We
all know the well-known quote “The Only Constant In Life
Is Change.” - Heraclitus of
Ephesus, and the same applies to Second Life, and we
shouldn’t expect anything less. As we
approach the 10th Birthday of this virtual world of ours there are
rumblings out there on the grid as to exciting changes
that are afoot. We are all weathering
the mesh storm and eagerly await the mesh deformer which will make wearing mesh
outfits so much easier and the next big thing is rumoured to be 3D ….
We are
not talking about 3D chat but about complete 3-D immersion into Second Life,
seeing through the eyes of your avatar and experiencing what he/she
experiences. You could walk through a
fantasy forest or engage in immersive game/ role-play. When you look anywhere
you actually see the environment around you and not on a HD panel display. Immersive
3D is a recent phenomenon, but decades
ahead of its time, Mort Heilig dreamed up a 3D, full immersion, virtual reality
Sensorama Machine way back in 1962 which has now gained museum status. Virtual reality (VR) is the concept of simulating our
physical presence in the real as well as in imaginary worlds like second life, through
computer-simulated environments. Current virtual reality environments are
primarily visual experiences, either on a computer screen or through special
stereoscopic displays which comes under the gamut of 3-D; but some simulations include additional
sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones which goes
under 4-D. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information in
medical and gaming applications.
You might think of 3-D
technology as being in the realm of geeks or as the future; but you may have
experienced a 3-D technology in a most common circumstance…. a visit to your
dentist. The “Stratasys VeroDentPlus” is an example device optimized for
printing models for crowns, bridges, implants etc from data obtained from
intra-oral impression or plaster scanner and then 3D printed.
Okay, so you’re not
convinced yet. Lets imagine being able to print out your favorite SL jewelry
into Real life? Maxi Gossamer's Second Life jewelry escaped to the real world in
December 2012. She 3D printed some of her virtual steel and silver jewelry into
real life, via Shapeways for under USD$125.
Her blog states: “Shapeways and 3D printing is something that many SL
creators could start thinking about right now. We can build in mesh for Second
Life and then take those meshes and send them to the awesome Shapeways (3D
printing bureau and shop), upload them and make them available for sale as real
world products.”
Maybe print a guitar? A
guitar specialist store AweSome Musical Instruments have made the very first,
fully functioning and commercially available 3D-printed guitar. Yes, the guitar
survived the stringing process.
And then there is the
famous story of the 25 year old law student who with a 3D home printer produced
a firearm. Is it viable? A gun managed
six rounds before it broke. But as they say… sometimes it only takes one shot...
Jeff Lipton, of Seraph Robotics, argues that
food will be 3D printing’s killer app, and demonstrated how scientifically
precise cakes can be produced, feeding all the usual ingredients into the
machine. Imagine second life yummy cakes coming to life.
The
Street Opinions:
Upon asking you, the people on the SL streets: “What do you think of a “virtually real” 3-D
SL? And how would it affect you?” I got many interesting responses. Initial confusion as to why this
question was coming up in spite of SL being “3-D” got cleared up pretty
quickly. Thank you all for taking the time out to respond.
Responses:
·
“ I wouldna like having to wear glasses to
see my SL”… Hmmm..
·
“anyone watch star trek? I think she mean
like holodeck fashion :) ”
·
A practical soul offered : “yes...
might be interesting to be in a room where I could interact in SL in 3D, like I
was really there, but that would be a problem for many... the cost of the 3D
equipment would be prohibitively expensive for all but the wealthy.” One
can now buy a proper second-hand 3D printer for a few thousand pounds and the
price will keep on falling; eventually, they could become as ubiquitous as
microwave ovens.
·
A group moderator was interested in a most… interesting way: “no
idea but if we do that I want a stun gun to watch chat” (to eject spammers)
·
One person was kind enough to tell me his testing experiences with: “the kirsten viewer, it can display in
anaglyph mode. i tried it out by
making 3d pictures... its good and ok as long as you don’t have too much red or
can object colors in the view... they are "flickering" a bit with
those glasses. but you have the 3D effect ”
This seemed a major new development in
machinima and Chantal Harvey tested it at the alpha point sim. You’ll have to
take your red and blue glasses with you. Unfortunately, the viewer development was stopped on December 2011 after a failed crowd-funding effort.
While looking that up, I found the “Dale’s Stereoscopic Client” but based on a
1.18 version, it becomes pretty out dated. Both are still available for
download in case you want to give them a whirl.
·
“LL is just taking part in the deployment of the
new 3D glasses named oculus rift.” Checking that out and it indeed seems so.
