Magic Leap introduces Avatar Chat and it is stupid.

Tags

avatar chat, magic leap, sansar, vrchat

Ok, I know I’m just a bitter old woman who doesn’t understand happy hip young trendy people but seriously?
Magic Leap has just introduced ‘Avatar Chat’ and just like with Facebook’s VRchat, they think it is appealing to make it look like a game for 5 year olds.
While we in Second Life have had pretty decent looking avatars for quite a few years, both VRchat and now Avatar Chat think we’re ok with cartoon characters.

And of course, maybe that is exactly what young urban professionals want who use VR to share healthy exciting cooking recipes… because yeah, that’s what we all would use VR for right?

Look at this;

Just ignoring the very ugly Magic Leap logo, which also looks like a failed character by a dodgy Chinese company trying to be like Disney, I’m immediately annoyed by the controller.
It is 2018 and we’re still using controllers in VR?
Are we still waiting for the gloves or other wearables to hit the market?

Yeah I just want to make a call, so lets point this thing around and click a trigger 3246 billion times in stead of just pointing with my vinger or you know, give a voice command…

Our hip young trendy friends in their groovy fancy expensive homes apparently have the mental age of a child.
They give each other “high fives” that for some reason make flamingo firework appear, make silly sounds and send heart pictures because they like a picture of a meal…
Someone makes an astronaut appear for no reason and it is time for a “fist bump”, again with firework.
If I was in this VR chat with them, I’d be bumping my fist into their faces by now.

But it seems like that’s all they wanted to do, some silly stuff and then they go back to their busy professional lives…

Maybe it is just me being grumpy, cynical and old and I do realise that young hip people in general are pretty stupid these days, but this video is really quite underwhelming, to put it mildly.

Now the last time I checked Sansar didn’t have some of the things both these VR chat services offer but they are already looking a LOT better.
Of course I have no idea about how much work is involved in programming any of this, but looking at this, I reckon it wouldn’t be that much of an effort for the Sansar team to create a VR chat demo that would blow these videos out of the water.

360 panoramic screenshots coming to SL viewer

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360

Recently 360 degrees screenshots and video shot within Second Life have been the talk of the day.

Last August the first 360 degrees video was shot inworld (in 1920s Berlin) by Electric Shepherd and and Draxtor Despres, using a camera rig build by Arduenn Schwartzman (read blog about it here).

And Illiastra Ascendent (nvzn Resident) (aka James Reichert) then worked on the 360 degrees photo making technology (see this blogpost).

Well it turns out that Linden Lab was impressed and realised the great potential for this technology because they are now adapting it into a SL viewer, including the stitching together of the images bit!

I think this is great, being able to share wonderful 360 pictures of your top location with other friends in SL but also with people who are not even familiar with our virtual world is a great tool.
I hope LL will also start using these pictures themselves, for instance in the Destination Guide but perhaps also in Marketplace.
It would be great to give people a 360 tour of the house you’re selling!

If you want to read more details and listen to Oz Linden’s talk about the subject, check out Inara Pey’s blog on the subject by clicking here.

Making animated Second Life Gifs

Tags

"second life", animated, animation, gif, media, publicity, social

Recently I spotted a lovely little animated picture on Loki Eliot‘s Twitter stream, one of those fun (and/or annoying) Gifs that you can find all over the internet.
He shared a link to the software he used to make them and now I’m making them myself all the time.

In a way they are moving screenshots, or short videos you can very easily shoot within Second Life.
We would of course love to make wonderful machinimas and show everyone with ultra graphics what our sims and our virtual world looks like, but alas, for this you need a pretty strong computer and it often involves setting up and running complicated and demanding software.

And right in the middle of a crowded events, our poor computers have to work hard enough already to simply make everything look half decent.
Anyway, this software is easy to figure out and works very well.

It is called Giphy and you can find it by clicking here.

Next time you’re in SL, activate Giphy, drag a window over your screen and click record.
Once done, edit it if need be, save it and upload it directly to the Giphy website.
Done!

I just love these little tiny films I can now make, but more importantly, they are such a great way to share your virtual adventures all over the internet.
I’ve been making a lot of them and people love seeing them, even friends and family who have never been in Second Life or don’t understand or even like it.

So I thought I’d go and share this nifty gadget and maybe you’ll like it as much as I do.
I look forward to seeing more and more animated Gifs from Second Life on Facebook, Twitter and even here on WordPress.

 

Make your own interactive panoramic pictures in Second Life

Tags

360, Illiastra Ascendent, James Reichert, panorama

Illiastra Ascendent (nvzn Resident) (aka James Reichert) who has been experimenting with 360 degrees videos and photography within virtual reality and specifically Second Life, has now developed a system that allows you to make interactive panoramic pictures yourself.

The Illiastra Panoramic Camera System (click) will allow you to record and then edit screenshots you take in Second Life into one large panoramic picture that allows you to interactively look around with your mouse.
A wonderful way to give people an impression of what your sim in SL looks like without them having to download the software, setup an account, create an avatar, find your sim, etc.
And not only will people be able to see your sim without downloading Second Life, they can also see it with the graphics and windlight setting you had in mind when you recorded the picture and no lag.

You can upload these panoramas to Facebook or even look around with your VR headset or Hololens, as demonstrated here;

I think this would look really nice as part of the destination guide or just as general promotion.
I’ve shared a few of these on the 1920s Berlin page.

Illiastra has now put all this information together into one kit that you can buy on marketplace (click).

I look forward t seeing lots of these panoramas popping up online soon.

For more information, check out Illiastra’s Facebook page here (click).

First Hololens experiment with 360 degrees footage filmed in Second Life

Tags

360, 360 degrees, hololens, James Reichert

After seeing the 360 degrees video shot in Second Life, Jim Reichert decided to see what he could do with this footage and his Hololens.
You may remember his name from a previous article I wrote about his attempt to bring an avatar into the real world.

The result is quite impressive, of course this is only a first test and as Jim explains he had to lower the resolution and the frame-rate is also not that great, but once you realise what you’re watching it becomes clear how impressive this is and that yet another milestone has been reached.

360 degrees video footage has been recorded in a virtual world and is now being projected onto a Hololens, live, while it is being worn in an office.
Combining virtual reality with 360 degrees video with Augmented Reality.

But you’ll see that the possibilities are huge, I look forward to more experiments that bring RL into SL and SL into RL!
As the song goes; “You ain’t seen nothing yet”.

First 360 degrees video recorded within Second Life

Tags

"second life", 360, 360 degree camera, 360 degrees, Arduenn Schwartzman, draxtor despres, Electric Shepherd, The 1920s Berlin Project, vimagine, virtual reality

Imagine being able to bring your 360 degrees camera into Virtual Reality, just set it up in the club, house, park or city that you’ve build yourself in Second Life, record it and then share it online with people from all over the world.

Let them get a taste of where you live in VR, let them look around and even give them the feeling they’re actually there by looking at it with their VR headset.

This is now possible!
Yesterday Electric Shepherd from Vimagine (who also worked on the ‘Virtualize it’ documentary for ‘Der Spiegel’) and Draxtor Despres came to 1920s Berlin to test out an amazing 360 degrees camera to film the, as far as I know, first 360 degrees video shot Live in Second Life in real time.

The camera rig was made by Arduenn Schwartzman (of Warbug fame), it has audio and video syncing capabilities and all recorded tracks are then aligned in post production.Even though this is still just an early test, it is already very impressive.

I can imagine short clips like these made in sims all over Second Life being used to show outsiders what life in our virtual world is like and the things that they can experience there.
Because these can also record busy events with lots of people and with many things happening at the same time!

Not only are these just fun videos on youtube, but they are very impressive when viewed through the Gear VR, the Cardboard VR or other headsets.
And not just that, it will also allow me to show off my sim in a whole new way to people who may not have tried Second Life, don’t know how SL works or who don’t have a computer that can handle SL.

And imagine making a full length machinima with this technology!
We could be making 360 films while people in RL have only just experimenting with it.
Once more the people in SL are groundbreaking.

You can see this pioneering footage here;
(not all browsers support 360 degrees video)

Some technical details send in by Draxtor;

• We are simulating a goPro Rig of 6 cameras, filming each with 1080 by 1080 (which is already too low = SL can handle more but we need the screens for FRAPS to capture it that high, working on it!!)
• I filmed this test myself so there is no syncing which means the Zeppelin dissapears into the cloud at one point: to do live action in SL we need to film at same time.
• Syncing is no prob: we have an automated system made by Arduenn Schwartzmann which syncs the six cameras with sound and a visual cue. But again = we need to figure out higher resolution = who has the computers to make it happen, are the colors in sync as well, is the SL lag an issue when aligning the cameras later on (f.e. a dance or fast car race or airship battle etc).
•  I am working with spatial audio on a RL project so next step will also involve inserting some sounds and dialogue which is spatialized.
• All in all the workflow we have is SUPER FAST = plop down the virtual camera rig in SL and shoot, export, stitch, correct = DONE = faster than RL 360 !!!!!!
• Big benefits of SL for this = inserting virtual sequences into a RL 360 video = much faster and easier than constructing it via other CGI options because you can film it in REAL TIME and the assets are all there. Yes maybe render engine less able than Unity or Unreal but a LOT easier and ultimately not worse than RL 360 at this point in the game!

And this article wouldn’t be complete without this earlier 360 degrees video in VR experiment by Zuza Ritt;

Bring your Second Life into real life with Augmented Reality

Tags

Augmented Reality, Illiastra Ascendent, James Reichert

Ever thought about meeting a SL avatar face to face in your RL living room?
Or see your SL house appear in front of you on the drive outside your RL home?
Or perhaps work on a SL dress in your RL workshop?
Thanks to Augmented Reality this is now becoming a possibility and it is only the beginning.

James Reichert has been working with Virtual and Augmented reality for years and early on experimented with Kinect, 3D tv and even building his own virtual surroundings for presentations. During his research he discovered Second Life, joined as Illiastra Ascendent, explored this virtual world, created something, sold something and, like the rest of us, was doomed hooked.

Recently James started experimenting with the Microsoft Hololens in combination with Second Life and his very first tests are already very promising and exciting.

Look for instance at this video he made, showing a SL-like avatar with a dress he designed.

He is looking at her through the Hololens, an Augmented Reality device that does not only show you a virtual object in reality but it also manages to lock it in a specific location so it stays there while you move around.

Right now you can see the avatar or furniture or whatever object you’ve created, as if it is with you in your real life, you can walk around it, see it from all angles.

But it won’t be long till you can do more than just watch, can you imagine actually building something virtual in real life?
Standing in front of an avatar wearing  your dress that you then lengthen, shorten and re-texture, right there and then. But even if you’re not a creator, wouldn’t it just be fun to see your own avatar standing in your RL room? Or even have another avatar visiting you in RL and chatting with you…

And on another level, a building James made in ‘Chief Architect’, which is not that different from what we’re used to in Second Life, is, lets call it ‘rezzed’ in a parking lot. Allowing us to look around it but even go inside and check out the details.

As someone who has created lots of buildings in Second Life, I’d love to walk around them in VR and AR, and looking at the future again, imagine being able to actually build this way or at least change the wallpaper while walking around your parking lot.
I can’t wait.

James says;

These modern HMDs aren’t VR, they are merely the conduits– the summoning circles– through which our avatars will finally be unleashed upon the waking world. The neo-VR industry built them thinking it would get them into the metaverse… they never considered what would come out.

James’ bumper sticker

James will be a guest on the Draxfiles Radio Hour soon and we’ll talk more about his experiments and the future possibilities of this technology.

First look at Facebook’s Social VR

Tags

facebook, social media, virtual reality

When Facebook bought Oculus Rift, people laughed or got angry, wondering what kind of VR nightmare would be the result of such a match.
How would they combine social media and VR?
And could it one day become a threat to Second Life?

Yesterday at the Facebook developers conference a very impressive demonstration was given that showed some of what they have in mind.

See the video here, uploaded by UploadVR (click to  visit).

 

To me it looks like a lot of fun, a sophisticated and even creative toy but not much more, not yet anyway.
But it shows a lot of potential.

At the moment we have avatars that are only hands and heads in a static, not moving 360° location.
But of course it will only be a matter of time before we can have these experiences in moving and fully interactive 3D locations and with complete and more realistic avatars.

I think I will enjoy this, I can see myself meeting my sister, mother or aunty this way while they are far away.
But with one click a then easily available and cheap 3D camera we can be with each other in the same location.

So will it threaten SL and Sansar?
Yes and no.
It looks like Social VR is going to work and be fun and for lots of people it will be more than enough, it will offer them a VR experience that is easy to use, they’ll enjoy and that will be all they need.
With many improvements and new options coming in the future in a way, it is competition for SL and Sansar.

But as long as they do not give us the amazing and unique freedom to create what we want and be what we want to be that we’re enjoying in Second Life and expecting in Sansar, Linden Lab doesn’t have to worry.

 

Here is a closer look at the actual VR footage, uploaded by Road to VR (click to visit).

Social VR is going to lower the threshold for millions of people who right now are not (yet) interested in VR, it will be their first experience and maybe it will make them want to see more, experience more… create more?

The golden ticket remains the absolute freedom SL is offering us now, that is what makes it unique.
In short; until I can build 1920s Berlin in Facebook’s Social VR, I won’t be leaving SL.

I will not buy an Oculus Rift any time soon

Tags

headset, oculus rift, virtual reality

So, the Oculus rift is finally going to be commercially available.

They are now available for pre-order  and will start shipping from March 28th onwards.

But… and here comes the sting… it is going to cost $599.

That is just too much.
And here in the Netherlands you’ll even be paying $750.
This does not even include their special controllers.

And that while Palmer Luckey himself only a few months ago answered a question by Road to VR about if the consumer Oculus Rift price would come in around that $350 ballpark target with;

You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. We’re roughly in that ballpark… but it’s going to cost more than that.

Must be nice to live in a world where $599 is roughly in the same ballpark s $350.

Either way, it seems they are selling them, lots of them.

But as excited as I am about all the new tech that is coming, I am not willing (or able) to spend this much on a headset.
Especially as I’ll also need to buy a new computer to handle VR properly as it doesn’t even work on my MacBook.

So even though I’m grateful to Oculus for sort of kickstart the VR renaissance, I also think they messed up.
Not only because of the high price they are asking for it but also because I think they missed the boat.
All this has taken them so long, that the competition has been developing other headsets as well, cheaper ones.
The Oculus will not be as much a seller as it would/could have been at half the price.
I think this may even slow down the spread of VR.

If even someone like me, who is crazy about VR and wants a good headset so badly, thinks that the Oculus headset is too expensive and will just not buy one, imagine what the average gamer or potential VR user will think
And let’s not even think about .general gamers, museums, schools and regular folks will think about this ‘toy.
While they should have brought us a good but cheap Rift that everyone would have wanted to buy and thus make sure that VR headsets end up in as many households as possible.

Do they really think we all want or need those special headphones, a game, a remote and an x box controller?
Because we pay extra for those, maybe not much, but it adds up.
Did they really have to spend so much time to develop all these extra things and their special new controllers?
I personally think they should have sold a basic Rift before Christmas and then sell all that other stuff separately for those who want them.
Now they missed the holiday sales and ended up with a very expensive toy.

But Palmer explains;

To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware. High end VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 6, 2016

I think and hope that the competition will now step up and offer us a good VR headset for at least half the price.
Oculus may have just ruined the opportunity of a life time.

I am secretly looking towards the people at Apple.
We know they have been acquiring quite a few VR related patents and are working on something…
And at least if they build a headset it will work on my Mac…

Will you be getting an Oculus Rift?

Photo copyright; Oculus.

 

The Infinadeck, a truly omnidirectional treadmill

Tags

infinadeck, omnidirectional, treadmill

A year or so ago I saw a video showing the Infinadeck, an omnidirectional treadmill to be used for Virtual Reality.
I loved it and got excited about its potential.
A couple of days ago they released a video showing the new and improved version;

I know, I know, it is huge.
But it is a lot smaller than the previous version;

Once more it is the potential that is exciting, not (yet) the actual device.
Right now it looks great and seems useable in an arcade, laboratorium  or military HQ.
But too big for my room and probably too expensive, for now.

This will become interesting to us all once it gets even smaller and cheaper.
It has to fit in a regular room and be affordable.

But this is still early days, it is not important what the device looks like now but what does matter is how it has improved in the last year and how it actually works.
It is brilliant in its simplicity.
I once tried to think about how an omnidirectional treadmill would work and my brain exploded.
But their solution is so basic yet so sophisticated.
I think this might be the technique to go with.

Is this something we VR users want?
Yes and no.
I guess it depends on who you are and what you do in VR.
I personally love realism and would not mind at all being absolutely exhausted after a VR gunfight or having to actually walk everywhere in Second Life.
I think it will be fun but it will also finally give us a chance to actually get off our fat backsides and get some exercise without having to stop doing what we love.