Sanny Yoshikawa が、New World Notesのなかから、毎月おすすめのバーチャルワールドニュースを日本語で紹介 します
Sanny Yoshikawa covers the monthly virtual world highlights from New World Notes for virtual Japan.
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Hypnotic Romance, an SL sim with secluded spaces for couples. Click here to teleport.
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Scarlett Libido is a Flickr microblogger with a distinctive style. Recently she has been creating a foreground with her hand and it’s an eye-catching way to frame her pictures. It’s also a great way to show off her nails and that cocktail in her most recent post, Cheers!
- LIVIA – Inaya Nails -v2- Marketplace
- Nu Earth – Sleepy Mocktail Set📍Mainstore
- ARNAUD HAUS – STUDDED HEART Earrings📍Mainstore
- ARNAUD HAUS – HAMPTON Bracelet Set📍Mainstore
- Yummy – Initial Pendant Necklace – Marketplace
For more of her gorgeous looks, click here:
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In this excerpt of Making a Metaverse That Matters, we explore the importance around naming a metaverse platform. Notably, Second Life (now with 500,000+ players) launched only 2-3 years before Roblox (now with 350 million+ users):
Another core friction point for Second Life mass adoption is not technical or related to the UX, but perhaps the most subtle and the most profound of all: Calling it “Second Life” in the first place.
The virtual world’s naming, led by early Linden Lab business developer Hunter Walk (now a highly respected venture capitalist), seemed to make sense at the time. As I wrote in The Making of Second Life:
“A lot of the game worlds were verbs which described what you’d be doing,” as [Walk] recalls it now. “You know… ever-questing! I wanted the name to be a vessel that people could fill themselves, that would be evocative of the promise of the world, and then put that responsibility upon the user to fill the promise.
"It’s such a strong notion, it’s such an idea: everybody wants a second life. You see more and more people with avatars and screen names,” he told [Linden management]. “I think if we hit our stride we can sell this. It won’t be geeky. It’ll be ‘Of course, why wouldn’t you want one?’ Because it doesn’t have to be better or worse, it doesn’t mean your first one is lame or great, it just means it’s different, and you can be somebody different, and do something different.”
His original suggestion, “Life 2”, was then massaged by the team into “Second Life”.
In fullness of time, we can confirm that consumers do generally prefer metaverse platforms named after verbs, or at least strongly imply them: Minecrafting, building blocks and forts in Roblox and Fortnite, VRChat-ing, and so on.
Looking back at it now, was it a mistake to name the platform Second Life?
Next: Hunter and Philip Rosedale reflect.
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Duraya creates such intriguing pictures, I had to ask her how she does it. It’s clear she combines Second Life screenshots with her own sketches, but I was curious if she also used AI and other methods. She was kind enough to pick three of her pictures that illustrate her three main approaches to creating an image.
“I joined SL out of curiosity and for socializing and stayed mainly for the wide field of creativity it offers,” Duraya tells me. She started making screenshots in 2021 and over time, learned how to use all of SL’s tools. “So from playing with WindLights and shadows I gradually added various ways of post processing until finally taking up using AI too.”
Her first approach is pure Second Life with minor post-processing touch ups.
She starts by “taking pictures in SL and using WindLights that help me approach my idea of the result I seek, refining with different graphic programs – I usually use more than one. Either it stops here or I add some small gif, like a few strands of moving grass or a bird blinking its eyes and so on. It enlivens the image and as this is a virtual world we are less limited here in the way we express ourselves. I simply loved the forest and the dark and mysterious mood the WindLight added to it.”
For two more Duraya images and methods, click here:
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Inevitably, VRChat can already be accessed through Apple Vision Pro (kinda sorta). There's no official optimized app yet — and the official Rec Room app for Vision Pro hasn't launched yet either — but if you're willing to do some workarounds, you can. Here's details from top VR YouTuber Bradley Lynch, who got this going:
- First, get ALVR for Vision OS, and experimental visionOS client for running SteamVR on Apple Vision Pro!
- Follow these install instructions
Whatever you do, be careful, this is seriously not tested stuff, and maybe check your Vision Pro warranty/TOS first.
"It works great for me," Brad tells me. "I started getting used to using finger gestures to move around and stuff. It works great for me. I started getting used to using finger gestures to move around and stuff."
The fact that Vision Pro can run both AR passthrough and a VR app like VRChat leads to some cool new interactions — watch:
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Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education has been pioneering immersive pedagogy for years, so I'm super honored to be giving a keynote talk at their annual conference next week.
Held March 14 at 4pm PT, here's the info and teleport links:
Despite, or because of, all the hype and backlash around the Metaverse in recent years, many myths around the concept persist — even among longtime virtual world fans and educators. For instance: "There's no definition of the Metaverse and it doesn't exist", “The Metaverse must interoperate across the Internet”, and “Photo-realistic human avatars and world graphics are the Metaverse’s end goal”. Drawing from his new book Making a Metaverse That Matters – and 20 years working in virtual worlds, beginning at Linden Lab — Hamlet cuts through these myths while painting a sustainable and inspiring vision for virtual world educators.
If SLurl is full, try these locations:
Much more info here. Held in Second Life and streamed to YouTube, attendance is free. Here's info for existing and new users:
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Rei2 Aya is a woman of action and adventure. Her stream is full of anime-inspired pictures of her with her weapons drawn, always in motion, always prepared for anything. We don’t know if she’s on the side of good or evil, but with her sweet smile, I’m going to guess good. Besides, don’t almost everyone think they are on the side of good? I love the swinging movement of her ponytail and how the yellow light shines on her ponytail. There is this intent bright light and then the black shadows working together to make Rei2’s avatar so bold and exciting.
For more of Rei2’s martial pictures, click here:
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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
ℕadej Dae creates extraordinary images focusing on landscapes and avatar portraits. Her landscapes are close and intimate, a single tree, a few flowers or grasses, often in silhouette or in striking colors. “Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year” is a striking picture and perfectly captures the quote with all the leaves on one side turned to their autumn colors and then the bare branches of winter. The leaves are blowing all about swirling in the wind and fog.
For more of her extraordinary landscapes, click here:
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 