Second Life

Things about SL

#SecondLife Global Illumination

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You may not have noticed the Graphics Setting feature: Global Illumination. It began appearing in viewers some time ago. But, now it has disappeared from the SL Viewer. So, what’s up?

What it is…

Global Illumination is the label used to describe how light is handled in 3D games. Its purpose is to make lighting more realistic. It adds ‘reflected’ light effects. This means if you are standing with a blue wall to the right and the sun to the left, some blue light will be reflecting on to your right side.

Status

Back in May 2009 the Lab, Runitai Linden, posted a video showing new features they were working on. See: SL Tech Demo above.

The video (above) includes Mesh and Global Illumination. At about 1:34 in the video you can see a sun cycle that shows an example of Global Illumination. (GI) Notice how the sun seems to reflect off surfaces and illuminate other surfaces. That is the Global Illumination.

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Dolphin Viewer 3.2.0-22166 Review

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A new Dolphin Viewer version has made it out. I see it has a new build tool, Particle Editor, which is way nice.

Dolphin Viewer 3.2.0 Download

Dolphin Viewer Buttons Tool

Download and Install

The file size is about 26mb, on the small side for an SL viewer.

The install process is more like the SL Viewer install now, opening multiple little windows as it installs. These are indicators that files are being copied from a network location. Just like the SL Viewer these windows stall with 0 seconds remaining. One can leave them open for as long as they like. They’ll sit right there on your screen.

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Phoenix with Mesh

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The Phoenix Team has released a new version of Phoenix. This one has mesh support, as in it renders mesh. Read Phoenix Viewer Mesh Update. The team is warning this viewer is not their most stable release, at least they do not expect it to be. They are also saying it is possibly the last … Read more

#SL Server Update Week 49

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This week in The Server Beta User Group we have some social issues mixed in with the technical issues. At least the roll out for this week went well. But, the blow back from the RC KT channel started to get out of hand. Olie’s made a another fine mess that can’t be blamed on the Lindens.

Main Channel

The main grid gets the roll out from the Magnum Release Channel. This upgrade changes the Mute features to use the new People API. This means a mute in world is respected in your Feed and on the web site. It is unclear whether this includes the Market Place.

Server Room - Image by: Tom Raftery - Flickr

Don’t expect to see this working on the web sites for some time. The feature has to be rolled to all the simulators and then enabled on all of them before it can be enabled on the web sites. I am guessing we may see it working in January.

Blue Steel

This RC got a set of tools from diagnosing voice problems. In Andrew’s Friday meeting word came that fixes for some voice problems are in the update. It seems in the process of creating the tools it was possible to find some issues and deal with them. Rolling these tools to the grid will make it possible to more easily find voice problems.

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Kirsten Viewer Update

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As of December 7 there will be 9 days left to raise the funds to keep the Kirsten Viewer alive. Today 25% of the needed funds have been raised. Unless a white knight shows up or people get a move on, it looks like the Kirsten Viewer is a goner. See: http://www.kirstensviewer.com/ Visit CrowdFunder to … Read more

#SL Mesh Update Week 49

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Several interesting things are going on this week. One is the coming change in the Content Creation/Mesh Import User Group. The number of questions and problems with mesh is decreasing. Mesh is working pretty well. So, the Lindens plan to widen the focus of the group to include more general content creation. Expect to see a blog post at some point announcing the change in focus.

New Meeting Location in Borrowdale - A Return

Meeting Location

The location of the User Group (UG) moved from the ADITI grid to the main AGNI grid. The UG meeting agenda and location can be found in the Wiki on Second Life Content Creation/Mesh Import User Group.

The meeting time is Tuesdays’ at 12:00 noon. That can change so check the wiki for the latest information.

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