Not a lot is happening in sim development right now, well … that is exciting anyway. The work of fixing bugs and tweaking performance continues and keeps Lindens busy. There are a few interesting tidbits.
The Morris region in ADITI got a new version of the LSL Optimization Project last week, week 35. Scripts should run faster there. Andrew is looking for any data people may gain experimenting with scripts there.
Andrew Linden is looking at the Lab’s auto-build service and considering how to move server development over to it and VS2010. There are advantages to using VS2010. I’m not doing any serious software application development, so I have no idea why it is better, other than the general newer is better thing.
But, there are several compile issues that will be improved by moving the server development over to the auto-build process. Things like using newer libraries and upgrading the server’s OS kernel are dependent on moving to auto-build. So, the move to VS2010 may just be a side effect.
Update: 2012-03-08 – The coming Mesh Deformer is going to change some of the thinking in this tutorial. At the time I wrote this and these tutorials were being made the thinking was using our avatar shape to make custom mesh clothes was a good idea. In some ways it still is. But, for those of us that sell clothes, not so much. The Mesh Deformer will allow mesh clothes to be adjusted by the viewer to any avatar. This means making clothes for the base avatar is probably the better choice.
UPDATE: 2012-05-13 – There is a Mesh Deformer Project Viewer available with the 0.3.3 version of the Deformer. You need this viewer to upload mesh that will use the Deformer. This the only SL Viewer that recognizes mesh deformation and displays and uploads it. A number of TPV’s have the Deformer in test versions.
You can get a copy of the Deformer Project Viewer from:Downloading Viewer Test Builds. I also have a link in my blog’s left column. You can find lots of information on the Deformer in this blog, just click Deformer in the tags section of the right column. There is additional information in JIRA STORM-1716.
Ashasekayi has made a 6 part video tutorial on making mesh clothes. The tutorial uses Blender 2.49 rather than 2.5x. That is good and bad news. The good news is that Blender 2.49 has been doing a better job of making importable clothes than 2.59. The bad news is everyone is moving to Blender 2.59. Linden Lab is working to fix problems with Blender 2.59 clothes imports and has it mostly fixed. Following are my tips to help get you through the tutorial, avoid some gotchas, and descriptions of each video part’s content.
Mesh Clothing Video Tutorial
I suggest you use Blender 2.49 if you plan to follow the tutorial, especially if you are not familiar with 2.59. I started out using Blender 2.59 to follow the videos. It is not too bad. Keyboard shortcuts are mostly the same between 2.4 and 2.5. When I reached the point where I needed to copy bone weights I ran into problems. Over the last couple of days those have been worked out. Read this article and you’ll know how to use 2.59 for the bone weights work. I used Blender 2.49 while I worked through the problems with 2.59. Then redid it using 2.59.
Second Life’s second quarter economic stats were released 2011-08-13. Since then several people have blogged their take on the numbers and what they may mean. Those that have heard the addresses and panel discussions at SLCC 2011 have probably noticed a disparity between what bloggers are saying and what Lindens are saying. I’ll take a look at both sides of the coin.
The Bloggers
Several bloggers posted their reviews of the economic stats before SLCC convened. Others posted after SLCC concluded. Some of those posting are:
Some time ago I wrote about Google shutting down their free Translation API. This is the service Google provided and Second Life Viewers use to handle language translation. Google has now come out (8/24) with pricing for the Paid-Translation-Service-API. So, what happens to our viewers?
Google Translate
As It Is Now
It only works in Local Chat and is disabled by default. One enables it in Me->Preferences->Chat. At the bottom of the panel is a check box to enable machine translation.
Whether you are a merchant or a shopaholic failed deliveries are a PITA. Darrius Gothly has a post in the SL Forum (A New Theory Why The Shopping Cart Causes “Failed Deliveries”) about failed deliveries and what might be done to improve things. A quick summary follows.
Concept
Darrius has the idea that we may not be have a higher rate of failed deliveries, but only a perceived higher rate. It is like not having a TV, so you don’t know about all the storms around the world. You get a TV and hear about them and suddenly start thinking there are more storms than ever. It is not the weather that changed, it is you intake of information that changed. You are now aware of what is going on.
Darrius explains how the shopping cart in the Market Place (MP) has changed the information flow so that we see more delivery failures. We personally have no increase in failures, but merchant reporting tells us about more failures and raises our awareness.
