tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-219460452024-03-14T00:11:33.620-05:00Andromeda Media GroupAndromeda Media Group is a loose collaborative of professionals in virtual environments, stemming from the original project that kicked it off - The City of Nidus in the late 1990s. This blog documents a many year evolution about the whims and ideals of the project leader: Will Burns | Aeonix Aeon | Darian Knight
From Second Life to Real Life, and everything in between.Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369186130470176679noreply@blogger.comBlogger32013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21946045.post-285622148072419362019-08-01T07:02:00.002-05:002019-08-01T07:02:39.299-05:00The Quest for Xanadu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Understanding Organic Behavior in Virtual Worlds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTTU6pEoGKCMWmJVvfAKJ47BQUy-BYusDbOVc6ao_eR6GhFANpxA6SfNdHRqjDA472bA7-5Y3HkNNCeBXupR0ZQ3vlgYlMuMuSA_KwjBqV7Tg5O7U9OYkin9-ICdq7vO33YZpHQ/s1600/Cyberpunk+Wallpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTTU6pEoGKCMWmJVvfAKJ47BQUy-BYusDbOVc6ao_eR6GhFANpxA6SfNdHRqjDA472bA7-5Y3HkNNCeBXupR0ZQ3vlgYlMuMuSA_KwjBqV7Tg5O7U9OYkin9-ICdq7vO33YZpHQ/s640/Cyberpunk+Wallpaper.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<hr />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Was it Laurie Anderson who said that VR would never look real until they learned how to put some dirt in it?”<br />― William Gibson</span></div>
<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong>The Imperfect World</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There is something to be said concerning the nature of imperfection and its role in any virtual world – whether that be an elaborate immersion with an HMD or some sort of XR Augmented Reality. It’s all really the same premise with different context. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Somewhere around the turn of the century, I was introduced to this epiphany and it has since shaped my comprehensive understanding of the intricate mechanizations by which virtual worlds operate. Not as compartmentalized notions independent of one another, but as a massively interconnected ecosystem.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s never been so simple as “Make a sound loop here” or “Increase the graphics fidelity”. There are always underlying considerations for each and every decision made in a live virtual environment which can affect a cascading change across the entire ecosystem itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a way, we could say this is similar to introducing an invasive species into an area and watching it decimate everything.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Such is the case with today’s thought experiment, and why I’ve decided to pick up the digital pen to craft yet another post after so much time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As per my previous assertions however, I’ll try not to retread old ground with this and instead introduce something new to the conversation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Somewhere around 1995, a small company at the time had stumbled onto the “killer app” of virtual worlds. Rejected by the original parent company, Worlds Inc, the designers raised enough money to buy the rights to the new creation and embark on their own.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Worlds Inc was under the impression that they were selling off a failed experiment, but little did they know they were giving away what would be the biggest breakthrough in virtual worlds at the time. Alphaworld, and later ActiveWorlds would become the template for future virtual worlds afterward, whether we acknowledge this or not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a world dominated by Web Worlds discussion and VRML and X3D pages (at least in technology circles), ActiveWorlds went in the opposite direction. It created a custom browser (not a VRML plugin) that had servers and (most importantly) would allow the multi-user virtual world to edit that virtual world in real time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">For a short time, ActiveWorlds was on top of the tech world. A virtual gold standard to aspire to. But that changed very quickly, as the company behind it weren’t actually able to understand what made it work so well that it appealed to those end-users.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a way, they had captured lightning in a bottle and just as quickly lost it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This isn’t a new phenomenon today, as I’ve seen the same situation play out countless times since then. Each contender trying to figure out what component or configuration created that ecosystem so they too could capture that lightning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Many thought it was raw graphical power that was the secret, and they were very wrong. Some thought maybe the publish model of Worlds Inc was a good bet (it wasn’t). Over time, many virtual worlds came and went due to their inability to understand the organic nature of these virtual worlds and what makes them appealing in the first place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of course, over these twenty years, I’ve known full well what makes them popular and what was likely to crash and burn. Even as they were putting out fancy press releases and marketing, being interviewed with technology blogs and magazines… You as my reader are free to look back as far as 2005 and see for yourself that I’ve landed about 98% of my forecasts with alarming accuracy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">If I wasn’t so confident in this understanding, I would never have agreed to work alongside some of the brightest minds from the largest multinational corporations. I would never have signed on to work with IEEE Virtual Worlds Standard group, and I surely wouldn’t have agreed to co-author a seminal paper on the subject of the past, present and future of virtual worlds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are two possible outcomes when you’re staring down a journal like ACM and submitting a paper, or working with folks from IBM and other multinational corporations to help define an entire industry. One does not simply predict the rise of Zero Barrier Retail and how it can manifest (Amazon Go). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Either I’m completely delusional, or I actually understand something most people don’t.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Over the past twenty years, it has overwhelmingly been proven the latter under countless instances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">After all, you are perfectly aware that the day Philip Rosedale announced High Fidelity, I raised concerns and outlined that it would not work out the way he was promising. It was no surprise to me that shortly after my interview with NWN talking about how High Fidelity was not the Metaverse nor would it likely ever be just by overall design, that Philip would make a rebuttal and then shortly after shut down the public servers to focus on enterprise solutions out of the scrutiny of the public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The numbers just weren’t there to support his promises and assertions. They weren’t there from the beginning and they weren’t there when he claimed to be making The Metaverse later.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But this isn’t a post about kicking anyone in the teeth, though arguably Philip does a good enough job doing so to himself consistently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What this is about is something that has been persistent in the virtual worlds industry for twenty years. Even sitting in the conference room with Ebbe Altberg at Linden Lab, and trying to convey talking points on a white board, even then something important came up from him that I’ve heard before many times in the industry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Most importantly that places like Second Life seem to have a userbase limit of around 100,000 and then some sort of glass ceiling. Of course, they’ve all tried the A|B testing and focus groups to find out what users prefer, but that doesn’t seem to be helping.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nor would it ever likely be of much insight to begin with. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In this point alone, we’re living in the “now” when we should be figuring out the future. In the immortal words of Steve Jobs:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>“Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”</em></span></h3>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In this statement, most companies are horrible at predicting the future. They pour over market research and analytical forecasts to see what the supposed trends are going to be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is how SANSAR came to be, originally betting the farm on VR Headsets being the future.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It was a bad call then, and you as the reader already are well aware, I had said so when the hype originally began. The difference between market research and forecasts, the A|B testing, and the attempt to preempt the future with some offering is that it doesn’t actually take into consideration the overall understanding of that ecosystem but instead tries to dictate it based not on anticipating what people will want but what self-interested companies and market research firms are paid to tell everyone in order to create that hype and therefore demand for their reports and services.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">That’s what has always set me apart from the mainstream, and also why I have such an uncanny ability to forecast accurately.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’m not telling anyone the real trends and outcomes because I want to be a Debbie Downer. I’m just stating the likely outcomes ahead of time and also stating why.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So what can we learn from this?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Well, we can say that the end-user doesn’t actually know what they want (mostly) but that is because the companies don’t even know what those end users want or why. So we’re asking all the wrong questions, focusing on the wrong parts of the equation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">While we do get answers for doing this, we more often than not get inconsequential answers that do little or nothing to move the needle of progress forward.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We’re no closer today in understanding that lightning in a bottle than we were in 1995, despite widespread efforts in attempting to recreate it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>Lightning in a Bottle</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">That being said, I’m overgeneralizing. Of course <em>I know</em> why that lightning in a bottle happened multiple times and then immediately was lost. However, it’s not enough that I understand the situation because what ultimately matters is if the people who are in charge of these virtual worlds systems understand it as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Those are the people who make these decisions, (not myself), and so those are the sort of people who plot the course for better or worse (usually worse).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As of this moment, it is safe to assume that they do not understand the organics of the ecosystem. Otherwise, why else are these systems still (for lack of better words) floundering?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’m not implying that a place like Second Life is a failure, or even SANSAR for that matter. But they <em>are</em> failing. There’s a difference, and more importantly it’s more about the big picture and perception. It’s about the overarching nature of <strong>perspective</strong>. When taken alone without comparison, then yes, these are two massively successful endeavors with a rich and glorious offering.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But taken within the total ecosystem, they aren’t faring too well. Minecraft is nearly as old as Second Life and still consistently has 91 million players each month with 15% of that over the age of 30.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>“Pff… Minecraft. That low resolution kids game?”</em> I hear you say.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<hr />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0srcQOJA-sZTFZkA_q4rSM3FS8-0f4a5ln3UDRr4yZKL9m3bhd-jtneUVIDEkKe9bGCLKXlpSSazmRu89cykk8-xf1pAAiZxKZLS07Z3c-7KPk1i9tp_YYbNZ2gs6ks4n7nU-Bg/s1600/a1QOpQb_700b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1245" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0srcQOJA-sZTFZkA_q4rSM3FS8-0f4a5ln3UDRr4yZKL9m3bhd-jtneUVIDEkKe9bGCLKXlpSSazmRu89cykk8-xf1pAAiZxKZLS07Z3c-7KPk1i9tp_YYbNZ2gs6ks4n7nU-Bg/s640/a1QOpQb_700b.jpg" width="358" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Yes, <em>Minecraft</em>. That game which allows for <em>Path Traced Lighting, weather and more.</em> The “more” part we’ll get to in a bit because it is vitally important in understanding why Minecraft has tens of millions of “players” over the age of 30 and Linden Lab is wrestling with a glass ceiling of 100,000 and less.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;">The image above <em>is</em> actually Minecraft, and while this is an extreme case where you’d pretty much need an nVIDIA RTX card to handle it, the point is that the graphics in Minecraft can and are evolving well beyond anything I’ve ever seen in Second Life and maybe SANSAR. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But that’s not the real point here. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What we’re getting at are a couple of points, really. SANSAR on Steam wasn’t going to help Linden Lab out. I could have told them that from day one just based on common sense. I probably <em>did</em> say something to the effect when the other blogs reported it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Adding the ability to create quests in SANSAR is pretty neat, but only in its own bubble. Which is to say, the moment you put SANSAR in the same market as AAA games, you’re coming up short immediately in direct comparison. For all the advancement SANSAR is by comparison to Second Life, when compared to the typical AAA game market and player, you’re in the territory of Lowered Expectations out of the gate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLatjxmu3obFDkehs5ZvQyLnv3gEebwW_iQ9_8p8s_3709-gWxe4N50F9Ry5aDI4AWcy7FTc2DmVXGG_3HvmWzWfhQFCwF7-QTcmdV8yd6MYK0KLwx9nMy5pv0Q0a-cE2VTH9dQ/s1600/lokisansarcustom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1600" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLatjxmu3obFDkehs5ZvQyLnv3gEebwW_iQ9_8p8s_3709-gWxe4N50F9Ry5aDI4AWcy7FTc2DmVXGG_3HvmWzWfhQFCwF7-QTcmdV8yd6MYK0KLwx9nMy5pv0Q0a-cE2VTH9dQ/s640/lokisansarcustom.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Loki Eliot in SANSAR… presumably doing Loki things.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>“</em><span style="font-size: small;"><em>But SANSAR looks incredible!” </em>I already heard you say.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I never said it didn’t. There are a number of advancements besides graphics that also are impressive for a virtual world. While Minecraft can handle path traced lighting, it’s not the potential for high end graphics that is the secret sauce. Nor was using the Crytek Engine the secret sauce for Avatar BlueMars.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">See where I’m going here? SANSAR looks suspiciously to me like a new version of BlueMars. That alone is enough for anybody in the industry to throw red flags.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a manner of “Whoa there, Nelly! Take a step back and rethink where you’re going with this. You’re flirting with a perfectly avoidable failure.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s not to say SANSAR is doomed. It’s still operating, people are still working on it internally to improve it. So it really just needs a better understanding of the organic ecosystem applied for it to really flourish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Second Life only has the glass ceiling because the people who engage with it regularly mostly “get” the point of it being a social virtual world that is user generated – a <strong>platform</strong>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Outside that community, people more or less just don’t “get” it. How do you play this video game? What’s the point? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s a mismatch of target demographics, and an internal misunderstanding of what the nature of the product is which appeals to the masses. I don’t really think anyone actually knew what the magic was to begin with and were just as caught off guard by the sudden success as anyone else. But the minute they ran with it, they inevitably ran it into a wall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>One mustn’t mess with forces they do not comprehend</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<hr />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>The Oracle Has Spoken!</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ok, not really. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The killer app of virtual worlds are the people themselves <em>and</em> the enabling of their ability to create and exist in a dynamic and <strong>organic</strong> ecosystem.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a perfect world of understanding, the company (Linden Lab) offers nothing more than the tools, platform and services to enable while not <em>interfering</em> with that ecosystem. In a perfect virtual world, a company like Linden Lab doesn’t <em>duplicate</em> services or offerings that already exist via the user generated ecosystem, nor do they call it Premium. That’s not a symbiotic nature, and instead is acting the part of the invasive species.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a perfect virtual world, a company like Linden Lab offers only added-value proposition as premium that only they can offer, and which augments the ecosystem without duplicating services.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">That being said, this is far beyond any blog post or single whitepaper I could ever hope to write. There is no <em>real</em> way to reduce twenty years of experience and implicit understanding of such a vastly complex ecosystem into a single tweet, a one hour meeting, or just a quote or interview.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There really is no way to convey all of this in a keynote speech or presentation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All I can say to the entirety is that the understanding is like understanding chaos theory. It’s not necessarily the <em>knowledge</em> that matters but the ability to see the patterns in the chaos, then articulate how best to navigate that chaos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">More or less, this is why I’ve become infrequent in my writing here. It’s why I stopped doing interviews, and it’s also why I have no desire to do any keynotes or presentations. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We’ve reached a point where the understanding and insight is beyond that which can be articulated in concise form, and also tends to retread old ground (at least to me). Overall, the industry is going to do whatever it is they intend to do regardless of forewarning or sound forecasting. Jumping on trends, subscribing to the hype, propping up the corporate talking points – and as a matter of fact, I wouldn’t expect otherwise. It has been the only constant I’ve come to expect in twenty years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So to all those companies: <strong>You do you :)</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is now at a point where I’d just have to be hands-on in the process for anything further I could explain to make sense. It’s now a contextual situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong><em>Current Events</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>Linden Lab Lawsuit:</strong> Not really something I care about, really. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Arguably they probably could have just had her meet with the legal department to sort out the perceived issues and gotten confirmation that such concerns were taken care of, or had she raised to them issues which they were unaware of, some sort of action plan to sort it out. Of course, nobody really knows the situation entirely and it could just be bad actors. From the outside looking in, that’s about all I have to say about the situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s not for me to decide what is what. That’s what the courts are for.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>Strawberry Linden:</strong> Congratulations :) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>Tilia:</strong> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong><em>Inactivity fee</em></strong> – This is new, but it does make sense. Much as we probably all hate it, if you have money in Tilia and you’ve abandoned the account for whatever reason, they’re going to charge the upkeep fee and take the money.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em><strong>The Verification</strong></em> process thing. Let’s talk a minute about that.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I understand it’s a legal requirement. The process was fine for me here in the United States, but I’ve heard a few mentions that people in other countries it didn’t work for them. Hopefully it gets worked out, because a lot of content creators and stores are run by international users…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>Second Life Mobile:</strong> Recently wrote up a short ten page document outlining some concepts for Active Design and arranging a mobile version of SL and UX. No idea if Ebbe actually read it or if anything outlined in the write-up would be used.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Your guess is as good as mine.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369186130470176679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21946045.post-30261224308836414002018-12-01T03:41:00.001-05:002018-12-01T03:49:25.900-05:00The Future of Engagement<p><font size="3">Why I Don’t Believe In Virtual Worlds…</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XV2JYuUyjr0/XAJI4O1xDlI/AAAAAAAAufo/2o_u2IJG4RUwEpvehtKVwtcb6vszgVh3QCHMYCw/s1600-h/Virtual%2BWorlds%2BHeader%255B5%255D"><img width="548" height="293" title="Virtual Worlds Header" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="Virtual Worlds Header" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZjPF7WWVsnM/XAJI5E0Ud6I/AAAAAAAAufs/XUP5CgHe-pcy56SGfZdQXGCySbJ57q-fgCHMYCw/Virtual%2BWorlds%2BHeader_thumb%255B5%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="center"><font size="3">“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Back in the mid 1990s, there was this new thing called virtual reality that was taking the world by storm. The term itself became so saturated and misappropriated that it no longer held any real meaning. By the end of the 1990s, it had jumped the shark.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">It was specifically <em>because</em> virtual reality had no proper definition of what is and is not, that marketing and companies latched onto it like a bunch of hungry vultures looking to peddle whatever it was that they were making. During this time we saw the lowest common denominator spring up under the guise of legitiate offerings – Nintendo Virtual Boy, VZone, PowerGlove and more.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CivgsFpNuLE/XAJI6Fx02LI/AAAAAAAAufw/0YCOJ3KWWCMCgRDA_vDXs_aJ82JNWZxLACHMYCw/s1600-h/virtualboy%255B5%255D"><img width="552" height="311" title="virtualboy" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="virtualboy" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cVGSwf1BLho/XAJI7AeojsI/AAAAAAAAuf0/vDJkzd0RKS01v_PajN3fgu2fS_MYAdzdwCHMYCw/virtualboy_thumb%255B3%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">In the early 1990s, there was of course things like Worlds Inc, which was a virtual world where you had to pre-design the spaces and download them up front before you could enter. Their claim to fame at the time was that Aerosmith themselves had a world there that you could explore. The interactivity of it all was sparse at best and Worlds Inc soon faded out in favor of it’s in-house successor ActiveWorlds in which the end-users could create the environment in real time. This in and of itself was a major breakthrough in the days of dial-up connections.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><hr></p><p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3vV6qPKAEMM/XAJI8ZRnvKI/AAAAAAAAuf4/QO3W0pqHQP0F3X10mUCFAFnmlKj2wXLRwCHMYCw/s1600-h/bowieworld%255B4%255D"><img width="546" height="357" title="bowieworld" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="bowieworld" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2HvNi-w2BEU/XAJI9mPsgvI/AAAAAAAAuf8/h6VhxJTWBSsRLFgbeMakUtc7aRccYfwEwCHMYCw/bowieworld_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">What is most interesting about the Worlds Inc model was that rooms, or spaces were compartmentalized and each had to be downloaded in entirety up front before entering. It was a failed model at the time, and later on others tried to adopt the same model with similar results. There was no sense of continuity with these spaces nor contiguous spatial presence. Each space existed on its own.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The irony of that tidbit of knowledge is that Alpha Tech, or AlphaWorld as it was known early on, actually was an in-house system competing against the “Gamma” Tech of Worlds Inc that they already used.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Worlds Inc didn’t see the merit of the AlphaWorld model and so discarded it in favor of their existing Gamma tech model.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The artists and designers at Worlds Inc raised the capital themselves to buy the rights to AlphaWorld and soon launched their own system independently and became ActiveWorlds.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ikijen_Bzi4/XAJI-v4L7LI/AAAAAAAAugA/63MpfIsYRLIkoCDnKmBy6sT8Q2hj4jjTQCHMYCw/s1600-h/Alphaworld%255B4%255D"><img width="550" height="472" title="Alphaworld" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="Alphaworld" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7LlDWojyVB0/XAJI_mEUzBI/AAAAAAAAugE/Qy0RcawWRCU35ppTotm1xjujIv16-D2kACHMYCw/Alphaworld_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The interesting thing about ActiveWorlds was that it immediately ditched the self-contained room model and download up front aspect for spaces, instead implementing dynamic asset downloads in a sprawling world. The main world, AlphaWorld, was a public building space where anyone could claim land and build. More importantly, this land mass was roughly the contiguous size of the state of California.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">There were no border crossings like in Second Life – so you really <em>could</em> drive a vehicle for hundreds of miles uninterrupted. While I can hear the numerous outcries of RP enthusiasts from Second Life waiting to respond with “Umm, Actually…” – I’ll point out that while you <em>can</em> drive vehicles in Second Life the experience is lackluster by comparison to literally everything.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Yes, you can race a car on a track with others, but the audience to watch the race is limited and most tracks during actual races pretty much require you to remove everything including your shoes just to sit and watch.You can fly a plane in Second Life but you and I both know full well that every 1024 meters you fly you’re going to hit that sim border crossing, and it’s not very smooth. We both know full well that you can sail a boat around some waters in Second Life but the experience isn’t actually that good.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">That’s the self delusion kicking in. Telling yourself the experience is top notch when it isn’t even close. As a matter of fact, to the mainstream world that experience is completely unacceptable. I’ve had responses to that implying that I somehow don’t know about all these options and shouldn’t making comments on them…</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G3VP_iGspHo/XAJJAwF_gLI/AAAAAAAAugI/-pSITuYaZB0akt6KMafjgUiUy3L9M38WgCHMYCw/s1600-h/UNO%2BMark%2BII%255B5%255D"><img width="550" height="312" title="UNO Mark II" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="UNO Mark II" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fH_WfSDhBDY/XAJJB5XahJI/AAAAAAAAugM/taYbHbRijXgAH6RuxHsOp0KYquJbggxpQCHMYCw/UNO%2BMark%2BII_thumb%255B3%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">And yet, there I am in my own UNO Mark II super-car in Second Life. Let me tell you about that experience:</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><em>The car itself is fantastic and a feat of virtual engineering. It has dials and guages, color options, tons of tuning options, etc. This car can tear up a track in no time flat. It has fifteen gears, and under the best circumstances my friends and I have only ever managed to get it up to tenth gear before the car is moving too quickly for the sim to keep up.