Facebook Announces Upcoming Virtual World "Horizons"

 By Bixyl Shuftan

Today, Facebook announced it was in the process of making it's own virtual world: Horizons.

Today at OC6, we unveiled Facebook Horizon, a new social VR world coming to Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform in 2020. A culmination of what we’ve learned so far about virtual spaces and communities, Horizon is the first step into an ever-expanding world of connection and exploration where anything becomes possible.

... Starting with a bustling town square where people will meet and mingle, the Horizon experience then expands to an interconnected world where people can explore new places, play games, build communities, and even create their own new experiences.

With the announcement there was a youtube of a spokes-avatar showing off the place.



"Beyond our world, there's another world. And it's right here, on my face!"

"Horizon's filled with possibilities. We can play stuff, make stuff, fly stuff. ... Horizons isn't about rules or limits ... It's about getting out there and trying new things, making your mark, making friends ... And you can even build a world of your own. In Horizon, the world is your lobster. ... So come join us, a never-ending, ever-changing world beyond your world."

Horizons will be playable with Facebook's Oculus VR headset and controllers. It was not specifically stated that the virtual world would be playable without a VR rig.

Judging from the pictures, while there's things to do, including able to build things, and places to go, the Horizons is still very much in beta. The most obvious example of this is the legs for the avatars haven't been designed yet, so they just float over the ground instead of walking.

As part of their announcement, Facebook announced they would be closing Facebook Spaces and Oculus Rooms in one month, October 25.

The announcement stated Horizon would be open to play, in beta, "early next year" in 2020. There was a link for people to sign up for access to the currently closed beta.

Hat tip and image credit: Ryan Schultz

Bixyl Shuftan

Oculus Rift Available at Best Buy, For Nearly $600

Most regular users of Second Life have probably heard of Oculus Rift, the Virtual Reality headset that's been under development for a few years, which has long gotten the attention of Linden Lab which soon worked to make it compatible with Second Life, and was bought up by Facebook two years ago. Also about two years ago, one could place an order for a first generation unit for $350, and there were hopes for a more economical model for when it officially hit the market.

Finally the other day, I saw one for the first time at my local Best Buy. Finally the Oculus Rift headsets weren't just something being talked about on the computer, but available for me to get in the store. But as it turned out, the price hadn't dropped from two years ago. It was $599.99. They were selling a few brands of (low power) computers for less than that. If one adds the Oculus Touch hand controllers, the price goes up to almost $800.00.

For someone making a hundred thousand a year, this probably would be no big thing. But for a blue collar worker like me making less than a quarter that, the cash would be harder to come by. It is noteable to mention that when Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg was demonstrating Sansar to reporters last month, he did so using the Oculus headset and hand controllers.

Granted customer reviews are very good, rated an average of 4.4 out of five of over a hundred reviews with 87% saying they would recommend it to a friend. But for someone with a tight budget, it may simply be out of reach. At least until the price goes down.

"So close, and yet so far."

Bixyl Shuftan

The Latest From the Linden Blog

The official Second Life blog from Linden Lab has been a bit active lately. Last week, it was announced that SLGo, the viewer that allowed Second Life to be played from tablets was now available for the iPad.

With SL Go, you can now access Second Life on your iPad using Wi-Fi or 4G LTE and enjoy a high-fidelity experience with great graphics quality, full shaders, shadows, and full motion capability. SL Go gives you access to the full Second Life Viewer interface, including edit menus, inventory, preference settings and chat management, adding intuitive touch controls.

Linden Lab also announced an improved Oculus Rift compatible viewer that is stated was an improvement over the one released a few months ago, the DK2.

The new hardware offers an even more immersive experience when used with Second Life - there’s less likelihood of feeling motion sick thanks to the motion-tracking features, and less of the “screen-door effect” on the visuals, thanks to higher resolution and brighter display. ... We’ve integrated the DK2 with Second Life, and today are releasing a new Project Viewer so that virtual reality enthusiasts with the DK2 can use it anywhere in Second Life ...

Linden Lab stated the viewer still has some bugs and glitches, but was working to smooth them out.

There was also a "Tools and Technology" update, the "HTTP Project Recap."

But the most recent update on the Linden blog (aside from the latest Destination Guide highlights) was about what might be called "Halloween Treats for Everyone." To begin with, the price for the first three months of Premium membership after signing up for quarterly payments has been temporarily cut in half, to $11.25 US dollars (the second quarterly payment will be the normal $22.50). Besides the 1000L signup bonus and 300L weekly allowance, the Linden home, and other perks, Premium members also get some limited edition premium gifts

Just in time for Halloween, we have some new gifts for Premium subscribers - the bag of treats includes jack o'lanterns, witches’ brooms and more - including a bone-shaking skeleton avatar to haunt your favorite spooky spots in. Go Premium, then pick up your gifts at the inworld Gift Kiosks.

If you’re a Premium member, you won't want to miss the latest gifts included with your membership! Show your inner self with a spooky skeleton avatar or terrify your neighbors with exclusive Halloween decorations. Who needs costumes when everyone’s got bones? 

Linden Lab was also touting a special Halloween ride at LR Portal Park1 (113, 126, 23), The Haunted Halloween Tour.

There’s also a special treat for everyone! Come visit the Haunted Halloween Tour and ride through a terrifying gauntlet of thrills and chills! For those who dare, step through the Halloween path from the Portal Park. If you have an Oculus Rift, you can check out the tour’s VR option - just grab the latest Project Viewer to get started.

What will you do this Halloween. Help children with a sugar fix? Buy overpriced masks from big-box stores? Do something different, something frightening and fun. Linden Lab is pround to present the Haunted Halloween Tour. Strap in and prepare to experience haunts, ghouls, death, scares, and a descent through madness itself. It's definately not for the faint of heart!



(Click here if the video fails to play)

Finally there's a screenshot contest being held by Linden Lab, the "Fa-BOO-lous Snapshot Contest." The top prize is 10,000 Lindens with smaller cash prizes for runners up.

Last, but certainly not least - we know how much you love to dress up and show off your seasonal side this time of year - so why not join us on the forums for Second Life’s Fa-BOO-lous Snapshot Contest. Your frightful and delightful snapshots could win you L$10,000, L$5,000, L$3,000, or L$1,000!
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To see the list of entries already submitted, Click Here.

An Unexpected Problem With Oculus Rift

By Bixyl Shuftan

Danah Boyd of Quartz wrote an interesting article that suggest a little caution about the notion that the Oculus Rift could be a cure-all for Second Life's ills. Despite all the "guy in real life" jokes, it's agreed that close to half of Second Life's users are female. So when Dana's article suggested that women were more likely than men to feel nausea from using a 3D rig, it's likely to get attention. "By and large, my male friends and colleagues had no problem with these systems," Dana wrote, "My female peers, in the other hand, turned green."

Why were girls more likely to have trouble. As it turns out, there's evidence sex hormones affect the retina more than any other body part apart from genitals. The reason this is a problem is there are two ways someone can tell depth perception, "motion parallax," which has to do with an object's apparent size, and "shape from shading," which is how the light from off an object changes when you look at if from a slightly different perspective. While virtual reality handles the former just fine, "3D graphics does a terrible job of truly emulating shape from shifting." And Dana's research concluded women on the whole rely on shape-from-shading much more than men (pdf link).

This doesn't mean that this applies to each and every one. Some women can still handle Oculus with ease while some guys will need a barf bag handy. Still, it's a suggestion that perhaps more research needs to be done on the matter.

Source: Quartz Magazine 
Image Source: Jeff Chiu

Bixyl Shuftan

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for Two Billion Dollars (Main Article)

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Tuesday, it was announced that Facebook had purchased Oculus Rift for two billion US dollars. “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” stated Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

The announcement from Facebook stated the deal was for about $400 million in cash and about 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock valued at 1.6 billion US dollars. It was also stated "The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones."

The news of Facebook's latest acquisition, a month after they had bought the messenger platform WhatsApp for $19 Billion, came just after it was announced that 60,000 Oculus Rift units had been sold in it's first year. Hamlet Au of New World Notes thought this news, while impressive on it's own, also suggested a greater potential demand for virtual reality headsets. As the units had sold for $350 US dollars, "it's a very solid data point suggesting there is a mass market for a cheaper consumer model." Facebook's announcement claimed the figures were more than 75,000 units.

Early on, Linden Lab showed interest in the virtual reality headset, enough to start working on integrating it with Second Life in an "unofficial capacity." Hamlet Au then called the move then an "enormous gamble," but one it should take. Now, with Oculus Rift's future being a mass market one, Hamlet felt the Lab should invest more than ever.

Facebook also has some former Lindens on it's staff.  Cory Ondrejka. Linden Lab's co-founder is the head of Facebook's mobile division. Jim Purbrick, another Facebook worker who once worked at the Lab, posted, "Apparently I work at a virtual worlds company again."

Reaction appears to be mainly positive, people anticipating Facebook's large coffers able to generously fund research and development. But there have been some complaints, notably about concerns about privacy and datamining. On Oculus Rift's Kickstarter page, many posted complaints about the move: "I hate to see Oculus join facebook. Facebook is something I hate from the bottom of my heart (never joined it) .. the news totally ruined my day and I'm thinking of canceling my pre-order." The BBC reported that the creator of Minecraft, Markus  Persson, creator of popular online game Minecraft, had cancelled a deal with Oculusafter hearing the news, "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. ... I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."

