Second Life? Indeed, click on!

Top 3 Posts Including: Second Life on Unity Update & an Artist's Approach to "Ethical" Generative AI-Based Images

• The Gnome Is Home: Helium-Headed YouTuber Soda Gnome Wackily Returns To Second Life
• Crystal Frost Update: Playable Build Of SL / OpenSim Viewer On Unity Targets Spring 2024, Needs More Patreon Backers To Speed Progress
• Is It Ethical For Artists To Use Generative AI In Their Work? This Creator Believes So -- See Her Images & Her Approach For Making Them

The Gnome is Home: Helium-Headed YouTuber Soda Gnome Wackily Returns to Second Life

It's a Friday miracle! After an absence of some six years, legendary YouTuber Soda Gnome is back with a new Second Life machinima to utterly wreck some "Take on Me" karaoke. First sighted by Redditor u/GeoffreyLannister, we've been missing his wryly goofy humor, a gnome-shaped light amid the sea of fashion and trolling videos. Though watch now: For whatever reason, his classic SL videos seem to be no longer on YouTube. 

Past Soda Gnome appearances on NWN below, though it's mainly readers and I talking about how funny as fuck he is. I've reached out to Monsieur Gnome so he knows we're watching -- say hello in Comments in hopes he makes more videos!

SL Fashion Friday: Beautifully Tasteful Styles from ByteDreams

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

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

#058 of 2023 is just a single example of the gorgeous style brought to us by ByteDreams Slade, who excels at showing us classic, tasteful fashion. She’s one of the fashion bloggers who realize clothing is far more interesting when people wear it, as opposed to bearing as much digital skin as possible. But there is nothing prudish about Byte Dreams, but she does wear a lot more clothes than the average blogger and I love her for that.

The color on this dress is gorgeous, one of those colors that look good on everyone, but set off by her dark skin, the dress looks like a jewel. Here’s what she’s wearing:

• QUEENZ "Fae" dress @ The Grand Event (main store)
• Marmaladny Girls (#MG) "Gentle Dawn" earrings and "3D Hearts" BOM Tattoo (main store)
• KUNGLERS "Leigh" rings (texture hud incl'd) (marketplace) (main store)

For more ByteDreams elegance, click here:

Crystal Frost Update: Playable Build of SL / OpenSim Viewer on Unity Targets Spring 2024, Needs More Patreon Backers to Speed Progress

This post brought to you by New World Note sponsoring partner Bad Unicorn, creator of the new combat-ready UFO Beamer!

It's been awhile since I've blogged about Crystal Frost, the crowdfunded project to convert Second Life and OpenSim to Unity for PC and VR. The good news is it's still chugging along, with a usable version targeted for a Spring 2024 launch.

The less good news is lead developer Berry Bunny (Kallisti#2038 on Discord) and her team are fixing some roadblocks (more on that below) and she's had to slow down development to work on other contract projects. If she can grow the project's Patreon however, development will accelerate.

"I have very little free time," as Berry puts it, "and every little bit helps me work on it more."

That in mind, consider contributing to Crystal Frost's Patreon.

As for the latest tasks the team is working on now, here's the tech-heavy details from Berry. Good to know an OpenSim grid is helping with Crystal Frost, and a mobile version is still a possibility:

Today's Second Life Flickr Pick: The Intriguing & Beautiful Conceptual Images of Celestial Demon

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

My first glance at Celestial Demon’s untitled picture of a man laying on the ground, I thought he was a boulder. But of course, a closer, slower look revealed a far more interesting picture. I love how he uses the body as landscape. It is his lighting that makes the body look so much more a part of the landscape, making the body more abstract. It’s reminiscent of Carl Warner’s Bodyscapes, an amazing exploration of the geography of the human body and Celestial Demon’s is as well. 

For more of Celestial Demon’s conceptual art, click here.

Is It Ethical for Artists to Use Generative AI in Their Work? This Creator Believes So -- See Her Images & Her Approach for Making Them

There's quite a lot of excitement about the potential to quickly create art through generative AI programs like Midjourney, but there's one small problem for starters: Most of these "artificial intelligence" programs are churning out images that are really just copies of art work by actual human artists without their consent or compensation.

Is it even possible to create AI-based, ethically sound images? One artist, who goes by the name "Milena Carbone", believes so. In real life Milena is a photographer who's shown her own work off in galleries, experimented with Second Life screenshots as a medium, and is now experimenting with generative AI.

The images you see in this post are from Milena, and by her lights, they're ethically sourced:

"It's impossible to avoid being influenced by an artist," she allows, "but this isn't specific to AI. When we create, we're always influenced by what we're attracted to, by the authors we admire, consciously or unconsciously."

To prevent outright copying, she declines to include artists in her Midjourney prompts:

Virtual Worlds Museum Crowdfunder Includes Donor Reward of Your Own Custom 3D Exhibit World Build!

The Virtual Worlds Museum - WebXR Exhibit crowdfunder on Indiegogo (which I'm proud to support as a sponsored partnter!)

The very top tier, Virtual Exhibit World Build, costs $11,000 but comes with a raft of benefits including your own custom 3D exhibit world build. This would be an ideal for, say, game/virtual world startups and marketers who want to exhibit their content in an immersive space. (And as I can confirm from personal experience, that offering alone would generally cost 2-4x more than $11K to commission from a development studio!)

The full details: