How to Play Second Life… The Tutorials

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Those experienced in using Second Life™ (SL) don’t think of SL as a game to play. You’ll find out it is not a game with points or levels. There are such games within SL. But, SL, the overall ‘thing’, is much more like real life with an amazing variety of things and things to do.

Also, it is like Adobe’s Photoshop® in that no one knows everything there is to know about either. This means there is a learning curve. Probably beyond any game you have played. But you can take your time learning as in general no one is trying to kill your character.

Second Life has changed considerably in 2020. New players and returning players are challenged by the learning curve. Fortunately, lots of people make tutorials. Here I have collected what I think are some of the better ones.

The Sign Up & Moving About Tutorial…

This is a 4-minute basic tutorial walking through how to signup, pick an avatar, walk, and fly. It is the first in a series of tutorial videos made by Strawberry Linden. The playlist for the series is here.

There are more in this series. If you want one thing at a time, this is an ideal set of tutorials. Also, if you are looking for a specific subject then the series is handy as the video are named things like; Getting Started with Bakes on Mesh, Finding Interesting Places, and Customizing Your Avatar Shape.

This is probably the best set of tutorials for the total newbie. Those that follow will be easier for those with some SL experience.

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Second Life EEP Coming… coming… soon…

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The Second Life Environmental Enhancement Project (aka EEP) has taken way longer than anyone at Linden Lab thought. I suspect the reason for that is the old render engine. It is an ancient (in computer time) engine and the original programmers long ago moved on.

Linden Made Panel v6.4.0

Some problems encountered in the project lead the Lindens to bring in some specialists. They have been working on resolving some complex problems. About a month ago, I’m not following viewer development as closely as I used to and my sense of time frames is shaky, the number of problems fixed exceeded the number being reported. So, we are likely to see EEP release soon, probably in April. I’ve missed my guesses a few times now… Lindens are more optimistic.

I am more optimistic because Whirly Fizzle hasn’t found any EEP bugs recently.

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Blender 2.8 Terrain Tutorial

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I think this is a handy tutorial for those of us that need to make terrain. Some time ago, years, I went through this exercise for OpenSim. This is much easier.

There is a lot of texturing beyond just creating the geometry. I doubt the texturing can do much for those of us making terrain for Second Life™.

At 11 min in, he gets into importing terrain with buildings. This is way neat.

Second Life: What is Project Arousal? (Review-Tutorial)

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I keep finding things I either haven’t known about or haven’t taken the time to… study… play with… whatever. One of these is a set of related toys all named Project something. I think Project Arousal is somewhat known. It is the core engine of a series of sex toys with a strong anime flavor, that supposedly makes SL sex more realistic. Sure. Of course. But, is it fun and what is meant by more realistic? What if you aren’t into anime?

When I started this a couple of weeks ago, SoCal was drowning in major rain like I hadn’t seen for at least a couple of years. It was a good day to stay in and play with sex toys.

Back off, humans. Finders Keepers!

What it is…

First, there is the Project Arousal Engine (L$1,000). This is the core of the Projects’ system and is mostly required for all the various parts to work. But some items in the Project family are standalone. This core mostly provides sounds and facial and body animations denoting arousal. The number of body brands supported for some features is very limited. But as a female with a Slink body, I haven’t found that to be a problem. I first suspected it might be for males. But as I learn more, I think it won’t be.

This core part of the system does not need to be rezzed. You simply wear it and your partner wears it. There is a guest HUD in the PA package you get. It is for your partner without Project Arousal. The PA engine can be used in No_rez areas. This is and isn’t true for some of the add-ons. Read the promo material carefully to know which is which.

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Coming Updates to Second Life 2020

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We haven’t been getting much news from the Lindens on what’s up with SL. That is part of the reason I semi-retired from blogging. Now I just post when I have something interesting… interesting to me at least.

The recent Lab Gab (Episode #14 – Feb 21) video gives one of the better updates I heard in some time.

Lab Gab #14 Feb 2020

In it Ebbe and Grumpty are telling us about what is coming. The TL:DR… well… R=Watch in this case. Basically, 2020 and probably into 2021 the Lab will be focused on UPLIFT, the move to the cloud. Parts have already moved and those moves have given Lindens great expectations for how well SL is going to run in the cloud.

The feature add-ons we know about are being completed, EEP, name changes, new Premium Pluuuus… or however Grumpty pronounces it, and some other things will soon be completed. Soon is a couple of months for some things.

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2020 Sansar Update

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I’ve not spent much time following Sansar. I was disappointed to hear Linden Lab was laying off staff on the Sansar side. I wasn’t surprised. The VR hype is dying down and reality is setting in. This hype-to-real cycle seems to have moved slowly compared to other new tech cycles. Things are quiet.

Ebbe, Linden Lab CEO, is in this video talking about Sansar, as are other Lindens.

Jo Yardley posted about this video on her blog, which is where I found out about it.

This documentary does a good job of telling us where Sansar is. Some of the imagery from within Sansar is awesome. The chained economy is something we need in Second Life.

It looks like VR is not going to happen as the hype was claiming. It seems business adoption is driving VR, not gaming. Do you realize we are 10 years down the road from the Rift Kickstarter?

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