Many of us have heard that Blender 2.5 is on the way. Blender 2.5 Alpha 0 is out and can be downloaded. It is Alpha software. Some features from the 2.4 series are not all working in 2.5. How the missing features are implemented is changing, so there is some delay. There seems to be lots of changes coming. One thing that has not changed is installation information which is still limited and what is out there pretty much assumes one is a geek. So, I’ll provide some help I think is less geeky.
Emerald Viewer’s Radar Icon Review
Over on Modular’s forum a member named ‘gench’ posted a list of the icons used in the radar along with their meanings. See: Radar Icons – What they mean.
As one reads down the thread they will find several posts expanding on the meaning of the icons and workings of the radar. For instance, one can tell when an AV is chatting by the green square that appears to the left of the name.
After reading through the thread I have the impression the coders have not completely implemented all their ideas. Or the code is some mix of ideas and changed ideas. Whatever, read through the thread.
Using Emerald Viewer to get to Arda Grid and Beyond
The Arda people put step-by-step instructions on their site. See: How do I Login to Arda Grid
If you need detailed step-by-step instructions use the link above. Below I’ve provided the quick summary. Also, this type of setup works with the SL viewer. Be warned that both the SL and Emerald viewers have some grid hopping gotcha’s, which I’ll get to.
Quick Instructions (Windows)
New Impudence Viewer 1.3 Out – Review
Massively has someone that likes this viewer and generally writes up good reviews. This one is a bit sparse, but they link to the Imprudence site’s notes.
Imprudence 1.3 merge test build for Second Life
Notice the word TEST in the title. This is a beta version viewer. They included dynamic shadows in this one. Then made disclaimers about it. So, if you want shadows use Kirsten’s S18 Viewer. See: New KirstenLee (215) Viewer Out – Review
Changes Coming to Second Life – 2010
In the last week of December several bloggers wrote their predictions for Second Life in 2010. Others were writing their insights. From what I am reading and see happening there are some interesting things I think will happen in 2010.
Two of the changes will have a significant impact on those of us making content in SL. I expect mesh imports to come to SL in the first half of 2010 and be the biggest impact on SL. There are lots of reasons for why this will change how we make and sell content in SL and possibly change the social fabric of SL.
Blue Mars Goes Open Beta
See New World Notes: Blue Mars Goes Into Open Beta Today for a quick summary.
Updated 12/24/09
We are up to version 0.0.6589.0. A big change is the size of the download. It has gone from 1.3gb down to 392mb. Nice. BUT… they have added a CITY BROWSER. This shows you the cities you have already downloaded and those available for download. New cities are 200mb to 500mb downloads. They download in background. One must restart the main program to access a newly downloaded city. I’m sure that will change by the end of the beta.