New World Notes

Watch "Insilico Defender": Cool & Clever Mix of Virtual Fashion Show, Cyberpunk Machinima

"Insilico Defender" cleverly combines two things Second Life is abundant with -- cyberpunk settings and shopping -- into a unlikely but cool and flashy action short. The fashion and houseware items are from the annual equal10 event.

"I wanted to make something special for Equal10," its creator and co-star, Novata, tells me. "This round we got cool designs by several creators, most of them inspired by Japanese style and cosplay (like the outfit I'm wearing from Ghoul). So, I wanted to make a fight scene like in Kill Bill from Quentin Tarantino." 

Mild spoiler after the break, so be sure to watch before proceeding:

Cassie's Clips: Cutie Collective's Holiday Ho Ho Hunt for SL Bargains -- And Bringing Back Mainstore Events!

NWN Cassie Middles has a peek at the Cutie Collective's new holiday-themed hunt for bargain shoppers in search of great content -- and as she puts it, aims to help reverse a worrying trend in the Second Life economy:

"Ho Ho Hunt is an amazing hunt to the grid that is bringing events back to the mainstores. There's been a slight epidemic lately where stores really only make profit at major events, making it hard for their other products to be known, making creators constantly only work on deadlines for projects, and feel pressure. I'd love to see more hunts like this that might help people relax, help new people discover stores, including the fact that new SLers can find cheaper items to make their avatars look updated and wonderful."

Click here to directly teleport, and look for this storefront to get started:

Join SL's Peace on Earth Hunt for Globes, Free Ample Avi Avatars

Starting tomorrow, NWN partner Ample Avi is participating in the Peace on Earth Hunt (POE 11 for short, since it's now in its eleventh year running), billed as the longest-running grid-wide hunt in Second Life. (Ample Avi has participated in the POE Hunt every year since its beginning.)

"This is a L$0 hunt, and hunters will be looking for a small globe of the Earth," Ample's Xme Xme tells me. "There are no decoy globes, and designers are required to hide their globes within a reasonable distance of the landing point.  A hint for hunters is provided at the landing point." 

For the Hunt, Ample is also offering a Winter-themed gift in partnership  with Junior Avi, for creating family scenes like this one:"Bringing the Tree Home". The avatars depicted here are available for free via these SLurls:

• Go here for the Junior Avi. 
• Go here for Ample Avi.

Looks like much fun for hunt fans. This one runs from December 1st to December 31. More about POE 11 on the official site.

Cassie's Clips: Previewing Genus Head's New Motion Captured Animations

Exclusive to New World Notes, Ms. Cassie Middles previews an ambitious new update to the Genus mesh head -- motion captured animations for facial expressions:

"Now the head has mocap and there's several resting animations, fluid moving animations, gestures, and eye, brow, and mouth phases of animations," she tells me. I'm impressed, because it's incredibly difficult to mocap facial expressions, since they involve so many muscle groups.

It's not 100% perfect, she allows, but still smashing: 

Cassie's Clips: Sneak Peek of SL's Romp Fashion Event This Weekend Ft. Sexy Clothes You Can Adjust While Wearing & Boots You Can Hold

Here's a speak peek video of this weekend's Romp event in SL, from NWN correspondent Cassie Middles. (Warning: Somewhat NSFW, just like Romp itself.) Key item is what she's showing off here -- the Mirage Abbacci, with user-adjustable clothing items. Watch to see what I mean, because "adjustable" doesn't quite convey how cool this is.

"Romp is an event that I hold near and dear to my heart," she tells me. "It was actually my first ever adult shopping experience I've ever had where kink and BDSM were seen as quite normal. Beautiful furniture, accessories, decor, and amazing things like this outfit by Mirage.N.A here. Vanilla Bae was the first store I ever found that had interactive clothing like this, but the boots were what sold me -- the fact that you can wear them or carry them over the arm, I think is amazing and perfect for roleplay. If you check out their Fickr feed, you'll see so much more interactive outfits there as well for both genders, though Mirage mostly works with Belleza bodies so make sure to read or demo before trying."

Romp starts tomorrow. Links after the break!

