Day: March 1, 2018

Endgame on VRChat with Kent Bye: What is the Ultimate Potential of AI and VR?

The regularly scheduled Endgame talk show on VRChat (which I have written about before) continues to invite interesting guests to facilitate discussion on a variety of topics related to the impact of technology on society. (Here’s a full playlist of past episodes on YouTube. Always a fascinating discussion!)

Yesterday’s episode of Endgame had as their guest none other than Kent Bye, creator of the popular Voices of VR and Voices of AI podcasts, consisting of hundreds of interviews with people doing work in virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Endgame 2 1 March 2018
Kent Bye (second from left) with the three co-hosts of Endgame

Kent talks with the three co-hosts of Endgame (Nomono, Poplopo, and Psych) in a wide-ranging discussion. He argues that virtual reality gives a more embodied, less dissociative, and less escapist alternative to the social media (Facebook, etc.) screen-based culture that is currently experiencing a backlash. He thinks that decentralized social VR on open platforms is going to be a winner in the long-run (he mentions High Fidelity as an example).

Here’s the YouTube livestream of yesterday’s Endgame episode:

There’s also an active Discord discussion channel run by the people behind Endgame, called Deep Thoughts (that’s how I found the link to this livestream). You can join it by clicking on this link.

Endgame continues to provide engaging, inspiring and challenging content. It’s one of the premier examples of the innovative use of virtual reality to build community.  It’s must-see TV!  Or come into VRChat to be in the studio audience for Endgame, which is held every Wednesday at 7:00 pm Pacific Time!

Drax Shows Off the Many Non-Humanoid Avatars Already Available in Sansar

You are no longer limited to a human-looking avatar in Sansar. Draxtor Despres has made a short video spotlighting the many non-humanoid avatars you can already use and enjoy in Sansar! Theanine, Ravioli, and other creators are selling attachments that can turn you into an alien, an alligator, or even a teddy bear!

For example, you can get Theanine’s gator head (for female avatars, which comes in two separate parts: one and two), which is rigged to move properly when you speak. You can also get matching alligator arms and legs:

Alligator Sansar Store 1 March 2018.png

And here’s a photo of Daisy Gator, wearing those items:

HoverDerby 1 19 Feb 2018

Thank you to the many talented Sansar creators who are pushing the envelope of what is possible for avatar appearance!

Video: A VR Skeptic Tries Out a Prototype Haptic Glove

David Hall shared the following YouTube video on the official Sansar Discord server. Destin, the creator of this video, was able to try out a new haptic glove in virtual reality. He admits he’s a VR skeptic, but the sensory feedback of this haptic glove was so realistic that he was won over. He could actually feel each of the feet of a virtual spider as it crawled over his palm!

Obviously, it’s a prototype, and not yet available for consumers. (Check out the giant size of the cable connecting the glove to the PC!) But it’s still very, very cool. Something to look forward to in future, perhaps within the next decade!

Here’s the company blurb, taken from the YouTube video description:

HaptX is a multidisciplinary team of engineers based in San Luis Obispo, CA and Seattle, WA that builds advanced haptic technology. Their first product, HaptX Gloves, brings touch feedback to VR with unprecedented realism, enabling a new category of industrial training simulations. Founded by Jake Rubin and Dr. Bob Crockett in 2012, HaptX won’t stop until you can’t tell what’s real from what’s virtual. Learn more at haptx.com.

For more videos from Destin, see his YouTube channel, called Smarter Every Day.