New World Notes

Koster Teases Playable Worlds' Upcoming Project, Hints at Cross-Device Cloud Streaming & Much More

A year and a half after announcing Playable Worlds, a new game studio from MMO godfather Raph Koster, about which Koster coyly said little, but did say "we are looking to create a world that really fosters online communities and even society", he's revealed a fair amount more in a clarion call announcement:

Fashion Friday Blog: Visit Charlotte’s Place to Plan Your SL Shopping Sprees

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

Charlotte Chisholm’s post “Playtime”  for her blog Charlotte’s Place is a fun post. I love the marionette strings and love the humor in it. 

• Outfit: Bauhaus - Cecilia Dress / Orchid
• Hair: #19-FABIA- Gacha   <Maureen> Pastel
• Marionette Strings: Marionette Doll Puppet Strings

For that old gold magic, click here:

Linden Lab Hiring VP of Engineering to Help Define Future of Second Life

While Second Life users scramble to buy a L$1 Catwa avatar head after the Marketplace website crashed due to heavy demand, Linden Lab is scrambling to find someone to plan the technical side of Second Life's future as a product. Seriously:

VP of Engineering:  You will work in conjunction with the leadership team to jointly develop and vet Linden Lab’s long-term technology strategy.

Responsibilities:

- Own and manage the architectural roadmap, setting the vision and strategy for technology, and distilling it into successfully releasing the product on time

- Work closely with VP of Product, VP of Product Ops, and VP of Marketing to define strategic future of Second Life

Much more here. Job requirements do not once mention mobile, iOS, Android, streaming, or games, which makes me a bit concerned about the strategic future of Second Life. But then again, seeing as Linden Lab's CEO told me about a mobile "companion app" for Second Life, a streaming option, and game mechanics back literally two years ago and nothing's transpired on those topics since, maybe they're no longer part of that strategic future?

But hey, look at all those Catwa heads!

Today's Flickr Pick: Virtual World Tributes to Blooming Flowers in Spring

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

River Ichibara has posted this fabulous portrait with poppies, her contribution to the Bloom of Spring Campaign, another challenge from Lawrence D. Pryce. I love her use of red and green. With complementary colors, the colors feel more vivid, and they are echoed by her green eyes and red lips. It is a gorgeous picture. 

And now for something completely different, click here:

Why Afrofuturist Nettrice Gaskins Sells Her Deep Dream Art as NFTs on the Greener Tezos Blockchain

This beautiful portrait of Tupac was created by Afrofuturist Nettrice Gaskins using Deep Dream's neural network -- and now, a rare copy of it can be purchased as an NFT on the blockchain. Given the recent hype over NFT for artists, you're probably not surprised by that, but Dr. Gaskins' NFTs are more noteworthy for at least a couple reasons -- first, they're being sold on hic et nunc, a new NFT platform that operates on the Tezos blockchain.

"Tez is what I use because it's eco-friendly and proof-of-stake," she tells me. This is in comparison to the Ethereum blockchain, which is more commonly used for NFTs, but because it still functions via proof-of-work, is an environmental disaster in the making.  As Dr. Gaskins writes on her Medium blog, NFT opens up an opportunity to artists who can't typically sell auction their art at places like Christie's:

For BIPOC/LGBTQ/Womxn/Disabled artists who have been intersectionally shut out of the Official Art Market, NFTs have the potential to help them/us make a living or supplement our incomes. The blockchain market removes the middle person or gatekeeper and empowers artists to use emerging technologies and networks in new or culturally relevant ways.

On a related note, minority communities like those also tend to be the most impacted by the worst effects of climate change. 

As for Nettrice's Deep Dream art, more on how she creates it:

Watch: Neos VR May Have the Best UI & Feature Set in All Social VR

While VRChat attracts quite a lot of attention thanks to its smart and inventive community, and Rec Room for its high usage numbers and valuation ($1.25 billion, the Wall Street Journal just reported), both of those heavily-funded social VR platforms still seem to be over-shadowed on the feature and UX front by Neos VR, a metaverse crowdfunded on a much smaller budget and developed by Solirax, a tiny studio with less than 10 people on the team. 

"You can literally drag-and-drop almost any kind of files and it will work, like 3D models, images," virtual world explorer Luca tells me, by example. "It's easy to use on desktop mode, and things are just not that hard to learn, it's just the kind of seamlessness I've never seen or experienced on any other VR platform." (That's Luca above, visiting the notably furry-heavy Neos.)

Luca considers Neos' basic usability about on par with VRChat, "but when it comes to more complex stuff, like changing certain settings or figuring out the content tools, NeosVR's UI just feels more intuitive:

Today's Flickr Pick: Virtual Fashion Shot With Fun, Fantasy & Elegance

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

I think Shin Nayla’s “That Day” caught my eye because I just finished a chapter in Her Here where a woman, spending a month in a Thai monastery, is frustrated when her shower does not work, accidentally leaves the water on, and returns to a flooded house, but it’s the hot time of year so she decided to lay down in the water on the floor and sleep there. I’m not sure how this school room got flooded, but she seems to be enjoying it. I love how her hair curls underwater and can barely be distinguished from the grain of the wood. 

For a sophisticated look, click here:

Watch: Skittish Adds Philip Rosedale's High Fidelity Spatial Audio & Other Virtual World-ish Features to Upcoming Playful Space for Online Events

Skittish, Andy Baio's upcoming "playful virtual space for online events" (go here to register for early access) recently added High Fidelity's 3D spatial audio to the platform, so naturally, I had to get a hands-on (ears-on?) demo from Andy -- watch above, but maybe turn the sound down a bit due to my overly booming voice.

So far Skittish is an incredibly charming virtual world-type space for live meetings of all kinds, especially if they lean toward the whimsical -- think Animal Crossing meets Zoom, except your cartoon animal avatar is the one on camera, not you.

Integrating High Fidelity, Andy tells me, "dramatically increases the cross-browser compatibility, audio quality/latency, and scale for concurrent users." This also makes Skittish the first virtual world-type experience using the API to the Philip Rosedale-led spatial audio technology. (At least the first one that I'm aware of.)

Other new features you'll see in my demo with Andy:

VRChat's Mirrors Help Enhance the World's Crucial First-Person Only Perspective (Comment of the Week)

Very good point by Adeon on the importance of mirrors in VRChat, jumping off from Strasz's video, where he notes, "While vision is key, where that vision emanates from [in VRChat] is even more important. We need to believe that it comes from our own eyes, and that the body parts we see are in a place that makes sense."

A longtime explorer and creator in VRChat and before that Second Life, Adeon notes how important the first-person-only perspective is for VRChat, and how mirrors help enforce and enhance that design choice:

When someone decides to check out VRChat for the first time, they usually won't have VR. One of the first questions they ask is, "How do I enter third person view?"

Of course, the second question they ask is "Ok... so why doesn't this game have a third person view?"

And to VRChat's credit, they know exactly what they're doing. Forcing first person is absolutely critical to everything that's special about VRChat. Mirrors are the one way, the natural way, to get everything you lose by not looking at yourself in third person -- without everything that you lose from having third person.

The devs understand that even the personal option for third person would take away that mutual understanding of shared space and connection.

This sounds exactly right; VRChat is one of the rare virtual worlds/MMOs without a 3rd person POV option; unsurprisingly, regular VRChat users report a strong and deep association with their avatar, probably much moreso that worlds with a 3rd person option.

Speaking of which, other readers wonder why Second Life (where the default is 3rd person) doesn't have an easy-to-use mirror option, and Adeon replies with this video:

Tuesday's Flickr Pick: Creative Tributes to Magic & Fashion in the COVID Age

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

Alba Silverfall’s “Little Frozen Friend” is a fabulous and dramatic fantasy picture. The little details such as electricity lighting up her skin, the pose that holds that pose beautifully centered. It’s a fun display of lighting magic. 

If you’re looking for options to avoid freezing in the COVID era, click here: