Last Friday’s Drax Files Radio hour is well worth a listen because it featured Cubey “Not the Grandfather Of Aviation In Second Life” Terra. However it also featured something else, Draxtor Despres and Jo Yardley dropping hints about a big secret regarding SL GO from Onlive.
I’d actually forgotten all about this until I saw a post on New World Notes : SL Go Streaming Now Available Through PC/Mac Versions of Firestorm, Second Life’s Most Popular Viewer. SL GO can now be used with Firestorm as the client. This is further explained by the Firestorm team themselves in their own blog post : Firestrom On SL GO!
It should be noted that SL GO is not yet available on mobile devices with Firestorm. However that is promised for the future. Wait a minute, isn’t SL GO aimed at mobile devices such as Tablets? Well yes and no. SL GO can also be used to bring more life to Second Life on older PC/Mac hardware. The Firestorm blog post explains how this all works, I’ll quote some of that here but you really need to read the whole blog to get the full picture :
Onlive is essentially a streaming service. They host Firestorm and the SL Viewer on their many servers and stream video of a viewer’s interface and graphics to your computer screen while relaying your key and mouse inputs back to the viewer. This allows you to use graphically intensive games and applications without weighting down your own computer. In many ways it is like a remote desktop allowing you to manipulate the computer you are connected to with your own computer or mobile device. And since the computers on which OnLive hosts Firestorm are very high-end machines, you can run SL with full ultra graphics, shadows and everything without the drop in performance that highly detailed graphics usually cause!
The press release about this from OnLive has even more information and good quotes :
SL Go on PC and Mac offers access to the full Firestorm Viewer interface, including edit menus, inventory, preference settings and chat management. All viewer customizations are saved from session to session, even if played on a completely different device or platform. New and existing users can simply sign in over their internet connection or Wi-Fi to enjoy a high-fidelity Second Life experience with amazing graphics quality, full shaders, shadows and full motion capability. Streamed from OnLive’s powerful cloud-based servers, which have been clocked at speeds as high as 200 FPS set to Ultra with Maximum Render Distance, each secure Second Life session enables users to rez quickly into their favorite sims to connect with in-world friends, participate in events, engage in combat games, and enjoy immersion in Second Life on older computers and on mobile devices.
“We’re happy to be able to empower SL Go users with more choice. They’ve told us they want a choice of viewers, so offering the popular Firestorm viewer was a natural next step.” said Rick Sanchez, VP of Product and Marketing at OnLive. “What I find exciting about SL Go is how it enables residents on older computers to experience Second Life in ultra-graphics settings without spending hundreds or thousands to upgrade their systems. It’s an affordable way for everyone to experience the full potential and beauty of SL with high framerates!” said Jessica Lyon, Project Manager for the Phoenix Firestorm project, developers of the Firestorm viewer.
I like OnLive, I like what they are trying to do, not just with Second Life but also with their games options too. There’s a definite feeling that computing is heading this way with virtualisation gaining a lot of traction so that the Desktop is not the sort of powerful machines we see today, the server side does the heavy lifting. We have actually been here before a few times and there have also been a few false dawns but this sort of model does seem to be gaining traction and I’m not just talking about games and virtual worlds.
I’ve always argued with those who say that the Desktop is dying because of the rise of mobile computing. The Desktop PC may be on its way to being more of a niche attraction, but the Desktop experience whereby we enjoy faster, larger and more impressive monitors and graphical experiences is not likely to be going anywhere.
This development from SL GO seems to be a very sensible step. The SL GO experience is not quite the same as the usual Second Life experience, there are limitations, but I’ve generally seen good reports about this and I was very impressed with my own brief trial.
If you want to give it a go, head over to the SL GO website and sign up for the free seven day trial. This will involve providing real details and payment details. If you like it you can get a subscription with unlimited access for $9.95 a month or £6.95 a month in the UK.
Also please note that if you don’t like Firestorm, you do have the choice of using the official Linden Lab viewer instead.