Day: October 30, 2019

WARNING! Beware of Discord Spammers Promoting Fake InWorldz Programs!

As most regular readers of my blog are aware, the InWorldz virtual world closed on July 27th, 2018. While an attempt was made to start up a successor world called Islandz, that too closed in February of this year. If you want to read through the whole sorry, messy, chaotic saga, here’s a link to all my blogposts about InWorldz/Islandz.

But today a newly-created account posted a message to the RyanSchultz.com Discord server, with a link to an executable program called InWorldz.exe. I immediately deleted the message and banned the spammer, but it got me intrigued, so I did a little Googling.

Apparently, a website called the Software Informer (a very sketchy-looking site, which I am not linking to) is distributing updated client software for a dead virtual world! And the information has been updated as recently as a couple of days ago, too:

Something’s definitely not right. It would appear that somebody is using the InWorldz name to trap unsuspecting users into downloading and installing potential malware or spyware on their computers.

So spread the word, and keep an eye out on the Discord servers you belong to! And never click on any executables dropped into chatrooms!

Open Mic Night in VRChat

The long-running Open Mic Night is a popular Friday evening event in VRChat, where various users take to the stage to sing, dance, do stand-up comedy, recite poetry, or share whatever other talents they may possess with the audience.

Here’s a two-minute overview video showing you a bit of some of the many performers who appeared on the Open Mic stage last Friday night, October 25th, 2019:

According to the #openmic channel on the VRChat Events Discord:

Come own the stage at Open Mic Night! Every Friday at 10:00 p.m. EST / 7:00 p.m. PST come perform or enjoy the talents of the VRChat community as they bring you a night of music, dance, comedy, and more!

This event streams to Mike P’s Twitch channel, https://twitch.tv/TelepathicRum.

There is a sign-up sheet for performers; the link is in the description of the #openmic channel on the VRChat Events Discord. The organizer, Mike P, explains how the weekly event is organized:

Hey guys, this Friday before the show when everybody’s there I’ll take names down and form a proper list to go off of. I’ll also ask if anybody else would like to be added to the list between performances. The event will be Invite+ instead of Friends+ so that it’s only people who are manually invited by people in the instance that can join. Just as last week I’ll send out invites to everyone at the start of the event from my “Open Mic Night” account. If you’re interested in attending, add the user “Open Mic Night” in game.

For details on this and many other events taking place in VRChat, visit the VRChat Events website or join the VRChat Events Discord server.

Mozilla Hubs Releases the Spoke Architecture Kit: Build Your Own Environments for Mozilla Hubs!

Yesterday Mozilla Hubs released a new architecture kit called Spoke, which can be used to build worlds for use by their social VR platform:

We’re excited to release the Spoke by Mozilla Architecture Kit! This tool allows anyone to create 3D models and buildings from within their browser to be used as environments for our social VR platform, Hubs.

You can get more information about Spoke here.

This new feature just adds to the appeal of the open source Mozilla Hubs platform, which supports every single VR headset and browser:

Because we are using web standards (WebVR and eventually WebXR) to deliver this content, we are able to support every single Mixed Reality headset. Every. Single. One. You can enjoy this experience with advanced hardware such as an Oculus Rift or an HTC Vive, or you can use alternatives such as a Daydream or cardboard viewer. You can even use your desktop or mobile phone if you don’t have access to any VR hardware. Everyone can come together and communicate with each other in this online social space. The experience will progressively scale to make use of the hardware that is available to you.