Will the Rift revitalize Second Life?

I have a lot of respect for Second Life in terms of actually putting together something that drew a decently sized community, and approached the idea of an MMO outside the normal RPG aspects. There were similar games before second life, but SL provided a huge amount of customization and multiplayer interaction that superseded any of the virtual-chat room predecessors.

All that being said, the game is clunky, out-dated, not very user friendly, and just plain ugly.

I'm hoping someone takes basic principles from Second Life, maybe even the SL team themselves, and makes something updated and cleaner, with a more user-friendly experience.

I agree that there are some issues with second life, lag, performance, graphics, but considering the altertives out there, it is the best as what it does for now. I hope the Oculus Rift will bring a new level to the world and i very much look foward to support for it, but i agree it would be nice to see a more modern alterntive to come out, sadly i have not seen such, the last few virtual worlds i tried were honestly, terrible. It may however spark some interest again in the world with VR support. i play it from time to time, but i agree there could be better options out there, but sadly there is not.

we need a palmer lucky of virtual worlds. someone who comes up and says "i wanted to play a virtual world which had great graphics and felt really connected and immersed but there was nothing out there! so i am starting my own!" with the resources and developrs to back it up, that is something i so would like to see. In an age where games has become nothing more then just a "me too" copycat rase, i think a good alterntive virtual world could step up to the plate if done right.

but i dont think second life is terrible, and i think it would be a good fit for VR. (if we have the option to toggle VR mode so we dont have to restart would be nice).

hopefully with the advance of VR more virtual worlds will come about, we will see!

Second Life and Opensim have a great potential to give us a place to start the future Oasis, Matrix or however it may be named. Many useful components are there: user creatable contents, positional audio, external media integration...
But due to this complexity it also has its drawbacks: it has a rather steep learning curve for newcomers, there is no obvious system to immediately reward users (i.e. no quest to slay ten rats and get a level up or new weapon).

To make all parts really usable most of the UI has to be redesigned, some concepts like e.g. the chat windows may not even work (try typing on a keyboard you cant see while you could potentially turn 360 degree to look around).

Linden Lab is working on a Rift compatible version, CtrlAltDavid is working on a modified Firestorm viewer https://ctrlaltstudioviewer.codeplex.com/
Until those are available you can get a first glimpse of what it might look like by using available tools (Oculus Overlay & Freepie with Rift headtracking to mouse).

The key point is that you shouldnt just jump all over the place and look for things to happen, but use it as a tool or 3d engine similar to be using e.g. Unity. Nowadays SL & opensim support many of the same functionality that Unity gives you (mesh import, physics, paths, scripting, lighting...) but this all in a dynamic, i.e. inworld modifyable, multiuser environment.
Sure, this comes with a price: you have to render everything you see in real time, you have to download every texture you run into, and when you compare the environment (that has been created by the users over the last decade) to a brand new prerendered game the graphics are for sure sub par.

But let some good artists design some places specifically keeping the needs of VR in mind and compare the outcome to what might be achieved with other engines.

So, from my point of view Second life and especially opensim have a great potential when used the right way.

Your question was if VR will revive SL... well i surely think it will be great once we have a working viewer and maybe the consumer Rift. Will it be rewarding for Rift users? Sure, at least i like what i see so far. After all you really finally step into all those worlds (dreams?) designed by users.

I only hope the "advertising" that has to be done to make the Rift / SL combination visible outside the VR developer and SL hardcore users community is done at the right time: after(!) there is a working viewer and some worlds created by VR aware designers. If those requirements arent met it might even shy away potential users.

Preparing SL and opensim for the potential users is something that has to be done by us, the developers and owners of Rift development kits!

The new interest in virtual reality has the potential to completely revitalize Second Life, and SL can do a bit for the progress of VR as well... but only if Linden Lab manage to get the Rift to properly work with its viewer.
Because no matter how you look at it, SL still is the best, biggest and most advanced user created virtual world out there.
And although I can enjoy a shooter game now and then, the idea of truly immersing yourself in a virtual world you or someone else build is a lot more interesting.
SL COULD be the ultimate virtual online experience for everyone with a VR headset, pretty much every big new 'game' being developed just for the oculus at the moment and many of the kickstarter projects are about things already possible in SL or easy to create there.
For instance, the virtual cinema where you can watch a movie with friends... we've been doing that for years in SL.

BUT, again, it all depends on Linden Lab being able to keep up and make a good working viewer that works very well with the Oculus.
The potential here is HUGE, but I am not sure if we're close to even reaching the first steps yet.

And yes there is plenty wrong with SL, but much of that is because it is user generated and when you get people with little experience building and scripting stuff, it doesn't always work smoothly or look good.
But the media doesn't help either, to celebrate SL's 10th anniversary, quite a few websites and even tv stations used screenshots and even footage from years ago... without mentioning it was old.
SL today is, or I should say, can be quite stunning.
It all depends on where you go.
And yes, most of SL can't be compared to some of the latest games out there, but for a user created online world, there are some places that look pretty awesome.

One thing that bothers me a little is Linden Labs itself. Do we want a private company with profit in mind to be in control of the "go to" VR multi-user experience? Pros Cons?

If we want VR spaces to have a common way of trans-versing them, for example a road. Who "owns" the road?

"candiedbug" wrote:
Do we want a private company with profit in mind to be in control of the "go to" VR multi-user experience? Pros Cons?

As... say... Opposed to Oculus? A private company with profit in mind?

"vin" wrote:

"candiedbug" wrote:
Do we want a private company with profit in mind to be in control of the "go to" VR multi-user experience? Pros Cons?

As... say... Opposed to Oculus? A private company with profit in mind?

I was talking about content not hardware. There is nothing preventing you from using a different headset, vs a software company controlling the virtual world (in the case of SL it would be Linden Labs)

Example: Lets say the Rift completely revitalizes SL and it, SL that is, becomes a HUGE thing, we are talking Internet-like Huge. Everyone is talking about it, people are buying virtual real estate like there is no tomorrow, Madonna launches a virtual concert attended by 1 million fans, Home Shopping Network starts a virtual goods channel, etc. And then Linden decides, hey I control this space, I'm gonna make "moar money", now SL becomes a pay-per-view thing or the price of "real estate" sky rockets, etc. And no-one can complain because, well, there is nothing else available that is worth it. See what I mean now by having a single company control the VR experience?

We need to have decentralized vr spaces and a common way of moving through them, the question is who will control the "road" between said spaces? Who will own the protocols, who will assign the addresses? Maybe this falls under the post office's turf? :lol:

Second Life will never really be huge.

"vin" wrote:
Second Life will never really be huge.

Well, it doesn't have to be SL, it could something else. But if VR is going to be like the internet, open to everyone, we need to start tackling these issues early.

P.S. I just realized I have derailed my own thread. :lol:

"candiedbug" wrote:
One thing that bothers me a little is Linden Labs itself. Do we want a private company with profit in mind to be in control of the "go to" VR multi-user experience? Pros Cons?

If we want VR spaces to have a common way of trans-versing them, for example a road. Who "owns" the road?

This would be true if they didn't open source their client, leading to the development of other open source clients and a fully-fledged server solution: OpenSim.