New World Notes

Watch: Equimake Adds 3D Annotation Feature for Presentations, Demos, and Other Interactive Scenes

Here's a cool update from NWN partner Equimake, the free indie platform for live, multi-user collaborative 3D building on the web: 3D Annotations, which enable creators to add clickable text descriptions throughout their scene, which when clicked, centers the user's camera angle on the annotation.

To see what I mean, watch the tutorial video above from Alex, Equimake's founder and lead developer. (Also check out 1:55 for a look at how Equimake scenes work on mobile and tablets.)

For educators and other creators, 3D annotations will make it easier to turn an Equimake scene into an interactive demo/presentation, or even tell a story with individual scenes annotated within the same scene:  

Here's a Whole Huge Library of Virtual World / XR Tech Case Studies for Real World Projects

Via Julian Reyes of the Virtual Worlds Museum, this site here has a whole huge library of virtual world/XR tech being used in many various real world use cases. Most are decidedly on the dry/corporate marketing side, but that's very much the point: This is tech usually associated with gaming applied to an enterprise context.

For instance, the video above shows how 3D graphics / digital twin tech is used to improve the car-buying experience:

Equimake Update: Free, Real-Time 3D Group Creation On Web Platform Adds User Presence "Avatars" & 900 Free-to-Use Unreal Assets

There's a pretty big new update to Equimake, the free-to-use platform for collaborative real-time 3D creation on the web (and a proud partner to New World Notes): It now comes with 900 free Unreal-based 3D assets to use in your scene-building, and there's a User Presence "avatar" indicator, to make collaborative interaction easier within the 3D world.

The assets are from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, part of the "Permanent Free Collection" which includes a license for use outside of Unreal (I.E., in Equimake), and run the gamut from basic everyday objects to full immersive 3D scenes like a hipster cafe and outdoor park. (At right.) And new assets will be added to the platform library roughly every 1-2 weeks.

The User Presence indicator looks a bit like Google Docs when multiple people are working on the same document, except in 3D. Look:

Welcome Equimake: New Platform for Free, Real-Time Collaborative 3D Creation on Web, Now a New World Notes Partner!

Equimake is a seriously cool, free-to-use platform for collaborative real-time 3D creation on the web partly inspired by my book; starting next month, I'm proud to announce Equimake is a sponsoring media partner to New World Notes!

Created by Canadian developer Alexander Yevsyeyev, you can not only share, create, and script interactive 3D scenes with others, but Alex is rapidly adding features which enable more integration of content -- for  instance, you can embed images from Imgur or Flick into an Equimake scene. (Watch above.) And yes, Alex tells me he's hoping to add integration with Primfeed and other social media platforms.

"My passion is helping people and see them grow," as he puts it. He recently led a team of artists, programmers, and QA on a large project, and this experience helped shape what he hopes to do with this self-funded project.

"Equimake is aimed to help learners get better grip on technology, and try to tinker with 3D art and code and see what they like or dislike about it. For advanced users, I also plan to make Equimake fun and engaging where they can either teach others, share knowledge, or simply deploy their amazing art and code."

More details and project roadmap below. You can also ask Alex about Equimake features or updates in Comments or on Equimake's Discord.

 

Watch: Getting Started Tutorial for Equimake, Platform for Real-Time, Multi-User World Building On The Web

Here's a new tutorial for getting started on Equimake, the new indie platform which enables live, multi-user collaborative 3D building on the web. (Skip ahead to 5:25 for a demo of the multi-user creation feature!)

Since blogging about it last week, founder/lead dev Alex Yevsyeyev tells me nearly 500 people have joined the community, mainly from the US/Canada, but also (surprising him) from over 45 countries around the world -- from Hong Kong to Argentina to Ghana to somewhere in war-torn Ukraine.

As examples of worlds that have been made so far, here's three favorites you can visit:

• Here's the welcome hub.
• Here's a world called "Camping".
• And this one, "Sun Tzu Gallery", was created by an NWN reader!

"It is important to note that Equimake will be free forever and encourages everyone to come and try building their experince on the web at least once," he tells me (and so noted). "The tech entry barrier is very low and the community is growing."

Check it out here and join the Equimake Discord here.

Try Equimake: Real-Time, Multi-User Collaborative Building -- on the Web!

Equimake is a new indie platform which enables live, multi-user collaborative 3D building on the web. Just launched in early beta, it's the passion project of Canadian developer Alexander Yevsyeyev, who recently gave up his day job in tech to create a new, delightfully accessible means of social creation online. (Watch the demo above!)

"Over the last few years," as he tells me, "I spoke to users of Second Life and other creative platforms, and many have stopped creating. Why? Some said it's too expensive to host their 3D worlds, some found that the learning curve is too steep, and others thought that learning 3D art and coding was too intimidating."

