This is an audio of Ebbe’s speech, with some still pictures, on VR at the conference and 11 minutes in some video. The TL:DR is VR is going to be BIG. By 2025 it should be generating US$80 billion. 15 minutes.
This is a good speech for those that have no idea what VR is or how it will be used. For those of us in SL and those that have followed Ebbe’s interviews, we already know pretty much everything said.
Ebbe does use a chart of the number of photos being taken from 1930 to today. With the introduction of cameras into phones the number has exploded. Thus turning the graph into a hockey stick. They expect use of VR to create the same up-turn in use of 3D media.
Ebbe reveals they have been working with the Sorbonne University, Insight Digital, and the Department of Antiquities of Egypt. They made a model of an Egyption tomb with 50 million polygons. The Lab reduced that to 40,000 polygons and made a usable VR experience of the tomb. You’ll see a glimpse in the video section.
About 11 minutes in we see what I think is the first video clicps from within Project Sansar.
Yesterday was hectic day for the management of this blog. Between noon and about 2 PM PT the hosting server was overloaded with requests. Memory and I/O maxed out preventing viewing or management of the blog.
The Looking Glass Sim
So, new tools have been added and more IP addresses have been blocked. Unfortunately Go Daddy’s metrics tools do not provide the information needed to deal with an attack in real time. So, it is an arduous process of downloading and analyzing logs. But, with I/O maxed out one cannot download the logs…
Also, most of the standard ‘go-away’ tactics weren’t working. So, I had to learn new ways to regain control. So, when I am fighting off an attack you may see a B&W page announcing the site is down for maintenance. I may pretty the page up… or not. I can usually recover in a few minutes once I take the site down. So, if you see the page, check back in an hour or so.
I’ll be adding more tools so I can more quickly find the attack source and block it. Most of these attacks seem to be scrapping the site for content. Now that I’ve blocked image leeching, using my images by linking to this server, the images are being downloaded using up a LOT of bandwidth. I wouldn’t mind that much except like The Flash they try to grab everything at hyper-speed.
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.
Aim
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.
New RC Coming
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.
(Link) Emanuel Maiberg, author, thinks Second Life is a shabby World of Warcraft… Really!?!
WoW 2015?
I have to wonder what part of SL Emanuel has been looking at…
On the beach…
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 Drax Files Radio Hour w/Jo Yardley is covering SVVR 2016 (Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference and Expo). Their first part of the coverage is out: show #114. (28 minutes audio) Check out the pictures there.
The new stuff is:
Currently still 100% Maya for creation
By opening they will support Blender and other modeling programs.
More details on in-world building
Edit mode is currently a single person environment
Multi-user collaborative building is being – will be added
Long discussion on what is creation
Discussion on business-friendship relation between Philip Rosedale and Ebbe Altberg.
More on identity and anonymity
Targeting/tracking only for how Sansar is used, not marketing
More detail on financial model
This fall avatars and clothes will be very limited Avatar 1.0 then by 2017 Avatar 5.0
Lots to learn. Drax asked the questions to pull more details from Ebbe. Worth the 30 minutes to hear.
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.
.✩ Aura ✩.
Viewers
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.
