Facebook/Meta's Horizons Planned to Shut Down VR Option, Then Changed

 

Some Second Life users may remember Horizons, the virtual world created by Meta, the company behind Facebook. Announced in 2021 as the effort of Mark Zuckerberg's company to "build the Metaverse." But there was skepticism from the start as it's avatars had nothing below the waist, which was fodder for a number of jokes, including a few from Linden Lab and others in Second Life. As time went on, it became clear it was not attracting many people, and Meta netted only a fraction of the money it put in. Among the signs things weren't right, unlike Second Life, the people who worked on it did not spend time in the virtual world when off the clock. 

 

Earlier this month on March 17, it was announced that the software to use Horizons on VR headsets would no longer be available at the end of the month, and in June it would be taken offline. “We are separating the two platforms so each can grow with greater focus, and the Horizon Worlds platform will become a mobile-only experience,” the company stated on a community blog. The move came just weeks after Meta laid of a thousand workers from Reality Labs in January, the part of the company that works on it's virtual world. Besides VR, the virtual world can be accessed through a mobile app, which was remaining up. 

But a few days later, Meta backtracked, it's CEO announcing, “We have decided, just today in fact, that we will keep Horizon Worlds working in VR for existing games to support the fans who’ve reached out.” But, VR won't be the main focus, "Most of our energy is going towards mobile and the Meta Horizon Engine there."

Commentary: In Second Life, and Discord channels with SL users, yours truly heard several residents bring up Meta's decision to close Horizon's VR option, and react with smugness. The feeling was a multi-billion dollar company had gone up against the much smaller Linden Lab and the people behind VR Chat, and it couldn't even begin to compete with them, the company Mark Zuckerberg created losing big. Second Life, for all of it's Linden blunders over time, remains the champion virtual world. And a startup like Resonite can do more with a few people, a few dollars, and a little elbow grease and imagination, than a billion dollar megacorp that is all dollars and no brains and bare-bones effort. 

 

Image from Techcrunch 

 

Sources: Wired, Meta, PC Gamer, CNBC 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Ryan Schultz to Stop Blogging

 

A few days ago, Ryan Schultz, a noted blogger about Second Life and other virtual worlds and VR technology, announced there would be no more posts on his blog. 

I’ve had a good run, but it’s time for me to close this blog after a little over seven years and three months. It’s time.

Please know that it has been an honour, a joy, and a privilege to write about a subject that I loved: virtual worlds, social VR, and the metaverse, plus virtual and augmented reality in general. This blog has opened many doors for me, and I am truly grateful for the experiences I have had.

Thank you for your comments, suggestions, encouragement, and feedback throughout the years. I have made many friends and acquaintances in many virtual worlds, and I hope that our paths cross again soon, either via the metaverse or in real life.

I will be offline for a while, but I hope to be back soon. I doubt it will be a blog, though. Perhaps something different; I don’t know what yet.

Be well. Keep each other warm in a cold world. I love you all.

In his post before, he stated was staking an indefinite break, saying he was too busy with the demands of real-life. In the post before that, he had stated his job at a university has undergone quite a bit in recent months. His last post about technology was on October 1, with two posts in August. On July 4, he announced there would be fewer posts "for the forseeable future" due to his job.  

Ryan Schultz was a blogger about Second Life, often posting about mesh avatar accessories and outfits. But he didn't limit himself to Second Life, starting off as a blogger about Sansar when it was owned by Linden Lab, calling it the "Sansar Newsblog" at the time. But in January 2018, he briefly suspended writing following a dispute with Linden Lab about a story he did on one of Sansar's locations, later renaming it the Ryan Schultz blog as part of Linden Lab's complaint was about the blog's name. He would also write about VRChat and other virtual worlds, as well as VR Gear. 

Ryan Schultz did hint he would be back in some form. But it looks like he won't be with the blog he made a name for himself in Second Life media.

To check out Ryan Schultz's blog: https://ryanschultz.com/

Bixyl Shuftan

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

 

Saturday September 7

    ~*~

 

    At 10 AM PST   

    VR In Science And Education

    By Dr. William F. Schmachtenberg

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/vr-in-science/

    At the Auditorium

   

      

    ~*~

 

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

Philip Rosedale at Lab Gab

About two weeks ago, Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, was interviewed by Strawberry Linden on the "Lab Gab" show. Known by the same name inworld, Philip had much to say about Linden Lab and Second Life, as well as his current company High Fidelity. He talked some about what shaped decisions such as what drove him to create Linden Lab, why his particular choice of avatar, his management style at the Lab, the "Rig,' why did he leave Linden Lab and form High Fidelity, and how he thought the Pandemic was driving the public to go virtual like it hadn't before.

Read the details of the interview in People.

RFL Press Release: 2019 SL Christmas Expo

Believe in The Magic of Christmas is the theme of the 9th Annual 
SL Christmas Expo, to be held Dec, 5th - 15th, benefiting the 
American Cancer Society and Childhood Cancer research and 
support. Every L$ raised will be dedicated to the Society's Virtual 
Reality Headset program for kids in treatment for pediatric cancers.

