Apple to Challenge Sony and Microsoft

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Second Life™ users know Apple lags in providing gaming support for SL type OpenGL games. But, that may change. The  news in the The Telegraph is Apple TV is going into the gaming market. See: Apple TV.

Just Keep Swimming
Just Keep Swimming

Whether or not this will cause Apple to provide better gaming support for computers, is still a question. But, I think, any attention shift toward gaming by Apple has to improve the odds for an improvement.

Apple is adding more processing power to their game machine, built into their Apple TV box, to handle complex graphics. That sounds like acknowledgement that VR is coming, at least I hope so.

The new box will directly compete with PlayStation and Xbox.

Second Life Quick Graphics Updated

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As of 9/3 we have a new version of Project Quick Graphics Viewer version 3.8.4.304761.

My first experiences using it are not good. Within 5 minutes is was getting 2 or 3 FPS and going Not Responding. Memory use wasn’t all that high, 1.3gb. But, using System Explorer (free program) and clearing memory still helps.

The main viewer, Second Life 3.8.3 (304115), ran much better. So, unless you are wanting to play with the Graphics Settings feature or Complexity Settings, you may want to wait a couple of weeks before you try it.

Slink Male Body Released

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Mesh Body Addicts has a post on the new Slink male body.  See: SLink Male Body is OUT & the new MBA Sim! Expect a MBA review soon. Slink’s announcement is here: The Slink Physique Male is now @ Slink.

New Slink Male Body - Sept 2015
New Slink Male Body – Sept 2015 – Its Hot…

With the release of this body comes support for Omega Appliers. They say,

With this body I have introduced Omega support. This means you will need to purchase the Slink activator from the Love -n- Lust Designs marketplace store and use it with your Physique body and your Omega HUD.

If you have male hands and/or feet there is an update. Go to the store and get updated. The change is they now use Omega appliers.

Many Slink items for males are discounted until September 18th. Visit the store to see those.

Community Gateways for Second Life

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Once upon a time Second Life™ had community gateways, Linden sponsored, built, and managed. In 2010 they closed. In 2011 user sponsored gateways opened.  (Reference – an out dated list of gateways) In 2011 when Rodvik Linden, then CEO, was asked if they would ever come back, he didn’t know what they were. Then in late 2011 we got the Destination Guide and user gateways were depreciated.

So, are they coming back?

1 stare at the hole
Portal ? Gateway? Trap? Conveyance?

First, if you don’t know, community gateways are places where new users are dropped at first login. The location is designed for new users and is typically filled with tutorials and teaching experiences. Back in 2011 Prim Perfect did a piece on what are Community Gateways: So what were these community gateways? An answer for Rodvik Linden. Gateways are sort of synonymous portals. The portal is the sign up web site. The gateway is the region the portal sends you to. That it isn’t set in stone, but it will give you a since of how the words are often used..

We have already been speculating on whether portals for Sansar are a good thing. See: Drama: Community Portals for Second Life 2. We have had loads of people documenting how bad some of the gateways are: Second Life: The New New User Tutorial. We have had some great gateways: Second Life Player Retention 2014-21.

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Second Life Bits Week 36

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Loki Eliot has an article up on why we aren’t hearing much about Experience Tools or seeing much in the way of ‘Experiences’. See: Where are the Seamless Experiences?

SL Streaming

In an earlier post I wrote of YouTube Gaming. Below is a recording of someone using it and streaming motion-capture into Second Life™. Hamlet has a mention of it too: Motion Capture Dancing Streamed Live Into SL! The video is an hour and 42 minutes… I have video starting the stream where you can see the avatar following Jessyka Richard  as she does her thing.

All the details you need to connect up a system and do this are pointed to by Hamlet in another article: How to Connect Kinect Motion Capture to Your SL Avatar. It leads you to: Kinect, Rinions, and Second Life. 

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