August 2011 – Page 3 – Ciaran Laval

August 15, 2011August 15, 2011

SLCC On The Future Of Second Life Commerce

I haven’t been following SLCC at all this year, it all seemed a lot lower key than in past years, although maybe I just wasn’t paying attention and we do have to remember that it’s a community convention not a Linden Lab convention. Inara Pey has covered Rodvik’s speech here where Inara covers the general gist and here, where Delicia Whipsnaps questions what was meant by Linden Lab diversifiyng, I haven’t got around to listening to his speech yet but Rodvik generally comes across very well when talking of Second Life.

However there were further talks regarding commerce in Second Life, with Brooke Linden and Thor Linden at the fore on commerce and advertising, with Collosus making an appearance too. The presentation can be listened to here, at Ustream, I guess if you’re lucky you can watch it too but the video froze for me, although I could listen to the talk. First up, some comedy gold when I went to that page came in the shape and form of the advert on that page:

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August 11, 2011August 11, 2011

Fixed Teleport Routing Should Be Used Sparingly

Teleport routing, a parcel setting that allows you to decide whether people who use landmarks arrive at a set point or anywhere (or blocked if you so deem it fit) should be used sensibly and when it comes to setting teleport routing to a landing point, it’s a bit of an annoyance.

Why would someone want teleport routing to be set to the landing point? Well they may have a build in the sky, or they may have private tenants inside a building, or they may want you to see a build from the start rather than arriving halfway through it and missing the experince, some builds are experiences that require you start at the beginning, they may want you to read the rules before entering the parcel, so there are a number of uses for this setting.

However when it comes to public sims with no start or end, or stores, setting teleport routing to the landing point can be frustrating because you can’t share a landmark with someone else and tell them to look at what’s at point x, because the landmark takes them to point y. However when it comes to ground level stores …… why do people do this?

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August 5, 2011August 5, 2011

Useful Blender Tutorials

Mesh is on the grid, although not officially released, so getting ready for Mesh is an important step, although as I’ve said before the prim is far from dead and Mesh will have problems, especially early doors, with viewer compatibility. I’ve been looking at Mesh and settled on Blender as my tool of choice, which you can read more about here. I’ve chosen Blender because Autodesk Maya, which is a fantastic 3D Modelling tool, is expensive for a noob to 3D modelling like me, it is of course aimed at professionals, which I’m not. Another popular tool is Google Sketchup, but from what I can see the free version is for personal use only, so Blender is the tool that gives me the most options at the best price, in this case nothing but donations should be forthcoming.

First things first, anyone who tells you 3D modelling is easy is talking cack, trust me on this, it’s not easy, inworld building with prims is definitely easier to learn, however Blender is a powerful piece of software from what I can tell, now you may be like me and rush head first in and then bang your head on the wall and then follow a process like this:

Excitedly download the program.
Open it up and stare at a cube.
Look at the menus and think “WTF”.
Read some tutorials and think “WTF”
UV Mapping? “WTF”

However fear not, because I have fearlessly sought out some half decent tutorials which have allowed me to upload a mesh cube with a texture on it … it’s a start! I will share some of the useful tutorials with you.

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August 5, 2011August 5, 2011

Blizzard Move Into Micro Transaction Business

The announcment that the forthcoming Diablo III will have an auction house system catches my eye because we’re talking an auction house here that can result in cashing out real money from the game. The currency based system will be optional and if players prefer they will be able to trade with inworld gold instead, but it will be seen as an interesting development in the gaming world, micro transactions and the ability to cash out have been a strong driving force behind Second Life, seeing this system extended to a game is interesting, from the FAQ:

Can players choose to get cash from currency-based auction house sales, instead of having the proceeds deposited into their Battle.net account?

Yes, as an advanced feature, players will have the option of attaching an account with an approved third-party payment service to their Battle.net account. Once this has been completed, proceeds from the sale of items in the currency-based auction house can be deposited into their third-party payment service account. “Cashing out” would then be handled through the third-party payment service. Note that this process will be subject to applicable fees charged by Blizzard and the third-party payment service. Also, any proceeds from the sale of items in the currency-based auction house that have been deposited into the Battle.net account will not be transferrable to the third-party payment service account. Not all regions will support this advanced feature at launch. Region-specific details, as well as details regarding which third-party payment services will be supported and the fee that Blizzard will charge for the cash-out process, will all be provided at a later date.

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