Ebbe Altberg Interview

Designing Worlds in Second Life had an opportunity to interview with Ebbe Altberg, the Linden Lab CEO. It has been promoted for a day or two now.  Today the video of the interview was released. You can see the video on SLArtist.com.

Designing Worlds Planned Mesh Deformer Project Meeting
Designing Worlds

This is an interesting video interview. Ebbe’s excitement with SL1 and 2 comes through. He gives us information about SL1 and SL2 and where they are going. I’ll warn you that what he says can be interrupted several ways. His implications are not always clear. So, what you are reading here is what I heard and how I took his meaning. That doesn’t mean it is correct. I think it is, but… 

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Second Life Bits 2014-41

AvaStar

AvaStar 1.2 is out and now Gaia has published an article on what they will be doing now. See: Remarks from the Creators. The interesting take away is that the tutorial videos will be getting updated now that the product has stabilized.

Remembering - Lost Eden - 2014
Remembering – Lost Eden – 2014

Images from Second Life

This week has seen some articles on creating great images using Second Life. New World notes has: Top Four Tips for Flawless, Photoshop-Free SL Snapshots, Family Portraits: This Second Life Photographer Has a Knack for Taking Snapshots of Domestic Bliss, and How to Turn SL-Based Images Into Visual Art. There are others that have commented on the aspects of what makes great images and art.

The Internet has a ton of image composition tutorials. Google Image Composition. 

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Second Life for Oculus

As builders plan for a world to be seen by Oculus Rift users we hear a bit more about building things to real life scale. It is a good idea and has many benefits.

Babe @ Lost Eden - 2014
Babe @ Lost Eden – 2014

What we aren’t hearing much about is how to avoid making visitors sick, simulator motion sickness. I suppose many think that the Oculus Rift people will take care of such problems. The Oculus people are certainly putting thought and engineering into building a system that will avoid giving people simulator sickness. But, they advise those building for Oculus headsets to make sure they can keep their frame rates above 60 FPS…

I suspect the majority of Second Life users seldom see 60 fps. I know with my Quad Core and GTX560 I seem to get 25 to 50 FPS most of the time. If I am in a crowd, it is more like 8 to 12. 

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Second Life News 2014-40 #2

Servers

The main channels did get a roll out. It was the package running on the RC channels for the last 2 weeks (38 & 39 or 39 & 40 depending on how you count weeks for rollouts). This was the package with teaks to the Experience Tools project. It also included some bug fixes.

Bryn Oh Exhibit LEA 9 - 2014
Bryn Oh Exhibit LEA 9 – 2014

RC Channels

The RC channels all got the same package. This is a package that fixes a problem unique to the Skill Gaming regions.

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nPose Sit Pose/Animation Tool – Tutorial

nPose is an open source tool for placing and controlling animations in furniture, or other prims which avatars can sit on. The tool has been around since at least 2010. (reference) I need such a tool for a sofa I am making. In my search I found nPose and thought it might be the answer. This tutorial is the outcome of my research. I am writing it in the early stages of my use of nPose, so expect this tutorial to get updates as I learn more. But, it should get you started.

Initial Note Card
Initial Note Card

The older nPose v0.028, also labeled as version 1.27, can be found here: User:Nandana Singh/nPose. nPose has had considerable work done on it since then. So, I do not recommend using this version, but it works.

A newer version is discussed here: User:Rev Eponym/nPose. The page does not include a download link. You can get the latest version of nPose at Builder’s Brewery. This SURL should pop you right in front of the vendor for nPose (free), at least as of October 2014.

The in world SL Group for nPose is named: nPose. There seem to be more people online in the SL morning than afternoon. I had better luck getting answers in the morning than afternoon. But, I haven’t been in the group long, so that may not be accurate.

Several people have been involved in advancing nPose. The latest work I found was done in June 2014. So, this is a script I consider under active development.

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Second Life Bits 2014-40

Blogs

There aren’t that many fashion blogs for guys. This one popped up in Plurk: Pixel Phashion 4 Men. Which it appears from time to time is definitely NSFW. I suppose that is one way to keep guys reading… For guys that want fashion news it is probably a good choice.

Bryn Oh LEA 9 - 2014
Bryn Oh LEA 9 – 2014

Jopsy’s Particle Laboratory

This is a famous place in Second Life. If you are wanting to learn about making particles, this is the place to check out. It changes from time to time and different example-devices are used. It also seems to always have the latest information on particles. Visit The Particle Laboratory. 

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