Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Things about SL
Calab Linden has taken over posting information about Second Life™ server updates. We get a lot less information than we did with Simon Linden. Whether that is the difference in people or just that less work is being done on server updates, I don’t know.
This week there was no roll to the main channel this week.
I don’t know how well known the name is in Second Life™. I think the name Ivory Tower of Prims is probably better known. Lumiere Noir was the builder of the Ivory Tower Library of Prims. I’ve been to the Tower a number of times. It was a big help in my learning how to build with prims. I believe it is the best prim tutorial going.
August 10, 2015 Lumiere Noir passed away. Separation and loss are painful. There are degrees of grief. It seems to depend on ones beliefs. Whatever they are, no one seems to have words that adequately express our sense of loss or the empathy we have for those closest to Lumiere. Trying to express our feelings and comfort others in these matters shows how little we can actually do. But… we do what we are able. I can empathize, regret the loss, and deal with grieving my small part of the loss.
A number of Second Life Bloggers have covered Lumiere’s passing and in-world memorial. One of those is Daniel Voyager. He has pictures up from the memorial. Mine were taken after the memorial.
As to the Tower, no one is saying what will happen to it. However, most things Tower related are group owned. So, there are others to care for it. If you are looking for more information, contact Avi Arrow.
A new version of Kokua Viewer has released: 3.8.2.36975. This is a VMM (Viewer Managed Marketplace) compatible viewer. The release notes are here.
This version is not up to date on RLV.
The Linux version has several caveats.
Inara Pey has an article about a program named Reshade that can be used with Second Life™. The author calls it a post-processing injector for games… Post processing simply means processing an image after it is initially rendered or captured. The injection part is about setting the software up to capture images from your game software, in Second Life’s case: the viewer, by adding software to the viewer.
If you Photoshop images (post-process), I do, then this add-on allows you to do much of what you would do with PS but to machinima/video. I’ll call this software a baby sister to Adobe’s After Effects. It is limited compared to After Effects. But, is a great tool for almost free.
Ciaran Laval in his blog has an article on Neoliberalism And Cardboard In Virtual Worlds And Games. Despite the title it is about the direction virtual worlds are going. He quotes from Elliot Murphy’s essay on computer games and politics: Always a Lighthouse: Video Games and Radical Politics. This may give us another hint on Sansar’s economic model.
In America I suspect many will confuse the liberalism intended with the popular liberal/progressive ideology the mainstream media touts. In a 1984 style, radicals and socialists have taken over the word liberal for their use in describing socialism/collectivism, which are not liberal. But, in Ciaran’s quote we see neoliberalism is being used in its more classic meaning, i.e., the core tenets of neoliberalism: privatization, deregulation, commodification, and a celebration of personal profit. My kind of thinking.
Canary Beck has an interesting poll up: How much do you mix your real life with your Second Life? It originate from Hamlet’s site: Short Survey on Second Life vs. Real Life Identity. You can answer the poll at either site. It is the same poll regardless of where you access it from.
The results should be interesting.