Second Life's Open-Ended User Interface as an MMO is So Complicated, Mastering the UI is How to Level Up

Pictured: Cassie demonstrating Lelutka's Axis HUD for customizing highly detailed SL Avatar expressions

Great conversation about the difficulty of customizing Second Life avatars, which now include countless user-made systems (like the one above) built on top of the default system, with reader "Scott" making this point:

While I don't disagree that creating a beautiful avi can be complex and difficult for new users, I don't agree with the implication this is a problem for Second Life. I remember the difficulties and frustrations of learning how some of this works. I still don't understand all of it, but it was (and still is) enjoyable to learn. I get a sense of accomplishment. The subtleties of second life avi construction become an "inside joke" with others who have had the same struggles. Not only do you get a sense of accomplishment, but you get the feeling of becoming a member of the "club" who have leveled-up and made a kick-ass avi.

This is very true -- while Second Life is not a traditional MMO, the very complexity of its user-experience has turned avatar customization into a kind of leveling mechanic. (Which is not too different from many traditional MMOs where you can immediately identify veteran players by the special details and features of their avatar.)

Seen this way, buying customization options from other users becomes a short-cut for leveling up:

Creative User Hacks to Second Life Appearance Make Avatar Customization Incredibly Difficult for New Users (Comment of the Week)

Pictured: User-Made Mesh Head Heads-Up Display (reviewed by Cassie here)

Commenting on the appearance of professional makeover agencies in Second Life, reader "Pulsar" points out this is partly the outcome of innovation among the user community, as users came up with creative ways to improve avatar appearance options beyond what the default viewer offered:

And to think that once you could create your own hair style straight from the viewer sliders, as well as everything else (you still can, but it's outdated).

Creative users took advantage of each update and new feature to improve their avatar looks, sometimes even with hacks like the "invisiprim". Avatars became prettier and prettier, even incomparably better, but on the other hand fashion became more and more complex.

Instead of sliders, you had to edit your prim or sculpt attachments, then you had to use alpha layers, then merchants would sell their rigged mesh without setting the attachment point, so you have to carefully "add" it (or add to another attachment point) instead of "wearing" it, in order to not end up naked, just because you grabbed an ice cream. Then appliers, various HUDs, then you have a bunch of products from different brands and that aren't compatible with each other, as well as legacy content, so you have to know what's compatible with.

In other words, with every creative workaround the Second Life community added, avatars became more and more difficult to customize -- and became near impossible for new users:

Cassie's Clips: How to Unbox Items to Use in Second Life -- A Common User Interface Confusion Among New SL Shoppers

Here's NWN video correspondent Cassie Middles with a helpful and very necessary tutorial for unboxing items in Second Life. It's necessary, because even though fashion and virtual shopping is essential to the Second Life economy, Linden Lab has allowed its user interface for owning and using items to remain incredibly counter-intuitive and user-unfriendly. Which is not only hurting the economy, it's frustrating newer users. As Cassie points out, many bad reviews in the SL Marketplace are actually about this confusion with the user interface:  

 

Second Life Avatar Fashion So Confusing & Complicated There Are Professional Makeover Agencies

Before and after with the Makeover Agency

SL social media queen Ms. Strawberry Singh has a fascinating interview with the founder of The Makeover Agency, which is more or less an outgrowth of Second Life's option-laden, confusing, user-unfriendly fashion marketplace and user interface. As founder SarahBeths  explains:

Cassie's Clips: Previewing Genus, a New Mesh Head Now in Beta But Already Among the Best in Second Life

NWN style video correspondent Cassie Middles previews Genus, a new mesh head now in beta from Anna Ivanova, available in her in-world store (direct teleport here). Cassie says it's among the very best heads available in Second Life:

"While I still prefer Lelutka Forever," as she puts it, "I do think Genus is onto something with the different pupil sizes, the pores and shines on the skin, and how closely shaped it is to the skeleton versus the other heads. I prefer Lelutka for how clean their HUD looks, how their animations and posers work, and how popular it is -- which makes finding skins and makeups much easier. 

 

In a four-part series of videos (see the part 2 below, the rest on her channel), Cassie goes into detail on Genus, trying out the HUD first, making the shape, then giving some final thoughts and expectations. She also tries out the Lelutka Axis HUD to see if it's compatible with Genus: