Second Life

Things about SL

Second Life Viewer Non-Update Week 30

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I often use the SLV Development viewer. I’m on one of the version 2.8.3 builds. So, I have a sense of how well it is or is not working. But, that tells me nothing about planning for the viewer. For that information I rely on the Office Hour or as it is now called the Viewer Evolution User Group meeting. Recently that meeting has not been happening. Actually for the last two weeks the Lindens are not showing up. This group was one of the most informative and communicative. Now it is one of the worse if not the worst. So, it is hard to know what is going on with the Linden Lab viewer.

Viewers to be Blocked

Opensource Obscure noticed in the wiki a note in the 2.8.0 viewer release notes about versions of the SLViewer 2 series being blocked. Viewers from version 2.1.1 to version 2.6.8 will be blocked at logon. As the Lindens have promised the 1.23.x viewers are excluded and will be able to login.

I think there are enough code changes and new features in Second Life that one needs a 2.7 or better viewer to get the most out of SL. The blocked viewers are using support services that will likely be turned off in the coming days.

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Second Life Mesh Announcement II

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OK… it’s not their first announcement of mesh. But Thursday’s late afternoon post gives us more information about Linden Lab’s plans and timing.

What is Mesh?

I’ll say the majority of residents are asking, what is mesh? I’ve seen questions asking, how does mesh differ from sculpties? The Lindens have an answer in their announcement: Mesh Update: Part Deux.

It is All Mesh

If their definition-explanation works for you, great. It is definitely a non-techy answer. If you want to see MESH in Second Life, press Ctrl-Shift-R. It is a toggle, so press again to turn off Wireframe. If you are wondering how people figure out or remember all the keyboard shortcuts, see: All Second Life keyboard shortcut keys. Remember. There are different shortcuts in Third Party Viewers (TPV).

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Second Life Server Update Week 30a

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I couldn’t make the Beta Server Group meeting Thursday. But I lucked out and Oskar got the minutes posted on the wiki. So, here is the interesting stuff.

Homestead Performance

A couple of weeks ago a problem caused the script timing in homesteads to go haywire and slow things down. This week the fix for that problem made it to the main grid. So, performance should be much better now.

Release Channels

The Wednesday roll of new code to the release channels was delayed until Thursday. Even then only the Magnum release channel got new code. This is the code that improves the HTTP service. In its first few hours Coyot Linden says it has performed well. If that is the case for the rest of the week it could roll to main grid next Tuesday.

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Second Life Search Changes Again

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I am a light user of search in Second Life. When Linden Lab started trying to improve Second Life Search I pretty much gave up on seriously using it to find anything. I think we are in our third or four iteration of improved search.  Whichever it is, we are on a new iteration now. It seems no better then previous versions. If you like to explore, search provides an interesting array of somewhat related results.

Darrius Gothly’s blog DGP4SL covers Second Life Search. He does SEO stuff for those in SL. I do SEO stuff iRL for various web clients and do pretty well. I tried using those RL concepts when I had a store in SL. RL SEO ideas do not work well in Second Life. So, if you find traffic to your store has suddenly dropped off, check out Darrius’ latest article; Kaaaaaaaa-BOOOOM!

 

 

 

#SL 2.8 Inventory Delay

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Since I installed some version of the 2.8 series viewers I have had inventory lag. There is about a 2 or 3  second delay for every click I try to make in the inventory panel. Even the scroll-bar has a delay. It is very annoying.

Today in the Mesh Volunteer group someone said, ‘Clear your settings and that will go away.’ I tried it and it worked. Now the delay seems to be permanently gone.

The same trick is supposed to work with Kirsten’s Viewer. I’ll try it later today.

Clearing Settings

Your settings are kept in an XML file. On Windows look in: C:\Users\[windows_login_name]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\user_settings\[viewer file name]

The file name for the main SL Viewer is settings.xml. If you use any project, development, or beta viewers there will be multiple settings files. Make sure you get the right one. They have names that make it obvious which file goes with which viewer.

Slow Rez

Some time ago there was a round of viewer versions that were slow rez’n things and avatars. That problem is back in the Development viewer. Second Life 2.8.3 (237080) Jul 28 2011 04:22:42 (Second Life Development) After 5 minutes most of the avatars around me still have not rezzed. Ping=100 to 150, Packet Loss=0%…

2ndhub Review

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2ndhub is another social network. The network is geared toward Second Life users. How much RL information one uses with 2ndhub is up to you. So, if you are into keeping you RL and SL separate, 2ndhub is catering to you.

I am unhappy with Facebook. I have an account for my avatar and wonder how long it will last.

2ndhub Social Site for Second Life

I still like a couple of games on Facebook, but those are wearing thin now. I play only once per day now and have given up on Frontierville (too many ads in my face) and mostly given up on My Vineyard (same reason). Backyard Monsters is becoming more and more of a grind. Backyard does have a constant flow of new stuff to play with. But, it is a laggy game and doesn’t always work. I think it depends on the time of day…

Google+ is very nice and I love the state-of-the-art interface. But, because of their confused stance on pseudonyms and my use of Google Web Master Tools I canceled my Google+ account.

User Interface

2ndhub has a Facebook style interface. There are no new user interface features. So, use of the service via smart phone is likely tedious. Use via a desktop or laptop is clunky. The interface is cluttered. Everything is a drop down list or simple hyper link. Menus are standard link with a drop down.

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