Second Life Beta Viewer 2.3.0 Released

The new SL 2.3 Beta version viewer is out. You can read the official release information here.

Display Names

The big change is the addition of Display Names. There is a Torley video at the link above showing how to use Display Names.

While the viewer has the feature not all the regions have it turned on. The Lab is being cautious rolling it out. They made changes from user input. Griefing and impersonation being the leading concerns. 

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Playing with Second Life Mesh

SL OS Mesh OSGrid Second Life
Mesh Pedestal

I built a model I plan to use in my OSGrid regions. I don’t want to do a tutorial on Second Life Mesh. Gaia at Machinimatrix.org does those so much better than I would. But, I do want to pass on what I have learned without getting too techy.

I can say that mesh is working pretty well. It certainly is much easier to texture mesh than it is sculpties. One can have custom UV Maps and that is a big step up.

I also took a quick look around the ADITI Mesh Enabled Regions. I have included some images I captured.

Those that have played in the more recent Myst games (see Myst Online for the free mMOG) will recognize the type of pedestal. The ‘linking’ (like a teleport) pedestal (grass background) is made in two pieces. 

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SL/OS Viewers and Mesh

Viewers and Mesh

The opinions on Collada mesh coming to SL are mixed. Hamlet put a set of links in a recent blog post calling them ‘gems’. I find some are and some aren’t gems. But, digging through the chaff usually reveals nuggets of neat information. Here are the current tidbits.

Mesh DOA?

One line of thinking is that Linden Lab has again botched a new feature. Some people would be unhappy if the Lab sent them chocolate, cherry filled orgasms. When one starts from the premise that the Lab can do nothing right, it is hard to see what is being done right. These negative people are leading me to the conclusion that at an SL age of 3 or 4 one becomes an old curmudgeon.

Whatever the case, there are some interesting tidbits of information leaking out. 

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