High Fidelity

Philip Speaks at VWBPE 2014

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This morning Daniel Voyager has a link to this video, which is about 33 minutes. Daniel also has an index to the video: VWBPE 2014: Philip Rosedale Keynotes – Live Updates. It is based on time-of-day rather than minute marks. But, you can get a sense of where in the video things are.

I didn’t hear much new information in this speech/video. Drax, or at least some Draxtor… and it sounds like a question the world famous Drax we know would ask, asks if High Fidelity (HF) will make Second Life™ obsolete. In answering Philip sounds a bit like a politician. Meaning I didn’t really hear an answer. There is no yes or no or may be or what would have been most accurate: I don’t know. He does point out that Linden Lab is an investor in HF. He expects HF technology to make it into Second Life.

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But, the question is valid. Think about it. If HF can eliminate lag then Second Life will have to eliminate lag or I believe it will die. Which would you rather use? A laggy world or a highly responsive one? We already know lag is a major objection that new users of Second Life have. 

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Admission to High Fidelity Alpha

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Ciaran Laval has an article up about logging into High Fidelity, Philip Rosedale’s new virtual world. See: So You Want To Login To High Fidelity?

It seems Philip is using the login process as part of their job application process. So, one needs to go into Github and download the ‘viewer’ code, compile it, and use the resulting ‘viewer’ to login. That obviously limits the number of people that will be playing in High Fidelity.

High Fidelity – Touch?

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A new article is out on how the HD Team is experimenting with touch…or virtual touch. In general I am under whelmed. But, I can see where including what current technology can provide will increase immersion; I don’t see this as what people will associate with touch.

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Check out the article yourself: Avatar Interaction: Ryan the stylist, Emily the client.

The article and video seem to be miles apart to me.

Philip on High Fidelity

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There are little bits of information that popup all over. On cNET there is an article about an interview with Philip: Philip Rosedale’s Second Life with High Fidelity.

The author’s (Dan Farber) take in the article is what High Fidelity is has not yet been determined. Really? I’ve been hearing things that have me thinking it will be a virtual world with less lag, more detail, and a better user interface.

In this article Philip says High Fidelity will be a mix of virtual world and augmented reality that will surpass the real world. There are aspects of human interaction that Philip does not believe can be captured. Think: smell.

Philip also thinks that eventually mobile devices will be able to interact with large data sets… massively detailed virtual worlds. He is thinking 5 years out.

I will point out that nVidia is taking on building video processors for Android. That should lead to lower power consumption video chips and better graphics on mobile devices.

We also find out that Philip has 10 people working on the High Fidelity project.

High Fidelity Note

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The High Fidelity team has a new blog post up. This one is about using Google Glass to drive an avatar’s head. They go on to mention having made an Android app that collects a phone’s sensor data. This essentially turns the phone into a WII like controller.

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With their testing of Glass they found that the Android app was transmitting data to it. They aren’t where they can use it yet. But, the communications is working.

They also mention the have Oculus Rift working. In regard to High Fidelity, I have no idea what that means. Can they see into their test world? Or do they mean drive an avatar?

Whatever, there are lots of interesting pieces in the puzzle.

High-Fidelity Sky

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High-Fidelity (HF), Rosedale’s new virtual world, is prototyping parts of their planned virtual world. Last week they released a picture of their sky render and promised a ‘long’ blog post. Today the image popped up in my Feedly.

Prototype Sky at High Fidelity VW
Prototype Sky at High Fidelity VW

The sky is interesting. I suppose it could be the night sky.

I also find it interesting that both Cloud Party (CP) and HF are publishing a step-by-step of the development process. CP seems to be taking feedback and ideas from users. HF is not to that point yet. Will they take feedback too? We’ll have to wait to see.