New World Notes

SL Flickr of the Day: Adventures of a Mature & Stylish Avatar

MatildaSoon Resident's Flickr Stream wittily and stylishly subverts an unwritten rule of avatar representation in Second Life: Never, ever depict an avatar over 34. Matilda's avatar has seen a lot of decades in the virtual world, and defiantly keeps exploring with more energy than avatars half her age. Follow her adventures here.

Thanks to Isabelli Anatine for the tip!

Friday Open Forum: Plug Your Blog or Flickr Stream Here!

Post links in Comments, and the first ten I receive by 1pm SLT/Pacific, I'll feature here on the front page.

Update: Via Damian Zhaoying, this is a Spanish-language virtual world blog possibly worth a click.

Google Reportedly Developing Standalone VR HMD Despite Company's Limited Success With Cardboard

The VR investment news keeps coming:

Google is apparently working on a virtual reality headset that, unlike its Cardboard platform, will have no need for a smartphone — or a high-powered PC or gaming console, for that matter. The device will sport a display, cameras, and processors from independent company Movidius for head tracking, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing unnamed sources.

But like I just reported, Google's current VR headset, Cardboard, is hardly being used, and forecasts of massive VR growth are based on flawed or highly questionable assumptions. With Facebook, Google, and recently even Apple jumping full into a technology that has little evidence of being anything but a niche, I see ominous signs of epic industry-wide disappointment.

Virtual Reality's Best Mass Marketing Hook Delayed: Spielberg's Ready Player One Pushed Back to 2018

Virtual reality products are starting to hit the market this year, and the best chance to drive awareness of the technology beyond hardcore gamers and tech enthusiasts would have been Spielberg's adaption of Ready Player One, which is set in the metaverse.

Well it would have been, but in an ironic twist:

Warner Bros., the studio behind the tentpole, has moved the movie from Dec. 15, 2017, to March 30, 2018. Earlier this month, Disney moved Star Wars from Memorial Day weekend in 2017 to Dec. 15 of that year, pitting the box-office franchise behemoth against what is expected to be a grand Spielberg sci-fi extravaganza. The pic is set in a virtual world called Oasis, in which a teenager finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes after the game's founder dies and offers his fortune as the grand prize. Ready Player One will now open on Easter weekend, with the studio planting the film after the Winter Olympics in South Korea and before the commencement of the World Cup in Russia.

Return of the Rose: Deep Discounts on Second Life Avatar Shapes All Weekend at Ample Avi (NWN Partner News)

Valentine's Day is coming, and with it a sale at Ample Avi that promises to offer some phenomenal bargains.

As regular readers are hopefully well aware, NWN sponsoring partner Ample Avi is a Second Life shape store specializing in avatar shapes with natural proportions and measurements. There are a variety of shapes to choose from including curvy and plus-sized figures, more petite builds, and just about everything in between, ensuring that there's something that just about everyone can appreciate in stock.

So here's how the sale works: Much like last year's Valentine's Day sale, Ample Avi designer Xme Xue will be placing a rose on the vendor for one of her shapes at her in-world mainstore location in Pryeri [teleport link].

The shape with the rose on it will be discounted to just L$100 for a limited time, until Xme moves the rose onto another vendor and brings its price down instead, while the previously discounted vendor will return to full price. Considering that the average price of an Ample Avi shape (modify and copy enabled, of course) is L$1500 this sale is pretty dang substantial.

The event starts on Friday the 12th and closes on Valentine's Day, which should give eager shoppers ample opportunity (get it?) to duck in and out as Xme rotates the rose around her shop.

Of course if you're not in the market for a deal but would like to browse Ample Avi's line, be sure to check out what their Second Life Marketplace storefront has to offer.

SL Flickr of the Day: Lyndzay Meili & A Murder of Crows

Lyndzay is Queen of this murder, but she's also queen of composition and dramatic, dynamic shadow. Also, crow arrangement, an important skill set. Click to pic to embiggenate, click here to see so much more from Ms. Meili.

Technology Reporter Uses Virtual Reality to Recover from Chemotherapy, Joins a VR Studio Afterward

Why I Joined A VR Studio

Here's a moving Medium post by Drew Olanoff, a well-known and much loved technology writer who was wracked by cancer last year, was undergoing a painful, lonely chemotherapy regimen, when...

While chatting with someone very special to me on Facebook Messenger, I had a simple ask when we talked about how I felt. “Get me out of this fucking hospital room.” The response was a gift. A Gear VR and a Samsung Note 4. Virtual reality, not a new medium to me, or anyone else, had me hooked. I had the context. I had the problem that needed solving. Immediately, I took a calming stroll on Eden River...

I. Was. Not. In. My. Hospital. Room.

I know I've evinced a lot of skepticism over virtual reality hype in recent months, partly because it still seems like a niche. But I'm also convinced Drew's story expresses a very valid and important use case:

Second Project Sansar Screenshot Even Less Impressive Than the First, But Let's Not Harshly Judge It Just Yet

Ebbe, Ebbe, Ebbe, are you trying to drive us mad?

Team having fun creating another #vr experience in #ProjectSansar. pic.twitter.com/mW6PlMQzQj

— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) February 10, 2016

So this is a pretty bland example of a virtual world shot, certainly not as striking as the one the Linden Lab CEO posted last week. My first reaction, like a lot of NWN readers, was to think, "You could easily create as something that looks as impressive in Second Life in probably the same time." And then a thought occurred to:

Reddit's Second Life Community Searching for Interesting SLers for "Ask Me Anything" (aka AMA) Threads

All the details here. If you're already a Redditor, just go to /SecondLife and follow the instructions:

If you want to host an AMA about your SL experiences, you don't have to do anything special.. If there isn't an active stickied post, just go ahead and make your text post! Once you've done that, please message the mods to let us know your post is there, and we can sticky it.

Last time the subreddit ran an AMA, it led to a very interesting conversation. And I'm definitely planning to feature further AMAs here, so that's another incentive (or not).

3D Builders Seriously Skeptical of Project Sansar Screenshot

Well I thought Ebbe Altberg's teaser pic from Project Sansar last Friday seemed pretty impressive, especially since he said it was a scene that only took a few hours to create. Many NWN readers with more 3D building skills than me, however, were not - particularly "JohnC":

I don't mean to knock Ebbe really, he seems like such a nice guy, but... Short version: You mean it took a specially selected team of Maya artists and a brand new game engine to put out this vague hazy screen shot, that tells us little or nothing about anything, except maybe the people who produced it.

The long version is much more ranty, but still important to read, because these are exactly the kind of 3D content creators who need to get convinced Sansar is All That, especially against free competitors like Amazon's Lumberyard: