Author Archives: bat

Artemis II Crew Announcement

Posted on April 3, 2023 by bat

Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid), Commander Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover), Pilot Christina Koch (@Astro_Christina), Mission specialist Jeremy Hanson (@Astro_Jeremy), Mission specialist On 3rd April 2023 NASA announced that former US Navy fighter pilots Reid Wiseman & Victor Glover, veteran astronaut Christina Koch, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged , | Comments Off on Artemis II Crew Announcement

ChatGPT and DALL·E

Posted on March 29, 2023 by bat

I decided that the tide cannot be held back and I better get an OpenAI AppID to test out some features of ChatGPT (a.k.a. “Chat”), DALL·E and an image manipulation Blender addon such as BlenderGPT. Here is a conversation with … Continue reading →

Posted in AI | Tagged , | Comments Off on ChatGPT and DALL·E

For the Love of Fashion

Posted on March 29, 2023 by bat

This event is part of a year-long celebration marking sixty years of research into computer science and AI at the University of Edinburgh. Starting in 1963 with a small group of machine intelligence pioneers, and computer science innovators, the University … Continue reading →

Posted in Virtual World | Tagged , | Comments Off on For the Love of Fashion

Metaverse Fashion Week 2023

Posted on March 28, 2023 by bat

Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 (#MVFW23) took place in a variety of virtual worlds and platforms including Spatial (https://spatial.io) in a space ghosted by Luis Fern and Metamundo which can be visited with Ready Player Me (https://readyplayer.me) avatars. This follows the … Continue reading →

Posted in Virtual World | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Metaverse Fashion Week 2023

Ruth2 v4 Rigging

Posted on March 25, 2023 by bat

Sean Heavy has documented a process to add an armature/rig to the Ruth2v4 open source mesh avatar and to export components of the avatar for Second Life and OpenSim using the Onigiri Blender add-on. These notes are to provide some … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenSim, Second Life | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Ruth2 v4 Rigging

Virtual World Best Practice in Education 2023

Posted on March 23, 2023 by bat

The 16th Virtual World Best Practice in Education 2023 online conference titled “Uncommon Realities” took place in Second Life on 23rd March to 25th March 2023. The event organised by https://www.vwbpe.org/ focuses on the use of immersive virtual environments for … Continue reading →

Posted in Distance Education, Virtual World | Tagged | Comments Off on Virtual World Best Practice in Education 2023

Ready Player Me Avatars in Second Life and OpenSim (Onigiri)

Posted on March 21, 2023 by bat

Update August 2023: A big advantage of new PBR Viewers is that the Ready Player Me .gltf file can be used to load all the PBR materials, their properties and constituent textures in one bulk upload. Use Build -> Upload … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenSim, Second Life | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Blender Nodes – Resources

Posted on March 18, 2023 by bat

This blog post provides links and resources related to the use of “Nodes” and their “Noodle” links to create workflows in Blender, especially for creating PBR Materials with Albedo images, Metallic, Roughness and Height Maps/Normals. Learn the BASICS of Material … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Blender Nodes – Resources

Cuteulula Artis Roller Coasters

Posted on March 13, 2023 by bat

I have posted before about Cuteulala Artis’s roller coaster builds in OpenSim, her free to use (in OpenSim only) Optera coaster, and her CuteulalaPark region on OSGrid. hop://hg.osgrid.org:80/CuteulalaPark/304/475/22 Via her MeWe posts, Cuteulala recently made available on OAR similar to … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenSim | Tagged , | Comments Off on Cuteulula Artis Roller Coasters

Godot Engine – Resources

Posted on March 8, 2023 by bat

This blog post is to provide resources and links related to the MIT Licenced open source Godot Game Engine. https://godotengine.org/ https://docs.godotengine.org/ As an initial test I imported a glTF 2.0 mesh file created from my Blender version of Supercar 2023. … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Games | Tagged , | Comments Off on Godot Engine – Resources

