In a recent blogpost, VRChat announced some changes to its platform to accommodate the expected influx of new users when the Oculus Quest begins shipping next week:
In preparation for our launch on the Oculus Quest next week, we’ve created a new VRChat Home and VRChat Hub for both our PC and Quest users! Both of the worlds are cross-platform, and will allow Quest and PC users to interact and chat with each other.
The new VRChat Home includes portals to popular destinations, as well as a new avatar selector next to a mirror. The redesigned social hub brings back the familiar campfire, which many people remember from the early days of VRChat:
The Hub has received quite a makeover. We’ve found that users tend to prefer smaller (but not too small) instances to chat with their friends, with areas that naturally lean into permitting groups to separate out and have conversations. A darker evening lighting scheme tends to be more favorable and provides an “after-hours” feel…The campfire provides a comfortable, natural area to gather up.
The New VRChat Hub
You should see these changes the next time you log in to VRChat.
Zooby, a long-established brand already well known in Second Life for its animal avatars and animated creatures, has just released a new line of animesh babies. Animesh is short for “animated mesh”, and it is a brand new Second Life feature which allows independent objects to use rigged mesh and animations.
For the first week only, the Zooby animesh babies are for sale for L$4,000 each (about US$16.00; after the first week, they will be sold at L$5,000). So I decided to take advantage of the sale and pick up a little bundle of joy for Vanity Fair, whom I have decided to name Ryan, after myself:
Watching baby Ryan crawling around in Vanity’s kitchen actually reminded me of when I was a small child, crawling around and playing under the kitchen table in my childhood home!
Me at 2-1/2 months old with my beloved grandmother, 1964 (I had way less hair than my Zooby baby version!)
The animations on these babies are particularly well done. Here’s a five-minute YouTube video showing you a few of the many animations:
A separate texture HUD allows you to change almost any aspect of your baby: skin tone, hair colour, and eye colour (you can buy several different races of both male and female babies at the Zooby store).
Although it is not required to enjoy your Zooby baby, you can provide her or him with love, food, baths, sleep and diaper changes to keep the baby happy and gain tokens which you can exchange for toys. You can also purchase gems that will level up your baby with new animations. Using the associated website, you can even assign other people to care for and hold your baby.
This picture was an illustration from the original VIBEHub white paper, which has since been taken down from their website. Stupid pictures promoting virtual reality, anyone?
Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
—Stephen Leacock, “Gertrude the Governess”, Nonsense Novels (1911)
It’s been interesting to watch as the blockchain-based virtual world platform VIBEHub takes it first steps. Back in September, they launched their virtual world, and I wrote about it then. Since then, they have launched two other, completely different projects:
VIBE or DIE, a first-person shooter game where you earn or lose VIBE, Ethereum or Binance Coin cryptocurrency every time they make a kill or are killed by another user.
Feel the VIBE, a brand-new “hologram singing competition” with a US$10,000 grand prize, where you can watch musical performers as three-dimensional hologram videos on your mobile device.
Here’s a 50-second overview video showing both projects:
And here’s a brief promo video showing you how you can watch the Feel the VIBE contestants in “AR” via your iOS or Android mobile device:
The video description states:
Each round will consist of singers who will perform an original or cover song. During each round users like yourself will vote for your favorite performers, the performers with the most votes will advance to the next round. The champion will win a grand prize and be given their own PPV (pay-per-view) performance on the VIBEHub platform.
You must have a minimum VIBE token balance on the VIBEHub platform and will only be permitted to vote the allotted times per match. The community will determine who advances in the competition by voting for their favorite performance and will ultimately crown the winner of “Feel the VIBE.”
Now, I look at the three projects that VIBEHub has launched to date (the virtual world, the first-person shooter, and the singing competition) and I think to myself: whoa. The only thing that these three initiatives have in common is that they are all by the same company. I will say one thing, the company behind VIBEHub certainly isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket! Perhaps this is a wise strategy. But perhaps they are spreading themselves a little too thin? You can’t do everything well.
I’m happy to announce that the newest episode of the Metaverse Newscast show is now available for viewing on YouTube. (You can find all the earlier episodes at the Metaverse Newscast channel.)
In this episode, I interview Jason Moore, who is a writer, producer and director who has worked extensively in the film and television production industry in Los Angeles, New York, and internationally. We talked about his latest project on the social VR platform High Fidelity, called The MetaMovie Project.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be INSIDE a movie? I’ve been chasing that dream for my entire life. As a filmmaker, I’ve used every tool and technique I can find to make my own work as immersive as possible, so when Virtual Reality technology became available, I jumped right in.
The MetaMovie project is an ongoing series of experiments exploring immersive, interactive storytelling inside the virtual reality metaverse. We combine cinema, video games, interactive theater, and role playing activities like D&D to create an entirely new way to experience a story: from the inside. In a MetaMovie you don’t just watch the story, you’re part of it.
Using room scale VR, audiences transport themselves into the world of our story and star in a live, interactive, immersive movie utilizing all the magic of the metaverse.
Our funding goal is $10,000, which will allow us to continue to perform our first MetaMovie, an exciting thriller called The Heist, throughout 2019. Additionally, we will create two other MetaMovies: a supernatural drama called The Bright Side of the Moon, and a sci-fi horror piece, Alien Rescue. Backers of the project have the opportunity to experience these in several ways: as exclusive VIPs who “star” in the performance, as less interactive Fireflies, or, simply, as fans and supporters of the project.
Promotional Poster for The Heist
Jason Moore and his team are really pushing the envelope when it comes to creating interactive and immersive movie-like experiences for audiences. I hope that you enjoy this episode of the Metaverse Newscast, and choose to support Jason’s crowdfunding campaign. You could even become a VIP or a Firefly at one of his performances!
