Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Things about SL
Well, most of this is from week 18 but…
Lindal Kidd has posted about the grid being down Friday night (5/8). I’m usually out shooting pool and drinking. So, I wouldn’t notice the grid being down on a Friday night. See: Grid Down! Residents Scratch Heads.
As to the cause… we don’t know. The grid status message appears to have been a standard canned message.
Oz Linden was crashing so the meeting got a late start. Then only ran 20 minutes. Not anything new to talk about. But, there is an alarming change from the Beta Server group I’ve included as the last item in this article.
The RC Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.4.314579 has been promoted to the main release. This is the viewer that has a collection of fixes; crashes, memory leaks, input/cursor issues, graphics bugs, invisiprims, formatting, notifications, profiles lockouts, and more.
The invisiprims fix is a reversion back to previous behavior before a change broke them. There is a plan to do something with invisiprims. So, expect a future change. My advice is stop using them. We have better ways to accomplish the purpose they served.
The Second Life Quick Graphics Viewer version 4.0.4.314426 – is said to be nearing release. Oz says they only need to merge it up to the current main viewer version. If it continues to work well with the merged in fixes from 4.0.4.314579 then it is ready to roll out. I would expect the Lab to hold off until week 20, but they want QG with its Avatar Complexity Features out on the main grid.
Second Life Project Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.314884 – This viewer has updated from 5.0.0.313876 since I last reported. Oz tells us they are close to opening up use of the viewer on AGNI, the main grid. That means we can start importing ‘Bento’ animations to the main grid.
I think this is going add complexity to the animation market and the Second Life™ learning curve. For most of us, there will be little or no change. But, special avatars will need special animations. My little Fae Dragon avatar by Grendel in 2008 is now way out of date, being all sculpty and old skeleton animations. I am expecting some awesome new dragons.
Still my little Fae dragon is only 82k ACI, which is about the average of most of my new outfits.
Then there is the Second Life Project Oculus Rift Viewer version 3.7.18.295296 viewer, which has been going to update ‘soon’ for well over a year. Oz says they are working on it and is expecting an update ‘soon’. I think that they pulled people off the 64-bit viewer and kept people on the Rift viewer, says something.
The Lab is adopting the name ‘Jelly Dolls’ in place of Jelly Babies in the RC viewer menus. The babies name is trademarked. Legal is telling Oz to stay away from using that name. So, now the Lab is changing.
A viewer version that has been on the shelf for some time is becoming active. This RC viewer deprecates the old inventory API’s. Once in place and tested a time will be set for when the server side of those API’s will be removed.
More pages… links below.
(Link) Emanuel Maiberg, author, thinks Second Life is a shabby World of Warcraft… Really!?!
I have to wonder what part of SL Emanuel has been looking at…
The article points out several good reasons for SL having survived. Fair enough overall.
Quote: “Indeed, the most surprising thing about Second Life is not that it’s still a thing, but that 13 years after its inception, it is still way ahead of its time.”
The main channel is getting a new package. This is the one running on the RC channels last week (17), which consists of a crash fix and improvements. The RC channels will continue to run the same package. So, they won’t be getting a restart.
The main viewer remains 4.0.3-312816. No update for a couple of weeks.
RC Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.4.314579 – This version did update this past week from 4.0.4.314012.
RC Second Life Quick Graphics Viewer version 4.0.4.314426 – This version has NOT updated since last week.
Second Life Project Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.313876 – This version has NOT updated since last week.
Second Life Project Oculus Rift Viewer version 3.7.18.295296 – This version has NOT updated since forever.
The Third Party Dev’s meeting should be this week. But, the agenda page is still only showing 4/22 as the next meeting.
Last week’s report: Second Life News 2016 Week 17. More details on the viewer changes are explained there. Nothing new to report today.
Hamlet at New World Notes ran an article on the protest around a Bernie supporter’s region. See: Bernie Sanders’ Second Life Headquarters Besieged by Trump-Supporting Swastikas, Demons and 120 Ft. Fireworks-Spewing Donald Trump Statue.
I guess we know who Hamlet DOES NOT support. His choice and pretty much understandable considering the current media coverage. However, I find Hamlet’s coverage of the protest rather shallow. It is what I would expect from a Bernie supporter or an anti-Trump person, not that Hamlet is either. But, there is more to this story than Hamlet is telling and I expect omissions from someone with an agenda. Hamlet’s, if he has one, could just be to get clicks or it could be deeper.
Seems there are a bunch of articles referring to Second Life™ and Project Sansar this week. The Australian in their LIFE section has an article titled Welcome to the virtual reality social revolution.
Seems a fair enough view of SL and the image used is recent.
As I write this there are only a couple of comments. If all the comments were like the first, I would conclude the Australians are far more civil than Americans.