This is my 4,200th post since March 3, 2009, which is about 10 years and 8 months ago… I came into Second Life™ March 8th, 2008. So, most of my life in SL I have been a blogger.
I am a bit burned out on blogging. When I started in SL I scrambled to keep up with what was happening in viewer development. Blogging about viewers was useful to people and there was lots to write about.
The Linden viewer was version 1.23.0… We had Gemini, Meercat, GreenLife Emerald, and a few other viewers.
♥
Vampires were thick enough we bought cases of Vampire OFF and ate raw garlic.
Things have changed. Now the Linden viewer is the cutting-edge viewer for new SL features. Black Dragon, Catznip, and Firestorm still add neat features but we see the big features like BOM and EEP in the Linden viewer first. Cool VL Viewer is best for viewer-side bug fixes, IMO.
The user interface has stabilized in most viewers. Cool and Singularity have stayed with the version 1.x UI. Others stay with the Linden 6.x UI or very close to it. So, a user can update to the latest version of their favorite viewer and have almost nothing to learn. So, I have little to write about. Black Dragon is an exception.
Today I got my update to Adobe’s Photoshop 2020 (v21.0). It has several very handy new and improved exiting features. I’ll let PiXimperfect’s guy explain them.
This is a handy video to bookmark as it has links into the video for the various features. These are the links you will find on the YouTube page.
See the feature… change… request BUG-227585 – [BOM] Display the new Universal wearables between the Skin and the Tattoos ones.
Gael Streeter (of GA.EG products) has pointed out a possible problem with the use of the Universal Layer added with BoM, Bakes on Mesh.
As it is now, most are familiar with the original Classic layers provided by the SL system pre-BoM and pre-Mesh, Skin, Tattoo, Underwear, and Clothes. These stacked respectively from bottom to top. Each layer could cover the layer below.
10,000 Hours
The Universal Layer added a new layer between the Tattoo and Underwear layers. The order of layers doesn’t seem all that important as layers other than skin can be used for any purpose. The problem comes in how people think of the layers and figure out how to use them. So, using a tattoo layer for anything other than a tat is confusing until one learns what is going on.
Skin makers for bodies and heads have run into the problem of adding shiny and wet looks. With the Universal above the Tattoo layer, things get a bit complicated and require way more textures and layer-items to get the look possible if the Universal were moved down one layer.
Think of it as a tat maker having to make their tats for the Tattoo, Universal, Underwear, and possibly the clothes layer so we can dress as we want and stay mix and match.
There are 4 viewers out. Plus, the main viewer. The Ordered Shout Down RC is looking good. From that I would gather it is the current likely bet for the next promotion. The Maintenance RC is doing OK. The project viewer for EEP has a couple of bugs yet to fix. New employees specializing in graphics now available to work on those. So, hopefully… A Voice RC viewer should be out next week, maybe.
Voodoo Moon
From the Firestorm peeps, the Firestorm release is going fine. No real problems found yet. Adoption is good.
There was a discussion about BoM adoption and use. The opinion seems to be things in the fashion community are still way disorganized.
Blogger Awards
If you are looking for people that blog, vlog, or photograph Second Life then you just hit found the pot at the end of the rainbow, Ballot for the 2019 Bloggie Awards. The ballot is 38 pages of categorized URLs.
Voting is open until Oct 19, 2019. But, you have to vote in every category… tedious… before you can submit any vote.
Also included is ‘best’ at photo-friendly. So, if you are looking for places that provide interesting backgrounds and gorgeous scenery this is a handy list.
The Lab is starting a blogger network. The idea is they will promote blogs that are about Second Life™. They have posted an article introducing the network and a follow-up article with FAQs.
You agree to their terms and conditions when you join the network. So, you sort of agree to comply with the SL community standards and basic SL ToS. No nudity. Basically, any article that appears in their network has to conform to the standards, whether your blog does or not is a separate issue. The Lab is the final arbiter of compliance with these various terms of use.
Just Beyond The Gate
They say their initiative is not to influence the blogger’s editorial content. But they get to pick what does and doesn’t appear on their pages. You have no guarantee your articles will appear. It is the Lab’s choice. While that is not explicit or forced influence, they will influence bloggers.
The SL web properties are privately owned, so it is their right to choose what they include. I suspect it won’t take long until the Lab’s San Francisco liberal bias shows through and bloggers learn what is and isn’t acceptable. I doubt we will see any articles critical of the Lab. I also doubt we will see any articles appear that promote Christian or conservative values or anything actually controversial.
Inara Pey is covering the Bloggers’ Network too. She has been involved in helping them get it going. She points out that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. The idea is they will follow all the blogs submitted and pick the articles they like. Currently, there are 100+ bloggers signed up. that seems like a lot of blogs to follow. Technology makes that a minor task. I follow 125+ blogs in my morning reading. It takes about an hour to cover the headlines and check out the fashion pictures.
But I suspect Inara’s point is the reality. That is a lot for the Lab to handle. The result is likely the Lindens will look for a way to improve efficiency and reduce the workload. That usually means they find the sources of rich material they like and stick with those. It is how liberals and conservatives in a world of fake news come up with so many bizarre ideas distanced from reality.
Then there is the matter of how many people read the SL Blog and Forum. I suspect it is only a couple of thousand. Threads commonly have 300 to 600 views. Way popular threads hit 600,000 views, but that is over 2 or more years and most of the views are from a small number of people. ‘How does your avatar look today?’ is a good example.
Firestorm has their new viewer out as of 1 AM (SLT?) Oct 1, 2019. The announcement is here Firestorm 6.3.2 Released. This is a major update and good news for Second Life™ users. However, it is a mess for OpenSim users as this version crashes OpenSim servers. It is explained in the FS announcement.
BoM Viewer Comparison
This version of Firestorm is a mix of current Linden Viewer features and features from RC versions of the Linden Viewer. So, this would be a viewer actually ahead of the Linden Viewer feature and bug-fix-wise. That hasn’t happened in a long time.
This version is a must-have update. Without this update, you will start to see avatars with blue and yellow textures poking through their skin and clothes. Over time the problem will get worse as more people move to BoM attire. Fortunately, most of the third-party viewers have implemented BoM support. Singularity does not yet have BoM support. I think it may be the only one.
