Avatars in browsers

I'm a curious avatar. However, when I heard of SL Web Viewer, my first thought was 'what for?'. But after actually trying it, I see some possible uses.

Getting to try SL in a browser wasn't as easy as it seems. When I read the beta is open, I went to http://interest.secondlife.com/beta and meh - I wasn't qualified to test it.

Luckily, I am also a very persistent avatar :) I managed to access the web viewer with a little javascript code I found on New World Notes:

javascript:window.popup_shown=false;$('#guide .failure').hide();showSuccessPopup();
(thank you, SignpostMarv Martin!)

It works fast. Really fast. I'm impressed with Gaikai technology. Everything rez in time, the teleports are working properly, you can chat with other avatars - just as if you were logged in a regular viewer. It does have some limitations though: you don't have your inventory, your look is limited to pre-defined avatars, you can only teleport to locations from 'Destination Guide' and your name is simply Guest.








The controls and options you have are limited - generally, the web viewer can be used to explore and chat only. But, the overall experience is fun and you have to keep in mind this is only a beta, so things might change in future. If Linden Lab will continue to pursue the idea, that is. It's interesting though: imagine embedding a location from SL on your website, so that visitors can log in to your events, meet with SL residents at your venue, and maybe register for regular Second Life if they like the experience, since SL sends a 'There's more to explore!' e-mail after each use of SL Web Viewer.





I'm certainly hoping to hear more on the topic of web based SL in future.

Little big dream

My SL dream has just come true. The one I thought I would have to wait years to happen. It is coming true as I write this sentence. I'm talking about realtime full body motion capture in Second Life. Just think about it, oh, the new horizons! Communicating with people the natural way, actually dancing in clubs, using body movement to do basically anything in SL.

You know, I was always hoping we - the people of XXI century - would strive towards more movement in front of our computers, since they are taking a huge part in nowadays life. It really makes me happy to know about this initiative. Let me show you the movie (found via Hamlet's site):



Impressive, no? Anton Bogdanovych, your work is absolutely fantastic in so many ways! I hope this project gets more attention, and by the time the software is ready to use, there will be a few companies ready to provide cheaper equipment for consumer market / personal use. This is going to be big!

UI redesign

Every now and then the SL blogosphere creates a lot of buzz and interest around the topic of Second Life client UI redesign. I must say whenever the topic is mentioned I'm getting worried. Almost each time a change to the UI was introduced, it was for the worse (note I didn't say 'always').

I really wish Linden Lab stopped thinking about UI redesign and didn't listen to people who complain. I don't want an oversimplified UI design - it would be much more difficult to use because you'd have to SEARCH for every option, while now you just have them in the menu. Can you imagine Photoshop with four huge icons? And using those icons to find the options you need? I really don't want that to happen to Second Life viewer.

Right now people don't know what some of the options are for but they can test them once they become comfortable with the idea. If you hide the options, they won't even know they're available. Moreover, when they would want to find a certain option, they'd probably search the Internet and it would only make things more confusing ("What Advanced menu? I don't have it...").

People take part in UI redesign contests, blog their ideas and post pictures of proposed viewer appearances - and while some of their ideas are interesting, in most cases what I saw is quite scary. Huge icons filling half of the screen, CAPITALIZED menus, chaotic build menus, Advanced menu gone (I use it daily!), camera controls float which takes up 1/4 of the screen... OR there are also overly textified versions where half of the screen is filled with text. And I mean the little (like little little) text plus miniature icons, each one looking like a dot, or a blob in some cases. I saw weird and unnecessary tabs like Worn which is supposed to show what you are wearing (like I can't type 'worn' in the inventory search). I saw mini map changed into a radar thingie... Whyyy? Why would I want that? I want to see objects on mini map like I do now, with directions NW, N etc. It's a map, not a radar... please. I've also read some people want to remove the Notes from avatar's profiles. I use them frequently! I even use my own profile notes. I don't think they should be removed, actually I think they could be improved a bit (more space for notes, built-in search etc.). So with all those proposed changes I see more clicking, more searching, more time needed to learn! And less functionality, unfortunately.

I want the UI to take minimum screen space (but to be clear and legible at the same time) to have as much of the screen as possible for other uses. The current two bars on top and bottom are just perfect. Actually, the current SL interface is a lovely mix between functionality, usability, intuitive design and the calm blue color. Some minor changes could be made (more on that later) but a redesign is not needed.



The problem with SL interface is not really the interface itself. It's the people who use it. They don't look carefully, they don't follow the tutorials. If only people were willing to learn and to read with understanding, there would be no need to think about redesigning the UI. I don't want to grumble, I know these people are SL users too and it's important for designers to think about them. But it's important not to fall into extreme thinking as well. I know it's easy to criticise and you could say "make your own UI then"... but hey, didn't I say I don't want the interface redesign? Besides, residents are not usability experts, so I think they should have the ability to make their own skins (not only the colours but also the layout - like Winamp skins for example), but not influence the default look of the viewer.

I think it would be a good idea to make a newbie/light viewer for those less comfortable with advanced menus. I've also read somewhere about an idea of switching between three levels of interface, from an easy one, to a more sophisticated one. If you can make the third level look like the interface now, that solution is fine with me.

I also would like to say that good UI design is not all about the looks. The look IS important, but it's not the only thing the interface design is about. I don't really mind that the current SL buttons are not shiny (and I really like the way they look now). The menu is extremely intuitive (4 hours! come on! try to learn any other complex application in 4 hours) and that is what counts. Actually, shiny would be distracting (like the eye-dazzling Dazzle - it does have pretty buttons, but they are totally out-of-place in the viewer). What also counts is the efficiency - once familiarised with the menu, how fast we can do stuff. The viewer gets a pretty good score in this test, I think.

It seems that most UI redesign discussions focus on wrong issues as to what SL UI needs. When people state their needs, it's not required to do exactly what they say. What's needed is the answer to their requests, but not necessarily the way they imagined it. Jakob Nielsen (usability guru, very often quoted on my uni lectures) says you should pay attention to what people do, not what they say. How true is that? He actually wrote 10 usability heuristics and my favourite is the one that says you should let people choose instead of making them remember. I'm not saying everything should be visible (so it's OK to hide the Advanced menu for example). But don't hide the options that are needed just because they make menus a bit more complex.

Finally, I want to list the positive suggested changes - the ones I actually liked:

• ability to copy, cut and paste in the inventory (Ctrl+C/Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V)
• ability to relog without the need to close the viewer
• ability to hide the "Release Keys" button
• a drop down list of recently visited places (like a history of visited websites in a web browser)
• a third tab in the inventory, called Favourites, listing items you marked as favourites (for items you use frequently)
• ability to group people on the friends list into your own tabs
• ability to set the range of the mini map (to more than one sim for example)

What I would also like to see introduced:

• ability to find doubling items in the inventory (could be done by UUID)
• ability to browse objects in the inventory by creator
  
• ability to decide where to place the item you are given by another avatar (so that they don't go to the default folders but where you actually want them to go)
• a Windlight preferred setting option in the Environment Settings menu - without the need to click your way through the Environment Editor OR/AND the ability to make your SL start with your preferred Windlight settings
• a link provided with every error message that takes the user to the appropriate knowledge base article
• undo inventory move - how many times have I accidentaly moved one folder into another and kept searching which one that was and where I've put it
• marking recent items so that they don't show up anymore in Recent Items tab (sometimes there's too many recent items, and you might want to remove some this way)
• ability to decide whether the viewer should auto-hide the Tools menu (according to JIRA, the menu won't be hiding anymore in 1.21, which would be just perfect)
• ability to set IM autoresponder
• ability to switch between different built-in follow cams
• ability to add people to existing text and voice conferences (currently when someone crashes you need to re-start the conference for everyone)

Anyone has anything to add to the list? :)

Scripting made easy

Today I've got something that will probably be of interest for all the creative minds out there, that can create amazing objects, but have a bit of trouble understanding LSL or simply have never tried it and don't know where to start. Autoscript is a script generator for Second Life created by Hilary Mason (Ann Enigma in SL) from Johnson and Wales University. You choose what you want your object to do and when it should happen. The generator will then create the script for you and tell you if there are more actions you need to take to make the script work (for example put your notecard into the object's contents). This way you can add some interactivity to your creations and learn the basics of scripting in LSL at the same time. Very easy, very intuitive and surely a great help for scripting newbies :) If you like the tool, don't forget to tell the author and maybe leave a suggestion for a new feature on her blog.

Virtually speaking

I've been looking into machinima making recently and I think one of the biggest SL limitations in this field is lack of avatar lips movement while speaking. So far I knew about CrazyTalk (as of programs improving this disadvantage), but just recently I came across this movie:



Does anyone know what program was used to create lips movement in this movie? It seems like the best choice at the moment.

I've been wondering about various alternatives for external programs too, and what I came up with is an idea of a typing overrider (or maybe just some kind of device), that would use built-in avatar face expressions to simulate speaking. This means no lip-sync, just lips movement, but it also means it would be widely available for other SL users, be inexpensive and would make the post-editing less time consuming (most likely). While simple lips movement might not be good enough for some people, I think it would still be more natural than no movement at all. I actually saw a movie that seems to use this technique and it looks pretty good (the movie itself is a pilot of a new promising Second Life TV show "NooB"):



I'm going to play a bit with the idea and see what I can achieve (seems like an interesting challenge). In the meanwhile, feel free to give any comments and suggestions.

Plopp goes the sculptie

I came across a fun little program (free!) for those of you who want to make simple sculpties without learning Blender or any other 3D software. I'm talking about PloppSL. Creating sculpties was never so easy before.

Basically you have a canvas, where you draw your object (in 2D, just like you did as a kid). Then you flip it, and paint the other side (or just use the same picture for both sides). And then you "inflate" it. Sounds weird, so I'm actually going to make a sculptie and show you what I'm talking about.

Let's say we want to create a sculptie heart. This is what we would draw:



I actually didn't draw it in the program itself. With Plopp you can import pictures (draw them in Photoshop for example) and that's what I did. The program then "inflates" the picture into 3D:



Now you can save the sculptie shape and the texture and upload those into Second Life. The shape you get is not perfect, but these sculpties are great to use as seasonal decorations (hearts, pumpkins, Christmas stars). Here I made Mary Poppins style ballon flight helper:



Just think outside the box and I'm sure you'll find creative uses for these.

The good news is, according to the website, that the program will be developed in the near future, and this includes better conversion to sculpties, adding sculptie preview and support for sculpties with holes. Neat!