This week we discuss why many Second Life residents are jaded, Linden Lab’s launch of Versu, future technologies like Google Glass and Oculus Rift, & more!
This week’s topics include:
- Follow up on comments from last week
- Mesh Deformer Discussion
- Linden Lab Valentine’s Day Gift
- Why are so many SLers unhappy with Linden Lab/Second Life?
- Linden Lab launches Versu
- More on Versu
- Iris Ophelia’s First Impressions of Versu
- Why Linden Lab’s new projects might not succeed
- Second Life creator Linden Lab launches Versu
- Woman with Parkinson’s Reports Significant Physical Recovery After Using Second Life
- How Club One lowers your weight and BP virtually
- Stanfords VR Lab Offers Wild Glimpse of the Future
- How it Feels Through Google Glass
- If I Had Glass
- Oculus Rift
- Hunger in Los Angeles Debuts At Sundance
- Deep Down for PS4
- 300 million dollars out of thin air: Bitcoin turns four and approaches $30 value
- Gambling in Second Life
- Kitely Market
- Amazon to Launch Its Own Virtual Currency Soon
- Twitter Will Decide the Value of Your Tweets
- Create Legends
Guests:
Bernhard Drax (Draxtor Despres) is a musician, new media producer, and machinima journalist.
Karl Stiefvater (Qarl Fizz, formerly Qarl Linden) is visual effects artist, software developer, and interactive designer extraordinaire.
Lexi Zelin is the owner of and designer at AngelRED Couture which offers established and aspiring Second Life clothing creators high quality full permission clothing templates and full perm mesh clothing.
Thank you to our sponsors -
Botgirl’s Digital Playground, AngelRED Couture, & Kahruvel Design
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I watched a video put out by the Firestorm Viewer creators that talks about how LL is implementing quite a few changes to the server code. Karl could that have anything to do why LL is dragging their feet implementing the Mesh Deformer?
Personally I just wish they would release it. It works just fine and has worked for months and months. I think just a few wiki pages on best how to make mesh to work with the deformer is all that is needed.
Does it still use the vertex positions of the default avatar mesh to influence those clothing mesh vertices that are closest? Meaning to say make a T-Shirt that works perfectly with the mesh deformer take the default Ruth avatar mesh and cut off the head, neck, arms, hands, waist, legs and feet to create the mesh for the T-Shirt? This way the shirt’s vertices match the avatars mesh body perfectly. Of course you just make the shirt a little bigger than the avatar’s mesh.
With normal maps coming even a shirt made with the relatively few vertices from the avatar’s default mesh can have huge amount of details without causing horrible lag.
The high amounts of vertices I see a lot of designers using for clothing and hair is ridiculousness.
Another Karl question. I looked into bit coins after I heard them mentioned on a earlier podcast. Best I could figure out is that you can create your own bit coin by having your pc calculate some intense equations and in doing so make bit coins. What is the purpose of these calculations? Are they just to give each bit coin some individual signature so people just can’t duplicate as many coins they want? Or does some corporation need the answers to these equations and is just farming it out to thousands of computers and paying them with bit coins? I read that it requires a significant investment of hardware and electrical bill to turn out even just a few bit coins seeing as the equations are getting harder and taking longer to complete in order to make a bit coin.
Personally I think SL’s problems are more managerial than technical even things that are based in the limited technology of SL like lag. Example the shear amount of items, textures and scripts an avatar can wear at any one time is insane. That is a managerial decision on the allowable amount.
Yes I know residents will go mad if LL decides to lower the amount. That is why I have always promoted the idea that LL should start a second SL grid with a different name. New grid new rules. Faze out things that don’t work and learn from past mistakes. Always keep the old grid up but as people migrate to the new grid the old grid will become smaller and less costly to maintain. Perhaps a process where designers can submit their existing content to be allowed on the new grid. Once approved those items would appear in the inventories of residents on either grid. Provided they had the items in their inventories on the old grid.
Yes I know this mean either a Linden or some sort of computer program that would determine if the item is acceptable for the new grids rules. But LL could let the residents themselves determine if an item is acceptable. Take a page from IMVU.
Give the residents guidelines to follow. If say 50 residents vote that it is OK then the item is allowed. Pay each resident say L$1 for each item they vote on.
Another managerial decision is to come up and developer a better system for increasing new user retention. An idea I put up years and years ago was a simplified viewer that just let new users do the basics but my idea was to also make the viewer interactive with embedded videos from Torley Linden on how to use different features. Everything in the viewer you could right mouse click on and select help or question mark and either a simple text description on what the menu or object did and how to use it or for more complicated things an option for a Torley video to pop up about it. Have a default video start when first logged on that shows people how to walk and fly and buy and search and as they accomplish each step they get L$10.
Yes I know LL tried a basic viewer but if memory serves me you that viewer didn’t even have the buy or pay feature needed to purchase things.
two answers for you:
1) yes, uses vertex position. yes, works exactly like you think.
2) that computation is necessary for the bitcoin algorithm to remain “safe”. it prevents a hostile entity from taking down the network. (it’s not perfect, but it’s good.) it is no longer financially worthwhile for an amateur to mine bitcoin. the pros have designed specialized bitcoin chips that vastly outperform everything else.
Awesome!
Thanks Karl!
Now if LL would just let mesh have access to the skin layer. Then designers could create new avatar mesh using the current default UV layout. That way whatever skin your default avatar was wearing the new avatar mesh would automatically have that texture applied to it.
I was thinking that if LL created a texture called “Default Skin” or “Avatar Skin” and gave it away for free. A program could be written that any mesh with this textured applied would have the current skin textures the owner was wearing displayed on the new mesh. Perhaps using the UUID number of the LL “Default Skin” texture to identify the texture to be replaced.
Probably about 99% of skin designers in SL have their skins set to No Mod. So any new avatar mesh bodies can only use the few skins that are Mod if the designer also gives the buyer actual skin textures not just the skin file.
Karl with your mesh deformer new avatar mesh bodies, as long as the vertices were somewhat close to the default Ruth’s, all animations and facial expressions would work right out of the box.
Forget Ruth 2.0 we have hundreds of new avatars to choose from in a year or so and LL wouldn’t have to spend a dime.
Oh just to clarify.
When I say any new avatar mesh can only use the few skins available that are mod and provide the actual skin textures I am taking about the current state of mesh.
My proposed system of using the “Default Skin” texture created by LL to access the skin your avatar is currently wearing would mean any skin you own weather Mod or not can be used by the new avatar mesh.
Yes I know this would make skin textures a bit more vulnerable to theft but skin textures are already so easily stolen.
Kinda like worrying on the Titanic that a toilet has a small leak when the ship is sinking after a huge whole has been ripped into it by the ice burg.
Love the idea of new users earning a few lindens for accomplishing learning tasks!! I’ve seen lots of games use that strategy. Yes, Lindens are a form of RL money but I still don’t see why LL couldn’t implement a system much like IMVU which has credits and then promo credits and have the promo ones unable to transfer to another avatar and unable to transfer out as real money. It’s really not rocket science here LL!!! lol
I love Cathy’s ideas about the learning videos, payments, and basic viewers. Another option I like is when I have to complete certain tasks to open up new tools. It gives me incentive to go through it.
Launching a new world is an interesting idea too, and I really like the voting idea. It would be even better if there was some way to move over our inventories.
I love your idea Pam about completing some sort of task before allowing a new user to use or unlock a new tool or feature. It might even cut down on griefing if a griefer has to do the tasks over and over again in order to open up the those tools they might use to grief with every time their accounts get banned or deleted and have to start over.
LL has already successfully teleported an avatar from one grid to another. Certainly it should be easy for LL to allow inventory from one grid onto a new one they own. Perhaps Karl can elaborate on the next podcast if such a thing is possible.
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I love the dynamic between Drax’s optimism and Quarl’s Jadeduism. Really balances out the topics raised.
A few things sprang to mind while listening.
Linden Lab are SOOOO SLOOOOWWWW, and not entirely their fault, because Second Life is just to complex. Sometimes it feels like they are painting a picture one Brush stroke a week, stepping back to make sure its in the right place.
I think the idea that if something better came along we’d all move to that is true, but then thats true about ANYTHING in this world.
Even if SL could render PS4 graphics, unless the users learn to 3D model, texture and animate to the degree Games Developers do, you will only get a plywood box rendered beautifully.
There is no innovation in SL from a Lab Perspective, maybe they are doing it all behind closed doors now. It’s all now devoted to making what we currently have work better, which is what the majority of SL residents demanded. I have a feeling that the Server side baking, Interest List, experience tools, New Resident start point are all connected and because it’s SO SLOW it can feel like nothing is happening.
I only hope that when LL finally finish their big shinning project that things noticeably improve, for their sake and optimism.
Ive been in SL for 7 years, started off using prims to build as did everyone else. Then i learnt to sculpt. Then Mesh came along and suddenly i find i’m a 3D modeller, scripter, clothes designer and story teller. There is NO other creative place that this could have happened. The Only question is where will this now lead because there is a limit in SL that we as creators are constantly pushing SL to pass. I’d like for SL to keep adding the tools and features for me to eventually create experiences to rival anything on Steam but im already starting to look at Unity3D in case LL stop.
/me points out to a german NGO BUND accepting BitCoin(BC) now
( http://www.bund-berlin.de/bund_berlinde/spenden/bitcoin_spenden/bitcoin_english.html ) and sees with a bit fear how BC is crazy raising.