The biggest and most popular Holiday Shopping and Entertainment 
event since 2011 this year will be even bigger and is proud to 
welcome its partner in fighting cancer Linden Lab!

Some 2019 Expo Highlights

ELEVEN REGIONS

MORE THAN 160 MERCHANTS - FASHION, HOME AND GARDEN, 
BREEDABLES AND MORE!

4th EDITION LINDEN HOME REVEAL; 

12 LINDEN LIGHTS OF HOPE DECORATING CONTEST ENTRIES

AND THE 1ST EVER EBBE LINDEN BEAR - AVAILABLE ONLY AT 
THE EXPO

NEARLY 100 HOURS OF LIVE PERFORMERS, DJ SHOWS AND 
OTHER ENTERTAINMENT

A KIDS FASHION RUNWAY SHOW AND MORE THAN  20 KIDS 
SHOPS

AND THERE'S RAFFLES:

WIN A  L$160,000 HOLIDAY SHOPPING SPREE! 

PLUS 

THE GIFT OF HOPE MEGA RAFFLES WITH MORE THAN 
L$150,000 OF GIFT CARDS!

TREE LOTS, SNOWMAN CONTESTS, ICE SKATING

AUCTIONS - GOTYAS - STOCKING STUFFER HUNT

*****  WHY VR HEADSETS? ******

The American Cancer Society and Children’s Hospital of 
Atlanta (CHOA) have partnered to provide virtual reality 
(VR) headsets for pediatric cancer patients to use while 
undergoing various cancer treatments within the hospital. 

Studies have shown:

        o    VR Distraction helps to reduce pain during 
procedures

        o    VR improved patients’ emotional well-being

        o    A reduction in patients’ distress in terms of cancer-
related psychological symptoms.

        o    A significant decrease in anxiety, distress, and f
atigue immediately after 

              chemotherapy sessions with VR

              

******

The SL Christmas Expo is in support of the American Cancer 
Society and its Childhood Cancer 
programs.  For More Information visit http://slchristmasexpo.com 
or the ACS Campus in Second Life

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

Press Release: SL Christmas Expo Teams Up With Linden Lab to Help The American Cancer Society Provide VR Headsets to Pediatric Cancer Paitents

The American Cancer Society and SL Christmas Expo announced today that all donations to the “Believe in The Magic of Christmas”, the 9th Annual Christmas Expo, in support of the Expo’s mission to Fight Childhood Cancer, will be dedicated to help provide funding for VR Headsets for childhood cancer patients. Along with Linden Lab, their partner in the fight against cancer, and our sponsors and participants, the Expo will be working to reach the Goal of $20,000 to help fund the Society’s VR Headset program for pediatric patients undergoing cancer treatment.

.WHY VR?

The American Cancer Society and Children’s Hospital of Atlanta (CHOA) have partnered to provide virtual reality (VR) headsets for pediatric cancer patients to use while undergoing various cancer treatments within the hospital.

    •    For over 100 years, the American Cancer Society has provided patient services to improve the lives of cancer patients. The virtual reality pediatric program uses innovative technology to further expand the services offered to pediatric cancer patients in an extremely impactful and relevant way.

    •    Research suggests that ideal distraction tasks consume some portion of attentional resources so that less cognitive capacity remains available for processing pain.

    •    Distraction is a pain management technique that has been shown to successfully reduce pain and behavioral distress in children during invasive medical procedures. VR distraction is a promising intervention for children undergoing painful medical procedures and is an ideal distractor for procedure-related pain because it competes for attention resources in multiple sensory domains and provides visual and auditory sensory blocking of external stimuli...   

    •    19 studies across nearly 1,000 articles have explored the effects of VR interventions with cancer patients. These studies found:
        o    VR improved patients’ emotional well-being
        o    A reduction in patients’ distress in terms of cancer-related psychological symptoms.
        o    A significant decrease in anxiety, distress, and fatigue immediately after         chemotherapy sessions with VR

With more than 100 Merchants, Raffles, Breedables & One Of A Kind Auctions, Gotchas Hunts and Entertainment, games, contests and fun, the 10 day Expo, which runs from Dec 5th through 15th, is the Premier Holiday Experience in Second Life.  This year’s Expo will also feature the reveal of the long awaited 4th Edition Linden Homes and special content provided by our partner, Linden Lab. The Lights of Hope House Decorating Contest will also return for a 2nd year. The Expo will conclude with the 11th Annual Holidays of Hope Ball.

Do not miss out on Believe in The Magic of Christmas, the 2019 Second Life Christmas Expo, December 5th through the 15th, in support of the American Cancer Society.

Give The Gift of Hope and Fight Childhood Cancer!

Registration is underway and going fast! Sign up now for a store, shop or booth, and join some of Second Life’s premier merchants as a sponsor! For More Information or to reserve your store visit: https://slchristmasexpo.com or contact Nuala Maracas in world.

