Wagner James Au / New World Notes

HoloBike: New VR-Free Virtual World For Exercise Bikes Launches On Kickstarter

May 7, 2024

I often say the market for metaverse platforms is about 1 in 4 people on the Internet, since 1 in 4 is roughly how many people enjoy heavily immersive 3D game worlds on their devices. But we are seeing new technology that enables immersion beyond a traditional game/VR device, as with Disney's HoloTile that I blogged last week.

Now comes HoloBike, a new indie project which just launched its Kickstarter*.

The brainchild of engineer/product designer Samuel Matson, who last worked in Google's VR division, the HoloBike basically puts a virtual world on an exercise bike — without needing a VR headset. (Watch above.)

I recently got a hands-on (feet-on?) demo of the HoloBike, and came away pretty impressed. While focused on the screen, you feel the 3D environment wrapping around your vision, even on the periphery, peacefully enveloping you in the virtual trail ahead of you. While it doesn't provide a full VR effect, it's more than enough for immersion — and unlike VR, Samuel tells me none of the 100 or so people who've tested it (including some 20 women) have experienced motion sickness using it.

While I'm more of a treadmill/stairs cardio guy, I definitely prefer the HoloBike to the standard boring gym bike experience. And because nearly 200 million people worldwide have a gym membership (counting the 6.5 million people who subscribe to Peleton) it opens up virtual world experiences to a massive new audience — many or most of whom wouldn't be caught dead playing a AAA videogame.

After the demo, I chatted with Samuel about the technology and its potential — starting with how the "hologram" effect works:

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Community Co-Opts Company Branding: Helldivers 2 User Uprising Echoes Second Life’s Early Tea Create Rebellion

May 7, 2024

Right: User-made agit-prop poster for the Helldivers 2 protest

Pretty interesting Polygon story on the successful user community-led uprising against Sony's policy changes to Helldivers 2. The multiplayer game is reminiscent of Paul Verhoeven's version of Starship Troopers, satirizing war movies heavy on propaganda while also succeeding as an enjoyable war movie in its own right.

In the case of Helldivers 2, the protest consciously echoed the rousing military rhetoric from the game:

On Friday, Sony announced that Helldivers 2 players would need to link their in-game accounts to their Sony accounts, requiring a log-in to an additional platform… The PlayStation Network is not accessible in 177 countries and territories, and so players from regions like the Philippines completely lost access to a game they had already paid for.

Helldivers 2 players immediately moved into action, coordinating on platforms like Reddit, X, and Discord to make their displeasure clear. Helldivers 2 was hit with hundreds of thousands of negative Steam reviews, turning its very positive ranking upside down. Players made memes and propaganda posters, rallying under the slogan “We dive together, or we don’t dive.”

… Sure enough, Sony caved on Sunday night, announcing that the game would no longer require account linking.

Thankfully, the protesters are also calling to delete their negative reviews, which can be a death sentence for a game's longevity.

At any rate, I love how the community leveraged the game's own themes and rhetoric to rally for their cause. It reminds of the famed Tax Revolt rebellion in Second Life, where the user community involved with creating Americana, an SL tribute site to US landmarks.

So to protest a company-imposed "tax" on building, the community covered Americana in giant tea crates:

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Today’s SL Flickr Pick: Darkly Bold Avatar Portraits by Incognito Pseudonym

May 7, 2024

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

Incognito Pseudonym is not only the most accurately named avatar, he is a creative and fabulous Second Life artist. “Hennessy” is a deceptively simple picture. After all, it’s just a guy with a bottle of cognac. You might think it’s just black & white, but the color is there, just deeply desaturated. A very subtle linear blur gives it depth. I love it.

For more of his fabulous pics, click here:

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Successful Mixed Reality Social Experiences Need a Shared Virtual Workspace (Comment of the Week)

May 6, 2024

Good points from reader Martin K., riffing off Skarredghost's design thoughts for creating powerful mixed reality experiences for the Apple Vision Pro:

What each app needs to do is to establish what is known in the research on "Computer-Supported Cooperative Work" (CSCW) as a "shared workspace", e.g. a shared virtual 3D model, a shared virtual movie screen, a shared virtual projection screen for a shared slide show, a shared whiteboard, a shared virtual tabletop game, etc. It's not a new topic; some people have spent decades researching it in CSCW.

If an app allows to align the shared virtual screen with a real wall in your room or the shared virtual tabletop game with the surface of a real table in your room, then the app gets extra points for immersion, but that's not necessary. (And if the app requires this alignment, it might introduce additional friction for users.)

This scenario is what Skarredghost labels "You want to have a social AR experience about an element in particular"; according to them, it "was the theme of 80% of the social videos of the Vision Pro on X." I'm not surprised and would assume that an even higher percentage of successful MR apps will have some kind of "shared workspace" – at least that's what you would expect from CSCW research.

