New World Notes

Watch: Stadia, Google's OnLive-Type Game Streaming Service, Unveiled

As promised last year, Google is unveiling its 3D game streaming service at GDC right now -- meet Stadia:

Data centers make Stadia possible, but what sets the system apart is how it works with other Google services. In a world where there are more than 200 million people watching game-related content daily on YouTube, Stadia makes many of those games playable with the press of a button. If you watch one of your favorite creators playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey, simply click the “play now” button. Seconds later, you’ll be running around ancient Greece in your own game/on your own adventure—no downloads, no updates, no patches and no installs.

In other words, like the late-lamented OnLive, but with the world's largest global server network to back it up. And as with OnLive, we will almost certainly see virtual worlds like Second Life and future worlds using this service. Perhaps not coincidentally, Second Life co-creator Cory Ondrejka is now Tech Advisor to the CEO at Google.

Live unveil at GDC after the break:

VentureBeat Features Sinespace's New All-in-One Virtual World SDK Now in Unity Asset Store

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi has an in-depth post on the launch of the Sinespace SDK as an official Unity Asset Store Partner, which the proud NWN sponsoring partner is announcing this week. Key grafs:

The Sinespace SDK includes key features for rapidly creating AAA-quality games, including Build Kill Repeat, an open source, fully modifiable combat system, and content from top Unity vendors and Sinespace partners Dexsoft-Games (3D Models-Textures), Gaia, and Archimatix.

The Sinespace SDK instantly optimizes 3D experiences for play on PC, Mac, Linux, Oculus, Vive, Android and WebGL. (Support for iOS and consoles coming soon.) Unlike other open game worlds, Sinespace is architected to fully update all content with every Unity update.

Developers can upload and sell assets from their existing single-player games — or use them in new multiplayer titles. For instance, when Warren Spector made a special guest appearance in Sinespace, his team uploaded 3D models from his latest Unity game into Sinespace.

“I’ve been developing virtual worlds since I was 12,” Frisby said. “Twenty years later, I believe this is finally the start of a metaverse worthy of the name.”

Read the rest here. Here's a video tutorial for customizing the Build Kill Repeat combat system:

I Came to Second Life Looking for Cybersex; I Stayed for Creating & Community (Comment of the Week)

Amid all the talk about Adult content in Second Life (helpfully illustrated by Nylon Pinkney), Cindy Bolero makes an important point:

This is the reality: Many, if not most new users heard about the sex, log in, and are looking for it. It's up to greeters at venues or attractions to understand that. You can be mean and ban them, or you can tell them to open the search window and/or suggest an ideal Adult place to go.

Why be helpful to these rude characters asking for sex? Because some will eventually get over that curiosity and become customers and contributors. The SL economy needs all the help it can get.

She speaks from, ahem, personal experience:

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Katzencie Creates Striking Silhouettes from Sims 4

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

I did not know you could make cool screenshots in The Sims. Of course, last time I played The Sims, avatars were busy peeing on the floor or self-immolating. Tombstones in the backyard proliferated. Katzencie ♡ is obviously more competent at The Sims than I can ever hope to be. I was drawn to "Life is too short to blend in" by its 1960’s sensibility. It’s not just the pop art silhouette, but the “Mod Squad” pose.

Top 6 Posts Last Week: A Virtual World Pioneer Passes, Rawls' Theory of Justice & MMO Design, SL's Branding Problem, 30K Dual Universe "User" Concurrency, and Why SL Home Tours Tend to Be NSFW

• Nylon Pinkney Is Online - Why Second Life Home Tours Are Usually NSFW-Ish
• Watch: Dual Universe Handles 30,000 Concurrent "Users" On A Single Planet
• Watch One Of Second Life's Biggest Fans Explaining Second Life's Own Bad Design & Branding Decisions
• Can Rawls' Theory Of Justice Help Us Design Fairer MMOs?
• RIP Fran Serenade: Senior Citizen Who Helped Pioneer Use Of Virtual Worlds To Recover From Parkinson's Symptoms, Dies At 91
• Linden Lab Needs A Heavily Regulated PG-13 Continent In Second Life -- And More SL Presence Of Linden Staff & Mentors

Nylon Pinkney Is Online - Why Second Life Home Tours Are Usually NSFW-ish

Watch: Dual Universe Handles 30,000 Concurrent "Users" on a Single Planet

Dual Universe, the upcoming, crowd-funded, single shard MMO which some argue is the closest thing we have to a metaverse, just published this new video which strongly suggests they have an honest shot at that metaverse title: A stress test of 30,000+ "users" on a single planet, on an MMO that plans to have hundreds of planets. (Details on his blog here.)

I say "users" because almost all of the 30,000 are simulated, along with some actual players -- Dual Universe lead developer Jean-Christophe Baillie estimates hundreds of those.

"This is not a significant number (most people were not interested in participating in a test), " he allows, "but what matters is that everyone was invited and we have witnesses! It's not just a tech test done behind closed doors."

By point of contrast, Eve Online and Second Life, the two top single-shard grandaddies, manage peak concurrencies of about 40,000-70,000 players total. Whereas Dual Universe's stress test suggests many more than that can be handled across its galaxy.

To judge by the video, the stress test could handle many hundreds in the same proximate space (i.e. within a hundred square meters), but JC speculates they may have to add some promixity limits when they launch:

You're Invited: Sinespace BKR Launch Party & FPS Map Contest at Unity HQ!

If you can be in the Bay Area next week Thursday night and you're reading this on New World Notes, lead dev Adam Frisby and his team at Sinespace (a proud sponsoring partner of this blog), you are cordially invited to their BKR Launch Party at Unity HQ one block from GDC.

BKR (for Build Kill Repeat) is Sinespace's new open source, completely customizable combat system, so Adam is unveiling an FPS map design contest with a celebrity game developer judge to be announced there.

Go to Sinespace's blog for the RSVP link and more info on Sinespace at GDC.

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: The Kawaii Cool Images of Sugar Imp

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

Sugar Imp gives us pure kawaii joy in "Cherry House". Animals gather around the subject, even sitting on her head. She's sitting in a cute little sidecar made of a wood produce box. It's all bright, colorful, and happy.

Even in her "Sexy Nightie" photo, Sugar Imp's kawaii spirit comes through:

Watch One of Second Life's Biggest Fans Explaining Second Life's Own Bad Design & Branding Decisions

"I have a full-ass real life but let me tell you when I want my down time to myself, just log in, talk to my friends, do some dumb shit, play some games, blah blah blah, make my videos, that's what I want to do in my spare time."

Lexy Nexen, who's one of Second Life's best and brashest YouTubers (so subscribe already), recently posted this fun if frustrating video, explaining -- via her casually cool real life self -- a key frustration with vlogging about SL: YouTube comments full of snark which more or less boil down to "LOL you're playing Second Life to have weird sex and you have no first life". She effectively addresses the second part by mentioning many cool and worthwhile places in people in Second Life (including the late Fran Serenade), but flounders a bit with the first part.

And that frustrates me: This is yet one more time one of Second Life's biggest fans feels she has to put herself out there explaining the world's bad reputation, in a way few other online game world users have to contend with. (VRChat, by contrast has a bad -- and at least somewhat unfair -- reputation for nasty trolls and an excess of anime girls, but that's different.) And the thing is, this was and is an addressable problem: