Zuckerberg Comes for the Metaverse

[Doug Vanderbor]

6 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

You mean you want Linden Lab to remove legs from all the avatars? 🤣  Just sayin'.

Well..you know..popular!

It's not just legs, it looks like he wants all of our avatars to look like PIXAR human characters.

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Doug Vanderbor said:

wants all of our avatars to look like PIXAR human characters.

Stylized avatars are easier to work with and don't trip people into the uncanny valley.

SL avatars can easily be borderline, we don't see it as we have literally broken our brains by staring at our avatars for years.

[Jaylinbridges]

1 hour ago, Doug Vanderbor said:

t's not just legs, it looks like he wants all of our avatars to look like PIXAR human characters.

If you watch Mark's entire 90 minute commercial for Horizons, they have some scenes that could have been taken in Second Life.  Realistic avatars with legs! even.  Surfing, flying, customizing your home etc are all ancient things in SL. 

They seem to be starting with the Pixar type faces and legless bodies for business, but consider where they will be in 5-10 years.  All SL needs is a new engine to streamline the movement and eliminate lag.  Yes and about 100 of the best developers in the business allowing them to make a RL income, which FB already is doing.  It didn't work out in Sansar, but LL didn't have the Billions to invest in it either.   

I hope SL can keep going - if Biden would only send me $5K for a decent high end gaming computer and VR headset I can wear for hours without feeling it, SL could compete with the new META.

In the meantime I'll just remain holed up in my 12 yr old prim castle and watch movies on YouTube.

[Luna Bliss]

Facebook or Meta plans for a lot of hologram experience.

I'd love to have my little grandson, who lives far away, appear in my living room as a hologram so I could visit with him.

I'm concerned though, as all this advances in the future, about attempts to replace reality with a simulated one. We should use simulated reality to enhance our lives and not replace it.  A lot of caution needs to be in place, moving forward.

How much of all this is fueled by the belief that we could eventually control everything, and even avoid death?

[Bree Giffen]

At the very least, it seems that Meta will remove the Facebook login required for Oculus Quest headsets. I can finally stop using my fake FB account.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/10/meta-removing-facebook-login-requirement-for-quest-headsets-by-next-year/

[Mr Amore]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

I'm concerned though, as all this advances in the future, about attempts to replace reality with a simulated one. We should use simulated reality to enhance our lives and not replace it.  A lot of caution needs to be in place, moving forward.

How much of all this is fueled by the belief that we could eventually control everything, and even avoid death?

When the 'ZuckerVerse' takes off, then virtual world addiction and escapism will be hot topics in the media.

 

The real metaverse may even arrive from the least expected source, the TeslaVerse. With Elon Musk's Neuralink and Starlink combining to connect humans around the globe, through a Brain-Computer Interface. I know, this is really out there, but once the technology can simulate a dream-like state, it's going to be the next leap in VR.

[Edit] This depth of virtual interaction was described in Use of Weapons, published in 1990. An excellent piece of sci-fi.

Edited October 30, 2021 by Mr Amore

[Nalates Urriah]

Well... I made it through the first 4 pages... The number of uninformed opinions being entered is overwhelming.

On 7/27/2021 at 10:44 AM, Doris Johnsky said:

Zuck and FB can kiss my

And it is such a cute one...

 

On 7/27/2021 at 11:19 AM, Lucia Nightfire said:

They haven't been perpetually 10 years behind the standards ever since they introduced mesh?

What do you mean behind?

Which platform allows user created content to be sold and tens of millions of dollars to be earned by residents?

Which game offers uses the freedom found in SL? Once a civilization achieves freedom for individuals most proposed 'advancements' are regressions.

On 7/28/2021 at 12:50 AM, Drayke Newall said:

If some company builds a metaverse exactly like Second Life with inworld creation, endless regions that dont lag or have region crossings, a scripting engine that allows game quality building to take place, an economy that you can cash out to rl money etc and that works both with VR, non-VR, AR and is like ready player one, I am almost certain the majority of people in SL would jump ship, All without that big company needing to buy Second Life.

That was tried with Sansar.

I think the major problem with VR is the headset. VR headsets were hyped as the NEXT GREAT ADVANCE IN GAMING. Flopped. And there are very basic reasons for the flop. Duuh! And FB hasn't solved those issues.

On 7/31/2021 at 9:51 AM, Doris Johnsky said:

FNG=****ing New Guy   I like it better than noob or newbie

That FNG term certainly expresses a particular sentiment. The use of it in certain cases here is appropriately understandable.

On 8/1/2021 at 5:56 PM, Adeon Writer said:

My understanding was The Zucc wants to help fund the metaverse, but he doesn't want to own it.
I can dig that.

Of course, there is an assumption here that you need to believe what he's saying. But that's a difficult subject.

Why would ANYONE believe Mark Suck-a-Buck? This is a guy that supports Marxist ideas and those that want to reduce world population by 5 or 6 billion people... Freedom is not a concept he holds dear. The guy is pro-censorship and anti-transparency. Trust him to build a freedom loving virtual world? Duh!

