We have a new Project Viewer: Valhalla version 4.0.0.305703. This is the viewer with Chromium Embedded Framework, the replacement for Webkit. This viewer debuted 11:52AM, 2 October 2015… last Friday… at least according to the history date on the Wiki.
Second Lifer: How to Prepare for Project Sansar
We have seen the recommended specifications for using Oculus Rift that came from the developers; 2 USB3 ports, NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290, Intel i5-4590, and 8GB RAM. (Reference) That leaves a lot of us behind. The Sansar Beta should open up in early 2016. So, maybe it is necessary we start looking at upgrading so we can be Oculus ready.
If you followed the link and read the article, you know this is the requirement for ‘sustained’ comfort and presence. It is not the minimum requirement. My Duo-Core2 Quad and NVIDIA 560 will power a VR headset, Oculus or other. How well, is the question. Will its performance be such that it will be likely to induce simulator sickness? Probably.
Second Life Server Update Week 41
The main grid got a new package Tuesday 10/6. There is no update ready for the RC channels. So, the entire grid is running the same package.
The package rolled out has fixed server crash and fixed the Region Debug Console help text. It also makes the new LSL functions for getting attachments functional grid wise.
Function: integer llGetAttached( ); – Returns the attach_point (an integer) the object is attached to or zero if it is either not attached or is pending detachment.
Function: list llGetAttachedList( key avatar ); – Returns a list of public attachments worn by an avatar.
Function: list llGetObjectDetails( key id, list params ); – Returns a list of the details for id, specifically those requested in params. – This is an older function but gets a new ability.
Simon Linden hopes to have a maintenance package ready for next week.
New Sansar Thinking…
…or Project Sansar in the news. Geek Dad has posted an interview with Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg: Project Sansar: Giving Virtual Reality a Second Life. Now… isn’t that a catchy title?
While there isn’t much new information, the author Derrick Schneider sees things differently than most. So, whether he asked different questions or just heard Ebbe’s talking points in new ways, I can’t be sure. But, I took some new thinking away from the article.
Quoting Ebbe:
“We do say that it’s [Sansar] in the spirit of [Second Life], but that’s where we stop. We don’t think of this as a 2.0. Sansar is its own thing. Some things will be similar, some will be completely different.”
…
“With Sansar, we explicitly said, the creator is king, and the creator is the customer.”
While we have repeatedly heard the creator is the primary target market for Project Sansar, how ‘creator’ is defined is likely different than we may be thinking. Ebbe gives us clear statements that ‘creators’ are not just those making 3D models with Maya or Blender. For Ebbe a person that furnishes a home is creating. While they didn’t necessarily build any of the things they bring into the home, they still built their living environment. So, to Ebbe such people are ‘creators’ too. It is this broader group of creative people that Ebbe is considering his target demographic. It is tools for them that he is building first.
When are Art & Images…
I am fascinated with Second Life images appearing on Flickr. Many are strictly artistic, others erotic, many pornographic, and most just pictures. I’ve noticed some of the fashion blogs have very talented people doing the art, but how to categorize those images is debatable. While commercial art is still an art form there are the elitists that look down on anything that cannot be classed as fine art. Some going so far is to eliminate photography from the field. My thinking is there is nothing that says people have to be sane or even rational, especially when it comes to taste.
Some like to use what I’ll call mood images in their promotional/commercial art that I think really increase the visual impact. I find it as artistic as any fine art and debatably more challenging to create as one must achieve multiple goals. I am impressed when I see people creating, basically, ads that I would class as art. Others are making promotional material that shows their products in purely functional ways with beauty is barely a consideration. That doesn’t mean that work isn’t artistic, at least for me, I just see other art as more.
Havok Bought – Means What to Second Life?
You might know that Havok is the physics engine used by Second Life. It is the part of the system that figures out when the avatar bumps into a wall or walks on a floor and keeps the avatar from passing through.
It is the part that figures out when a bullet collides with us or misses. It makes balls roll. We see it in operation not only in Second Life buy in Call of Duty, Halo, and is used in movies like the Matrix.