Dang, Another #SL Closing

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Today I saw the announcement that the Sensual Stoneworks regions are closing. If you have never been there, this is an adult set of regions that have a large Adult Toys market place. The Stoneworks toys are not going away. They will be in the market place. But, the regions are closing.

Sensual Stoneworks New Mall

The region is worth a visit just to see the build. The creatives at Sensual Stoneworks are talented. That talent shows in the rebuilt region. Last time I visited I think it was 4 regions. Now it has been condensed into a single region. The lag is low, at least it was when I visited. Be sure to look at the sky.

SLURL: Sensual Stoneworks

The region has provided the Mall and various role player areas. Things there range from sensual to wildly outrageous. My friend Sec and I spent hours laughing at some of the toys and how we looked playing with them.

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New #SL Project Viewer

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Oz Linden has put up a link to a new HTTP Project Viewer. You can find it in the SL Wiki on the Second Life Alternate Viewers page.

Part of the Shining Project is improved client/server communication using HTTP. Redoing the HTTP coding in the viewer and servers is the project. The stated goal is:

The start of a unified approach to HTTP-based communications between the viewer and grid services with a goal of achieving reliability, consistency and a better overall experience on the grid.

This project viewer has some of the changes the Lindens think will improve things. They are looking for bugs, gathering data, and asking for feedback. The project viewer will allow people to help out.

Oz says:

…if you have had problems when you enable the use of HTTP, we would very much appreciate your giving this a try.  We know that it does not yet solve all the problems, but we think that it solves some and provides the first steps needed for solving some more in the future.

If you are one of the people that have had problems with things rezzing slowly, inventory failing to load then this is something that may help you or, at least, get the Lab the data they need to fix the problem.

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#SL Server News Week 30

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Last week I was busy with RL, so I’m just getting around to catching up on what was happening in SL. Looking through last week’s meetings minutes, several of the regular user group meetings were short and there was little discussion. So, there is little news to report.

Cheesy Linden – New Employee

Main Channel

We did get a roll out of new server software to the main channel on Tuesday.  The server maintenance package running on Blue Steel rolled to the main channel. This package was bug fixes and likely some security fixes.

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#SL Viewer Updates Week 30

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We have new updates to Linden Lab’s viewers. I haven’t had much time to play with them. I’ve only been on a couple of hours in the last few days because of RL work. But, I do have them installed and running.

Slow Rez in 3.4.1

Second Life 3.4.0 (262596) Jul 26 2012 – Second Life Development

I’ve seen some odd behavior in this viewer. I had problems installing it. Files like static_data.db2 failed to update giving an error: can’t write to file. I think there were 3 of them, all dot DB2 files. But, the viewer seems to work.

I have noticed that some mesh avatars and mesh objects disappear as LoD levels change. Oskar Linden wears an avatar (or outfit) that blinks in and out as you move away from it.

I am getting more FPS from this version which is nice. With L&S, Ambient Occlusion, and Sun/Moon enabled I’m staying in the 20’s tending to be around 28 FPS in my house.

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Player Retention

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One of the more interesting things going on this week is a thread on SLUniverse. Ayesha Lytton made the opening post June 25 asking some questions; would you want to work at Linden Lab, what job would you want, title, what would you want to accomplish?

The thread had grown to 3 pages by 10 PM the same day. The next day Rod Humble, as Rodvik, posted asking a more specific question:

“Assuming SL improved performance enormously, from region crossings to lag to render times. (big assumption I know but roll with me here) What would you do to insure new users ‘stuck’?”

As of 9AM 7/27 the thread had grown to 17 pages. There are a number of comments as to what can be done. All the expected suggestions are there. Also, a number of novel, at least to me, ideas appeared. Here is a summary of what has been suggested. These are not all direct quotes. Many I have twisted to have them make sense when shortened.

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