Second Life News 2013-22

by

You have probably figured out there is no roll or restart today. Because of the US holiday Memorial Day the rolls have been pushed back a day. The roll the main channel will happen on Wednesday. The RC rolls will happen on Thursday.

Main Channel

The main channel is getting the package running on the Magnum channel. This is the JSON package with a couple of fixes to JSON so that it properly handles quoted information. There are some other fixes; 2 crash modes are fixed and the ground sit fix for the ‘stand button’ is fixed.

Release Channels

This week all three channels will run the same package, at least that is what the Lindens were planning pre-holiday.

The package ran on Le Tigre last week. This is a package with Interest List fixes/improvements. Supposedly things will load a hair faster when you arrive in a region for the first time. It also includes another crash mode fix.

Other Stuff

There are a few complaints that region crossings have degraded. I haven’t seen that, but I seldom use vehicles.

A number of new users are running into extended bake fail for the first time. They post in forum and Answers asking what wrong. Seems like fewer of the Answers Helpers are reading the forum recently. So, I’ve seen some really dumb suggestions from relatively new users on how to fix the problem. Hopefully SSA will roll out in the next couple of weeks.

SSA

The word is that the code has rolled to the main grid and all channels there. This is a feature that can be enabled and disabled region by region. Word is no main grid regions are enabled, yet. Everyone I have asked about AGNI regions being enabled has referred me to Nyx Linden. So, I may learn something today.

 

 

 

GIMP Normals for Second Life

by

The title is not very PC. But, I think it will work. GIMP is the free open source image editor many Second Life residents use. With the coming of the Materials System to Second Life™, users of GIMP are going to want to be making normal maps. So, here is a bit more about what normal maps are and how to make them.

GIMP Normal Maps

First, in English the word gimp also means a lame person. GIMP is DEFINITELY NOT a lame image editor. Its name was to denote it being free. While the name is not particularly flattering for the program it derives from: GNU Image Manipulation Program where GNU or GNU GPL stands for: GNU = GNU’s Not Unix and GPL = General Public License. These later acronyms are about how the software is licensed for sale or redistribution.

Read more

Patterns Game 2013-21

by

For whatever reason I decided to check out Linden Lab’s™ Patterns. I haven’t followed it. So, I may have missed things. But…

It has changed a bunch since I last played with it. It has improved quite a bit. More of the controls work as toggles. The worlds I can play in have changed. There is a planetoid world. It has spherical gravity, meaning I can walk on all sides of it. You see the planetoid type world in the opening screen image. (Its out of focus in the opening screen)

New Opening Screen
New Opening Screen

The opening panel hints at things to come, I think. There is a choice for Single Player, which I assume means a multiplayer version is coming. 

Read more

Oculus Rift 2013-21

by

There is an interesting video about how Oculus VR™ (OVR) is changing the game design paradigms. I came across it in my Facebook browsing. 22 minutes. Nate Mitchell is speaking at GDC 2013 (Game Developers Conference) which ran from March 25 to 29.

[youtube oMmi-jS4OYA]

I’ve written about what I think the user interface problems will be. This video really gets into some of the problems and how people are handling them.

Read more