The Drax Files – Page 4

December 31, 2014

The Drax Files World Makers Episode 25 – Oblee

Episode 25 Of The Drax Files : World Makers takes us into the seedy underbelly of rock music in Second Life! Ooooh! Well actually it’s not seedy … nor is it an underbelly, and it might not even rock music, however let’s move on, the star of the show is an artist known as Oblee.

Oblee explains how he plays gigs in Second Life two or three times a week, pointing out that there are many venues to play at. There has been talk about music being a good use case for the forthcoming VR boom and yet, there are already ample opportunities for musicians to play on a digital stage. Obviously one of the issues with the current virtual worlds is that they support a relatively small audience, as anyone who has been in a sim with 40 avatars knows. However that shouldn’t mean that the opportunities of current virtual worlds are overlooked.

Oblee is self made in Second Life and in an impressive twist, his earnings in Second Life have allowed him to earn enough money to finance his debut album outside the virtual world. These virtual worlds aren’t as distant from reality as some may think.

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December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

2014 Reviewed Part 1 : January To June

In this post I will review 2014 from a largely virtual world perspective for the months January to June. This is part 1 of 2 as part 2 is still a work in progress but will hopefully appear tomorrow. I’ll combine both posts into another post for easier future reference once they are both completed. These posts will miss lots of big and interesting stories because the nature of the beast demands some brevity. These post may well look longer than they actually are at first glance because of images and pictures. The aim of posts such as these are to give a brief overview of the year, rather than an in depth review. An in depth review is too long for a blog post, it may make for an interesting book.

Anyway, on with the show, as they say.

January

January started with a look back to 2013 and the number of private region losses. The scores on the door from Tyche Shepherd displayed a slow down on the number of regions leaving the Second Life grid, something that would continue during 2014.

2012 Net Private Region Losess – 2865 (12.0%)
2013 Net Private Region Losses – 1719 (8.2%)

The virtual world of Kitely moved to a different pricing model which largely did away with the pay by the minute options as these had not been popular.

Blackened Mirror poster should be here — The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror was taking a mid-season break but would return by the end of January. The show was recorded in Second Life.

Linden Lab were Raising The Roof : The HTTP Project. This project, which had started in 2012 was aimed at improving HTTP communications to improve the end user experience. Linden Lab would continue working on improvements during the year.

Second Life users were getting frustrated by tax and account information requests from Linden Lab. They would continue to be frustrated by these requests throughout the year despite Linden Lab improving their communications and information on these issues.

Second Life got a mention in the comedy show, 2 Broke Girls.

Then came the storm to warm up many a chilly January evening, Cloud Party announced that they would be closing their virtual doors on February 21st.

This was quickly followed by even more news to warm up January, Aston Villa fan and Linden Lab CEO, Rod Humble, was leaving Linden Lab. This created a Twitter storm.

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November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

High Fidelity Moves To The VR Tune Whilst Ebbe Altberg Looks To The Future

“Any predictions on what the future holds for virtual reality theatre?” Draxtor Despres asked MadameThespian Underhill in episode 24 of The Drax Files : World Makers. MadameThespian gave a very interesting answer :

In the future I want motion tracking technology, so that our bodies can be used to flesh out the acting, be free from a keyboard and a mouse. Eventually the way an avatar can be manipulated will be so detailed that it will be like being there in real life, totally immersed. Twenty years from now when everyone is doing this and going ‘Oh wow isn’t this cool’, hey I’ve been doing this in a virtual space since 1997, I’m still here, I love it.

The above quote demonstrates quite a few things. The first being that virtual spaces have been around in one form or another for quite a while now. Another being that the future has a long way to go and a further point is that those who are involved in virtual worlds have different ideas on what the future may hold.

However the most relevant part of the quote as far as this blog post is concerned is to do with body tracking. I’ve raised concerns as to whether people are going to be comfortable wearing headsets, setting up motion trackers and whether people will actually embrace having their movements captured. I’m not totally alone in this view, even enthusiasts of new technologies admit that there are concerns in this area.

