Month: May 2015

Who is Winning the Virtual Reality Race?

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The financial people think it is Facebook and Apple that are positioned to win in the Virtual Reality War. But, it won’t be a fast war. It will last years.  Quoting Chris Ciaccia :

[A] Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster stated that virtual reality is likely the next key trend in technology, writing, “We liken the state of virtual and augmented reality today as similar to the state of mobile phones 15 years ago. It likely will take a decade before mainstream adoption as necessary improvements in displays and applications as well as lower pricing are needed to drive demand.”

Breaking bad$$$$
Breaking bad💵💵💵💵 by pokute Burt, on Flickr

They expect new virtual everythings to open up; gaming (obviously), live sports, concerts, immersive cinema and social experiences will have a VR version. The article, Facebook and Apple are Poised to Win the Virtual Reality Wars, gives us, at least me, some new ideas about VR can be used.

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Second Life: Server Roll Back

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This morning (Wednesday) Linden Lab rolled a new package to the RC server channels. This afternoon, about 4:30 PM SLT, they rolled the RC channels back to the previous version.

This happens when something goes side ways and crash rates, complaints, or server metrics  show a problem.

We have no word on what the problem was. Expect word to come in the Beta Server user group meeting Thursday.

Second Life: Render Speed Tricks

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Simon Linden gave out a note card at Tuesday’s Server-Scripting user group meeting in Second Life™. It gives us the Debug Settings we can change to improve performance at events with lots of avatars.

Work hard in silence, let success make the noise
Work hard in silence, let success make the noise by NOeditiON™, on Flickr

To get to the viewer’s Debug Settings you need to have enabled the Advanced menu. There are a couple of ways to do that. In the SL Viewer open Preferences – top menu: Me->Preferences then select the Advanced tab. Enable Show Advanced Menu. This will reveal ADVANCED in the top menu. Click Advanced->Show Debug Settings. 

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Second Life Servers: 1,000 Avatars?

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No roll for the main channel of Second Life™ this Tuesday.

Second Life’s three RC channels all got the same package, a maintenance release. This one has a change in how large groups are handled. I think meaning the member list downloading. There are also more changes to the server log reporting process.

He didnt seek victory though it followed him
He didn’t seek victory though it followed him by Sunny George, on Flickr

At the Server-Scripting meeting Simon Linden talked about adding a setting to allow them to change the number of avatars a region will allow in before locking access. But, I doubt that change made it into this package.

The idea being worked on is how to get more people in a region and not over load the server or viewer. This new server/region setting allows easy changes to max population for the purpose of testing. That might hint at what the additional changes to logging are about. 

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Black Dragon Viewer Updated Week 22

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Inara is covering the update of the Black Dragon Viewer for Second Life™, version 2.4.2.5. See: Black Dragon 2.4.2.5: snapshot floater and cinematic camera.

The effect of the new Cinematic/Head Tracking Camera is shown in the video. I would have to play with the camera to see if I like it and think it useable, which has nothing to do with whether it is or isn’t. The effect in the video is pretty neat.

I may have to try it to see how it works with the SpaceNavigator, which uses flycam mode when controlling the camera..

NiranV is working on the viewer’s snapshot panel. NiranV designed the panel that appears in the SL Viewer distributed by the Lab. In NiranV’s viewer the panel is apparently evolving. That is S.O.P. for NiranV, which is the reason I like the Black Dragon Viewer but don’t use it. I like the innovation. I hate continually having to figure out how things work or what controls have moved to where with each update.

It isn’t as bad as I may make it sound. I think everyone that takes pictures or makes machinima in SL should try the viewer.

Second Life: Designing for Newbies and Oldies

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Second Life has its challenges for new players/users. Massively Overpowered started a conversation with the question: How Can MMO’s Design For Both Vets And Newbies? There are quite a few comments being added. It got me thinking about our challenges for new users in Second Life™.

Cassie and Ciara
Cassie and Ciara by Caitlin ‘Caity’ Tobias, on Flickr

Many of the comments on Massively suggest removing leveling. Fortunately we don’t have leveling as a basic part of SL.

In 19 screens of comments no one mentioned user interface and only a couple of times mentioned learning how to play. In SL I think learning is a significant obstacle for new users. With 3,000+ viewer controls SL is on a level similar to Photoshop or AutoCAD.

Considering new users in SL, I think the design challenge is making it usable and reducing the learning curve. For the experienced users the Lab needs to keep as many creative options as possible, which adds complication. These seem to be opposing goals. I am curious to see how the Lab handles these challenges in SANSAR aka SL 2.0.