Another Step in the 3D Internet

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Various groups are working on ways to turn the Internet into a full 3D virtual world. The Guardian (UK based) has just written about one effort. One group, which the Guardian article by Victor Keegan fails to name – cause it has no name, is creating software that uses public information to make a 3D model of the entire planet in which your avatar can walk. (For a better write up than the Guardian see the same Victor Keegan’s blog: Building the planet – on a tight budget) You can see an example of it in action on YouTube video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tVcAuNpgk8]

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Emerald Viewer Review – Update

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Emerald released version 1.23.5.1101 in a normal and optimized version today.The downloads have been temporarily taken down. The new install was breaking voice. If you broke yours, install the voice pack from the previous install (950). They are fixing it and downloads will be back ‘soon’. UPDATE: New files went up about midnight SLT.

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Second Life Inventory Loss & Recovery

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In the Emerald Viewer Review I wrote about Inventory Loss. Inventory loss is now also a problem with the standard Second Life viewer (not that it is new thing but the current problem seems to client side as opposed to the ongoing asset server side problems). Since the problem is in the basic SL viewer code it is also likely to show up in most 3rd party viewers.

I also wrote about failed delivery of items purchased (See: Failed Inventory Deliveries in Second Life) This loss thing is not that failed delivery problem, but it could also cause what appears to be a failed delivery.

Linden Lab has a wiki where steps for recovering your lost items are covered. The Second Life Wiki article is: Inventory loss

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Second Life Viewer: Imprudence 1.2 Review

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Second Life Viewers
Imprudence Viewer Logo

There is a new Imprudence Viewer out, version 1.2. Massively’s Tateru Nino has a write up about it. They have itemized the new features and improvements, so I’ll skip repeating that.

The viewer has a User Interface (UI) that is a bit different than other viewers. Expect to take some time to get used to it.

Imprudence has added chat with vertical tabs, which I love. This change puts the tabs on the left side rather than bottom of the chat dialog. You can see many more tabs. It makes it much easier to keep up with ongoing IM’s. They don’t get scrolled off so easily.

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Snowglobe Experimental Viewer Review Update

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Snowglobe
Snowglobe Logo

On November 18 a new release of the Snowglobe Viewer came out, 1-2-4-3007. On November 23 a new version of the bleeding edge beta Snowglobe Viewer was released, 1.3.0.3008. You can find the download links on this Second Life wiki page.

WARNING: Often new viewers crash more often than the previous version, not always. But often enough that one wants to keep a copy of the previous viewer in case one needs to rollback. Windows users can create a System Restore Point before installing a new viewer version for easy rollback. Linden Lab has a blog post on what to do if one keeps crashing. See: Keep Crashing

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Emerald Viewer Fast Rez Tool

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WARNING: See Massively article on Weird. 4/20/2010 – Emerald Viewer is dropping the feature that supports this tool. Soon it will no longer work.

This is an odd item… If you are using Emerald check it out. This add-on makes your Second Life world rez faster.

You can find it on XStreetSL (L$212) and in-world at DarkSim Deigns (L$200). There are several good reviews available on XStreetSL.

Another blog, Look What the Cat Brought, reviewed the tool. Lots of FAQ’s answered there. Read the positive review in Status Quome: Speed-Rezzing!

What is it and how does it work?

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