Ebbe Altberg was asked by Ben Gilbert of Endgadget : What is the greatest challenge that the medium of virtual reality must overcome in the next five years? Ebbe’s answer touches upon these issues of comfort :

Ease of use remains the greatest challenge. In order to truly reach the mainstream, virtual reality experiences will have to be easy, natural and comfortable to create, interact with and consume.

Ebbe also touched upon this on the Endgadget Expand panel : The Future Of VRBeyond Gaming when he admitted that after about half an hour of using the Oculus Rift he feels tired. This isn’t so much about the comfort of wearing the device, it’s more to do with frame rates and resolution in virtual experiences that were not really built with the Oculus experience in mind.

However one could imagine that having to wear headsets or get in tune with a motion sensor may well suit those who have an acting and live performance background, they are familiar with the concepts of dressing up, making eye contact and being fully aware of what their expressions may convey.

Storytelling in virtual reality is a glaring use case that goes beyond gaming and if consumers can afford to get immersed from the comfort of their own home, it’s one that could really take off. We’re in the very early stages of this here but one company who have been happily playing to their peripherals are High Fidelity and they exemplify this yet again in their latest blog post : Rock-Paper-Scissors Showdown: Using Leap Motion at High Fidelity.

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November 21, 2014

The Drax Files: World Makers Ep 24 – MadameThespian Underhill

An image should be here — Episode 24 Of Drax Files

Episode 24 of The Drax Files : World Makers features MadameThespian Underhill, Actor-director with the Avatar Repertory Theater and Builder/seller of Victorian homes & items, pianos, harpsichords, pipe organs and scripted music. Then there’s more, MadameThespian is one of those rare beasts in Second Life, she’s a Charter Member! Even Lindens get excited when they see Charter Members. Charter Member status means that someone is rather old in Second Life terms, in this case MadameThespian has a rez date of 18th December 2002.

More importantly Charter Members played a very important role in keeping Second Life afloat during its early days. They paid an upfront fee which I believe guaranteed them a 4096m plot for life with no further land fees. However the upfront fee they paid, around USD$160.00, provided some much needed cash to keep Second Life in development.

Virtual worlds, explains MadameThespian, are an extension to the ancient art of live storytelling. The Avatar Repertory Theater have produced many shows over the years including original productions and adaptations of existing works.

They build their own sets and create some of their own items but sometimes someone else makes a better item and they take full advantage of the fact that there are plenty of other content creators in Second Life who create suitable wares for their shows.

MadameThespian comes from, a thespian background. She was a Chicago based actor through most of the eighties but now lives in the mountains of Montana where she is a member of the Montana Shakespeare company. However there are certain areas of acting where the virtual world provides opportunities for actors where the real world may close doors.

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October 1, 2014

The Drax Files World Makers Episode 23 – Loz Hyde

Episode 23 of The Drax Files : World Makers brings to the table a fascinating interview with Second Life content creator Loz Hyde, the owner of the Meshworx brand. Loz has a day job of building 3D models so you may feel that he’s just extending his day job inside Second Life. However his day job includes making models for film and commercials. Amongst his credits are Terminator Salvation, 2012 and Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Loz expains how part of the beauty of a virtual world such as Second Life is that it gives him the power to create a world in his own vision. That world can then be explored by other people via their avatars, they can become immersed in it, they can interact with it.

Loz also points out how as a content creator he can transfer the profits from his sales to Paypal and then to his bank account. There’s money in them there builds. Whereas it’s definitely not easy money, those with the talent to create and market their wares can indeed make real money out of their Second Life experience. Loz also points out one of the big plus points of virtual world items, their durability. A virtual sofa will not erode with age, you won’t get tears and rips in it. Well I guess someone could build a model that does erode, but generally they don’t erode. They will become dated over time of course and whereas Loz doesn’t mention this in his interview, the advent of Mesh in Second Life has made some older prim based items dated. However those old prim based items haven’t eroded!

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