So why did Facebook buy up Oculus Rift? The social media  giant has been buying up a number of acquisitions. So perhaps it's mainly for another source of revenue. But there may be other reasons. Perhaps Mark Zuckerburg is looking to catch the next tech wave. Perhaps Facebook is trying to appeal to younger users, which have been leaving as more older people sign up. Or perhaps it is, as one man in a CNN article put it, "to hedge against the day that the era of the social network as we know it becomes totally played out?"

This is clearly big news for virtual reality and virtual worlds. The money behind the multi-billion dollar company means promises for more and faster developments. But what will be the catch?

Sources: BBC, CNN Money, CNN, Facebook , New World Notes,
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/CNN 

Bixyl Shuftan

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for Two Billion Dollars

On Tuesday, it was announced that Facebook had purchased Oculus Rift for two billion US dollars.

Stay tuned for more details.

Sources: BBC, CNN Money, CNN  
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/CNN 

Drax Files Radio Hour's First Episode

On Friday January 10, the first episode of the "Drax Files Radio Hour" took place. The broadcast took place at 7AM SL time "From an attic somewhere in Berlin" with Draxtor Despres doing the show with Jo Yardley, noted for her "1920s Berlin Project." The show opened with a short "Friendly greetings" by Torley Linden, then after the introductions Draxtor and Jo discussed several topics.

The first subject was Occulus Rift reviving interest in virtual reality. The details and realism attracted a number of fans, though there was one down side: the realism of the experience while moving around while standing still in real life was making some people nauseous. Jo felt Occulus Rift would be used for more than Second Life and computer games. They described Babbage Linden as thinking differently, who felt it would start small and never really go mainstream.

They then talked about the NSA, and it's investigating Second Life. At one point Jo remarked, "seems that the NSA is taking Second Life more seriously than the media." "I don't know if that's good," Draxtor replied, "or very very sad." "A little bit of both?" "At least someone takes us seriously." Drax played in interview with "Ashkin," in which they talked about the NSA investigating Second Life's furry population. Their conclusion was that they often worked in creative fields and were actively involved in programing. There were also worries a Bin Laden avatar could be used to recruit terrorists, Jo and Draxtor comparing it to worries about neo-nazi activity. They also discussed with amusement pop singer Lily Allen confusing bitcoins with Lindens in being offered "hundreds of thousands of bitcoins to perform in Second Life years ago."

There was also a discussion about "fitted mesh" with guests involved with Second Life fashion design. Draxtor also brought up the upcoming "Feed a Smile" event in the Lavender Fields later that day, and concluded with an uncut soundtrack of the Drax Files episode with Scottius Polke, "too much stuff ended up on the cutting room floor."

The recording of the Drax Files Radio Hour's first episode can be found here: http://draxfiles.com/2014/01/10/show-1-oculus-nsa-fitted-mesh/ .

Oculus Rift VR, By Philip Rosedale's New Company, Coming to Second Life

Jo Yardley, the lady known for her work on the 1920s Berlin Project, had a few things to say about something on the more futuristic scale of things: Oculus Rift.



Last month, Second Life's creator Philip Rosedale, who has moved on to found a new start-up company called "High Fidelity," announced "a new kind of virtual reality platform" called Oculus Rift, a "high field of view, low latency, consumer-priced virtual reality head-mounted display." Although the company's primary interest seems to be 3-D gaming, Halmet Au reported that Linden Lab was interested in this technology, with "several Linden staff … working on integrating Oculus Rift with Second Life in an *unofficial* capacity."

Jo states Oculus "truly is a game changer," "I can already imagine myself walking around those dark narrow streets, looking up, down, around me. Finally being able to see my city trough my eyes in stead of the eyes of my avatar. … It could give SL an enormous boost, put it back in the view of those who might have forgotten about it, and it could show off a whole new side of the OC."

Chatting with Rod Humble, Jo quoted him as saying, "Hopefully we will be sharing some vids within a few weeks then get into testing after that. I don't want to overhype this BUT SL+OR is like having dinner with Stefan Zweig and Peter Altenberg."

Hamlet Au called integration an "enormous gamble" that he earlier doubted the Lab would undertake. And in one article Jo Yardley linked to, the writer felt OpenSim would get it first. But it looks like Rod Humble, noted for his experience in gaming, will be having Linden Lab work on it.

Sources: New World Notes, Jo Yardley's Second Life

Bixyl Shuftan