Second Life and Virtual Worlds
If you use a translator in Second Life, you know recent changes at Google have caused several models of translators to fail. You also know that since 2012 the viewer’s built-in translator cannot be connected to the Bing or Google translation services as originally planned by the Lab. Viewer translation is essentially broken. We have to use an add-on.
Following this blog you’ve seen the recent previous articles. (See: Second Life: Metanomics Translator Failing.)
I went to the Open Source UG Meeting this morning. Not something I usually do. I had some questions and this UG is a good place to get certain questions answered.
So… what is a jelly baby? The picture explains it better than words.
The solid color avatars in the image are what we call jelly babies. I first heard Whirly Fizzle use the term. I like it. I’ve also heard avatars rendered this way called Gumby or Gummies. I talked about this in: Second Life Performance: Render Muting.
Figuring out how to use the new shape keys isn’t too hard. Gaia Clary has provided free help, which I link to below. Figuring out what you will do with them is another challenge. It looks to me like using shape keys will be most useful to those making clothes for Standard Sizes and custom sizes.
I don’t see the shape keys being particularly helpful for those making fitted mesh clothes. But, I’m not making clothes right now, so I haven’t worked with the shape keys.
Kess Crystal of MadPea sent me an announcement about the new game they are proudly releasing: UNIA – Unleashing The Monster Within. Release date is April 20th. We have been hearing bits and pieces about this new game. Now it is almost here.
Kess writes that this game has been in production for 2+ years. Kess says this is the biggest, best, and most advanced game they have made. Kess describes the scale of the game as EPIC, in size and scope. I take it size includes play area.
If you love Drax’s Radio Hour, you’ll be glad to know he isn’t going to be sued off the net. Prior to events this week that was a distinct possibility. Unlikely because he isn’t making big money from his podcasts, but very possible.
So, what is the deal? A patent granted by the US Patent & Trademark Office to a company named Personal Audio, LLC muddied the waters on what those of us like Drax could do with podcasting. They held the patent to podcasting. Thus if you distributed a podcast, you were required to have their (the patent holder’s) permission, which usually means you pay them a royalty. If you did not have their permission to use their Intellectual Property, you could be sued. Oh, what fun.
This Friday (4/10) there was a Third Party Developers’ User Group (TPD UG)meeting. We have some news about Second Life™ from the meeting. The scheduled 60 minute meeting ran a little over 30 minutes.
Brooke Linden opened the meeting as Oz Linden seemed to have poofed. Brooke is telling us that they have started deploying parts of the Viewer Managed Marketplace server side. They hope to have a couple of parts rolled out later in the month. Then they can start what I’ll call an open beta. I take it this means it will be moving from the Preview/Beta Grid to the main grid.
Oz was suffering a bad throat and sounded horrible. So, it is no surprise the meeting was short.
The TPD UG meetings are normally every other Friday. Oz is planning to be taking some Fridays off. So, that regularity is going to be upset. Some meetings will occur very other Friday but some may be three weeks apart rather than two. This will mean, I think, Fridays off in place of a longer vacation period. It’s his choice.