Wishlist for 2013

Life is good. I don't really need a wishlist, at the moment. But in 2012 i found some things occurring more often than before - or maybe it is just my perception, i don't know. So, life is really good, but could, in SL even get better with these:

1. Less arrogance - more tolerance

Arrogant and insisting people are griefers of the social sort. Denying the right to a different opinion is bad. And continuously doing the wrong thing is bad too. Often not meant bad, but laziness  Being lazy is bad tho as well. Stop being lazy. If things need to be changed, change them.

2. Pick entry "My IMs get capped" should vanish

Seriously. If you want your IMs forwarded to e-mail, it is just one click in your settings. And yes, i know, e-mail forwarding does not work with many services. But it works 100% with gmail. So: get a gmail account and connect it to your SL account and have your IMs forwarded. You can even then reply while being off-world. How cool is that?

3. Stop whining the "SL world will end!"

Really. I should stop reading these whining blogs. Where every breath LL does is interpreted as "the end is near". I can see why LL stopped communicating on many channels. Because, it does not matter what they say, they are criticized. But if you look around and compare SL with other grids, you will see, that this here is the most stable and best performing platform among the virtual worlds. And yes, it has bugs, of course. What has not?

Go, compare it with other grids. And stop telling yourself fairy tales like "it is there as good as here". Because it is not. Either the worlds there are not as stable and feature rich as here, or the content is lacking on a large scale, or both.

4. "No drama" or "i am a bitch" pick entry, or also the "missing pony O-legs" or these overly pouty faces - please, go away

I check profiles before i answer IMs. When i read "no drama" it makes me just want to go out for a walk first, before i reply. Because in 9 out of 10 cases, these ones are the ones who are the drama on legs. Paired with that o-legged shape where a pony or a hippo could walk through, and lips where the corners reach down to the knees make the picture perfect.

5. Please adjust to new viewers

Finally, really, Firestorm told, they cant develop Phoenix any longer. And what do they earn? a shitsstorm in comments in their own blog. You read this right: Volunteers, who worked hard, spending their sparetime, for giving viewers for free, are receiving a shitstorm when they say, they reached their limit, capacity, in workload. I cant even express in words how gross that is. Instead of appreciating that there are people doing all this hard work they receive this treatment? Something is seriously wrong there. 

What would you add to this list? 

Smart beyond words..

No Comment - Click to enlarge

Random sidenotes

For a good start into the day, listen :)  The music is from Jamendo, one source for music under various licenses, many pieces there are for example free for use in machinimas.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

An interesting view on Second Life from a former Linden you can read up here:

Tech Confessional: The Secrets Of Second Life

A former employee of Linden Labs, the creator of the virtual world, talks about walking in on users having (virtual) sex, being a Second Life celebrity, and why it was such an inspiring job. Also, furries! ->> read more

A good laugh i had on these news:

World of Warcraft cities hacked

Hackers have massacred all the virtual characters in some of online adventure game World of Warcraft's major cities. ->> read more

Snow Crash soon a movie?

I missed these news and picked them up a bit late, they are already from June 2012. But it does look like Paramount plans to make a movie out of the novel Snow Crash.
If you ask yourself now why these news are worth a note in this blog, then go please and search for yourself for the book. And, i would suggest, read it :)

It is time for some history again

I digged in my collection of old pictures and here are examples of what i found:

my first day in SL back in August 2007

The location still exists!

I had a skybox at this time...

September 2007

And, i have of course no idea what these cages in the back have been good for...

Above the skybox, i raised then another one, for public access:

Dark Den, December 2007, the first version!

That location is now better known as PRG. The sim "Glint" i have sold this year.

Spring 2008. a view with "sources", the name tags of the bystanders are blurred for their privacy :)

The above picture shows the view into the opposite direction. However, i liked to build, so we went on with the Dark Den...

Spring 2008

This was the first biger change, not quite a rebuild. And it is still not sure, who really shot this slave, we named him "strapon", he did not last long.

More to come... 

Porn vs. Erotic, Naked vs. Nudity

On occasion *cough* i travel also to adult sites within SL. A really big turn off for me is, when those places are decorated with RL porn pictures. And this for several reasons. If i wanted for example to see RL porn, i could easily do so within my browser, whatever video channel or tons of other means, that would not require me to load my SL viewer, and to teleport to a location.
Also, it kills the fantasy. Many RL porn pictures are just that. Porn. And the few "erotic pics" then just also show RL erotics, the same applies as for porn: why go to SL for a RL picture? it defeats the purpose to me.
SL is not "more" than RL, but "different". One can unfold fantasies that are not possible in RL. And enjoy beauty, structures, ideas, that one can not see in RL. Same applies of course vice versa. I have yet to see a smelling flower in SL. That is only RL, for example. As many other things are too.
However, if i am in SL, i want to experience it as immersed as possible. And so i walk into a gallery and see... RL pictures.
I am glad, that i found via another blog a gallery that hosts an artist with SL erotic pictures. Well, actually the S-URL in that blog did not work, so i had to extract first the location of the gallery from the curators profile, and then guess the correct altitude.

It seems to be more than one gallery. On arrival at this spot:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Alope/161/79/602 i saw one gallery with very nice pictures, like this example here:

Guessing then the correct location for the gallery that was discussed in the other blog i landed here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Alope/161/79/525
And there is a very different style of pictures, one example:

There is a ton more to see, and its an example of art in SL, that proofs, one can make really beautiful erotic pictures, within SL. I hope, to see more of that.

Thank you to both artists!

And to my dear readers: visit, now.

And again rating on Marketplace

It seems to be a new trend, that some customers rather rate on marketplace than contacting the creator directly. Now i had on September 5 a rating of 1 star because a HUD was not delivered. And yes, it is stated in my profile what to do in case of non deliveries. And yes, LL removes such ratings upon request.
However, i checked the account, was not even one month old, so i took my time and explained politely the cause. And replaced the item. In the aftermath, i realized, that the replaced item was accepted, the rating was removed, but i never got any response. Not even a "Thank you" - nothing. Just silence.
OK, happens. Today then i receive an IM from said person. That the item does not work. It arrived when i was sleeping.
When i woke up, i tried to IM the customer. Nothing. No response. But, again a 1 star rating. Which has been placed even before i was IMed. Calling my HUD "shit".

Some people....

OMG - we will die.. all of us!

yes. sure, we will.. one day. not today tho, i guess. However, following the comments in some tech-blogs about Second Life, then LL has now done the worst thing they ever could do.. they changed the Jira....

Uhm.. wait.. the Jira.. what was that again?

Before the change, the Jira was a tool, where everyone could see any bug reported about Second Life (save the security flaws which could be used for exploits). So, if one ran into a problem, it was always a good step, to check first in the Jira, whether other people also ran into the same problem and if there was also a workaround.

An example how that works, can be found here: Jira Entry

You can see, someone is reporting a bug, and then others give comments to it.

Now, this tool is closed. The old reports are still visible as of yet, but new reports will only be visible to those who reported them and to Linden Lab. Not to the audience anymore. According to a lot of people  this is like the end of the world. Or for sure, at least another malicious move to seal the fate of Second Life. Or, if not malicious, then, it must have been again Rod who did not understand anything about how to talk to their users or clients.

I doubt that any of the above is true. The Lab does not reason out things, so one can only guess. And as many love to guess, or assume, now, my 2c on this matter as guess:

Some say the rude and impolite behavior of some users was too much for the support team to deal with.  And well, yes, customer service can be stress, if the customer thinks they can behave really bad and the response team has to be always polite. If you want to see yourself, what attitude some people use in the Jira, follow this link - and add in the "Query" field some bad words, like shit or fuck. You will be astonished, for sure.
However, i doubt that is a reason. Because, the people at the Lab are professionals. They get paid for doing their job, and they do their job. Much like any other employee too. Going emotional with them is just futile because, for them, working at the Jira, and fixing bugs, is a job like repairing a car. And yes, granted, working for "Linden Lab" and in "Second Life" has some more aura than being the car repair mechanic at Joe's Garage - for some. It highly always depends on what the individual wants. Just because you think the job at the Lab is like paradise does not mean, they have to share that opinion. Maybe they would as well work in Joe's Garage.

