Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Author, strategist, virtual world reporter

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https://www.reddit.com/user/slhamlet

  • Alchemy Third-Party Viewer Now Includes PBR Graphics Features — Watch These Demo Videos, Read More Details!

    Alchemy, a third party Second Life viewer with a cult following of a few thousand users (by the developer's estimate), recently added the new Physically Based Rendering (PBR) graphics effects. With Firestorm's PBR update still in the works, I believe Alchemy is the first TPV to do so.

    If you're experienced with installing and running executables, go here to download Alchemy.

    The Alchemy team shared these videos with me (above and below) full of sweet reflective/lighting coolness, but PBR is not just about being able to achieve mirror effects:

    "The metal shine is the easiest thing to show off," as the team's Tech Artist, Zanibar Pixelbottom, notes, "but it's a lot more than just that, even nonmetal and non shiny PBR materials get 'grounded' in the scene as they'll get the ambience of the scene casted on them."

    Updating to PBR so quickly is on-brand for the Alchemy broad, lead developer Rye Cogtail tells me:

    "[Alchemy updates tend] to follow the Linden development of new major and featurette branches rather closely, merging in what is ready or nearly so into Project or Beta releases. If memory serves, we were at Beta with PBR before Linden Lab had chosen to move it past their Project viewer phase.

    "Having seen regressions in how the new rendering impacted legacy content diminish substantially as the Linden PBR project matured, and overall crash stability with Alchemy at nominal levels; the decision was clear to release PBR to the wider (non-Project) userbase."

    Along with PBR, unique features to Alchemy include a lightbox floater with the LUT/sharpening/tonemapping adjusts and options. Or as Cogtail puts that in somewhat less non-technical terms:

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  • Gloriously Detailed & Cozy Second Life Home Photos by Malina

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

    Ｍａｌｉｎａ is a Flickr microblogger. She recently posted Tropical Bathroom from Chez Moi and I am just a little bit in love with it. It makes me imagine the bathroom furnishings were created by a furniture maker who held a piece of wood in their hands and let the wood tell them how they should be used. I’m lucky enough to know a few such artisans. 

    I remember when the Tao of Tea was still an idea, the founder worked slowly building the tables, the counter, and the shelves using sticks of wood. He would pick up a stick, hold it and examine it and then maybe he would use it on the table he was building or he might go over and add it to the shelves. Each piece found its place in this wonderfully organic method that was slow, but deliberate. I sometimes wondered if he would ever open his tea shop, but he did and was fabulously successful. This bathroom furniture feels like it was made with that sort of mindfulness. 

    For more gorgeous decor, click here:

     

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  • When Can We Create Something Like 3 Body Problem‘s Virtual World With Full Body VR? Forecasts by Philip Rosedale, Raph Koster & Other Experts

    If you’ve watched Netflix’s new sci-fi series 3 Body Problem (and you should, it’s excellent!) based on the novel by Liu Cixin, you probably wondered about the amazing virtual world that’s a key part of the story. Without spoiling anything, a mysterious alien species communicates with humanity through a multi-user virtual experience with seemingly sentient NPCs and a constantly changing world, conveyed in full sensory VR. (Watch a preview clip above.) 

    But when can us humans make something like that? I asked a number of top virtual world/VR experts, including Philip Rosedale, Raph Koster, VR pioneer Nonny de la Peña, and Sine Wave CTO Adam Frisby. Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think!

    “I think we aren’t too far from sentient beings in virtual worlds,” Philip Rosedale tells me. “AIs that are very interesting to interact with and living in virtual worlds will happen very soon… next few years. We have a lot of compute coming available, and that is the only thing blocking.”

    However, he’s skeptical we’re close to full sensory VR technology:

    “I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery.”

    And no, he doesn’t think something like Elon Musk’s Neuralink is necessarily a first step to that:

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  • Seeking Media / Business Partners as New World Notes Expands Reach!

    New World Notes logoANNOUNCEMENT: I'm excited to say New World Notes' reach will be expanding its reach in the next month or two, and I'm looking for media partners who want to be part of that expansion. 

