High Fidelity – Page 8

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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October 29, 2014

High Fidelity Wants People To Interact In An Emotionally Normal Way

Whilst I was on holiday an excellent article on High Fidelity appeared in MIT Technology Review : The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality. Ok first of all let’s get a couple of questionable parts of the article out of the way. Tom Simonite seems to talk of Second Life in the past sense, which will rub many a Second Life user up the wrong way as Second Life is still going pretty strong, despite reports to the contrary. Then there’s this claim :

Some of what his company is creating is much the same as Second Life. You download some software and then enter a virtual space where you can steer your avatar around and build stuff. This time, though, building is much easier, the lag mostly eliminated, and the graphics more impressive.

Anyone who has had a peek at High Fidelity will know that the building is not much easier and nor are the graphics more impressive at this stage in the development of the platform. High Fidelity is making some bloody impressive strides right now but it’s still very much an Alpha product.

Then there’s the stock photograph of Philip Rosedale that is used, we need a new modern Philip photo, I’ve seen that one umpteen times! However the above aside, it’s an excellent article that captures so very well the fantastic enthusiasm Philip Rosedale has for virtual worlds. Admittedly I’m an unashamed Philip Rosedale fanboi, despite not always agreeing with him, but the man has a long held dream and it’s one that captivates me. Whereas some may think of Philip Rosedale; “Dreamer, you’re nothing but a dreamer, well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!” the answer to that is that with the right peripherals, in High Fidelity you can put your virtual hands in your virtual head, oh yes!

The article explains how High Fidelity is taking a very different approach from Second Life in some areas and this is where I believe that High Fidelity is most definitely on the right track :

High Fidelity’s business model is less developed. Most of its software and platform will be open source, so anyone can use it or set up a virtual world using its technology. High Fidelity plans to make money by charging people to include their worlds in a kind of directory for the metaverse, similar to the domain name system for the Web.

I’ve said this before, more than once, but where I feel Second Life failed to adopt mass appeal is because it’s Second Life. Mass appeal may well come for a Linden Lab product running Linden Lab created technology, but I’m not convinced that mass appeal will come for any virtual world being a one stop shop. In terms of Second Life I’ve said that it needed to reach the stage where people weren’t thinking they were visiting Second Life, they were thinking of playing an elf on a platform running Second Life technology, or going to a concert, running Second Life technology. The technology being a discussion area for techie types and the experience itself being something people enjoy for the experience itself.

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October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

Drax Files Radio Hour Episode 39 – Argyle Alligator

Episode 39 of The Drax Files Radio Hour is another packed affair with the star attraction being Argyle Alligator. However as usual there’s much more than that and they touch upon Facebook’s real name policy with Jo Yardley and Drax both seeming far from impressed about Facebook’s policy. However I really can’t see room for Second Life’s profile feed to fill much of a gap here. Jo does however make good points about the features of social networking sites to promote events which brings me back to an old point of mine, web pages for groups.

This is something that could be added to the Second Life profile feed and the advantage of a web based group page advertising events is that it means you don’t have to send landmarks, notecards, textures, etc. All you would need to do is send a link to the event on the group web page.

Moving on, they give a shoutout to the 250th edition of Designing Worlds which was broadcast on October 6th and has already been covered in her usual magnificent manner by Inara Pey.

However the main feature is an interview with in game reporter Argyle Alligator who talks about his interviews, which are at times amusing. Argyle Alligator isn’t only an in game reporter for Second Life, he also interviews people in Garry’s Mod and Rust but this interview is largely about his Second Life experiences.

Argyle also shares the new user experience of Second Life and highlights some issues he found, how he had to work out the teleport system for himself, how he had difficulties finding locations that supported voice. This is important for Argyle’s work as he conducts his interviews with voice.

Argyle also offers up some good suggestions about starter zones including having verified residents of Second Life easily identifiable to help new participants. Drax also asks him about the UI. Drax has commented often that the Second Life UI isn’t complicated. I disagree, not because I find it difficult myself but because when so many people keep raising this point then it does suggest there’s an issue. I’m ok with the Blender UI too but I’ve seem many complaints about that as well. There is an issue, but it’s difficult to put your finger on exactly what it is but Argyle Alligator offers some insight on this.

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