Now let us look at those 'reasons' like, they do not understand SL, they just break things, etc.
Not true, simple as that. Again, they do their job. And be honest to yourself, compare SL with other 3D environments. Which one is most stable and has most concurrent users and a working economy?
That is not "just so". That is because they run SL like a company project. If they really would not understand how to run a project, SL would have died already years ago. And just because they do not react to each and every wish we have, does not mean they ignore us.

In my guess, they closed the "Publicity" mainly for one reason: all competitors were able to see the issues with the software, like viewer and server, and compare to their own issues. The Jira was, as side effect, also a resource for those companies who want to compete with SL. Or, in other words, LL was feeding them knowledge for free. And i can understand, if this is not what an investor would like to see.
But, it is a guess, just my 2c. I have no idea about the real cause. To me, this makes more sense as reason tho.

metasex

When a really talented producer makes a machinima, this can be the outcome:

‘MetaSex’

by Tutsy Navarathna

Read this

Not much to add, really, but spread the word:

http://pennycow.blogspot.de/2012/04/ugly-and-beautiful.html

http://pennycow.blogspot.de/2012/04/beautiful-second-life-part-2.html

More changes, RLV partly broken, forced attachments by LL

Two days ago i saw a post in the LL blog, which i thought "interesting", but then forgot about it again. Today i read groupnotes about "RLV is going to break in a major part if...". It is about the change of how items that are received, and how RLV can handle them - or not.
Both seem to be related to me, as they can provide similar functionality. So, let us look first into the "broken RLV function". As described in the JIRA entry, the change means, that if a viewer receives an object, this object goes to a new folder "received items". Always. Which catches all existing RLV supporting viewers off guard. And scripts, that make use of these viewers, will then eventually behave as if the item has not been received.
This means, if that change stays in place, that all RLV viewers need to be updated. Which requires the RLV developer teams, who work for no payment, but on their spare time, might throw in an extra shift, just for that. I can see, that they are not smiling.
However, there is also something new in the planning ,which one can see already now in the so called Linden Realms (which you can only enter with a premium account or as sim owner, as far as i know). If you have tried these out, you will have noticed "strange" things happening to your viewer:

• Teleports work 'just so' without having to click on something or to sit on something
• HUD attachments appear on your screen, without any question "do you want blablabla?"
• Nothing of that attachment is in your inventory.

You will find a video made by LL about this here. If you don't want to watch this video, here the key highlights at a glance:

1. Experience Permissions
   Unlike the nowadays usual permission system, that asks for each script its own permission setting, it sounds like there will be an option to set a list of permissions, that will span for a region and time, that the scripter intends. This permission can entail for example Teleport Agent, Attach, Control Camera, Take Controls, Trigger Animation, Track Camera. 
2. Teleport Agent
   This is meant to be a better option than the nowadays normally used teleport pads, which are in fact just moving prims. Today, if one wants to "teleport" from A to B within a sim, one gets a prim, that holds a script. Sitting on the prim, causes it to move, from A, to B. that is the "Teleport" and works only within the sim. Intraregion ports are not possible and require always stuff like "now the map will open and you need to click...". The teleport agent is a change to that.
3. Temporary Attachment
   this allows the scripter, to have items worn by the avatar that visits the region, but that item will not "pollute" the inventory.

These are previews, i have no clue when they are in place, but if you want to see them in action, see to find a Linden Realm today.

LEA March 2012

"The Linden Endowment of the Arts is an official Linden Community Partnership program whose purpose is to help new artists, cultivate art in SL, and foster creativity, innovation, and collaboration within the art community." (Quote from here: http://lindenarts.blogspot.com/)


Those of you who are interested in art and beauty do not want to miss out on the themes and exhibitions taking place in the LEA-program. Its latest addition is here: LEA6. Some sample pictures are attached, click them for enlarged view:

Now, curious? Teleport!

Full names are not coming back

The baked plan that was mentioned in the mysecondlife - page of Rodvik Linden turns out to be some slight change in the appearance of the name:
"

As I promised if we couldn’t figure out a way that was a win/win for folks who want complete freedom vs. a list of last names, we wouldn’t do it. We couldn’t, so we wont.