New World
Notes states that Linden has already started compiling feedback for the rift. Linden Lab intends to integrate the Oculus
Rift virtual reality headset with Second Life as per company spokesman Peter Gray.
It seems like we'll all get to
experience Second Life with the Oculus Rift sometime in 2014 or 2015. http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/04/oculus-rift-coming-to-second-life.html
.
Or Check out the Oculus
Rift and Second Life Facebook page.
·
The sane one had this to say: “I
think if that could be done it would be cool....but at the same time I would be
afraid for a world with something like that. Oh I know there are a few games
with it, but a game like SL with something like that...Too many already ignore
their real lives for this game, throw that in...it would get worse” . Once
upon a time, the sun and moon dictated our schedule; but with technology, that
is no longer true. Digital innovations give us unimaginable opportunities and
free us from the binds of time and space, but we need to have the social and
psychological systems in place to avoid getting lost in the virtual world.
·
And medically speaking: “as
somebody who has seizures. Video can sometimes bring siezures on...3d n glasses
are a danger or at least...... a caution area for me.” Samsung
has issued a warning about possible precipitation of seizures and other medical
problems by 3D TV viewing in susceptible individuals as the flicker can provoke
seizures. The movie Avatar used a different technology of circularly
polarized light, viewed with non-electronic polarized eyeglasses and newer tech
has come in place for these issues.
·
The wary one said: “I can’t even
imagine this oculus gadget in a place like SL with all these adult sims and
poseballs and what not ... kinda scary”...
Some weren’t convinced.
·
From one of the fishers of the groups in-world “ you can sit on a chair in front of your computer and click to
fish?”.. or fly. That’s 3-D
enough for us thank you.
·
“like in a 100 years when we live on mars.” …
The Designer’s opinion
I
hunted around for info on how a designer could benefit and I found the
New World Makers series interview
between “ Drax Despress” and “Eshi
Otawara (owner of Chambre du Chocolat) ” where she talks about how she is waiting for someone to
create “gloves” that would allow her to pick up prims and rotate them around
while creating her outfits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNtup7U6A24
I decided to ask “Sawsan Secretspy” of “WoW Skins” and she says that she was indeed excited with the
technology. She herself has a 3-D TV at home and loves the immersive reality.
But she still cannot imagine at this point what the benefit to her designs it
would make. SL glitched up on me and crashed and I lost the excerpt of the IM.
I could have hunted out the excerpt but this is exactly the type of frequent
crashes, bad coding, lags, SL marketplace transaction issues plaguing LL which makes
us understandably skeptical on implementation of new radical designs in second
life’s buggy environment.
That said, 3-D is no longer in the realm
of when and how will it arrive; it is now only a question of how soon. Trying
to pin down whether 3D is good or bad is like trying to answer the same
question for the internet, cell phones, and touch screens. Downloading and
printing out goods instead of buying them online and having them shipped may
not be too far-off. We may even be be due for a major showdown on the copyright
implications of 3-D printing.
3-D cannot be a success if the “virtual” remains non interactive. Modifying
existing 2D content by putting documents and power points for learning in
virtually real 3-D environments defeats the very purpose of 3-D. Depth is when a person can interact with objects,
perform engaging activities and create new things; that cannot be achieved in 2-D.
The experience needs to be “reality" rather than simulated. Second Life is an app made
for the Oculus VR. It makes Second life more realistic and at the same time
makes escapism interactive. However, the drawbacks or advantages as is ones point of view could be that, there
is a fine line between the “virtual” and “real" self. There are some who
wish to keep that line intact; others not so much. So the moot question also arises:
“how much is too much?.. Does SL need a better rendering of the 3D illusion, a more
photorealistic environment... and where do we stop improving?”
As my friend Pameola says: “maybe
no need for glasses at all... just a piece of cardboard to divide the screen
that displays 2 images” many thanks to her
common-sense, without which I would have got carried away and couldn’t have written
this article.
Here is a question to
ponder, would you design a new 3D you?
Photographs Information
SLURL (In world )
1.
Fantasy
Forest sim
Walking through my dream….
2.
Bladerunner
city machinima sim – the blob on the central podium is me.
Photograph is taken with “ghost” windlight setting as recommended by the
creator.
Other : (Web Based)
1. Maxi
G - Sapeways - Order 1 - Jewellery (Custom)
2.
kirsten viewer machinima 3D
(Custom) http://slmachinimaarts.ning.com/video/3d-kirstens-viewer-by-chantal-harvey?xg_source=activity
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