Second Life News Week #42

General Second Life News

BoM

See the feature… change… request BUG-227585[BOM] Display the new Universal wearables between the Skin and the Tattoos ones.

Gael Streeter (of GA.EG products) has pointed out a possible problem with the use of the Universal Layer added with BoM, Bakes on Mesh.

As it is now, most are familiar with the original Classic layers provided by the SL system pre-BoM and pre-Mesh, Skin, Tattoo, Underwear, and Clothes. These stacked respectively from bottom to top. Each layer could cover the layer below.

10,000 Hours

10,000 Hours

The Universal Layer added a new layer between the Tattoo and Underwear layers. The order of layers doesn’t seem all that important as layers other than skin can be used for any purpose. The problem comes in how people think of the layers and figure out how to use them. So, using a tattoo layer for anything other than a tat is confusing until one learns what is going on.

Skin makers for bodies and heads have run into the problem of adding shiny and wet looks. With the Universal above the Tattoo layer, things get a bit complicated and require way more textures and layer-items to get the look possible if the Universal were moved down one layer.

Think of it as a tat maker having to make their tats for the Tattoo, Universal, Underwear, and possibly the clothes layer so we can dress as we want and stay mix and match. Continue reading

Second Life News Week # 28

General News

A thread in the SL Forum is about what the Lab should do to get more people into Second Life™. (Thread: Its amazing how strong SL seems to be!?) I read through it. Seems everyone has their opinion. I see no real suggestions based on anything other than opinion. So, I doubt the Lindens will find anything worthy of their time. But…

We Are....

We Are….

Are you aware of what the Lindens have done and are doing to attract new users? Or maybe how much they are spending on advertising? Or even how targeted Internet advertising works?

Are you aware the Lab has done and continues to do lots of A-B testing?

If you can’t answer yes to most of these questions and whip off some of the university studies carried out in SL then why would you think you are qualified to advise the Lab on what they should do?

In the article The Daily Grind: What tends to attract you to an MMO? Massively Overpowered provides a way to get information that people actually may know something about that could be useful. The title explains it all. Continue reading

Second Life News Week #26

Getting the news out took a bit as I decided to include my own Meet the Lindens video. Pantera Północy posts his videos more quickly than I do. I get bored with his single camera angle. I also process the video to improve the audio… since my camera is moving around have to capture audio at my avatar’s location, not the more easily controlled camera location which has the audio level is all over the place if I move around. That single spot audio is not the best, so I think it still needs some help. But it is serviceable.

Other News

I’ll start off with this alarming bit of news showing where RL government is going with climate change, Climate Apocalypse? Ireland To Ban Private Cars, Import 1M Third-World Migrants. Whatever you think about Climate Change, make sure you aren’t just drinking someone’s Kool-Aid.

SL16B Crowd – The Meet the Lindens Tuesday event was attended by close to 200 people, 11 were Lindens, spread over four regions. Max per region was about 55. I didn’t crash and things worked well. People were a bit slow rendering, textures lagged, but no regions crashed. My FPS was in the 7 to 11 FPS (i5, 32GB, GTX-1060 High-Ultra Shadows + Projectors). – April’s mic was cutting out. – The video is a bit jerky. At 7FPS that happens.

Video Abstract

The video starts with Oz and April telling us about their history with Second Life™. Both were residents before they were hired by the Lab. I found this part of the video INTERESTING… Saffia is a good interviewer.

When we can get Oz or other techy Lindens talking, they always have interesting stuff to say and we learn things about the SL system.

In this Meet the Lindens meeting, April Linden confessed that 2 to 6 months ago they moved the SL inventory to the cloud. Not every detail has moved, but basic inventory (database) now runs in the cloud on much faster computers. And no one noticed, which is what the Lindens want. Continue reading

Second Life News 2019 w08

We have some news. Nothing too earth-shaking Firestorm did get their Animesh supporting viewer released. EEP server-side is behind expectations by another week. But better to fix before grid-wide release. The third-party dev UG  (YouTube video) was last Friday.

Servers

No roll to the main channel. We are staying on version #19.01.25.523656. They found an issue while the planned to roll version was in RC last week. So, there will be a new RC of this one Wednesday. But the regions reaching two weeks without a restart will be getting a restart.

Take over

Take over

An issue for some has come up. If the regions are restarted at different times their day/night cycle gets out of sync with adjacent regions. When the main grid is restarted for an update all those regions are pretty much in sync for daytime.  Regions that have been restarted at various times for some reason get left out of the two-week no update restart, at least I think that is what is being complained about.

Seems the Lindens are not deliberately trying to do a daylight time sync. It is just however it works out. They consider when daylight happens as up to the region owner. Continue reading

Second Life News 2019 w07

The planned roll out to the main channel (leaving us running #19.01.25.523656) was canceled due to a bug in the logging. So, no restart to the main channel. Main channel regions got a restart last week.

The Deploy notice was posted Monday and revised Tuesday. So, if you are confused, it is because of late breaking changes.

Blue Steel and Le Tigre will update to #19.02.08.524296. This includes the EEP feature, which is to being installed in more regions fo broader testing.

Continue reading

Second Life News 2019 w03

Servers

No Deploys post this week. Simon Linden tells us there will be an RC rollout. My main channel home region did not restart today, Tuesday.

The only change Simon mentions is more logging is added to the RC.

Can't stop the dawn

Can’t stop the dawn

Viewers

The main/default viewer remains version 6.0.1.522263. Last updated 2018 week #50.

Second Life Bugsplat Viewer version 6.1.0.522614 – Last update was in week #47. 

Second Life EAM Viewer version 6.1.0.522564 – Last updated 2018 week #51.

Second Life Love Me Render Viewer version 6.0.2.522531 – Last updated in week #50.

Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.6.515934 – Last updated in 2018 week #10.

Second Life Project Bakes On Mesh Viewer version 6.0.1.522127 – Last updated in week #50.

Second Life Project EEP Viewer version 6.0.2.522550 – Last updated in week #51.

Takes some time for things to start moving after the holidays. Plus, the flu is starting to hit. (Flu Map)

Continue reading

Catznip Beta 12.1.1 vs Firestorm 5.1.7

I just noticed a post from a couple of months back on the difference between Catznip Viewer and Firestorm Viewer. Alyona Su provides a good comparison based on her experience. She switched and is now using Catznip as her primary viewer. Not my experience.

Catznip vs Firestorm September 2018 – FS on timer: 00:01:23 @ DD 256m

Those switching to Catznip experience it being faster and less crashy than Firestorm. Remember. Viewers are very sensitive to the computer they run on. What is crashy on one machine may not be on another. Viewer speed in FPS and render time is also sensitive to your hardware and connection. So, Catznip may crash more and be slower on your hardware. But, try it and know. Hopefully the chance is you’ll have good results. If not, well no one will make you use it.

The release of Catznip I last used was Catznip R12 – Dec 31 2017 12:50:12 (64bit) (Catznip Release). Visiting the Catznip website you’ll find R12.0 is still the main release, Catznip R12 – Dec 31 2017 12:50:12 (64bit) (Catznip Release). OR version 12.0.6.180160035. No update since then. Continue reading

Second Life News 2018 w07

Servers

Monday Caleb Linden posted the Deploys notice. The main channel is getting a restart. But will continue to run the same server version, #18.01.17.511913. The restarts are said to have started rolling across the grid at 3AM PT.

Blue Steel may get a new package Wednesday. The Deploys notice says they have not yet decided.

Heart Shaped

Heart Shaped

Le Tigre and Magnum will continue to run #18.01.17.511913, the package they ran last week. I doubt they will get a restart…

Viewers

The main viewer is now 5.1.1.512121. This is the upgrade with fixes to the voice features. The previous version 5.1.0.511732 released in week #2. Continue reading