New World Notes

Want to Work on Your Second Life Dream House This Long Weekend? Here's a Virtual Decor Blog With Dreamy Ideas

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

NatG’s  [Hippo Ihnen] blog LJUS features a lot of decor with her fashion and it’s the kind of open and airy decor I love. In “September, My New July” she is referring for her clinging to summer by the sea and not to climate change. The post includes three pictures, but I was drawn to this by the pontoon raft. Ours was homemade, as this one appears to be, from old barrels and we would anchor it about thirty feet off shore. I spent countless hours enjoying the sun and diving off the raft. She has credits for everything from the trees to the flipflops on her blog.

•  Scarlet Creative  Hoxton Ground Version - Wood Top Floor
• ..::THOR::.. Floating Raft - ULTRARARE 

For serious house envy, click here:

I Seriously Doubt Apple Will Put Out Its XR Headset Next Year. Here's Why

Citing The Information, Mac Rumors has a report that gives me some serious red flags:

The first AR/VR headset that Apple has in development will need to be wirelessly tethered to an iPhone or another Apple device to unlock full functionality... It will be similar to the WiFi-only version of the Apple Watch, which requires an ‌iPhone‌ connection to work. The headset is meant to wirelessly communicate with another Apple device, which will handle most of the powerful computing...

TSMC is manufacturing the chips that will be used in the headset, and mass production is said to be at least a year away. The first AR/VR headset could be released as soon as 2022, but the launch could also be pushed back if work on the device is not completed in time.'

Emphasis mine, because I'd be vastly surprised if Apple put out its headset next year. Or even the next next year. Here's why:

Our Payment Systems Are So Bad, Making the Metaverse Might Mean Moving to Blockchain Systems (Which Have Problems of Their Own)

'I'm blogging Matthew Ball’s must-read, nine part metaverse primer over the Summer; my take on Part 1 (introduction to the framework) is here,  my coverage of Part 2 (hardware) is here, with Part 3 (networking) coverage here, Part 4 coverage (computing) here, Part 5 (virtual platforms) here, and Part 6 (open standards) here.

Part 7 of Matthew Ball’s Metaverse framework, on the challenge of payments facing the Metaverse, is the most daunting so far, veering into some thick if necessary weeds to hack through. If I had to summarize the whole thing in a single sentence, it would go something like this:

The payment options we have to deal with are so inefficient, unfair, and monopolistic, we may never get a Metaverse worth the name unless we switch to a blockchain-based system -- even though that has problems of its own.

To break Ball’s case down into more detail (with some analysis of my own):

• Current/traditional payment systems incur transaction costs and time delays.
• Virtual world-based payment systems, built on these payment methods, are even more costly and slow.
• At the same time, distribution platforms (consoles, Apple, etc.) lock in consumers and developers while hitting the latter with high fees, while also locking out payment competitors. (This is, by the way, starting to change.)

With mobile so dominant, and so necessary to achieving mass market growth, current Metaverse platforms end up paying most of their money to Apple and Google Play. For instance, while ROBLOX’s revenue sharing deal is reportedly harsh for their creators (especially as most of them are kids), the company itself takes a huge hit from Apple:

Cajsa's Choices: Moody & Stylish Avatar Portraits by Lika Cameo

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

Lika Cameo’s “...a little bit yours” is a beautiful black and white picture with striking chiaroscuro contrast. The white is so bright many of the details, such as the quilt fabric, are blown out while the shadows are strong, bold, swathes of black across her body. It has the feel of a sketch, often achieved with filters in PhotoShop, FilterForge, Gimp, or a plethora of online editing tools. The subtle use of depth of field adds to its emotional effect, keeping your eyes on her face that expresses such melancholy. 

