New 3D Modeling Tool – 123D Catch Review

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I came across an article on a new way of building 3D virtual worlds. (Thanks Hamlet NWN) Well, may be not so new, it came out in 2011 I think. But, the process, new to me, is being used to create the independent adventure game: Rustclad. The development team has a video out showing the process they are using and early scenes from their game.

[youtube pj-Gpe2oh_4]

You can see they are using a more organic style than we typically see in Second Life™. Sculpties were introduced to Second Life to enable the creation of this more organic style. I am not sure we have ever taken advantage of sculpties as intended by the creator of them: Karl Stiefvater (Qarl Fizz, formerly Qarl Linden). May be I’ll ask him some day.

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CHUI Moved to Beta

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It is all over the place now. The new Chat Hub User Interface (CHUI) is now part of Linden Lab’s® Beta Viewer. That happen more quickly than I expected. Just the other day it hit the Development Viewer. So, if there are not a lot of JIRA’s filed I expect it to arrive in the main viewer quickly too.

Torley has a video out, without the friendly greetings, and the Lindens have made a blog post.

The video:

[youtube t8IUxCMyElU]

Torley does nice videos. Thanks Torley. This one is very handy. But, check out the Linden post for more details and to discuss the changes.

Ciaran Laval has an article up that explains a bit about the CHUI. See: Chui Hits Beta, LL Equip Their Flak Jackets. He is expecting them to get some blow back on the new user interface. That is a pretty safe bet that has nothing to do with the CHUI. It is a change and that draw flak.

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Some Interesting Second Life Stats

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Daniel Voyager posted an article on mesh viewer adoption statistics. The stats were collected by Kadah Coba, one of the Firestorm developers, and put into a graph Daniel found posted on SLUniverse. I am assuming that Kadah used stats the FS Team collects from the splash page of their viewers or viewer stats that come from the Lab or… may be some combination of sources.

Chart by Kodah Coba Showing Adoption of Mesh Capable Viewers
Chart by Kadah Coba Showing Adoption of Mesh Capable Viewers

I stopped being interested in the mesh stats when adoption went over 90%. But, this chart does clearly show the influence that the Firestorm, and formerly Phoenix, viewers have on the community. Too bad they don’t have anyone that understands how to use that influence to improve the community. But, they do a good job improving the user experience with their viewers. 

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Kokua Viewer Gets CHUI

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Development on the Kokua Viewer, Imprudence’s replacement, doesn’t get much coverage from me. I do have hopes for great things from it. But, Aurora Sim and Kokua seem to have fallen out of favor.

However, they are still making news. Timothy Rogers has a good article on Hypergrid Business about 10 Reasons to NOT Give Up on Aurora-Sim. And Kokua Viewer has added in code for the new CHUI (Chat Hub User Interface).

Today the Kokua Team announced:

Merge of Communications Hub User Interface (CHUI) is complete and made available for testing. This is an experimental viewer so, please review our testing best practices here. Please give this viewer as much use as possible with attention to recently added client AO and windlight capabilities. Also, regression testing of media and sound streaming is needed. Likes and dislikes can be reported in the comments to this post. Bugs need to be reported in our redmine bug tracker. Downloads are on bitbucket.

Metareality 2013-8

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I missed this podcast… dang. Well, lots going on this last weekend. Family and friends were planning for NASCAR’s Daytona-500… a big thing. I am a Danica Patrick fan. She came in 8th, which is a big deal in my circle of friends.

Metareality’s podcast is titled J-J-Jaded. They talk a bit about the Unreal 4 Game Egine. So, check out the video showing it. There are a load of these.

[youtube OZmRt8gCsC0]

This is time I have written more of just an index than a summary.

The video is a demo of the Unreal 4 Game Engine, which is just awesome. 

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Mesh Deformer Update 2013-9

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Last week on the Metareality podcast there was some discussion about the Mesh Deformer. I was annoyed because of the lack of information Lexi Zelin of AngelRED Couture had. Since she is building Deformable Mesh Clothes, meaning clothes made for Karl’s Mesh Deformer, I am a bit pessimistic about ever getting Second Life™ users to understand what is happening. It seems if you are not reading Inara or my blog, you are basically clueless.

Open Source Meeting 2013-9
Open Source Meeting 2013-9

Lexi is talking about using the Deformer for months and not having a problem. OK… she is a designer, an artist… So, I can forgive her not thinking about what happens when we start something like a million people using Deformable Mesh verses her and her team and customers using it. I really don’t expect there to be problems. But, that is a BIG consideration for the Lab.

I know it is hard to think beyond ourselves when we are frustrated, but I think we could enjoy life more if we did. 

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