Virtual Worlds – Page 207

March 2, 2013

I Would Cocoa If The Project Viewer Worked

In their recent blog post on improvements to Second Life, Linden Lab point to an interesting new viewer for Mac users, the Cocoa Project Viewer. However, as Mikki Miles points out in a post on the official forums, the current release of this project viewer does not work.

However, if you’ve used the project viewer before, then there is hope, because in yet another example of how collaboration is a good thing, Siona Qinan posts a workaround:

I found a fix on another forum (a post from “Eris” on a forum that covers Second Life and the whole Universe). Apparently the arguments.txt file is bad – replacing it with one from an earlier build did the trick for me.

Right click, “Show Package Contents”, open Resources folder and replace the argument.txt file.

Unfortunately I don’t have an earlier build, but for those who do have an earlier build, here’s a way of using the new cocoa viewer release.

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March 2, 2013March 3, 2013

An Apology To Scylla Rhiadra

You know when newspapers print an article about someone and then when it gets proven the newspaper is talking rubbish, they hide an apology away on page 15. Well I don’t do that, although in this case it’s a matter of me not correctly checking how my posts read.

Back in January I blogged: Those Who Seek Offence Will Find It. In that post I complained that people who were seeking objectionable content should not complain about finding it. I also typed:

“Scylla Rhiadra used to be a very vocal critic of certain types of content in Second Life and would argue against its existence. Scylla was part of SL Left Unity and its offshoot of The Left Unity Feminist Network. I’m not sure how active such groups are in Second Life these days or if Scylla is even still around. There are ways and means of making your points, but I don’t agree with AR parties for content that isn’t against the TOS.”

My intent here was to cite Scylla as an example of someone, whom whether you agreed with her or not, made her points in a more sensible fashion than the article I was referencing in the blog post. However I can now see that it reads as if I was suggesting Scylla led AR parties, that was not my intent but it does seem to read that way.

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March 1, 2013

Could Linden Lab Follow The Draxtor Despres Lead?

One thing that Draxtor Despres has exemplified so well in his opening episode of The Drax Files is how well video can be used to promote Second Life. The question therefore must be, where Draxtor Despres leads, can Linden Lab follow?

Let’s rewind a little first, Linden Lab, in association with The Linden Endownment For The Arts, used to run a an official month of machinima. The playlist can still be viewed on youTube. Whereas this playlist has many films, they are films first and Second Life related second, that’s no bad thing and is a good demonstration of machinima in Second Life, but it doesn’t do what Draxtor has achieved with his mixed real person virtual person production.

On their blog, Linden Lab give a lot of time and space to the Second Life Picture Of The Day. There are some stunning images on there and a picture can speak a thousand words, it’s good promotion but it doesn’t get behind the person or the place in the way that Inara Pey and Honour McMillan do…. they’ve both blogged about the University of Western Australia’s machinima contest, with one million Linden Dollars worth of prize money, including a top prize of 200,000 Linden Dollars. I have a pub to go to and beer to drink, I don’t have time to be sidetracked like this! Go read Inara or Honour for more details.

Where was I, oh yes, telling the story of the person behind the images. Linden Lab did try and get something like this going with some blog posts, Strawberry Singh was one of the guest bloggers, writing a post about twelve months ago, but the concept didn’t really gain traction. Highlighting the difficulties Linden Lab face regarding editorial content on these issues.

One challenge that Linden Lab face that, with all due respect, Draxtor, Honour and Inara don’t face, is that of editorial impartiality, if Linden Lab feature one resident, lots of other residents will complain.

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February 28, 2013

Linden Lab Should Talk To The Virtual World Media

I like Metareality Podcast, there, I’ve said it! I mean Draxtor can talk about his Xanax, Qarl can tell us he got jaded whilst being a Linden, Gianna can sound fed up whilst giggling and the two boys can swear like troopers, but it’s an entertaining affair. I’d like to hear a Linden being a guest, but Gianna has made comments that they keep cancelling at the last minute.

I can recall seeing Lindens make appearances on the former inworld chat show: Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe. Paisley has moved on, as have most of the Lindens she interviewed! Hmmm. Treet TV has a number of shows, although these days Designing Worlds seems to be the big one, not that that’s a bad thing. Some of the shows listed are no longer active but are fun to look back on. Media outlets like this are good for Second Life, it’s a shame they aren’t more widely promoted. Surely Linden Lab are the ultimate world designers? Would they fit in Designing Worlds? Saffia Widdershins of Prim Perfect could probably answer that!

Tomorrow will see the launch of something very interesting from Draxtor Despres who is unveiling a new show on his youTube channel at 10am.

I mention other media channels because I see on the Second Life blog, a blog about improvements to Second Life. The post talks about the CHUI beta viewer, improvements to region crossings, the new email options on the marketplace, the cocoa project viewer, which is intended to improve performance on the mac as well as talking about the forthcoming materials project, for which there will soon be a project viewer. I am extremely pleased to see Linden Lab making better use of their blog. However, how about making better use of their world too?

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