Where Martin disagrees is the idea that a good social mixed reality experience should model the real life space of a select member in it:

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Top 6 Posts, Including: Designing Social Experiences for Apple Vision Pro, Amazing Trailer for Long-Running Mini-MMO Crack Deck, and Rod Humble’s Life by You Goes Early Access in June

May 6, 2024
SL Fashion Friday: Dramatic Style Ideas from Pretty Little Psycho

May 3, 2024
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Μαrε has a blog she calls Pretty Little Psycho and the name fits in that bold, strong women are often called psycho. So why not claim the label for yourself? I love this post Play Time. The picture is fantastic, desaturated but not quite black and white, closer to green and white, but that just adds a haunting touch. She looks like a rock star. I can see her singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”
- SFU – Ghoul Necklace / @SuicideDollz ends May 8th.
- AVEC TOI – Alice Outfit / @UBER ends May 22nd
- Top / Corset / Leggings: AVEC TOI – Sherry Gloves / @AVEC TOI Mainstore
- Cap: Reliquary !R! – Peaked Cap @Marketplace
For more of her bold style, click here:

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Try the Seraphim HUD (in Beta) for SL Shopping & Events, Get a Free Gift from Bad Unicorn!

May 3, 2024
New World Notes' media partner Bad Unicorn is helping develop the Seraphim HUD, designed to make in-world shopping and events in Second Life easier and more accessible. Currently in Beta, consider trying it out, sharing feedback with the team — and get a free gift from Bad Unicorn in the process.

Here's how:
- Click to teleport to Bad Unicorn's in-world store.
- You'll see the "Get the HUD" panel right at the landing point.
- Install the HUD like any other HUD.
- In the HUD, click Brands to Bad Unicorn, and the free gift offer should pop up!
Again, the Seraphim HUD is still in Beta, so please share feedback (good and not-so-good) in Comments below.
Watch: Getting Started Tutorial for Equimake, Platform for Real-Time, Multi-User World Building On The Web

May 2, 2024
Here's a new tutorial for getting started on Equimake, the new indie platform which enables live, multi-user collaborative 3D building on the web. (Skip ahead to 5:25 for a demo of the multi-user creation feature!)

Since blogging about it last week, founder/lead dev Alex Yevsyeyev tells me nearly 500 people have joined the community, mainly from the US/Canada, but also (surprising him) from over 45 countries around the world — from Hong Kong to Argentina to Ghana to somewhere in war-torn Ukraine.

As examples of worlds that have been made so far, here's three favorites you can visit:
- Here's the welcome hub.
- Here's a world called "Camping".
- And this one, "Sun Tzu Gallery", was created by an NWN reader!
"It is important to note that Equimake will be free forever and encourages everyone to come and try building their experince on the web at least once," he tells me (and so noted). "The tech entry barrier is very low and the community is growing."

Check it out here and join the Equimake Discord here.

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There’s a Whole Huge Flickr Group Devoted to Photographing the Virtual Flowers of Second Life. Here’s Some Favorites!

May 2, 2024

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

RigTorok shared this picture of what I first thought was a dogwood before realizing it has one too many leaves. Perhaps it’s a pear tree. Whatever kind of tree it is, it is lovely. It is just one of the nearly 10,000 pictures in the Flowers of Second Life group. With 785 members, it’s fairly active and blissfully well-moderated. The rules are clear, the flowers must be the focus of the picture, not a patch of flowers in the background. Even better, posters must include a SLURL so others can go see the flowers if they wish. Speaking of… [To teleport, click here]

For more flowers, click here:

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BREAKING: Linden Lab Updates Policies Around Ageplay, Favoritism, Community Relations After Investigation Of Serious Allegations Recently Posted To Social Media

May 2, 2024

In February I reported that Linden Lab was investigating allegations posted to social media regarding toxic internal company operations among some staffers, which the company publicly confirmed in March.

Now Brad Oberwager, Linden Lab's Executive Chairman, has an update to those investigations which include strengthening regulations against sexualized age play, and policies around favoritism and conflict of interest. Sample:

The investigation determined that all Lindens and contractors have stayed in compliance with our own community guidelines, as well as unwritten, ethical guidelines. I do not make this statement lightly, and I know there will be plenty of discussion. What I can say is that there is no incentive, monetary or otherwise, for me to mislead the community. At some point, the community has to trust that we, the Lindens, do well when the community thrives…

The findings did highlight opportunities for improvement. As a result, we are making updates to our internal policies to raise the standard for how Linden employees should respectfully engage with community members. This addresses multiple forms of engagement including how we present ourselves, how we interact with the community (even in moments of conflict), and how we minimize the perception of conflict of interest and favoritism in our interactions.

In this context, "opportunities for improvement" suggests there were external problems with their internal policies.

I asked an insider how those policies should improve, and they told me this:

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