For more moody melancholy, click here:

Paintings by A.I. Artist Instantly Earns Nearly $250,000 in NFT Sales

Pictured: Art by "Alejandro" on Open Sea

Update, 9/2: Clarification via August Rosedale: The $250K worth in sales mentioned in this post were not directly, as originally reported, from art by AIs Alejandro/Taylor -- they were "created" by Rosedale's new AI artist crypo-native, "a truly digital artist creating dynamically evolving art pieces in numerous styles." However, he adds, "Alejandro and Taylor did entirely sell out a couple days before the crypto-native release I think due to excitement for the crypto-native project."

So I told you about "Alejandro", an AI personality who is "creating" works of art which entrepreneur August Rosedale is then selling as NFTs, but here's the wilder thing: 

When August put art by Alejandro and his AI artist colleague "Taylor" up for sale this Monday, via his Mirage Gallery, nearly 1000 copies were sold near instantaneously. [Note: See clarification above - WJA]

"The full 920 piece sold in 5 minutes, which was absolutely insane," August reports to me now.

At their current value in Ethereum, that translates into $85,000 USD -- but that's only the start, because many of those works are then being resold: "Meaning someone buys one (or got one of the 920 from me) and then has sold it. Combined secondary sales have almost reached 40 eth ($148k) which I get a 10% cut of."

So within a week, total sales for art created by AI are now nearly $250,000.

Even August is stunned:

Sannyのおすすめバーチャルワールドニュース : 2021年8月 Sanny Reports For Virtual Japan

Sanny Yoshikawa が、New World Notesのなかから、毎月おすすめのバーチャルワールドニュースを日本語で紹介します。

Sanny Yoshikawa covers the monthly virtual world highlights from New World Notes for virtual Japan.

 

 

Second Life Gachas Are Gone But Gacha's Legacy Goes On -- Resales Still a Top SL Marketplace Category With Nearly 900K Items

As of today, gachas are officially banned in Second Life (with some gacha fans going over to gacha-like games), but don't expect the legacy of gachas to disappear anytime soon. Checking the Second Life Marketplace now, nearly 900,000 items are still listed under the Gachas category (resales of various gacha items and collections, etc.) 

That's huge:

Artist Makes Second Life Look Like Pre-Raphaelite Paintings & Film Noir Stills

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

Nathali’s untitled picture of mermaids reminded me of the pre-Raphaelites who painted a lot of mermaids. Blogger/writer/model Grace Nuth shared her opinion at the “I Am a Mermaid” blog  on the mermaid obsession of the Victorian painters claiming that on one hand, painting fairies and mermaids was how they could paint nude women and still create respectable art. However, she thought the pre-Raphaelites obsession was different, a combination of fear and fascination that led them to “represent women in their art as symbolic figures, powerful mythic creatures, sorceresses, and yes, mermaids.” Selinda Absinthee, the woman in the picture with Nathali also took an excellent picture but one with a completely different mood from different lighting. 

For more of Natali’s stunning work, click here:

Second Life Hit By 3 Hour+ Unplanned Downtime; UPDATE: All Services Reportedly Restored After Nearly 5 Hours Offline

Update, 4:04pm: All services reportedly back online as of 3:57pm PT, i.e. nearly 5 hours of downtime. I'm currently logged into SL.

A major unplanned Second Life downtime was officially reported at 11:14 AM PT today and as of this writing at 2:30PT PT, access still seems to be interrupted across major services. (I just tried to load the Marketplace website, for example, but it hung forever.)

Go here for more updates from the official status page. If I'm reading the @SLGridStatus feed on Twitter correctly, this is the longest unscheduled downtime of Second Life of the entire year.

More updates here when I have them!

Linden Lab's 2001 downtime image by Bub Linden. They really ought to reboot it for times like this!

Artist Recreates Famous Francesca Woodman Photo Entirely in Second Life

Violet Evergarden may be dissatisfied with this homage to artist Francesca Woodman but I love it and think it is an excellent recreation of Woodman’s famous untitled work -- view the original here. 

