First Impressions of Black Desert Online

I’ve managed to level up to level 15 and only get killed once. The game is fun. While some describe it as a sandbox MMO I would not suggest providing that description to Second Life™ users. Black Desert Online™ (BDO) players will not be wishing they knew Blender or Maya better. Nor have I seen what we would call ‘in-world building tools.’

Black Desert Online Map
Black Desert Online World Map – Small Part – March @016

While BDO is pretty much what I consider a typical buy-to-play mission and leveling game with the expected grinds, it is fun. There is a huge amount to learn and not much in the way of tutorials, well not in what I consider my usual sources. I should also say ‘English’ tutorials. There are lots of Japanese tutorials. I’ve also found that the US version of the game (English?) is different than the Japanese in minor ways. That button I need isn’t where the Japanese tutorial shows it. So, is that a language version thing or just changes in the game? I don’t know. But, the button ain’t there. 

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Blog Problems

Update

This site went down Tuesday morning. The cause: several people are hitting the site causing problems.

You may have seen the site changing and going off-line Tuesday.

I was in the process of changing things and hardening the site. I thought I had it well protected, but I guess not. It should be harder now. Instead of using several different protective apps I’ve consolidated to one.

I thought I might have to block blocks of IP addresses. So, I was worried I might block some readers so I advised, “If you get blocked from the site, contact me in world.” But, I haven’t has to. I do block some single IP addresses.

There are a couple of search engines I’ve never heard of that abuse the site. I’m tweaking settings to slow them down.

I am slowly replacing plug-ins. I have to remove all the plug-in files and replace them with factory versions. That is tedious. I was surprised to see some of my apps hadn’t updated in 6 years. There were no new versions. I suspect this is where my problem got started.

Black Desert Start Up

As of February 28 UTC 08:00 Pre-Order Packages can be downloaded. Today I downloaded mine, at least started. The first download is about 49MB. That bootstraps to a 32GB download.

Black Desert Login
Black Desert Login

My router is pegged to max traffic most of the time, but few collisions. My 50-70mb (not MB) connection is running at only 1-5mb/sec for this connection. So, it looks like their server is busy and this is going to take about 4 hours. 

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Second Life: Handy Blender Add-ons

I found some Blender Add-ons that have been around for a while. I’m just seeing them. I list them after the video. I see ways to use some of them with my Second Life™ creations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihrQU4LNtC0

  1. UV Squares – As you saw in the video some surfaces/shapes just don’t unwrap the way we would like. This add-on helps with that problem in some cases.
  2. Vertices to Grease Pencil – The example in the video shows this is not a major player. But, I can see where it would be handy for me.
  3. BoolTool – I can see where this would be way handy when I am making ‘things’. I don’t see much use for clothes…
  4. Node Wrangler – I suppose if I were good with nodes this would be handy… I’m still learning and my understanding of nodes is shallow, so…
  5. One Vertex Mesh – I didn’t understand…
  6. Ivy Generator – I think this could be awesome if you wanted to add ivy to a building…
  7. Multi Edit – OH! This has possibilities. Not having to change from Edit to Object to Edit mode to change which object I can edit looks way handy.
  8. Floor Generator – This looks handy. In Second Life people just have to remember this is not for making the hi-poly LoD object. It is for making the hi-poly model used to bake the normal map for a lower hi-poly LoD.
  9. F2 – Meh. I don’t see where I would use it. But, I can see where some might like it.
  10. Sapling – I don’t usually need to make trees…
  11. Parent to Empty – This is for the more advanced, I suppose. I have uses for it in some of my models, but not often.

Torley Linden Interview

One of the better people in Second Life™ is Torley Linden. When I first started playing in Second Life I soon found Torley How-To videos. His personality comes through as fun and joyful. I can’t imagine a better spokesperson for Second Life and Linden Lab.

Now Exolymph has an interview with Torley. Check it out: Technological Abundance: Interview With Multimedia Artist Torley.

JIAN Dino Buddies :: 12. Fast Biter - Brown - MIGHTY DINO RIDERS
JIAN Dino Buddies :: 12. Fast Biter – Brown – MIGHTY DINO RIDERS