</em></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><em><br></em></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><em>Needly to say, we’ve launched this car over embankments into the water, over the railings, and managed to cross a finish line at high speed launched upside down.</em></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">I love this car to death… but I’d enjoy driving it more in Forza Motorsport. </font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Assuming it’s real life counterpart, the Mono were available as an option:</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nhp8FaJ-5rQ/XAJJCnOBt-I/AAAAAAAAugQ/xvwqrBoaQvQOtFBLZmCIEKvANqGhoAkVwCHMYCw/s1600-h/pfaff-bac-mono-feat-1%255B4%255D"><img width="542" height="289" title="pfaff-bac-mono-feat-1" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="pfaff-bac-mono-feat-1" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kVtaJgfy7jk/XAJJDrKFDFI/AAAAAAAAugU/bda0icqgmYM_6TV_CYvgIfuUlYux61OTwCHMYCw/pfaff-bac-mono-feat-1_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Which it actually is:</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DhLM0KDovsE/XAJJE0jW_BI/AAAAAAAAugY/TnBktRwVogULlulNyDbyFyeA1tQC1WlWACHMYCw/s1600-h/fapnk1rh8sj11%255B4%255D"><img width="546" height="307" title="fapnk1rh8sj11" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="fapnk1rh8sj11" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4JjH7T9YmNU/XAJJGIok8sI/AAAAAAAAugc/mbHFMLvw5yADWP6lsapxILKDgIZG3Zs9gCHMYCw/fapnk1rh8sj11_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">And when you’re comparing you flight/sailing/driving experience from Second Life to anything mainstream, you’re flatly outclassed at literally<em> every conceivable turn</em>. The assertion that the experience in Second Life for those things is somehow on par with anything at all is downright laughable.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">You among your fellow RP’ers will agree that it’s a great experience, but that sentiment doesn’t hold up to outside facts.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">In ActiveWorlds however… we could very well drive on a track uninterrupted and quickly, we could have 50 or so spectators without incident. Nobody was ever asked to take off their shoes. Of course, our vehicles never reached a level of fidelity like the UNO/Mono.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Of course, I digress… so let’s get back on topic.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">During those years, ActiveWorlds saw a rise in popularity but never did become mainstream. Though it is to note that they were the predescessor of something you may know today – Second Life.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">It was during those mid to late 1990s that another key figure from left field happened to notice this virtual world trend and who worked in another quintessentially 90s company – Real (who did early streaming video via realPlayer etc).</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">When he departed from Real, he went on to form Linden Lab and start his own virtual world system which borrowed heavily from ActriveWorlds in the process while innovating in some areas to modernize the approach. It is because I saw these similarities in approach that I chose Second Life to migrate to from ActiveWorlds in 2007.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The interesting thing to understand here is that while you know this person as Philip Rosedale, what you likely didn’t know was that when asked why he didn’t make Second Life sooner, he was quoted as saying that the technology wasn’t possible at the time.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">But this is a fabrication at best, as ActiveWorlds existed from 1994 onward and shares many of the key structural elements with the successor of Second Life – even if the predescessor is a much less refined example, it still doesn’t negate that it served a similar premise and shared many key architectural developments in how a virtual world was deployed and for what purpose to the end user. The key interaction paradigm itself was what Rosedale took away from the 90s through prior example.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">That last part isn’t what bothers me, but instead it’s the deliberate and selective amnesia about that inspiration and process which grates on my nerves. It isn’t something that is unique to him, but across an entire industry as a whole. We continue to conveniently forget that our “new” ideas are actually unoriginal at best and have been done before. So long as it serves our own narrative and product, we’re willing to have selective amnesia. </font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">That is something that bothers me enough to where I believe there is a certain level of futility when making honest assessments for the current and future of virtual worlds as a whole (including augmented reality). It does no good to forecast to a group of people whose best interest lays in deliberately <em>not acknowledging</em> contradictory information to their own offerings.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The bigger problem is that, much like the 1990s, the entire industry has their head in the sand and any form of constructive criticism or forecast that contradicts their marketing narrative is ignored. There’s simply too much riding on those systems and products to admit anything contrary to that self-agrandization.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">During the mid to late 1990s, we also saw a myriad of companies proclaiming that the future of virtual reality was in fact online web worlds. To this end we ended up with plugins for web browsers to play WRL and VRML content, and more specialized systems like Blaxxun Contact to manage multi-user social aspects in those worlds.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SgJKJzpWR4Q/XAJJHG8GVkI/AAAAAAAAugg/U44XXzHnqWwGbo7qrvM9qSeI7Djqi2sdACHMYCw/s1600-h/Blaxxun%2BCybertown%255B5%255D"><img width="552" height="405" title="Blaxxun Cybertown" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="Blaxxun Cybertown" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5-5odBVykEA/XAJJIO4iQAI/AAAAAAAAugk/-I848uk5Tus9fNMjde9H74OTDRyKtJ2-gCHMYCw/Blaxxun%2BCybertown_thumb%255B3%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Somewhere in all of that, Virtual Reality hit mainstream for awhile and we saw movies and expensive VR Arcades popping up with headsets and $5.00 to play Wolfenstein 3D for five minutes…</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1Ju4-S7gNgI/XAJJJXFEsxI/AAAAAAAAugo/kNPRFwzZhHs5zz5RZUHP4Vzgov2cCtR3wCHMYCw/s1600-h/VR_Virtuality%255B4%255D"><img width="562" height="375" title="VR_Virtuality" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="VR_Virtuality" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cOEQkEcqRhQ/XAJJKun8vaI/AAAAAAAAugs/UtIp95CFIrQIgBWCJQEJSncEllG8MGInQCHMYCw/VR_Virtuality_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">What is most important to note in this editorial is not the history itself but that today you can quite easily see the modern day versions of all of this replaying out like a bad franchise reboot.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><strong>Second Life?</strong> It’s an iteration of ActiveWorlds.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><strong>SANSAR?</strong> Iteration of BlueMars, which is an iteration of the Worlds Inc model.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><strong>VR Headsets?</strong> VFX1</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><strong>VR Arcades?</strong> Been there and done that twenty years ago.</font></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><p align="left"><font size="3"><strong>OpenSim?</strong> Iteration of the countless third party ActiveWorlds systems that sprung up independently.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><strong>Web Worlds?</strong> They didn’t take off in the 1990s, so why on Earth would anyone think they would take off today?</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">We have reboot-itis in the industry. Take an old idea, add some more polish to it, and hope the average consumer doesn’t know we’re repackaging the old stuff to sell again.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">There has been, and continues to be, a lack or real innovation in the industry – at least where that innovation counts in the bigger picture.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">It’s no wonder the mainstream audience doesn’t take to these current offerings and in fact openly mock them.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">They aren’t as willing to have selective amnesia as the companies that are trying to sell the products are.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="5">Innovation</font></p><p align="left"><font size="5"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Just as we patterned our original conceptions of The Metaverse on Cyberpunk novels of the 80s, so too the narrative must evolve. When I was part of (and technically still am) IEEE Virtual Worlds Standard group, and prior to that asked to submit a definition of The Metaverse that fit modern times to the Solipsis Decentralized Metaverse project, I thought long and hard about the future of virtual worlds as well as the history that helped us define virtual worlds up until that point.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">I extrapolated that information among many cyberpunk descriptions and distilled it into a common thread for an all inclusive criteria for what The Metaverse would look like, how the architecture would support it, the experience overall.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">What I ended up coming to as an answer was well ahead of its time, and for many years thought to be impossible. Even today, many in the industry still insist it’s not possible or that their particular methodologies are really the future.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-d-rTehCX5w4/XAJJL9vHtmI/AAAAAAAAugw/oVP4bneTElUeUioRbY8hoNBZZEYFhIhEgCHMYCw/s1600-h/What%2BIs%2BThe%2BMetaverse%255B4%255D"><img width="557" height="369" title="What Is The Metaverse" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="What Is The Metaverse" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LYycgEqVWDs/XAJJMzwTpCI/AAAAAAAAug0/k0o71lyVSOA3pXE_RElkpydfmCfoFuCzACHMYCw/What%2BIs%2BThe%2BMetaverse_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p align="left"><div align="left"><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">I was asked to define this in 2007, and above you can see my answer. It was just the synopsis of the full answer, which was given in the ACM Paper a few years later, and then reiterated in IEEE Virtual Worlds Standard group, and now the running definition worldwide.</font></p><p align="left"><br></p><blockquote><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The <b>Metaverse</b> is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space,<sup><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Metaverse#citenote1">[1]</a></sup> including the sum of all </font><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Virtual_world"><font size="3">virtual worlds</font></a><font size="3">, </font><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Augmented_reality"><font size="3">augmented reality</font></a><font size="3">, and the </font><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Internet"><font size="3">internet</font></a><font size="3">. The word <i>metaverse</i> is a </font><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Portmanteau"><font size="3">portmanteau</font></a><font size="3"> of the prefix "</font><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Meta"><font size="3">meta</font></a><font size="3">" (meaning "beyond") and "</font><a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universe"><font size="3">universe</font></a><font size="3">" and is typically used to describe the concept of a future iteration of the internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p></blockquote><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">I want to note that the definition above was written by me <em>verbatim</em> and stands as the most comprehensive definition of The Metaverse that exists unless you count the 38 pages of the ACM paper that goes into heavy detail or the expansion of that for IEEE in the P1828 overview.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The entire point of the definition was to outline that Neal Stephenson’s Metaverse consisted of a single large planet that was persistent and traversable. That being said, Neal Stephenson wasn’t the only author to portray cyberpunk and virtual reality space during the time, and so I took into account a much larger Metaverse, a Universe structure, in which The Street was merely a gateway location in the bigger system.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Ergo, why the Solipsis Decentralized Metaverse definition I provided split things up into a hierarchy the way it did.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Whenever I hear <em>anyone</em> proclaim confidently that they are building a true Metaverse or already have one, my first reaction (as should anyone who hears such a claim) is uncontrollable laughter. If you aren’t checking off any of those boxes, sit your delusional ass down.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">From the mouth of the guy who wrote the modern hierarchy and definition of Metaverse – allow me to tell you with absolute authority what The Metaverse will look like and act like:</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">OASIS from Ready Player One.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Full stop. No bullshit. No room for half-assed or sub-par.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><em><font size="4">If your virtual world system is not on par with a fully scalable virtual <strong>universe</strong> that is persistent and single shard, if it does not contain a full ecosystem and methods by which to support the building of entire virtual civilizations, if it is simply a rehash of the things that were done in the 1990s, then it’s not The Metaverse.</font></em></p><p align="left"><em><font size="4"><br></font></em></p><p align="left"><font size="4"><em>Not in your wildest dreams.</em></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">We live in a time where the current industry is crowing about their 100,000 userbase and how a couple of hundred people showing up is proof that they’ll be the next big thing.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">But in contrast – Minecraft puts you <strong>all</strong> to shame.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">They have on average 91 <strong>million</strong> players. Of that demographic split up, ages 30+ make up 21% which comes out to about 19 million players.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><em>There are nearly a hundred <strong>million</strong> people that prefer Minecraft over anything this virtual world industry is offering.</em></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Your numbers are at best laughable by comparison. We don’t like to compare those numbers but instead just compare other big fish in the small pond to each other. High Fidelity, SineWave, SANSAR, SecondLife, VRChat, etc.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">When I see charts from Wagner James Au asking who is most likely among those to become “The Metaverse”? I have to pin a post-it note to that chart and say “None of them”.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">On that post it note reads: Minecraft and Dual Universe make this a moot point.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">When I said in OSCC last year that what the virtual world really needs is to add purpose – resources, gathering, etc. Nerf teleports, add scarcity…</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Universally I was asked “Who would possibly want that? The market doesn’t want that…”</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Except for those 91 <strong>million</strong> players of Minecraft that enjoy <em>just that</em> and probably Dual Universe where 30,000+ players have paid about 100 bucks just to get an account when they are in <em><strong>pre-alpha</strong>.</em></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">How many people are knocking down the doors of High Fidelity like that? Nobody. Hows the response to SANSAR lately? Not so good. I’d go down this list but you get my point.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">They (High Fidelity) are giving out gift cards to entice people to show up for their stress tests, giving away VR headsets at conferences for PR… effectively they have to <em>bribe</em> people to show up. Now back to that prior situation where tens of thousands of people are paying a hundred dollars to get into a pre-alpha of Dual Universe.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">And yet, Mr Rosedale asserts he’s building a true Metaverse?</font></p><p align="left"><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">I don’t think so.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">The other issue here is – we’re talking about somebody who told you this before, and spectacularly misjudged what the market wanted, and slammed Second Life into a brick wall.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">Lest you forget… Mr Rosedale is heading High Fidelity <em>because</em> he was ousted as CEO of Linden Lab. You’ve heard that song and dance from him before, bought into it, and took the ride into the brick wall with him at the wheel before. His inability to anticipate market wants/needs, deliberate misunderstanding of organic trends and fostering a Metaverse type structure, and his penchant for over-hyping his product is why he’s no longer CEO of Linden Lab.</font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><br></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3">If it’s all the same to you – I’ll take that assertion of his with a monumental salt lick.<p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Just as I took it with a massive grain of salt when everyone was jumping on the VR Headset bandwagon again. Linden Lab bet an entire project (SANSAR) on the mass adoption of VR Headsets… while I flatly said it won’t pan out. </p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><a href="https://mashable.com/2018/01/24/virtual-reality-gaming-loser-gdc-2018-survey/">That isn’t news now</a>, but in hindsight I might as well have been predicting the Titanic would sink while people were boarding. Again, the people most invested both monetarily and emotionally in their chosen virtual world platform or devices do so at the complete disregard for the reality of the situation.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">It’s much the same for why I politely bowed out of the Metaverse Alliance, though I’m sure my name is still up there as an advisor (which I’m happy to be). The reason here is that OpenSim is not the future… no more than Second Life is. Trying to retrofit OpenSim and strap stuff onto it just isn’t helpful in the bigger picture. It serves a niche purpose at best and for that it does well enough, but mainstream it will never be. It is (at best) a stop gap.</p><p align="left"><br></p><hr><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><font size="5">The Future of Engagement</font></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Coming up on the <a href="https://conference.opensimulator.org/2018/">8th of December, I’ll be participating in OSCC as a panelist for The Future of Engagement</a> discussion. I’ve opted not to do my own presentation this year, and if you’ve read this far, you’ll understand why.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">When I asserted that the main problem with virtual worlds and adoption is the Bored God Syndrome – illustrated by an episode of Twilight Zone (entitled: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ueTRaYTwg">A Nice Place to Visit</a>), and asked what Minecraft has that draws 91+ million players that SL, and others do not offer – I was met with the stock answer “Ease of Use”.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">This illustrates my point entirely. Ease of use is but a small part of the equation, while the underlying premise and narrative itself – that scarcity model and hero’s call to adventure brings purpose to the otherwise purposeless virtual life.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Minecraft adds overarching meaning and the tools to achieve those ends. It adds scarcity model – and that is far more successful than anything the virtual worlds industry has come up with to date.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Nobody can seriously say that their virtual world system even comes close to those numbers.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Of course, that premise is one of the overarching criteria for The Metaverse. You saw it in OASIS. Which brings us to the other point at hand - </p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">The reason your systems aren’t mainstream and likely will never be is because in order to be mainstream it has to appeal to the mainstream ideal of what the majority of people associate with as The Metaverse.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">As of right now, hundreds of millions, if not billions of people on Earth think <em>OASIS is The Metaverse</em>. If you aren’t bringing <strong>that</strong> to the table, you’re going to get laughed at.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">I have to agree with the notion of OASIS as Metaverse model because that’s exactly what I defined it as in 2007. Since 2007, I’ve had people constantly tell me I was wrong, or that The Metaverse is whatever they want it to be… I’ve had people tell me that the definition I came up with wasn’t even possible.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><font size="5">And yet here we are today.</font></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Dual Universe exists. Nearly exact to my definition of The Metaverse. Single shard, persistent, full scale universe.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">It’s still in alpha at this point, but even their <em>alpha</em> puts everything else to shame right now. I’m not even worried about Dual Universe as a game being The Metaverse… that’s irrelevant. What is relevant in this discussion is that the underlying structure and execution of that architecture <em>is</em> the basis for a full scale Metaverse on par with OASIS.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Dual Universe is the canary in the coal mine. It’s telling everyone to wake up and pay attention to the future, to real innovation… If for no other reason – it deserves to be in the discussion along side all the other so-called virtual world players, even if it makes everyone else look bad by comparison.</p><p align="left"><br></p><hr><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bf0FsulBySg/XAJJNtRj5wI/AAAAAAAAug4/RT-4L3WV8-8NRU6M7TCoQ-33jpzgq1h1wCHMYCw/s1600-h/dual-universe-preview-three%255B4%255D"><img width="549" height="309" title="dual-universe-preview-three" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="dual-universe-preview-three" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qSf6GfIWf3M/XAJJOlygPDI/AAAAAAAAug8/PwNttXf3E_QgZJ_WdTOG_OH68b5ktG4VQCHMYCw/dual-universe-preview-three_thumb%255B2%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="center"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UaYZeXHJ6Q" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UaYZeXHJ6Q">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UaYZeXHJ6Q</a></p><p align="left"><br></p><hr><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Things like <a href="https://xaya.io/">XAYA</a> deserve to be in the discussion, especially if you combine it with Dual Universe. Minecraft also should be thrown into that discussion, because they are doing something right with the emergent behavior aspect we so desperately need (and <a href="https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2018/11/minecraft-second-life-game-mode.html">could implement in Second Life</a>) to a larger degree. It’s also something that Dual Universe took a keen interest in when developing their system.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">That doesn’t mean I think Second Life could evolve into that Metaverse, but I will say that they can evolve further to be something similar in the meantime. Linden Lab isn’t entirely out of the running yet – they’re just betting on the wrong horse in this race at the moment.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><font size="4">The only thing that ultimately matters now is this:</font></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><em>Who is going to implement all this and when?</em></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Answer those two questions, and you’ll know who is really ahead of the industry, and who to keep an eye on. You’ll also know who is selling a line of bullshit.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">What I said in 2007 was and remains true. When Novaquark bills itself as “The Metaverse Company”, as the person who defined the modern Metaverse, I have to agree with them so far. They’re the only place that checks off the boxes I originally came up with.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Maybe not <em>The</em> Metaverse, but by god that technology will likely be the basis for it in the long run. If your system isn’t following suit, you’re pretty much relegated to a niche audience in the long run.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">I don’t believe in virtual worlds, because I believe in The Metaverse. Nothing short of OASIS level virtual Universe. I’ve always held this belief, I’ve written the definition of Metaverse with this overarching structure in mind. Anything less is just a virtual world – however compelling… it’s still just a nice place to visit.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Virtual worlds are the equivalent to the participation trophy. They are constantly rehashing the past with a new coat of paint and trying to sell it like it’s the future. I don’t believe in virtual worlds… and now you know why.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">If we all want better, it’s time to stop believing in virtual worlds and start believing in The Metaverse instead. Hold it to the highest criteria, don’t accept anything less.</p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left">Peace and Happy Holidays :)</p><p align="left"><br></p><hr></font></p><font size="3"></font></p><p align="left"><font size="3"><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><br></p><p align="left"><br></p></font></p></div></p></p><p><font size="3"></font></p>Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369186130470176679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21946045.post-49547767704160972862018-05-29T19:00:00.001-05:002018-05-29T19:00:20.636-05:00Organic Nature<p><font size="3">Impossible Audio in #SecondLife</font></p><p><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6dtCNNsOChg/Ww3pikUUOaI/AAAAAAAAuDY/qDID4WZPLw88Vy_NVn-m4alT9ZRbBp_wgCHMYCw/s1600-h/Immersive%2BAudio%2BBanner%255B4%255D"><br></a></font></p><p><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iwMwEqv12qE/Ww3pjzCl85I/AAAAAAAAuDc/TdIsCJr4SKQ4IlYta7QQAo3k7ViCPifiwCHMYCw/s1600-h/Immersive%2BAudio%2BBanner%255B5%255D"><img width="556" height="329" title="Immersive Audio Banner" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; float: none; display: block; background-image: none;" alt="Immersive Audio Banner" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4NZFs4ayevI/Ww3pkhf-AYI/AAAAAAAAuDg/ZAeZNhFZ5JsYRcN7hffy1dAIOFS6Cp2GQCHMYCw/Immersive%2BAudio%2BBanner_thumb%255B3%255D?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></font></p><p><font size="3"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iwMwEqv12qE/Ww3pjzCl85I/AAAAAAAAuDc/TdIsCJr4SKQ4IlYta7QQAo3k7ViCPifiwCHMYCw/s1600-h/Immersive%2BAudio%2BBanner%255B5%255D"><br></a></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">When it comes to creating an immersive virtual environment, the goal is to allow the participant to suspend disbelief. Unfortunately, when it comes to places like Second Life (and SANSAR), we find that even the best designed sims always seem to forget the basics.<p><font size="3"><br></font></p><font size="3">You know what I’m talking about today, and you’ve likely experienced this for yourself, (or rather didn’t). You teleport to some highly recommended sim somewhere only to find that the music is blaring 24 hours a day. When you turn the music off, you begin to understand why -</font></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The whole place is eerily dead silent.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">So what gives?</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Audio immersion is a fundamental design staple when it comes to virtual worlds, and there are a few ways that designs either go about it or decidedly do not.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">On the low end, we have our typical sim that just forgoes the immersive audio altogether in favor of sticking a music stream on the parcel. You’ll find more often than not that these locations are also quite sparse in their overall design, having a shopping mall or no real coherent planning.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Let’s say we happen across a sim that actually took some time to plan out their audioscape. Even here we’ll find that the audio often seems flat and repetative.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">There are plenty of options on Marketplace when it comes to ambient audio, with the most populated option being from <a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/4924">SoundScenes</a>. What I am about to say is in no way an indication of whether Hastur Piersterson has done a great job or not with his product. I believe given the circumstances, the SoundScapes series of ambient audio is just fine for everyday use in your builds and I’d definitely recommend it.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">One thing you’ll notice, (however), is that with the SoundScapes lineup the quality seems to be entirely hit or miss. Of course, this is totally subjective and I’m merely looking at the reactions of the customers who will give certain audio cubes a 3 star rating or 5 stars. </font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">This isn’t a situation relegated to just SoundScapes, and it is something that persists across most (if not all) ambient audio systems in Second Life.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Much of the problem comes about from understanding what the limitations of SecondLife are in relation to audio itself.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><ul><li><font size="3">44100khz</font></li><li><font size="3">Mono Channel</font></li><li><font size="3">10 seconds or less</font></li></ul><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">That doesn’t seem to be a lot to work with up front, but if you understand how audio works, this is more than enough for a virtual world, especially when you understand <em>why</em> Second Life insists on uploading Mono tracks only.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The first bit of information we need to understand is that Mono tracks are required for Second Life to properly <strong>pan</strong> the audio points and add <strong>doppler</strong>. Well, not entirely… but this is the main stated reason because this is how the audio engine works in Second Life. </font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The problem here is that when you’re doing ambient audio systems in Second Life, you take these awesome stereo tracks and effectively crush them down to mono, in the process you lose what is called “side information”. A Mono track will effectively take stereo and average the left and right channel into a mid channel.</font></p><p><br></p><blockquote><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Mono mixes will always sound different to stereo ones, and there is little that you can do about that. On a technical level, the mono mix contains only the 'mid' information whereas the stereo mix has both 'mid' and 'side' information.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><font size="3">
</font><p><font size="3">The reason a stereo mix 'sounds massive' is because of the quantity and nature of the side signal. If there is a lot of out-of-phase information in the stereo mix it will tend to sound very big, but this information will largely be lost when listening to the mid signal only.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p></blockquote><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">This is why most audio in Scond Life sounds “flat” or low quality. We’ve simply stripped out the side information and uploaded the equivalent of average.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Now, you can get away with some tricks here in Mono and we’ll get to that in a moment. I want to address the 10 second limit first.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">When we step up our game (pun intended) and start using ambient audio, maybe somebody has created a looped player in a cube (which is the most common approach), you find that 10 second loop sound annoying as hell and fake. It’s simply not organic enough to introduce randomness or it is so short that you can tell when it is looping.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">This destroys the immersion.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Years ago when I was in ActiveWorlds, the AWGate world had a looping track of forest and birds. The problem was that this looped every 60 seconds or so. Those bird calls became predictable and ultimately annoying.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">We could, of course, implement cubes that play some clips at random to break it up. We get the random crow in the distance or whatever. But let’s stay with our baseline for now.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Ok, so let’s say we step up our game again… this time we’re chaining together multiple 10 second clips to extend that loop further.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Excellent… we’re onto something now. But again, most stop around 30 seconds or 1-2 minutes in the high end. At the very least, we should be shooting for a 2 minute loop.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">But what of the sound quality?</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">We’re still stuck with this crushed mono track, right? We’ve lost that side information and saved the mid range average. This still makes our audio sound flat.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="5">Curse you Linden Lab!</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Hold on… there is a light at the end of this tunnel.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">We know that Second Life doesn’t allow stereo files (singular), and we have to upload in Mono only in 10 second maximum length. But that isn’t necessarily a limitation if you understand audio editing.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">So let’s say that we understand now that combining a stereo track into a mono track will effectively lose the side information and flatten our audio. </font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">But what if we isolated the <strong>Left </strong>and <strong>Right</strong> channels of a stereo track, and saved them separately as Mono tracks?</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Of course we split them up into 10 seconds or less clips to chain together in-world.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Now we’re sitting with a split stereo audio… of which Second Life will gladly accept for upload. Those two channels saved individually also retain their side information, making them sound bigger when played back <em>together</em> in sync. There’s more depth to it and spatialization – far more than you’d get out of a mono track.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Now we’re stuck with solving the problem of how to play them simultaneously in Second Life. This is where the solution gets a little more complex because we can’t just code a single cube and let it go… I mean you could but that would be kind of a nightmare and limiting because you’re using a single item contents and dumping everything in there.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">So let’s say we have our main cube, it’s a controller cube. The entire purpose of this object is to orchestrate the left and right channels of audio, which are in two other objects running a clone of our audio script and listening on an internal channel for the controller to tell them what to do.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">You have the left channel audio files in one object, and the right channel audio files in the other object, both listening for the controller cube to tell them when to start and stop.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">This should sound eerily similar to a Night/Day system except instead of day and night and two separate loops, we’re treating the two internals like left and right speaker to play simultaneously and giving them specialized audio that syncs together.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">By doing it like this, we side-step the mono midrange problem and retain our side information, making the combined audio seem “bigger” and more robust. It just sounds more natural.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Of course, Second Life will pan those audios and add doppler because it thinks it’s just two separate tracks in mono and doesn’t know there is a correlation.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The purpose of doing it like this is predominantly to retain that side information which gives our audio depth. Now we have something that sounds more natural in the process, and whether Second Life is panning them is irrelevant because they are being panned <em>in relation to each other, </em>and that is what counts to retain the symmetry of the audio. We effectively are doubling the audio information being played back in-world, which to our ears sounds better.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">These are what we can refer to as <em>baseline ambient</em> audio systems. Our “first layer” foundation. We build from here to create a totally immersive environment. Once we’ve sorted out the original audio information limitation and solved it, it becomes easier as we build with it.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Yes, we can have multiple cubes synced up but I’ll be the first to tell you that you actually <em>don’t</em> want to do that. If you have multiple cubes like this playing out of sync, it by defaults makes your environment seem organic and “random”.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">As you move around the environment, they cue up out of sync with each other but in sync with itself (if that makes sense).</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">In the audio editing phase of such a project, we can apply some more tricks. What if we applied a wider spatialization to the stereo track before splitting it up? In-world, it would sound richer and more organic (within reason).</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Once we understand how the audio system works, and a bit of audio theory for editing, we should be able to figure out how to get around the limits within reason.