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RMB City Key Metrics II

 

 

Step 2.

Then we compare this 4 Sims in Sep 28th 2008,with some basic statistics.

Page_01, 02 

We can found that the 4 Sims have similar speed with SecondLife. However, as the content varied, the Sims had different data, according to issues like active objects, active scripts, packets In and Packets out. Apparently, the RMB 1 (Sim 1) had more objects, while RMB 4 (Sim 4) used many scripts than others.

 

Page_03

And the Sim map seens the same, comparing the snapshot between Aug 8th and Sep 28th

Page_04 

Besides, the 8 perspective views(North, South, East, West, Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast) of RMB City 4 Sims had dramatic changes due to the snapshot of Aug 22nd and Sep 28th

 

Blog — Sinohkapa Fhang, September 29, 2008 @ 12:08 am

RMB City Key Metrics I

RMB City Key Metrics dating from August 1st to Oct 1st,, mainly used the data of statistic bar (ctrl+shift+1) in Second Life. For RMB City ground breaking was in 14th July, Preview Center opening was in 25th July, we can not record the change of them. However, the Olympic opening and Worksite opening were involved. 

 

Step 1.
In this article, we took RMB City 1(Sim 1) as a sample to see the process in RMB City construction.
Page_01   

Page_01: Displayed BASIC information about the Second Life performance

01) FPS: A frame rate between 15-30 frames per second (FPS) is about as smooth as broadcast television. Luckily, the sample statistics of RMB City were frequently over 20fps, and always stay around 30-40fps.

02) Bandwidth:  How much data is being transferred between your computer and the Second Life world. This number varied a lot in RMB City 1, varying between 14kpbs to 289kpbs.

03) Ping Sim:  How long it takes data to go from your computer to the region you’re currently in. Even though there were waves within 2 months, the data mostly kept around230msec-290msec.

Page_02

Page_02: Displayed ADVANCED information of nitty-gritty details about your Second Life performance. Most of these details are less useful than BASIC or SIMULATOR.

01) KTris Drawn: (per frame) Computer-generated 3D objects are built out of triangles (the basic geometric shape). This is a count of the number of triangles, or “tris”, in each frame of the current scene.

02) KTris Drawn: (per second) This is a count of the number of triangles (“tris”) drawn every second.

03) Total Objects: The number of objects currently in view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page_04 

01) Page_04: The following are the different times listed in the SIMULATOR/Time (ms) submenu of the statistics pane:

02) Total Frame Time: This measures how much time it takes the region to run everything that the region is trying to do each frame. RMB City was healthy, lower than 22, everything was running as fast as it can, and more scripts can be added without reducing the performance of individual scripts.

03) Net Time: The amount of time spent responding to incoming network data.

04) Sim Time (Physics): The amount of time that frame spent running physics simulation.

05) Sim Time (Other): The amount of time that frame spent running other simulation (agent movement, weather simulation, etc.)

06) Agent Time: The amount of time spent updating and transmitting object data to the agents.

07) Images Time: The amount of time spent updating and transmitting image data to the agents.

08) Script Time: The amount of time spent running scripts.

Page_03 

Page_03: Displays statistics for the SIMULATOR you’re currently in.

01) Time Dilation: The physics simulation rate relative to real-time. 1.0 means that the region is running at full speed, 0.5 means that physics is running at half-speed.

02) Sim FPS: The region frame rate. This should always be the same as the physics frame rate – 45.0 when things are running well. RMB City 1 was always in 45fps.

03) Physics FPS: The frame rate that the physics engine is running at. This should normally be at or near 45.0.

04) Agent Updates/Sec: The rate at which agents on this region are being updated. Normally 20 updates a second, this will decrease if the region has a large number of agents on it.

05) Main Agents: The number of agents (users, avatars) who are on this region.

06) Child Agents: The number of agents who are not on this region, but can see it.

07) Objects: The total number of objects/primitives on the region

08) Active Objects: The number of moving and/or changing objects on the region.

09) Active Scripts: The number of running scripts that are currently on the region, including scripts attached to agents.

10) Script Perf: Number of LSL opcodes being executed a second by the region. Note that this is the number of ACTUAL instructions executed in the last second, not the theoretical maximum opcodes/second. If your region is not running very many scripts, this number will be low even if performance is good.

11) Packets In: UDP packets being received by the region

12) Packets Out: UDP packets being sent by the region

 

 

 

Blog — Sinohkapa Fhang, September 28, 2008 @ 9:58 pm

RMB City Survey

RMB CITY IS ASKING YOU TWO QUESTIONS. 

We will appreciate if you can write down your commets,reply on RMB City worksite,or write here directly .

 

1. What would you like to experience in Second Life?

2. What do you think are the possiblities of RMB City?

 

Blog — Tags: — Sinohkapa Fhang, September 25, 2008 @ 12:36 am

The Making Of Hu Fang

Blog — Tags: — Ume Freiman, September 23, 2008 @ 2:42 am

“But Second Life is not a game…”

The American online magazine The Fanzine has an interesting new article on the controversial topic of addiction to online worlds. It’s entitled “Five Hundred Eighty-Six Days, Fourteen Hours, Forty-Six Minutes, Eleven Seconds”, the precise amount of time the writer, Michael Louie, spent playing Final Fantasy XI, and the ensuing narrative chronicles his own complex relationship with the game, as well as the larger context of this phenomenon. Of course, Second Life is “not a game”, as anyone involved will hasten to tell you, but it shares many obvious similarities with some of these other point-based environments. Perhaps most intriguing about Louie’s article is the spectrum of emotional engagement with the game he explores — from those driven by depression to bury themselves in the game, to a mother who uses it to stay close to her overseas daughter and son-in-law (stationed in Iraq). It’s clear that as virtual worlds continue to develop, so will the variety of positive and negative ways people find to interact with them… after all, why would it be any different from the real world?

Blog — Tags: — Miniature Tigerpaw, September 19, 2008 @ 11:35 pm

RMB City at SLCC

RMB City’s engineering team Avatrian was a sponsor of the SLCC (Second Life Community Convention) in Tampa, Florida, 5-7 September 2008, one of the key gathering-points of the greater Second Life community. There they displayed the first poster promoting RMB City’s grand opening in Fall 2008. Read more about the event at Avatrian’s blog.

Blog — Miniature Tigerpaw, @ 10:47 pm

The Laws of Synthetic worlds

 

 

 
“Man is made of God’s plaything, and that is the best part of him. Therefore every man and woman should live life accordingly, and play the noblest games….Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrefices, singing and dancing.” Plato, The Laws.

Blog — Tags: , — Sinohkapa Fhang, @ 8:18 pm

Who is the fake Miss Avatar in the arena?

Is RMB City an arena for it’s members?

One of your friends was unfortunately died, but you suddenly found that she used another people’s name, education background, even her body. Keep chasing the truth, you finally unveiled the killer was ……

Does it sound like a detective story, as well as a Hollywood film?

In real world, Tracy Spaight, an experienced American game designer, declared such an interesting story. In his work with a virtual film, he found an identical virtual world case–a LegendMUD game Player, named Karyn, was killed instantly in a car accident. As a commercial group leader,  Karyn not only gained respect from players (they built ‘The Garden of Remembrance’ for her in LegendMUD), but also received griefs from other virtual lands. Even Raph Koster, administrators and designers of many 3D games, wrote a well eulogy “A Story about a Tree”, praising her contribution and friendship to the virtual space.

If the story stopped at the phrase, anyone can imagine what Tracy just would talk was mainly the effect that virtual world acted in real world, or how permanent death made forever logout of avatar, or Karyn’s mine stone in the consciousness of the online community.

But it did not, plot went on.  Tracy found that rarely any first life materials, such as picture, college, car accident, can match up with her second life: she may possible be a Norwegian, but she may also possible be a man, to be anyone. More seriously, he finally concluded that, Karyn killed herself, just the way she gave birth to herself, through fabrication.

