Second Life and Virtual Worlds
WARNING
Word is out that the nVidia 196.75 driver update has been suspended. Use of the driver reduces fan speed and can allow the card to overheat and fail. This can damage the card and other parts of the computer.
See ZDNet.
nVidia is suffering from serious mismanagement according to industry pundits. Several of the top of the line video cards, 260, 275, 280, etc. are being End of Life rated. This leaves the field open to ATI.
And another view hits the streets… See the 5/1/10 Update.
Imprudence did not advance as much as some of the other viewers did. However, it is still a favorite for those on the OpenSIM grids. You can see the Imprudence Release Notes.
You can download Imprudence Viewer.
The Imprudence Viewer Review is Imprudence 1.3 beta 1 Released.
Update 3/5/10: Many people are reporting much worse performance with 2.0. This has to do with Texture Memory, a graphics setting. See links below for more info.
The viewer is out and people are playing with it. I’ve had some time to use the viewer. There are things I like and things that really suck. I believe the adoption of this viewer as the standard Second Life viewer will push many longer time residents to use third party viewers.
Rumors are a new version of Snowglobe will be released… any minute now…
Snowglobe 1.2.4.3007, November 18, 2009 is the current stable release.
Snowglobe Release Candidate 1.3.1.3125, February 5, 2010 is the current advanced version.
Snowglobe 2.0.0.0, February 22, 2010 is apparently the rumored new Snowglobe.
Oh wow… we finally get to see it. I’m downloading now.
Download Second Life Viewer 2.0 Beta
New World Notes has an article on it up today. Second Life 2.0 Analysis: Epic Win for Userbase, Competition Killer… But Not Mass Market Game Changer (Yet)
Linden Lab is answering questions here: Answers to a Few FAQs on Viewer 2
Those that have played the Myst games made by Cyan Worlds, Inc. (First Myst game cira 1993) will be glad to know that Myst Online Uru Live has reopened and is free to play.
The official opening was about two weeks ago. The first week was tough. The servers overloaded as thousands rushed to download the game. Both download and game servers were overloaded. Those problems have been handled and things are much smoother now.
There is a donation button on the Myst Online Play page. Donations were generous enough that Cyan Worlds could upgrade the servers. That has helped with game play being smoother. Download mirrors have been set up so one can take advantage of their high speed connections for downloading.
Download at: Myst Online Uru Live Again