Today I found some additional information about what Linden Lab is doing with the avatar.
In the JIRA there is an item: STORM-1800 – The vertex weights of the default character mesh could be better. Recently Alexi Reggiane added a comment (
Second Life Photography Tutorials
Over on SLUniverse there is a short discussion about photography in SL and how it is done. Lots of good suggestions. See: Photos taken in SL.
Form the discussion I found a new set of photography tutorials: My Fictional Insanity.
Materials Use in Second Life
Oz Linden tells he came across some numbers on Materials use in Second Life. Quoting:
Over half of regions and around 10% of avatars now have at least one thing with Materials properties. I’m not sure how that [avatar] number was derived… I’m guessing worn, but I don’t really know.
Deformer Mesh Clothes
What happens to Deformer Mesh Clothes now? I was curious about that, so I asked Oz. Nothing happens to them. They will remain in your inventory and you can still wear them. But, they are not going to deform as intended. They will behave just as any rigged mesh clothing does. They will still move with the avatar. But, they will not follow your size changes. Like standard size clothes they will be a single unchanging size.
The asset servers saved these Deformer targeted items with special information in the asset’s header. Only the Deformer Project Viewers would act on that header information and use the Deformer code. Normal versions of viewers ignored the information and treated the mesh as if it were just another rigged mesh attachment.
Second Life Materials – Fur
Hamlet has an article about Damien Fate’s latest project, a fuzzy tail on pajamas. Damein also has a free friendship bear that uses the technique too. You have to see this to understand what Damein has accomplished. It is pretty awesome. This is going to be great for fur collars and similar stuff.
The Pajama’s tail is awesome. See New World Notes: Fluff Piece: Here’s How An SL Designer Is Using Materials To Tackle One of The Biggest Challenges In 3D Modeling. Check out the images on Hamlet’s site. Damien explained how he does it; layered normal maps.
NSA, Google, and Games
Within the SL Blogospher several people are writing about the NSA listening to players in Second Life™ and other games like World of Warcraft™. Well, they are listening to our phones, reading our emails, tracking our Internet use (notice how often Google comes up in the results) and tracking our GPS locations. It should be no surprise that they are inside our games and listening to us.
I’ll paint you the really dark picture of what is most likely happening.
[youtube HiwjXGjbPD4]
The security teams are looking for any way that terrorists and bad guys can communicate. If that was all the information was used for, it would not be a problem. But, they are limited by law in the USA and they are breaking it. If they are willing to break one law for a supposed good reason, they will have little if any resistance to breaking others for what they consider good reasons. But, they are still breaking the law, something politically active citizens shape.