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">I wouldn’t suggest that we can nail down true binaural audio in Second Life this way. If we approached it slightly different then yes we actually could.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Let’s say we applied the same technique to a pair of virtual headphones in Second Life. The headphone has two objects, one for right and left channel, and the headphone is the controller to them. We apply the same technique of stereo splitting and synchronization as above but now from a <em>fixed position</em> in relation to the listener.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">With this setup, we could replicate full binaural audio in Second Life, albeit in a manner which is highly controlled. You wouldn’t get real-time panning like this, but in the bigger picture, maybe you could invent a pair of ASMR headphones for Anxiety Relief that plays back a head massage for fifteen minutes in binaural?</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">At this point you should understand that there is a bit of a downside to this, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><ul><li><font size="3">Synchronized Stereo Costs Twice As Much</font></li></ul><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Developing such a system in Second Life would also entail that your sound cube systems now cost you roughly twice as much to make, obviously because you have to upload double the audio files.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">You therefore wouldn’t want to apply this technique to everything, but instead figure out where this technique would best be suited.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">There is also another cost factor when trying to do this for a Day/Night system. Instead of two sets of audio in mono, you’re now using two stereo sets and so the cost of a Day/Night ambient system would run quadruple to had you just had a single mono loop.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">I suppose in the bigger picture, we’re talking about that up-front cost and investment, and whether the benefits outweigh the costs. I’d imagine we would have to charge a slight premium for these HD Audio systems, but as long as it was still reasonable I think the end-user would still pay for it.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">For me, the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. Audio using such a system sounds far better in Second Life than the typical flat mono loops we’re used to. It has a better dynamic range, it sounds less flat and more robust – even though Second Life pans the audio around as you move, that side information is still there and (interestingly) compliments it (I’ll get to that in a moment).</font></p><p><br></p><p><font size="3">One could most definitely add the ability to “widen” the audio field in-world by allowing the end-user to expandor contract the left and right channel distance – which is just a fancy way of saying move those two cubes internall farther or closer together.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><hr><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><br></p><p><font size="4">The Cetera Algorithm & HRTF</font> </p><p><br></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The Cetera Algorithm is a reference to Starkey Labs and their hearing aid technology which makes the hearing aid seem invisible to the brain. Cetera removes the barrier between sound and the brain’s ability to process signals, and helps retain the subtle differences in arrival time between left and right ears so that your brain can process positional audio.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">In the world of virtual reality, we also refer to this as understanding teh acoustic properties of Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) which model 3D sound in both the room and how it arrives to your ears. That inference pattern of information is unconscious, but means a lot to the brain when trying to determine position, whether something sounds “real” or not and so on.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Let’s take an audio journey as an example:</font></p><p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dxIK3-vqpc">Synthetic HRTF Audio Test</a></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><font size="3">Of course, this is a massive oversimplification. So far as Second Life is concerned, yes it can be done but it likely will not anytime soon. We’re not talking about simple panning of left and right chanels with a mono track, but instead a panning <em>stereo </em>track, and even then we’re talking about a stereo track that was recorded in a very specific manner. Yes, we can effectively fake it in Second Life to a degree and under very controlled circumstances, but for our purposes here we’re discussing how to at least up the ante with stereo and the extended information at that level. </font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Suffice it to say, when somebody says that the difference between CD audio and Vinyl is “all in your head”, they don’t quite seem to understand how right they are (for all the wrong reasons).</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">While we may not get a full HRTF Model in Second Life, we <em>can</em> approximate things a bit. We can also take this information and subtle cues approach to help us further our understanding on how to approach and apply audio in the virtual world, even with our current limitations.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">If we know that the extra information is paramount to our brain in order to process the audio better, then we can look for ways to reasonably retain that information and higher frequency whenever possible for a more natural listening experience.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><hr></p><p><br></p><p><font size="5">Planning Your Scene</font></p><p><font size="5"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Even if we know all these crazy details about human hearing and perception, and create a tool by which exploits both how Second Life works and effectively doubles the perceptual audio resolution, there is still the understanding that the best tools are only as effective as the person using them.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">For instance, we don’t actually <em>want</em> all of these ambient cubes synchronized to each other. With themselves, yes (and for obvious reason). But because of the nature of Second Life itself, and because such a system would invariably have a delay anyway for preloading and so on, it’s not a big deal and it’s actually more preferred to have the cubes not synced together because then they are offset around your sim playing out of sync with each other and effectively <em>randomizing</em> the soundscape based on where the end-user is location and moving.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The next part to understand is that we aren’t using these singular cubes as the end-all to be all. We have to plan ahead for a soundscape, and include those little details to layer things beyond the baseline.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">A random cube that plays maybe crows during day and owls at night, or woodpeckers or whatever. That’s a good addition to the baseline. </font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">The real trick here is walking around the sim as you’re building and asking yourself:</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><em>What does this sound like?</em></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">There’s really no such thing as “silence”. Whether the soda machine is making a compressor hum, there’s distance walla in a city (like white noise), the door opens, a bell rings entering the store, whatever… Things make noise on their own or when interacted with.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">It all adds up.</font></p><p><br></p><p><hr></p><p><br></p><p><font size="5">AES Audio</font></p><p><font size="5"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">A lot of this post comes about from a long-term project and R&D from AMG (Andromeda Media Group) in Second Life. One of the projects has been improving audio by thinking of things these systems could really use, and that we weren’t happy with out of the box.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">There is, of course, more to it than “We’ve doubled the audio resolution”, however impressive that may be. Things like Dynamic Crosstalk Suppression (DCS) are also included in our current prototypes.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">Should another audio brand in Second Life wish to upgrade their own systems with this information, I wouldn’t mind. Whatever makes the experience in Second Life better overall is a win for everyone.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">That being said, I’m not going to explain how we’re pulling off Dynamic Crosstalk Suppression. That’s our little secret.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3">As a final note, let’s recap how to upgrade our ambient audio systems in Second Life:</font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><ul><li><font size="3">Stereo Synchronization</font></li><li><font size="3">Understanding Audio Information</font></li><li><font size="3">Using loops measured in minutes, not seconds</font></li><li><font size="3">Optional Stereo Widening before splitting</font></li><li><font size="3">Understanding the circumstances of how it will be heard</font></li><li><font size="3">Dynamic Crosstalk Suppression</font></li><li><font size="3">Optional User Defined Channel Widening</font></li><li><font size="3">Using additional randomized audio to break it up</font></li></ul><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><hr></p><p><br></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p><p><font size="3"><br></font></p>Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369186130470176679noreply@blogger.com0