Second Life

Things about SL

KirstenLee S21(7) RC1 Viewer Review

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Today we get a new version of KirstenLee’s S21 viewer. KirstenLee says this is a NEW viewer, new in the way that it is compiled, created, using VS2010. For weeks this has been a main topic of discussion in Snowstorm mailing list for weeks… and weeks… It is quite a feat to get viewer working with VS2010. Plus KirstenLee says there is a ton of new code in the viewer.

UPDATE: As of 1:55 PM SLT there have been 4 quick fixes. If you have downloaded a copy before then, get a new download. I’ll be running over to ADITI and then OSGrid.

Orange Tree Region
Orange Tree - Romantic Region (AGNI)

You probably know by now that the Lab’s viewers have Enhanced Avatar Physics. I can now control how my breasts, belly (belly?), and butt bounce and jiggle. This version has improved physics for the avatar. So, the big question from club owners is: can she make the tassels helicopter?

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SL In-World Viewer Help

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You may know that most Third Party Viewers (TPV) have in-world groups for user support. You may not know that there are in-world groups for the Second Life Viewer (SLV). There are some other groups that are for SL support too.

The Groups:

  • SL Open Source Contributors
  • Second Life Beta
  • AW Groupies (See: SL Wiki) Architecture Working Group
  • Second Life Source Developers
  • Second Life Viewer 2.0

 

The Second Life Viewer 2.0 group is slightly misnamed. The group is for all SL series 2 viewers, not just 2.0. The group was founded by Teqi Falta and was recently given to Opensource Obscure (yes, that is a resident’s name).

Opensource Obscure’s blog is in Italian, http://opensourceobscure.com/, but it translates pretty well with Google Translation. It is a good blog for those with Italian as their mother tongue. It is technically oriented.

If you have friends using SLV2, recommend the group to them.

This is still an issue that Linden Lab has not figured out. It is too hard for new residents to find the support groups they need.

 

Interesting Second Life News

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New World Notes has an interesting article on new user sign up rates since the release of the Basic Mode Viewer. Hamlet has marked up an image from Tateru’s Second Life Stats to show what has been happening. I’ve marked up a copy here. The blue vertical grid lines are mine.

Second Life Sign Ups
Second Life Sign Ups

There does seem to be an upward trend. It is very early to be able to say. Notice the data in Nov-Dec. This could just be a phenomena similar to that. We don’t even have 3 weeks of data yet. Let’s give it a couple of months before we decide this is a trend. It’s ok to be hopeful. While this is a good indicator, this isn’t evidence yet.

I took the chart below from the stats at Metaverse Business. Tateru has a similar chart at the link above.

Concurrent Users
Concurrent Users

The concurrency numbers are in a definite trend down. We will need 2 to 4 months or more to be able to see if the downward trend has changed. The last year’s concurrency numbers are graphed at Metaverse.  The trend is generally easing down.

It is nice to be hopeful. But, let’s keep it real.

 

Second Life Mesh Status Week 16

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Work continues on the development of mesh for Second Life. This week a couple of interesting bits of information came up in the Mesh Group.

Second Life Mesh

Bones… people want to stretch and shrink your bones…  It’s not all that ghoulish. When making various avatars it is going to be necessary to create different skeletons. The Lab is not ready for that. They are still getting the skeleton we have to work right with mesh. Adding a couple more arms or legs could be fun but it is technically complicated and way down the road.

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Second Life Mesh Week 15

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Mesh development continues moving forward in Second Life. The rumor that Mesh release is planned for the end of May continues too, in spite of the rumor having been traced to a Linden running a contest for building a mesh avatar that ends then.  There are some new developments.

SL Mesh Upload Costs

Mesh Cost – Equivalency

The current Mesh Project Viewer is reporting high prim costs for mesh uploads. Those numbers are buggy. An 800 triangle mesh is not going to cost 3 to 6 prims. That is an anomaly from the viewer and the server being out of sync. There is code in the viewer that bases its calculations on information calculated and sent by the server. If the two sets of equations are not working together one gets bogus information, which is the case right now. So, don’t have a heart attack if you upload a small mesh and it looks like it will cost a fortune.

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Winter Usage Rates in SL

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The Dwell On It blog provides lots of great statistical information about Second Life and what residents are doing. Today Tateru has an article about whether or not there are more users in Winter than in Summer, which is the intuitive idea most Americans, I think, have about SL residents. I certainly thought so. Here is Tateru’s chart of the data. I’ve added my coloring and year numbers.

Modified Chart
Second Life Usage Stats - See Dwell On It

I’ve added the light blue line and the red stuff. The blue vertical bars are the usage numbers. The red shows the LACK of users in the winters of 2006, 2007, and 2008. They pretty much shoot down the idea that Summer has fewer users.

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