New World Notes

Want to See How Resource Heavy SL Mesh Bodies Really Are? Use Black Dragon's Advanced Complexity Tool

Above -- human avatar with Maitreya body, polycount total circled

My report earlier this month that some of the top-selling mesh bodies in Second Life -- such as Maitreya, Belleza and SLINK -- are extremely resource heavy, and degrading SL performance for everyone around them, has caused a lot of conversation. Many readers claim the polycounts being reported can't possibly be that much. So here's an easy way to check for yourself:

Download the acclaimed, graphics-optimized Black Dragon SL viewer, then select Dragon > My Useful Features > Performance Tools > Advanced Complexity Window. As you can see above, the Maitreya body here uses well over 100,000 polygons.

How much is that? By contrast, a character in Red Dead Redemption 2, the latest AAA hit, has polycounts estimated in the 40,000-60,000 polygon range. (Here's a handy site showing character polycounts for other top AAA games with high-end graphics.) 

You want to see something insane? Here's a Belleza body with over 500,000 polygons:

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Pick Of The Day: Carisa Franizzi's Storm-Shrouded "Lost"

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

"Carisa Franizzi's 'Lost' had me wondering if it is first life or Second Life. It's Second Life. She even thoughtfully provides a SLURL." (Click here to teleport.)  Here's the composition elements which make this image so strong:

"We have three sets of leading lines, the tracks, the power lines, and the fence that all bring our eyes to the couple. Now, most people would crop the picture so the couple is not so near the edge, trying to place them according to the Rule of Thirds or Fifths, or the Golden Ratio. Instead, they are right at the edge and that increases the emotional effect of being lost, off-track perhaps. With the blur and the snow, it feels so real and emotionally powerful."

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog. 

Even If You Skip Welcome to Marwen You Should Definitely See Marwencol

You may be wondering if you should see Robert Zemeckis' new movie, Welcome to Marwen, partly because it seems to take place in a kind of avatar-inhabited, World War II-themed virtual world that the hero, a man brutalized by fascist thugs, builds as a way of helping to heal. (Virtual world fans on my social media feeds have noted the parallels to Second Life.) Rotten Tomatoes strongly suggests you should give it a hard pass. But I can definitely recommend that you see Marwencol, the documentary and the real story that Zemeckis' movie is based on. As I wrote back when that indie movie came out:

Cassie's Clips: Cutie Collective's Holiday Ho Ho Hunt for SL Bargains -- And Bringing Back Mainstore Events!

NWN Cassie Middles has a peek at the Cutie Collective's new holiday-themed hunt for bargain shoppers in search of great content -- and as she puts it, aims to help reverse a worrying trend in the Second Life economy:

"Ho Ho Hunt is an amazing hunt to the grid that is bringing events back to the mainstores. There's been a slight epidemic lately where stores really only make profit at major events, making it hard for their other products to be known, making creators constantly only work on deadlines for projects, and feel pressure. I'd love to see more hunts like this that might help people relax, help new people discover stores, including the fact that new SLers can find cheaper items to make their avatars look updated and wonderful."

Click here to directly teleport, and look for this storefront to get started:

Watch: Adorable Bird in VRChat Flies from Korea to Meet Fellow Avatar in Canada, Proves Power of VR to Create RL Connections

Remember the VRChat bird in military fatigues who enjoyed Kanye and shared sad stories from his time in the South Korean Army? Watch this new video for a great update perfect for the holidays. The VRChat YouTuber who met and interviewed him, Syrmor, helped arrange a real life meeting in Canada, and it's the latest illustration of how virtual worlds can connect people across borders. (Especially when karaoke is involved.) It's also a concrete anecdote for why VRChat continues to thrive among all other social VR competitors: 

 

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Pick Of The Day: Serene Footman's Cheeky Winter Image

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

"First, I probably should protect my reputation by pretending I 'got' this immediately, but I didn't. It caught my eye with its simplicity, the flat ice sheet and the sky unbroken by trees or foliage. I look more closely and suddenly laughed so hard. It is one of those feel-good pictures that just makes you happy. I think your enjoyment will be enhanced if you don't look at the title until you take a good look at the photo." (See the title and larger version here.)

"The photo is by Serene Footman whose photostream is full of experimentation focusing on surreal photos like these and landscapes that fit right in the Hudson River School. It also works as a photo. We like photos with odd numbers and we get them two ways, as there are 7 subjects in the photo and three groups.

"This photo is also part of The Paper Crown Pass challenge: A paper crown is passed to people who must then use the crown in every picture for an entire month. You can see how people met that challenge in the challenge group."

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog. 

Instagram Game by an Augmented Reality Expert: Guess If an Image Posted to Her Stories is Real or AR UPDATE: Answer Revealed!

Here's a fun, weekly mini-game on the Instagram of Dr. Helen Papagiannis, an influential author and speaker on the topic of Augmented Reality. As suggested by the screengrab here, you have to guess whether the image posted every week to her Stories is a real photo or an Augmented Reality screenshot. After 24 hours, she reveals which category it actually is; good chance you'll guess wrong.

"My game Real or AR was inspired by just how good Augmented Reality is getting and the double takes I found myself making, as well as the influence AR and the digital was having on the real physical world," she tells me. "The game became a way to share my research and love for AR — as well as art — with a larger audience in a fun game. It’s been awesome to watch the game grow and to play it with people around the globe both on Instagram and on stage in my keynotes."

As with the real or virtual human web quiz I posted awhile back, aggregate answers to previous Real or AR games from Dr. Papagiannis have been wildly off base. 77% of people guessed that this image was AR (but it's real), and while many thought this image of a mesh building was AR, it's made out of actual wire mesh.

I'll update this post when Helen reveals this photo's ontological substrate! I'm personally guessing Real, but a high tech Evil Deceiver may be flimflamming me.

Update, 12/19: Answer is now available below - it may surprise you!

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Pick Of The Day: Anita Witt Shoots Cica Ghost's "Lullaby"

Cajsa Lilliehook on Tuesday's image of the day, which may seem like a still from a new Pixar movie, but is actually from metaverse artist Cica Ghost's latest installation, "Lullaby" (direct teleport here): 

"So Anita Witt's timeline is full of pictures that are instantly recognizable by their rich, saturated colors. Recently she shot a series of pictures at Cica Ghost's new installation 'Lullaby'. All of the photos are great, but this one really catches my eye."

Many more eye-catchers here.

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog. 

Does Epic Not Linden Lab Better Deserve the Title of Metaverse Builder?

Second Life is a predecessor of Epic's Fortnite, which is fast evolving from a battle royale shooter to a full-fledged virtual world, all of which leads JohnC to make this observation:

Well, as much as I love and will always be an SL addict, I have to say, that if ever there were going to be a company capable of bringing Ready Player One into existence, it would be Epic. No other company comes close when it comes to support and dedication to its player base. I got Unreal, the game, the day before it was released way back in the late 1990's. I got it only because of the editor that came free with it. For me it beat the hell out of the Quake editor that looked like an architects nightmare. Epic were always on the side of the artist, the creator, and they still are. As much as I would hate it to my core, if one day some creation of Epic killed of SL, then I would at least feel that in my heart, the far superior, truly player-aligned company won.

It's very true Epic has always been a strong supporter of user-generated level modding and other UGC. (Fortnite itself evolved into being from an internal game modding jam.) JohnC's comment reminds us that the idea of building a metaverse is not just a dream of technologists like Philip Rosedale, but has very much been a goal of many game developers for decades. Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka had a pretty extensive background in game development before coming to Linden Lab -- he even lead developed a fantasy battle arcade game which once sat in Linden's lobby! -- so it's not surprising that he was the main point person who showed off Second Life to game developer colleagues who ultimately went on to create Fornite.

Speaking of which, notwithstanding JohnC's distaste of the Quake editor, it was also intended as the precursor for the metaverse. Read this classic Wired article from 1996:

Top 6 New World Notes Posts from Last Week: How Second Life Helped Birth Fortnite, Why VR Headset Sales Aren't "Rebounding", and Much More

• Cassie's Clips: How To Improve Your SL Performance Despite Heavy Mesh
• "You'll Fly Too": The Unseen Second Life Installation Of The Acclaimed Artist Known As AM Radio
• Why Fortnite's Most Unexpected Predecessor Is... Second Life
• Watch: Text-To-Speech App For Voice-Free Communicating In High Fidelity
• With Slow Sales, VR Headset Market Still Not Having Meaningful "Rebound"
• Sansar's Appearance On Steam Adds A Few Hundred New Users Or So