New Second Life, virtual reality and metaverse podcast

First episode of new Second Life, virtual reality and metaverse podcast; The Drax Files radio hour [with Jo Yardley], is now online!

http://draxfiles.com/2014/01/10/show-1-oculus-nsa-fitted-mesh/

The Drax Files Radio Hour with Jo Yardley going live tomorrow!

Today we recorded the first episode of ‘The Drax Files Radio Hour with Jo Yardley’.

Draxtor Despres and I discussed some of the current news stories regarding Second Life and virtual reality in general, listen to a few items and interviews and generally chat about what’s going on in our online world.

We recorded the episode from a tiny attic in 1920s Berlin and had a good time.

Although we are very enthusiastic about our Second Lives, it won’t be an hour of us telling everyone how great SL is.

We will be critical as well and of course our guests won’t hide their opinions either.

But there is no denying that we are both excited about the potential virtual reality has.

Most importantly, we are “extreme users” of SL, Drax makes his machinima, I run a busy role playing community.

We both spend a lot of time inworld and have done so for a couple of years.

This will be a weekly show and we’re always looking for new guests.

So please let us know if you’re interested in chatting to us or if you think someone you know might be an interesting guest.

We’re looking for musicians, people who have only just started their Second Life, people who have been in SL since the dawn of time, movers, shakers, creators, etc.

The first episode will go live January 10th, 7am SLT.

There will be several ways to listen to it, you’ll find out more on the official Drax Files Radio Hour website;

http://draxfiles.com/

And our facebook page;

https://www.facebook.com/draxfilesradiohour

I hope you enjoy the show, let me know what you think!

Celebrity regrets turning Second Life offer down

Tags

"second life", bit coin, Lily Allen

This is a funny way for Second Life to reach the world news again, although the story makes little sense.

Lily Allen, who apparently is a world famous star, posted this on twitter two days ago;

It is of course very funny to hear that someone regrets not performing in Second Life, even though the main motive here is just financial reward.

This starlet has over 4 million followers on Twitter and 3 million on Facebook, so it is a big name who is now making some free advertising for our virtual world.

I wonder who made her the offer!

But if this really happened 5 years ago, she is mistaken.

Bitcoin has just celebrated its 5th anniversary so if this indeed happened 5 years ago, there would not have been “hundreds of thousands” of bitcoins in existence.

She probably means Linden Dollars, a lot less valuable but generally more stable and more easy to convert to real money.

Still, in the end Second Life got some free publicity!

 

Oculus Rift & Real Scale Test Area

Tags

"oculus rift"

In this little corner of Second Life you can explore a street, a bar and a house that have all been build to a real world scale. A lot of places in Second Life have been build to different ideas of scale, often just guesses or estimations based on how large some of the avatars are. By using a realistic scale, things feel more natural. We use the scale of the “prim”, the building blocks of Second Life, translating real world scale straight into Second Life Centimeters.

When using the Oculus Rift, realism and realistic scale becomes very important. You will be seeing Second Life trough the eyes of your avatar, while normally you would see the virtual world trough a camera view high above the head of your avatar. This makes visiting a lot of places in SL a strange experience as doors and ceilings appear to be made for giants.

This Test area allows you to see what the use of realistic scale looks and feels like without having to change your avatar or your avatar’s clothes so you can visit the actual 1920s Berlin sim. If you would like to visit an entire city build to this scale and with immersion as one of its main goals, please change into some of the (free) 1920s clothes and get on the train behind the little station.

Here you can also get Loki’s mesh Oculus Rift headset for your avatar and the complete building kit for realistic proportional avatars for free.

You can find the test area here; http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/1920s%20Berlin/243/207/753

I’d appreciate it if you wrote down your experiences and shared them with me, perhaps for my blog.
And if you’re interested in discussing the potential of using the Oculus Rift in Second Life, join us on facebook; https://www.facebook.com/oculuslife

Second Life is Oculus ready! Viewer to be released soon.

Tags

"second life", oculus rift

Nalates Urriah just announced on her blog (click to read the article!) that Linden Lab has finished making a viewer that works with the Oculus Rift!

This is very big and exciting news.

We knew LL was working on this but all we knew was that it would be finished before the commercial version of the Rift became available to the public next year.

Nalates says that VoidPointer Linden said that things looked really cool and that he was actually using it during the meeting.

Apparently it had very little effect on his FPS.

VoidPointer Linden responded to this blog with the following comment;

“Feature Complete” is not “ready”, actually. It means that the planned features are done. There is more to a release than just features, however, as there is still testing and bug-fixing, which is in progress. It’s the equivalent of a first-draft of a book”

So we’re not there yet, but I’m still very excited.
Things are working and LL is making progress!

It has not yet been officially announced when the Oculus Rift compatible viewer becomes available to the public but now it is ready, it seems we won’t have to wait very long.

The more time we in SL have to prepare for an Second Life full of Oculus users, the better.

Because I think, being very optimistic, that when the Oculus becomes public, lots of people will buy one and after trying a few demos that come with the Oculus, they might want to give Second Life another go.

After all, trying a demo is fun, but being able to explore something in VR that you’ve build yourself is even more fun.

Of course this all depends on how Linden Lab is going to play this, they have to make sure they are ready to start a whole new PR campaign the second the Oculus goes commercial, making sure everyone who buys one, knows they could (and should) try it in Second Life!

Inara Pey was also at the meeting, you can read her report on her blog here.

Want to stay up to date with all Oculus Rift in Second Life news?
Join us here on the unofficial but approved Facebook page ‘Oculus Rift and Second Life’.

CEO of Linden Lab, Rod Humble, trying out the Oculus Rift.

Improving avatar animations

I’ve never liked Animation Overriders, just to stop myself from walking like a drunk duck, I had to go spend ages looking for one of those AO’s, spend money (as a Dutch person, I hate that), and then I had to fine tune it, remember to activate it all the time, deactivate it for certain objects, I had to walk around with some ugly button on my screen, etc, etc.

And being someone who wants her avatar to look as much like her RL me as possible, I wanted an AO that made me walk like a grumpy, tired 41 year old woman, not some sexy catwalk model.
There isn’t much of a market for AO’s like that.
In SL you’re eather a 20 something wild young thing, or a 90 year old granny.

Anyway, now that LL has recently changed the skeleton of our avatars to work better with the new mesh clothes that actually adjust to your body in stead of us having to adjust our bodies to the clothes, I was wondering if perhaps it was about time they also updated our custom animations.

I don’t know how old the custom animations are, I’ve been here for about 5 years now and I don’t remember them changing.
Our regular walk and especially our run, are rather silly.
I think it would be relatively easy to give our avatars some decent animations, there are enough very talented animators in SL who could do a great job here.
We don’t need much, just a more realistic and normal male and female walk, run and sit.
This way we also don’t kill the AO market, most AO’s offer a lot more options and most people in SL will still want to buy an AO.

But especially the penniless noobs will be a lot happier and us oldtimers will be less annoyed whenever we turn our AO off to cut down on lag.

I think this is a small job that could make a lot of people very happy.

Fitting mesh clothes coming to SL!

This is great news and an improvement many people have been desperately waiting for for a long time.

Linden Lab announced that they are releasing the Fitted Mesh project viewer.

The idea is that this will allow mesh clothes to fit to your body in stead of having to fit your body to the clothes.

I am not that much into fashion and gladly wear the same virtual outfit every day for months.

But my avatar is based on me in RL and I am not a Barbie or catwalk model, so unfortunately every 1920s outfit I’ve bought would not fit me unless I was willing to change my body and as I spend all my time roleplaying, I don’t suddenly want to look completely different.

Also a much thinner avatar just wouldn’t be me.

So for the last couple of years I’ve been avoiding mesh clothes, but now it seems they may even fit me.

This viewer is experimental, so it could still be a little while before this goes grid wide, also it seems it will only work on clothes specially made to work with this system.

So don’t expect to suddenly be able to fit into all your mesh clothes.

But it is coming!

If you’re interested in the technical details, want to see some screenshots and read about how it all works, follow this link to the excellent article by Inara Pey on her blog here.

More Second Life improvements

Due to computer issues I managed to completely miss this latest news from Linden Lab about more improvements!

It seems like they have been doing a lot of good work fixing some of the issues people have been experiencing for a long time.

These improvements promise a much faster and more pleasant experience in SL.

And without wanting to sound grateful; About time!

Technically this does not improve the SL experience much but because the things you see close to you rez faster, it will feel like things have improved a lot.

After all, you won’t notice that a tree on the other side of the region is not rezzing till you actually get there and by that time, it has of course rezzed.

A huge improvement is also that regions you visit a lot can be stored in your cache and kept there, on your computer at home.

This means that those sims rez even faster.

Extra handy for people like me who spend 99% of their time in the same place.

But there is also bad news, apparently this was the final phase of the series of improvements planned by Linden Lab.

I think that most of us in SL would like to see this recent wave of advancements continue!

There is still so much to do.

For starters I’d like to be able to actually wear mesh clothes, 2 years after mesh was introduced in SL they still don’t work if your avatar isn’t shaped like Barbie.

Anyway, progress is good and I can’t wait to see these improvements.

Unfortunately the new viewer doesn’t work for macbooks with old operating systems like mine.

Here is the LL video introducing the improvements, in case you’ve missed it;

Why one day Virtual Reality will be in every home.

Tags

"second life", 360 degree camera, oculus rift, virtual cinema, virtual reality, virtual worlds, vr technology

Although most people by now seem to realise the huge potential the new VR technology (in the shape of the Oculus Rift) could have for virtual worlds like Second Life, some still think that it will be a niche thing.
That only a few people will actually end up owning this gadget and that eventually it will end up in the cupboard, dusty and forgotten or only used by a few nerds.

I think that the Oculus Rift (or any other kind of virtual headset) will actually end up in almost every household.

People don’t always see that virtual reality can and will be used for much more than just playing games and having fun in virtual worlds.
I think that this technology will be used to watch movies/tv, to go shopping, for education, as social media, for exercise, to work, etc, etc.

I will try and explain why I think this.

Virtual reality & film/tv;

This video shows people enjoying short clips shot with a 360 degree camera, the camera is stationary, it does not move, the person watching moves his head to look around “inside” the film.
Walking around in something that was filmed in this way is at this moment not yet possible but I don’t doubt that this will be possible soon.

And yes, many of us would probably prefer to enjoy our movies in the old fashioned way but imagine watching the last episode of ‘Breaking Bad’ while actually being inside it, watching an exciting scene… and then suddenly realising someone is standing behind you…
It may not be your cup of tea, you may prefer to watch a movie the traditional way, but it is obvious that many people will enjoy this new possibility as well.
That makes this video so interesting, it is a big step in that direction.

Another option is to watch a movie together with friends in a virtual cinema;

I think that this is another interesting and fun way to watch a movie, it brings the magic of the cinema to your home without the noisy people, mobile phones or sticky floors.
And you can perhaps also pick a certain type of cinema, such as a lovely 1930s art deco one for that vintage movie, complete with an audience of 1930s people, smoking all trough the movie.
And of course you will be able to share the cinema with friends and family even if they live on the other side of the world.

Virtual Reality & Shopping;

I personally hate shopping and would love to avoid it completely but other people love it.
Either way, many of us already use the internet to shop and VR will make this experience more fun or less of a hassle.
For instance, imagine you need a new tv, you visit a few websites but the most they can offer you is a picture that perhaps, if you’re lucky, you can turn around a bit.
Whoohoo, I can see the backside of a tv.
In a virtual shop you can see 3d models of each television set but you will eventually also be able to get a free virtual copy that you can ‘rez’ in a virtual facsimile of your living room, make sure it fits in that corner, if you need a new table to go with it, etc, etc.
The tv will of course work!
And as always, this can be a shared experience.
You can invite your mother to come see you fit a wedding dress even though she lives far away.

It will probably never replace normal shopping, but I bet it will be the end of the regular online shopping experience.
Because those online shops are dull as dishwater.

Virtual Reality & education;

Now here is a big one, especially for me personally.
I am not a teacher but I work a lot with schools, museums and educational tv shows and as someone with a huge passion for history, sharing that interest and making people understand how amazing and interesting history is, education is hugely important to me.

But in the world of Virtual Reality this is also a big one to use as a way to promote this technology and it is quite simple to convince people about how well this technique could be used for this purpose.

For instance, sorry about using history again and blatantly promoting my own sim in the following bit, imagine a class room discussing 1920s Berlin as part of their curriculum.
Learning about the chaos of post WW1 Germany, the rise of Nazism, etc.
As the class begins, everyone puts on their VR set and soon find themselves wandering the streets of 1920s Berlin.
Perhaps they will use something like my crude creation in Second Life or  a much smoother and more realistic version made especially for schools.
Teacher shows them some of the spots, their avatars in 1920s clothing makes them realise what they might have looked like had they actually lived back then, the place is filled with NPCs (non–playable characters) and feels alive, real.
But after after the lesson, after school, children will go home and do their homework also by using the VR set to go back to 1920s Berlin, take their time to visit more places, to investigate or perhaps just to have some fun as well.
One day perhaps the whole school will take place in a virtual reality, a scary idea perhaps  but a huge solution to those children living far away from school.
Anyway, I think it is quite obvious that Virtual Reality can be an amazing tool for education, both in school and at home.

I couldn’t find a nice video about the future of virtual education, so I’ll share this old one of me giving a tour in 1920s Berlin;

Virtual reality & Social Media;

Many of us spend a lot of time on facebook, keeping in touch with friends, family and work colleagues.
How this will develop in the near virtual future is very hard to predict.
Will it become a quick sort of virtual world where everyone has their own “page” that they can design?
Will checking how someone is doing be like visiting their tropical island, villa or castle in the sky?
Will it be something like Second Life… will it be Second Life?
Or will it be a bunch of pictures and notifications that just float in the air while you’re busy working or playing in your virtual office?
In the novel “Ready Player One” our hero has a virtual basement where he hangs out with his friends, will social media evolve into something like that?
Will facebook of the future look and feel like a virtual neighbourhood where all your friends have a home they designed themselves, with sign floating above it when something important has happened,  where their latest snapshot is projected onto the lawn and where above the roof their current status is shown?
Where you can enter their home, look at their stuff and hear their music?

I couldn’t find a video about this but I did find this interesting interview;
Inventor Of Oculus Rift: The Future Of Virtual Reality Is Social Networking

Virtual Reality & Exercise;

Exercise is big business but generally it is a rather boring activity, unless you’re able to spend a fortune to buy cool toys or travel to exciting places.
But virtual reality will make exercise a lot more fun for many people, regardless of budget.
Thanks to omnidirectional treadmills you will be able to walk and run in a virtual reality, you can choose to get your exercise just walking around some virtual world, running for your life in a computer game but you can also burn calories in surroundings specially created for this purpose.
After all, where would you rather do your morning jogging?
In the street outside your home that you see every single day already or some exotic beach, stunning dessert, the rainforest, across the moon or perhaps in a world you created yourself?
Virtual reality will make this possible and this will be interesting for people who might usually not be interested in gaming, virtual reality or even computers.
For instance, I can see my mum use VR for this purpose.
This is a big market.
The Wii Fit for instance, a computer “game” that allows people to do real exercise, has sold nearly 23 million copies.

This video shows some of the options, but here of course all they do is watch a screen.
Imagine doing these sports in a virtual reality.

Virtual Reality & work;

It is obvious that working from home (AKA teleworking) is going to be big in the future.
Renting expensive offices, travel costs (both in money, time and pollution), etc.
Virtual reality will make this a lot easier, you will actually be able to feel part of a team, be present at a meeting, do a presentation and even feel like you’re chatting at the watercooler, while never leaving your chair at home, or perhaps even without getting dressed…

Either way, I reckon it will beat this alternative…

Conclusion;

I am trying to explain that Virtual Reality will not just be a niche gadget for extreme gamers with more money than wisdom.
I hope to have shown that in the very recent future Virtual Reality will be something you’ll find in almost every home, the VR set will be as common as tv sets are today.

And when everyone has access to Virtual Reality and when Linden Lab manages to keep up and make it work very very well in Second Life… our virtual world may become bigger than it has ever been.
The minute people get their hands on a VR set for the first time they will want more than the demos and games.
And then they may remember Second Life, see that advertisement, hear that story, see that youtube video and realise that it still is the biggest online virtual world there is.
And that it can be more fun to explore something you have build yourself than some place build by some game designer, some place everyone has seen a million times before.
And maybe you will realise that some of the VR experiences you’re about to pay for… can already be found in SL, for free.

In short, we’re at the dawn of a Virtual Reality renaissance and I think that this could also be Second Life’s renaissance.

There WILL be a Second Life for Second Life… as long as Linden Lab plays its cards right… and fixes its Terms Of Service!

The Oculus Buzz caused by Linden Lab

Tags

"second life", oculus rift, virtual reality

It looks like Linden Labs latest PR video is causing a little bit of a buzz.

And most of that seems to be because at the very end they mention the Oculus Rift.

A lot of people appear to be interested in the Rift and the combination with Second Life is interesting to many of them, even the skeptical ones and those who don’t seem to like SL much.

For instance, ‘The Verge’ did an article about SL on the 24th and now on the 27th they did another one because of the video.

That is good publicity, well done LL.

But they are not the only one.

It is (becoming) a hot topic of discussion, sadly this also reminds us of the bad reputation SL has.

Everywhere you hear the old comments of “Does that still exist?!” to “Oh where the pervy furries do the naughty things” and “Oh where they have graphics from 2007?”.

However, I think the video LL just made gets is a step in the right direction to change peoples opinions of SL and I hope that their next PR step will be showing how pretty SL can be.

I am a gamer and have played some very recent games and although of course, SL’s graphics can’t quite reach the level of many of those games, I’ve also been in some sims where at least visually things get pretty close.

I think that it would be a great idea if LL started some sort of photo contest, picked the most stunning pictures made in SL and shared those with the world.

Or perhaps invite some of the best Machinima makers and ask them to shoot some stunning footage for a PR video purely made to let people know SL moved on.

I can see it now… Second Life… has such bad graphics… and then a amazing montage of some of SL’s most amazing places with superb windlight settings, shadows, the works…

Fade to black; This is how Second Life can look, we moved on, come along with us.

Come to think of it, one video per cliche might be fun.

One video about how Second Life is all virtual hanky panky (by showing all the other things also happening in SL), one about that it is only for people who like to dress up and pretend to be barbie (by showing the enormous diversity in avatars), one about that it is only for losers (by showing smart, educated, funny SL users as they are in RL), that it is laggy (by showing what SL looks like on a up to date computer), one about that it is only a virtual chatroom (by showing roleplaying, education, art), etc.

Sure, SL can be bad, but do you think that Rockstar games shows the lowest quality GTA 5 footage in its advertisements?

We need to let people know that Second Life is still here, is not what many people seem to think it is, that it has improved and that it will improve even more.

So more videos, more up to date pictures (contact those journalists that keep using 2007 screenshots!!) and keep the buzz going.

Anyway, I am getting distracted, back to the subject.

If you search the internet for Second Life and Oculus Rift, you’re getting quite a few hits, many of them quite recent.

And no, I promise, I’m not responsible for all of them… although you probably will bump into me at some of those sites 😉

Anyway, all of this makes it clear that no matter how it ends up, a lot of people are now watching this and are keeping an eye on how Second Life and the Oculus Rift will work together… or not.

Just as I predicted and expected.

So I am glad that LL seems to take this very serious as well.

I may be a bit too optimistic, but I still think that the Virtual reality renaissance that is about to happen could also mean a renaissance for Second Life.