Built in Three.js, Equimake runs completely on the web, designed for anyone from students/novices to seasoned artists and gamers to use -- on the web, in groups, with an embedded text chat window for communication/collaboration:

When Can We Create Something Like 3 Body Problem's Virtual World With Full Body VR? Forecasts by Philip Rosedale, Raph Koster & Other Experts

If you've watched Netflix's new sci-fi series 3 Body Problem (and you should, it's excellent!) based on the novel by Liu Cixin, you probably wondered about the amazing virtual world that's a key part of the story. Without spoiling anything, a mysterious alien species communicates with humanity through a multi-user virtual experience with seemingly sentient NPCs and a constantly changing world, conveyed in full sensory VR. (Watch a preview clip above.) 

But when can us humans make something like that? I asked a number of top virtual world/VR experts, including Philip Rosedale, Raph Koster, VR pioneer Nonny de la Peña, and Sine Wave CTO Adam Frisby. Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think!

"I think we aren't too far from sentient beings in virtual worlds," Philip Rosedale tells me. "AIs that are very interesting to interact with and living in virtual worlds will happen very soon... next few years. We have a lot of compute coming available, and that is the only thing blocking."

However, he's skeptical we're close to full sensory VR technology:

"I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery."

And no, he doesn't think something like Elon Musk's Neuralink is necessarily a first step to that:

Why Tilt Five May Be a More Attractive Model of Spatial Computing Over Apple Vision Pro

Good points from Martin K. on my thought that Jeri Ellsworth's low-ish cost Tilt Five AR device could be a viable Spatial Computing competitor against Apple Vision Pro:

I guess part of Apple's vision for Vision Pro is that it provides you with access to much of Apple's ecosystem (including your media library, e-mails, browser data, iCloud data, subscriptions, passwords, etc.). Tilt Five cannot provide this access and it isn't trying to; thus, I guess it isn't an actual alternative.

But I guess what you mean is that Tilt Five's low price shows that a peripheral XR device ("parasite system" according to Jesse Schell) might be an attractive alternative to an integrated, stand-alone XR device (like Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest).

That's part of what I mean, but my core premise is that Apple's vision for the Vision Pro is fundamentally flawed: I think it's very unlikely many people actually always want to be in a Spatial Computing environment all the time, especially if it's just to interact with content that's fundamentally 2D. And instead, that more people will prefer only wearing an AR headset when they very specifically need/want to interact with 3D content. (Think design, prototyping, planning etc. in a shared 3D space, along with social gaming/chatting/etc.)

If that's right, then something like the Tilt Five will be more broadly appealing, especially at one-tenth the price -- and for a lightweight headset they're not expected to hear for eight-plus hours a day.

Vision Pro New World Notes Reader Survey Results: Nearly 1 in 5 Want to Buy the Headset This Year... But Almost Half Don't Want One At All

Here's the results of my super scientific survey on buying the Vision Pro. Among the 80 respondents asked when they plan to buy Apple's HMD, a strong plurality of 45% chose "Never".

On the other side, 50% said they do want a Vision Pro... at some point. Some sooner than later.

10% answered "Now", which is a pretty strong result for a device costing some $3500. Add to that the 9% who answered, "Within a year of launch if reviews are generally good".

Or to put it another way: Despite the high price, nearly 1 in 5 respondents say they plan to buy the Apple Vision Pro this year.

Unsurprisingly, the 2nd largest preference was price-driven, with 20% expressing interest when the Vision Pro was priced under $500. Less than 10% are holding out for a more modest price cut down to $2500 or $1500.

So there you go. While this is a totally casual poll, I do think it's fair to say it roughly reflects the consumer interest of people who read this blog, i.e. people who are highly interested in virtual worlds and VR/AR-related technology. In other words, Apple Vision Pro's target market.

But even if New World Notes readers are ideal early adopters of technology like the Vision Pro, most are holding out for a heavy price cut -- while nearly half are just simply not interested.

Here's some responses from readers:

Om Malik on Apple Vision Pro's Power to Create Immersive Photos & Video

Photo copyright Om Malik -- see original and others on his site

Writer and venture capitalist Om Malik, who tutored me on the tech world as my editor at GigaOM, just wrote one of the most interesting takes on Vision Pro I've come across.

Because Om also happens to be excellent photographer (evidence above and below), and from his hands-on experience, has a unique take on what Apple's XR headset will empower:

During my first visit [to the Apple campus], I got to spend a lot of time in the “Photos” app — where I looked at photos that were part of a library curated by Apple... When I opened the app and then opened a photo, I could pinch and expand the photo as if I were viewing it on the screen of a reference home theater. The photos seemed to have enveloped me — a feeling of floating inside the photo itself. This is such an alien, and yet an intimate, experience. We are so used to looking at photos zoomed in — on the screens of our phones or our laptops. We never quite experience the magnificence of the entirety of the photos in our daily lives. This is exactly the opposite — there is a whole new appreciation of being there. And that’s why I believe we are going to be thinking about our photography very differently.

He's describing photo viewing, in other words, as an immersive experience. But not the immersion typically associated with VR headsets. The VisionPro's surface resemblance to a standard virtual reality HMD has fooled many us of immersion geeks, I suspect, to mainly think of connecting it to virtual worlds, or AR gaming experiences.

But while 1 in 4 people enjoy immersive virtual worlds (very broadly defined), all of us who can, love looking at photos. 

And viewing videos -- another place for Om where the Vision Pro shines: