There's a new update to Firestorm VR, a Second Life viewer for virtual reality headsets, from developer Peter Kappler (links available here on his YouTube page). It includes some fixes and improvements to the open source project from since I first blogged about it last month; specifically new mouse and keyboard controls (as you'll see in the video above) plus better performance: "Stereo should look smoother now", Peter tells me.
And while Second Life is over 15 years old, he believes the VR experience his viewer offers is better than what you'd get in leading social VR platforms:
"Honestly if you go to other VR worlds you will find out that the worlds and avatars are not so complicated," as he puts it to me. "I bet if you build a sim properly and use proper avatars you can make SL look like VRChat -- even better. I saw some avatars that were looking pretty realistic in Second Life which I've never seen in VRChat."
How accurate that is, I leave up to brave early adopters who want to give Firestorm VR a try -- here's some instruction tips and advice from Peter:
To start, you'll need to download and install the popular third party Firestorm viewer for Second Life, then install the compiled version of Peter's code (link here), launch it, run SteamVR, and wear your HMD headset -- should be compatible with Vive, Oculus, and Windows Mixed Reality.
Oh, one more tip from Peter: "Not to go to sims where you FPS is under like 30." Slower frame rate, sad to say, is pretty rampant in Second Life.
Questions for Peter? Post comments on his YouTube video, or below!
Wow made me sick.
But Second life and opensim works great with VorpX. Use it every day.
Posted by: cyberserenity Vella | Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 12:58 AM
Nothing about Second Life was made for VR. The avatar motion will make you want to puke after a few minutes, and since all that's serverside, nothing can be done about it.
And even if we had a 100% working VR view, you'll never be able to move your arms or legs around and have other people see it. It's not VR except in raw technicality only... not worth it.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Saturday, March 02, 2019 at 02:14 PM
Well in a nutshell, SL will never be "Oasis" as in the movie Ready Player One. The irony is, that the tech as shown in that movie, many of them are happening although not at a consumer product level YET, it is being worked on quite aggressively. Haptics & feedback are essential for the full immersive interactive environment. Consumer level products for this type of tech will most likely be on the shelves by no later than 2025. Some breakout type of tech in this line is already available albeit quite limited for now.
What can / could SL do ? The legacy platform has it's problems and that is, the code has too much legacy material in it. Their platform would require a massive refactoring and re-engineering to accommodate it. It IS possible but this would be a costly exercise no doubt. The alternative is to build something from the ground up while having consideration for the legacy platform... The capabilities such as scripting, building objects / devices / products "in-world" and such are things to keep in my opinion.
SL/LL needs to get with the program, have regular areas and have adult only areas... They should also maybe reconsider the Gambling Aspects (Ohh I felt folks cringe at that idea) but much has changed in the past decade, especially in regards to online gambling... It IS a cash cow and LL could realize this by updating the platform to the current level of 21st century tech and could / would drive further development.
Given the latest in in software development suites (Even Visual Studio 2019) 3D rendering tech, VR/AR tech is accessible and expanding. Additional libraries & resources are available today which were not even conceived of <5 years ago. Ideally a Web Viewer capable of either 2D or 3D rendering which has an open interface for AR/VR devices (not brand locked) would be ideal. SOME SAY BUT - Sansar & HiFi... yep, okay, sure... ages in the pot and stale before being served. Darn Shame that LL missed the boat and failed to buy Cloud Party" which Yahoo bought and promptly killed.
Posted by: WhiteStar Magic | Thursday, March 14, 2019 at 09:48 AM
I have been trying out Peter's Firestorm VR setup on Oculus Rift, and it works pretty well... some notes and resource links at:
http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2019/08/12/firestorm-vr-resources/
Posted by: Ai Austin | Monday, August 12, 2019 at 06:01 AM