GIMP Normals for Second Life

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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.

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Patterns Game 2013-21

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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. 

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Oculus Rift 2013-21

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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.

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Second Life Script Sources

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I recently needed to see how some things are scripted in Second Life™. I went looking for an existing script similar to what I need. I came up with these sources for free Second Life scripts.

Free LSL Scripts
Free LSL Scripts
Waving Girl
Waving Girl

Free LSL Scripts – This site’s domain was obviously selected for search placement: Free-SL-Scripts.com. The blog style site, once you get to the free scripts page, shows popular, recent, and after scrolling down categories of scripts. This is a great site for beginning scripters, IMO.

The site includes a great collection of tutorials on all sorts of things related to SL.

They have an in-world shop too: Phaze Demesnes.

SL Wiki Script Library – This is the script library maintained by users on the SL Wiki. It is a good collection of scripts. Some are old. A few are new. 

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