Numerous people are working on Virtual Reality projects. Here is an example of where one team is.
[youtube B_JpcmSEGzw]
They might have gotten further ahead if they had used Second Life. The world would definitely have looked better.
Fitted Mesh Update 2013-48 #2
Gaia Clary posted yesterday that there is a new test version of Avastar for Fitted Mesh. This is the second release of a test version of Avastar for Fitted Mesh. (Don’t be surprised, the appearance of the Machinimatrix.com site has changed.)
I’ve been playing with avastar-1-1-905_blender-2-64. The new release is: avastar-1-1-907_blender-2-64.
This release handles reported problems in the Second Life™ JIRA. I understand these JIRA items are readable by everyone.
FITMESH-2 – Discrepancy/Typo between Existing Avatar_Skeleton.XML and new Avatar_Skeleton.XML
This JIRA item has corrected files that can be used with the Fitted Mesh Viewer 3.6.11.283899. You will find the avatar_skeleton.xml file in folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLifeProjectFittedMesh\character
The file avatar_lad.xml is in the same folder. Both of these files can be replaced to update the viewer. These changes will likely appear in the next Fitted Mesh Viewer release.
Second Life Class Action Settlement
Alphaville Herald has an article up about a class action settlement. People that were banned are getting US$. See: Refunds For Banned Second Life Players!! SHOCK!!!
Second Life Fitted Mesh 2013-48
Discussion of Fitted Mesh is all the rage in the Second Life blogosphere and forums. Everyone has an opinion. Ciaran Laval has an article out: Qarl – The Simplest Solution Is The Best One – And Collision Bones Are Indeed MUCH Simpler Than The Mesh Deformer. The title pretty much says it. You can read Karl’s words in the SL JIRA STORM-1716 here. He also comments in this week’s Metareality podcast, which I haven’t gotten to yet.
Quoting Karl from the JIRA:
Qarl Fizz added a comment – 20/Nov/13 1:00 PM
several people have asked me – this seems like the best place to answer.
LL’s assessment here is mostly good. in almost all situations, the simplest solution is the best one – and collision bones are indeed MUCH simpler than the mesh deformer. as i see it, collision bones have two downsides: 1) they are substantially harder to use for the person creating the garment and 2) probably don’t track as well to the avatar shape.
in the end, the evaluation must be made by the content creators who use the tool.
i will reiterate that the two year delay and refusal to communicate are unacceptable.
There are a number of opinions out that I believe reveal a high degree of ignorance and a significant degree of malevolence toward the Lab. I am certain they have no proof/evidence to support their opinions. So, take those opinions as self revealing expressions of transference and keep a distance from people assigning evil motivations to the Lab.
Second Life News 2013-48
Viewers
The GPU Table Viewer was promoted to main viewer status. So, it is gone from the RC Viewers’ page. This should fix several problems for those with newer video cards. From what I have heard, it may also have created some problems for those with cards that do not meet system requirements. But, there isn’t enough information to know. Reports in the forums are always lame.
The Break Pad Viewer is undergoing updates and doing a better job of error reporting. So, for now you won’t find it on the RC Viewers’ page. It will be back. The Lindens are getting the system figured out. But, they still are figuring out problems. Once this is in place and released it will help the Lab and TPV Dev’s find bugs faster.
Interesting Viewer 3.6.11.283895… yep it is still out there, still getting fixes. I was using it, until Fitted Mesh came out. It does make a difference in render performance.
The Fitted Mesh Viewer 3.6.11.283899 currently includes the GPU update. I think it excludes the Interesting and Breakpad code, but I’m not sure.
All the RC and Project viewers are getting fixes. But there will not likely be any new RC releases this week as it is a no change window, US Holiday Thanksgiving Nov 28 to Dec 1.
BatKid
If there is some place in the world that this isn’t news, Google Batkid. Otherwise, just enjoy.
[youtube 2XqJfTHfp60]
Update: Well, it was fun while it lasted… Video taken down.