Second Life – Page 109

October 1, 2014

The Drax Files World Makers Episode 23 – Loz Hyde

Episode 23 of The Drax Files : World Makers brings to the table a fascinating interview with Second Life content creator Loz Hyde, the owner of the Meshworx brand. Loz has a day job of building 3D models so you may feel that he’s just extending his day job inside Second Life. However his day job includes making models for film and commercials. Amongst his credits are Terminator Salvation, 2012 and Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Loz expains how part of the beauty of a virtual world such as Second Life is that it gives him the power to create a world in his own vision. That world can then be explored by other people via their avatars, they can become immersed in it, they can interact with it.

Loz also points out how as a content creator he can transfer the profits from his sales to Paypal and then to his bank account. There’s money in them there builds. Whereas it’s definitely not easy money, those with the talent to create and market their wares can indeed make real money out of their Second Life experience. Loz also points out one of the big plus points of virtual world items, their durability. A virtual sofa will not erode with age, you won’t get tears and rips in it. Well I guess someone could build a model that does erode, but generally they don’t erode. They will become dated over time of course and whereas Loz doesn’t mention this in his interview, the advent of Mesh in Second Life has made some older prim based items dated. However those old prim based items haven’t eroded!

Continue reading “The Drax Files World Makers Episode 23 – Loz Hyde”

September 30, 2014

Second Life Improvements On Their Way

Linden Lab have announced in a blog post that some improvements are heading the way of Second Life. The improvements aren’t exactly what you’d call sexy but they do have the potential to be rather impressive, if all goes to plan.

The first change mentioned is with relation to how graphic settings are detected. Linden Lab are doing away with the old graphics table and using a new benchmark to detect your graphics card instead. On first glance this seems to be more accurate, you may see something like this :

An Image Should Be Here — New Graphics Card Detection

The point of this is described in the blog post from Linden Lab :

Maybe this has happened to you: you got an awesome new graphics card, fired up SL… only to discover your graphics settings are set to Low, and can’t be changed? No more! This Viewer does away with the old GPU table and instead uses a quick benchmark measurement to detect your GPU to assign appropriate default graphics settings on startup. The settings on shiny powerful hardware should really let that hardware shine.

My graphics settings stayed exactly where I expected them to but yes, the new tool did produce more accurate results regarding my graphics card. However if you want to test out this new feature, you will need to download a project viewer, which you can get here : http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_Project_Benchmark/3.7.17.294710/ There’s a Jira issue linked to this entitled Death To The Gpu table but that’s not viewable.

The next change discussed is to do with the login screen, which has been covered brilliantly by Inara Pey already. I recommend reading Inara’s blog post about this because those using the Second Life viewer will see these changes in the near future and Inara’s post has plenty of details on those changes.

The changes currently in the works for the login screen include the addition of a my favourite places dropdown to allow you to login to, well, your favourite places directly from the login screen. This is on top of still having the last location and region option that are already there, but really, read Inara for more information.

The final part of the blog post covers two projects that compliment each other and should bring improvements to the Second Life experience.

Continue reading “Second Life Improvements On Their Way”

September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

The Philomena Book Fair And Library Grand Opening

Philomena is a quite picturesque sim, it has old style buildings, a trolley ride, shops and most important of all, a library! The reason why the library is important is because it is the setting for a a book fair that runs from September 27th until October 4th.

There is also the grand opening of the new Philomena Public Library and libraries should very definitely be supported. I’m not going to talk too much on this subject because there’s a notecard with all the information and I’ll post that under the cut. If you’re already under the cut, it’s the next section!

Continue reading “The Philomena Book Fair And Library Grand Opening”

September 26, 2014

Storm Septimus Talks To Me About The Chamber Library In Second Life

Linden Lab continue to impress with their Destination Guide promotion and their latest blog post highlighting the destination guide contains some real gems. One that particularly caught my eye was The Chamber Library and so I popped along for a deeper look and was fortunate enough to bump into the creator and owner Storm Septimus.

The Chamber Library officially opened just a few days ago on September 21st and is already being expanded, with Storm hoping to have a new chamber open by September 29th. Storm has been working tirelessly on this build, filling the bookshelves with notecards for books on subject matters such as Poetics, Dream & Short Stories, Demonology & Horror and Superstition. The works of famous authors such as The Brothers Grimm, TS Eliot, William Shakespear, TS Eliot, Arthur Conan Doyle, Voltaire, HG Wells and Oscar Wilde are featured. There’s also a section for budding Second Life authors, more on that later.

The build brings together two of Storm’s greatest loves, literature and art. Storm explained to me some of the inspiration and work that has gone into the build :

The library was built on the advice of someone who told me …. in SL everything has been done to death , so give them something that they have never seen before. So I have tried. Another chamber should be completed by September 29th, I am almost there on one chamber and there are two more empty but I have a good idea what I will place in them so it should come together quickly.

I commented to Storm that the build was wonderfully atmospheric and it appears that Storm has been getting good feedback about the build, although she also told me that the work she has put in so far has been exhausting.

Continue reading “Storm Septimus Talks To Me About The Chamber Library In Second Life”

September 25, 2014

Introduction To Second Life For Educators Part 2

When Linden Lab ditched the education discount a few years back a few people felt that education in Second Life was dead. However it wasn’t and has been given a boost in the not too distant past by the return of the education discount and Linden Lab showing a more proactive role in promoting education within Second Life.

This is exemplified by Linden Lab’s blog post : Introduction to Second Life for Educators – a Course in Spanish 2nd Edition.

The course is from the University of San Martin de Porres Perú and is aimed at Spanish speaking educators who want to learn how to use Second Life for education purposes. The blog describes the course as :

The Virtual Worlds Project of The University of San Martin de Porres from Perú starts this September 29th the second edition of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) entitled “Introduction to Second Life for Educators 2nd. Ed.”. The course is free and is designed to train Spanish speaking educators on the use of the virtual world Second Life, and to provide knowledge that allows educators to benefit from its potential, especially in the education field.

The course starts in a few days time on September 29th.

Continue reading “Introduction To Second Life For Educators Part 2”