CtrlAltStudio Viewer Version 1.1.8.34413 (Alpha 8)

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David Rowe has been building a version of the SL Viewer, well, the Firestorm version of the SL Viewer, that supports Shutter glasses and the Oculus Rift. These versions are labeled experimental., probably for multiple reasons. There is no doubt the viewer is experimental for the very obvious reasons the Rift has yet to be officially released and the Lab has yet to release a viewer with Rift support.

David has deliberately avoided doing much with the user interface for his Rift supporting viewer. His intention was to wait until the Lab released their viewer. I suppose with a base UI established a decision could be made whether that wheel was round enough or needed improvement. 

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Breaking #SecondLife News

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There is a post up on the Second Life™ BLog: Fitted Mesh Is Here!

What this means is the avatar and viewer have been finalized for the Fitted Mesh Project. The Release Candidate Viewer has rolled out and is now the main SL Viewer.

Within a couple of days the majority of those using the SL Viewer will be running the new viewer and capable of seeing Fitted Mesh clothes correctly.

I suspect Jessica was hinting that the Firestorm viewer with Fitted Mesh is going to main release version. Other third party viewers support Fitted too. So, very quickly the majority of SL will be able to see Fitted Mesh clothes rendering correctly. I am certain 60% of SL users will be able to see Fitted Mesh. I am pretty sure the number is going to be between 80-90%. But, I have only my opinion to base that on.

Advanced Lighting (ALM) is not important to whether you can see Fitted Mesh. Enabled or Disabled the Fitted Mesh will have the same shape. ALM may affect how the material used on the clothes looks. If the designed used the new Materials feature to make the clothes they will look different depending on whether ALM is enabled or disabled.

Blog Change

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I have the Viewer Pages working… mostly. These pages use a custom page template that finds all the pages about viewers and then lists the posts for a specific viewer. Access the pages from the menu on the left.

The viewer pages are based on post category. So, you can get a similar list using the drop down category selector over in the right-hand column.

I want a different presentation with a sort-of sticky post at the top of the pages. That requires some tweaking to the WordPress files. I had that in the previous theme. Since my last blog theme was made from scratch and this one uses the theme Sunspot by Automattic I needed to build a child theme. That means I have to figure out what Automattic did and how to change it to get what I want.

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Firestorm Viewer Q&A January

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The Firestorm team has not been announcing their Q&A meetings. At least not in such a way that a non-fan-boy would notice. But, a recent post (2/7) announces postponing the planned meeting until this coming Friday (2/15).

The time will be 4 PM SLT. The location is the Firestorm Support Island. These meetings can run long, a couple of hours or more.

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

Jessica Lyon says, “I expect we will have more solid info by the 15th for you along with some great news!

So our next Q&A will be Saturday, February 15th, at 4PM SLT. We hope to see lots of you there—exciting things are coming!”

This meeting comes the day after the SL Third Party Viewers Developer meeting. So, we may hear some interesting news.

At the recent Beta Server UG meeting the Lindens said again there are projects in the works they cannot talk about. When the Lab is quite this long, there is usually something up. Whether things are slow because Rod is leaving and was wrapping things up, we don’t know. I think the Lab develops plans, short and long term. So, work would not slow or direction drift because the CEO was leaving. The plans would keep everyone moving. A new CEO may change directions and priorities. That might cause a lull in releases, but I doubt it in the Lab’s case.

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Second Life Tidbits 2014-6 #2

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Altberg

There are lots of blog articles about Ebbe Altberg. Inara has a detailed outline of his resume and some of his personal  interests. See: Ebbe Altberg – a short profile. It seems everyone is blogging about Ebbe. None of us have any idea of how well he will do with Second Life™.

Hamlet of New World Notes is planning to interview Atlberg. That may be the first time we get any idea of whether Altberg can get his head around what SL is.

Strawberry

Strawberry Singh has an article up about a free photo studio. See: StrawberrySingh.com Simple Photo Studio (free).

[youtube rPo1w6SrY6U]

Jump over to her blog to get the link to the page in the SL Market Place.

As she points out this is a simple studio. If you have been around  SL for a time then you can do most of what photo studio does with a prim. But, if you are not a builder, it is a handy thing to have and the video is a mini tutorial.

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Linden Lab Official

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Yay! We have an official announcement from the Lab. See: Ebbe Altberg Joins Linden Lab as CEO.

Quote:

SAN FRANCISCO — February 5, 2014 — Linden Lab®, the makers of Second Life®, BlocksworldTM, DesuraTM, and more, today announced that Ebbe Altberg will lead the company as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Most recently prior to joining Linden Lab, Altberg was COO of BranchOut. Prior to that, he was part of the executive team at Yahoo!, most recently as SVP of Media Products. His more than 25 years of experience managing teams that create world-class products and services also includes leadership roles at Ingenio (acquired by at&t Interactive) and Microsoft.

“We remain committed to world-changing innovation from Linden Lab,” said Jed Smith of the company’s Board of Directors. “We’re keenly focused on providing incredible experiences for all of our customers, and Ebbe is the perfect person to help lead our team as we continue to serve and grow our global audience of active users.”

“Linden Lab has long been at the forefront of building experiences that entertain people while empowering them to express themselves and profit from their creations,” said Altberg. “Our customers’ creativity is unparalleled, and I’m proud to join the talented team that serves them. Second Life is now in its eleventh year, and every day, users continue to create more and more amazing experiences to enjoy. Though much younger, Blocksworld has already seen hundreds of thousands of unique user-created worlds shared for everyone to play with. I’m absolutely committed to supporting our customers and helping them become even more successful. There are significant opportunities ahead, and I look forward to leading us into the next phase of growth.”

About Linden Lab

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, Linden Lab makes shared creative spaces that inspire and empower users to explore and share their creativity with others.

For more about Linden Lab, its products, and career opportunities please visit LindenLab.com.