Second Life - Could there be a Viewer App for that?

Barcelona Plaza

Disclaimer! I'm not a coder, please remember that as you read this. The limited amount of understanding I have on this subject is based on conversations with others and some online research. What I do have is an imagination and the apparent need to extrapolate from tiny bits of things to create full blown "what if" scenarios. All of the inaccuracies and misunderstandings and sheer foolishness contained herein is mine own and nobody else is to blame.

Mojito Sorbet brought this to my attention - and frankly if it was written in greek I'd have no less chance of understanding it. But she and Gentle Heron spoke long enough to give me glimmers of hope for something I think could have a lot of potential. My attempt to contact Dzonatas Sol was in vain (wildly conflicting schedules), however my scripter friend Cris Lefavre spent some time trying to steer me in the right direction (remember none of them are responsible for my lack of understanding).

At the moment, those with the necessary technical abilities can create a Third Party Viewer with the functionality they feel is missing from the Linden Lab offerings and, assuming they clear some hurdles, make it available to the residents of Second Life. I can remember T Linden talking about V2 and saying that people could create a different version of the viewer for different categories of users (such as builders). I had an image of my desktop with multiple viewers for different tasks and tried to see how flipping between them was going to be a positive experience. I failed miserably.

SnowStorm 375 (as I understand it) is concerned with creating code which hooks into the main viewer and offers functionality that way. There are limits to what can be achieved with this right now - but I think it will be expanded given the creativity of SL residents. Imagine if instead of somebody compiling a new viewer to provide some functionality they created an "app" or "plugin" for your regular viewer. Imagine if hundreds of technical wizards did that and Linden Lab could continue to work on the platform and simply (well nothing's simple but you know what I mean) offered and maintained the "hooks" for your specialized app.

Virtual Ability

One of the many problems with the demands for tools and functionality in the viewer is that, as important as these requests are to the community with the need, they might not be a high priority for the whole user base. So getting the biggest bang for the buck out of limited resources would require LL to work on those things which improve life for the most of us. This leaves many of those requests, much like orphan diseases, to languish without the attention they deserve. But what if the technical resources in those communities, or technical wizards willing to support those communities, could create solutions for those who needed/wanted them and make them available without having to compile a new viewer?

I doubt that the number of potential "apps" would rise to the level of the iPhone offerings but over the years there could be an extensive range of tools developed and we users could pick and choose the ones we wanted.

There are a lot of inherent security issues with this approach I'm sure. But there again the Apple model might be useful. I can forsee a category in the Marketplace for "Viewer Apps". One which only included those whose developers had submitted them for approval - I'm guessing there would be a way to ensure that non-approved plugins would not be able to function with the main viewer (or maybe I'm just hoping that's true).

So there's my wild-assed vision of the future. One viewer. A stable and powerful viewer with a range of apps available for tools and specialized functionality. I obviously had too much time on my hands this week. :)

Second Life V2 & Photos with Shadows

Note: I'm told that these tips etc., don't work on Macs. Raul Crimson has had some success though and if I find out any more I'll let you know!

I'm hardly an expert Sl photographer - I think of myself as a determined amateur, but I've been experimenting with shadows lately and thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.

The first thing I encourage you to remember, because I always forget, is to check all your settings when you change viewers. I'm using the new V2.3 Beta today and obviously forgot a few of them (like high rez snapshots).

I love experimenting with shadows in V2 and the new Beta seems to perform well. I don't have a high end gaming computer - I mean she's not bad, but until recently I couldn't make shadows work at all so the new V2 is a lot of fun to play with.

The first lesson I learned when I was using shadows at Burn2 is to disable anti-aliasing. The difference is huge - whereas before I could barely operate when shadows were turned on, I can now actually walk around with them enabled without crashing (not a real high fps mind you, but at least it doesn't freeze on me).

To turn on shadows in V2:

Open the "Develop" menu, then go to rendering and click on FramebufferObjects. Go back in and select Lighting and Shadows and repeat the steps for Shadows from Sun/Moon and SSAO and Shadow Smoothing. Play with Global Illumination as well but note that it is experimental. I found that if I turned FramebufferObjects off it disabled the rest as well (much faster way to regain control than unclicking them all individually).