CuteCircuit – Digital Fashion by Francesca Rosella

Posted on March 6, 2023 by bat

Francesca Rosella co-founded CuteCircuit with Ryan Genz in 2004. It is the world’s first wearable technology fashion brand. Francesca has been active in this space since 2001 and works in a mix of virtual, digital and physical fashion. This blog … Continue reading →

Posted in Media, Virtual World | Tagged | Comments Off on CuteCircuit – Digital Fashion by Francesca Rosella

AI@Edinburgh Achievements and History

Posted on March 5, 2023 by bat

In response to a colleague’s request for pointers to early AI achievements in Edinburgh I provided a few links and resources that may be useful. This blog posts lists some of them… We carefully preserved an archive of project materials … Continue reading →

Posted in AI | Tagged , , | Comments Off on AI@Edinburgh Achievements and History

Second Life PBR Materials Tests

Posted on March 3, 2023 by bat

A development of Second Life is introducing Physical Based Rendering (PBR) materials based on the glTF specification. Some links and resources are in my earlier blog post. Test Materials with Metallics, Lights and Emission Ready Player Me Avatar with All … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Tagged , | Comments Off on Second Life PBR Materials Tests

Inworld Review with Ai Austin and Humbletim

Posted on February 26, 2023 by bat

Talk from and about virtual worlds & immersive spaces. With Mal Burns, Thirza Ember & James Atlloud. Produced by Metaworld Broadcasting. The 26th February 2023 edition had guests Ai Austin and Humbletim. The intended discussion topic was Virtual World Viewers, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Inworld Review with Ai Austin and Humbletim

FairShare – Resources

Posted on February 17, 2023 by bat

This blog post provides links and resources related to “FairShare” an experimental idea originated by Philip Rosedale (pioneer of Second Life and its digital currency – the Linden Dollar) to look at digital currencies in and between small cooperative groups. … Continue reading →

Posted in Virtual World | Tagged | Comments Off on FairShare – Resources

Supercar in Spatial

Posted on February 14, 2023 by bat

Visit Supercar in Spatial Here Using the Spatial Creator Toolkit for Unity (see this blog post for resources) I have imported the Blender/FBX version of our Gerry Anderson’s Supercar model into a scene which can be visited by multiple simultaneous … Continue reading →

Posted in Gerry Anderson, Supercar, Virtual World | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Supercar in Spatial

Second Life PBR – Resources

Posted on February 9, 2023 by bat

Update 28-Nov-2023 – The Linden Lab PBR Viewer is now the default viewer for Second Life [Official Launch Post]. Firestorm also has an Alpha PBR Test viewer available through the inworld “Phoenix-Firestorm Preview Group”. Example PBR Materials (Chrome and Brass) … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Second Life – Les Salines – February 2023

Posted on February 8, 2023 by bat

Once again, I was inspired by one of Inara Pey’s excellent Second Life destination reviews to visit another nice build in Second Life, this time of a late Nineteenth Century western town in the “Nowhere” region of the Mohave Desert. … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Tagged | Comments Off on Second Life – Les Salines – February 2023

Roblox – 2023 NFL Concert

Posted on February 8, 2023 by bat

After checking out Roblox in July 2022, I returned to look at the “Rhythm City” experience created by Warner Music to accompany the 2023 NFL incorporating a motion captured virtual concert by Saweetie. More details here. Oh Dear! – Aspirational … Continue reading →

Posted in Virtual World | Tagged , | Comments Off on Roblox – 2023 NFL Concert

Second Life Mole Day 2023

Posted on February 5, 2023 by bat

I joined the “Mole Day” celebration on 5th February 2023 to thank the Moles for all they do on behalf of Second Life residents. The Moles are the builders and maintainers of the shared spaces in Second Life, and provide … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Comments Off on Second Life Mole Day 2023

Firestorm VR Mod 6.6.8

Posted on January 31, 2023 by bat

Up to Firestorm 6.6.8 if you see errors like “missing vcruntime.dll”, “missing msvcp.dll” or the application is not starting at all, then please download and install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio (link for 64-bit operating systems). This issue will … Continue reading →

Posted in OpenSim, Second Life, Virtual World, VR | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Second Life – Fantasy Cove

Posted on January 31, 2023 by bat

Fantasy Cove is a Second Life region moody build by digitalbleh. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fantasy%20Cove/49/151/1001 Second Life Destinations – Fantasy Cove Flickr Photos

Posted in Second Life | Tagged | Comments Off on Second Life – Fantasy Cove

Second Life – Crystal Coast – Scuba Diving

Posted on January 31, 2023 by bat

I was prompted by a tweet by @nanami_Fray to explore a scuba diving location in Second Life at https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Crystal%20Coast/189/68/37″>Crystal Coast. Video and Image from @nanami_Fray https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Crystal%20Coast/189/68/37 Video by @nanami_Fray Scuba Dive Equipment: @nanami_Fray wears “Steelhead Sport Scuba V1.8 Click to … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Second Life – Crystal Coast – Scuba Diving

Second Life – The Magical Kingdom

Posted on January 30, 2023 by bat

The Magical Kingdom is a region in Second Life built by The Muggles group involving Dain Voxel and Suzie Anderton. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/THE%20MAGICAL%20KINGDOM/ Second Life Destination Guide – The Magical Kingdom Second Life – The Magical Kingdom Flickr Group December 2022 version … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Tagged , | Comments Off on Second Life – The Magical Kingdom

Master Models – Resources

Posted on January 28, 2023 by bat

I was prompted to make this blog post by Simon Atkinson’s own blog post detailing the history of Master Models and Space Models (see this 2023 blog post). Here are some of the links related to Master Models and Space … Continue reading →

Posted in Gerry Anderson | Tagged | Comments Off on Master Models – Resources

World Economic Forum 2023 – Building the Metaverse

Posted on January 18, 2023 by bat

Panel on “A New Reality: Building the Metaverse” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 18th January 2023. Speakers: Nicholas Thompson (Chair, The Atlantic), Chris Cox (Meta Platforms), Enrique Lores (HP), Paula Ingabire (Minister ICT, Rwanda) , Neal Stephenson (Author … Continue reading →

Posted in Metaverse | Tagged , | Comments Off on World Economic Forum 2023 – Building the Metaverse

Wireshark – Resources

Posted on January 14, 2023 by bat

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer. I have found it useful for debugging UDP packet exchange issues between OpenSimulator and the Firestorm Virtual World Viewer. This blog posts provides links and resources in case its useful in future or for … Continue reading →

Posted in Internet | Tagged | Comments Off on Wireshark – Resources

World of Warcraft – Aithun the Dwarf – A Decade On

Posted on January 10, 2023 by bat

Its been quite some time (2014) since I checked on how Aithun the Dwarf and his companion bear, Morro, were getting on in World of Warcraft. Nearly 9 years! But Aithun and his companion are still staying at their Hearthstone … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, World of Warcraft | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Virgin Orbit – Start Me Up

Posted on January 9, 2023 by bat

Virgin Orbit’s “Start Me Up” Mission was an attempt at the first launch of an orbital vehicle from a UK spaceport. Unfortunately the Launcher One rocket’s second stage failed to reach the proper orbit. LiveStream and Replay

Posted in Space | Tagged | Comments Off on Virgin Orbit – Start Me Up

Cloud Edge in Second Life

Posted on January 6, 2023 by bat

Cloud Edge on the Echo Mountain region in Second Life is a wonderful atmospheric walk in the mountains above the cloud. It is created by Funky Banana. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Echo%20Mountain/144/207/75 Blog Post by Inara Pey 5-Jan-2023 Blog Post by Caitlin Tobias 5-Jan-2023 … Continue reading →

Posted in Second Life | Tagged | Comments Off on Cloud Edge in Second Life