    By media partners, I don't just mean "advertisers", but brands and companies in the virtual world/metaverse industry which want to build awareness and engagement at multiple levels of their business. I've been juggling multiple roles like this since my days at Linden Lab, and now that Making a Metaverse That Matters is out, I'm passionate about doing that for the next wave of projects.

    Read on for more details and examples:

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  • There’s Not Only Huge Virtual Sailing Communities in Second Life, But This Large Flickr Group Devoted to Beautifully Photographing It.

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

    SL – Beauty of Sailing is a small group with just over 500 members who celebrate the sailing world. Sailing is one of the first things I did in Second Life with a 1 Linden sailboat from EnkyThings. I know there are fancy ones that respond to the winds of the the Linden Ocean, but I do love my 1 Linden sailboat. 

    Yorkie Bardeen posted this gorgeous picture of the North Sea Bandit Regatta, according to Yorkie there were just two seconds between the first and second place finishers. Looks exciting and these are the kind of sailboats where you have to know what you’re doing.  

    For more sailing ships, click here:

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  • CONFIRMED: Adam Schiff’s Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act Would Apply to Video Games, Virtual Worlds & Metaverse Platforms

    Adam Schiff fighting AI dragons Pikaso

    Representative Adam Schiff recently announced the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, a bill that would require gen AI companies like Midjourney and OpenAI to disclose if any copyrighted works were used in its training data. As he put it in the announcement:

    We must balance the immense potential of AI with the crucial need for ethical guidelines and protections. My Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act is a pivotal step in this direction. It champions innovation while safeguarding the rights and contributions of creators, ensuring they are aware when their work contributes to AI training datasets. This is about respecting creativity in the age of AI and marrying technological progress with fairness.

    The bill is backed by a raft of major film and music industry groups (Congressman Schiff is based in Los Angeles), and it seems intended to primarily protect those mediums from unauthorized AI training of their intellectual property.

    But does it apply to video games, virtual worlds, and metaverse platforms? That’s not made clear in the wording.

    So I contacted Adam Schiff’s office. Asking exactly that:

    “Would the Act apply to 3D models, i.e., content in video games, virtual worlds, and metaverse platforms? So for instance, 3D models of castles, heroes, user-generated 3D models, and so on.”

    Rep. Schiff’s communications officer confirmed to me that indeed it does:

    “Yes, it would apply to any copyrighted material.”

    That’s an important clarification, as the game/metaverse industry clamors to add generative AI content into their experiences. (And the bill, if passed, would retroactively apply “to previously released generative AI systems”.) Indeed, Midjourney’s CEO recently told me the company plans to create something like the Holodeck of Star Trek.

    But if Schiff’s act becomes a law, every generative AI platform would probably need to seek permission, license, and compensate creators of 3D content in their system, once they or the copyright holder (such as a game publisher) is notified. Which will be another daunting cost for most platforms. (Though some gen AI platforms already train only on licensed content.)

    But will it become a law? Schiff’s office tells me there’s no timeline for when it’s expected to be put up for a vote.

    My semi-informed forecast is it has a very good chance of being made a law — after the 2024 election, depending on its outcome:

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  • Richard Bartle’s Classic Book Designing Virtual Worlds Now Hosted in the Virtual Worlds Museum Resource Site

    Designing virtual worlds Bartle free copy

    Now available in the Virtual Worlds Museum Books & Case Studies section:

    A downloadable copy of Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds, a milestone book in the history of the technology; first published in 2003, its influence can be seen in countless MMOs and open-ended virtual worlds, especially around player motivation types, likely beginning with World of Warcraft, and definitely with Second Life. (In 2003 it was on the shelf at Linden Lab alongside Snow Crash.) 

    Hosted in the Museum by generous permission of the author, Richard recently shared with me the sections of the book he finds most relevant for virtual worlds in development now, or as an academic historical reference:

    "Chapter 3 [Players] holds up best. Most of what's in it still applies. The Community section is its weakest part.

    "Chapter 4 [World Design] holds up well, too. Some of the suggestions sound strangely fresh and new, with modern MMOs (as opposed to non-game worlds) having largely similar ways of approaching world design resulting in largely similar results.  

    "Chapter 7 [Toward a Critical Aesthetic] holds up well, but isn't of interest to anyone except the budding designer who hasn't had all thoughts that virtual worlds are creative expressions beaten out of them.

    "Chapter 8 [Coda: Ethical Considerations] is still relevant, largely for the same reasons it was relevant before: few designers think about this kind of thing, but they ought to."

    More notes from Richard below. As a consulting partner for the Virtual Worlds Museum, I'm excited to help expand this resource page with all books / references that have informed my own writing.

    Speaking of which, please check out the page, and let me know if there's any books we should definitely add!

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  • Today’s Second Life Flickr Pick: Poignant Protests of Planetary Calamity, Beautifully Expressed Through Virtual World Screen Shots

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

    Shui Shui [shosha.stransky] posted “The Last Tree” just this morning. It’s a poignant image, beautiful with that single tree silhouetted against a night sky with just three stars visible. It’s a gorgeous example of the Golden Ratio. It is a subtle way of highlighting a serious issue, the increasing desertification of the planet. Desertification is when soil becomes infertile through a combination of factors, erosion, wildfires, overgrazing and poor farming practices, and deforestation, the loss of trees. By the time there is a last tree, though, humanity will be long gone and trees might rebound. 

    It’s not a coincidence that many of the countries where there is armed conflict are also countries with devastating desertification. Loss of farmland leads to scarcity and precarity which lead to conflict. There are 168 countries experiencing desertification, a crisis that looms over our future. It’s good to see someone using Second Life to highlight this slow-motion emergency. 

    For more of Shui Shui’s time-tinged work, click here:

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  • Second Life Community Social Feeds Swamped by AI-Enhanced Images, Creating Craving for “Real” Avatar Photos

    SL avatar before Photoshop

    Above: Untouched raw screenshot of Yo Roo's avatar

    In a virtual world dependent on highly-detailed, heavily customized avatar models, and images depicting them, what qualifies as "real"? In recent months I've noticed the social media feeds of Second Life users increasingly swamped by avatar images heavily enhanced by generative AI programs like Krea AI, Midjourney, and Leonardo AI. They're showing up in ads for avatar content, and in avatar portraits themselves.

    The trend is becoming so acute, it's led longtime SL content creator Yo Roo to post a Facebook request for avatar authenticity:

    Tired of seeing AI glow-ups along my entire SL Facebook feed. Yeah yeah, you look good… but honestly, everyone all kinda look the same (notice the eyes and nose always widening) 

    So, ❗️TREND ALERT❗️… I'd like to see what you *really* look like in SL. No edits, definitely no AI, snap me a raw so I can appreciate your SL pixels and uniqueness in all their original glory… bonus points if I can see them ugly SL hands. (I miss them.)

    Community members have already posted dozens of "candid" avatar pics in the thread.

    Ironically, this backlash to AI enhancement actually echoes a prior backlash over avatar images overly enhanced by Photoshop and other editing tools. But for Roo, there's a difference between the two:

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  • Why a Statistically “Moderate” Gender Difference in VR Cybersickness is Still a Very Important Consideration for VR Developers

    VR cybersickness by gender Iowa Jon Kelly

    Some readers have pointed out an apparent discrepancy in my post about the NSF-funded Iowa State University study on VR and gender that I covered last week: The University's summary characterizes the gender difference in stark terms: The study found that the women test subjects ended a VR game early twice as often as men, and "reported a sickness intensity that was 40% higher".

    However, the abstract of the peer-reviewed study is not as stark, saying: "We summarize the literature and conclude that women experience more cybersickness than do men, but that the size of the gender effect is modest."

    How can a 40% sickness intensity be described as "modest"?

    I checked back with Dr. Jon Kelly, who led the research. Asking him, is it fair to say that the gender difference is "modest" in terms of statistical analyses — but is still a very important consideration for VR developers and companies when attempting to launch a mass market VR consumer product:

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