Update 2010-09-15 – after fold – Update 2010-09-15 11:28 PM – Update 2010-09-16 – Details from Nyx Office Hours – 2010-09-17 – Update 2010-09-23 – Link to new Mesh Wiki Page
Wow! Oh wow! I thought this was a feature that was almost dead. I did not expect to hear another word on the subject this year. Here is whasup.
The current news out is the closed beta testers that have been under NDA, are now released from the NDA as part of the Lab’s new open door policy. They have started talking and posting videos. The Lab has a page up on their YouTube.com channel. See Second Life Channel Meshes – This is a play list, so you can see a bunch of videos.
Updated 10:30 PM PDT – Various revisions and additions that change the tone and meaning of several points previously made.
Today there is a new post on the Emerald blog announcing the end of the Emerald Viewer, a final release version and then the coming blocking of the viewer by Linden Lab.
See: The End (dead link)
It’s over. Bummer.
The current in progress viewer is going to be released. We can see what the team has developed and added. That should be interesting. But, they are hinting that at some future time LL will block Emerald Viewers. We have no idea when that may be or even that it is for sure.
Paisley Beebe did an interview on Treet.TV (I can’t find a video link – Audio Linkpage down to the Update! Audio Recording of tonights Paisely Beebe show) with Jessica Lyon and Arabella Steadham, members of the Emerald Dev Team, Sunday night 2010-08-22 about 7:30 PM SLT.
Prior to the Emerald interview Keiko Takamura was interviewed and A couple of comments were made about Emerald-Gate. Apparently things got complicated in SL and Paisley had to move the interviews to a secret location. Keiko was surprised at the passion of people in regard to Emerald, sort of an, OMG, they have pitchforks! — If you have not heard Keiko’s music, check it out.
Treet.tv Emerald Interview
Starting out we learn Arabella Steadham, the communication manager for Emerald, resigned Saturday (Friday?) Night… It seems she resigned because she was asked to lie. She could no longer work in the environment. (It is hard to say exact times things happened because of Arabella being on the other side of the Date Line from Linden Lab). After resigning and during an emotional period she met with Fractured and others of the Emerald team. They decided they could save Emerald. But, Fractured would have to give up control. They asked him to resign and turn over control. It took Fractured a bit of time but he agreed and the servers were turned over to Arabella and Fractured posted his resignation.
On July 13 a post appeared on the Emerald Modular blog. Concerning recent activities.. Sounded like a bit of drama. Not uncommon in connection with the Emerald Viewer.
Now another post appears. Recent News, August 14. Both of these seem like they are part of the ongoing drama we see related to virtual world and online communities. But then we start seeing other blogs and forums picking up the story and expanding on it. So, what is the story and who do we believe?
Trust to Rust?
Another problem is that some of the detractors of Emerald are lose wing nuts. That has to a great degree numbed the community to complaints about the Emerald viewer and dev team. This latest scandal is more fact based than drama based. There seems to be a real problem.
Update: 2010-08-14 (at end of article) – I’m depressed. Gwyneth Llewelyn wrote Good-bye, meshes! Gwyneth works in the RL virtual worlds service fields and apparently has contacts among the Lindens. She writes about the status of the supposed coming Collada meshes. Seems they may not just be delayed but canceled for the foreseeable future. Bummer. (Her blog changed appearance, a nice new look.)
Is Second Life Dying?
Gwyneth describes why this is likely to become a major disadvantage for Second Life’s ability to compete with other virtual worlds. I think it is so important that it may mean the end of SL, not tomorrow or next year, but…
