Bento Meeting W#1

The first meeting of Second Life’s™ Project Bento User Group was held today. There was a good turnout, about 33 residents and 3 or 4 Lindens. We got new information about the Bento Avatar and lots of questions were answered.

First Bento UG Meeting 1/7/16

First Bento UG Meeting 1/7/16

The meeting is Lindens in voice and residents mixing text and voice. The plan is to have the meeting each Thursday at 1 PM SLT. But, scheduling conflicts will push that around so all are encouraged to see the Bento UG page to confirm the meeting time.  Continue reading

Second Life: New User Group

Ron tipped me off that there is a Linden new user group: Bento.

The list of Second Life User Groups, formerly Office Hours, has been shrinking over the years. So, I am initially surprised we are getting a new user group. But, creating a group for a large new feature is a common practice of the Lab. It was done most recently for mesh and pathfinding. So, it isn’t all that surprising.

The first meeting will be Thursday, January 7th, 2016, 1PM SLT. The location is in the Mesh Sandbox, ADITI – Preview Grid.

The group is hosted by Vir Linden.

Get the word out to your animating friends.

#SL The Great AO Debate

From a couple of sources we have bits and pieces that suggest the Lab is looking to provide a built in viewer feature for handling avatar animation. Currently we use animation overriders (AO) to override the built-in avatar animations. Most of those are a HUD of some type.

Animation Overriders

Discussion is in progress to determine what AO feature set is needed for the Lab’s viewer. Since AO’s are basically free (only the animations cost) the user’s choice of which one to use is entirely based on features and personal preferences. Free market principals allow the best to become the most popular.

Concern is voiced by some that a built-in replacement for AO’s by the Lab may limit our freedom of choice. However such limiting would break a considerable amount of existing content. Breaking all the existing AO’s, or any content, is something the Lab is loath to do. So, I can’t image the Lab will take that path. Whatever they do, will allow users to still use their AO’s.

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