Second Life

Things about SL

Script Limits in Second Life

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Most of us that work with scripts and those that own land have heard Script Limits are coming. For many this is scary as it affects so many things.

Ever wonder what happens to an AV wearing scripted objects that enters an area at its script limit? You might expect your AO to stop working. But vehicles one is ‘sitting’ in may be returned to owner … its undecided. But what if your AO is returned to you also? Hmmmm. Not good. But, that AO return probably won’t happen. You’ll just walk funny.

Not much has been reported lately. Getting information on where Lindens are in the process is difficult.

There are however some places where one can find out what is going on.

Thread on SL Forum: http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=337734

Babbage Linden is another source of information as he is doing most of the planning.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Babbage_Linden (scroll down for transcript list)

It appears this is not something that will happen soon. It is a complex change and affects many things. I expect the Lindens to be very cautious with the change and the implementation. But we certainly want to be planning now.

Land of NoR (LoN) Goes DCS2

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This post is about the insides of the RPG’s within Second Life. The largest and, what until now, most exciting game in SL has changed its combat/RP system. What does a meter change mean to a game?

Land of NoR (Nation of Remembrance) is self described as a Dark RPG with combat. Previously it used the WARPS (now XRPS – NextRPS) combat system. For two years this 29 sim RPG used WARPS. Now for various reasons Land of NoR (LoN – do we have enough acronyms yet?) begin upgrading the WARPS to XRPS and is now changing to DCS2, another combat system. Why?

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KirstenLee Cinquetti S-17 and S-18 (208 & 209) Viewer Review

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KirstenLee Viewer Icon
KirstenLee Viewer Icon

This is a Second Life photographer’s dream viewer. I don’t use it for everyday use. But it is fast and has great visual features. As KirstenLee is changing things faster than most other viewer makers so this may be the least stable of the alternate Second Life® viewers. Others claim it is the most stable and needs the least CPU power. That just has not been my experience. Still, if you want that great shot of an area or model looking so sexy, this is your viewer.

Gwyneth Llewelyn wrote about viewers in June and felt the S-17 (198) viewer was simply great. See Pushing the Limits.

I did try it in a combat sim. Server lag, automatic weapons fire and all… it did pretty good. No locks ups and the FPS stayed over 10, which is great for a combat sim.

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Preview of Coming Things in Second Life

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Here is a cool video of the 3D mesh import and dynamic shadows coming to Second Life. If you click to watch on YouTube, you can click the HD button and see detail and read the menus. I suggest that and stop the video to check out what is in them.

Video Gone… 🙁

It is interesting to see ‘Upload Model’ in a menu. As they advance through the video they turn on dynamic shadows. If you have used Kirstenlee’s S-18 viewer and played with dynamic shadows that part will be familiar.

Use of ‘Deferred Rendering’ for shadows is an older technique that Maya has used for years. It has been improved over time and will likely give the Second Life Viewer the ability to render hundreds of lights instead of the 6 to 10 it handles now, without a significant performance hit.

For a bit more information see New World Notes. And their follow up: Aimee Logs Into Second Life… From Within Second Life!

Another good blog post is here: Linden Lab Announces Mesh Support

The ability to remote access computers from SL is a possibility too. See: Trescothick Aims To Please

Also, notice the shadows and lighting. Under the arches there is a light reflection. This is diffuse light or indirect lighting. Usually only done when ray tracing is available. So, this will be a big step up for SL.

Merchants: Rule Change

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Linden Lab has announced a change in how brands will be treated in SL. New World Notes (NWN) writes about it and provides some links for more information in “Unbranded: Lindens To Ban Unauthorized Virtual Copies of Real World Brands on Ecommerce Site”. The Linden Lab announcement is here: Updates to XStreet SL Listing Guidelines.

There is a small conversation in the comments at NWN. There is a large conversation going on in the XStreetSL Forum. See: New Guidelines Forum Thread There is also another thread of conversations here: Chat About XStreet SL Listing Guidelines In the Chat there are several clarifications on subjects beyond just branding issues. Also, Pink Linden states there is a group of Lindens working on the same issues in-world. So, we will likely see this rule change coming into the SL world.

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XStreetSL Currency Exchange Tutorial

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For those doing business in Second Life the Currency Exchange is a tool that can improve their profit margin when they are taking L$ out of world to RL currencies. One just has to understand how it works, which is what this Second Life Currency Exchange Tutorial is about.

If you are a resident that just needs a few Linden dollars on occasional bases to purchase something, you can still gain from understanding how the Currency Exchange works and knowing what it is and how to use it. You won’t need some of the more esoteric information I’ll provide. Knowing the basics will save you a few L$.

The Exchange

Exchange
XStreetSL Currency Exchange

XStreetSL has a Currency Exchange, which is now owned by Linden Lab. This is a place where you can easily buy and sell L$ as well as other stuff. It is a fun place to shop also and has loads of free stuff. There is no StreetSL fee for moving funds between SL and PayPal. Using PayPal is the only way to take cash out of XStreetSL.  URL: https://www.xstreetsl.com/

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