theverge.com/vr-virtual-reality

To promote the sequel to Ready Player One — a book about a treasure hunt inside a virtual universe — author Ernest Cline has partnered with the hit kids game Roblox to re-create something akin to the plot of the original novel: a hunt for clues and prizes inside a virtual world. Players will be “awarded virtual goods” specific to the Ready Player Two event for completing the treasure hunt. The original was a huge hit, and the sequel appears to be pushing the same idea forward, once again sending its protagonist on a treasure hunt through the Oasis, Cline’s fictional metaverse. Cline hyped up the similarities to the Roblox event in a press release, saying, “Roblox is the closest thing to the Oasis in real life, and this contest is the closest thing to the treasure hunt in my book.

Lil Nas X performed to an audience of millions across two days and four shows this weekend, playing in a setting that literally made him larger than life: the hit kids game Roblox. The shows gathered 33 million views in total across the performances, which started on Saturday afternoon and wrapped up with a surprise encore performance on Sunday, Roblox told The Verge. The identical shows starred a motion-captured incarnation of Lil Nas X, styled to fit in with a world that shifted to match each of the four songs he performed. In April, Fortnite hosted a similarly impressive performance from Travis Scott that drew 45.8 million viewers across five shows.

Ava Max is holding an album launch party in an unexpected place: the virtual realm of Roblox. The pop star will be part of what’s described as “a first-of-its-kind immersive album launch party and virtual fan meetup” to celebrate the release of her new album Heaven & Hell. I miss being able to interact with everyone in person, and I’m really excited to try this new way of connecting with them in a life-like immersive experience to share my new music. Elsewhere, The Weeknd held a TikTok concert, a giant version of Travis Scott stomped around Fortnite’s island, and American Football played a blocky show inside of Minecraft.

Earlier this year, Nvidia released RTX Voice, a beta software to process audio and suppress almost all background noise, and it worked amazingly well. Nvidia Broadcast is a follow-up to the RTX Voice beta and introduces two new AI-powered features: Virtual Background and Auto Frame. Nvidia says that the noise removal feature also now has a reduced performance cost and supports triple the number of noise profiles. And of course, noise removal will attempt to suppress any background noise from your microphone feed, such as my twin brother’s pomeranian, who barks every time someone rings the doorbell.