Over on the Insert Funny Name Here blog there is a new basic Materials Tutorial for those SL’ers building with prims.
See: Grown Up.
To learn how the new maps work see: Specular Maps Tutorial.
Nalates Urriah
Cloud Party Gets an Update
This week Cloud Party rolled out some new features. Hamlet at NWN wrote about some of the changes: Cloud Party Adds Free Customizable Spaces, Social Sharing.
The home page of CloudParty.com has changed. The page has images of “Builds” you can use for a private space.
When you sign in you have an option to select a NEW BUILD, where you will be building, or you can visit an existing build listed in the lower part of the home page.
The thinking is you could cobble to gather an auditorium for meeting very easily for a business presentation. Rather than work on building an environment you can concentrate on your presentation.
For free you can have unlimited small regions… clouds… whatever. You also get 5 free market place listings. Basic Support is part of the package.
For US$15/month or $12/mo if paid annually you get unlimited small, 2 medium size, private builds, 20 Market Place listings, and basic & billing support.
For US$100/month or 80/mo annual, you get unlimited small, 4 medium, 2 large, privates builds, 100 market place listings, and Online Support.
There were 4 small builds when I visited. They say there will be more.
I see that Henimations has a place in CP. So, we can look good dancing…
Loki Got Hands on Oculus Rift
Loki Eliot has an article up: The Big Black Box Arrived – Updated. The Black Box is one containing the Oculus Rift Developers Kit.
Loki has hands on. He has some interesting comments on the Rift.
Bits and Pieces 2013-34
Reflecting back I find this year to be a year when I know more about what the Lindens are doing and have in the pipeline than at any time previously. Yet, we still know almost nothing about what the Lindens plan to put in the pipeline next. That is typical in the free world’s competitive business market place. But, it is certainly annoying.
Many of the things the Lindens are doing now are large projects. When Rod started with Linden Lab the plan was to start fixing and changing problems to make SL more enjoyable and useable. First the easily fixed things were fixed. In these years managed by Rod large projects are more the order of daily business. Bake fail was a problem long before Rod arrived. In 2011 the Lab started working to figure out the causes and now in August 2013 a change to reduce bake fail has just rolled out.
SIMS4 Trailer
Michelle Leckrone tipped me off to the new trailer out for SIMS 4.
[youtube WjPPjU8OARg]
Exporting Second Life
Hamlet has an interesting article up today: New Singularity Viewer Lets SL Creators Convert & Export Their Prim-Based Works to Unity 3D & Other Top Platforms. Hamlet explains why this is such an important aspect of Second Life™. Hamlet links to the article explaining how to do the export from SL to Unity 3D.
[youtube lTlnKOYGFrk]
I am obviously not paying enough attention to Singularity. I like the viewer but care little for the user interface, V1 style. But, this export feature makes Singularity a must have for advanced users in SL.
Hamlet is excited about the advantage this offers educational institutions.