Second Life and Virtual Worlds
I just saw where Opensource Obscure posted in his feed that the current development viewer allows images to be posted to our feed. I have yet to learn out or try it out. But, its on my list.
Update: Was on my list… 🙂
OK I found it. Press Ctrl-Shift-S to open the camera snapshot panel. See the image for the new panel in viewer 3.2.3 (the development viewer (244722).
Sending the image to your feed incurs no cost.
This is a nifty little feature. But there is more.
Last week New World Notes and several others, as well as myself, blogged about the game the Lindens built. This week we have some more details on the game.
There is a shiny new FAQ page in the Knowledge Base. Project LR Frequently Asked Questions. As one reads the page it becomes obvious this page is written for residents. There is less behind the scenes, techy, and motivations for the game and more about how to play.
In the explanation we learn that premium members can earn Lindens by playing the game.
Also, it is not possible to teleport into the region. One must find a portal. See the image to know what they look like. For now it seems portals are placed in premium sandboxes. However, if you find one and you are a premium member and it does not work, don’t panic. When the game region population reaches capacity the portals shop working. Wait a bit and try again.
Never fear. Dying in the game doesn’t hurt… much… right. There are things in the game that can kill you. When you die you are teleported and reincarnated in a resurrection circle. I suppose it is a bit like Entropia. I am seriously considering a premium account.
I noticed we have a new panel in the Second Life Viewer 3.2.2 (244260) Oct 31 2011. You probably know, if you follow this blog, that Google’s free translation service used by many games is changing to a paid service. That means our translator in the viewer will stop working about the end of this month.
The new panel provides an option to switch to Bing’s free service. It also provides a place to add your Google API key, which you get from Google Translate API. In my article Language Translation in Second Life I estimated my cost of translation services if I had everything I chat translated. I think I could easily get by for US$20 per year. Since I don’t translate everything, it would probably be way less.
Additional attachment points are always handy. We are apparently getting two more.
Those of us working with rigged mesh to make avatar bodies and clothes can see the neck bone in the skeleton. Even before a large number of people started looking at the skeleton and asking why can’t we attach things there, people were asking for a neck attachment point.
If you are wondering how people knew about it… animators knew about it because the ‘neck bone’  can be controlled in an animation.
Now the neck attachment point is in testing in the Development Viewer. See  JIRA STORM-1672. Previously labeled VWR-26120. If you like the idea, vote for it by clicking WATCH.
Well… this should be interesting. We are getting a new Viewer Interface by the end of October or there about. It also explains why the viewer development team has basically disappeared. While the Lindens were proclaiming they would never do another Hide and Develop project without user input, our new CEO having messed that fiasco … Read more
Once upon a time we had a group that dealt with the evolution of the Second Life Viewer. Esbee Linden ran the group for a time then left Linden Lab. After she left Oz Linden ran the group for a time. When Esbee came back to the Lab Oz dropped the meeting. Presumably it was Esbee’s to deal with.
The User Groups page used to have a Viewer Evolution User Group (VEUG). That has been removed. Some of the meeting archives still survive. Some links for VEUG now forward to the Open Development User Group (ODUG) or so I’ve heard. I haven’t found any links left.
The ODUG meets Wednesdays at 1:30 PM SLT/PDT. See the User Groups page for location.