Now the issue diverted it’s direction, for this “virtual” have a deeper definition. So how to deal with the loop, “virtual” virtual?

In Raph’s words, it’s nothing matter whether virtual is fake or not, the players and their social bonds give a live to the virtual world, just like the little boy make his toy real, LegendMUD players believed fake Karyn. Simply put, the real exist in people’s head, and this “real” will work in first life.

But there is still one question I can not find answer in Tracy, that is why Karyn need to give avatar a perfect retreat, using real death news to cease her virtual life? She can just simply quit without clue, uninstall the game software, turn off the computer like most people do, for no third-party as police or game controller will release Karyn’s real status.

Did she too dear her avatar to leave, did she regard virtual world as a arena? We can not get the real reason until Karyn tells us. But if we suppose RMB City is really a arena, then Karyn is quite welcome inside as a professional actor.

———————————————————————————————————-

Related info:

article:  Who killed Miss Norway? http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2003/04/14/who_killed_miss_norway/

book: Alter ego

Blog — Tags: , , — Sinohkapa Fhang, September 18, 2008 @ 4:11 am

A Virtual City by the Bay- RMB at Yokohama Triennale

After much preparation, the “Play With Your Triennale” arcade-box made its premiere at the opening of the 3rd Yokohama Triennale, on September 12th and 13th.

Cao Fei’s project for the Triennale uses RMB City as its medium, and is embodied both in the physical installation (inspired by the classic video-game arcade structure) and the People’s Worksite in SecondLife, a portion of the still-under-construction city that was opened for this event. Via SecondLife, anyone from around the world can participate in the Triennale – by visiting virtually at any time, and also by submitting their creative ideas for possible realization in the Worksite over the Triennale period.

On the opening days, visitors young and old came by and played with the exhibition… but perhaps the most excited were the kids, who jumped on the keyboard and within seconds were discovering the joys of flying in SecondLife. If you visit the People’s Worksite these days, make sure to say hello or こんにちは (“konnichiwa”) to Yokohama Lemon, the official avatar of the RMB City terminal at Yokohama… you may find yourself talking to some young, eager Triennale visitor as cute as the one below!

See more photos in the Flickr Sets here and here.

(more…)

Blog — Miniature Tigerpaw, @ 3:24 am

Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm, Sweden)

Sep 17, 2008 – Dec 21, 2008

“Sprout from White Nights” at the Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden, focuses on “young Chinese artists at the interface of thousand-year old traditions and new technology,” and featured Cao Fei’s RMB City in a dedicated room with terminals for visitors to access the city under construction. During the opening days, many journalists and visitors were able to chat live with China Tracy via SL in RMB City.

Blog,News,RL Events — Miniature Tigerpaw, September 17, 2008 @ 1:14 am

Here Comes Metaverse: A New Existential Manifesto, Urban China

Here Comes Metaverse: a New Existential Manifesto

Urban China

Text by Zafka

Fourteen years ago, Neal Stephenson, one of the pioneers of cyberpunk novelists, depicted a virtual world paralleled to modern metropolises in Snow Crash: “……the Broadway, the Champs-Elysees……It does not really exist. But right now, millions of people are walking up and down it.” In it, people exist and communicate as “avatars”, who can present themselves as anything they want. The name that Stephenson gave to this brave new world is “metaverse”—a coinage which is sometimes translated as “fairy land”.

More recently, The Matrix struck many of us with shocking imagery of individuals evolved into pieces of code in the gigantic matrix of computers, visualizing a dream-like fusion of the real and the virtual which points to our innermost anxiety and confusion. Now, such a world is ever closer than before, and the pleasure of being a part of it is written on the faces of millions of early adopters all over the world.

The grassroots logic of Utopia

Known as “Second Life” (secondlife.com) in the United States, this 3D virtual online world has a tag line of “Your World. Your Imagination.” With a not-too-steep learning curve, the “residents” of this world imagine, create and own every single object in this new universe. In China, a similar world is called “HiPiHi” (hipihi.com). It has a similar tag line: “The World Exists Because of You.” Started as two separate products, spiritual-wise they are twin brothers, both inherit the hippies’ value of freedom, equity and dream, as well as the very core spirit of the internet.

Virtual worlds like these are getting embedded into the real world in a revolutionary way. Through the action of creating-trading-socializing, their residents (as avatars) are not only replicating the historical development of our real world, but also revitalizing a number of classic topics in the human history, such as property rights and innovation, prosperity and surveillance, rights and order. Currently, three-million Second Life residents are trading stuff worthy of more than one million US dollar every day. They also write all kinds of programs, spending a year or even more time to stage a ballet with their avatars, creating rain forest on desert, or building grand, entwined castles.

As the spiritual descendants of ’60s hippies, geeks have long been waiting for such a world. But for many years, small-scale 3D virtual world was a domain for specialists, with application scattering in fields such as architecture, military and computer game. Time is now ripe for “virtopia”-Virtual Utopia-to thrive, which represents the notion of grassroots in two senses: the democratization of hardware and fundamental technologies (large-storage hard drive, high-speed CPU, video card with memory of its own, broadband connection, virtual reality technologies such as 3D graphic), and the triumph of a kind of grassroots production mode: everyone is the creator of the new world.

There is no need for pre-plotting here. Residents of this world are creating and socializing every minute, thus also auto-writing the most memorable history. Xu Hui, the CEO of HiPiHi, said that system of user creation in the 3D virtual world is going to be the driving force for mankind’s future prosperity, just as James Watt’s steam engine was for the Industrial Revolution. When people spend half of their time trading, entertaining and socializing in this new world, the distinction of virtual and real becomes blurry.

The 3D online worlds also provide the context for the ongoing new round of internet explosion (after its birth ten years ago)-the reshuffling of information and the redefining of the ways people socialize (read: web 2.0). Virtual online world reminds us what kind of dream each content-creating netizen could have, and how they are going to concretize their manifestos of “We are the Web”, “Net is the computer”. After all, in their effort to enable information to flow across time and space, people working in the domain of information technology somehow forgot the fact that it’s “I” that matters, technology is always people-centered.

Deep experience and the new social platform

Throughout history, people have always tried to overcome the limitation of space-time continuum with all kinds of new technologies. Space and time are the critical elements that define the state of human survival and self-perception. The advent of metaverse shows us the wonderful prospect of building a brand new platform of human communication based on individual deep experience.

For thousands of years, the writing system provided the rational basis of knowledge construction and the infrastructure of our intellectual communication. Nevertheless, it has also suffocated our symbol- and sense-based audio-visual faculties which is as important to intellectual presentation. The 20th century saw the “historic revenge” of audio-visual culture. By integrating human beings’ writing, speaking, seeing and listening modes into one single interactive networking system, the internet recombined the various dimensions of the human mind and soul, thus changing the way in which we experience and re-organize the world.

The 2D internet, however, remains a world of text and picture. Human communication, on the other hand, is not only text- and language-based, it also relies on visible body gesture, spatial environment, and their attached cultural implications. With 3D technologies, a channel to the virtual world and inter-spatial / temporal communication is now made available.

Both Second Life and HiPiHi emphasize the concept of “in-world”, i.e., the reconstruction of “the world”. After all, having 3D clones or even modified forms of real-world architectural spaces and natural environments on the internet has managed to visualize the once text- and image-based cyberspace to an extreme extent. On the other hand, by extending themselves into the virtual world as avatars, users gain a new form of existence as well as a richer and more delicate socializing experience.

One simple fact exemplifies the profoundness of this augmentation of experience. On the 2D internet, the psychological distance between two users depends on text or language, while in the 3D world, it takes nothing more than single turning back. This is because as the carbon copy of reality, virtual worlds are no longer distinguishable with the real ones.

Also, the fact that Second Life and HiPiHi gave birth to not only a new virtual world, but also an unprecedented deep experience for individual, grants them the potential to be the new generation of internet and a brand new platform for inter-spatial / temporal communication and collaboration.

Such a highly-visualized platform promises not only the possibility of new business model, but also the opportunity for human dreams and practices such as political experiment. At this moment, those who keep creating and trading after the initial excitement are already the business pioneers in the new world. Powerful real-world business entities such as IBM have jumped on the bandwagon and secured their presence in it too. So did various governments and educational institutions. The discussion on the prospect of this new platform being applied to real problems has already begun.

This new world is now going through all the glories and prosperity of the 2D internet. In the digital world, code is power. In order to maintain that prosperity, Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, is planning to make the source code of their client and server software freely available to everyone.

The virtual subverting the real

Marshall McLuhan said that media are the extension of the human body. But the body extension and internet recreation in the metaverse will be revolutionary. A “world” where the real and the virtual are connected seamlessly is going to update our knowledge system of body and ourselves, as well as some of the core topics about the digital universe such as social space and communication.

This could be a new manifesto about our existence. In the virtual world, people reproduce their bodies. Organs, hairstyle, tattoo, clothes and every single inch of skin are recreated—a newborn body which provides the subject the most powerful capability in the metaverse: complete realness and endless possibilities of variations. As for the real and physical body and the various cultural and historical tokens about body, the mobility and opposition have found new manifestation through 3D avatar. Philosophical concepts such as body, identity and identification have become much more relevant as well as complicated than in the text-based BBS days, when users are represented simply by an ID.

A related topic is the possibility to rewrite our knowledge system. Michel Foucault said that human science in the West was born when people began to think of themselves as an object of both imagination and perception. The foundation of modern state administration relies on “body politics” which revolve around discipline and punish. At this moment, it is impossible to know that, in the prime time of 3D virtual world, what kind of crucial interaction is going to happen between intentional social action and system of new technologies, and what kind of new concept of administration is going to emerge.

The possibilities of this new world don’t stop at that. Jurgen Haberma once said the development of modern media had destroyed traditional public sphere-the real spaces in which people get together to have rational discussions about public topics had vanished. Meanwhile, just as tap water pipes brought about by the process of urbanization have destroyed well-based countryside communities, urban fireplaces have lost their relevance because of the internet. Some of the most important components of traditional cities, such as civilian’s rights, public spaces and urban landscape are also going through profound changes.

But the drastic extension of the metaverse has the ability to reverse some of these facts. The rebuilt virtual body lives in a rebuilt virtual space. With more people getting involved, a new kind of visualized political, economical and social space is coming into shape. Currently in Second Life, the most important symbols of traditional public space-salon, cafe-are thriving, once again, people sit down around the fireplace to have conversation. Friends, relatives and groups return to the visible virtual space, quietly, they take a seat and talk. Although all these happen in the virtual world, the existence of 3D avatar and spaces has restored the sense of “being there”-the most important feeling of human communication, therefore providing a way back to the real-world psychological model and result of socialization.

With this kind of kinship to the real world, this virtopia has intensifying the existing problems of the internet. The issue now goes beyond the administration of the virtual. Apart from people claiming identity and sociopolitical rights and their need for sound public order and economical stability, real-world governments are now facing crime committed in the virtual world. Also, with the virtual economy getting more powerful, they begin to have an influence on our first-life economy.

“The virtual subverting the real” may be more than an far-fetched imagination. It might not take long before it re-tells the stories of reality into a complex version of The Matrix’s screenplay.

Zafka

Virtual World Observer

Zafka is among the pioneers who initiated the study on virtual worlds in China. His in-depth analysis articles on virtual world such as Utopian Online, HiPiHi overturns the reality, the metaverse is coming: a new announcement about existentialism, were pressed on major domestic media and thereafter attract lots attention. So did his blog, which was the first blog in China that keeps watch on virtual world.

Press — Ume Freiman, September 10, 2008 @ 11:41 pm

“Play With Your Triennale” (Yokohama, Japan)

It’s very exciting that the Yokohama Triennale featuring RMB City will have its grand opening tomorrow. Please see the following announcement and postcard, and visit the Yokohama Triennale in SecondLife now!

“Play With Your Triennale”(Yokohama, Japan)

Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and RMB City at Yokohama Triennale

September 13-November 30, 2008 (Vernissage: 12 September)

Preview Day Yokohama Time: Sep 12th 10am-8pm ;Official Opening Party : Sep 12th 6pm-8pm .

Preview Day SL Time:Sep 11th, 6 pm-4 am ;the Official Opening Party : Sep 12th, 2 am-4 am.

During the Yokohama Triennale, RMB City will be used to realize the dream projects of the general public. In “Play With Your Triennale”, anyone and everyone is invited to submit an artistic project, and selected entries will be realized in the People’s Worksite during the Triennale period, along with a series of special events.

In keeping with the border-crossing spirit of RMB City, anyone worldwide can become an artist in the Triennale by contributing ideas, and also audiences anywhere can visit this virtual slice of the exhibition at any time.

Seeing through the video and timeline of RMB City, you may possible get more idea of what artist Cao Fei dedicates to build. Hope to see you in Yokohama.: )

Send your ideas by email to: info@rmbcity.com (Subject: Yokohama Dream Proposal) before 10th, Oct. 2008 for possible realization in RMB City

Press inquiries: press@rmbcity.com

For more information:

http://www.rmbcity.com

www.youtube.com/user/RMBCityHall

www.yokohamatriennale.jp

Landmark in Second Life: RMB City: People’s Worksite, RMB City 1 (221, 196, 21)

Events,News,RL Events,SL Events — Tags: — Ume Freiman, @ 4:34 pm

“Play With Your Triennale”

It’s very exciting that the Yokohama Triennale featuring RMB City will have its grand opening tomorrow. Please see the following announcement and postcard, and visit the Yokohama Triennale in SecondLife now!

“Play With Your Triennale”

Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and RMB City at Yokohama Triennale

September 13-November 30, 2008 (Vernissage: 12 September)

Preview Day Yokohama Time: Sep 12th 10am-8pm ;Official Opening Party : Sep 12th 6pm-8pm .

Preview Day SL Time:Sep 11th, 6 pm-4 am ;the Official Opening Party : Sep 12th, 2 am-4 am.

During the Yokohama Triennale, RMB City will be used to realize the dream projects of the general public. In “Play With Your Triennale”, anyone and everyone is invited to submit an artistic project, and selected entries will be realized in the People’s Worksite during the Triennale period, along with a series of special events.

In keeping with the border-crossing spirit of RMB City, anyone worldwide can become an artist in the Triennale by contributing ideas, and also audiences anywhere can visit this virtual slice of the exhibition at any time.

Seeing through the video and timeline of RMB City, you may possible get more idea of what artist Cao Fei dedicates to build. Hope to see you in Yokohama.: )

Send your ideas by email to: info@rmbcity.com (Subject: Yokohama Dream Proposal) before 10th, Oct. 2008 for possible realization in RMB City

Press inquiries: press@rmbcity.com

For more information:

http://www.rmbcity.com

www.youtube.com/user/RMBCityHall

www.yokohamatriennale.jp

Landmark in Second Life: RMB City: People’s Worksite, RMB City 1 (221, 196, 21)

Blog — Tags: — Sinohkapa Fhang, September 9, 2008 @ 11:00 pm

Publication_In-World Travel Guide

 

In RMB City Library, there is such a practical book that I can easily read and search in hand. This book, wrote by Sean Percival(avatar Sean Voss) in December 2007, called Second Life In-World Travel Guide, gives me a rounded view of SL, ranging from Virtual Bootcamp, Top Destinations, Shopping, Enertainment, Education, Real Life in SL, Adults Only,to Where to live.

“After more than a year of extensive research and countless conversations with some amazing residents, I have collected some of the best destinations the mataverse has to offer”

 

 

For another experience of this book ,the author offer the following approaches:

Landmark island (110,120,488) /  Official Website  / Read online

Blog — Sinohkapa Fhang, September 5, 2008 @ 1:30 am