Second Life: Using YouTube for Media

YouTube is a fun site and offers lots of handy features. When we start to build things in Second Life ™ we run into some challenges. YouTube gives us some help.

Nkechi

Nkechi

See: YouTube Embedded Players and Player Parameters. As you scroll down the page you’ll eventually find the commands to add to a URL to get the video player to do what you want.

There are people that have figured out lots of tricks that can be done with the YouTube player. For instance, see: 10 YouTube URL Tricks You Should Know About.

Second Life: State of Video

With the release of the VLC viewer (4.1.1.320331) we will see the video market in Second Life start changing. It as of today, it hasn’t changed much. As it has in most of the rest of the RL world. So, with 4.1.1 we will have a better experience with YouTube and other services.

VLC Viewer and Streaming Media - TV's

VLC Viewer and Streaming Media – TV’s

NOTE: On starting the 4.1.1 viewer I started crashing. I changed regions and all seemed OK. Before I logged off I got a notice that a newer version was available: 4.1.2.320461. I’ve installed it and it seems to be OK.  Continue reading

Second Life: Introduction/Beginner Tutorials

I like to have a collection of tutorials to which I can send new Second Life™ users. Every so often I update my in-world note card list. I give that to new players I meet.

Strawberry Singh has a series of introductory(?) videos and she is adding to and updating her collection. Her post Introduction to Second Life is pretty much an outline of those videos. She has done a good job of answering questions new users have. Including signup, downloading, and installing the viewer, something often missed by tutorial makers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t3tNQ_53us

I find 1 or 2 posts a month in the Second Life Forum asking how to get into SL. These are people that signed up but somehow didn’t realize they needed to download the viewer. It has been a while since I signed up a new avatar. So, I don’t really understand how they miss understanding they need to download the ‘game’. I just know they do. And these are people that write well when posing their question. So, they aren’t mentally handicapped or simpletons. Continue reading

Nvidia vs AMD: Serious Problem

In the last 10 minutes or so of the Third Party Developers’ Meeting the problem with AMD video cards problems came up.

It seems especially the R series of video cards (RX480 etc.) have a problem with OpenGL. See: BUG-20057Visual Artifacts with ALM enabled on some AMD graphics cards.

AMD Screen Artifact - No Fix

AMD Screen Artifact – No Fix

This bug is dependent on screen size. So, you may be able to escape it by changing your viewer window size or screen resolution.

There is a thread in the AMD forum about the problem. It is way techy. See: OpenGL display artifact on W7100. Continue reading

Enchanting Second Life Video

Ben Ya Movie is a YouTube name. Ben Ya posted the video Second Life Beauties (6/2016). The images have been Photoshop’d… or he has a magic video card. But, I find it an interesting and well done video concept. A nice way to show off awesome photos.

Second Life Beauties

Second Life Beauties

Note: Embedding is disabled on this video. So the image is a link to YouTube.

The music is fitting titled: “Empire of Angels” by Thomas Bergersen. While there are sites claiming to provide free download of the mp3 version of the music, I didn’t find any that were not advertising injection scams. So, be careful if you attempt to download it for free. The music is on Amazon.

The YouTube name pairs to the Second Life name Benito Yalin. (March 05, 2007, which is almost exactly a year older than me.) Like most of us he separates RL and SL.

NVIDIA Settings 2016

Minor updates 2022/04

Calla Cela got settings for her NVIDIA card, specifically her 970, from NVIDIA tech support. She made this handy video. Using it I decided to check my settings it has been forever since I looked at them. zOMG! When the Lindens changed the install folder name, (like L O N G ago) my SL setup apparently went away…

There are some gotcha’s in her video. Nothing wrong. Just some places where you are likely to hit a wall. Continue reading

Second Life: Strawberry’s Dance Meme

Strawberry Singh is a Second Life™ blogger, fashionista, maker of tutorials, and fun personality. This week she has a meme about dancing in SL. See: Dancing in Second Life 2016 Challenge!

Strawberry posted this and other videos on YouTube.  She also uploaded her 2014 dancing challenge. That popped up on my phone… The 2016 version is much sexier…  Continue reading

Casting Call for Project Bento

Here’s your chance to be in the movies. The Lab has posted a Second Life casting call for a Drax machinima (1/14/16). If you are interested in showing off what you are working on, be at Bento Island, ADITI January 19 at noon (SLT – PST). The region won’t open until noon.

They'll change the avatar when pigs fly... WELL!?!

They’ll change the avatar when pigs fly… WELL!?!

While you cannot enter Bento Island early, I advise you to log into ADITI, the preview grid, early. The last few weeks have proven the log in process for ADITI is slow and flawed. I have yet to see my inventory update as the planned changes are supposed to. So, I’m pretty sure the new ADITI login process is not in place.

The notice advises those with avatars to show contact Draxtor Despres inworld. Provide him pictures and as much information about your creation as possible. I suspect he is looking for color and human interest and has less of an interest in the technical. What tools you are using will probably be pertinent.

Project Bento is one of the biggest changes to the Second Life avatar ever! More than 90 new bones have been added to accommodate features like subtle facial expressions, articulating fingers, smoothly-flapping wings, waving tails, and much more that was previously impossible or required complex workarounds.

If you’re a creator who’s testing out Project Bento, or one who’s eager to give it a try – now is the perfect time! We’re looking for creators to show off some of the possibilities of Project Bento for an upcoming episode of The Drax Files. There are detailed instructions on how to get started and how to get to the beta grid (aditi) on our wiki page. (TIP:Testing on Aditi does not cost you upload fees!)