Did you know Linden Lab has new avatars for the noobies? I had not realized it. But, Cerise @ SLUniverse posted about the new avatars and I noticed that post. Want to see some of the new avatars and mesh clothes?
Linden Lab’s New Starter Avatars – Classic is now the default.
This image shows the first page one lands on after clicking JOIN. By default they now have ‘Classic’ avatars selected. It is still possible to select Vampires and People. Those are mesh body avatars. But, the Classic Avatars look to be all new. The older avatars are still in the Library. I just don’t see them on sign-up process.
There are a lot of interesting places in Second Life™. Dolls and Demons, love the pictures, has an article up about a Gotcha Event: Hanging With The Bad Boys. Checking out the regions mentioned I came across Wayward Peaks. It is an awesome Gotcha event. There are Gotcha vendors are all over the region. So, you’ll be exploring.
Go to AllesIst Klaar’s photostream – Image by AllesIst – Outfit @ her blog
The region is full of mesh. Much of it has poor LoD modeling. If you have set your RenderVolumeLODFactor set to 4, a bad move, you won’t notice. Using 1.125 I noticed. At 1.125 you have to be close to things for them to look right. But, in general the place is interesting.
As I have pointed out more people are talking about Jelly Babies and the coming RC Second Life Quick Graphics Viewer version 3.8.6.305942 movement toward being the main viewer. Of course some know what they are talking about and others don’t.
erratic / ava sweater & meg leggings High or low ACI?
I think – Jelly babies will take over SL soon (AKA how linden lab is planning to break second life) – falls in the ‘doesn’t’ category. utilizator404, the author, believes the Lab is breaking SL by introducing the Avatar Complexity Information (ACI) feature. I disagree, but I can see how some may consider the appearance of Jelly Babies as a problem. The opinion that Jelly Babies breaks SL is as valid an opinion as any. I just don’t agree with it. So, I’ll rebut it.
In the article an assumption is expressed that the Lab is not fixing the root causes of lag; failure to optimize the viewer, not changing how the viewer uses video memory, failure to use all the features of new video cards, and no use of Direct3D (a Windows only graphics render engine).
Most of 2014 and 2015 has been spent optimizing features of the viewer and SL servers. If you follow Inara’s or my blog you already know that. If you have only read the release notes of the Linden and third party viewers as they are released, you know that numerous fixes for how the viewer use memory have been made. From the Third Party Dev’s meeting we know more are in progress.
Second Life™ is so much like real life. All the same problems, challenges, and drama present in RL are seen in SL too. Now we have the Maitreya Monopoly… First the drama story then the tech that makes this all so silly.
One Reason
It seems blogger Sophee Mojo is unhappy with Maitreya or more accurately Onyx LeShelle the creator of Maitreya. The unhappiness has its root in the limited selection of clothes currently available for the Maitreya Mesh body or more accurately the limited set of designers. Sophee points to the developer’s kit for Maitreya that lacks ‘weighting’ information as a deliberate move on Maitreya’s part to control the clothes market. So, the unhappiness is expressed as complaints and accusations.
The coming Quick Graphics Viewer now in RC has some odd behaviors. Well, it is an RC version, so no surprise. One of the ideas with this viewer is to reduce render lag by telling the viewer to avoid rendering complex avatars. These are avatars with lots of high polygon count attachments and large textures that require lots of computer power to render.
The Candy Princess – by Bewitched Difference @ Flickr
There is a setting in Preferences* that lets you set a personal limit for what you want your viewer to render. Any avatar over that limit will render as a jelly baby. But, if you change the setting to NO LIMIT you’ll find there are still avatars that render as jelly babies. What’s up with that?
Kat Feldragonne is a mesh fan. But recently had a problem with mesh render time at an event. It apparently was frustrating enough Kat wrote about the experience: Mesh Mess – A Lesson in Frustration. If you read it, I suspect you will know exactly what Kat is writing about. I’ve experienced the problem. I suspect most of us have.
Slow Render Problems
There are places and times when it seems to take forever for things to render. Avatars are missing parts or clothes are gray and stuck on sideways or at some odd direction. Nude avatars render in all their glory and only later do the clothes render. Of course the nude person has no idea their clothes have yet to render for those around them. The clothes always render quickly for the one wearing them.