Learn more at https://www.slacsinfo.com/news

Video: "I Spent a Week In a VR Headset, Here's What Happened"

(Click here is the video does not play)

From Disrupt on March 7, "On February 20th, 2019 we put a guy in a headset for 168 hours. Hosted by: https://twitter.com/jakwilmot." For one week, Jak Wilmont was constantly wearing VR headsets, save the couple seconds it took to change from one to another.  While the video doesn't mention Second Life, it does involve virtual worlds.

His response when the challenge is finally over, "Oh my gosh, the graphics are so good."

Hat tip: Nydia Tungsten

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

Linden Lab CEO Demonstrates Sansar to Wall Street Journal

(Click here if the video fails to play)

At the Wall Street Journal's WSJD Live 2016 global teleconference on technology, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg (known inworld as Ebbe Linden), demonstrated it's upcoming virtual world Sansar. In a video segment about a minute and a half long, Altberg donned a VR helmet and controllers and with a wide screen showing a living room somewhere in Sansar, he moved things around in front of WSJ reporters Jeoffrey Prowler and Joanna Stern. He did explain the content was made by other users, this particular content bought by the Lab from one particular user, going on to say Second Life had a "half a billion dollar GDP." Of Sansar, he stated that they had invited "a few hundred users" to take part in their "creative preview," with plans to keep adding more, with the full opening sometime in the first quarter of 2017.

There was also a tweeted video by Benjamin Rohe, who was among those there, showing about a half minute of footage of Sansar avatars.

Both Inara Pey and Hamlet Au, who also wrote about the video with Ebbe Altberg (Inara about the video with the avatars), felt not much new was revealed by the videos, but they did raise some questions, such as when donning the VR helmet can the view be adjusted to see one's own avatar, and considering "less than a million people" own a VR headset why was Ebbe Linden using one to demonstrate Sansar? Inara felt the next set of Lab Chat would be "interesting."

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Modem World, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Announces Project Sansar Closed Alpha Ready For Volunteers For Testing

Earlier this week on Tuesday August 18, Linden Lab issued a press release saying that their next generation virtual world, currently called Project Sansar, was ready for testing and stated a "small number of volunteers have been exclusively invited" to help out.

Linden Lab stated they plan for Sansar to be able to be used, when ready for full release, by handheld devices, as well as being compatible with VR headsets such as Oculus Rift. They touted the next generation virtual world as able to "empower people to easily create, share, and monetize their own multi-user, interactive virtual experiences, without requiring engineering resources. ... eliminating the complicated challenges that today limit the medium to professional developers with significant resources." They did not go into detail as how this would be different from Second Life.

Ebbe Altberg, Linden Lab's CEO (known inworld as Ebbe Linden), talked about "Lowering the barrier for VR experience creation. ... Project Sansar will do for virtual experiences what WordPress has done for the Web."

Slated for general availability in 2016, Project Sansar will democratize virtual reality as a creative medium. It will empower people to easily create, share, and monetize their own multi-user, interactive virtual experiences, without requiring engineering resources. The platform will enable professional-level quality and performance with exceptional visual fidelity, 3D audio, and physics simulation. Experiences created with Project Sansar will be optimized for VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, but also accessible via PCs and (at consumer launch) mobile devices. Users can explore and socialize within Project Sansar experiences through advanced expressive avatars, using text and voice chat.

Drawing on more than 12 years of unique experience running Second Life, the largest-ever user-created virtual world, Linden Lab will make it fun and easy for Project Sansar users to create social VR experiences, eliminating the complicated challenges that today limit the medium to professional developers with significant resources. Project Sansar will allow creators at all levels to focus on realizing their creative visions, without having to worry about issues such as hosting and distribution, multi-user access and communication systems, virtual currency and regulatory compliance, and other challenges associated with creating, sharing, and monetizing virtual experiences today.

“We want to lower the barrier of entry for VR experience creation,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “Project Sansar will do for virtual experiences what WordPress has done for the Web: empower a broad range of people to create with professional quality and reach global audiences. By greatly expanding who can create virtual experiences, Project Sansar will also extend the value of VR to a wide variety of use-cases — from gaming and entertainment to education, architecture, art, community-building, business meetings, healthcare, conferences, training, and more.”

The small group of initial creators invited to help test Project Sansar will create 3D content using Autodesk’s Maya® software and will export their creations to the new platform. At consumer launch, Project Sansar will support a variety of third-party creation tools as well as native building options, so that creators can work with their preferred software.

In the coming months, Linden Lab will welcome additional creators and content partners to Project Sansar as new features are added to the platform and testing expands.

Linden Lab is also currently recruiting talented engineers to join the team developing Project Sansar. More information about working for Linden Lab, current positions, and applications can be found at lindenlab.com/careers.

* * * * *

Daniel Voyager and Inara Pey have also reported about the announcement. "The Verge" also did an article, though it's choice of words, "fading from public view, was a virtual world in its own right," could be interpreted as saying Second Life was dead and closed.

Both Daniel Voyager and Inara Pey posted about a youtube in which Ebbe Linden discusses a few details about Sansar: https://youtu.be/2mQj7TpE-Wc . Inara also wrote an analysis of the talk.

Bixyl Shuftan

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