Second Life

Things about SL

Mesh Deformer Changes

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Today we got a Second Life™ blog post about the fate of the Mesh Deformer. See: Making Mesh Garments Fit Better. So, what is going on? Well, quoting Linden Lab:

Today, we are launching an experimental Project Fitted Mesh Viewer with additional collision bones needed to support dynamically fitted mesh garments on all of the avatars. When these changes have been finalized, they will enable garment designers to use the superior capabilities of mesh content creation tools to make garments that adapt to a wide range of Second Life avatars.

The point of this change is that this Fitted Mesh viewer and new new Fitted Mesh clothing will allow better fitting mesh clothes for a WIDE RANGE of SL avatars is a big deal. One of the frequent objections to the mesh deformer was that it had problems working with a ‘wide range’ of avatar shapes. Large and tiny avatars didn’t work so well with the Deformer. So, this is a big feature plus… provided it works well. 

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Second Life Taxes

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The Second Life blog now has a post from the Lab regarding tax reporting issues. See: Required Tax Documentation. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires Linden Lab to collect and retain Form W-9 (for U.S. residents) and Form W-8BEN (for non-U.S. residents) at certain transaction volumes. If you reach the transaction threshold and we do not … Read more

Second Life News 2013-47

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This Tuesday we are getting a rollout to the main channel. This is the package that ran on Blue Steel and Le Tigre last week (46).  It is the Experience Tools package. We know very little about what is changed in this release. It is Experience Tools ‘infrastructure.’

Server Beta Meeting 2013-44
Server Beta Meeting 2013-44

RC Channels

Magnum will run the same package as last week, a maintenance release with bug fixes. My article from last Tuesday covers the details.

This release gets merged with the release going to the main channel. Plus the Lindens are tweaking the Grey Goo fence to remove some of the problems inflicted on large item rezzing tools. The new stricter control now will only apply to tools rezzing physical objects.

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Firestorm to Start Blocking Viewers

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Jessica Lyon, the project manager for the Firestorm Viewer, posted that they will begin blocking older versions of their viewers. Jessica is anticipating the drama this will bring on. By her writing you can tell she is expecting a chorus for complaints one might hear from a 10-year old trying to manipulate their parents.  I suspect she is right.

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

Jessica points out they have little choice. It is either the Firestorm team blocking or the Lab will take over blocking. I’m not sure that is completely accurate. But, I can see how some will see things that way. In general the Lab does not block viewers. But, if you use the newer viewers you really don’t have a choice about updating your viewer. It automatically updates by default. But, that can be turned off.

There are mandatory updates that the Lab requires from time to time. I expect as some of the current changes being made allow better overall SL performance, which are viewer dependent, more updates are going to be mandatory. So, whether there is a misconception about what is and is not going to be blocked and by who, you are going to be updating your viewer or find yourself unable to login. Otherwise you will be degrading other people’s performance. 

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Metareality: Weak Sauce

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The last podcast from Metareality was in April. In this cast Kim/Gianna is saying they plan to be back doing more regular casts, back to the weekly format. You can listen to the cast here: Weak Sauce.

This is an uncensored audio. No bleeping, so there is some profane language… actually a lot.

I remind you, my usual warning is: I paraphrase what I hear and make no attempt to transcribe the audio. Listen to the audio before you react to anything I’ve written.

[youtube 9hUUsqhetX4]

Index

02:00 TOS Discussion starts. Karl describes the change as the Lab becoming a co-owner in all that you create and upload to Second Life™. Karl rants a bit, not much, and I have to agree with his points. Spot on little rant in my view.

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