Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Author, strategist, virtual world reporter

Making of Second Life

Making a Metaverse That Matters

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Hypnotic Romance, an SL sim with secluded spaces for couples. Click here to teleport.

The Virtual Worlds Museum. Click here to teleport to their Second Life hub with tribute to sunsetted worlds!

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The Virtual Museum Team hosts several museums in Second Life, Wolf Territories Grid and Roblox. Check out all the teleport links here.

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If Fortnite the Future of Live Music, Why is Fortnite Staging So Few Shows — and They’re Much Less Immersive Than Before?

January 21, 2021

Fortnite! It's the future of live music, as many say (I even said so here!). It sure seemed that way when artists like Travis Scott and Marshmellow brought in millions to experience "only in a virtual world"-type shows — not to mention lots of revenue for themselves.

But thing is, Travis Scott's show as a literal giant in Fortnite was last April. And since then, live shows have been few and far between. This one above, with J Balvin, is the most recent that I can find — and it's from last October. Maybe I'm missing others, but I can't find any announced on Fortnite's official blog. Also concerning: Recent live concerts aren't anywhere as amazing and immersive as the Travis Scott event; instead, they mainly seem to be non-interactive video streams. (Another example, with BTS "in" Fortnite, below.)

What's the deal? I've reached out to a contact with Epic for their take. If I had to speculate, I'd say there's a few possible factors at work:

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Trisha Rose’s SL Pics are Stunningly Composed — Here’s How To Tell!

January 21, 2021

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I was immediately drawn to “Saying Goodbye” from Trisha Rose. It is beautifully composed directing my attention to the figures in the tree even though it does not follow the Rule of Thirds or Fifths or the Golden Mean. What’s going on? I had to download it, run it through GIMP's cropping guideline feature, and fiddle around seeing what gave it such appeal. Referencing this handy tutorial I recommend to image makers, I checked how its diagonals line up:

Well, there you have it.

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The next picture sure rang true for me:

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This Artist Turns Second Life Screenshots Into Fantastic Still-Life Paintings

January 20, 2021

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Carelyna takes Second Life screenshots and uses filters to turn them into digital paints that feel three dimensional. You can imagine the build up of paint and the textures of the brush and palette knife. I love “Single” which gives us such a gorgeous color story of gold and purple. It is a mix of complexity in texture and simplicity in form. I love it.

More stunning SL screenshot to art ahead.

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Philip Rosedale Issues Metaverse Challenge: What Virtual World Besides Second Life Has Collaborative, Dynamic, Complex Content Creation?

January 19, 2021

Here's a great Twitter thread: Second Life/High Fidelity founder Philip Rosedale challenging people to name a virtual world besides Second Life that enables collaborative dynamic creation of "interesting things" while users inhabit the same space as avatars. Based on his follow-ups, "interesting things" means it must enable complex scripting/interaction and 3D objects. So not just simple building blocks but, for exaxmple, a fully interactive 3D recreation of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", as in in this classic machinima above.

On that view, Minecraft wouldn't count by Philip's lights: "Love Minecraft, but: Can't build together without elaborate specific permission from admins. Can't build many important things (jointed objects, curved surface)."

Second Life is the only virtual world that allows people to build interesting things while also being together in one place. Despite being 17 years old, no other game or world has yet fully achieved that goal. Agree? Have at me.

— Philip Rosedale (@philiprosedale) January 17, 2021

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Also, by one "place", he means a single shard world that many thousands of users can inhabit at the same time, and not instanced mini-worlds or rooms: "Try making a pocket world like Anyland or Horizons or VRChat seamless," as he explains. "Very difficult issues with asset transfer, serialization, load balancing (for example)."

Do any come close to meeting this criterion? A few standout candidates:

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Watch: Epic BattleBots Duel, Fire-Breathing Slapbox vs. SL Fave Sharko!

January 19, 2021

In case you missed it last week, here's the Discovery Channel's BattleBots fight between SlapBox and Sharko, prototyped in Second Life by Artorius Constantine, owner of SL's Nano Station Technologies store. Sent to us via BattleBots super-fan Devin Vaughn, it is almost more brutal and merciless as a major fashion drop in SL, which is saying something.

"Overall that was one of the best episodes of BattleBots I have seen in a long time," Devin reports. "Good even matches, much spark and explosions! Sharko had a good match against a rookie bot SlapBox, and a crazy moment: Shark bites down good, but then SlapBox lifted the entire shark, all 250 pounds was lifted into the air, totally inverted and shot flames down the mouth of poor Sharko who refused to let go. Wow."

Watch above to see what happens next! As to why it happened, Constantine and his crew have a good post-mortem in Reddit's /BattleBots community:

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This Artist Creates Beautifully Composed Images from Cyberpunk 2077 Screencaps

January 19, 2021

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Cyberpunk 2077 was probably the most-anticipated game of last year. I’ve been looking for homage photos in Second Life, my main focus. While searching I found Wýstrach. She has several screenshots from the game itself and displays an artistic eye in all her pictures. For example, “Patience” shows her use of leading lines with the floor and ceiling leading us toward the avatar placed by the Rule of Thirds. The dark foreground and light background also creates a sharp division that directs us to the avatar.

More lush Cyberpunk photos ahead.

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Open Forum: What Should New World Notes Feature This Week?

January 18, 2021

Events, announcements, products, videos, social trends, research, anything roughly related to virtual worlds and VR, Second Life and its many official and unofficial spinoffs — and definitely also great Flickr feeds for Cajsa's column — please post details and links in Comments!
Monday Memory: When MLK’s Face Shone from the Second Life Sun

January 18, 2021

Gone a decade or so ago after an update to the environmental system, the face of Martin Luther King Jr.'s face once emanated from the surface of Second Life's virtual sun on this day of the year, to celebrate the civil rights icon's birthday:

In honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a special sun is made to arc across the grid of Second Life today. If you look close enough, you'll see it's inset with the face of the man who was so untimely cut down, when far too much of his work remained. In his country, the world beyond, and, perhaps, in worlds he never could have imagined.

It's more than likely that Linden Lab the developer who added it no longer works at the company, and just as likely that none of the developers now working for the company even remember that it did. But it's worth remembering today, and everyday, in hopes this special sun is brought back again.
Top 5 Posts Last Week Including a Battlebot Prototyped in Second Life for the Real Life Show & a New Blockchain Currency People Might Actually Use

January 18, 2021
Fashion Friday Blog: Belinha Aquina Highlights Kawaii Style in Second Life

January 15, 2021
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“I bought my snacks, now I just need Netflix” appeals to me. I love the convenience store and snacks and want some. In fact, when I finish this post, I think I will make some popcorn. The power of suggestion. The post features items from The Food Court, a semi-annual event that is going on now.
- NINI Planet. Netflix and Chips : candy earring A@The Food Court
- NINI Planet. Netflix and Chips : jelly mouth A@The Food Court
A fabulous blouse features in the next pic.

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