Medhue Simoni is one of the better know modelers and animators in SL. He has a post in the SL Forum containing videos that show how to make your own LoD (Level of Detail) models.
See: How to make LODs / Levels of Detail
Which platform are VR people using?
Massively Overpowered has an article about information a company named Superdata provided on the gaming market and VR: Virtual Reality Helps Push Mobile Gaming To New Heights.
I find it interesting that mobile VR games netted as much money as the movie industry netted from box offices. Mobile VR accounted for half the global market in digital games. I think that is rather impressive and shifts my thinking on where gaming and VR are going.
I suppose it is not that surprising. I plan to buy my next phone based on its VR abilities. I have to have a phone. My existing telecom contracts have expired. I can change carriers, renew or not a contract… I’m sort of a telecom free agent. But, buying a dedicated VR headset, like an Oculus, would be a total splurge and unlikely. An upgrade for the desktop I built in 2016 is more likely. i5 to i7 or 1060 to 1080 or even a 2080 (NVIDIA will likely have the 20 series out in early 2017).
With information coming out about how VR is going mobile way more than I ever expected, I am almost certain to consider Samsung’s coming (end of March, may be April) S8 for my VR. Especially since it is Samsung that is out selling other VR mobile makers. (4.5 million out of 6.4 million sold in 2016 – 69.2% market share.)
Where we are with VR
We are seeing articles in various places lamenting how slowly VR is being adopted. It remains expensive and requires a powerful computer. That problem is being worked on.
Intel is developing what they call Project Alloy. It is written about in the article: How Silicon Valley Is Trying to Solve Virtual Reality’s Biggest Problems.
Second Life News Update 2017 w05
The new package rolling out to the main grid’s RC channel has a fix that should make offline IMs and group notices a bit more reliable. That comes from Simon Linden. I didn’t see anything about it in the server version release notes.
There will be no Server/Scripting meeting next Tuesday (2/7). A Linden Lab meeting conflicts with the User Group time. Simon wasn’t giving us any information as to what the Linden meetings was about, other than it was NOT a feature summit. But, new features will likely be discussed at some point.
Second Life News 2017 w05
Server
The main channel is getting a restart but, no new package.
Wednesday the RC channels will get a new package and be restarted.
The server changes are stated as:
Sansar Poll
Over on New World Notes Hamlet is talking a poll about when Linden Lab will try to entice (nudge) Second Life users to try Sansar. Please click over and take the poll. See: When will Linden Lab “nudge” Second Life users to use Sansar?