How to Create Great Virtual Spaces: Design for Feeling, Believability, and Hyper-Realism (Comment of the Week)

Last week everyone was talking about the jaw-dropping Angel Manor as depicted in the machinima below, and fortunately for all of us, the creator of both the machinima and the Manor stopped by NWN to discuss how he created his acclaimed sim. Kaya Angel's comments are such a master class in creating virtual architecture, I'm highlighting them here (with some light editing on my part):

VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURE CHANGES HOW SOCIAL INTERACTION

"I often think and SL structures are used as a means of providing an environment to give a little context to social interaction. So if you go to a ballroom to dance with a friend the ballroom is simply a hint in the back ground for you to then dance and chat. The building its self only plays a small role. I differ from that in that I love the power architecture has to not just provide a context for a social interaction, but if done right a building can enhance social interactions. And bring a whole new level of how you feel in the space. This is my own personal experience. Being a living building that feels real changes how you live in a space and how you use the space when it comes to interacting with people."

As Kaya goes on to argue, the old prim-based approach to building in Second Life has held back more ambitious builds like his:

DARE TO BUILD WITH THE LATEST GRAPHICS FEATURES

"It's very easy to understand that basic buildings have dominated SL because of the practicalities of prim limits and that complex buildings can often mean more client based lag. I am finding though that more and more people can now see SL with advanced lighting on. Taking into account how old the original base of SL code must be I think they have done really well to add the graphics features they have! And I always feel that they push for the next level even before people have managed to catch up. An example would be 'screen space reflections'. I love this feature and it only comes on with Ultra setting, but it has been a real visual treat for me.

DESIGN FOR VIRTUAL HYPER-REALISM

"I should add that the comment about [the reader comment about] specular being too much may not take into account the context of the theme. The intent is not to be totally realistic. I believe there is a balance that is important in SL. If you make something too real then people compare it to RL which breaks the illusion of SL. If you make something too surreal then the person can't find anything to connect with and relate it to the real world. I always aim for a hyper-reality. It's a balance where you still let buildings adhere to things like the laws of physics and make sure the building looks structurally sound but you don't make is so real and to scale that its not practical for an avatar to move around. The key is to make it so you feel in a real space but your imagination is still free to let you be there in your mind.

"Angel Manor is not meant to be totally real it's meant to be more like a Disney dream palace. There for the amount of shine added is done on purpose to make the place sparkle like a dream. So I think the new Normal and Specular map can really look real you just have to play around with them until you get the level you want."

See more of Kaya's machinimas of the manor on his YouTube channel.

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Comments

[Connie Arida]

Too many repeating textures for my taste.

[Canary Beck]

I’ve been thinking about the concept of fidelity in virtual worlds for some time now, and Angel’s comment above compelled me to articulate how I make design decisions, when it comes to virtual places – because I think that Angel and I see things somewhat similarly. I wrote a post on this subject inspired by Angel's comments contained in this post, about how we might categorise virtual places by how real and fake they look and feel.

[Canary Beck]

This is the link: http://canarybeck.com/2015/01/28/a-model-for-categorising-virtual-places-in-second-life/

[Iggy]

The old prim-based system permitted educators to work well with student builders. As I articulated many times when I still taught with and about SL, the opportunity costs were low enough to bring in newcomers. With 3D modeling programs, however, collaboration in-world goes. That was a key draw from edu folk even with the clunky permissions system.

Not that it matters now since educators are no longer a "halo" user in SL or to LL's plans. Those wanting collaboration in virtual spaces find Minecraft more than robust enough or have migrated to self-hosted OS grids (with their own huge set of technical hurdles).

[zz bottom]

Linden Lab buid a tool that worked so much easy then any other to create 3d objects.
it is called Second Life.
Others even manage to make it work for converting them in mesh.
(be in world converters or tpv features).
Yes Off world tools like blender and much more, can do a better job then building in world, but where is a tool as easy to understand and besides that lets you communicate with others at same time then SL (or open sim).
Is SL 2 is serious business, let LL be remembered, SL is not only a virtual chat room, can be so many things, even one of the most amazing building tools that exist. Take advantage and make even better for Sl 2.
But in order to do that, make sure the SL2 Tos is a clear as Sl Tos should be and still lacks.