Second Life

Things about SL

#SL Rigged Mesh Fix

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A number of people still use Blender 2.49 to make their rigged mesh exports for Second Life. This means many people use the new 2.5 and 2.6 Blender installs to make mesh and move to 2.49 for the Collada export. Now there is a work-around to eliminate the need for Blender 2.49. \o/

Multiple Versions of Blender

Having multiple version of Blender is common. Depending on what you are using Blender with, having various versions can be a necessity. One never knows when a future change will render a feature or plugin we depend on useless. So, keeping a working version and installing a new version for testing is a good practice.

Because Blender depends on Python, changing versions can become a real pain. Some features and plugins used in Blender require a specific version of Python. One soon learns how much of a problem this can be.

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#Second Life Spell Check

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From a post on SL Universe I got a lead to STORM-83 – As a user who cannot type of [SIC] spell to save their life, I want dynamic spell check for everything I type, so I a little bit more literate. 🙂 It has a total of 5 Watchers as I write this.

Several Third Party Viewers have spell check for local and group chat. But, not the SL Viewer. It seems that will soon change. Oz Linden posted in the JIRA to thank Kitty (Barnett? I’m guessing) for the coming spell check feature. I suppose Kitty has contributed the code to add spell check to the SL Viewer. If my guess is correct this Kitty is the Kitty that provides the RLV code used in several third party viewers.

Every so often I forget the SL Viewer does not have spell check and pop open Preferences to turn it on and soon have a Doh! moment. It will be nice to soon have spell check.

New #SL Feature llTransferLindenDollars

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Today Kelly Linden posted about a new function added to the Linden Scripting Language:  llTransferLindenDollars(). The highlight of the feature is its ability to return the transaction result. You will know if they got the money, refused it, or whether it failed.

See: Upcoming LSL feature: llTransferLindenDollars and transction_result

This function is currently in testing on the ADITI or Preview/Beta Grid. It is in regions; Bethel, Fortuna and Sandbox Wanderton.

This can greatly improve the reliability of vending machines in Second Life. All those failed deliveries we have been dealing with may soon be handled by new vending machines.

Oskar was talking about it in the Beta Server Group today. He said, “…it is major Moundsa. Kelly has been working hard on it. Do all merchants a favor and hop on to ADITI and try it out.”

Metareality Podcast

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If you have not listened to one of Metarealities podcasts, check one out. The podcasts are a panel discussion among three regular members and various guests. Charlar Linden and Karl Stiefavater have been recent guests. The topics covered are current Second Life and virtual world events. They can range from whether Phillip Rosedale, SL founder, really diss’d Second Life and means to exploit third world labor or not to Ashton Kutcher’s explosive gaff tweet.

Metareality Podcasts

The host Gianna is a bubbly person with an empathic nature and a seemingly tolerant world view and willingness to look for broader context and understanding. Draxtor and Reed seem more locked into their meta worlds views with clear opinions and less questioning of their personal opinions and perceptions. The combination makes for interesting discussions.

The recent podcast (11/18) titled, The Perception of Failure and Success, came to my attention because they linked to one of my blog articles, Where is Torley Linden? I had to know what they said about it… OK, me. Nothing. But, they did link and that is good.

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Second Life Mute-Block Changing

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Second Life users have the ability to block/mute those that people that annoy them, both voice and chat. One can also mute objects that are spamming them. Once blocked you cannot:

  • See text chat, hear voice chat, or receive IMs from that person or object.
  • See particles emitted by the blocked avatar or object.
  • Receive items from the blocked object.

But, muting is not fool proof. You can mute someone in-world and it has no effect in, I think, group chat, the market place or in the new social features. I don’t do much muting…

Running on the release channel Magnum is a new update that has the code to move muting from the simulators into what the Lindens call the People API’s. These are the API’s that will become the primary call for all communication tasks in Second Life. The People API is or will be queried to get the information needed to establish a communication cannel. So, it is in a perfect place to control the communication.

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#SecondLife Mesh Week 46

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At this meeting there was not lots of new information. Mostly there was reaffirmation of what we already know. Also there is more confusion about the Mesh Deformer or Deformation Project, which some label parametric-clothes.

Mesh Deformation Project

In previous articles I’ve described the problem with mesh clothes. Later today (5PM SLT/PST) in The Model’s Workshop I will likely be answering questions about the problem. See Mesh Workshop article.

Hamlet wrote an article on the project’s delay. Karl’s Crowdsourced Second Life Mesh Fix Update: Linden Lab Working With Him, But Progress is Delayed. This delay is to be expected. The Lab has been researching available technology to provide the feature. The research of finding technology is complete and the lab is in the process of deciding which technology will best serve LL and SL. The complications are figuring out what works with what we have without breaking existing content. Also, the Lindens have an internal road map for future projects. They have to figure out what will work with the planned directions.

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