New World Notes

Play It This Weekend on Steam: Betrayer, a Visually Stunning FPS That's Immersive Even in Black and White

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

It felt like Blackpowder Games' eye-catching first-person shooter Betrayer appeared out of nowhere earlier this month, when its early-access beta went up on Steam. The developers behind it have previously worked on titles like FEAR, No One Lives Forever, and Gotham City Impostors, so the game isn't without a pedigree either.

Even though it practically emerged from the mists, Betrayer's stark visual style has turned a lot of heads (mine included). When you come across it in a lineup like Steam's new releases it's nearly impossible not to stop and take a closer look -- it's utterly gorgeous. You could practically print out a screenshot and hang it on your wall without anyone suspecting your new conversation piece game from an independent first-person shooter. At the same time, that first OMG impression sets the bar quite high, and not all games could live up to that. What good is a gorgeous game if it falls flat everywhere else?

It's still too early to say if Betrayer will manage to pull it off, but here's why playing the early access version of the game has given me high hopes:

What Second Life Got Right Where Others Don't: Presence

My friend Mitch Wagner of Internet Evolution has some good Labor Day weekend reading about what Second Life got right, among the many things it got wrong:

Once hailed as the future of the Internet, Second Life is now retro, like manual typewriters and vinyl records. Yet it attempted to solve a problem in Internet relationships, both business and personal, that still needs a solution... What Second Life gives you is the illusion of a shared experience in the same place and time. People around the world can log in and experience an event as though they were together. Services like Facebook and Twitter don't give you that, even with real time updates and notifications. When I'm chatting with a friend on Facebook, it's painfully obvious that we're in different places.

Read it all here. Mitch isn't any random Internet pundit, but was once SL's biggest booster and hosted a lot of in-world events, so his negativity now is credible -- as is his argument that SL gets presence right in ways that haven't been otherwise solved. I do disagree with him somewhat on one point:

First User Feedback of Second Life Experienced Through Oculus Rift: Dev Kit Owner "Impressed, Amazed and Stunned... Really Sick After 15-20 Minutes"

Jo Yardley just published what is (I think) the first user experience of the Oculus Rift in Second Life, which now has a third party viewer that integrates the virtual world with the virtual reality goggles. It's from German developer Björn-Christian Bönkost, who has a Rift developer kit for a simulation project he's built in Unity. He gave the SL viewer a spin in Yardley's virtual recreation of Berlin in the 1920s, which he describes as "bigger than anything you can find as a demo for the Rift." He shot that YouTube video above. He tells Yardley the experience in virtual Berlin left him "impressed, amazed and stunned", and here's why:

The presence and immersion in the environment is one of the strengths... nothing stands out or breaks the suspension of disbelief.

Bönkost has only used Second Life occasionally, so the fact that he was so impressed seems to confirm my thought that SL+Oculus Rift is an ideal marriage of tech that could become the killer app for both. This isn't to say it's a perfect marriage, at least not yet, because Bönkost also notes the difficulty of connecting the virtual Rift experience with user chat, and more concerning, the difficulty of staying immersed for so long:

Believe It Or Not, There's Much More to Saints Row IV Than Dumb Fun

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

I love games that feel like a handmade Christmas card. I love games that make me think and games that make me feel and even games that make me an utter wreck when I've finished them. This is probably why I'm so drawn to indie games, where that kind of experience is much more common than it is in AAA titles; things feel thoughtful and crafted, and they suck you in. But... I also really like just screwing around, laughing at dumb gags, looking totally awesome, blowing things up, and leaving a swath of destruction in my wake. There's nothing wrong with a little cheap, mindless fun. After all, it's all the seemingly meaningless experiences that make the meaningful ones mean even more.

That said, would you believe that Saints Row IV is a surprisingly good marriage of these two very different facets of gaming? I know, I was surprised too.

Lumiya SL Viewer for Android Mobile Adds WindLight Support

There's a new update to Lumiya, the popular third party Second Life viewer for Android phones and tablets (download on Google Play here for $2.95), and it's full of light: WindLight, to be exact, SL's atmospheric renderer, which Lumiya creator Alina Lyvette just added basic support for. The screenshot above is how Lumiya displays a Second Life day; after the break is a screenshot of what it looks like during SL nights, beneath a glowing moon.

