Hello, and welcome back to the weekly update!
This one is pretty packed! Because of community feedback and reports, we’ll be prioritizing user blocking functionality soon and we want to hear your thoughts and concerns about what form it should take.
We’re also starting to implement the facet system, with the majority of the system designed. Please join us on GitHub to discuss this as well and help us shape the most important piece of Radiant UI!
Also Creator Jam is celebrating its one year anniversary next week! In celebration of 52 weeks of collaborative creative goodness, we’ll be livestreaming the whole event, so don’t miss it! Details and time below.
[h2]Creator Jam 53 – Jammaversary[/h2]
Come join us as we celebrate Creator Jam's 1 year birthday...a Jammaversary!!! We will tour the best of worlds and share the lovely creations you all have made within a year's time.
When: Sunday May 31st
Starts 7:00AM EST(UTC 11:00) and will continue for 15 hours!
to accommodate everyone around the globe
Everyone is welcome.
See you there!
Every day of that week there will be an event.
Complete schedule will be posted soon on Twitter and Discord.
[h2]We need your feedback on self moderation tools[/h2]
After long discussions with the team and the community, it is time to start talking about self moderation tools. We've been getting a steady influx of new users and with the community growing, there are unfortunately personal conflicts.
We've been getting an increasing amount of user reports and requests for this kind of functionality, as well as reports of people avoiding Neos due to lack of this functionality (which didn't seem too necessary until now).
It is our philosophy to use global banning only as the absolute last resort (e.g. in cases of illegal activity or severe attacks) to avoid cutting people from their social platform or workspace and instead providing you with the functionality to help you manage your own experience better.
Because of that, we’ll be prioritizing some self moderation features, particularly user blocking and vote to mute, spectator, kick or ban another user. Before we do that however, we want to discuss this with everyone in the community.
We’re always listening to your feedback and thoughts and the best place for this kind of discussion is
our official GitHub, so please join us!
[h3]User Blocking[/h3]
The ability to block has been a long-requested feature and we’ve been putting a lot of thought into how this feature would be implemented. We’re making sure the way it’s implemented will be healthy in the long-term for the community.
We’ve already gotten lots of great feedback and ideas over at GitHub, but we want to make sure that more people see this, as this is something that affects the community on a personal level.
You can
read more about our plans for this and join the discussion here at GitHub.[h3]Vote to Mute/Spectator/Kick/Ban[/h3]
Another common request was ability to vote kick users, particularly for sessions where the host is away and unable to moderate.
We’d like to add this feature in a more expanded way, where you can vote to mute, set to spectator, kick or ban the user, in order to give a more fine grained control to help de-escalate the situations and avoid abuse.
The system would be optional as well (although likely on by default), so it will be the choice of the host which of the vote abilities are allowed (if any) in their sessions or if the functionality is available only if they’re away.
Same as with the previous issue,
there are more details on the GitHub issue and we’d love to hear what you think about this feature as well.
[h3]Need any other moderation features? Please let us know![/h3]
We want everyone’s Neos experience to be as comfortable as possible, so please let us know about any problems you’re experiencing with other users or any concerns you have. You can always talk to Veer, our chief of moderation, about any issues or reach out to other members with the moderation badge.
We take your problems seriously, even if we avoid taking immediate action against the member. As an official team we only want to step in when it's absolutely necessary (and when we have evidence to take action) and instead opt in to give you better tools to help manage your own experience.
Even in cases where we won’t be able to take action against the user, we still get valuable feedback on what kind of problems you’re dealing with and that allows us to prioritize features and solutions that will give you more power to deal with them.
Alternatively if you have an idea for a particular feature that could help and that’s currently missing in Neos, feel free to make an issue on GitHub for it as well!
[h2]Details and discussion on the Facet system[/h2]
The first pieces of the Facet system are already being implemented, while the design of the overall system is being finalized. Facets, Containers and Workspaces will be the bread and butter of the new UI system, which is why we want to hear your thoughts on it as well!
In short, facets are small or big pieces of UI that serve any function, from an FPS counter to scene inspector. Facets live in containers (grids, split layouts, tabs…) and can be freely moved between them.
The new dash will be a primary container for many facets, but you’ll be able to place them on your hands, in your playspace or in your viewpoint as well.
Each layout or loadout of facets is considered a “workspace”. Workspaces can be switched on the fly, allowing you to create different loadouts for immersion, social hangout, building, streaming or any other purpose.
If you’d like to know more,
we’ve written a more in-depth description over at GitHub. Any ideas, suggestions, concerns and other feedback are welcome! You’ve helped us shape and polish other pieces of the radiant UI, like the context menu, gripping system and the new lasers, so we want to start the discussion for the most major parts early on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYDqVwNXS4c
[h2]HTC Vive Lip Tracking Showcase[/h2]
We’ve released another official Neos video! Now that our video editor Theofilus The Folf is back, we’ll be making more videos to show off what Neos can do. A few months back we’ve integrated the HTC Vive lip tracker (currently a dev-kit/prototype), but we haven’t shown what it can do with variety of avatars until now:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Friday Q&A livestream from the Neos News Studio[/h2]
This friday we’ve gotten lots of interesting questions on our regular weekly stream! We’ve discussed a lot about the future development of Neos, including large scale worlds, scripting languages, servers and more.
If you missed the stream, you can watch it below. It even includes a quick weather report from Aegis_Wolf! ;) And as usual, if you have any questions, feel free to join our next stream, we’re on every Friday at 3PM PST!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Beginner crash course - Equippable & Snappable Items and Dynamic Bones[/h2]
Based on popular demand, the theme of this Wednesday’s beginner crash course live stream were equippable and snappable items as well as dynamic bones! If you missed the stream, but still want to learn how to create items to customize your avatar, you can watch the recording here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you want to learn more about Neos, you can catch the stream every other wednesday on Twitch. Let us know what you’d like to learn about next!