On 8/2/2021 at 3:28 AM, Out Jinx said:

Let's do a small look into performance: SL is still very outdated in how it runs on computers. It runs on one thread, meaning that a high end computer will still be lagging with SL because it's not utilizing the potential opened up by newer machines. This is a problem because of how much we have to load in SL. Its competitors run on multiple threads. 

This is a great example of the unformed content being added to this thread.

 

Debating uninformed opinion is foolish. As Saul Bellow is quoted:

A fool can throw a stone in a pond that 100 wise men cannot get out.

[tailpa]

17 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

I think the major problem with VR is the headset. VR headsets were hyped as the NEXT GREAT ADVANCE IN GAMING. Flopped. And there are very basic reasons for the flop. Duuh!

"After almost a week of silence, legendary game developer and Oculus CTO John Carmack has finally voiced his opinions on Facebook's planned acquisition of the virtual reality headset maker. Replying to a blog post by chiptune musician Peter Berkman, Carmack says he "wasn't expecting Facebook" to purchase the company he joined last August. "I wasn't personally involved in any of the negotiations," he adds, "I spent an afternoon talking technology with Mark Zuckerberg, and the next week I find out he bought Oculus.""

(from https://www.theverge.com/2014/3/30/5563440/john-carmack-facebook-oculus-rift-purchase-comments )

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by tailpa
How is that possible? How is it possible to lose control of your own dreams?

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Why would ANYONE believe Mark Suck-a-Buck? This is a guy that supports Marxist ideas and those that want to reduce world population by 5 or 6 billion people... Freedom is not a concept he holds dear. The guy is pro-censorship and anti-transparency. Trust him to build a freedom loving virtual world? Duh!

I can assure you, this man is not a marxist or supporter of marxism in any way shape or form, neither is his company which due to a vocal conservative persecution complex favors right wing media.

[Lindal Kidd]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

I think the major problem with VR is the headset. VR headsets were hyped as the NEXT GREAT ADVANCE IN GAMING. Flopped. And there are very basic reasons for the flop. Duuh! And FB hasn't solved those issues.

Not yet, but there are indications that they HAVE been solved. Right now, you can buy an Aero headset from Varjo; reviewers are raving about its realism. And Pimax has announced a "12K" headset. Now, both devices are still very expensive, about $2500, and Pimax has a reputation for way over-promising. Still, I think the problems with VR (resolution, cost, complexity, wearability, motion sickness, UI, etc. etc.) WILL be solved, and very soon.

Right now, VR is about where personal computing was in the late 1980s...a domain primarily made up of hobbyists and tinkerers. We're just waiting for someone to devise the thing...maybe an application, like word processing, email, or spreadsheets...maybe an environment, like AOL or Compuserve...that will make it explode and become ubiquitous.

I remember when personal computers first appeared in government offices. They, too had some very basic issues. I mean, we used 5.25" floppy disks and a command line interface. But it was still so much better than an IBM Selectric, white-out, and paper that it caught on and spread like a fungus.

[Lindal Kidd]

5 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I can assure you, this man is not a marxist or supporter of marxism in any way shape or form, neither is his company which due to a vocal conservative persecution complex favors right wing media.

Doesn't mean he should be trusted any further than we can throw his Ferrari. Nalates's point is correct.

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, Mr Amore said:

 Brain-Computer Interface. I know, this is really out there, but once the technology can simulate a dream-like state, it's going to be the next leap in VR.

That would be so strange...to ditch the mouse and control the computer with my brain!

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

This is a guy that supports Marxist ideas and those that want to reduce world population by 5 or 6 billion people

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by Luna Bliss

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, tailpa said:

How is that possible? How is it possible to lose control of your own dreams?

I don't think Carmack did....he was the 2nd speaker @ the Oculus Connect conference and seems quite enthused with the way things are moving along. It was a long segment and I didn't listen to all of it, but I'll probably go back to catch it all.

[Adeon Writer]

4 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

I don't think Carmack did....he was the 2nd speaker @ the Oculus Connect conference and seems quite enthused with the way things are moving along. It was a long segment and I didn't listen to all of it, but I'll probably go back to catch it all.

I wouldn't call Carmack enthusiast. In his keynote two day ago he all but said "We are making a mistake, I'll do my best to damage control."

 

[Akane Nacht]

11 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Still, I think the problems with VR (resolution, cost, complexity, wearability, motion sickness, UI, etc. etc.) WILL be solved, and very soon.

The issue I have with headsets is more to do with my habits - I'm never doing just one thing when I am using my computer, I also have to listen for the doorbell and phone, listen to what my family is up to, listen for washing machine and oven completing their jobs, and I need my peripheral vision in case a bee flies into the room (we got some massive ones).

With a trend for more work-from-home arrangements, it's very hard to completely tune out our surroundings.

[Qie Niangao]

4 hours ago, Akane Nacht said:

With a trend for more work-from-home arrangements, it's very hard to completely tune out our surroundings.

Dystopian take: Employers require work-from-home employees to wear Zuckerverse goggles all work hours.

