Second Life News 2013-34

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By now you probably know that SSA is rolling out to the main channel of the grid tomorrow. The Lindens have made the formal announcement. See: Project Sunshine Goes Grid-Wide!

Wendigo Lake RP Area - Enlarge
Wendigo Lake RP Area – Enlarge

Release Channels

Blue Steel is getting an updated version of the package running there last week. The only change is the SSA code is being added. Otherwise it stays the same. This is the Grey Box fix release.

Le Tigre is going to run the same package as Blue Steel.

Magnum is going to run the package that ran on Le Tigre last week (33). This is the package with ‘internal bug fixes’ that should have no visible changes to users. Of course it is getting the SSA code too.

So, by about noon Wednesday the entire grid will be running SSA, unless something goes wrong.

Nyx Linden says the Lab is confident they have enough servers to carry the baking load. Tomorrow will be the proof. 

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Flat Berry

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Last Thursday Strawberry Singh did a tutorial on how to make a cutout for making Flat Whoevers. See: Making a Flat Cutout for Second Life using Photoshop.  The tutorial is simple and straight forward. You get everything you need to know to make a decent cutout. But, there are some Photoshop tools that make the process much easier and provide a much better result.

The new Photoshop CC and CS6 (think it is in CS5.5 too) have a feature called Refine Edge. If you are trying to trim hair or fur out of a background, you have to learn about this tool. Check out the 10 minute video.

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The video is made by Howard Pinsky. It is on the pro side, which for me means no rambling, tangents, or umm-haa’s. It is to the point, clear, and crisp. I subscribed to his channel. If you use Photoshop and are still learning, and who isn’t still learning, then this is a good channel for you. 

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Cool VL Viewer Release 1.26.8.22

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Henri Beauchamp has released a new viewer version of his Cool VL Viewer. The blog is here: Cool VL Viewer. The release notes are here.

If I understand correctly, this version is using the render engine from the SL Viewer 3.5. That would mean the engine is Materials Capable.

There are bug fixes that deal with mesh objects download and rigged mesh causing crashes. Memory problem detection has been improved, meaning  less crashes. Also changes for more efficient use of memory. FMOD Ex has been updated, this has to do with sound other than voice.

There is an experimental version of the viewer: 1.26.9.22 that includes Materials support from SL Viewer code version 3.6 and the Mesh Deformer. This version should have those features enabled on both OpenSim and SL grids.

Scroll down the blog page to find the 1.26.9 Experimental download.

 

More on Second Life Mesh

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Loki Eliot has a post up about his experience with mesh: Materials Post Mortem. It is a good article. You can visit the region named  Escapades to see what things Loki has built.

...up stairs... at Loki Eliot Store
…up stairs… at Loki Eliot Store

Loki is pointing out some of the problems when trying to build for ALM-Enabled people and ALM-Disabled people. (ALM = Advanced Lighting Model) I think it becomes clear builders are having to decide if they will build for ALM-D or ALM-E. Building for both degrades both.

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Kokua Viewer 3.6.2 Released

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Late yesterday a post appeared on the Kokua-Imprudence blog about the release of a new Kokua Viewer version. See: Kokua 3.6.2 is released.

Kokua is one of the third party viewers (TPV) testing the new Linden viewer update pipeline. That process has been added to Kokua. It will of course update from the Kokua downloads rather than Linden downloads. This will allow them to push updates to you.

I still find it annoying to be in a hurry to log in and get popped in the face with a “Youse gotta update NOW…” message. It will be interesting to see how TPV Dev’s handle this annoyance.

There are other fixes and new features.