Nalates' Things & Stuff

Second Life VOB Update

2016/08/31 by Nalates Urriah

A day after I publish my server and viewer updates the Lab releases a new version of the Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) viewer: 4.0.8.319143.

New Visual Outfits Browser Project 2016-06-07

You can download a copy from the Second Life Alternate Viewers page.

This viewer adds a tab to the Appearance Outfits panel. In that panel an image is associated with each outfit. You can take a snapshot, upload it, and use it for a thumbnail of the outfit. Yes, you do have to pay for the image upload, L$10 (US$0.04+/-). But, you can use an existing snapshot and save the L$10.

It is a nice feature. I have just under 300 outfits (today – I have demos in my want-to-get folder that will become outfits). Something like 150 are older classic avatar outfits (those will get converted to outfits using my mesh body or likely be deleted). But, 300 x L$10 = L$3,000 or US$11.50 for the photos. So, provided the Lab makes a profit on image storage, this could add a bit of income.

I did create the outfits over the 2+ years we have had the outfits feature. So, I’ll probably spend US$2 to $5 per year on outfit images.

Not everyone will do that and some will already have done it. There are those that have been storing an image of their outfits in inventory along with their outfits. But, the possible income from one additional outfit image per week per user… 52 images per year times say 600,000 users (31 million images) times say 50% (15.6 million images) being interested in how they look enough to be into outfits would give the Lab a gross income from Outfit Images of 15.6m x L$10/L$260/US$1 = $600k. From that we have figure out what percent of the Lab’s labor, electrical bill, hardware cost, any additional hardware cost, bandwidth cost… should be subtracted from that income.

I doubt this is a big money maker for the Lab… It is going to save me a bunch of time picking outfits.

Now… if I could have folders for outfits…

Second Life News 2016 w/35

2016/08/30 by Nalates Urriah

Servers

No rollouts this week, main or RC channels. Caleb Linden says they will be returning to the regular schedule of rollouts next week. It is vacation time.

I think this is the third week the main channel region I live in has not been restarted.I think the last restart was 8/9. Caleb has posted that if you region is having problems contact support and ask for a restart or file a JIRA describing the problems.

VR Catching On?

2016/08/29 by Nalates Urriah

Interesting uses of Virtual Reality Headsets are turning up. Some examples:

Obduction – Of course games. This is a big Myst sibling puzzle game where you are magically transported to an alien world and have to figure out how to get home. The graphics are awesome. All versions of the game will have VR support. The game is out and the VR updates will be sent along.

Sketchfab: Largest Social Media Site for 3D Objects Adds VR Navigation – This is the first web site I’ve heard of that is designed for VR. The highlight isn’t the VR oriented content but the VR oriented site design.

Hospitals Try Giving Patients a Dose of VR – They are using VR to help with pain management. It’s a distraction thing.

Paraplegics regain some feeling, movement after using brain-machine interfaces – Surprising.

Gear VR – Samsung is selling their nice headset for the Note 7 for US$99. I am eligible for a new phone… tempting.

Politicians and Photo-Opts – I didn’t see this one coming. I’m hoping Wiener doesn’t find out about VR.

Blender Art

2016/08/29 by Nalates Urriah

I haven’t been working with Blender lately. RL work and sort of waiting for Project Bento to move into RC status. But, I do skim the Blender news and art. One of the interesting places to look is SketchFab.com. Where I came across this 3D picture.

The Probe – Plastics (without Sensor)
by MACHINƎ
on Sketchfab

If you aren’t familiar with 3D miages; the icon in the lower left is the clue it is a 3D image, click inside it and drag, roll the mouse wheel to zoom. Once the model is loaded you can click into VR or Full Screen.

2016/08/29 by Nalates Urriah

Rights management is complicated. Photo sharing sites are by necessity complicated. Flickr.com has made it as easy as possible to share and manage rights. But, people still mess up, authors and consumers. Especially in an age where people are moving fast and using technology to speed things up.

Nal's Flickr Channel August 2016 — Nal’s Flickr Channel August 2016

New User Blender Tutorial on a Card

2016/08/28 by Nalates Urriah

Blender has a reputation for being hard to learn. After using it for 10± years I have say hard isn’t the word, never-ending is more like it.

In Second Life™ bloggers don’t take on training Blender noobies. We send them to YouTube and point them at various online tutorials. But, Blender changes fast enough that the noobie tutorials fall out of date quickly. Updates are slow coming. So… Learn Blender with a Poster: massive restyling is a handy new reference for beginners…

If I use it, does that mean I’m a beginner? Sometimes I think so. Whatever it makes me, I like the card and plan to keep it handy. I may even print it out on 11×17 for my wall.

Jump to the article for a link to the Hi-Rez copy of the image. I started with a smaller image and WordPress shrinks it some more in the upload. So, if you plan to print it, get the good source.