Second Life and Virtual Worlds
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeSu_4Taupk]
Linden Lab (LL) has said this quarter we would see the release of the new meshes. (Second Life Meshes Update) May be for Second Life’s 7th birthday we may see the new meshes. Those working with them have been under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and not talking. The rumor is LL released them from their NDA and then re-imposed it. During the time they were released quite a bit of information made it out.
Update: June 25 – New version 1.4.0.2270
Emerald Viewer version 1.4.0.2165 is the actual version number on the Modular blog.
The web site, forum, and blog at Modular have changed. The new alpha and beta versions are available via the blog. See: http://blog.modularsystems.sl/
To access the rest of the Emerald information start at the web site. From there you can reach Help and the Forum. See: http://modularsystems.sl/
I suspect the intended new home page is: http://emerald.modularsystems.sl/index.shtml But, one can’t find the blog and beta versions from there.
Updated 2010-06-14 – 2 Added
Tateru Nino at Massively wrote an article on why she thinks the layoffs are an indication of a cash crunch at Linden Lab (LL). See: The Virtual Whirl: The bottom line
The Second Life cash supply is very much like the real world cash supplies of nations. They all print money as they think it is needed… or to serve their various agendas. But cash supplies are not absolute control. One can print lots of money, but if no one buys/takes it then nothing happens. Citizens have a say… or at least an effect on cash supply.
The Alpha version of this viewer was released Thursday June 10. See: Announcing Viewer 2.1 Alpha and Voice Morphing. …O.O… voice morphing? There is a big demand for that? Aaah… ok.
A big item for me is they plan to make weekly releases of the new viewer, alpha version I expect. This seems to be the trend with all the viewers, faster releases. Emerald, Kirsten, and Imprudence are all releasing versions of their viewers faster than I can evaluate them, especially with RL paying work returning to keep me busy.
I wrote about Linden Lab laying off 30% of staff here: Linden Lab Layoffs. I wrote that in the next few days we would see more information coming from those with an inside line to Linden Lab (LL). New World Notes (NWN) and Massively are following the layoff story and speculating. NWN’s Au is digging out more facts. I think my favorite SL blogger, Gwyneth Llewelyn, in [Reset] and do a 180º turn gives a vastly different insight than many headlines in the SL-blogosphere suggest.
As usual predicting the future is speculation. However, what Linden Lab is planning is not speculation. Whether they actually get it done… But, a direction is a direction and that can give us perspective. Gwyn’s writing gives us a new insight.
Wow… a few days of RL work and I’m left behind. Emerald has a new beta release out. Yay! Build 2100 is out.
The exporter has been improved and is not supposed to crash. I’ll have to try it and see how it works. I have original builds in SL that I would like to move to OSGrid. I’ve also made some stuff in OSGrid that I would like to bring into SL. You will find it in the pie menu, right-click an object and click MORE until you see EXPORT. It exports an XML file. Textures are loaded into a folder. Of course you have to be the owner of all parts and textures for it to work. I didn’t push the limits, but in general it seems to work.