Nirans Viewer Review 2013-10

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Niran has said he would stop building Nirans Viewer… So, there is a new release out as of March 7, version 2.1.2 Beta (3.4.6-2512). If you don’t know, Nirans Viewer is an ongoing experiment in user interface design. Niran has a talent for figuring out new ways to do things. Sometimes the ideas are better sometimes worse, but that is how people find the good stuff. I have a challenge finding things after the menus get changed, which is why I am not a frequent user.

Nirans Viewer Preferences - Presets at Top
Nirans Viewer Preferences – Presets at Top

This version of the viewer was much easier for me to use. The defaults are more like the SL Viewer, so I am good until I need to dig into the Preferences.

One of the interesting things in this version (new to me) is the ability to save Preferences settings as different sets of presets. I think this is a great idea. Those of us that move from shopping to exploring to photography to role play… can definitely make use of this feature.

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Aditi Problems

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Starting in mid 2012 we started to have inventory problems when logging into ADITI, the preview/beta grid. Recently the Lindens have been working on getting the problem resolved. I’m not sure how successful they have been as several of us have recently had problems.

Monty Linden has been posting in a forum thread about the problem. See: Beta grid login failed.

The problem can pop up when you change your password. Monty reports they are having a problem with inventory import when passwords change.

The ADITI grid uses the same asset servers as the main grid, but uses different inventory servers. There is a problem with the database on the ADITI inventory servers. Seems they tend to fill up. The solution is not as simple as buying a bigger hard disk. Inventory is a huge database handling complex data queries. Upgrading the hardware is apparently a complex and expensive thing. So, Simon Linden, I think Simon, told us that the hardware change evolved into a fix-the-process thing, which is in progress now.

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Second Life News 2013-10

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The main channel of server software got a new package from the RC channels. This package ran on all three RC channels last week. It is a crash fix and not much more.

New

The Blue Steel and Le TigreRC channels are getting Baker Linden’s object rez performance improvement. This is a multi-threaded object rez addition. Simon Linden says, “There was a laggy bit of work the server used to do when rezzing objects that has been moved into a side thread.” Paraphrasing Simon, people will notice it most with complex objects and link sets with lots of scripts.

Apparently we may not see it speed up the rez… but, it will have less impact on the simulator as the sim won’t stop to process an object. I take this to mean any single objects will not necessarily rez faster but more objects should rez in less time. This can be thought of as changing from rezzing one after the other to parallel rezing, rezing several at once.

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Second Life’s Creatives – A Series on SL

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Flufee videos were a fun thing. I found them amusing, some annoying. But Flufee was (is) cute and Draxtor Despres one of the movers behind the Flufee videos is a talented creative. But, he has moved on from Flufee to other projects. The latest is about Creative People in Second Life™.

[youtube Gbu2HN_aY7w]

This video is the first of a new series: The Drax Files: World Makers [Episode 1: Kriss Lehmann]. I think these will be an inspiring series of videos. I will be bookmarking them to give to friends when they ask about Second Life or I want to tell someone about SL.

I plan to add a unique tag to each post I make about videos in the series. That will let me pull up or point to a page that lists them all. I can send people to watch the series without all the other SL stuff detracting.

Kriss Lehmann is a fun example of a creative in Second Life. His avatar is just an awesome fun character. I feel mine is so plain…

The new mesh trees and plants coming to SL are much nicer. Once the Materials System arrives some of the transparency render problems with plants will be cleared up. Then I think they will be the best we have ever seen in SL.

I am already looking forward to the next in the series.

 

Who Do You Listen To?

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Looking through the comments on Metareality’s articles I noticed one that is typical of people in various online communities. It seems humans have a tendency to provide their opinions for solutions to problems they have little if any knowledge about. In my experience such behavior is pretty much a universal trait of human nature, online or not.

Jo Yardley recently wrote: Noob experience revisited. Jo clearly sees problems with the new user’s introduction to Second Life™ process and is frustrated by it. Jo has some great ideas for fixing them. But, never mentions his first experience with the SL experience, just his looking at the experience as it is now from a more experienced viewpoint.

I’ll give Jo credit for trying to look at it from a new users perspective. But, that is impossible for him because he has 4 years of experience with SL. He can only IMAGINE what it might be like. How many time have we found things not to be as we imagined?

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More on 123D

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I just found 123D Catch and wrote about it in: New 3D Modeling Tool – 123D Catch Review. 123D Catch is a program that runs on iPhones, iPads, and desktops. It allows you to turn photos of an object into 3D models that can then be ‘printed’ as real physical models. Of course Second Life™ users would use the result as 3D models with textures for import to SL.

However, 123D Catch is only part of a suite of 123D programs being created by AutoDesk to capture the consumer design market. We have new technology like Cubify 3D Systems that can turn 3D models into real life objects.

The suite of programs is free and consists of:

  • Catch – Uses photos of real objects to generate a 3D model.
  • Design – Create 3D models on your Mac, PC, or iPad
  • Sculpt – 3D sculpting
  • Make – unique projects using incredible slice or fold techniques.
  • Creature – Used to create… well… creatures.

 

The Catch Video:

[youtube 6aU2s85Zw3A]

Available for iPhone, iPad, and Desktops. 

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