Writes Violet: “The picture has been made entirely in SL, the background textures taken from the photo directly and then pasted on SL objects to recreate the room. It was not an easy process and I'm not happy with how it turned out, but it is the start of a fun project I feel.”

For more stunning photos, click here:

Philip Rosedale on Clubhouse Bringing High Fidelity's Metaverse-Driven Spatial Audio to the Massive Audio Chat App

Hear ye, hear ye 🔊 spAAaAaAatial audio on Clubhouse!

It's like surround sound, but w/ your own headphones. A more vibrant, human experience! Plus makes it much easier to tell who's talking.

thanks to @juberti for this one 👏 rolling out now on iOS, Android coming soon! pic.twitter.com/Zit6F9ijRK

— Clubhouse (@Clubhouse) August 29, 2021

Here's some Metaverse news that requires your headphones for the full effect (click the video above):

Clubhouse, the seriously popular audio chat app  -- it counts at least 10 million weekly active users -- just integrated Philip Rosedale's High Fidelity spatial audio:

High Fidelity’s HRTF technology, which stands for “Head Related Transfer Function,” maps speech to different virtual locations by subtly adding a time delay between stereo channels and replicating the way that high and low frequencies would sound entering the ear depending on a sound’s origin. The result, long used in social VR, gives virtual social experiences a sense of physical presence that good records have been pulling off for ages. Think listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in stereo with good headphones but instead of sound effects and instruments playing around your head, you’re hearing the people you’re hanging out with arrayed in virtual space.

"If people are going to talk in groups online, they are going to need to use spatial audio to understand each other," Philip Rosedale tells me, shortly after the announcement dropped. "We've put in 8 years (so far) working on doing spatial audio right, and are super happy to have people in the Clubhouse community now able to take advantage of this experience!"

This is the latest, fascinating plot twist in Philip's Metaverse ambitions, originally borne with the founding of Second Life, then re-emerging in his latest start-up, High Fidelity, which was originally founded as a Metaverse company. (Before, that is, pivoting in 2019 to focus on this spatial audio feature).

But where Second Life and the original High Fidelity struggled for mass adoption, it's finally been achieved, if only through spatial audio:

Top 7 Posts Last Week Including: How Communities Can Create More Open Metaverses, Inside Horizon Workrooms' XR Mapping System & How a Real Life Family Was Borne From a Floating Galaxy in Second Life

• This New VRChat World Is Created By Someone Whose Game Worlds Are So Popular, She Now Makes A Full-Time Living Via Fan Donations
• The Metaverse Can't Develop Like The Internet Since It Doesn't Have Open Standards -- But Metaverse Communities Can Help Change That. My Take On Matthew Ball’s Metaverse Primer, Part 6
• Inside Horizon Workrooms: Oculus Vet Jim Purbrick On Mapping Real Offices To Virtual Spaces -- And How His Team Used It During The Pandemic For Their Own Meetings
• This Artist Turns Second Life Into Frame-Worthy Art Photos With Witty Titles
• Sub-Orbital Galaxy Still Floating Above Second Life After 14 Years, Still Inspiring Virtual & Real Communities
• Portrait Of The Artist As A Young A.I.: Rude & Pretentious Art Magazine-Style Questions For "Alejandro"
• SL Gacha Creators Scramble To Create Gacha-Like Systems Without A Gambling Mechanic Before Linden Lab's September 1 Deadline

This New VRChat World is Created by Someone Whose Game Worlds Are So Popular, She Now Makes a Full-Time Living Via Fan Donations

Kitchen Versus Kitchen is a zany new world game in VRChat (click here to play) from a mysterious developer known only as Jar. Her hit VRChat worlds are so popular, they account for roughly 1 in 10 of the virtual world's total user activity, and are more popular than most VR games made by established game companies. (Seriously: More on that below.)

This new game, as you might imagine, takes its inspiration from solo/local co-op cooking games which seem ideal when translated into a social VR setting. 

