New World Notes

Lost Gardens of Apollo, Classic Virtual Destination, Returns to Second Life Under Linden Lab Ownership

Following a tip from from SL Newser, I'm now flying in a restored version of the soaring Lost Gardens of Apollo, a classic Second Life sim which went defunct around 2011, due in part to the real world housing crisis. It's now back under a new owner with a Linden Lab avatar name, and is listed as "The Lost Gardens of Apollo Historic Build". So if you haven't visited it before, or you have, and missed its absence, click here to see it in its new incarnation. 

I've contacted Linden Lab and Apollo's original creator, Dane Zander, for details of this apparent acquisition. Dane did offer to sell it to the company five years ago, but reportedly got no offer then. (Linden Lab does occasionally buy great but defunct or soon-to-be-defunct sims, such as Svarga, the island ecosystem, so they can remain in-world.) And Apollo is definitely historic, created a full decade ago, years before mesh or fancy prims, its high towers and swooping lines showcasing Dane's great artistry building with basic primitives. (Below the break, what it looked like in 2006.)

Back in 2011, Dane described the labor (or maybe torture) of love he went through to keep it open as long as he did, without compromising its appearance -- a painful case study on the challenges of succeeding in a virtual economy driven by profit and consumerism:

Say Hello to Skye, a Brand New Gift Shape from Ample Avi for Second Life Avatars (NWN Partner News)

The Peace on Earth Hunt is an institution in Second Life—not only because it's precariously close to having run for a decade, but also because it has many contributors who have been with it for just as long. NWN sponsoring partner Ample Avi is one such longstanding participant, and this year those who drop by their mainstore location in Pryeri [teleport link] during the month of December will be able to pick up a brand new POE shape for free. 

Named Skye, this shape for vanilla SL avatars has a sweet face that pairs well with just about every skin I tested on her. While Ample Avi specializes in full-figured avatar shapes for the most part, designer Xme Xue says that she designed Skye to be a little more "middle-of-the-road". Not to tall and not too short, not too big and not to small, Skye has just enough curve to her to give gift-hunters a good idea of what Ample Avi's all about without being too dramatic in any one direction. Skye also comes mod-copy enabled like Ample Avi's full price shapes, meaning that she can be tweaked and adjusted as much as you like without overwriting the original shape in your inventory.

Peace on Earth Hunt runs from December 1st to December 31st, so even with all the seasonal commitments that often come with the month there should be plenty of time to snap Skye up from the Ample Avi mainstore [teleport link]. But if you do happen to miss the window Ample Avi's storefront on the Second Life Marketplace still has a few evergreen freebies that are absolutely worth picking up. 

In San Francisco This Thursday? Attend Samsung Gear VR's Killer App Contest With Philip Rosedale & Other VR Experts

RSVP here, details below. If you're coming, let me know in Comments, and I'll try to say Hi during the event!

Join us at 7pm on December 1st at The Upload Collective in San Francisco for a night of cool demos and refreshments, where our panel of expert judges will select the grand prize winner of Samsung’s Gear VR Killer App contest. High Fidelity’s Philip Rosedale, Samsung’s Paul T. Kim, XEODesign’s Nicole Lazzaro, and Upload’s own Taylor Freeman will be on hand to judge and select the winner. Attendance is limited -- RSVP soon!

More about what the judges are looking for in a killer app here.

Flickr of the Day: Pics from New "space" Virtual World

You've read about "space", the new cross-platform virtual world from Second Life alum, now here's the official Flickr pool where you'll find pics like this, a new area that lead developer Adam Zaius/Frisby built, he tells me, last Sunday afternoon. "I didn't make all the parts though," he allows, "it was more of a assembly job than 100% original work."

Still, pretty impressive, no? Compare and contrast with this Sansar space also built in a few hours.

NWN Alum Rikomatic Remembers the Late Great Sharon Jones, His Friend & Occasional Dance Partner

Rik "Rikomatic" Panganiban wrote a moving tribute to beloved soul singer Sharon Jones, who left us after a long war with cancer earlier this month. That might not seem like something you'd usually read in a blog about virtual worlds, but the thing is, Rik used to write for New World Notes. And when he wasn't writing about events in Second Life, he'd often be breakdancing or lindy hopping or some combination of the two, which is how he wound up dancing onstage with Ms. Sharon Jones on a regular basis -- even at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem. Rik is someone I often mentioned as defying the stereotype of what a virtual world geek was supposed to be, so it's fitting that his experiences at Sharon Jones shows remind us what virtual worlds can be at their best:

$50,000 Startup Challenge for Women in VR & AR

Great challenge for VR/AR developers who have at least one woman as a co-founder:

The Challenge, in partnership with Craig Newmark of craigslist, the Craig Newmark Foundation, and sponsored in part by Fred and Joanne Wilson, will award $50,000 in cash and other startup friendly services at Google in NYC on February 15, 2017. (Prizes subject to change.) Startups in the AI, AR, and VR field with at least one woman Cofounder can apply to this challenge. The 10 best applicants will be selected to pitch their startup on stage in front of our distinguished judging panel of investors and hundreds of attendees at Google in New York City on February 15, 2017.

The only hitch: Submission deadline is December 12, so if you're interested in applying, better start soon.

Top Four New World Notes Posts from Last Week!

• Can High Fidelity & Sansar Win the Social VR War?
• VR Therapy for Dementia - Hope It Gets a Social Add-On
• What Philip Rosedale & Other Experts Look for in a "Killer App" for Virtual Reality
• Why Do Virtual World Companies Rarely Build Virtual Worlds?

New World Notes' Thanksgiving Weekend Open Forum

Still going through leftovers - the floor is yours!

Can High Fidelity & Sansar Win the Social VR War?

Upload VR's Alice Bonasio has a good write-up of the increasingly crowded market for new or upcoming social spaces optimized/solely intended for virtual reality devices that local favorites High Fidelity (from SL co-founder Philip Rosedale) and Sansar (from Linden Lab) are competing against. They include:

• "Altspace VR is betting that the future of VR experiences will center around communications, and its CEO and Founder Eric Romo believes that Google’s Daydream will be the catalyst for that to happen on a large scale.
• VR Chat "already has hundreds of fully fleshed user-created worlds. The next step is to make that creation process much more social and accessible, giving users clear and easy ways to share that content."
• HelloVR, which is creating a 10,000 square-mile MetaWorld described as the first-ever massive, physics-based virtual social space of its kind. It exists in a shared space, populated by all its members, with each member having their own private “volume” where they can decorate and create whatever and however they want."

Interestingly, none of the competitors are as technically or conceptually ambitious as High Fidelity, or approach High Fidelity's level of avatar realism and expressiveness (see above). And based on previews, that also seems to be true of Sansar, which also seems to have the best overall graphics. None of the competitors (far as I know) have plans to create a virtual currency-to-real currency market like High Fidelity and Sansar.

The real question though, is whether graphics, expressiveness, ambition, and commerce are what will carry the day:

VR Therapy for Dementia - Hope It Gets a Social Add-On

Easily among the most powerful use of cases of VR I've seen:

The project began when Tribemix Managing Director, Alex Smale, wanted to help his elderly neighbours to get outside after becoming isolated due to disability, “Our nearby residents, Stan and Dulcie, are 99 and 94 years old respectively. Over the past two years, we watched them go from active people walking into town to do their shopping, to losing their confidence and never leaving the house. When we began developing in VR for our commercial clients early this year, I thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could take Stan and Dulcie to the beach?’. So I created a virtual reality experience to do just that. This led to a conversation with a friend at Quantum Care. They were fortunately very forward thinking, and understood what we were trying to do. The results have been amazing and it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever been fortunate enough to do.”

Next step, seems to me, is to add a social VR component, ala Second Life/Sansar/High Fidelity/etc. To wit: