AvaStar Update 2014-17 #2

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Gaia Clary announced today that Avastar RC 1.1.-1054 is out and has a fix for the shape sliders. See her announcement here: Avastar-1.1 Custom Shape Sliders fixed. The article explains what has been going on.

The big change is getting shape sliders in Blender to represent what happens in SL. See the 7 minute video.

[youtube 5hhMEiPjslY]

Another LARGE improvement is you may now use any custom shape. Until version 1054 we needed to model to the default/Ruth shape.

Quoting Gaia, “If you export your mesh with a specific shape slider configuration, then the System will minimize the distortions when you wear exactly the same shape in SL.” This is going to be a big help.

Gaia is hoping this is the change we have all been looking for. I know I have been scratching my head testing avatar, weighting, and weight transfers via Avastar and Blender to figure out how to get the best results. This change may give me better results. Once I have my tests done I’ll make a post.

I’m downloading now…

Fabulously Free on Second Life Boobies

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Hemi Violet
Hemi Violet

I am sort of pleasantly surprised by the answers to a question in the Fab Advice column. When the advisors were asked which are the best boobs and butts, only one had answers. The others have little experience with add on boobs and butts and theirs spend most of the time in inventory. See the full article here: Fab Advice #15.

Skyler refers us to Big Boobie Babes. This is a site that keeps up on the latest in Second Life™ boobs and butts with reviews and release news. They also have a blogroll of other sites covering boobs and butts.

Verotic Muscle Skins and Appliers
Verotic Muscle Skins and Appliers

 

I do see more and more clothes coming with appliers for the various add ons. I have my Slink hands and love all the nails I get. But, I haven’t gotten into implants… yet. I do like my smaller breasts. But, I do like the nicer shaped ones too. So, I have thought about … having some work done.

WARNING: NSFW… past the fold. 

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Facebook’s Newswire

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When there isn’t much happening in SL on the development front, I tend to write about other things that affect our online lives. For me this is a slow news week. So, I bring you: FB Newswire…

Simopolis?
Simopolis?

While the goals of Facebook and Google are similar, ID’ing and profiling every person on the planet for targeted advertising, their approaches and execution are different. However, I think their successful implementation of products have simpler similarities.

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Google+ Is Walking Dead

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This is interesting, at least I found it so:  Google+ Is Walking Dead.

Vic Gundotra, the brains behind Google+, is leaving Google. This raises questions about Google+’s future. Add to that management’s decision to move staff working on Google+ to other teams, like Android. Rumor is something like 1,000 employees have been moved to other teams. Now that is a move.

Take away the brains and muscle (engineers) and it is a pretty good indication the product is being abandoned.

The word is Google’s goal is to have every Internet/Google user be a ‘signed in user’ via Google. It appears G+ wasn’t getting them there. Plus Facebook has pretty well captured that market. The attempt to push G+ on everyone was apparently creating blow back. Have you tried a Nexus phone? The recommended way to move your contacts is to put them into your Google login and then download them to your phone.

Of course Google would never read your email or addresses. Nor would the NSA…

Blender 2.70a Released

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Today I saw Blender has a new release out. I don’t see any changes, just a lot of bug fixes. But, the page is only current to an f5 build. This one is an f9 build. So, I doubt this version is much different than 2.70. If you are having Blender troubles definitely update.

Blender 2.70a
Blender 2.70a

I strongly recommend downloading and using the ZIP versions over the Install version. Once you unzip look inside the folder and find blender.exe. Right-click it and select pin to Task Bar and you are ready to rock. 

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Second Life Bits 2014-17 #2

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In The Wash Fabulously Free is doing their Gachamaina. This is a place to landmark. The collection of free and cheap stuff from name designers is nice. The Carnival of Choas, you’ll have to look around for it, has more gachas stuff and is a well done build.

The Carnival of Chaos in The Wash
The Carnival of Chaos in The Wash

There seems to be a move toward selling mesh clothes cheaply, but without demo versions. It seems to be sort of a does it look interesting enough to be worth the gamble? I think merchants with demos and low conversion rates may be trying the idea of dropping price and demos to up income. 

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