Linden Lab’s New ToS, the Bank Secrecy Act, and You – This is an interesting article that may explain why the Linden’s ToS has changed. It mostly has to do with the recent enactment of new rules for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Changes
Second Life New ToS
Today I hit the new Terms of Server agreement. You can read the thing, if you can stay awake or get the highlights here: Updated Second Life Terms of Service. They tossed in a 2 minute video:
[youtube NtY3qU3IueM]
The primary change is the Lab is limiting the purchase of Linden$. You will only be allowed to purchase from the Lab.
I gather that third party exchanges will continue to exist. Since it is possible to transfer Linden$ from avatar to avatar, some other types of markets will continue. But, if you get ripped-off by a third party Linden$ vendor, you are most definitely on your own.
Second Life Viewer Release Changing
You probably know that the server updates come through 3 releases channels; Blue Steel, Le Tigre, and Magnum. This is sort of having 3 Beta versions running at the same time. It allows 3 different sets of code be tested at the same time. The best performing of the three gets promoted to the main channel.
The result is the server code update at a pretty fast pace. In fact so fast that several server updated features are waiting on the viewer to update.
Oculus Rift in Second Life
I am hearing lots about the Oculus Rift VR Headset. Some think interfacing it to SL would be a great addition to Second Life™. If you have seen the granny video, you have an idea of how impressive Ocular Rift can be.
Granny Video – 03:40 minutes.
There is no doubt she is impressed.
SL Server Side Appearance
The feature formerly known as: Server Side Avatar Baking is moving forward. Nyx Linden tells us today that the Sunshine code is now in the Beta Viewer branch. That means we have a working viewer with the near final features. So, far the server side is only running on the Preview Grid, ADITI. Look for the region SunshineTest.
If you find a bug, report it ASAP. Otherwise the bug will likely make it into the main release viewer.
Nyx was asked how quickly this feature would roll out to the main grid. Nyx and Oz have both said it is a bit of an awkward rollout and may take some time.
Server Side Avatar Baking
In the Open Source User Group meeting Oz Linden provided an explanation of how the new avatar baking system will work and some of the ideas they have for implementing it. I’ve added in the description of how things work now to provide contrast. I’ve covered this topic before. But, there is new information here.
Oz Linden pointed out that a large part of the viewer side avatar baking process is done in the local computer’s video card. Since there are so many different cards, driver, and driver versions the result is inconsistent. By moving the process to the server side the results will be consistent.
As it is now, users with the exact same input (think clothes) can get difference results (look different in the same clothes). Once this moves to the server side, the same inputs will produce the same result.