Eye-tracking + "brain-computer interface" + ??? = PROFIT !

[Akane Nacht]

43 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

Dystopian take: Employers require work-from-home employees to wear Zuckerverse goggles all work hours.

Eye-tracking + "brain-computer interface" + ??? = PROFIT !

not just us...

[Qie Niangao]

I just realized how funny that is: with eyes on the sides of their heads, cows have only a very narrow swath of binocular vision. The VR headset is basically blinkers:

(Steve, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

[Doris Johnsky]

On 7/27/2021 at 12:44 PM, Doris Johnsky said:

Zuck and FB can kiss my

I refer you to my earlier post on this subject

[Mr Amore]

That Facebook presentation is largely describing everything Sansar already has, a VR ready metaverse with instanced content.

Rather than hammering away at Second Life, it's far more practical for LL to bring Sansar back into their fold, add adult content,  add inworld creation tools and improve its social features.

Sansar itself is taking a direction towards live events. And here's another recent upload showcasing some experiences, it's nothing fascinating yet the potential is there.

I never gave Sansar's building much of a test, like many I was waiting for the game to mature.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Mr Amore

[Misty Rookstown]

I saw Zucks presentation the other day and everything I saw just made me think of Second Life, the original direction and ideas, some of the innovations they tried including work space etc. 

Second Life should have been on this path years ago. Links to alternative platforms for gaming. SL's built on infastructure that is two decades old and they need other alternatives that can connect seemlessly to SL 

Linden Labs needs to push forward quickly to get this thing going and make SL more relevant for 2021 or Zuckerberg just might eat SL alive. Nearly everything I seen him talk about is where SL has and was going and should be there already. The need to update for 2021 while preserving what is already here. The easiest way is a different platform with updated foundations that can connect via the browser by chain connecting to the other. 

[Misty Rookstown]

46 minutes ago, Mr Amore said:

That Facebook presentation is largely describing everything Sansar already has, a VR ready metaverse with instanced content.

Rather than hammering away at Second Life, it's far more practical for LL to bring Sansar back into their fold, add adult content,  add inworld creation tools and improve its social features.

Sansar itself is taking a direction towards live events. And here's another recent upload showcasing some experiences, it's nothing fascinating yet the potential is there.

I never gave Sansar's building much of a test, like many I was waiting for the game to mature.

Then can do both if they play their cards right. Have Sansar and other kinds of platforms that can connect to the other with a new browser that can switch over to handle different platforms. They should have had some interconnected gaming works as well. There are kind of gimped RPG game sims that could do well if they had better tools at hand to do a proper MMO RPG. 
SL let a lot slide over the years and lost momentum. If you recall there was another attempt that went no where with that Blue Mars place which looked like it had potential. They need to move because Zuckerberg will dominate if LL doesn't get a better foothold. 
I think Sansar would have done a LOT better if they had a viewer where you could go seemlessly between both. That was one of the original visions of SL ... the internet but in 3D. 

[Lucia Nightfire]

1 hour ago, Mr Amore said:

That Facebook presentation is largely describing everything Sansar already has, a VR ready metaverse with instanced content.

Rather than hammering away at Second Life, it's far more practical for LL to bring Sansar back into their fold, add adult content,  add inworld creation tools and improve its social features.

Sansar itself is taking a direction towards live events. And here's another recent upload showcasing some experiences, it's nothing fascinating yet the potential is there.

I never gave Sansar's building much of a test, like many I was waiting for the game to mature.

I see nothing has changed in Sansar since it went public beta.
Avatar movement/camera control, world selection and world to world transfer is still clunky.
The system avatars still look like uncanny valley claymation.
The worlds still look like and interact with as art exhibits or collaboration-of-the-month portfolios/advertisement.
The lighting still makes the lens flares from the Star Trek movie more attractive.
The concurrency is still abysmal.
How many years has Sansar had to get its act together?
How many more years are we supposed to wait for it to happen?

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Mr Amore said:

Rather than hammering away at Second Life, it's far more practical for LL to bring Sansar back into their fold, add adult content,  add inworld creation tools and improve its social features.

I don't think they can add in-instance content creation. Our ability to do that in SL is a corner stone of why SL works the way that it does. Sansar deliberately didn't go down this road.

1 hour ago, Mr Amore said:

Sansar itself is taking a direction towards live events. And here's another recent upload showcasing some experiences, it's nothing fascinating yet the potential is there.

They are going for the buzz created by fortnite's massive attention grabbing events and missing the mark in spectacular fashion. They have zero platform goals or development roadmap.

It wouldn't surprise me at this point if the business plan was literally

1. Host events and hype ...
2. ???????
3. Get bought by Facebook.

1 hour ago, Mr Amore said:

I never gave Sansar's building much of a test, like many I was waiting for the game to mature.

I did .. it was passable for pick and place building a fixed location, the light baking was painfully slow and reminded me of making quake levels.

It was a miserable experience, much like being in world.

It was a mistake to build a separate world editor and not just build the blender tools to create and publish from that.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Coffee Pancake