I went to the redesigned Alpha Point (gorgeous) to do a few test shots.

If you're doing a portrait it will be much easier to set up the shot if you use poses (and I rely on Gesticulate for mine). You'll be playing with settings and, if you don't have to keep adjusting your subject as well, your life will be much easier.

Now you've set up your model and have your shadows turned on - go into your windlight settings and get the light that you want. Then to adjust the shadows use the East Angle slider to move the sun around until you get the effect you want.

The only change I made in the first two photos was to move the angle of the sun. It's a lot of fun to do (then experiment with all the other settings if you've never tried them).

Another tip, and I got this one from Torley - go to the Clouds tab in the Advanced Sky Editor and unclick Draw Classic Clouds. This will help performance as well and I don't think you'll miss them.

I learned a couple of more things at Burn2 which may or may not help you:

1. Adjusting your draw distance not only changes your background but also the shape of shadows in a landscape. If it's a performance issue try extending your view distance once the rest of the settings are where you want them - then adjust back down if necessary. This also helps if you're getting partially rezzed sculpties (like the ones above) appearing in your shot. :)
2. Totally unrelated to photos - if you go to Develop/UI you can choose Double Click Teleport. Then double click on land you can see and you'll teleport there. This is really handy in high lag situations!

The VWE "Rumbles" in Second Life

(photo by Oura Scribe)

I would not have predicted this but last night I had one of the single most entertaining experiences of my Second Life at the VWE Edge (One Year Anniversary). I'm going to get to the juicy bits in a minute. First let me give you what, in my opinion, is a very cool feature of the last few V2 Beta's.

I had received a notice that this event was going to happen and figured "What the heck, I've never been to wrestling in Second Life" and thought I'd go check it out. First I had to find it and then remember it. So I went into events and searched in sports and, yes, found it. If you open the event and click on "profile" you get a new little window pop up. The first button on the bottom is "notify". I clicked on that and then closed the search windows.

A little over two hours later I got a notice about the event with a teleport button. Yay! Now as long as I know about an event and can find it in search I won't have to rely on my aged memory to actually remember to attend! I don't see this function in the production version of V2 but it is in the Beta. Love it!

Now to the "event". I'm not a devotee of wrestling in the physical world and I've never been to any of the inworld wrestling venues before. I can't compare this organization to any others in Second Life but if they're even 1/2 as entertaining, polished and, to my ears, pitch perfect as the VWE they must be amazing. I invited some friends to join me and once they managed to squeeze into the full sim they enjoyed it as much as I did (actually in one case more than I did but we won't go into that).

I managed to take this shot of the venue before it all started. The lag was something awful and so really good photos were impossible for me but the event worked in spite of any technical difficulties.

This is one of the most well thought out experiences I've encountered inworld. The build is gorgeous and the "extras" are numerous. You can get a free folder of a large number of gestures allowing you to clap, cheer, chant, boo, heckle etc. Signs are included to allow members of the audience to show their loyalties (or hate the ref).

On the ground next to that barrier around the ring are footprints. As a spectator you can "stand" on them and animations then allow you to interact with the wrestlers as they pass by (or land on you when thrown out).

So as you look at these photos imagine the sounds of hundreds of people cheering, jeering and applauding. Imagine the commentators voices describing the action. Imagine the sounds of bodies landing on the mat (or floor). Imagine fighting in and around the ring and characters such as the zombie girlfriend of one wrestler arguing with the giant manager of another. Imagine the chat from the spectators (who all have very strong opinions) and the wrestlers. Oh and try to imagine the chat from the referee (who was actually a stuffed rabbit on the back of a female wrestler doing double duty). Please try to imagine all of that because the atmosphere is exceptional and a huge part of what makes this event so much fun.

The action in and around the ring was, well not scripted of course because wrestling is REAL, but well thought out. The amount of incredibly hard work that all of the people involved put into this is evident. There was a sense of "professionalism" to the whole evening and continuous surprises and often so much was going on it was hard to keep track. But that just added to the fun.

