New World Notes

SL Mesh Demos Demonstrating More Triangles Doesn't Mean More Detail

Quick: Before pressing Play on the video above, which set of SL mesh shoes and shirts are more detailed, and which have more triangles? The answer, as they say, May Just Surprise You. 

This video demo via reader Nadeja, who posted them as a response to last week's post, "Does The SL Community Care Enough To Clamor For Well-Optimized Mesh?" It's a perfect way of refuting the commonly held assumption that with mesh, more triangles means more detail. Not at all, not at all.

"Adding triangles helps only to some extent, but then it becomes wasted resources," as Nadeja writes in Comments. "Optimization means to find the right trade between visual and resources, to get the best look at the smallest cost."

Look closer at this comparison of tops:

The top on the left, she notes, has "[l]ess than half of the triangles and it even has wrinkles. You optimize for the platform you have. You did that in the 90s and early '00s as well. Better shaders would allow more for sure, but that doesn't mean that you can't do a better job... The evidence with similar models shows otherwise."

But surely this doesn't apply to full mesh avatars, some skeptics may say.  Nadeja has you covered there too - watch below:

Top 3 Posts Last Week Including High Interest in VRChat's New Subscription Offer & One Last Tribute to Legendary Prim Creators in SL

• Last Chance To See A Collection Of Prim Sculptures Of Great SL Artists Of The Last 15 Years
• VRChat Survey: Over 1 In 3 Say They'll Pay For A Premium Subscription
• Does The SL Community Care Enough To Clamor For Well-Optimized Mesh?

 

Black Friday Sales in Second Life: All Dutchie Adult Items 20% Off!

Update, 11/30: Black Friday offer now over!

If you're planning your virtual world shopping trips for this Friday, famed SL housewares brand Dutchie (who we're honored to call a sponsoring partner here at New World Notes) will have a Black Friday sale -- 20% off all Adult-rated items. 

 This is actually Dutchie's very first Black Friday sale in SL. "I know a lot of people have less money to spend this year," Dutchie tells me, "so this might give people a chance to buy that adult toy they have had their eye on for a long time. Starting Friday the 27th everything in my adult department inworld is 20% off, even the newest designs, and the sale will last until Sunday."

All sales at her in-world store -- click here to start browsing, and to be first in line with the Friday sales start!

SL Black Friday & Holiday Shopping Ideas from Style Blogger Kurimu Kima

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

“Christmas Is Seeping In” seems like the perfect “Black Friday” post. Kurimu Kima does a great job of kicking off the Christmas season in a fun decor post. Her post is detailed, listing every item. I was drawn to the critters on the table. She explained in her post that she resized the deer to make it a better fit. This kind of care in blogging makes readers trust the blogger. 

Items on center table…

• Table: [KraftWork] Provence . Coffee Table 4Li {@Mainstore}
• Table cover (resized carpet): [KraftWork] Runner Rugs . Boho Set . Red Geometric 1Li {@Mainstore}
• Cupcake on spatula: [Andika] Friandises de Noel Dispenser-B 1Li {@Tannenbaum}
• Yule Log: [RH] Xmas Cake -Deer- 3Li {@Tannenbaum}
• Candy cane and cake: [Disorderly] Bundt Xmas / Candycane 1Li {@Tannenbaum}
• Hot chocolate and cake: [Disorderly] Bundt Xmas / Hot Chocolate 1Li {@Tannenbaum}
• Red bulb on table: [+Half-Deer+] Giant Christmas Bulbs – Single – Red 1Li {@Tannenbaum}
• Mousie holding bauble: [Sorumin] Christmas cuties SET -Baby with bauble- 6Li *resized down* {@Tannenbaum}
• Mousie holding gingerbread man: [Sorumin] Christmas cuties SET -Baby with cookie- 7Li *resized down* {@Tannenbaum}
• Mousie holding a fern: [Sorumin] Christmas cuties SET -Baby with pine branch- 5Li *resized down* {@Tannenbaum}
• Reindeer on table: [+Half-Deer+] Vintage Deer Figurine – Brown – Forward 1Li *resized down* {@Tannenbaum}
• Berry cake on stand: [Andika] Friandises de Noel – Pavlova/decor 1Li {@Tannenbaum

Up next, a kitchen to bake those cakes in...

