Windows 8 vs Games

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There is starting to be some considerable controversy around Windows 8. What I’ve seen of Win8 so far, I don’t like. I suppose if you are using a tablet or smart phone it is great. But, if you are a gamer, it probably is NOT going to work for you.

Take a quick read of an article appearing in BBC’s New Technology: Valve boss Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 a ‘catastrophe’.  Microsoft is including Windows Store in the Win8 operating system. It will be the only way to download apps to your Win8 device. Sound like fun?

I am not sure the Win-Store is really going to be the only way to get software into Win8 devices. But, a number of people are saying the same thing. So, it may be that is what Microsoft is planning.

Microsoft will take a 30% cut of every sale made through their store. The massively successful Steam online game store that Valve runs gives a commission on every title sold through their online market. But the Win8 users will not be able to use Steam’s store. So, if true, we are seeing Microsoft once again trying to lock out competition.

Some think that Win8 will be like Vista, a flop. Win9 will then be built to work and deal with market place realities and be what Win8 SHOULD have been.

The majority of Second Life users may well be holding on to Win7.

 

Adult Roleplay 2012 Event Planned

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The number of regions designated as Adult has been growing. They now make up more than 12% of all regions in Second Life™, according to Grid Survey. With the coming appearance of SL on Steam some anticipate more adult role players will be coming into SL.

Adult Roleplay 2012 Logo

Nikira Naimarc contacted me recently about plans for welcoming role players coming from the Steam gaming system. The idea is to provide an exhibition and conference for the large community of adult roleplayers in Second Life. It is hoped the exhibit can be used by owners of adult roleplay regions, roleplayer groups, manufacturers of RP equipment, and RP service to present their offerings.

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New Mesh Deformer Project Viewer

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I see a new project viewer has been released for the Mesh Deformer as of August 31. Version: Second Life 3.4.1 (264215) Aug 31 2012 07:02:04 (Project Viewer – Deformer).

You can download the Mesh Deformer Project Viewer here. CYGWIN = Windows version for XP, Vista, and Win7. Darwin is for Macs, and you can probably figure out Linux is for Linux.

New Mesh Upload Panel

The viewer has the new limited grid selector. So, it is not usable on OpenSim grids. It also only lists the main and preview grids, which is all the residents can use anyway.

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Animating Second Life Petites

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Judith Flow

I woke up way too early this morning… browsing through the forum I came across a post by Judith Flow about working with petite animations, which I am clueless about. Judith has a process for correcting animations so they work well with petite avatars.

Check it out: How to: make your animations Petite Mesh Avatar Compatible

Thanks Judith.

I would appreciate comments on how well this works from those that have been working with Petite avatars and animating them.

#SL News Update II Week 35

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The Tuesday rollout to the main channels is going to happen, provided nothing goes wrong over the weekend. As of late Friday it looked as if the Magnum channel would roll to the main channel. That update contains these fixes:

  • SVC-7641: Object on land sending excessive messages. The messages sent from the simulator about objects now contain location information, making them easier to find and return.
  • SVC-8146: llRezAtRoot() does not set correct parameters (for sale) on rezzed object in Second Life RC BlueSteel 12.08.03.263047
  • SVC-7641: Add object location info to messages, was “Object on land sending excessive messages”
  • SVC-8124: Excessive “ParcelOverlay reliable” messages sent by regions since last rolling restart (2012-08-08)
  • SVC-8136: Attachment point pelvis not being released

Magnum does contain the SVC-8124 fix that most acknowledge as the one that will fix the high bandwidth use problem.

Cube Project – LEA20

Simon Linden says the code on Magnum has the same fixes as are on Blue Steel, but with more fixes. I think he means more fixes as in more work was done on the items listed rather than more items were added. But, more item fixes are listed as running on Blue Steel than Magnum. So, one is left wondering if Simon is a bit behind, skipping detail, I’m missing his point, or I figured it out.

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Group Editing Update Week 35

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Baker Linden gave us an update on the large group editing fixes that are in progress saying, “I just finished up most of the group management stuff. The viewer is loading data successfully, and it should display everything as it did before. I’ll probably hold off on pushing it to QA until Tuesday, as I really don’t like dong commits late in the day, the day before the weekend. But I’m going to get everything ready to go out first thing Tuesday.

Baker is the Tree…

I’ll be working with Oz Linden to help me figure out how to deliver a developer preview build of the viewer for people to see the new code, and I’ll be working on documenting the new way group data is managed.

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