However what we will be doing is adding in at least one and maybe more special characters like a dash when you signup so you can make a more normal looking name. So you can have “horatio-nelson” for example, which is impossible now. Work will begin on this as it slots into the task list.


Secondly we will be taking steps to remove more places where the dreaded "resident" last name appears inworld. If you have any places where you see it often that we might have missed it would be good to hear."

 The whole discussion came up because of a JIRA-entry, and the decision, to not bring them back, caused, "of course" some frustration. Which i do not understand really. Because, what do i miss?

We have usernames. No one cares anymore whether you are JaneDoe12312 or JohnDoe1231 because, you can change your name any time you so wish to for example "Jane Doe" or "Mr. John Doe" or to "Mickey the Mouse" or to whatever you want.

I did not even know that this Jira entry existed. What do i miss? 

Are full names coming back?

As one can read in this link: https://my.secondlife.com/rodvik.linden/posts/4f285951be9e8f0001002204
 maybe lastnames will come back soon? The above link has an update in the middle of it which reads:
"

rodvik.linden 

heh, nope been very engaged on the issue. I will respond tomorrow in full. I have learnt a LOT about the naming issue why things were changed. It is a very polarizing issue and finding a win / win for those who love naming freedom to those who love the bonding nature of pre picked names has proven impossible to do well. However I do have one feature we can commit to and a discussion going forward about another way to skin the cat. Will update tomorrow in more depth."

An uphill battle?

I am running my RP area since some weeks now with buildings where the dimensions are slightly larger than they would be in RL. The beds are "kingsize" beds, the rooms have a height of 3 meters, which is roughly 0.50 meters more than they would be in RL. I have been talking to some people. Guests. Certainly not enough to make a real statistic out of it that would stand its ground in a mathematical discussion. However, some observations are very interesting.

• 100% of all females who contacted me about the height thing welcomed that the issue gets addressed
• one third of those males who contacted me about height, took offense. Yes. They took offense. That they were called overly tall. By an automatic script that gives a message to them in IM (not even a public message) that they are taller than RL would suggest.
• one third of those males who contacted me about height, tried to belittle the issue with "reasons" like:
• it is an uphill battle
• everyone is taller
• it is a man thing, we want to be the tallest
  
  "Uphill battle", and "everyone does it" are the typical defense mechanisms if there are no valid reasons left. And that men define their ego about size.. i thought that is a bad joke? Really? Not kidding now.
  
  
• one third of those males who contacted me about height, showed genuine interest and also adjusted their height

I don't think it is a bad result. 1/3 of all males and 100% of all females who wanted to talk to me about that, agreed.

To get the message across faster, i encourage everyone to these steps:

1. Join the group "height" inworld. Now.
2. Grab there the free tape measurement item. It shows the real height of avatars.
3. Distribute it. Talk to people. 

Policy on Third-Party Viewers changed (TPV policy)

The policy has been changed on February 24, 2012. These points have been added:

2.a.iii : You must not provide any feature that circumvents any privacy protection option made available through a Linden Lab viewer or any Second Life service.

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

There is a MP3 with OZ Linden who answers questions about the meaning of the implementations. It runs 1 hour and ~45 minutes. The key points from the interview i wrote down here, but please, for detailed information, listen to the MP3:

In general, the MP3 starts with that it is not touching the existing viewers right now. But all updates to those.

For 2.i:

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

The "true online status" is one of those. There are also scripts using an LSL function which shows the online status of an avatar. This function will be altered and return "False" at all times where the request refers to someone not owning the script. This means: once it is fully in place, Paul can not see with an LSL script anymore, whether Peter is online, if Peter has set so in his privacy settings. Scripts who are allowing this to do at the moment, will always return "False" (Offline?) in the future. Advertising boards who show online status might be affected from this as well delivery systems that check online status before they deliver items.(In the interview at about 7:30)

There is no timeline for that. (at ~13:00)

The next bit discusses two aforementioned changes in one go:

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

One intend is to get rid of the viewer tags (~21:00) and after some short sidetracked discussion: "the reason is, that it is nobodies business what you are running" and further: the user is allowed still to tell what they are using, but the viewer should not do it for them. (~23:50)

