New World Notes

How to Connect Your Kinect to VRChat for Full Body Tracking

Here's the latest clever hack for VRChat: An Xbox One Kinect connected to the virtual world, so the user's real life movement is tracked and mapped onto their avatar.

In this video above, VRCer "Zotteke" is using a Quest 2 to log into VRChat while dancing in front of a Kinect; Zotteke's furry avatar does the rest. The body tracking is fairly decent (especially for an older device that's likely sitting in your closet if you still have one), even accounting for its single camera:

This Artist Adds Dramatic Blurring Effects to Second Life Screenshots

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

Folgen’s photostream is at once varied and consistent. His subjects are exciting and different but his style is a consistent use of black and white with small pops of color and wild horizontal blurring. This is a great example, with the sunshine backlighting everything so it’s black with hints of gold from the sun and groundcover. There is the suggestion of speed from the blurring -- a hint of jeopardy. 

I admit I am not sure what I am seeing below, but if that’s okay, click here:

Here's How Second Life's New iOS App Could Bring In a New Generation of Mobile Users

Pictured: Pocket Metaverse, a third party iOS app for accessing select Second Life features from 2010

With the iOS app for Second Life coming soon, reader and blogger Devin Vaughn sketches out a fascinating vision for how it could transform the virtual world. While the app itself is launching with very limited features (the late-lamented Pocket Metaverse from over a decade ago was actually more robust), Devin sees a chance to bring in a new wave of mobile users:

[I]t might be a sneak peek into Linden Lab's strategy of bridging SL and SL Mobile. This is baby steps for now, it takes time to develop code and app. But I could see it working that there are SL mobile-only sims that enforce both avatar and environment efficiency.

Imagine this: You want to 3D chat live on the phone with your friends? Teleport to SL Mobile Island 1. Oops, you are not allowed because your avatar is bonkers heavy with scripts and complexity. BUT you forgot to switch to your mobile, low lag, fast avatar first. So you just go to appearance, change outfit, and teleport is accepted. You land in a beautifully crafted environment, perhaps created by a well known genius designer who excels at kickass and fast. Much good time is had!

.....And later, you want to meet up with your special friend after work in the posh main grid where you wear as much scripts and fancy mesh as you want, or decorate to max, because the maingrid is still the wild wild west of freedom and zero enforced avatar or sim limits (if you don't mind the lag).

VRChat actually does something like this, for users of the Oculus Quest, enabling them to teleport to worlds that have been optimized to run on the Quest. That way, VRC users are able invite their Quest-owning friends into the "kiddie pool" of VRChat. (That's how I first got to meet Syrmor in VRChat!)

"Imagine if SL had mobile-only sims for mobile style avatars," Devin muses:

Top 5 Posts Last Week Including an iOS App for Second Life, Tips for Virtual World Bloggers, and a Painfully Hilarious Look at SL's First-Time User Experience

• Fifteen Tips For Second Life Style Bloggers: How To Grow Your Readership & Keep Them Coming Back For More
• Watch: Talking The Metaverse & Demoing The Breakroom To Brian Solis
• Apple Approves Official IOS App For Second Life! But There's A Big Catch...
• Caltech's Second Life Campus Now Available As Free Venue/Hosting Space To Fellow Academics For Research, Teaching, And Socializing
• Watch: 18 Years Later, "Second Life Still Can't Communicate To New Players What They 'Do'"

Fifteen Tips for Second Life Style Bloggers: How to Grow Your Readership & Keep Them Coming Back for More

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

I like amplifying SL blogs I admire, and after doing Cajsa’s Choices for over three years now, I have discovered things I would do differently if I were actively blogging Second Life fashions today. I have seen some innovations by bloggers I really like -- and many things I don’t like. 

So here are some tips I have accumulated over the past few years, along with some additional tips from Hamlet: 

Provide information about how you can be contacted and links to your social media. This is usually an About Me page, though many people post a link to their Gravatar, a global avatar with links to all social media if you set it up. Your About Me should include your in-world/legacy name so readers can send you a message, or a creator can drop some samples your way. Some people also include their basic avatar information, the body, head, hands, and skin. If you wear the same in every picture, that makes sense. 

Let your readers get to know you. Too many fashion posts only display the creator credits, which makes for dull reading. It is also a loss for you, because readers don’t really form an attachment to a product list. Instead of just blogging the type of collar or waistline a dress has, you can write about how the outfit makes you feel. Like you can conquer the world? Does it make you feel sexy? Playful? Tell us why you like it so we get to know you. 

Include the creator’s SL name in your credits. That way, if they rebrand or move their in-world store, people can still find them. It also gives you a way for people to find items while complying with Flickr’s TOS for free accounts. I have never valued posting SLurls, because I really hate teleporting to a store that has moved and getting orbited by a hair trigger security device. But when the creator’s name is displayed, I can find their Marketplace and find their most up-to-date SLurls in their profile. (Unless they neglect their profile, and that’s on them.)  

Many more below!

VRChat Users: Please Take This Short Survey from Syrmor & New World Notes! (Use PC/Mac For Best Results, Include Account Name to Be Quoted)

Acclaimed VRChat reporter Syrmor is back after a short hiatus with a moving new avatar interview (watch above)... which is a good time to re-up this VRChat user survey that we're conducting together. Take below (use a desktop/laptop for best results) and include your VRChat name if you'd like your opinions to be quoted!

Hot Virtual Summer Shopping Tips from SL Blogger Aria Christen

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

I love the name of Aria Christen’s blog, Little Side Project. I also love many of her post’s names, including the one celebrating Independence Day last weekend, “Time to Get Star-Spangled Hammered.” And then there is all the watermelon. There’s nothing better than watermelon and burgers for a picnic. There are two pictures in the post with a ton of picnic foods and supplies, so click through for the complete list. 

• Junk Food – July 4th Burgers
• Junk Food – Hot Dog Tray (Red)
• Junk Food – Platters Plate
• Junk Food – Watermelon Platter (White)

For some hot weather fashion, click here:

Watch: Talking the Metaverse & Demoing the Breakroom to Brian Solis

Starting at around 27:20, going into a demo of Breakroom at about 46:19, futurist and digital marketing guru Brian Solis chatted earlier today about the metaverse, virtual worlds, and related topics with Sine Wave Entertainment CEO Rohan Freeman and myself:

Apple Approves Official iOS App for Second Life! But There's a Big Catch...

Linden Lab just announced that its long (long!) awaiting iOS app for Second Life has finally been approved by Apple, so expect that coming soon -- this mini scoop via sharp-eyed SL fan blogger Daniel Voyager, who took furious notes as staffer Keira Linden gave details in a recent meeting in SL itself:

[Linden Lab is] working on a whole set of new features into it and soon it will be on the Apple Store. There are around 40-50 users that have the iOS version of the Second Life app and more wide spread testing is still needed yet. Apparently those that use the iOS version of the Second Life app will be logged into new dedicated “SL Mobile” regions which will be primary be used for communications like IM/Group Chat. These SL Mobile regions will not be open to everyone unless they are using the SL Mobile app.

Unsurprisingly, Linden Lab just announced plans to create a user-driven social media campaign for both TikTok and Instagram, the largest social media apps on the iPhone.

This is all great news, even if it's painfully belated. Late Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg told me the iOS app was in development back in early 2019, and it was announced the previous year and... well, the actual right time to put out an official iOS app for Second Life would have been, oh, let's say 2010. (When as it happens, Pocket Metaverse, a third party iOS app for SL existed, and was pretty good.)

That said, I'm looking forward to it. However, there's a face-kicking caveat to the upcoming iOS app for Second Life. It doesn't have much Second Life in it:

Today's Flickr Pick: Sapa's Striking Avatar Images With an Edge

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

Sapa’s stream features striking cyber-pop ads her pose store and haunting portraits and other photos. This headshot is beautiful, but with the traces of tears and of life that has not been easy. There is a grim underbelly in the world and Sapa wants us not to look away. For those who like to see how much is raw shot and what is editing, she gives us a link to the raw photo.

Well, we can’t really move like that, can we? Click here: