High Fidelity – Page 9

November 13, 2014November 13, 2014

Philip Rosedale Set To Talk About High Fidelity At Gigaom Roadmap 2014

Tis the season to be a speaker it seems. Last weekend’s events aren’t the end of the event season by any stretch of the imagination and Gigaom are talking up their Gigaom Roadmap 2014 event, scheduled for November 17th – November 19th. There are a couple of posts about this event and I’ll highlight this one first : At Roadmap, Delve Into Virtual World Design With Philip Rosedale.

The article doesn’t give too much away about what Philip may say, which is fair enough, otherwise why would people go and listen to Philip speak? However the article does start off on a controversial footing for those who are still very much engaged in Second Life :

When Second Life launched in 2003, it was the future. Now it is the past, with its once-hyped virtual storefronts and social centers empty (or nearly empty, as 1 million people still log on each month).

It’s possible that it came 10 years too early.

I’ve blogged recently about how some designers are finding those once-hyed virtual storefronts getting a new lease of life due to the number of virtual events. There’s something uncanny about that as I’m blogging here about the number of events outside the virtual world, although many of them are designed to talk about virtual worlds and peripherals. Hmm, this could get quite circular! Anyway, I don’t agree with Signe Brewster’s premise regarding where Second Life is today. Second Life is in a much stronger position than outsiders realise, although it’s certainly not at the peak of its popularity.

Philip Rosedale of course has moved on from Second Life and will be talking about his new venture, High Fidelity. I would imagine he may well cover some of the ground he discussed at the OpenSim Community Conference. Philip spoke well on a number of High Fidelity, OpenSim and Second Life related issues as a keynote speaker at the OpenSim Community Conference and hopefully an official video of that speech will be released soon. There were some technical difficulties with sound, but it’s a speech well worth listening to and involved a very interesting Q&A session too.

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November 6, 2014November 7, 2014

The Verge Asks : Can we build a virtual world?

An interesting post on The Verge : The Big Future: Can we build a virtual world? The question may initially seem odd to those who have experienced virtual worlds such as Second Life, Kitely, OpenSim and are keeping their eyes on future virtual worlds such as High Fidelity and Linden Lab’s next generation platform. However the question is one that goes beyond the current generation of virtual worlds :

The web is fine, but how do we get the internet we always wanted — a “real” space you can walk around in, like the Metaverse from Snow Crash? It’s not a new question, but it’s one that’s being taken a little more seriously now that a huge company like Facebook is putting its weight (and its money) behind virtual reality. In this week’s Big Future, we look at what it takes to build a convincing virtual world, why we’re not there yet, and what we might do if we got one.

The Metaverse that exists in Snow Crash has long been the inspiration and dream of many a virtual world enthusiast, but will we ever get there? Indeed do we really want to get there? That level of immersion may well read well in a novel but can it ever really be a place that will happily co-exist with the physical world?

There will be no real answers to this until we have an answer to the question “Are we there yet?” As The Verge article states, it’s easy to trick the eyes, it’s a lot more difficult to trick our other senses and natural motion. For example The Verge talks about walking in a virtual world and how that’s far more of a challenge than tricking our eyes. I remain sceptical because of the sheer number of peripherals required at the moment to achieve greater immersion. However over time those peripherals will become less intrusive and more intuitive.

Obviously the full on immersion that some crave may not be the route to go. Whereas I fully expect greater immersion to open many a great door, I do feel that some doors may be better if they remain locked. The Verge article does mention the current virtual world scene :

We already have examples of “virtual worlds” like Second Life, and they’ll only get cooler with immersion. But some of the most exciting possibilities involve blending the physical world with VR. Sharing experiences will become more intense, and online research takes on a whole new meaning.

However one area that The Verge article doesn’t touch upon is who will be running the bold new worlds.

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November 6, 2014

Get An Overview Of High Fidelity From Their Documentation Resource

High Fidelity, the new virtual world venture from Philip Rosedale, is currently in a limited Alpha phase. However a blog post from High Fidelity’s Dan Hope opens the door a little to those who are outside Alpha to get a limited peek at what’s going on under the hood. The post, Introducing The New Documentation Resource, invites anyone who wants to contribute to the documentation, to do so.

The reason why the Documentation Resource is so important is explained in the blog post :

This section of our site covers everything from how to use Interface, to technical information about the underlying code and how to make scripts for it. We envision this as being the one-stop resource for everything HiFi.

What’s more, we want you to be a part of it. We’ve opened up Documentation to anyone who wants to contribute. The more the merrier. Or at least, the more the comprehensive … er. And accurater? Whatever, we’re better at software than pithy catchphrases. Basically, we think that the smart people out there are great at filling in holes we haven’t even noticed yet and lending their own experience to this knowledgebase, which will eventually benefit everyone who wants to use it.

