Second Life

Facial Expressions Tutorial

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This is something I found interesting. I’m sure many of us in Second Life have facial expression HUD’s (If you are new that is Heads Up Display – the control panels one attaches to their screen). Those work for some situations and photographs.

If one wants more expression, and sublte expressions, that can be done with changing your shape. Sound a bit scary? If you have tweaked your shape like I have for over a year now, making changes may not sound like fun. However one can back up their shape. There are several ways to do that. The two easy ones are copy the shape in inventory and via Appearance save it as a new shape. I use a name and date so I know which is the latest.

If you want to expreiment, check out Melanie Kidd’s tutorial on Grid Expectations: subtle facial expressions for Second Life

Snowglobe 1.1.0 Update Review

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Snowglobe Viewer

It is always nice to know how many residents are using new beta software. It gives one a sense of how well people like something, assuming they continue using it is a sign of preference and satisfaction. For Snowglobe they have published some of that information. Snowglobe Meterics show about 3,500 Second Life residents using the viewer as of 6m/29d/09.

Torley has a video showing the new map zoom features. In the same blog post as the video they talk about under the hood changes. Snowglobe Features There are new texture download methods in this viewer. They say one won’t likely see much performance improvement for those changes just yet as they are only used in the maps. However, the maps do update much faster so there is promise.

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Update Gemini Viewer Review for RPG’s

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UPDATE! 7/13/09

Skills Hak has announced that development of the Gemini is stopped. Version 7 will not be released. Instead  that work is being added to the Greenlife Emerald viewer. Reference The new Emerald 1.23.4 viewer is out today.

Original Review

Earlier I posted Gemini Viewer Review – Second Life. Before that I posted GreenLife Emerald Viewer Review, which has pictures if you want to see some of the menus, which are 99% identical. I’ve added a couple of minor updates to the original posts. I’ve now used the viewer for a bit over a week in RP. There are some new considerations to look at and some solutions for role players. I’ve been using v5. Now V6 rc02 is available for download as of 6/26.

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Grendel's Children

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In Second Life Grendel’s is one of my favorite places to shop. The store floats over four sims and is filled with loads of avatars (AV) one can buy from free to a few hindered Linden. Yesterday NPIRL (Not Possible In Real Life) Bettina Tizzy posted an interview with Flea Bussy, owner and creator of Grendel’s, and a Machinima by Nitwacket showing some of the amazing AV’s.

Grendel’s Children Web Site

Grendel’s Children Store

The four sims below the store are filled with a hunt and role play area. Join Grendel’s forum for information on the RP.

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Avarian & Compendium

Look for the Avarian Expedition and The Creature Compendium in the North East corner on the entrance level, between Pets and Homes. These kits allow one to participate in the quest for free shoulder animals and pets that takes place on the ground below the store. One can buy the shoulder animals for L$100. The two kits are L$30 each. So, finding one shoulder animal pays for the kits. The quest is part of the RP in the surface, or can be. The RP is not required. There are fun things to make and find on the surface. Not all of the fun stuff can be purchased. Plus finding and making (as in find metal and stones then bake in kiln to get jewelry – this is NOT SL prim style make) stuff is more fun than waiting around on lucky chairs.

Gemini Viewer Review – Second Life

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There are lots of viewers and more seem to be coming out. The Second Life Viewer named Gemini by Skills Hak is designed more for Role Players. Earlier I reviewed the Greenlife Emerald Viewer. The Gemini Viewer is very similar but with some differences.

One difference is the viewer skin. It is designed to work better with physically dark regions. After all it is made by one of the INSILICO people. If you have not visited the Insilico region, it is worth a trip. (Insilico Web Site) I am totally fascinated by the robotic spider they have at the primary LM landing point.

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Travel to Other Virtual Worlds

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Travel to other virtual worlds and look cool doing it. Cool as in wear your skin, shape and clothes. How is ths done? Answer: Dynamic Hypergrid Links or just Dynamic Links. Dynamic Links? What the heck is a dynamic link? In this case the Open Sim crowd means links between virtual worlds. The idea is a Second Life resident (player) can open the world map and select other worlds, not just regions.

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

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