I wrote a little while back on my thoughts on how adoption of virtual worlds by a wider population would need some fundamental changes in people’s first experiences of virtual worlds, and easier ways for them to interact and do things in those worlds. I was really interested to read today of some work being done at Standford that seems to be a move towards one of these things. And it all involves trees.
The team at Stanford have produced a piece of software that makes it simple for an average person (like me) to build a 3D tree. Apparently trees are very difficult to build, and there are very few people in the world who can do it. Given that the most complex thing I have built in Second Life is a transparent box, and that took me 45 minutes, then I can well believe this.
Vladlen Koltun believes this great difficulty for the average person to create something is holding back the promise of virtual worlds, and I think he has a good point. Whilst worlds such as Second Life currently have a strong population of incredibly talented and creative visitors, the tools for creation feel beyond the reach of many. But the desire to create is not limited to the creative elite, otherwise we would only have haute couture designers and no one sewing things for themselves at homes.
My view is that by giving people easier tools to be able to create their own objects, you engage them more in the environment, and give more purpose to the whole experience. They then need an environment to show off their creations, so tapping into another basic human desire, that of the need for recognition.
I’d love to be able to create my own look in Second Life, in the way I can play with cosmetics in the real world. Of course there will be a difference between what I can create versus an expert, but no different to the level of difference between when I do my make up and the lucky days I’ve had when Lisa Eldridge has done it for me. In real life, my version of the professional make up is not bad. In Second Life I wouldn’t even know where to start. And when I start to read commentary on what’s good or bad in skins then it puts me off even starting.
So, perhaps Stanford can start working on easy to create eyeshadow next!
Tags: Dryad, Lisa Eldridge, No 7, Second Life, Stanford, Virtual Worlds, Vladlen Koltun
January 8, 2008 at 5:07 pm |
Considering the low end ability of the SL building tools (i refer to it as the Lego toolset) and the vast number of tutorials both on the net and on the grid, it is unfortunate that it took you 45 minutes to build a transparent box. Which part was hard, rezzing it or clicking the texture tab and adjusting the transparency? There are bunches of people who do nothing more than stand around to mentor folks like you who have issues in this department. I don’t know who told you that building a tree is tough but they lied. There are at least three ways to do it, not counting the simple act of pulling one of the nice Linden trees out of your library.
If you can follow a simple recipe then you can certainly follow any one of the tutorials that come up in a Google search of “second life tutorials”. You seem to be well spoken so I assume there is a certain amount of native wit. I will say this, when looking for tutorials on creating make-up/tats/skins etc also look at tutorials for Poser and 3D Studio Max. Specifically look up texture tutorials. There is a 3D art community which has been extremely active for some time and has a great deal to contribute to the burgeoning second life education.
January 9, 2008 at 9:18 am |
Mace, it’s a good point, there are plenty of tools available, and I guess I am partly guilty of lack of inclination, not to mention time. However, I would relate this back to the web, where there were always plenty of tutorials on how to build a website, how to do different things with HTML etc. But I don’t think there was the same explosion of adoption of “personal” spaces on the web until the real advent of the blogosphere, and some very easy to use tools, such as WordPress. These are pretty much intuitive, sign up and you’re off and published in a matter of seconds, with no skill necessary. When virtual worlds can move to a plug and play type model of building, then my personal opinion is that there will be wider adoption of virtual worlds, just because people have more things to do when they are there.
In the meantime, I’m off to see if I can do any better with my virtual lego.
January 9, 2008 at 4:26 pm |
We have had a very different web experience then. i recall geocities, aol, vista and a few others that have been bought by larger animals, all offering templated web pages. My first ever web pressence was a geocities page (i still have one, never update it) and that was late in 1994 or early 1995. Even Live Journal (which basically birthed the blogosphere) wasn’t easily customizable until recent years.
I don’t want to sound mean, but if you want plug and play building then you had better switch to the Sims Online. Virtual world building tools are going to get more complex, not less. The lowest end level editing tools allow you to build much more complex geometry than the SL tool kit and eventually the big brains at LL are going to see (if they have not already) that they must start to include certain features in order to make the “world” run more smoothly.
That being said. I can heartily reccomend hanging out at the Ivory Tower. Awesom self paced building tutorials that will walk you through all manner of basic sound techniques. A little laggy sometimes because it is a popular place but that also means there are plenty of people around to ask questions of. I need to spend some time there myself and remember how to make large round floors/structures.
January 9, 2008 at 5:10 pm |
Mace, you’re obviously one of the very talented early adopters of all sorts of technology and I admire you for that. I think what is “mean” is to think that those that follow later into adoption of technologies should be excluded from being able to enrich their own experience, and by helping to make that experience as simple as possible for them.
The adoption of virtual worlds by the slightly less technically minded masses is surely what will help the Linden Labs of the world invest in all kinds of tecnological advancement, through more subscriptions, more money flowing around their virtual worlds. It would just be nice for everyone to “win”, those who have fabulous creative ability to create new applications and builds, and the amateur who just wants to dabble.
This would have seemed to have applied in many technologies, from computing to cameras, that everyone can get to a level of competence even with a very minimal amount of time invested in learning something. Of course, the more time you spend, the richer and more varied your experience of anything. You reap what you sow.
And there will be many who are happy never ever to attempt to build anything, even a transparent box, and find equally rich, but differenct, experiences in an interactive virtual world.
So I think it would be nice to share the virtual worlds playgrounds, rather than having playgrounds for those who build and those that don’t.
I’ve written to the guys at Stanford, as I am interested in how they got to their view on tree building to be difficult. I hope they join in the debate!
Best regards