Second Life: SL Main Viewer Update 2017 w16 – New Features

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4/14 the main viewer updated to version 5.0.4.325124. If you have automatic update on, you likely already have the update installed. This version was the RC maintenance version. Release Notes

Garden escape...

This version will now remember if you want to Fully Render a specific avatar that exceeds your ACI setting. You can set an avatar to render as; Default, Always, or Never.

In Preferences->Graphics there is a setting to always render friends regardless of ACI setting. Plus, an EXCEPTIONS button so you can edit who you render or don’t. You can also add people using the + in the upper right. That opens a ‘chooser’ where you can search for a name, or another tab lets you pick from friends, and another tab to pick from nearby avatars.

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Second Life News 2017 w16

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Server

The main channel got an update Tuesday. This is the one with; several internal fixes and two new internal logging modes, another adjustment to fix issues with offline IM and Group Notice delivery reliability, and fixes an issue where large numbers of objects could be returned after a rolling restart.

Graveyard of the Butterflies - Monument
Graveyard of the Butterflies – Monument

The RC channels are getting two new packages. One is the one with increased population limits. That goes on Blue Steel and Le Tigre. The other has not been announced (TBD). It will be on Magnum.

At the Server-Scripting UG they claim the TBD is a top-secret project. You’ll have to decide if they are messing with us or being serious. Both are possible.

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Space the Final Frontier, or Not

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Do you know anything about the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, passed in 1967? Did you know it forbids the claiming of territory beyond Earth? Even if you get there, spending billions, you cannot own the land/asteroid. Cutting off any assurance you can recover your costs or gain any reward. That relegates space exploration to governments … Read more

Second Life: Will We Bake Our Mesh Body Avatars?

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The idea of baking mesh avatars has been a subject coming up in the Content Creators UG over the last couple of weeks. The idea is to change how mesh avatars work. If you don’t understand how a Classic body layers work now, this may be confusing. I’ll try to sort it.

Mechanical beauty
Mechanical beauty

Starting back a couple of years, the Lindens added Server Side Appearance baking (SSA). The Classic avatar is made of three separate parts; head, upper body, and lower body. The parts allow layering of textures placed on the Classic body. Sort of like sticking decals one a top another. 

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AvaStar-Blender: Switching from IK to FK and Back

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Medhue streamed a tutorial this weekend. He was showing how to switch between IK and FK animating. In September 2014 I was facing that problem and posted a tutorial titled: Blender-AvaStar Animation IK/FK Tip because I couldn’t find any tutorials saying how to change between the two animating styles. I think the video is a … Read more