Second Life

Things about SL

Second Life Bits 2015-03

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This was to be a Happy New Year post, the first of 2015. But, blog/server problems messed up that plan. Since then RL has been delaying my getting it published. I’m just getting back to this now. So, belated Happy New Year!

I just thought this was a cool image... See Fab Free.
I just thought this was a cool image… See Fab Free.

Life is still busy for me as I finish up multiple projects with more lining up. I know I’ll be writing less in January than I have in the past.

Inara, Ciaran, and Mona do a good job of covering the news. So, I may move to only covering those parts of Second Life they skip. So, for now I expect to publish more bits and less news.

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The Second Life News-Scape

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Viewer news has been decreasing, at least in my opinion. Most of 2014 I’ve been writing about Firestorm catching up with the SL Viewer and we still aren’t there. Firestorm is basically on a quarterly release plan. So, there is only infrequent news to report in the Firestorm regard.

Peeping Tom
Another Mr. S photo…

Cool VL Viewer and Singularity serve what I perceive to be an increasing smaller audience of the Version 1 interface users. I’m not saying their user count is decreasing. As users on older computers move away from Firestorm and the SL Viewer their user numbers may  increase for a time. But, I think that will change as time passes. And SL2 is likely to be a final nail…

The fans of third party viewers generally follow the viewer developers’ blogs. So, I think the need for news on these viewers is decreasing. Mostly I am less interested in the viewer changes happening now and that makes it hard for me work up the energy to cover them. 

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Second Life 2014 in Review

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Writing the annual review is a lot of work and takes time I will be using for RL projects. Ciaran and others have written their reviews of 2014. I’m going to skip mine this year. But, I do have some thoughts on 2014 and the coming 2015.

I have been tracking concurrent user numbers for the past 3 years.

Concurrent Users 2011 to 2014
Concurrent Users 2011 to 2014

There has often been a discussion about whether or not there is a seasonal aspect to the use of Second Life. I think the chart answers that question. It shows most clearly in the peak concurrent users line and a bit less in the minimum line, but it is still there.

Notice that about July-August of each year there is a low point in the numbers. From then to February-March the numbers increase to a peak then start to fall to the February-March low point. It seems pretty consistent from year to year for the last 3 years. 

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AvaStar

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Gaia says: You have to update your AvaStar to AvaStar-1.3-18 when you want to work with Blender 2.73 (RC).

There are some problems with 2.73. The Blender people are holding back its release while they make fixes. But, there is an RC version out.

AvaStar 1.3-18 is the recommended version for Blender 2.73. Any earlier AvaStar version is likely to produce problems with 2.73.

The Buzz

We may find preset shapes in AvaStar someday. It was been discussed with Gaia this week. So, we may eventually see child, tiny, giant, and other shapes.

I don’t expect Gaia to add the ‘Standard Sizes’ as presets into AvaStar. But third parties may make add-in shapes for Blender and/or AvaStar. 

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Second Life Bits 2014-52

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Second Life Experience Keys

In progress for over a year the Experience Tools are nearing a first release. The Lab has now made an announcement: Manage Experiences with a New Release Candidate Viewer.

The video is from 6 months ago. There are live ‘Experiences’ you can visit. (Experiences) The announcement moves thing into the Beta stage.

You need to be able to explain what you plan to do with an Experience Key to get  one.

There is also a Project Viewer that goes along with the Beta: Experience Viewer version 3.7.23.297364. Download

For more information from the user side see Inara’s article: Lab issues Experience Keys release candidate viewer. 

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Second Life Wiki Lockdown 2014-52

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I have a bit of time to write today. RL is still busy with work and holiday related stuff. I can confirm that Adobe’s latest release of Dreamweaver is way buggy when one tries to use their new fluid ‘LIVE’ design features. It appears Adobe is moving away from Dreamweaver and toward their new Adobe Edge.

SL Wiki

I’m not sure how many of my readers use the SL Wiki. I suspect even fewer add to its content. Those of us that do contribute to the wiki content have been blocked for some time. The SL Wiki is no longer user editable. Few Lindens can edit it.

Months ago some socially dysfunctional people started vandalizing the wiki. The Lindens locked it down to stop the vandalism.

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