Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Gaia Clary is updating the sculpty tutorials on Machinimatrix.org. The original tutorials were made using mostly Blender 2.49b. Now that Blender 2.57b is out and in popular use the need for new tutorials is growing. The way things are done in 2.49 and 2.57 are different. So, one can’t transfer a process from one to the other.
The first video tutorial in a series came out June 1. You can see it here: Basics about Sculpted Prims
In the forum an irritated resident was asking for an update on chat. I too am frustrated with chat. So many of my group-chats never post. I get an error message. But, looking for an update I see there is a glimmer of hope. There is a chat load test scheduled for June 2 on the ADITI grid for the… new system (?)… or may be just the changed existing text system.
Thursday, the 2nd of June, 2011 @ 4PM PT see: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/GroupChatTest
The Lab was working on a change over to XMPP Chat. Unfortunately testing revealed that XMPP Chat did not solve the chat problems. The pre-roll out code for XMPP was actually rolled to the main grid some weeks ago. The XMPP Chat code was even added to the KirstenLee Viewer. It was in use on the ADITI grid and looking like it would roll to the main grid. Then went down a black hole with only a slight mention in an office hours meeting that it had not met SL’s needs and chat was being rethought.
I’ve been busy the last couple of days fixing client’s computers that have been infected with the latest Trojan. It is the newest in a line of extortion Trojans to infect computers. Yes, this is another Windows Trojan. Read on to learn what it is, how to recognize it, protect your computer and how to remove the MS Removal Tool Trojan.
Extortion Trojans are the ones that tell you how horribly infected your computer is, usually reporting dozens of virus. They then promise to remove them, if you pay some money to buy their software. If you don’t pay, you basically can’t use your computer. The problem is you computer is infected with their Trojan. Paying them is like paying a blackmailer, never ending and ineffective.
Today the Lab released information on the release date for mesh. They gave us very little beyond a time line. But, we do have a time line.
In July some regions on the main grid will see mesh rolled out. Rather than roll mesh to the entire grid, the Lab will only implement it on a few regions. Between then and the end of August more regions will be mesh enabled until all the regions are mesh enabled. Of course, if they find a problem, mesh could be rolled back and the time line for full roll out moved back.
KirstenLee has the new release candidate of S21(8) out. This one has 3D. This is anaglyph 3D, the red and blue shift image one looks at using blue/red glasses. 3D is not the only change, but it is the big change you can see on your screen.
We are seeing more 3D in theaters and 3D TV’s are on the market. There are several types of 3D. Anaglyph was first used in movies in the 1950’s. Eclipse, Interference, Pulfrich, Spectral, Lenticular, and Autosterioscopic with all except the last two requiring some type of glasses to view. Anaglyphic glasses are cheap running from US$0.03 (Amazon) to $10. Glasses for Eclipse (shutter glasses) are typically over $100.
Once a week or more often I upgrade to a new version of the Snowstorm Development Viewer. It is one of these versions that eventually becomes the next Beta Viewer. This version has a couple of features I’ve been expecting.
Update: The SL Viewer 2.7.0 Beta is out and the 2.7.1 version is the same.
Kirsten’s viewer has had dynamic shadows revealed as Preference settings for some time. Now this version of the SLV has the settings out where users can turn them on and off. In the left column of settings in the Graphics tab you’ll see the new settings.
Lighting & Shadows – This setting will be grayed out if your hardware does not support it or if Atmospheric Shaders are disabled (another setting in Preferences). Turning this feature on should engage deferred rendering. You should see little difference in the render, but the image should look better. The impact on Frames Per Second (FPS) while using medium power hardware should be small if even noticeable. There is a major improvement on the number of lights rendered. Previously 6 or 8 was the max. It is unclear how many can be handled now. In the past months we have seen over 200 render in tests. (See: KirstenLee Viewer S20(40) Released) The quality of Avatar Impostures improves. You probably won’t realize when your viewer is or isn’t using impostures. Shiny and Bright should look better.