New World Notes

1st Feature Film for VR Created by 2 Metaverse Alumni

Banshee Chapter: Oculus Rift Edition is the first feature movie produced for the virtual reality platform (as Deadline Hollywood reported today), and the groundbreaking project was driven by two metaverse alumni: Blair Erickson, who directed the original, well-reviewed horror film starring Silence of the Lambs' Ted Levine, created experiences for virtual worlds marketing company Millions of Us (which did a number of Second Life projects), and Adrian Herbez, who worked at Linden Lab before moving on to Sony Home. Their startup Jamwix created the Oculus Rift conversion. (If you have an Oculus HMD, download the movie here.)

The film experience changes when it becomes VR, Blair tells me: "What it does is shift the observer from a passive watcher to a more active participant. the camera literally becomes your eyes," as he puts it. "And since you can look left and right, you begin to feel like you're actually inside the scene. The effect is powerful and transformative, even at this early stage of development. You can already sense that something very game changing is happening from this new medium."

The movie itself hasn't been edited to fit the VR platform, he says:

Help Wanted: DX Exchange Hiring In-World Staff

DX Exchange (a proud NWN partner) is now hiring paid in-world staff to help expand its Linden Dollar-real currency exchange service throughout Second Life, especially users who are fluent in both English and Spanish or Chinese. More details after the break. If you're qualified and interested, e-mail support at dxexchange dot com or IM the company's in-world representative (pictured here) MarcelEdward DX.

SL Go for iPad Gets a Horizontal Rotation Fix

SL Go for iPad just got a horizontal rotation problem fix, OnLive Project Manager Dennis Harper tells me, so you can not only stream Second Life to your Apple tablet, the image will flip around for you too. (The app will update for folks who already have the SL Go app.) Again, since we don't have an iPad at NWN, we're hoping readers who do own iPads let us know how SL Go is working for them. (Disclosure: I was briefly a consultant for OnLive earlier this year.)

Don't Panic: New Survival Horror Game in Second Life (If You Can Survive the Setup)

Don't Panic is an intriguing-looking survival horror game worth checking out this weekend before Halloween. First thing to survive: The long, involved technical setup instructions, which are still a necessary part of pretty much any interactive experience in Second Life. (But don't panic.)

Change Your Second Life Look on a Budget With This New Curvy Shape from NWN Partner Ample Avi

THROE, a curvaceous figure with a surprisingly sweet face, is a new release available this week from Ample Avi, a proud sponsoring partner of NWN. You can pick her up right now at Ample Avi's in-world store.

Ample Avi, in case you haven't heard, specializes in full-figured shapes for Second Life avatars (and does a pretty good job of it). Their latest is described by designer Xme Xue as a "Curvy Slim" shape, meaning that her curves are built onto a slimmer frame, leaving a voluptuous end result. Even better, THROE is both copiable and modifiable (like all of Ample Avi's shapes) meaning that you can apply your own face to the body or make variations to suit just about any ensemble you want.

I (Iris, of course) decided to model this shape with a Halloween-themed hairstyle from Lamb since Ample Avi is selling THROE for a mere L$100 until October 31st, only at their in-world store [SLURL]. If you miss your chance to snap her up at the discounted holiday price, you'll still be able to pick THROE up for L$1,800 in-world as well as on their Second Life Marketplace storefront. Whether you're a fan of full-figured avatars or looking to test the waters with something different, THROE's worth your consideration.

Learn About the Details Behind the Striking Design of Upcoming Game Firewatch

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

Firewatch is an upcoming game from Campo Santo, a small studio made up of a group of friends and industry veterans. Since the game is still in development material about it is stillpretty sparce, but this week they shared a post on their blog that is fascinating whether or not you've been following their progress. It's part two of a Twitter Q&A with fans where the developers responded to questions about the game's art and visual design, and it's an interesting look at what it takes to make a game look as striking as Firewatch.

There's a lot to take in (and some of the answers are admittedly a bit "inside baseball") but they're still an incredibly interesting read... Especially if you're looking for a little artistic advice yourself. For example, when asked if it's hard to design dozens of distinct rocks and trees, they write:

High Fidelity v. Interstellar: Should Virtual Reality Exploration Replace Space Travel as Philip Rosedale Hopes?

MIT's Technology Review has an in-depth interview with Philip Rosedale and a look at the latest update of High Fidelity, his next gen, Oculus Rift-compatible virtual world, which is starting to come with realistic graphics, and more dynamic avatar interaction. Beyond that, this passage in particular struck me, because Philip and I were recently discussing this topic, and I'm planning to explore it more:

"Why go into outer space when it’s more likely that by amassing computing resources we will create all the mysteries and unknowns and new species inside them?” he says. Rosedale says the freedom to explore and experiment inside a virtual world generates a “social force,” creating positive interactions between people that are impossible in everyday life–much like the Burning Man festival he attends each year. It’s a vision that betrays a touching if naïve faith in humans and technology. But it’s set Rosedale on a shared course with some of the biggest names in technology.

There's an economic case to make for this, to be sure, but the idea of space exploration going away makes me sad. I mean, just watch this:

Second Life Won't Make it Easy to Imitate This Real Life Trend, but Clever Designers Could Still Prevail

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

One of the most eye-catching RL fashion trends of 2014 seems to have been all but ignored by Second Life designers. Metallic tattoos, like the ones sold by Flash Tattoos (above) have become a staple on many fashion blogs and Instagram accounts, especially during the summer, but if you're searching for them on the SL Marketplace or your favorite virtual fashion blogs you'll probably come up empty handed.

It's probably unfair to say this trend has been "ignored". In fact this is exactly the kind of deceptively simple RL fashion that can be the hardest to replicate well in the virtual world, and here's why:

Fortune 500 Company Symantec Using Unattributed NWN Image of Unauthorized Dune Tribute in Second Life to Put a Poodle On It... So I Don't Even Know What to Say

So last week I noticed that Symantec, which is a Fortune 500 company, is using an image I shot in Second Life for a post about a user-created tribute to Frank Herbert's Dune franchise back in 2007, for a viral campaign on Twitter, which has something to do with a poodle fighting a sandworm. Now this would be fine except they didn't attribute the screenshot to New World Notes, which is not very cool (and against the Creative Commons license of this blog), but on the other hand, it's a virtual world news report on an unauthorized tribute. And in 2009, lawyers representing the estate of Frank Herbert sent legal notices to the Second Life users who were making all these Dune tributes.

So yeah, I kinda don't know what to say about the poodle and the sandworm (which was actually a virtual statue in Second Life, at least until the lawyers came calling). Except maybe this:

The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo is Not Your Father's (Brother's) Indie Horror Game

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

Everyone had that friend... Maybe a friend of a friend.... A friend of a friend of a friend (they go to a different school, you wouldn't know them) with an uncle who worked for Nintendo. They knew things, they'd seen things, they'd played things that you could only imagine. They could tell you how to get a level 99 Mew as your starter Pokemon, how to play as Zelda rescuing Link, how to save Aerith -- oh, did they forget to mention he used to work at Sony too?

It might seem like a strange premise for a horror game, but The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo is guaranteed to send a chill down your spine. Here's why: