Space MMO Adds Custom Snapshot Tool With Customizable Presets, 360 Panoramics, Social Uploads

Space, the upcoming Unity 3D-based virtual world from Second Life and OpenSim pioneers (a proud NWN sponsor!) just added some fun snapshot tools for virtual worlds fashionistas and photographers to play with this weekend: A snapshot tool with user-customizable presets including WindLight-type filters, props that can be spawned into the scene, and text/image overlays (see below) for added coolness. Also, creators can sell their custom-made presets on the Space marketplace.

The photo tool includes the ability to record short GIF animations, and take 360 degree panorama photos (as below, by Spacer Nebadon) which can be uploaded to social networks like Facebook and Flickr. In fact, the tool comes with automatic upload support for Flickr.

“I have spent literally hours messing with it so far,” Space’s lead developer (and SL/OpenSim pioneer) Adam Frisby tells me.

“It’s a load of fun just mixing and matching all the various presets and options. We've also added some new ‘Fly Cam; camera controls which can be activated by pressing F4 (then holding right-click while using WASD to move around), perfect for lining up a shot precisely if you don't like the automated tools (that camera can also be used outside the snapshot tools).”

Create a free account here to play around with the tool, and post Flickr links below so we can all check them out. And as always, got questions for Adam and his team, post in Comments!

 

Comments

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Looking good. Only just noticed that you don't use virtual currency. Kudos. After SL, I'm never doing funny money again. Will have to check Space out soon.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

Dart:

actually, Space uses two forms of currency: Gold is a premium currency that is purchasable with real money and cashable back into real money on clearly defined terms (a fixed exchange rate either way, plus a 30% commission after processing and taxation amounts are deducted when the Gold is used as payment) . A second currency, silver, is minted solely by .Space. It has zero real monetary value, but still has value as an indicator of participation within .Space as the only way to obtain silver is to participate in quests and activities within .Space.

Any item on Space that is placed for sale may be made saleable only in premium currency, or ingame currency, or priced in both ways at a reasonable exchange rate. It's really up to the creator just what they intend to do with the object being sold - is it meant to help with actual upkeep on their Space committments? is it meant to just help people show off that they really wanted that item even though it was technically a freebie that only required time and effort inworld to obtain?

sine.space has a wiki. Do peruse it if you're interested in the system either as a visitor or as someone who might want to build actual content within it: https://wiki.sine.space/

[Just Say'n]

Well it's time to come to the darkside we have cookies...

Really since your working on the system avatar you should get a friend to do a few porn movies, if you want a communities to come to space, if you ignore the adult community your going to at least slow adaptation to space in the best case scenario.

Instead of attachments why not have the missing organs built into the avatar system?

Lets see some real rigging with the avatars, is it possible to rig sex organs for seamless interaction? like penis into the vagina realistically were they have real physical properties like the real world.

I could imagine details as deep as clits able to swell to arousal and realistic labia areas with physics property's but only space designer is able to make that happen for creators.

If you have been working on space ten years then launching it as anti adult platform you think it will help you from a business perspective? has it helped Sansar,High Fidelity yet?

By having system genitals controlled server side they would mandatory hide themselves in a PG Area then user would gain full control access back to them in a region for Adults.

New movies weekly from space to pornhub showing cutting edge avatar interactions and possibility could send a good chunk of new to VW/VR your way.

[Dartagan Shepherd]

@Patchouli: Ah, thanks.

Not a problem with game currency per se (especially the silvers), my angst was related to the liability games LL plays with their currency and not approving our cash-out limits on money we were legitimately earning that we were unable to get to. We had to close up shop because LL eliminated our ability to grow. Not to mention that no business on the planet plays games like this where you don't get your money in a timely manner.

Browsing the wiki and such now.

[Just Say'n]

Dartagan

I have finished my long term roadmap on what I would do outside of Second Life well the choices are limited with Sansar being another linden lab product alienating the user base from SL. while High Fidelity seems to completely dismiss anything old beta testers point out driving the platform forward without fixing important bugs..sound familiar?

Space sounds interesting and worth shot but seeing the same old opensim business avatar approach instead of a real live business man discussing his ideas sorta turns me off..well as in spending money that is a real life thing so Adam will only impress me if a well done Q&A is done in his real life avatar!

We know what both linden lab & high fidelity staffers present themselves in the public eye while also grasping the personality of who they are on a personnel level, so my expectations are the same with Adam and Space if that might seem unreasonable then Adam please explain.

Want me to spend a few hundred real dollars on your platform then provide more reason for me to do so from a technical level to a business level in the contexts of real world promotion.

Have you been in front of a real camera lately Adam that those of us curious could watch it to learn deciding better? if you have please offer a link, without all the info some of us are feeling we are again making a leap of faith while not fully able to grasp everything due to incomplete info.

I consider these the hard questions from my own experiences to ask after losing a few thousand dollars in Inworldz that was run off a modified version of Opensim Adam was a founder of.

[Dartagan Shepherd]

@Just Say'n: Well, I'm certainly cynical, and I don't know much about Opensim other than playing with it here and there.

While it would be interesting to know more about Adam, I do know from his longevity that he's not going anywhere.

And I have to say that the management page of Space lists some decent business talent.

[Adam Frisby]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delays in answers, I'm on my phone only this weekend, so I may have to be briefer than usual (will be back properly tomorrow!); But let me see what I can answer quickly for you all.

Okay so currency first; as other comments show - we do still have a virtual currency, however we are trying to simplify things - buyers buy gold, sellers get paid USD on a fixed ratio (see wiki and dev website for full terms). We thought that the whole currency market thing was a waste of everyone's time, and leads to a lack of transparency for creators. This way it's easier for us to do accounting and much more straight forward for creators.

Re: adult content, despite the assumption it's banned, it's actually not -- we're still clarifying how we handle maturity, but we have started discussions with partnering with someone to work on establishing proper adult verification, and content restrictions. If you're interested in making adult content, please contact us and we can fill you in in more detail.

Now on the somewhat flattering topic of myself -- I will be upfront; I haven't been infront of a camera for a while, plenty of mics though lately. (I used to do the rounds at the various VW conferences as a panelist and speaker, but there hasn't been one of those for a while...)

My last in person appearances were at GX Australia as part of our exhibiting in May, and my next will be Unite Melbourne and possibly PAX if you're in the area and want to meet; but I am accessible if you want to chat - I have a standing offer to all our developers that I can be reached most hours of the day directly.

As I'm in Sydney, it can be a bit of a hard task meeting in person, but I have met with some of the local creators here - and do show up in person to present to local unity user groups.

If you want to hear me chat virtual worlds on record, I've been on Drax's show twice recently (archived on his website), Mal Burns as well, talking for at least an hour on each (also archived); I also host office hours in space each week if you want to hear my thoughts on things. I'm happy to make the next interview I do a video chat if that helps (host willing!), because I understand the need to know who you're dealing with, and if that helps, great.

(You will have to Google for the above interviews - sorry!; I'm worried I'll lose this answer tabbing to another page on my phone...)

I think the mention of our management link is a good one, take a peek over at sinewavecompany.com -- we are a established UK company with history, our management pages should give you some idea of our investors and directors. Some of the names on there are recognisable outside of virtual worlds industry which hopefully help establish our bona fides more properly; but ultimately -- if there's a question you have on anything, I am more than happy to answer, so please feel free to leave below or if you like; contact me directly -- [email protected].

[Adam Frisby]

Just a quick one, but here's my interview with Drax last month, also has my prior talk as well;

https://draxfiles.com/2017/06/17/show-154-spaced-out-again/

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Good interview, sound reasoning. Glad to see you're not chasing the VR rabbit.

Looking good so far, but whoa, super sensitive right-click cam in the web client. Will have to try the dedicated client if time permits today.

And I just bought two mini Aussie pups. I take my omens where I can find them.

[Adam]

Heh thanks - yeah - I'm still somewhat skeptical of VR being mass market any time soon (maybe next year, but I think more realistically we're still 2-5 years away) - we're ready when it happens, but until then, as a company we have to pick what we focus on, and with only a few users, it makes more sense to focus on social features first.

Re: the mouse sensitivity - yep! I've had a task open for about two months to sort that out as on some machines it is indeed, way too sensitive (currently it's somewhat resolution dependent, which really isn't ideal), we are fixing it in the next release cycle with a setting for sensitivity.

[Better then Ezra]

10 years of Opensim pushers trolling SL trying to poach residents.. now will we have another decade of Space residents trying to do the same... after all the same mastermind of both.

Adam Frisby or Kinggoon.. both have spent over a decade destabilizing SL with paper messiah platforms or viewers.

meh..pass

[Adam]

Hey Ezra,

Heh, little hard to respond to that, but do you really want no alternatives?

There's plenty of room for competition in the virtual worlds space, and to this date, none of the majors has ever shut down (hell, ActiveWorlds is still running, 22 years later!) - the best growth in features and functions has been when there's been real competition. SL blew the pants off ActiveWorlds, which in turn did better than it's predecessors.

Yes, absolutely -- we're hoping to do the same -- but people don't move platforms without a good reason, and history shows that VW's keep carrying on, much longer than most people expect them to.

[Spicy Caldwell]

@ Adam, got the spamming notecard from the sinewave Bot who teleported into the Apollo sim over the weekend screaming to everyone to come join space, so betting that's blowing the pants off linden lab by you guys right?

Ezra is right, this seems to be one man's decade long fight to destroy some other communities world,if your world is so good people would find you not the other way around.

[Adam]

Hi Spicy,

I just checked with all our staff then, this is the first we've heard of that - you can be assured we did not send anything like that in any official or staff capacity, and I would encourage you to please report anything like that for spam. That kind of thing is not OK, and I am saddened that our name is attached to it. We do not encourage our users to spam on our behalf.

If you can give me some details on the incident, I can see if we can trace back who is responsible (if it is one of our users) and request them to stop; but first and foremost I would encourage an abuse report first.

I am not interested in destroying other communities, especially not one which I spent many years in, and still have many friends there - I am interested in trying to build a next-gen virtual world and evolving beyond prior limitations; but I do not want us to get there by spamming or other underhanded means. I will be making an announcement to our users on our policy regarding that.

[Adam]

(Just for reference, I have made an announcement in our forums which also appears on our login screen, with our policy on spamming and solicitation. You can read that here: https://forum.sine.space/threads/spam-solicitation-policy.17094/ - if you can provide me with more information on the incident in question, I would like to pursue further.)

[Moonrise Azalee]

I'm really enjoying Space. Still a bit rough on my laptop because of my cruddy graphics card, but it runs it far better than Sansar and I can't run high fidelity at all. Some of the places I have visited in Space have rivaled Sansar most definitely, but Space is more user friendly and it feels more accessible to the average person.
The only thing that would make it perfect (imo) is an easier way to create a world. There is a 'home' you get but it feels like a skybox because you can't go outside and really make it immersive.
For people who would like to bring their organizations there, having an easier ability to create an immersive space would be nice.
I was really glad to come back to Space and see what seemed to be an improved stability, more furniture with animations, more merchants, and more events. Very awesome.