Viewer tags can not be displayed in the future and the function to that is going to be broken by next week anyway.  New users have been harassed about what viewer they are running, which is not acceptable. That is the reason for this change.  (~25:00)

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

As example to this change, the moderator referred to the "Emerald Multiple Attachment points" (for new SL residents: a feature that has been around two years ago and no longer exists.). When one has used these, the Avatar appeared correctly only to Emerald users, but not to other users. (~35:00)

This is not about providing different kind of presentation objects. Different render engines for example are fine to use. No change to control objects. Like how to move objects or interface changes. As long as all other users with different viewers see the same that you do, you provide the same shared experience, which is perfectly ok. You can not redefine, how objects in the world behave, without doing with LL. If parcel windlight did not already exist, this would have been a good  example of violating this rule. Viewers that can not interpret this parcel windlight, will see the parcel differently and that would be a violation. Parcel windlight is a great example of something that should be done, and should be done with "us" ((Linden Lab)) . LL made region windlight. You do not have to do anything about your parcel windlight yet. Until we provide a proper implementation of parcel windlight, accessible for all viewers. Once the official parcel windlight implementation is on, one has to change the parcel settings to that. Until then, one has a free pass. (~37:50)

Later on one of the guests says that the TPV have introduced new features to SL, that have been proposed to LL and have been declined. Oz Linden replies here, that the statement is correct, but one needs to consider that this has been past, with an entirely different management. An example of what is in progress that shows that the approach of LL to suggestions is the mesh deformer which is currently under development. (~45:00)

 The reason behind is, that LL observed confusion and fragmentation about the user experience. No one should have a different SL just because they use a different viewer. (~51:00)

If viewers are not actively maintained, they will sooner or later possibly break. But viewers that are now on the grid are not being banned because of these new rules. (~53:00)

Marketplace - Ban List - Yes or No?

This blog post refers to that JIRA entry:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-3651

Discussed there is the option to extend bans that one has put on an avatar inworld, also to the marketplace. I have read that Jira entry and it kept me thinking for some days now. My opinion is: No.

The motivations why creators of content would want such a ban are different ones. But they all have two things in common:

1. Content creators are frustrated about the behavior of some (a minority) of shoppers, because these rate content unfairly. Either because they are not understanding what the item they are buying is for, or because they are alts of competitors that then buy an item and trash it with the rating down, or they want to put on a cheap rating in the hope that the content creator then refunds the buyer and the rating gets removed.
2. None of the above phenomenons can be really prevented with a banlist. Because, it is really simple to just set up the next alt and repeat the "trick".

Also, closing down the marketplace is not an option really. Those who say "lets focus on the inworld shops, Marketplace does us no good" forget one thing: Clients decide where they buy. And they want it easy and simple. In a world where one has always everything at ones fingertip (or mouseclick) people often want to buy an item because they are just right now, in this moment, in the mood for it. And they just want to have it. Now. At the location where they are. Effortless.

Closing down marketplace would of course drag more people into shops. But, in my opinion, an equally large group of people would then rather not buy at all. All "impulse buyers" would not be around anymore. That would weaken the SL economy. And in the end it could lead to a lot more closing down, than just the marketplace website.

In fact the marketplace has everything that a merchant needs. Easy listing procedures, easy to set up shops, fair pricing. And the rating system that is in place, is great. 

But!

And here is a big but!

The operators of the system fail in keeping an eye of the fair use of the resources and of the rating system. While Linden Lab has published even a guide "How to write a good review" they fail to follow this guide when it comes to check the reviews.

Everyone has seen ratings about that primskirt that gets only 1 star because of one of the following reasons:

• it was not delivered
• it is too small (but has modifiy permissions)
• it is too big (but has modifiy permissions)
• it attaches at the wrong point
• it is not really what the buyer imagined (but is exactly what is shown on the picture and described in the product description)

And no, i do not make primskirts. But i had buyers who rated me poorly because my item did not do something.. which i never said it would do... or because my item behaved *exactly* as described. I offer free demo objects for one of my products, and get an IM "I want a refund, the HUD is not what i imagined" and to my response "why did you not try out the free demo?" i get "money back or you get 1 star". Yes. no kidding.

