Wagner James Au / New World Notes

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  • Disney & Epic’s New Fortnite-Interoperable Universe is the Mass Market On-Ramp the Metaverse Needs

    This announcement came sooner than I'd have guessed — though last December, I did predict that in 2024, a leading metaverse platform would be acquired. Well, Disney now owns 10% of one at least: 

    The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games will collaborate on an all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences. Disney will also invest $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games alongside the multiyear project.

    In addition to being a world-class games experience and interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe will offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more. 

    “Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Unreal Engine across their portfolio,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder, Epic Games. “Now we’re collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities.”

    Interoperable emphases mine, because that strongly suggests Fortnite's existing 100 million+ players will be able to leap pretty  seamlessly into this new Disney/Epic universe. This is on top of Epic's recently announced partnerships with LEGO, Rocket League, and Rockband creator Harmonix. 

    Part of me reads this news and worries about how this might crimp the Metaverse's quirky, indie, grassroots spirit across various platforms. For instance, now that Disney is getting directly involved in the metaverse platform business, any user-created fan tributes of Disney's massive IP library may soon get the knife.

    But more of me is excited by what's effectively a mass market on-ramp for the Metaverse: 

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  • Will We Want “Spatial Computing” More Than “The Metaverse”?

    Spacial Computing Bar Zeev Jacobson Snow Crash

    Matthew Ball has a good long post about the history of terms that attempt to capture the concept of 3D experiences in computing — cyberspace, augmented reality, mirror worlds, and so on (and on). While "spatial computing" is currently the term in vogue due to the Apple Vision Pro and the marketing juggernaut that is Apple — which describes the headset as "Apple's first spatial computer" — Matt correctly points out that it's actually from the early 90s and Dr. Bob Jacobson, founder of an early VR startup called Worldesign.

    As I wrote in my book, Worldesign and Neal Stephenson were literally sharing office space back then:

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  • Frame-worthy Photos of Second Life’s Virtual Marshes by Lori Bailey

    53406434263_5e782e5f03_cCajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

    Lori Bailey is the photographer for Attention Magazine. On Flickr, though, she mostly chronicles the special events in her life and indulges her passion for landscape photography. She makes the sims she visits come alive with beautiful landscapes with wondrous skies. I love how the grasses reflect the shape of the boulder on the right as though creating an outline. I love the sunset and how the rays of the sun are so subtle you almost don’t see them.

    In her About page, she writes that she has always been creative, but life has gotten too busy to leave her time for exploring her creativity. Second Life has given her that outlet that she needed. 

    As she puts it there: 

    I am just an explorer of Second life and its beauty. I love to explore new places and capture pictures of all the beauty Second life has to offer. I mostly do Landscapes but in between I also do post some Avatar or Decor pictures, but landscapes are my passion. Without all the amazing sim creators none of my pictures would be possible, so I am forever grateful to them for all their creativity and making my pictures possible.

    For more of her lush landscapes, click here:

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  • Coming to Netflix: Ibelin, Acclaimed Documentary of Dying Quadriplegic Gamer With a Vibrant Virtual World Community in WoW

    Acclaimed at Sundance 2024, put Ibelin on your Netflix watch list:  

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  • Quest 3 Sold an Estimated 900K-1.5 Million Units in Q4 2023 Launch — With Quest 2 Finally Gaining a 20M+ Install Base.

    Meta Quest 3 install base

    Meta just reported that its XR division Reality Labs earned $1.07 billion in Q4 2023 for sales of its new Quest 3 headset ($499), along with its Quest 2 ($299), Ray-Ban "smart" glasses, and revenue from its Quest store.

    So now it's time to play everyone's favorite napkin math game: How many Quest 3s were sold during that period, when it went on sale?

    Meta doesn't disclose specific headset model sales, so reading the tea leaves is even tougher.

    Quest store revenue has fluctuated between $40 million and $60 million per month recently, but let's assume it was about $180 million in Q4 2023. And also assume the rest of that $1.07B revenue — $890,000,000 — was almost completely earned through Quest 2 and Quest 3 sales.

    We can break that down in terms of install base ranges:

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  • In Second Life, Avatars Can Even Turn the Flu Into a Fashion Statement


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    ɢᴇᴛ ᴡᴇʟʟ sᴏᴏɴ

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

    Cla Jones is giving her partner some TLC while he is under the weather. You seldom see avatars with a cold or flu. Even before they discovered treatments for and vaccines against COVID, we didn’t see many folks who were sick in SL. 

    Since many of us are still enduring flu season in the real world, I was curious what I could find looking for avatars with the cold and other under-the-weather styles.

    For more folks sick in Second Life click here:

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  • Philip Rosedale Demos Vision Pro, Deems It Too Heavy & Isolating for Mainstream. How About You?

    Philip Rosedale SL virtual world Vision Pro review

    Philip Rosedale wrote a hands-on (eyes-on?) review of the Apple Vision Pro, based on a demo that technically and experientially dazzled him — and also gave him a potential neck strain:

    I found myself at one point actually resting my chin in my hand with my elbow on the table because… it’s that heavy. And I am a large strong person used to wearing these things. Way too heavy for prolonged use. You have to tighten it too your face really hard because of the single strap, and it felt more uncomfortable at the contact points with your face than the Quest. 

    Trouble is, putting the Vision Pro on too tightly makes it likely to cause hair damage. And by Vision Pro's own branding, it's meant to be a device for professional use, i.e. for 8 hours a day.

    "As with other devices like the Quest, Magic Leap, and Varjo," Philip concludes, "I predict it will find use in narrow verticals like industrial training."

    That sounds right! And it's difficult to imagine a short term scenario where Apple can make a headset device that's much lighter and less costly.

    How about you, New World Notes reader? If you've tried (or bought) the Vision Pro, please share your reaction in Comments. I'm especially curious if you could see yourself using the Vision Pro in a virtual world — either an existing one, or new worlds built around the Vision Pro.

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  • Reader Tips for Using LLMs Like Microsoft’s Copilot for Second Life Content

    Copilot LLM Second Life

    Reader Nadeja concurs with Linden Lab staffer "Soft" on the value of using Large Language Models to help with creating/exploring Second Life related content — and has further tips, especially for Microsoft's LLM Copilot: 

    I was doing similar things for months. For small scripts and functions, GPT-4 is a time saver, it can also handle regular expressions (regex) well enough. Processing natural language is the job of language models, so it is commonly used for summarizing, making lists, revising and many other things. And it can also help with finding ideas and brainstorming as he said.

    Note that GPT-4 was available for free since early 2023 until recently on Microsoft's chatbot (now Copilot). Also, unlike the free ChatGPT, Copilot can search the web for the latest information. Moreover, in the Precise mode (teal color), Copilot provides more concise responses and with reduced hallucinations (the Creative one is the opposite, but it's meant to create, invent things).

    However, now the free version of Copilot has GPT-4 only during non-peak times. Also the default mode, Balanced, didn't use the best model since a long time (and I'm not sure if Precise is still GPT-4 either).

    On the other hand, ChatGPT may be more versatile with custom instructions, regenerate answers and has other features. The free version of Copilot, other than web search, can also create and analyze images, has voice, and so on.

    Nadeja also provides some more background on LLMs avoiding some of the "spicier" questions that Grok will answer:

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  • Top 5 Posts Including: Philip Rosedale’s Digital Currency UBI, Using ChatGPT Virtual Worlds Scripting, and Hair Tips for Vision Pro Users

    Vision Pro Apple Hair Tips Isadora

  • What’s Went Wrong With Meta’s Metaverse Plans? Read/Hear Making a Metaverse That Matters to Find Out!

    Making a Metaverse That Matters Audible AudiobookWith Meta's latest earnings report published this week, we find out the company has now burned invested $42 billion on building the Metaverse, with little to show for that: Its metaverse platform Horizon Worlds has less than an estimated 500,000 monthly active users, while sales of its Quest VR headset line (a metaverse peripheral) remain steadfastly small. (More on that next week.)

    What went wrong? In hopes that Meta and the industry at large can learn from past mistakes, I detail Meta's missteps in Making a Metaverse That Matters. (Now available for a free listen on Audible with a subscription!) 

    Here's some key excerpts, broke down in three key factors:

    Failure to Clearly Define or Explain the Metaverse — Even Internally

    John Carmack then mentions that the team at Meta still wasn’t clear what that actually even meant.

    “‘Metaverse' means different things to different people, and you need clarity of purpose. And I tried to get some of that, like, 'What exactly do we mean?' And there was still lots of hand-waving.”

    According to a survey conducted in late 2022 by Blind, confidence in the Metaverse and Meta's efforts around it had dropped sharply over the previous 12 months: To the statement, "I believe Meta will successfully build the metaverse", 77% of Meta staff had answered in the affirmative. By December 2022, only 50% of them answered Yes.

    John Carmack, who has envisioned creating the Metaverse since the 90s — but has frequently and publicly chided Meta’s excessively high level “architecture astronaut" approach to building it — finally resigned his senior consultant role at Meta in late 2022. That late 2022 Blind survey, by the way, also asked Meta staff if Mark Zuckerberg had clearly explained what the Metaverse even is. 56% of his own employees answered No.

    Two more excerpts after the break!

     

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