Watch Philip Rosedale Demonstrate the Latest Build of High Fidelity's Massively Distributed, Multi-World Metaverse

Recorded earlier this month at the NeuroGaming Conference in San Francisco, here's Philip Rosedale answering the question "What is the Metaverse?" with High Fidelity's answer: A massively distributed network where every user can have their own virtual world on their own server. If you want to cut right to the demo, it starts around the 24th minute:

I actually find the voice chat the most impressive thing in this demo, conducted with Skype-level low latency and, well, high fidelity. I do recommend watching Philip's whole talk, because I think it leaves unanswered a fundamental question beyond "what is the metaverse?"

That is, why do we even need a metaverse at all? Beyond "for playing online games", Philip mentions education and physical therapy, but I'm not convinced there's evidence we need a full-on metaverse for those use cases? Maybe I'm being a curmudgeon, but often think the implicit answer to my question is actually, "Because it was so totally cool in Snow Crash, The Matrix, and Ready Player One." If you have a better, less flippant answer, dear NWN reader, I'd love to read it.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, my fellow Americans! (And happy regular weekend to everyone else.) Back on Tuesday.

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Comments

[cyberserenity]

It is one of the pieces we need to save the planet. Another part of human evolution. Virtual reality will expand the human mind beyond what we could ever imagine.
Thats why i am still in the game.

[Masami Kuramoto]

Ironically, such a "massively distributed network where every user can have their own virtual world on their own server" is nothing new but has been around for years. And even though it is based on SL technology, using the same familiar interface etc., it has largely been shunned by the SL community.

The lesson to be learned here is that the whole idea of a truly distributed metaverse is even less popular than virtual reality in general. It's a niche within a niche. But why is that so?

It is because the concept of freedom (in the sense of being no one's slave and no one's master) is not entertaining at all. It's not a coincidence that the most successful virtual world to date is one that replicates the social structure of medieval Europe: a walled garden with a king (CEO) ruling over a collection of fiefdoms run by landlords and populated by peasants, traders and outlaws (thieves, griefers etc.). That is precisely the game aspect of Second Life which is so often ignored or claimed to be absent.

[NETVERK]

Generally, I think the Metaverse concept is antiquated and well, pointless. The one point I can find in a metaverse is to make experiencing things in VR more 'frictionless'. This is why I have optimism in Sansar, as LL are seemingly aiming for content creators for the alpha and have mentioned it being more akin to Unity in purpose. The idea of having a networked world of Unity games, streamed instead of having to download 300+mb files everytime is cool.

This is different to HiFi, which just seems to want to be Second Life, but better. The alpha test base of HiFi has been SL veterans, who are ok, and often content creators themselves, but something about what LL said about Sansar seemed to suggest they wanted indie developers or something to alpha test.

I'm quite skeptical of HiFi's odds of ever becoming mainstream.

[joe]

Really the only legitimate need for a virtual world is to develop movies and games.

Too bad little Phil and Skipper Eggbert are not bright enough to grasp that.

-joe

[Nebulosus Severine]

The notion that SL is all about (or, only good for) fashion/shopping and RP is getting pretty old. There's lots more to virtual reality than that, and I'm pretty tired of people being too intellectually lazy to acknowledge that simply because they can't be bothered to see what's there besides the superficial sort of activities.

I believe that the Metaverse is still an invaluable and unique way for people to socialize in a way that other social media can't provide. It is an avenue for social intimacy that can promote emotional connections. As someone who is a bit introverted & socially awkward, I have met more people, and have made more (and better!) friendships, through Second Life, than I could have in the real world. When people reach adulthood I believe it's often harder to make new friends, but Second Life opens up a whole new avenue for that.

Not to mention that people are still meeting and collaborating for art in SL. Some of the best and most profound art I've made or experienced has been in SL. This sort of community is made possible by the virtual world interface.

I truly think the virtual world is valuable to help us augment the relationships we pursue online. Nothing that has come along yet can really replace VR this point.

Also, I shudder at the thought that the next gen of virtual reality that might exist primarily to focus on commercial content that is produced by a few elite. One of the best things about SL is that content creation is available to all residents. That's the way it always should be. The ability to shape one's world is extremely important to the notion of becoming embodied in one's avatar. And, becoming embodied in one's avatar is the key to truly staying rooted in VR, and for them to continue to be engaged in a virtual world for many years. Anything less than that level of experience is just a game -- something to be experienced for awhile and left behind.

[irihapeti]

@nebulosus

i think youre maybe mixing up being invested in the world with being invested in your avatar

SL to me is a game. A game of dolls in a world of dolls

that others might find more (and often do) for themself in this game is a good thing and I am happy for them that do, but this doesnt make it not a game for me

I am invested in the game tho, the world it represents and the history of it. I got 1000s of hours in this game. And 1000s more to come. I dont have any affinity with my doll tho. I just like playing with it

[Already gone]

When i see the new linden project i see things differently then some
In the new world i will not only taking my identity and linden dollars but many of the same trolls,grievers & stalkers who for the last 3 years has made my life very unhappy forcing me to play landmark the last 6 months instead.
in a new world i want that undiscovered country with the noobness experience long since missed not some perfect second life replacement because for some of us with how communities and other residents treat each other,second life has already lost us.

a few things to compare
High Fidelity an open alpha and open source that's not hiding anything while encouraging new developers to help.
linden lab starting alpha with only hand selected residents [likely the ones they just bragged about making the most money].
E.Linden has already stated the spaces in the new world will be around 4x bigger while high fidelity you could create miles & miles if you have a computer to handle it or you rented a cheap server [ minecraft servers are a dollar a day if reference needed]

Whats so out in the open that no one sees..Linden lab is not going to lose any profit in new world
with creators being taxed 30% while new land pricing will be 30% cheaper so a current $300 dollar region in second life its conventicle will $200 while they get that extra $100 back thru taxing merchants.
bottom line old residents will see 2007 pricing they always wanted back while the wealthy creators will foot the rest as a tax on the rich.

High fidelity you want a new feature for everyone to use then script it or have a friend and in even the new linden world you might submit suggestions but that will mean nothing if they do not like it.

high fidelity is open source with plans of not only Philips high fidelity hub but soon we can take the software when its more mature and create our very own independent version to have our freedoms to create endless dreams.

New linden world will not have a mainland while high fidelity you can look up into the sky one day and touch a shiny star with your finger then in the blink of an eye be there.

Second Life residents will have to make choices between 3 worlds or some would say only 2 old and new, but those masses of people who are putting off high fidelity might be surprised in another year how far it comes along so for those putting it down just at least giving a chance to see what beta looks like down the road.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

High Fidelity's audio is almost but not quite good enough for real-time music jamming with people across the globe. It may at this point be better than trying to play in a marching band formation spread across a football field... without a conductor.

[Metacam Oh]

Masami are you really suggesting that a closed garden is what people want? Sorry but no.