Things about SL
Hamlet has an article up about Internet ads for Second Life™ which are NOT being run by Linden Lab®.
Lueur d’espoir …
I am mentioning this because there is a possible security risk. Please read the article, Who Is Publishing Fake Ads For Second Life Pregnancy Roleplay And Why?
The rent is too damn high… a popular exclamation in Second Life™. For relief check out Penny Patton’s article Reducing the Cost of Land by Scaling Down.
This is not her only article on reducing land cost or making more efficient use of Second Life. So, you may want to browse her blog.
I’ll point out here that Penny’s ideas on the ‘Default Camera Position’ are being adopted by the Lab. We will soon have “Preset Default Camera Positions” as a feature of the Linden Viewer.
Doors – Another thing with Penny and her building to scale. In another article, Smaller Doors Anyone Can Fit Through, she on about making doors into SL building to scale.
The handy knowledge in this article is for those that have bought homes/building other have made. How does one scale down a building and still fit through the door? Penny has the answer.
Animations – I came across this video from a post in a Plurk.
Notice the hand and face animations.
On Plurk Dutchie® has been promoting the ‘dance’ chair. There are some NSFW images from the dances. Continue reading
The main channel is now running version #18.01.17.511913. The version ran on all three RC channels last week. It is reported in the wiki as having Internal Changes. Mazidox Linden described it at the Server Beta UG as, “This week we promoted a couple of things to RC on Agni including DRTSIM-367 (internal fixes) and a version of the service that handles avatar bakes, built with the new version of our OS.”
Shhhhh
The bake service is not actually a simulator change. It is a change in a backend service. The server and service have to work together. So, there is probably some simulator change. But, maybe just in which API it uses to bake the avatar.
The Linux Operating System (OS) the Lab uses in its server gets updated every so often. They have been (are?) in the process of another OS update. Continue reading
Skies – Hamlet has been following Stevie Davros’ development of improved sky textures for Second Life’s Windlight™. Today Hamlet is writing about their release. Seems they are now available in the SL Marketplace.
Below is the installation tutorial for Mac and the Linden viewer. I highly recommend using the package with Firestorm. But, while tedious they are usable with the Linden viewer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=40&v=ZykmGCpVG7c
This installation information for the viewers will be good until the release of EEP, Enhanced Environment Project, a Linden developed enhancement. There is no ETA for the release. I definitely expect it to release in the first half of 2018. But, I could be wrong.
You’ll find some free cartoon clouds. Other artistic clouds sell from L$99 to L$599. The Natural Clouds package sells for L$599 and has 8 cloud textures and comes with 60 Windlight settings files. You can see the effect of the package in a Flickr collection. Very awesome. A more organized collection showing the clouds in the various packages is here.
Warning: Changing the cloud textures requires some basic file handling. Also, clouds must be chosen before the viewer is launched. For the Linden viewer, this means going in and renaming a couple of files each time you change clouds. With Firestorm, it is a matter of a one time install and a menu selection before logging in. (Preferences->Firestorm->Windlight (tab)->Cloud Texture (drop))
Also, see my earlier article New Skies for Firestorm for a bit more information. There is a link to Juicy Bomb’s 2013 tutorial there too.
Firestorm released version 5.0.11.53634. The download is here.
There are some controversial changes in this version of the viewer. I think the controversy is from confusion which is from ignorance.
The issue is about the Level of Detail (LoD) setting RenderVolumeLODFactor found in the debug settings (Ctrl-Alt-D=Menu Advanced->Debug Settings). The Firestorm Team has explained why they are making the change. See LOD and The Upcoming Firestorm Release The What and Why. It gets all technical, but it is an accurate description of how SL works.
Gate Of Hell
The TL:DR is that high RenderVolumeLODFactor settings have your computer spending time drawing complex things which are so far away they only take up one or two pixels on your screen. Does it matter if a jacker has a dozen buttons if the whole jacket is so far way it can be drawn in 4 pixels and is just a tiny tiny spot on your screen? If you can’t see the buttons, why draw them? LoD is about making these optimizations and providing better performance.
Doing all the useless drawing of thousands of pixels to average them down to 4 pixels for your screen lags your render process and slows the SL system because all that detail has to be downloaded. Dumb move. Continue reading
We have a Deploys post this week. 🙂
The main channel is not getting a roll. I’m showing my home region in the main channel as last restarting 1/16, last Tuesday.
All three RC channels are to get a rollout tomorrow. Version #18.01.17.511913. It is only described as ‘internal fixes’. There was no additional information available from the Server-Scripting UG Meeting.
Peaceful
There is work on region crossings by a resident. See the forum post Vehicles vs. sim crossings, why it’s so awful. Animats could use some help testing region crossing. Also, see the JIRA report SVC-22.
For builders, there is information that only the physics part of the road matters. The physics part of the road should be thick, vertically, and extend past the region edge by a couple of meters.
The main viewer today is version 5.1.0.511732. This is the 64-bit viewer that released in week #2.
Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.1.1.511871 – This is a new version this week. I suspect it just got the 64-bit updates.
Second Life Voice Viewer version 5.1.1.511952 – This too got updated with 64-bit. Expect this to be next version bumped to main.
Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.0.506743 – No change since week #27…
Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.1.1.511908 – This got an update. I suspect some fixes and the 64-bit update.
Second Life Project Render Viewer version 5.1.1.511933 – This is also and update. No information about what might be in it other than the 64-bit update.
Second Life Linux Spur Viewer version 5.0.9.329906 – This is a new entry in the Obsolete Platform section. Basically, there is no working Linden Linux viewer. There are a couple of third party Linux versions that people can use.
Hamlet and Strawberry are asking that you subscribe to your favorite YouTube peeps. YouTube is changing their partner program. Some video bloggers in the SL blogosphere will lose their partnership status due to changes at YouTube. See: Subscribe To Great SL YouTuber Channels Before They Lose Partner Program Status.
And we have a new warrior in the LoD Settings Wars. Beq Janus has posted her explanation of what setting the viewer’s LoD to 4 does to the overall SL system. See For LOD’s sake stop!
No Deploys post this morning, 9 AM. There is/was an in-world notice the main channel was being restarted. My home in the main channel regions saw a restart.
JUSTICE LIZA BOOTS GIFT OF THE GUARDIAN – here
The main viewer was still 5.0.9.329906 this morning. We saw this version appear in week #49. Later in the day Alex Ivy was promoted to the main viewer. So, Second Life Alex Ivy Viewer version 5.1.0.511732 which appeared in week #2 became the main viewer today.
Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.0.10.330173 – This is an update replacing last week’s 5.0.10.330148. So, this one is getting a fast series of updates.
Second Life Voice Viewer version 5.0.10.330039 – Last updated in week #50. This version is working well and is the second most likely to promote to the main viewer. So, we should see this one get the 64-bit update and come out as a new version later this week.
Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.0.506743 – no update since week #27. This viewer is supposed to move from a project viewer to an RC version soon.
Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.0.10.330058 – Last updated in week #49. We are not likely to see any changes here. Work is on the server side and fixing animesh behaviors. Animesh is pretty much feature locked for the remainder of this phase.
Second Life Project Render Viewer version 5.1.0.511604 – Last updated in week #2.
Black Dragon did NOT update this week. But, NiranV has an article on optimizing an avatar, My Adventures In Optimizing My Avatar.
Firestorm has not yet released an update. The last new version, 5.0.7, was released in the last half of June 2017. The release before was 6-months previous. So, the stated quarterly release plan is shot. I am still hopeful we will see a release this month. But, I wouldn’t put money on it.
I have seen FS users posting in Firestorm Support with a version 5.0.11. So, there is a beta version running around being tested. It is just a matter of when the general user will see it.
Catznip – I’ve tried this viewer several times now. I wrote about just after the latest update in January, Catznip Viewer R12 – Awesome or Not?
I love the viewer except for it not rendering textures until I run my cursor over them and then they don’t stay rendered. Over a three-week period, I’ve seen this as a consistent problem. As it only happens with Catznip and not 3 other viewers (LL, FS, BD), I’ll say it is a viewer issue with Catznip.
Penny Patton has an article up, The No-Mod Rebuttal. Her point is in our oh so poorly optimized world of amateur-made content we need to be able to optimize what we buy. So, avoid No-Mod items whenever possible.
I think Penny oversimplifies. But, I agree with her basic idea. Most things do NOT benefit from being No-Mod. A few things do need to be no-mod. Those things that depend on scripts to work use No-Mod to prevent spy scripts being added. If griefers could easily gain information on the communications channels, HUD to item, then they could easily mess with us. That would force designers to add encryption and other complications that would drive up the script load.
In the ever-escalating war with griefers, No-Mod is often the outer fence. Yes, it can be scaled and penetrated. But, it is something.
Justice & Underground – I am not sure why I haven’t come across the Justice and Underground brands before. I stumbled across them today. Justice is clothes to buy and wear. Underground is about buying the designer kits to make your own stuff. The stores are here.
There is some interesting news. Not much but a bit.
The Alexy Ivy Viewer was updated in week #2. This is very likely its last update in the RC stream. The next step for Alex Ivy is a promotion to the main viewer.
Oz Linden expects that to happen in week #3. Of course, this depends on not finding any show stoppers in testing.
When Alex Ivy promotes, Oz plans to publish a blog post to encourage people to update to 64 OS. The difference in crash rates is HUGE.
Cold Coffee
The Maintenance Viewer is there…
The Voice Viewer has no known problems. So, it will be the next likely to promote after Alex Ivy.
The 360-Image Viewer is out there… Oz says it is verging on becoming an RC version.
The Animesh Viewer is expected to move to RC status in a couple of months. If you are following the Content Creation UG meetings you know not much new information is coming out. The project is into the ‘make things work correctly’ phase. So, no changes or additions.
The Rendering Viewer is fixing render bugs.
Oz tells us will be a new media update branch. Things like CEF will be getting updates.
Also, another round of tool updates is planned. The Visual Studio version the Lab I suing is 1 version behind.
HTTP, when Alex releases the Lab will be depreciating all non-HTTP API’s. Older viewers not using HTTP will lose functionality.
The Lab will start work on ACI in a couple of weeks. Oz says they plan to fix bad incentives. Some things are calc’s to cost too much and some cost too little. So, they’ll be tweaking the ACI.
No word on a Firestorm release date. But, Firestorm is limiting LoD settings to <=4. Higher values will NOT persist. Plus, they are adding warning and advice not to change because of some notecard advice in the Debug Settings.
Oz says they found backend problems in the group notices system. Partially fixed. Memory leak. Restarting the servers solved most issues.
28:30 – Oz talks about Linux 64-bit viewer. TL:DR – There is one, but it doesn’t work.
EEP – Rider Linden is making the EEP assets. Once done, test regions in Aditi will come up. So, the project is progressing.