“It’s why I did the OBS Tutorial again recently, because people kept asking me how to create videos. I hope it gets more people into doing that. Exploring and recording different destinations or making videos of their avatars dancing, and including their friends, etc. It will make their whole blogging experience more fun.”

Agreed! I’m somewhat biased, but I’ve enjoyed watching the Seracast videos for that very reason. 

As for a less tedious way of creating credit lists, Berry believes there’s a HUD which may do that, but forgot the production information. In other words, it’s difficult for us to credit the creator of a credit creator.

I actually think this might be something Linden Lab could better solve: As all this data already exists on the asset database, wouldn’t it be relatively easy to add a function which generates a list of all the creators associated with an avatar, including attachments and their current location on?

Update, 4:45pm PT: Berry just recalled there’s an output function for your outfit details, at least — in the official viewer. Watch below:

 

 

To film, Alter Ego relies on 14 cameras, eight of which use advanced camera-tracking technologies. “It’s not something that’s done in post,” creative producer Michael Zinman — who previously partnered with Fox on The Masked Singer — tells Rolling Stone on the still-empty studio floor. Above our heads, thousands of Infrared Reflective (IR) markers — one-inch-by-one-inch silver squares that, essentially, create a map for these cameras — twinkle like a mini galaxy. The smart cameras then communicate with Unreal Engine, a video-game design software [sic!], to render the avatars in real time.

… The problem is, outside a virtual world context like Fortnite, the Unreal avatars seem strange and disconnected from the live audience and judges.

And while I like the concept of real people who were previously afraid to perform in real life, afraid they’d be judged on their real life appearance because they don’t fit the expected mold… that’s already a core concept to the reality show competition format! (Hello, Susan Boyle became famous for that very reason back in 2009.) 

No: The magic of avatars is not the 3D graphics in and of itself, but the immersive social context of the virtual world in which they appear. It’s why hundreds if not thousands of people now have full-time professions as performers in countless virtual worlds.

I’m hopeful the show succeeds but it’s hard to see that happening, especially after the mocap gimmick wears off. Again, it’s still missing the opportunity of recruiting virtual world-based performers like Skye Galaxy from Second Life or TFMJonny from VRChat to appear, bringing those worlds’ fanbases with them. to cheer them on. But maybe that’s coming up in later episodes.

If the show survives long enough, that is, because… yikes:

I’m working on the assumption that Alter Ego will be canned after a single episode, because for my own sake I have to place some faith in mankind. But if it isn’t, and this wretched series eventually ends up with a winner, then who will actually become famous? Is it the shy, fallible human who performs backstage with a camera stuck to their forehead? Or is it their perfect avatar? For the life of me, I hope it’s the former. Singing competitions have always carried a sheen of exploitation to them, so imagine how much worse it would be when you’re put to work as the workhorse component of a cartoon fairy. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Hand on heart, Alter Ego is the worst thing I have seen on television in a decade. Please, someone, fire this monstrosity into the sun so it cannot hurt us any more.

A very special thank you to Wagner James and nwn for this opinion post.

Have a Great week from all of us at Zoha Islands and Fruit Islands

“I am from Ukraine and there is a war in my country, I am in a city under Russian occupation,” as she put it simply on her OSMIA Facebook page. “Now I have the Internet (for how long I don’t know). I was able to publish a release that was supposed to be released on February 25th.”

Click here for more details.

“I want to say a big thank you to the Kustom9 event and Rebel Gal for offering and giving me space for my latest release, which should have been released at the end of February,” she adds.  Notably, Rebel Gal is based in Russia, another Russian Second Life user among many who have rallied to help their Ukrainian friends while their government’s army ravages the neighboring country.

As for Hanna, who I communicate with on Facebook from time to time, I won’t say where she is now, except to say that she is thankfully much safer than she was last month. But like the rest of her nation, still far from being truly safe.

Our hearts go out to Ukraine ♥♥♥

Have a Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands and Fruit Islands

Aufwie & band IRL

The pandemic put me on a hard place by preventing me from performing in real life and doing any other type of musical activities,” as he put it to me back then. “And that’s when I started seeing it as an actual job and took a more professional approach.”

Since then he’s also launched a TikTok channel where many of his performances have gone fairly viral:

He is still, on top of that, performing on a regular basis in SL — click here to join his Discord to get gig announcements.

Something tells me he may be doing less SL shows soon, however, as he’s likely to be catapulted into the big time.

Thanks to his SL manager (yes he has a manager in Second Life) Dara, for the updates!

Have a great week from all of us at Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands