Blender 2.8 Coming Soon

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A Blender update is coming… soon. The Alpha version and nightly builds are available now, here: Blender Latest. But, I want to know if this is an update I need or want. So, I went looking through what people are saying. The big one for me is… the User Interface is changing. Ugh.

So, here is a video (8/13) that does a decent job of showing us the changes.

The video producer provided these time stamp entry points. I suggest you start at the 2:12 TM. Or if you are only interested in how it affects those of us using it for Second Life™, just read my comments below.

TIME STAMPS
1:22 – Alpha, Beta & Release Candidate
2:12 – UI Redesign
3:24 – EEVEE, the Physical Based Real Time Render Engine
4:43 – New Work Engine: OpenGL
5:19 – Grease Pencil (2D Animation Toolset)
6:38 – Matcaps (Material Capture)
7:48 – Zootopia Hair Shader
8:01 – Pixar Open Subdiv
8:34 – Dependency Graph, Asset Manager, Static Overrides and More
9:16 – Daily Blender Build Download
10:16 – Blender Resources

The new render engine looks to be awesome. But, the User Interface (UI) is going to kill me. They seem to be trying to make Blender easier for new users to learn.  …like 3D modeling and animation can be easy to learn? Still probably a good thing no matter how annoying I find it.
They moved most of the stuff at the bottom of windows to the top… give me a break… That will take a bit to get used to.

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SL Third-Party Dev Meeting 2018 w32

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Not many attending last Friday… Some news mostly updates.

The Bugsplat RC Viewer should be identical to default viewer. The only difference is it uploads crash reports to the Bugsplat system. The Lindens are wrapping up their evaluation. There is no information pre-evaluation on where this is going. Oz Linden through it was going well. But, until the numbers and Linden-users’ evals are in no can know.

illusion
illusion

There is a Voice RC Viewer out and another in QA that uses a newer Vivox SDK. In the newer one voice crashes recover automatically.

Oz tells us there are 3 other viewer candidates likely to appear this week (#33).

The Animesh RC will get an update. Another Rendering changes version is coming. A new Maintenance version is in the wings waiting for a simulator change – the offline communication thing. The point here is to be more reliable in delivering messages at login, which were sent to you while you are offline.

Also, there are 3 Project viewers; the Estate Management Tools’ new features for the ban list, for which they are looking for feedback. There is the Snapshot Viewer which has no change, but they hope to get back to soon. For now, they are likely working on the Facebook problem with snapshots not uploading. The whole world seems to be on FB’s case.

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Second Life News 2018 w32

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Servers

The main channel is being updated today (Aug 7) with version #18.07.20.518082.  This is the Animesh version we had hopped to see roll out last month. We now have Animesh grid wide. However, we only have a project viewer for Animesh.

This version ran on Le Tigre and Magnum last week.

Down to earth from a special place
Down to earth from a special place

Blue Steel, Le Tiger, and Magnum RC channels are being updated to version #18.07.20.518086. This version is about Internal Fixes. It has Animesh too. It isn’t clear at this point if it is the same animesh as is on the main channel.

This version ran on Blue Steal last week. I am guessing the fixes in it are being tested with the Animesh changes this week.

Several people have noticed multiple restarts this morning. My home region restarted 3 times. About 45 minutes between restarts. Times are GMT 11:21, 12:30, and 13:14 (6:14 AM SLT).

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The War on Free Speech Escalating

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This week I think the war on free speech is escalating. I read Drudge Report each morning. It tells me what mainstream media will be talking about tomorrow or the next day. Today it leads with 7 articles about attacks on free speech.

For those unfamiliar with the Drudge Report, it is a ‘news aggregator’. Very seldom does Mr. Drudge actually include any of his writing in the Report. So, it is like Feedly, Newsify, gReader, and other aggregators.

Image – Drudge Report is popular. The stats are approaching 1 billion page views per month.

Today it points to articles from; CNN, NYT, WaPo, The Sun (UK), Mirror (UK), Whimn (AU), The Hill, CBS Sacramento, Rolling Stone, Reuters, Yahoo News, Bloomberg, NBC, Daily Star (UK), Space.com, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Zero Hedge (considered a conspiracy site), AP News, Axios, Politico, FNC, SF Gate, and that is just a partial list from today.

Drudge Page Hits – 8/7/2018

A number of sources proclaim Drudge Report as extreme right-wing. If you read the list above, you’ll wonder how that is possible. Blue is Left and Red is Right. Uncolored text is center or unknown. My list is taken from today’s Report and I took them as I found them. I skipped some like The Smoking Gun because I don’t recall ever seeing them in the Report and didn’t consider them representative. Those I listed I see almost every day.

The Report’s stories are pointed to without comment. Other than a modified headline which leaves little, if any, room for spin. So, Drudge Report bias, if it exists, can only come from their selection of articles. The significant majority of articles are from Left and Center-Left sources. So, it is the Left claiming one pointing to their words is extreme right-wing? Really!?! 

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Lakefront Property on Mars?

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If you listen to the news media you may be planning a purchase of lake front property on Mars. However, NASA and others involved in the search for water on Mars are WAY more reserved in what they are saying.

Mars
Mars

Long wave radar has found what may be… moisture… a mile or two below the surface. Whether it is a body of water or mud or something else has yet to be determined. The problem with knowing is from our testing on Earth. The radar returns on Mars look similar to those we find when looking at salty water deep in the Earth. But, we also know other materials return similar signals. More study will sort out what is down there. Study has narrowed the possibilities of what may be there with the probability high it is water in some amount and form.

Much of the NASA press release information is targeted at keeping Americans enthusiastic about space exploration. It is a funding thing. I think we should be funding NASA and space exploration. But, I also acknowledge the spin NASA puts in their press releases and what the media does with the news.

No one will be buying Martian lake front property, water skies, or lawn sprinklers in the foreseeable future.