AFAIK there was no Bento meeting this week. I was stuck in traffic as Cal trans repaired guard rails today. So, no video.
However, there is movement. See the article: AvaStar Update: 2.0 Alpha-4 & Project Bento.
Second Life
Things about SL
AvaStar Update: 2.0 Alpha-4 & Project Bento
Gaia Clary announced another update of AvaStar 2 is out. This is not the production version. This is the Alpha version with Bento support. In the announcement Gaia explains the current problem people are debating. The video by Medhue shows and explains what is being talked about.
Gaia says this alpha version of AvaStar complies with the current proposed Bento model that includes rotation and translation. But, there are concerns about the Bento plan to allow rotation and translation. See the release announcement for a longer story or below the fold for the shorter version. This is an extensive document. If you are animating in SL, read the thing to understand what is coming.
Second Life News 2016 w27
Servers
Surprise. There is roll of a new package to the main channel. I did not expect that the day after a Monday holiday.
This is the package that has been running on the RC channels. It contains security fixes… or a fix… depending on how and what one reads. Also, the Bento animation file size for animation uploads is increased. And there is some fix to email address problems from within scripts.
There is no roll to the RC channels this week. So, the entire main grid will be running the same server software.
Second Life: Oculus Follow Up
Jo Yardley has obviously been watching the news about Oculus use in Second Life. It isn’t good. See: Second Life Oculus ready viewer released, fails to impress.
Seems performance with Oculus has degraded between the time the first Oculus viewer was released and this one. That is disappointing.
Jo provides links to SL Forum discussion on Oculus.
Third Party Viewer Update 2016 w26
Some third party viewers have new releases out. I’ve been meaning to mention that. I’m a little slow getting to it.
Alchemy 4.0.0-37571 shows as being released 6/26. Alchemy now uses automatic updating. It also adds a built-in Animation Override and ‘enhanced’ environment tools…
Second Life: Specular Maps Tutorial
New Work Notes has posted a rare tutorial: Metaverse ProTips: Building With Second Life Specular Maps. Well… I think rare for NWN.
This is a good tutorial on how specular maps are used in SL.