Here’s a report from today’s in-game concert by the U2 in SL band. The concept in brief: players stream a soundtrack into the world and create character animations for the performance itself. The major problem was the number of avatars the server could accept without the latency becoming too noticeable. Otherwise, a truly fantastic performance with every detail thoroughly worked out.
UPDATE: I wrote about it before, but for clarity am reiterating here: the U2 in SL is a fan-made performance and should be discussed as such.
The vending machine gave away free tickets.
Every self-respecting concert has a swag stand. All t-shirts and buttons were free.
Free snacks and drinks from the “official sponsors“. The other stand “sold” beer (Sam Adams included). UPDATE: One of the players behind the band asked me to point out that there are no “official sponsors” behind the event. Quote: We have no sponsors official or otherwise. We do it all for free. We sell nothing. HOWEVER, to correct any misconceptions such as the one stated publicly in your blog, we are taking down the food and drink booths. They were merely provided to give a more “real world” concert setting. No copyright infringement was ever intended. Again, we sell nothing–no show, no food, no drinks, no souvenirs–all is offered for free. ”
The entire show was controlled from this director’s stand.
The concert gathered a crowd of about 50.
Besides the artists, the show also employed a significant number of staff and security to keep the fans off the stage (the stage was protected by an invisible wall just in case). The security also made sure the fans weren’t wearing anything lag-inducing, such as fancy hair or body attachements. UPDATE: One of the players behind the band asked me to point out that “employed” is not a correct word. Quote: “In any event, no one is employed or gets any monetary gain from these endeavors–again, all for free.”
The server was streaming the soundtrack of the U2’s recent concert in Boston.
Each song seemed to have original animation scripts and light settings.
The band avatars are controlled by an elaborate set of animation scripts.
Bono talks about making poverty history.
After the show, the band departed into their band room near the stage…
…only to come out later and give out autographs.
A happy grouppie poses on the stage after the show.
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