What is missing, is a review-operating team that removes each and every single rating which is less than 5 stars, as long as it is not reasoned out exactly why that rating has been given. On valid grounds. Like "Product picture showed a primskirt but the prims were not texture properly, which only showed when looking from a different angle than the product picture suggests" or something like that.

Yes that is work. But pushed through consequently, it would dry out pretty fast unfair competition.

For now, as long as that is not in place, i publish screenshots with the names of the 1-star culprits, in my blog, so they are known as deliberate freeloaders and report them then to LL. In most cases, the reviews are removed then. But yes, it is work. Fortunately, this does not occur so very often. But it is annoying each time. A more pro active action, rather than a reaction, of the marketplace team would bring a lot of peace.

As for pushing up inworld stores, the solution can also be simple:

All of you have seen the issue that one searches for example a primskirt with a certain keyword and then gets 10 pages of listings of the same creator with a primskirt that has the keywords, in 180 different colors, each skirt, one marketplace entry. How about installing a guideline or a rule, that is like "place only 1 item and a fat pack with all variations for sale ,the other variations can be bought inworld" ?

That is just a rough drat, and needs a better wording, certainly.

But it would drag more traffic to the shops - if i know, someone has it in their store, then i am more willing to TP there, rather than using the inworld search and walk through 50 shops till i find what i want.

LL has then more land rented out to merchants and merchants have more customers in their inworld malls and all are happy.

Salma continues

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/1554912/reviews/3243288

Don't we love it?

Some days i wake up and am amazed by the .. behaviour of some people.. today for example:

Normally, i try to contact customers and see what made them unhappy, but this.. is just too much and one of the rare cases where i think, SL, or any society with a touch of civilization is not for them.
I fail to even find any will to contact this customer.

And our daily load of crap today...

[12:27] XXXX: it seems my friend *** *** is banned from mamma allpa . if you know what he dees you probably dont want to keep him that way.
[12:27] XXXX: and we will blacklist you till you resolve the issue okay?


Sometimes i wonder what they smoke.

Where is this funny?

click to enlarge

This is just one page of some deliveries, which never took place. Marketplace really is not reliable these days. Quite frustrating. Oh, and, the items which are marked as "delivered" but never reached the buyer, are then also of course adding to this, extra.

New area: Height

As the topic drew some attention, i have setup an area about height and sizes. Spread the word, send people to that area and also see, that the height meter gets copied and multiplied often (a free copy is there for everyone)

The area also explains how to adjust the camera angle for a better view in realistic scaled builds.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mama%20Allpa/37/133/26

Diary of a rebuild

Referring to the height issue, i am now starting to rebuild some elements of Dark Den, where i try to stick close to RL sizes. First i adjusted my body height, as 1.82 cm were feeling way tall for me. As next step, i adjsuted my camera angle. There is either a HUD for it, or one can do so via the debug settings of the viewer.
Penny has written an excellent article about that, which i strongly recommend to read. You will experience SL in a very much immersed level:
http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/07/matter-of-perspective.html

Next, i started to scale some walls and doors. The walls here in this picture are 3 meters high, the door has a height of 2 meters.:

Click to enlarge

Next, to keep an overview and feel for dimensions, i picked an interior item which i often use, a chair. Placing the chair out of the box, its backrest reached nearly up to my shoulders. So i modified the chair as well:

left: modified version. Click to enlarge

This blogpost will be updated as i proceed. If someone wants to come and check out, just IM me inworld for a TP.

Updated:

no modify - click to enlarge

Some inventory item gets lost of course on this route. Like a "no mod" popcorn vendor. 3 meters tall, it fills the room. And downsizing is not possible, due to object permissions.

Updated:
the first building is ready. Advantage: i am able to link the whole structure as one object

Update January 9th:

Also, furniture need to be redone.

Click to enlarge

The above picture shows the problem. Green is a realistic sized bed, red is common for SL beds. So i am going to tear one of my favorite beds into pieces (yay for mod of furniture) and strip it to its core, that way i can make a standard mattress, where i then build around the realistic sized bed.

Ready.. almost

Click to enlarge

Ok, a Roleplay area is never really fully ready.. but this here is now the realistically scaled version :) Feel free to have a look...

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mama%20Allpa/146/54/26

Sizes, design and money

So, i played recently with height measurement scripts and also read through blogs. One aspect, i found really interesting, as thought:

the taller you are, the more expensive is your SL. Not much, but a bit. And that adds up, for each resident, so in the sum, the resources that a simulator (island, region) can hold, are wasted by handling them too generous.

To be clear here: i am *not* talking about that everyone now should walk around as a minion. I simply want to point out, that having a realistic size in SL, saves you money. So, here now some data from RL:

going from Wikipedia, the average height of a male in the USA is 1.776 m (5 ft 10 in). And for a female it is 1.632 m (5 ft 4 ¹⁄₂ in). I did not take in now the sizes on other continents, because, yes, i know, in many asian countries, people are even smaller some, as well as in other regions of the world.

But i think, if we pick the average US-american person, and compare this, then this is a starting point. Once we achieved to agree on these as "normal" sizes for SL, the smaller and larger sizes that can occur in other countries, will easier also fit into the big picture.

Now, how does this connect with costs, L$?

A simple example shall show the problem.

In preparation to this, i will show you my body size, including hair and primfeet:

1 meter and 83 centimeters, click to enlarge

This is the height of the prim nearby me, which i rezzed in height, until it covered my hair and toes. now, the SL size we are measuring via viewer and scripts, does not take in attachments, so, let us see, what the viewer tells about my body size:

1 meter and 81 centimeters, click to enlarge

That means, my hair adds about 2 cm. And my primfeet i adjusted close enough that they do not add to height, as they are not shoes, which would.

Still this is tall. Remember? Average size of the female in RL in the USA? 1 meter 63. Why am i that tall in SL? Mainly for one reason: i used a wrong script to measure my size, that made me assume wrong proportions. And downsizing just so, is not simply done with the slider "height", To do that properly, one needs to consider leg length, and much more.

However, this is not the topic of today's post. Let us assume, for now, i am just tall. And now, with being overly tall than usually expected, it should show, when entering for example a house, right?

Ok, lets look. I bought a house, and rezzed it, as is, a prefab. Here is the picture.

3 stories, the rezz box is in front, the height comparison prim stil rezzed. Click to enlarge

One can see the upcoming problem already. For the next picture, keep in mind, i am supposed to be tall, with more than 180 cm:

The doorknob is as big as my head and at the height of my head.

This just looks wrong. So, i am going to resize the house:

Doorknob now at my hands level, more realistic. Click to enlarge

And now let us see how the overall house looks in compare to the "out of the box original size":

left version: original - right version: downsized - Click to enlarge

As one can easily see, the downsized building needs less sqm. And it wil need less decoration inside to make it look beautiful. Less sqm, less prim= less cost.

Now, if you think the right house looks ridiculously small, lets measure its dimensions:

ground floor=3 meters height - Click to enlarge

This is one floor... now, the whole height:

7.9 meters - click to enlarge

This matches almost with RL sizes where the height of a storey is about 2.5 meters to 3 meters.

Yes, one can add some maybe due to the camera settings in SL which makes navigating easier when the rooms are larger.. however, you see: you can keep your buildings smaller and save cash this way. Just, start with your own apeparance and make the height realistically, then the first step is done...

I made a group in SL, where we can eventually discuss further ideas about this issue, because, unrealistic sizes drag along a lot of other issues with it, here just some to be named:

• attachments that are too bigand can not be made fit correctly, or only with a lot of effort
• vehicles that look like they are made for Hulk, not for the average driver
• beds, that are so tall that they deserve the name "playground", as, when one sleeps in them, one forgets the exit till next morning
• health care tools and scripts: a scale showing the ideal weight if you are 2.30 meters tall? And more scripts to there too, like, what if one wants to simulate drug impact? Pregnancy? Treatments? Cures? 

This list can be expanded a lot. And a possible aim for this is, to keep a vivid discussion about this up, to also contact content creators, and trying to make them adjust to more realistically scaled builds, etc.

The group name in SL is: Height

Yes, just so. The name was still available. Look it up and join, if you want to contribute to a realistic environment.