"I've played games like Overcooked and Diner Dash before and really enjoyed them with friends, and since VRChat is a social game it just seemed like a natural fit to do something similar," she tells me. "Also game mode aside, there was (and still is?) just an overall lack of worlds with cooking activities and everyone loves cooking, myself included."

As is screamingly apparent from the trailer above, the race to cook the right recipe in time quickly leads to all kinds of culinary mayhem. Getting all that to work in VRChat on a technical level, says Jar, was no easy job:

Great SL Fashion Beautifully Shot With the Black Dragon Viewer

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

Val Cloud’s blog Dear Inventory is full of great posts featuring her own products with other people’s creations. I was completely taken by the pose. Look at her hand holding the strap. She didn’t credit the pose, but that is probably because she uses the Black Dragon viewer which has such powerful in-world pose tools. She has a tutorial here but I don’t speak Portuguese. She has a separate blog for her store Guapa, so she does not over-promote in this fashion blog.

Click through to her post “Sienna” for additional details or below: 

The Metaverse Can't Develop Like the Internet Since It Doesn't Have Open Standards -- But Metaverse Communities Can Help Change That. My Take On Matthew Ball’s Metaverse Primer, Part 6

I'm blogging Matthew Ball’s must-read, nine part metaverse primer over the Summer; my take on Part 1 is here,  my coverage of Part 2 is here, with Part 3 coverage here, Part 4 coverage here, and Part 5 here.

As with previous parts of the Primer, Part 6, "Interchange Tools + Standards and the Metaverse" delves into just how difficult making a Metaverse worth the name will be. Because while many say the Metaverse is the Internet's next generation, the actual Internet was launched by academics and government researchers who valued open standards. But the major companies/platforms which are likely to launch the Metaverse are very much closed, for the most part:

All of the video games console operating systems, which are required to use console hardware, have chosen not to support open or third-party rendering API collections, such as OpenGL or WebGL. Instead, Microsoft Xbox exclusively uses Microsoft’s DirectX, while Sony uses its GNMX for PlayStation. Mobile devices typically support multiple standards, but they often restrict (or outright block) access to many drivers, which helps drive developers to their proprietary offering. PC and Mac are more open, but they’re optimized for Microsoft’s DirectX and Apple’s Metal APIs. As a result, a developer’s software needs to be written specifically for each platform’s ‘standards’. Fortnite needs to use Microsoft’s DirectX for Xbox, and Sony’s GNMX for PlayStation, Nvidia’s NVM for Nintendo Switch, and Apple’s Metal for iOS. Only Google’s Android has built its solution around OpenGL, but one could argue its dominance with Chrome and Chromium controls these standards for the web.

GPUs also have their own flavor of these protocols, too. Nvidia’s drivers are effectively a ‘platform’ that developers utilize to access a PC user’s hardware, working in concert with Microsoft’s DirectX, for rendering.

But if companies like these want to keep their standards closed, their customers, unified, can demand otherwise. As Matthew writes, the runaway success of Fortnite caused gamers to clamor for the chance to play together with their friends on other devices -- and their clamor grew so great (as did their threats to take their eyeballs elsewhere), even proprietary AF Sony finally complied:  

Inside Horizon Workrooms: Oculus Vet Jim Purbrick on Mapping Real Offices to Virtual Spaces -- and How His Team Used It During the Pandemic For Their Own Meetings

Last week's launch of Facebook's Horizon Workrooms garnered a lot of guffaws due to its sheer Zuckerbergian much-ness, but beneath the VR-for-office meetings platform is some impressive tech.

On his blog, Jim "Babbage" Purbrick (who helped lead development of Workrooms)  goes into detail on a key Workrooms feature -- virtual mapping of the user's real meeting location/surroundings:

[Workrooms] shows you an entirely virtual environment, but asks you to indicate the position of real world objects like your desk in a process which feels like a more detailed guardian setup process. Workrooms then positions your avatar in the virtual world so that your real desktop aligns with your virtual desktop.

When you reach out and touch the virtual desk your hands touch the real desk. As long as the important virtual objects within arms reach are mapped to real objects, the virtual environment can be much bigger than the available real space while maintaining the illusion that every virtual object can be touched as well as seen.

Jim (who left Facebook late last year) allows that this is not the type of set-up you want to be strapped into for your entire day: "Currently you wouldn't want to use a Quest all day," as he puts it. "But you could easily attend several typical hour long meetings a day without feeling uncomfortable."

Throughout the pandemic, the Oculus group developing Workrooms would actually use their own platform to hold meetings:

This Artist Turns Second Life Into Frame-Worthy Art Photos With Witty Titles

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

Heidi Rewell gives her pictures the best titles on Flickr. I mean, even if they were not good pics, you would want to look just for the titles. But they are good pictures, so bonus! 

Take “Did you know that? Some unicorns like to dress up as horses.” She sets her horizon one-fifth of the way up, leaving the sky to fill the picture using the unofficial rule of fifths. The horses are nearly hidden by the tall grass but that seems appropriate when they are unicorns disguised as horses. 

For more beautifully illustrated facts, click here:

Sub-Orbital Galaxy Still Floating Above Second Life After 14 Years, Still Inspiring Virtual & Real Communities

Photo credit: Susietea Resident via Inspire's Flickr Group

Twelve years ago, Bonny Greenwood was floating in outer space on an asteroid doing tai chi to trance music when she struck up a conversation with a friendly passerby. (As one does.)

Then again this is a common thing to happen in Inspire Space Park, a suborbital galaxy that’s been floating high above Second Life since at least 2007 -- created, as the founders told me back then, “to make the perfect ‘chill’ place in SL that wasn't about sex, or ads”. (Watch me twirl above the galaxy below.)

It’s still orbiting above the virtual world, I am happy to report, and has very recently expanded to include an earthbound fantasy forest and steampunk-themed park. Click here to visit yourself.

It was co-created by Earth Primbee, and as a testament to the community that’s developed around Inspire Space Park over its lifespan, he is still after all these years able to cover land tier costs from donations:

“It is the feeling one gets when the music and scene combines,” Primbee muses to me. “Maybe you are dancing, doing Tai Chi, meditating, or orbiting and find that moment where it all comes together. It is a peaceful feeling. People need that and the people have insured it stayed. Became a home of sorts. A place where many have met for the first time. A shared place for them after.”

Inspire’s original co-creators have since moved on, and Primbee himself has largely turned over operations to three women. Which brings us back to Bonny, among the triumvirate of the galaxy’s new managers:

Upland Now Attracting Over 100K High Active Unique Players for Its Blockchain/Tilia-Backed Virtual Real Estate MMO

Last month I estimated that Upland, the blockchain-backed mirror world real estate trading MMO, probably had about low-to-mid six figures of active users; now here's a pretty good data point of users who actually play Upland long enough to buy virtual real estate in it. A very active Upland user sent me the data above,  drawn from up2land.com, a player-driven analytics site.

"[T]hese numbers reflect only the UNIQUE players making transactions each month," my source tells me, "Either Sales, Accepted Offers, or Minting properties. It does not reflect the total number of players -- there are many [who] might go months without making a transaction - and some players may be counted each month. But it does give an indication of the trend of the game."

 

So unique players defined on those terms have ranged from 54,000 to 102,000 in recent months. My source suspects the dip in May is attributable to less advertising during that month. But these numbers likely do not include a lot of new users just playing around with the free-to-play game's starting money:

This Artist Creates Some of My Very Favorite Second Life-Based Images

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

Tooku Fadlan’s “Amrun” may end up my favorite picture of the year. When I saw it, I just said, “Wow” before sitting there looking at it for I don’t know how long. I love the moody lighting from the moon through the clouds. Or should I say moony lighting? I love the shadow of the fence creating this parallel set of leading lines diverging as the land rises and falls. It is just magical. 