Virtual World Tributes to Thanksgiving in a Year When Most Are Celebrating Apart

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

Geena Carminucci reminds us with "Friendsgiving 2020" that there is no need to isolate ourselves in our virtual world. There is no virtual COVID to ruin the day, so invite everyone you know over for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Besides, virtual turkey is never dry, virtual mashed potatoes are never lumpy, and virtual pie is never burned. 

More Thanksgiving pics ahead...

Last Chance to See a Collection of Prim Sculptures of Great SL Artists of the Last 15 Years

Above: Mr. Clip posing by a sculpture from the legendary prim artist Starax Statosky

Give thanks to great Second Life prim-based sculpture artists from over the last 17 years by visiting the Gratitude Art show between now and the end of 2020: Click here to teleport.

As I wrote in September, it was curated by longtime virtual art advocate Chuck Clip (above) and Mariposa Upshaw, and hosted in the University Of Western Australia's virtual campus in Second Life, which is finally being removed from the world for the New Year. After putting out an open call for submissions, they were deluged by entries from renowned artists like Chic Aeon, Glyph Graves, and Alpha Auer. Chuck even contributed a sculpture from his personal collection, from the beloved Starax Statosky, who started impressing the SL community as far back as 2005 or so. (Full list of contributors on Clip's blog.)

"I mean," as Clip tells me now. "It's a veritable who's-who of SL art and art history."

It was a labor of love for the curators:

Unready Player 2? Reviews to Influential Metaverse Novel Decidedly Mixed

There's an official ROBLOX experience promoting Ready Player 2, the new sequel to the metaverse novel partly inspired by Second Life and became so influential, it was required reading for employees at Oculus.  (Because why not make a dystopian novel about a future so horrible everyone wants to live in VR a company's frame of reference.)

But is the sequel any good, and worth a read over the holidays? A advance couple reviews below with mild spoilers,  so caveat geeker:

This Flickr Photographer's Dramatic Landscapes Are Actually SL Screenshots

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

Powder focuses primarily on beautifully composed landscapes. It is a remarkable skill to come upon a sim created by someone else and frame a picture as though you could place every item yourself. I loved this picture and the beautiful sky showing through the windows and the lights shining on it from the front as well. She provided a SLURL and I went to check it out, but unfortunately it is now a homestead for sale.  

I love her framing...the next is a great example:

VRChat Survey: Over 1 in 3 Say They'll Pay for a Premium Subscription

Results from last week's not-super-scientific-but-still interesting survey on VRChat's new monthly/yearly paid subscription option. With 175 responses (a solid sample for this site), well over one-third say they will pay to subscribe. That is a minority response, but for a free-to-play virtual world, it's a relatively impressive response.  As a point of comparison, Second Life only has about 60,000 Premium subscribers, which is roughly just 1 in 10 of the active userbase.

And looking at VRChat user concurrency, this suggests a strong potential for good revenue. With 24,000 peak concurrent users, VRChat probably has monthly active users in the low to mid six figures. (A good rule of thumb is to multiply peak concurrency by 10x.)  So if this survey scales with actual subscriptions, that would translate to about $1 million a month in subscription revenue for the company, more or less. (A big "if", to be sure.)

This would be tiny in comparison with, say, what Roblox is reportedly making, but for a virtual world where a third to half of the users are actually using  a VR headset, that's a decent niche.

This Artist Uses Light, Framing & Casual Poses to Make SL Avatar Photos Come Alive

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

Jena Lynn is a slice-of-life photographer, a Second Life Vivian Maier except of course she is shooting herself in the process of living, not other people. I love the appearance of spontaneity, the idea the camera was just raised at that very moment. There is no sense at all that the picture was planned and staged, but of course it was. And that is genius! 

The next picture shows how powerful framing can be.