Virtual Worlds – Page 53

September 11, 2015

Linden Lab Talk To Tom’s Hardware About Project Sansar

When I was a lad, ok when I was younger, older than a mere lad, tom’s Hardware would be a site I would go to for information about graphics cards and such like. The site had a reputation for being trustworthy when it came to reviews of hardware, plus the community had a reputation for being helpful and knowledgeable.

These days tom’s Hardware is known for more than just, well, hardware and that is exemplified by an article published today by Kevin Carbotte; Project Sansar: The Forthcoming Successor To Second Life Will Focus On VR.

The article is based on discussions between Kevin Carbotte of tom’s Hardware had with Linden Lab’s CEO, Ebbe Altberg and Linden Lab’s Senior Director of Global Communications, Gray of The Lab From San Francisco (AKA Peter Gray).

There’s nothing earth shattering or new in the article, but it does build on other articles in helping to cement some ideas about what the future may hold for Project Sansar. Again we read that land costs will be lower, sales taxes will be higher and that Project Sansar will be comparable to WordPress in terms of ideology. The idea with Project Sansar is to make things bigger, better and easier and here we do come to something that has not been discussed that often, the engine :

Peter Gray likened Project Sansar for VR to what WordPress has done for the Web; the idea is to make it possible for anyone to create a virtual experience, without the need for a software engineering background.

Linden Lab is creating its own proprietary rendering engine to make this happen. I asked why the company took this direction rather than use existing options, and was told that the problems the company has run into over the years with Second Life made it clear that the company needed an engine designed from the ground up for this platform.

The company needed the ability to make the creator tools simple to use, a task for which the current available engines are not suitable. Project Sansar offers a whole package, including the underlying multi-user functionality, hosting, assets and tools. Additionally, Linden Lab is designing Project Sansar to be accessible through several different media.

There has been some speculation as to what engine Linden Lab were using with Project Sansar, the answer is incomplete but it looks like it will be their own engine.

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September 7, 2015September 7, 2015

Washington Post Wedding Reporter Suggests Getting Married In Second Life Is A Reason To Call A Wedding Off

Ellen McCarthy is a wedding reporter for the Washington Post and she has published a book; The Real Thing: Lessons for Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter’s Notebook. This post is not going to be a review of the book, however there’s something in the book that stands out for virtual world enthusiasts.

Number 10 in the top ten reasons to call a wedding off is :

Your avatars got married in Second Life and that worked out, so you figure this will, too. It happened. I swear.

In isolation, this does not sound like a good reason to call a marriage off, indeed it’s not implausible for people to meet in Second Life and live happily ever after, it has happened, I swear. However if two people meet in Second Life and then decide to get married without spending any real physical world time together, that’s one hell of a gamble.

However to just dismiss a marriage because people meet in Second Life would be somewhat churlish. Ellen McCarthy hasn’t just made this up, she has interviewed people who got married and therefore at some point, a Second Life inspired marriage must have appeared on her radar.

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September 4, 2015

Bare Rose Celebrates Its 10th Birthday With Story Based Hunt

Bare Rose, the prolific and popular Second Life brand is celebrating its tenth birthday in Second Life. This is quite an achievement for any brand in Second Life due to the changes in creation techniques and tastes over the years, but one of the things that June Dion, creator and owner of Bare Rose has tapped into is that Second Life residents like a vast array of choice in their garments.

Bare Rose most definitely does offer a wide array of attire for males and females with a massive range of styles. I’ve purchased wizard outfits from here before but this isn’t just a fantastical store for fans of fantasy, there’s pretty much something for everyone, include many freebie items.

As part of the tenth birthday celebrations, a story based hunt is currently taking place, which is entitled “The Lonely King and Dragon“. The prologue reads :

Summer is about to end for this year. Today, you are visiting the green wood to relax. While you’re staying under the shade of a large Pipal tree, someone calls your name. You feel drawn to it and turn to the direction of the voice, seeing a small girl looking at you. She says “Hello, nice to meet you, again”. However, you don’t remember meeting her. After a while, she says “Don’t worry, it is understandable. Uhm… though I might be remembering wrong. Please don’t worry about it”. But, she looks a bit lonely. She picks up an old picture book titled “The Lonely King and Dragon” and tells you “If you are interested, wanna read this book?” You feel a bit lost, but take the book and open it.

After that, you feel very dizzy and faint… You have no idea how much time passed, but when you wake up; you are standing in an old castle, and a man who wears a crown is sitting in a big chair. He seems to not notice you. Well, this is a problem… you are inside the world of the old book… and strange voice tells you in your head: “Are you ready? Yes, the story has begun!”

The hunt involves, as you would expect, finding items and following landmarks to a series of skyboxes to find and read the next chapter in the story. There are five chapters in all, but there’s more to it than that.

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September 3, 2015

A Chat With Marsha Warwillow On Bats, The Future Of Books & Magazines, Virtual Reality And More

I’m stood on a ledge at the HQ of SL Goth magazine in Second Life. Next to me on the ledge is Marsha Warwillow, editor in chief of the magazine. Marsha is sporting a dress made by her friend Moeko, for the Lovecraft Festival. The tentacles and the fact that the ledge is rather high up make me somewhat uneasy, but Marsha assures me that she’s not a pusher.

I have talked with Marsha before, all the way back in January. Then Marsha had explained to me the history and concepts of SL Goth Magazine. The magazine is available inworld, via Issuu and they even have their own website. Marsha is a fan of magazines and writing and yet she’s fully aware of the changes in how media is being consumed.

“Would you ever read a book in virtual reality? For instance… let’s say, you could open a book of the Hobbit, and then a virtual reading room that looks like a hobbit hole materializes around you?“, Marsha asks me.

This takes me by surprise, but yes, I probably would do that, although I confess to Marsha that I really do prefer books to book reader devices. I love the tactile nature of a book and dusty old book shops make me happy. Marsha informs me, somewhat mischievously, that a book scent spray is on the market to create the real book ambience.

Marsha continues with the book and virtual reality theme; “My focus is to.. have you heard Neil Gaiman’s talk, about how he quotes Douglas Adams on ‘Books are like sharks..they will survive because a shark is good at being a shark.’ I’m focusing on how to get magazines and books into virtual reality, outside of SL, in different environments, because I want them to survive, it can’t all be roller coasters and space games.”

This bring me to a theme I’m fond of in Virtual Worlds, storytelling by voice. I ask Marsha if she is aware of the work Seanchai do.

“Yes, I’ve been there a few times, I’m a fan!“, Marsha replies enthusiastically, “Recently I also went to the Chelsea Hotel, it was an open mic event.”

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September 3, 2015

Second Life Blog Enhanced With New Snapshot Widget

So there I was, minding my own business, reading the official Second Life blog page. Something did not feel quite right and initially I didn’t quite grasp what it was. The colour scheme was the same, there were no shocking new blog posts and then I noticed a section that must be fairly new; “Latest Photos Inworld“.

The widget that contains the photos is a clickable and there are a couple of places you can click. Those places are on a picture itself or by clicking “View All“. The only real difference is that by clicking on a picture, that picture becomes the centre of the next screen, whereas when you click “View All“, the first picture in the series will be the centre.

Hopefully you can see the above image. One picture in the centre and a series of pictures at the bottom. There are a few things you can do from here.

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