“WindLight support is obviously limited,” Ms. Lyvette allows to me. “In general, the design goal was to make it look reasonable with default WindLight settings on the mainland – like, day should be brighter than night. I didn't attempt to reproduce complex atmospheric effects (fog, scattering, etc. etc.)” Those effects aren't available at this stage, but she does plan to add support for parcel WindLight, so users can control the day/night settings for their home.

As with previous versions of Lumiya (which I've blogged about before), this represents a major leap in Second Life technology for mobile devices, which Alina Lyvette is almost single-handedly driving forward. (For years, consumer attention and dollars have been shifting inexorably to mobile as desktop and laptop sales plummet, but SL creator Linden Lab has done little or nothing to support mobile for its core product.)

At any rate, here's more of what the new Lumiya does (and doesn't do) with WindLight, straight from the creator's e-mail to me:

Gacha Fever: Here's What I'll Be Looking Out For At The Arcade's September Gacha Event in Second Life

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

With the September round of The Arcade's Gacha Festival starting up this weekend, designers have started sharing peeks and promos of what's to come. As always there's plenty to look forward to, from the weird to the wonderful, and I've already singled out a few favorites.

Oculus Rift-Compatible (Albeit Crippled) Second Life & OpenSim Viewer Released

HyperGrid Business has news of a third party viewer that integrates the Oculus Rift VR headset with Second Life and OpenSimulator worlds: The latest viewer update from CtrlAltStudio’s David Rowe, which you can get right here.

The viewer has limited functionality with Second Life: "This is a preview viewer, which can be used to walk and look around inside the virtual world, but is missing user interface functionality." But Rowe deserves credit for getting the VR ball rolling, especially ahead of Linden Lab, which promised a Rift-compatible viewer by the end of this Summer, which ends in like 6-7 days. (Nudge nudge, Lindens!)

According to HGB's Maria Korolov, the viewer's early tests indicate that the SL user interface doesn't play nice with the Rift:

Iris Wants To Know: Where Have All The Virtual Gowns Gone?

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

One of the most recognizable Second Life stereotypes is a female avatar with red lips, smokey eyeshadow, and one hell of a space-devouring ballgown envelloping her. I used to see these gowns all over the place, in stores and on avatars, sources of ire at events... But these days it seems like the craze has died down, or died off completely.

Top Six New World Notes Posts from Last Week

• Blocksworld Becomes Top 3 iPad App, Beats Mobile Game King Candy Crush Saga - Linden Lab Finally Found a Hit Besides Second Life?
• Celebrate Monthly SL Fashion Event Collabor88's Second Birthday In Jazz Age Style
• Cloud Party Adds Free Customizable Spaces, Social Sharing
• Blocksworld Making Pretty Good Money for Linden Lab -- Here's Why That's Good for Second Life Too
• Love and Hate: Explore the Rise of a Doomed Dynasty in the Sequel to Christine Love's Analogue: A Hate Story
• New Singularity Viewer Lets SL Creators Convert & Export Their Prim-Based Works to Unity 3D & Other Top Platforms

Celebrate Monthly SL Fashion Event Collabor88's Second Birthday In Jazz Age Style

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

It's a good weekend to catch up on this month's Collabor88 lineup if (like me) you've been putting it off for far too long. The August collection, produced by more than 2 dozen designers to celebrate Collabor88's second birthday, is heavily inspired by the fashions of the Roaring '20s. There's a pretty broad array of items on offer, from furniture to hairstyles and everything in between, but this month's Collabor88 also happens to features quite a few ornate tops and dresses like the ones from Tres Blah pictured above, which are definitely at the top of my shopping list. Paired with some of the decadent jewelry and fresh-faced skins also available, you'll have an avatar worthy of hanging around with Jay Gatsby himself.

You can check out all that Collabor88 August has to offer in this handy gallery on Seraphim, or visit the event in-world to see it all in (virtual) person. Just don't procrastinate too much longer -- Collabor88's doors will be closing to prepare for the September round in just over a week, and many of these decadent designs will be gone for good.