Nalates Urriah

Second Life Bits 2015-07

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Unreal Engine

Jo Yardley has posted about the graphics available when world builders use the Unreal Engine. See: Stunning demo shows what is possible in VR graphics with Unreal Engine.

I am sure it will be pretty awesome to use the Oculus Rift HMD in a world like this.

Improvements

Ciaran Laval has an article up on his site that gives a good summary of recent changes in Second Life and coming changes. See: Linden Lab Ask Us To Check Out Improvements To Second Life. I’ve mentioned some of these weeks ago but he goes into more detail and collects them into one place.

Daniel Voyager has a similar article: Linden Lab publishes upcoming improvements to Second Life.

Directly from the Lab: Check Out the Latest Improvements to Second Life. 

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Google Chrome Bookmarks/Favorites Changing

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This is a big change. I’m not sure I like it. In fact I currently dislike it so much this may be a change that drives me to Firefox or CoolNovo.

Google's New Bookmarks Manager
Google’s New Bookmarks Manager

The change was only appearing in the Beta version of Chrome, which I run. But, it is feedback from beta users that will decide if this feature becomes mainstream, which is probably a near certainty anyway, based  on Google’s past history of how they change Chrome and other Google products. Feedback may change it, but I doubt it will stop it.

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Avatar Render Cost 2015-07

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Penny Patton writes about reducing her avatar’s render cost. (See: Draw Weight.) Kay Jiersen picked up on the article and wrote an article too. (See: Render weight best practices for Second Life.) Some time ago I wrote: Second Life Performance: Render Muting, which is about the same subject.

Penny Paton's Example of Dense High ARC Mesh
Penny Patton’s Example of Dense High ARC Mesh

Penny is pointing out there is a bit we can do to change our render cost with only a minimal change in appearance. Kay suspects few people are even aware of the Avatar Render Cost (ARC) feature in the viewer and have no clue they need to do anything. I agree with Kay. But, she goes on to recommend changes to Second Life, which is where I disagree.

Kay made field trips to various places in Second Life where she recorded the ARC values of avatars in the regions. Kay points out that only 81 of 190 (42.6%) avatars would render using a setting of 80,000 for Render Muting. That means 109 or 57.3% of the avatars would not render .

The horrible frame rates (FPS) I am getting have me looking at a new computer and a better video card. But, I actually have little hope that will help FPS in regions populated with 30+ avatars.

On an empirical basis Kay found that jewelry is a major culprit in high ARC. 

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Windows 10 Coming

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Did you know it will be FREE? What!?! That is the word on the street. PC World published in January that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users. See: Windows 10 will be a free upgrade. There is some question about Vista, but it looks to excluded.

Windows 10 Logo
Windows 10 Logo

I am somewhat surprised that Windows XP users are not included. But, I know that transferring users from XP to 7 and 8 is a technical pain. It is so bad I only ever move data over now. Installing over XP as an upgrade while a limited possibility, is usually a disaster. A new install is the practical and much easier way to go. Even the Microsoft transfer program doesn’t really work for an XP to 7 or 8 transfer. 

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Net Neutrality Ending

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The political battle for control of the Internet is being won by politicians, citizens are losing. This loss is very likely to  impact everyone in Second Life.

Consider. The news citizens can post on the Internet is mostly uncontrolled, as pure a case of freedom of speech as anyone has. For politicians this a disaster and a threat for their control and power. The Internet gives minorities, crazy or sane, a voice they have never had.

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