There were a series of matches on the "card" and included "Bombshell" wrestlers, tag teams and championships. Because it is Second Life the women can fight the men and inflict a lot of damage. In the shot below she had just kicked him in his "gibblees" (according to one commentator) and then jumped on him from atop the ropes. You could feel his pain (although the men felt it more than I did).

RezzedTV broadcasts the VWE events 3 times a week. You'll get some idea of what it's like by going and see some of the videos. If you can't get inworld you can watch the live stream of the events on the net.

When you do go watch you'll quickly realize that the one aspect of the whole thing that ties it together and makes it successful is the quality of the two commentators. Arawn Ronas and Wildfire Morgwain are outstanding. I've heard enough snippets of physical world wrestling commentators to tell you that they have this down. It's worth going to an event just to listen to them!

I had originally thought I would just drop in and get a taste of this event. I lasted for 3 hours - I couldn't tear myself away. One of the friends who joined me announced he was "never leaving".

I haven't laughed this hard in years. It was at turns exciting, surprising, suspenseful and hysterical. This was their one year anniversary. How have I not known about this? You really really need to check it out. Their next "big" event is on October 22 but the regular matches will certainly give you a terrific taste. :)

Second Life V2 Fashion Crashes

So I downloaded the new version of V2 this morning and logged on. Performance was great and textures rezzed very quickly. However I didn't. I had things to do so it was more than an hour before I could go deal with the problem.

One of the most common solutions to the "cloud" problem is to change your outfit. However make sure you change it to an outfit that is completely different (if you've ever modified an existing saved outfit you'll notice the new one has the original listed as one of its components, anything you didn't change will be included under the name of the first outfit). I thought this would be a great time to try on a Bare Rose outfit I hadn't played with yet so I went to my inventory, opened the folder and chose "Add to Outfit". That's the way I've learned to do it so that my hair/skin/etc. would remain instead of choosing "Replace Outfit".

Well. The results were interesting if a little excessive. I don't know if it has something to do with the multiple attachments feature in V2, but I was now wearing all of the options included in the Bare Rose outfit folder. I mean all of them. When I looked under the "Wearing" tab I had on 5 shirts, 5 jackets, 7 scarves, 3 sets of shoulder pads, etc., etc., etc.,. It didn't take long before I crashed. Hard.

I tried doing a screen print so I could show you the list of what had been "added to my outfit" but this was a complete system crash and it was lost.

This might explain some performance issues I've had recently if I've added just enough layers to mess things up but not enough for a major system stroke.

So I guess what I'm going to have to do is either try on newly purchased outfits one item at a time or sort vendor folders into colour coordinated sub folders.

Perhaps all the fashion designers out there could keep this in mind when they box up their items? In the meantime I'll try and find a way to document the problem for a JIRA (sigh) in case it's a bug and not a feature. :)

Second Life V2 Performance & Ports

Honour has been kidnapped and replaced by a pod person, at least temporarily. That's the only explanation for this techie-like blog post.

I had downloaded a new Beta version of V2 last week and was in heaven! The performance was an amazing improvement, even on sims where I typically have incredible lag I was able to move around quickly and the textures rezzed in a very short period of time. I was in love. Then I was forced to download a newer Beta version and the performance was awful. The lag was back and textures took forever to rez (I wish I'd taken a photo. Instead of remaining gray while they rezzed the textures were the login page for the SL website - looked very art deco.).

Last night I saw a link to this post by Tateru Nino and thought I might have a solution. I configured my software and hardware firewalls ages ago to accomodate the ports that Second Life needs - obviously there was a new one I should add.

Luckily (while trying to find the instructions for configuring ZoneAlarm and other software firewalls) I went to the page with the full list of ports you need to include. Imagine my surprise/shock/embarassment when I realized that not only was the new texture download port there but an additional 7 settings had been added since I did my initial configuration. (For those of you with voice problems, many of these settings are directly related to that functionality.)

