Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Update 3/29: I have found the source of the problem. It is in the original Sunspot Theme. 🙁 I built my child theme using it. I am looking to see if I can find the problem. That requires digging through the code that runs that theme.
If I cannot find the problem or an easy fix, I’ll be changing the theme, which is a tedious process as I have several modifications that support the pages for various brands of viewers.
You may have heard, a viewer is coming that will handle your notices differently. When logging in we are often bombarded with stack of notices; IM’s, inventory offers, group notices, event invites, money transactions… it gets busy.
The Lindens are promising a new way to handle notices. We will get a new panel that better handles the information being dumped on us. We are promised a way to organize and prioritize all these notes.
Second Life™ gets a load of bad press. Now and then someone writes an intelligent piece. Mark Hay has written an intelligent piece: Second Life is Staying Alive. And the images used in the article are recent 2014-2015 images. Wow!
So, I think this article is worthy of our attention and support. It does put an interesting spin on Second Life and why it remains an active place.
The site this article is on is GOOD, a magazine for the global citizen.
Marine Kelley has posted that a new version of the RLViewer is out.
This version has the new Hover Height adjustment. Right-click your avatar and adjust away. The adjustment is saved as a setting and so, persists across logins.
Marine points out that ONLY viewers with this new feature can see the results of your adjustment. I expect most viewers will have this feature with their next release.
A week ago the CtrlAltStudio Viewer updated to version 1.2.3.42797 Alpha (Windows download link) and is now on par with Firestorm 4.6.7.
This version does NOT work with Rift Direct Mode. Also, you must have the Advanced Lighting Model enabled to use the Oculus Rift display.
Now that Samsung is selling their Gear VR (US$200), we may start hearing more about people using these headsets in Second Life
Quoting from Tech Crunch’s quote of Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash:
While previous versions of the Oculus Rift have required plugging in a separate set of headphones to get the “I’m encapsulated in a virtual space” feeling, the Crescent Bay prototype has its own pair built-in, and the company has said the consumer model will, as well. The Crescent Bay model I played with at CES earlier this year didn’t include features like noise cancellation, so there’s still obvious areas to improve on that aspect of the integrated experience over time.
Read more here: The Biggest Challenges Left In Virtual Reality, According To Oculus.
Seems Samsung is moving their Gear VR out to Best Buy stores for sale (US$199). They, Samsung, are still in beta mode, IMO. This is not the mass market roll out. See the story in Road to VR. But, it is a step to getting to retail release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42tTDVskt54
I’m not sure Samsung has the Next BIG Thing locked up, but I like their stuff.