New World Notes

Virtual World Concerts Aren't Ideal for Acts With Great Real Life Stage Shows

Protip: It's not a great idea to announce "X in virtual worlds is the future of Y" before checking to see if there are instances of Y successfully happening without X.

For instance: "Live performances in virtual worlds are the future of music concerts." It's part of that future, we can safely say, but as reader "Mint" reminds us,  it's definitely not the only one:

There have been a number of live online shows done in a more traditional streaming method. BTS, Dua Lipa, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and other Top 40 musicians have all done them. My guess for artists not doing Fortnite concerts would be because A) their core audiences aren't active there or an immersive experience in a virtual world wouldn't interest them and B) the costs of doing a traditional show are lower. Take BTS for example - they did a more traditional livestream concert and made approximately $19 million to $26 million in ticket sales alone. I wouldn't imagine that most of their fanbase is on Fortnite, and a more traditional format may enable the viewer to better see their dancing + choreography. I'm also not sure if fans are really looking for an immersive experience - at least from what I've seen amongst fanbases of artists that have offered virtual concerts, it's more about getting to see an artist perform songs live than to have any unique experience. 

Yes: Top bands are making quite a lot of money just from selling tickets to oldschool video streams of live shows, without the added addition (and time, and money) of creating a whole Travis Scott-in-Fortnite-type virtual world experience on top of that. As Minty notes, fans of artists like BTS will probably prefer watching the live real world stage act that's core to the BTS experience. Where virtual worlds will probably shine most is by elevating shows put on by performers who don't have a lot of dancing and other choreography in their stage acts. (Off the top of my head: my neighbor* Billie Eilish has a great stage presence, but a virtual world performance which turns her dark and moody songs into interactive 3D animation would be amazing.)

Which isn't to say there's no place for amazing stage acts like BTS in virtual worlds -- as a matter of fact, they mocapped some of their dance moves for avatars to buy and use in Fortnite:

Monday Memory: One of the Best Second Life Machinimas Ever Made

I mentioned this machinima last week in another post but it deserves a post of its own: "Watch the World" by Robbie Dingo (aka Rob Wright). Created in 2007, it remains one of the best machinimas in Second Life ever made, because it beautifully illustrates the dynamic content creation that remains unique to Second Life, and weaves it with a classic folk song about another, slightly more famous artistic innovator: 

Top Five Posts Last Week Including Apple's Non-Committal Commitment to VR & Philip Rosedale's Metaverse Challenge

• New In Sinespace: Fly This Physics-Enabled Stunt Plane With Amazing Detail And Working Instruments
• Apple Sure Doesn't Seem Like Virtual Reality's Savior
• I Love These Memes Of Bernie Sanders Sitting Around In Second Life
• This Artist Turns Second Life Screenshots Into Fantastic Still-Life Paintings
• Philip Rosedale Issues Metaverse Challenge: What Virtual World Besides Second Life Has Collaborative, Dynamic, Complex Content Creation?

New in Sinespace: Fly This Physics-Enabled Stunt Plane With Amazing Detail and Working Instruments

The ST X1 is a new user-made airplane in Sinespace (a proud sponsoring partner to New World Notes) that’s attracted quite a lot of buzz within the user community. Created by Carsten Stark, co-creator of the equally impressive Localhost Connection Cafe, the ST XI is fully  physics-enabled and comes with a cockpit HUD with real time displays.

“The Sinespace vehicle system uses a physics model in Unity and this is built upon that as a base and extended as needed for the aircraft bits that I added,” Carsten tells me. “The movement is all done by applying directional force and rotational torque.”

Top airspeed: 394 knots. As you can see from the video, the plane comes with quite a lot of detail.

“The wheels in the landing gear have springs and tension and will bounce or smooth bumps a bit…. the instruments are all tied to the physical model and indicate real values. Airspeed is in knots, climb rate is in feet per second, altitude is in feet, pitch, roll, compass directions are all in degrees."

Getting the visuals to look right was a challenge at first, but Sinespace’s partnership with Unity’s Asset Store helped speed things up:

Get a Free Bernie Cutout, Send Me Your Best Pics of Bernie in Second Life

As it turns out, we have not yet reached peak Bernie meme. Tossing kerosene onto that ebbing fire, content creator Max Graf (above) just created a free Bernie cutout to take around with you in Second Life to place Bernie in all your virtual world screenshots: Click here to teleport to get it in Max's Rustica sim.

Once you have Bernie ready to go in your inventory, please post your favorite photos of him in Comments below -- the wilder, the better. If I get enough that are great and we're all still in the mood for a few more Bernies, I'll feature them next week!

Apple Sure Doesn't Seem Like Virtual Reality's Savior

If this new Bloomberg story is right, Apple will not be a mass market player in the VR industry for at least the next five years, and that's by Apple's own design:

Apple’s typical playbook involves taking emerging consumer technology, such as music players, smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, and making it reliable and easy to use for everyone. This time, though, Apple isn’t looking to create an iPhone-like hit for its first headset. Instead, the company is building a high-end, niche product that will prepare outside developers and consumers for its eventual, more mainstream AR glasses.

The plans suggest that Apple’s first headset will be far more expensive than those from rivals, which cost about $300 to $900. Some Apple insiders believe the company may sell only one headset per day per retail store... 

The headset, codenamed N301, is in a late prototype stage, but is not yet finalized so the company’s plans could change or be scrapped entirely before launch. The AR glasses, codenamed N421, are in an early stage known as “architecture,” meaning Apple is still working on underlying technologies. This product is several years away, according to the people, though Apple has previously targeted as early as 2023 to unveil it. 

Emphasis mine, because wow. One headset per day per retail store roughly translates to 500 headsets a day, i.e., less than 200,000 a year, i.e. less than 1 million in 5 years. And even that seems like a generous forecast.

I often hear people in the VR industry talk about Apple like the coming messiah that will catapult virtual reality into the mainstream. That may eventually be the case, but every indication I've seen suggests Apple remains seriously hesitant about entering the space at all, and has built numerous exit ramps, just in case. If overall VR headset sales remain slow, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's plans never even see the light of day.

Fashion Friday Shopping Blog: Cloud and Sugar Baking Company

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

“Empty Streets” is the most recent post from Cloud and Sugar Baking Company, the blog created by Narumi Ushimawa. For all the talk of clouds and sugar in the blog title, the post is very noir. I am a fan of noir, though, and think a little noir adds a health antidote to too much sugar.  I think, though, that it is silly to expect kawaii every day. Into each life some rain must fall, and if it’s noirish rain, all to the good. 

• Outfit: [Val’More] - Gandz Gacha (The Epiphany)
• Sword: [Val’More] - Gandz Gacha - Sword B (The Epiphany)
• Bike: [Neurolab Inc.] Z-Tronic BIKE - Black
• Backdrop: PALETO. - Side Street

Ahead, something you’re more likely to find in a cloud and sugar factory.

I Love These Memes of Bernie Sanders Sitting Around In Second Life

"THIS MAY BE A RELAXING TIME WITH A VIRTUAL SHEEP BUT I AM HERE TO TELL YOU THAT THE MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES HAVING BEEN SHEARING THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS LIKE SHEEP SINCE FDR AND ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

One great thing to come out of the Biden inauguration yesterday (I mean besides that whole "undermining a violent uprising by crazed white supremacists" thing) are the Bernie memes, photoshopping the cranky senator in mittens into various wacky situations. (Jesse Damiani has a huge, hilarious collection of them here.). Acting quickly, the acclaimed metaverse artist known as Whiskey Monday brought Bernie into several of her Second Life scenes. Here's my favorites.

If Fortnite the Future of Live Music, Why is Fortnite Staging So Few Shows -- and They're Much Less Immersive Than Before?

Fortnite! It's the future of live music, as many say (I even said so here!). It sure seemed that way when artists like Travis Scott and Marshmellow brought in millions to experience "only in a virtual world"-type shows -- not to mention lots of revenue for themselves.

But thing is, Travis Scott's show as a literal giant in Fortnite was last April. And since then, live shows have been few and far between. This one above, with J Balvin, is the most recent that I can find -- and it's from last October. Maybe I'm missing others, but I can't find any announced on Fortnite's official blog. Also concerning: Recent live concerts aren't anywhere as amazing and immersive as the Travis Scott event; instead, they mainly seem to be non-interactive video streams. (Another example, with BTS "in" Fortnite, below.)

What's the deal? I've reached out to a contact with Epic for their take. If I had to speculate, I'd say there's a few possible factors at work:

Trisha Rose's SL Pics are Stunningly Composed -- Here's How To Tell!

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

I was immediately drawn to “Saying Goodbye” from Trisha Rose. It is beautifully composed directing my attention to the figures in the tree even though it does not follow the Rule of Thirds or Fifths or the Golden Mean. What’s going on? I had to download it, run it through GIMP's cropping guideline feature, and fiddle around seeing what gave it such appeal. Referencing this handy tutorial I recommend to image makers, I checked how its diagonals line up:

Well, there you have it.

The next picture sure rang true for me: