Exploring Oculus Rift Locations In Second Life Without The Oculus Rift

The Weimar Reupblic may well be a place people would like to immerse themselves in virtual reality, but it’s not really the sort of place you’d expect to see new fangled gadgets such as the Oculus Rift being demonstrated. However that’s exactly what’s happening in a small corner of Jo Yardley’s 1920’s Berlin sim.

1920's Berlin Oculus Rift Corner

I stumbled across this and many other destinations because I was taking a look at the Exceptional with Oculus Rift section of The Second Life Destination Guide. However my exploration was somewhat nerfed due to the fact that I don’t own an Oculus Rift. However don’t let that put you off, it’s still interesting to explore these locations.

However the important aspect of visiting 1920’s Berlin is that it raises the scale issue, this is undoubtedly an issue for Oculus Rift usage and a handy notecard in the area makes this point :

Welcome to the Oculus Rift and Real Scale Test area.

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.

The scale issue is something I’ve seen raised plenty of times and is one of the main reasons that people feel that worlds and games should be built from the ground up with Oculus Rift usage in mind, rather than trying to retro fit Oculus Rift usage. However the dynamic nature of Second Life does allow people to build with Oculus Rift in mind, but it will also mean many parts of Second Life not being optimised, which may make for a frustrating experience.


Oculus Rift and Real Scale Test Area

Want to test out the Oculus Rift? Come try out this corner of 1920’s Berlin specially built to show real scale immersion. There’s even freebies and realistic-proportioned avatars!

Visit in Second Life

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Staff And Students Leave Positive Feedback Regarding The MA Education in Virtual Worlds

Staff and students have both left glowing testimonials regarding the University Of The West Of England’s MA Education in Virtual Worlds postgraduate course, which is taught entirely within Second Life. The course is produced via the Education Innovation Centre.

Liz Falconer, Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning at the UWE gave a little bit more background information regarding the University, explaining that the University has had its own charter since 1992 and covers a wide range of subjects. The University is also home to the world renowned Bristol Robotics Lab. The professor also elaborated a little more about the University’s use of virtual worlds, stating :

We use virtual environments to ready our students for practice in the real world, from law to forensics.

Senior Lecturer in Virtual Worlds, Dr Mari Carmen Gil Ortega said :

The quality of the students in the MA Education in Virtual Worlds, run by the University of the West of England, is unquestionable. I am impressed by the creativity of their work, their analytical skills and their insight and intuition. This shows in their work and assessments results which are outstanding. They also form a real community of practice and have lots of amazing skills to share with the real and the virtual world population. I consider myself privileged and fortunate to work with these talented people and observe their progress as they move through the programme.

I’ll have more from Dr Mari Carmen Gil Ortega later in this post, including a YouTube interview she recently gave. However the positive feedback came not just from staff members, students also joined in :

I am a PhD student having just completed 4 modules in this MA Programme as part of my degree requirements. My research is based on using the virtual world to enhance the learning of Computer Science at the HE level…….

I was privileged to have the opportunity to benefit from the wide range of skills, support and dedication of the academic staff on this programme, who built and advanced my expertise in employing this emerging technology in Higher Education, and well-prepared me to successfully achieve my PhD. – Beslam

Another student on the course to leave positive feedback was Aaron Griffiths. Aaron is Lecturer: Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology – Multiuser Virtual Environments and is also Director of the very interesting F/Xual Education Services. Aaron said of the course  :

Its relevancy for educational practice goes far beyond virtual environments but obviously, given its focus, it does apply much of its theoretical knowledge towards the development of best practice in virtual worlds.

Aaron also explained that he has first hand knowledge of the course, having already completed the eight compulsory modules he is now into the final extended project.

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Second Life Skill Gaming Policy Pushed Back To September 1st

In better late than never news, Linden Lab have announced that the new skill gaming policy will not now go into effect until September 1st. Linden Lab had originally announced on the 9th July that the policy would come into effect on August 1st, which didn’t give sim owners a lot of wiggle room on a monthly billing cycle.

The new blog post states :

Since our original announcement, we’ve received many applications from Second Life users who want to become approved skill game creators and operators. By moving the date back, we’ll be able to process a larger number of applications and also offer creators more time to make necessary changes to their games.

However at this point, just a few days away from the original August 1st deadline, there are no approved operators or games on the public wiki. This deadline provides all parties, operators, game makers and Linden Lab, some breathing space to ensure the skill gaming policy is smoothly launched.

The policy itself aims to bring some responsibility and legislation to skill gaming in Second Life, with the following broad aims :

  • Skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Skill Gaming Regions only.
  • Only operators approved by Linden Lab will be allowed to run skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts on Skill Gaming Regions.
  • Creators of skill games that wish to make them available in Second Life may do so only through Skill Gaming Regions and only after the games have been approved by Linden Lab.
  • Access to Skill Gaming Regions will be restricted to Second Life users who are of sufficient age and are located in a jurisdiction that Linden Lab permits for this kind of online gaming activity.
  • In summary, skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Second Life, but each game, its creator, its operator, and the region on which it is operated must be approved by Linden Lab.

Skill gaming regions are more expensive to run than regular regions, with a monthly tier bill before VAT or any other applicable taxes of US$345.00 a month as well as a US$100.00 conversion fee. I must admit I did not notice the conversion fee cost before and I don’t quite understand why that is required as there’s already a fee for applying for this as well as a license fee so this conversion fee seems to be a tad over the top.

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SLBA To Discuss Second Life Terms Of Service Changes

SLBA In Second Life

Inara Pey reported last week that there would be an In-world legal presentation on the recent updates to the Lab’s Terms of Service. I’m not breaking any new ground here, this post is about exactly the same thing.

The extremely contentious and ultimately for many of us, disappointing, changes to section 2.3 of the terms of service will be discussed as well as the new skill gaming policy. However as the deadline for that has been put back to September 1st it may not be such a hot topic. Alternatively putting the deadline back to September 1st may make for a healthier and less frenzied discussion.

The SLBA discussion is scheduled for 10:am SLT on August 2nd and will be hosted by Agenda Faromet.

The discussion will take place in the SLBA court room, SLURL  : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Justitia/88/125/951

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RezMela Competition In Kitely Extended To August 31st

In a fashionable couple of days for extending deadlines, the RezMela contest, being held on the Kitely grid, has been extended until August 31st. I previosuly blogged about this contest here.

For those wondering, the blurb about RezMela includes :

RezMela™ allows subject matter experts create, tailor and manage avatar based interactive 3D virtual training environments in minutes without any programming or 3D modelling skills. Our approach enables intuitive and deep control of virtual content components from our growing library. These functionalities help blur the boundaries between virtual scenario creation and manipulation. RezMela™ thus provides trainers with the much needed ability to calibrate in real time the flow and complexity of their custom virtual exercises. The need to match rapidly and precisely unanticipated changes in learning requirements is well established by virtual exercise designers and facilitators. RezMela™ is designed from ground up to address this outstanding need.

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