Second Life

Things about SL

Second Life Camera Position Tips

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Some time ago I found a camera control Debug Setting I now change in all my viewers. I’ve mentioned it in several of my viewer reviews. Recently I read an article by Penny Patton and learned some more about changing the camera position and view. That inspired me to take another look at camera settings in the Series 2 viewers. Here is what I’ve learned and what may make your SL experience better.

Shopping with a New Perspective

Above is an image that shows my default view when shopping. You might notice I’m not staring at the floor. I did not have to cam around to get the view. I can press ESC a couple of times and come back to this camera position at any time.

This shopping area is in a region named Diesel and an area named The Island of Milk & Cream. It is an Adult area. Knowing that the idea of Milk & Cream takes on new meaning. The creativity and skill of the builder, Penny Patton, is obvious. So, is the humor. Notice the ad for It Figures, shapes for the top heavy.

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Second Life Server Update Week 28

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I’m writing this the last day of week 29. But, server news is always after the fact. For those working on Linden server code things have been busy for the past weeks. Updates to the community seem to be more brief than usual. They have been fixing more and writing less. So, my updates lag as I try to figure out where things are and make sense out what I read and hear. So, here is the latest information I have.

Proof Server Folks are a Bunch of Sharks (Inside Joke)

Week 28

Oskar Linden tells us that several things went wrong in week 28. We saw emergency roll backs. In the Mesh Prep 2 regions sculpties were suddenly being converted to tori. Not all sculpties were converted. Only those sculpties using a stitching type of none.

Stitching types are the way objects are unwrapped to work with how textures are applied. It is a sort of UVMapping thing. Cylinders have a simple style of unwrap that produces a rectangular shape. Think of cutting a cylinder down one side and spreading it out flat.

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Second Life Official Mesh Roll Out

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Linden Lab Offically announced the roll out of mesh to the main grid this morning, 11:32 AM PT/SLT. See the announcement here: Mesh Update.

There are requirements for being able to upload mesh and the ability is limited for now. The first requirement is to take an Intellectual Property Rights tutorial in the form of a questionnaire. You can find it here: Your SL Dashboard.

Mesh Avatar (left)

You must have Payment Information on File (PIOF). This is so that they have positive proof who you are for IP Rights enforcement.

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Mesh Cost

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I’ve seen my first statement of mesh cost, at least the upload cost.

Mesh Cost

I expect this defines what our base upload cost for mesh is going to be. I suspect the complexity equations to have their factors tweaked over the coming weeks. Also tier costs are likely to be tweaked. On the Mesh Volunteer page they say they may tweak prim equivalency at any time.

Second Life Mesh Volunteers Group

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Oskar and Charlar Linden have made and been editing an SL Wiki page titled Mesh Volunteers. The page appears to have been created July 14 and has been getting their attention almost every day since. So, what is it about?

Actually it is hard to place in context. The cookie crumb menu only leads back to the Wiki home page. So, I’m speculating some. Word is out that mesh release is only days away. But, adding mesh to SL is a foundational change to the system. Any change this big is likely to have unintended consequences and unexpected problems. So, the roll out of mesh is proceeding as a very cautious roll out. This new page is probably in preparation for that roll out as it explains some aspects of the roll out that I have not heard.

Mesh Volunteers Page

One of the page’s sections is titled, What are the limitations in this release? The words ‘this release’ strike me as interesting and suggest, at least to me, the page is for the initial roll out.

What are those limitations? It seems some of the roll out plan may have changed. It is hard to tell for sure. But, it warns that not all regions will be mesh enabled and that attempting to move mesh or wear mesh clothing from an enabled region to a mesh disabled region may break the mesh. Ugh! And broken permanently. Ugh Ugh

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Tid Bits of News Week 29

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There are always little bits of news floating around. None are large enough to warrant an article. So, I’ll collect them and post the ones I find interesting when I notice them.

Kirsten Linux

A new version of the Kirsten Viewer for Linux systems is out.

Morris w/Recent Project Viewer showing Windlight

Google+

Still lots of churn about user names  and ID’s in Google+. Tweats and blogs are giving more information. But, we are only hearing a mix of attitudes coming from Google staffers. Attitudes range from vigilante reporting pseudonyms to ways to fool people and get around the problem. No actual position statements from Google and certainly no change in ToS.

Hamlet at New World Notes is ranting about Google+ and pseudonyms. I characterize it as a rant, but it is rational and he makes lots of good points. Plus, there are lots of good stats on pseudonym use. At one point he adds up all the users that are using pseudonyms in various services. I suspect many of those users are duplicates. But, he makes a good point. Now, does anyone know how to get Google to listen?

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