Even if you don’t want to contribute, browsing through the documentation will give you an overview of where High Fidelity is heading, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work some things out. Indeed you don’t even need to be Inara Holmes either, however Inara also has a blog post on this subject and that post includes images.

The documentation resource reveals that High Fidelity uses the JavaScript syntax, linked to their JavaScript API, which means that if you’ve got experience with coding in JavaScript you’re likely to be able to cope with coding in High Fidelity. There are example scripts, tutorials on customising your avatar, such as how to create Blendshapes or Shape Keys for your Avatar, how to build a client for Mac, Windows, Linux and more.

However one word of warning, the documentation is incomplete, for example the part about Smartphone devices simply states :

We have a handful of Alpha-stage apps built for iOS, with companions for Android planned. At they moment they aren’t our primary focus, but check back here for further details as they arrive.

However even that is useful because it tells us that Smartphones are likely to play a role in High Fidelity in some way. However the section about hand controllers is more complete with information on how the Razer Hydra can be used with High Fidelity. Then we go back to motion controllers and find that the Leap Motion information is far from complete. However people have been using Leap Motion in High Fidelity.

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November 6, 2014

Outer Space To Virtual Space & Visiting Scilands

Back on Ocotber 23rd Hamlet Au posted over on New World Notes : High Fidelity v. Interstellar: Should Virtual Reality Exploration Replace Space Travel as Philip Rosedale Hopes? The post was based largely on this passage from an excellent MIT Technology reviwew with Philip Rosedale :

“Why go into outer space when it’s more likely that by amassing computing resources we will create all the mysteries and unknowns and new species inside them?” he says. Rosedale says the freedom to explore and experiment inside a virtual world generates a “social force,” creating positive interactions between people that are impossible in everyday life–much like the Burning Man festival he attends each year. It’s a vision that betrays a touching if naïve faith in humans and technology. But it’s set Rosedale on a shared course with some of the biggest names in technology.

The comments on Hamlet’s article generated a mixed reaction. However Philip Rosedale is not alone with this sort of view. The Pendulum have published an article : Astronomy and virtual reality in same orbit for professor Tony Crider. The article states :

With improvements to the Oculus Rift, Crider would be able to let students see what it is like on Venus instead of just reading about it.

“Going to the places that we can’t normally go to is what makes this technology have a lot of potential,” Crider said. “I think that is what a virtual world should be used for. I used to think it was more for the socialization, but my view has changed a lot.”

Professor Tony Crider is of course talking about the future of virtual worlds, but he’s no stranger to the present and fairly recent past of virtual worlds and he’s very much a virtual world enthusiast.

Professor Crider is described in the article as being an associate professor of physics at Elon University since 2006. He knows a lot about Second Life as he’s a co-founder of the excellent archipelago of sims in Second Life known as the Scilands. These sims are home to some excellent science sims which are well worth a visit. However Elon University itself no longer seems to have a sim in Second Life. However Professor Crider did find value in the use of Second Life, as the article explains :

Through Second Life, Crider’s students made real-life museum exhibits virtual. Most of the exhibits were planetariums, although places such as the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro were also created. Open to all Second Life users, the student-created exhibits turned out to be a success, even attracting online users not associated with the class.

“They would build the places, and people would show up afterwards,” Crider said. “What was weird was people would stand in lines at these student-run planetariums with their avatars. But users were at these exhibits, because people online liked the experience of learning.”

The students’ reactions working with Second Life were generally positive, although some mixed reviews did seep through.

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November 4, 2014

OpenSimulator Community Conference November 8th – 9th

If EndgagetExpand doesn’t tickle your fancy then there’s another conference taking place this weekend that is well worth keeping an eye on, it’s the OpenSimulator Community Conference, which takes place on November 8th-9th. Unfortunately inworld tickets are already sold out for the conference but you can register for a free streaming ticket.

The basics of the conference can be found on the about page of the conference website, but I’ll give you a brief snippet :

The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community creating the OpenSimulator software. Organized as a joint production by the Overte Foundation and AvaCon, Inc., the conference features two days of presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base.

The OpenSimulator Community Conference 2014 features four themed tracks and a Learning Lab for hands on hackerspaces, speedbuilds, and more:

Business & Enterprise
Content & Community
Developers & Open Source
Research & Education
Learning Lab

This conference features a lot of speakers whom followers of Second Life and virtual worlds will be familiar with. They include :

Philip Rosedale – High Fidelity
Nara Malone – Greyville Writer’s Colony
Steve LaValle – Oculus VR
John “Pathfinder” Lester – Reaction Grid
Maria Korolov – Hypergrid Business
Ilan Tochner – Kitely
Caledonia Skytower – Seanchai Library
Tranquillity Dexler – Inworldz
Latif Khalifa – Radegast, Singularity
Jessica Lyon – Phoenix Firestorm
Kim Anubis – The Magicians

There are many more speakers whom some of you will be familiar with, it’s a jam packed schedule full of interesting looking discussions.

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