For more, click here:

Portrait of the Artist as a Young A.I.: Rude & Pretentious Art Magazine-Style Questions for "Alejandro"

Above: Art created by an AI called "Alejandro", and the AI-generated photo of "Alejandro" 

I told you last week about "Alejandro", an AI personality who is creating works of art, which entrepreneur August Rosedale is then selling as NFTs.

But just how much of a personality does Alejandro actually have? Skeptical that the Turing Test pretense would come crashing down pretty quickly, I sent several questions to August for him to ask "Alejandro". But rather than just pose random generic queries, I asked them as if I was a pretentious a-hole freelancer writing for a pompous art magazine, challenging the AI on his authenticity as artist, whether he's an AI sell-out, and, of course, about having sex with his human groupies.

Here's our unedited Q&A:

Watch: Profound Chat About Living With Cerebral Palsy IRL Via a Wailugi Avatar in VRChat (Syrmor's Latest)

"I think of this whole disability as one joke that God put on me... I don't think I would be the person I am now without this disability. It's helped my perspective on the world."

Here's the latest interview from Syrmor, the Toronto-based embedded reporter in VRChat, in a characteristically surreal and zany yet but also profound interview with someone who speaks about their real life through the safe distance of their avatar -- in this case, a wheelchair-bound British guy with cerebral palsy and a Wailugi avatar. After a good natured North American trolling (referring to football as "soccer" never fails to enrage a Brit), Syrmor's questions evoke powerfully honest answers from "benjiboi420" about his life online -- questions that would be socially difficult to ask or answer in another context. 

Dramatic Still Lifes of Virtual Hipster Bikes in Second Life

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

Vanka Machiavello’s “Art is in the eye of the beholder” caught my eye as I was browsing Flickr with its simple red, black, and white color story. I love how the red on the wall seems to bounce back and color the street. I love the grittiness of the textures in the brick and the bike. It seems to tell us a story without even having an avatar to convey the message. 

To see what other stories bike can tell, click here:

SL Gacha Creators Scramble to Create Gacha-Like Systems Without a Gambling Mechanic Before Linden Lab's September 1 Deadline

Image/system by dazai voom

With Linden Lab banning Gachas in Second Life at the end of this month, " irihapeti" and others have noted the rise of Gacha-ish systems like the one above:

Many professional gacha machine makers have developed conveyor machines ready for the 1 September rollout date.

Those that haven't will have to close down their gacha operations.

The basic conveyor machine will display an item from the set. When the customer purchases the displayed item, the machine will 'randomly choose' the next item to be displayed. Customers can buy it or not as they please.

The items in the conveyor machine can be NoCopy Transfer.

So basically systems like this are Gacha-like, except without a completely randomized reward aspect that made Gachas so popular, and also a form of gambling. (And also, for many, so fun.) It also looks like a direct response to a question fielded by Linden Lab in its original announcement banning gachas:

Top 7 Posts Last Week Including A ROBLOX Exposé, A Classic Virtual World Design Book Goes Free & Surprising Constancy of Avatar Gender Choices

• XR Pioneer Sees Facebook's XR Plans As Trojan Horse Threat To Society
• ROBLOX Exploiting Young Game Developers According To Startling Exposé
• Jim "Babbage" Purbrick Brings His Second Life-Based Work Experience To Help Develop Facebook's Horizon Workrooms
• Surprising Gamer Study: Avatar Gender Preference Remains Unchanged For Over 20 Years -- And Very Few Female Gamers Choose Male Avatars
• This Artist Shoots SL Avatars In Beautifully Minimalist Compositions
• Is NFT Art Created By An AI More Valuable If The AI Artist Is "Real"?
• Richard Bartle Releases His Classic Book Designing Virtual Worlds For Free Online -- Here's His Guide To The Sections Still Most Relevant Today