I managed to configure ZoneAlarm and then I found the web site where I configure my Router settings (sigh) and added all the missing ports. Then I did one other tweak - it occurred to me that I had not checked the settings in V2 that control cache allocation or bandwidth so I fixed both of those as well. And the result of all this geeky fiddling?

Textures now render much faster in the V2 Beta. In fact I went to Alpha Point because it's full of sculpties (which is a pretty good test) and I knew it wasn't in my cache. Took less than 5 seconds for the image above to rez. (happy dance)

In addition, my frame rate at my Linden Home has more than doubled.

All of this is a pointed reminder, to me at least, that some performance issues can be improved on our end too. :)

Now I just have to figure out why my photos are blurry...............

SL Pro 1.0 and Viewer 2.0

Natural Venus by Guu Nishi

I went to SL Pro this week - and it's just as exhausting to go to an inworld conference as it is one in real life. Less travel time though. :)

Most of the pics in this post are from the building competition, these and all of the other great builds will be available for public viewing next week and I'll try and remember to update this post with the Slurl when that happens. They're well worth a visit!

Seussian Game by DoctorPartridge Allen

I'm very very glad I went to the conference. It was well attended and although, just like real life, the presentations varied in quality I got at least one nugget of an idea out of all of them. The really good presentations resulted in pages of things I want to do. I will go again next year if at all possible - and assuming I've managed to cross off most of the items on this year's list. :)

Entrance to Nemo's Lair by Sextan Shepherd

One of the very nice things about being at the conference is that we experienced Viewer 2.0 as a group. In fact, once T Linden had finished his presentation (which was really good) most of the group chat consisted of "has anybody found.....", "does anybody know....." and "how do you.....". This shortened the initial learning curve for all of us.

Nemo's Underwater Office by Sextan Shepherd

I like the new viewer and, unlike some apparently, I think it will be easier for newbies than the rest of us. They won't spend time looking for things they expect to find elsewhere. It is Beta so interesting glitches occur but some of the new stuff is exciting.

Troy Vogel

Web on a prim will be useful to me in the store but I'm waiting for the first fashion designer to put videos on clothing prims. SL fashion may never be the same. :)

Sagittarius Prefab by Troy Vogel

So yes, it was a good (albeit exhausting) week. I feel motivated, I've learned things and I have lots of new ideas. That's worth the price of admission to me.

One last thing, Glenn Linden proved that you can not only lose your shoes but also your feet, pants and legs. :)

Update: I promised to share the Slurls when the site was open to the public. So for your exploring pleasure:

SL Pro! SLURLS
SL Pro! Welcome Center http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%203/224/224/26

Full Build Challenge Entries
Inspiration Island http://slurl.com/secondlife/Grandmar%20Island/106/38/25
Poecila http://slurl.com/secondlife/Poecila/50/54/92
RIT Island http://slurl.com/secondlife/RIT/21/237/26
La Plaza http://slurl.com/secondlife/GCCAz/73/79/24
Sonas Cascades http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sonas%20Cascades/138/126/53

Limited Prim Challenge Entries
Marziah Masala -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/223/160/25
Ruuh Cassini -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/223/218/26
Hackshaven Harford -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/167/202/35
Catherine Soderstrom -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/166/140/35
Lyr Lobo -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/162/72/21
Guu Nishi -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/167/202/35
Troy Vogel -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/167/202/35
Bronco Graves -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/45/171/23
DoctorPartridge Allen -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/48/207/30
Kidnaplism Freschi -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/91/216/29
Phate Shepherd -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/105/159/21
Vivienne Daguerre -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/108/98/21
sextan shepherd-- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/167/160/22
Cierra Anatine -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/161/223/21
Rafale Kamachi -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/231/232/22
Chanty Bolissima -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%202/219/172/22
Rusalka Writer -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%203/238/111/22
Thursday Xu -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%203/99/109/21

Linden Homes 100 Prim Challenge Entries
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/193/90/22

Shared Media Challenge Sandboxes
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%201/157/24/23
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SLPro%204/94/232/22