Info Island this week - Virtual Reality Room

PANTHEON PERFORMANCE CENTER

Next weekend, the Pantheon Concert Hall has a real treat in store for anyone who likes classical piano music. Gideon Kappler will be playing on Saturday, Dec. 1 at noon SLT. Gideon’s concerts are always popular, and this one will be no exception. Come and enjoy an outstanding afternoon of the classics. IM John2 Kepler if you need a TP.

NEW SMALL PICTURE AREA IN DUTCH AREA ON INFO ISLAND INTERNATIONAL = ANTON PIECK

At the frozen pond near the Dutch Language Area on Info Island International, a small picture exhibition about works by Anton Pieck has been prepared.
Anton Franciscus Pieck (1895-1987) was a Dutch painter, artist and graphic artist. His works are noted for their nostalgic or fairytale-like character and are widely popular, appearing regularly on cards and calendars. Pieck also designed the fairytale park “De Efteling” in Kaatsheuvel, which has become one of the most important theme parks in the Netherlands.
Now, try on your ice skates, get your cup of hot chocolate from the snowman, and skate some over the ice to see a few examples from his wonderful works!

VIRTUAL REALITY ROOM AND HOLODECK NEWS

Dream of taking your students on exciting field trips but the location is across the country, or even across the ocean? How about a holodeck where with the click of a mouse you could be under the sea or in a blanket of clouds? Thanks to Stephane Zugzwang (sl name), the creator of the Virtual Reality Room(VRR), educators and non profits can obtain a free VRR at Info Island. The Virtual Reality Room is an immmersive, photo-realistic environment that brings an unprecedented level of realism to Second Life. There are a variety of scenes available instructors can purchase for use including starscapes, the sea, New York, Chicago, museums, Paris and more. One can also add their own scenes to use with this exciting technology.
The launch of this exciting technology will take place on Tuesday December 12 with seminars at 8 am, 11 am, and 2 pm sl time
on the new Land of Lincoln sim. At these times, Stephane Zugzwang, will introduce the Virtual Reality room, provide a demonstration, and information
on how educators and non profits can set one up on their land. The technology will also be used for the new immersive environment on the Info Island Archipelago - Land of Lincoln, a project which will highlight the life and times of Abraham Lincoln with the upcoming bicentennial of his birth.
Stephane Zugzwang introduced the Virtual Reality Room in Second Life at the end of 2006. It quickly gained acceptance as one of the cleanest and easiest way to bridge the real and virtual worlds, by immersing Second Life residents in cristal-clear, photo-realistic environments. More than a thousand rooms have already been sold, serving a diverse bunch of club owners, individual residents and corporations like IBM. The collection of panoramas available with the Virtual Reality Room is steadily growing: Stephane shoots many pictures himself, while staying on the lookout for original, third party content sold at the VRR shop with thet rooms themselves. Yet, the room is not living up to the incredible potential of SecondLife: It could be used further to educate and serve the needs of the many non-profit causes that have found a homoe in SecondLife. The Virtual Reality Room is an easy, cost effective tool to bring reality inside our dream world.
Enter the next version of the Virtual Reality Room, the VRR3: it will be open, allowing users to set up their own scenes, either on public or protected channels. It sports many new features such as bigger sizes, and walls that can be phantom and textured at will.
Best of all, in collaboration with Info Island and its outstanding network of educational and non-profit Sims, it will be free! Stephane is releasing a freely copiable version of all the rooms, designed to run on all the Sims designated as non-profit. The new version comes with a full documentation allowing users to create their own scenes.
For more information on this project, attend one of the planned seminars or contact Stephane Zugswang, creator or Lorelei Junot or Abbey Zenith of Info Island.