Creator Jam one year anniversary next week!
This week, we’ve given the spotlight entirely to Medra’s Creator Jam, as we’re approaching the 1 year creator jam Jammiversary, celebrating a whole year of collective, collaborative creativity!
The creator jam has become one of the staple events of Neos, giving birth of the coolest creators on the platform and organizing it consistently for an entire year is an amazing achievement in itself!
As part of the celebration we’ll be live streaming the whole event next week, so set it in your calendars if you won’t want to miss it. Details below!
Medra and his Creator Jammers have also recently had their 50th Creator Jam, their Spring Megajam!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you want to learn more about the Creator Jam and what was achieved, Medra has written up more information for you:
[h2]Creator Jam[/h2]
[h3]Background[/h3]
It didn’t take too long being inside Neos to notice a unique culture and a unique time in history. I saw that the community was positive but scattered. This fledgling metaverse needed a bedrock event that would embody the ethos of Neos. A way to build community even if someone could only be available one day a week, be a veteran user, or a newbie.
And I imagined a future Neos that had thousands of users. They would go to all sorts of events and activities, play games, socialize, and more—a digital translation of the meatspace but with more possibility. The original population of eccentrics who all knew each other, helped each other, shared ideas, and created together would be lost to a flood of those that consumed. The creators would be scattered and fragmented. I wanted to create a place that would retain that original Neos spirit.
That is Creator Jam.
[h3]About[/h3]
I’ve created, hosted, and maintained an open collaborative worldbuilding event. Since June 2nd, 2019 for Creator Jam has been running every Sunday for 51 weeks straight. It is the longest running and only continuous weekly event in NeosVR. Creator Jam has used the headless client from its first release and has been an excellent stress test for Neos’ capabilities.
Creator Jam Discord formed June 2019 to allow users to be able to plan for future events and share.
Creator Jam Trailer is a professional quality trailer showing off both Neos and Creator Jam.
Twitch Stream runs live every Sunday during the Creator Jam. This will eventually be archived on Youtube.
[h3]Statistics[/h3]
Like Neos, Creator Jam has grown quite a bit. Some interesting statistics and notable facts are:
Creator Jams events last 7-10 hours
I work 10-30 hours a week on Creator Jams(including the event itself). This equates to a minimum of 510 total hours dedicated to Creator Jams.
1000’s of assets have been personally searched, downloaded, and imported: shareable and free for commercial usage
700+ assets including models, sound effects, gadgets, etc are available immediately in a Creator Jam Public shareable inventory folder. Many more can be acquired by visiting inside Creator Jam worlds.
Almost all assets in Creator Jam are public domain, attribution license, and free for commercial usage.
Most participation, help, and assets in Creator Jams have been credited.
Records of attendance have been kept for almost all Creator Jams.
Over 380+ different visitors have attended total
Maximum total attendance in a single Creator Jam: 55 people (Creator Jam 51 – Comic Books)
Maximum total participation in a single Creator Jam: 22 people (Creator Jam 35 – Prop Hunt Game)
Total attendance per CJ has increased and is usually around 35-45 people
[h3]Events[/h3]
Halloween Party – Party world built by Turk to celebrate Halloween and Megajam.
Winter Holiday Party – Party world built by Turk to celebrate the Winter Holidays and Megajam, which included users of the newly migrated Japanese community. Communication was aided using a translation tool created by Anomalous.
[h3]Game[/h3]
Magician’s Mistake – A Medieval Prop Hunt game – Created first heavily used game in Neos. A remix of the Creator Jam 35. Original creation was a combined effort of 22 people over the course of 3 days. ProbablePrime made considerable improvements to the original.
[h3]Notable Worlds[/h3]
Haunted House – The first haunted house in Neos.
Airships and Floating Islands – Airship world with usable flying ships that can move from island to island.
Avatars – A world that also contains a snappable body part avatar: Potato Bot. Anomalous and ProbablePrime contributed to the design of the Potato Bot.
Neos Asteroids – Created VR version of Asteroids in Neos.
Wild West – Created a multifaceted Wild West environment.
[h3]Notable Items [/h3]
Items were created for Creator Jams. This is a select list of the most known/used items within the community. Only a fraction of the interesting things created during CJ’s are listed here:
Floating Airship – Built entirely in Neos by Anomalous.
World Cleaning Robot – Robot to clean and organize root created by Anomalous.
VCR, VHS tapes, and shelves – Youtube tutorials listed on the Neoswiki were converted to VHS tapes that can be played inside a VCR. A Youtube url to VHS creator was also made. Created by Anomalous and Sirkitree.
Sled – Usable sled created by Jiggyjosh and Coffee.
Spray Can – Spray can created by LucasRo7 and Phox. Later modified by an unknown person who added a silly string shooting feature.
CBTK(Color Blindness Toolkit) – Accessibility tool created by A Monsoon of Babies to help with visualization of color blind states. Useful for making more user friendly interfaces and worlds.
[h2]What’s Next?[/h2]
Thank you all for reading this week’s Weekly Update. We hope you continue to have a fun and safe time and remember: social distancing is important in real life, but you can stand as close as you want to one another in VR!
We’re looking forward to hearing from you on the moderation tools, facets and any other things regarding development of Neos. We’ll be implementing more of the facet system over next week as well as the blocking functionality.
And a special thanks to Medra for giving us the lowdown on his awesome Creator Jam events! You guys have made so many cool maps and items, and Neos wouldn’t be the same without you!
As usual, if you have any questions, ideas or concerns, you can reach us at our official Discord, GitHub or our regular Twitch livestream.
Have a good week everyone!
