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Yesterday i was out and about in the grid, with a friend. we visited some areas. Partly they were my "standard Points of Interest" which i occasionally visit and partly they were new locations.

click to enlarge, that goes for all pictures here
Art installation of a Lost Town

Lost Town again

During our trip, my friend asked "Where do you find these locations?" and it made me think "Yes, indeed, where do I find them? Or better even: how can one make others to find them?

Mega city post apocalypse

Not everyone has much spare time at hand and can explore this world. People with little time want to come inworld, see, experience, have fun, and then tend again to their First Life. That is one aspect only.

Apocalyptic view

The other, even more important aspect is: how does one get Second Life back onto the radar of the people "outside"? Because let us face these facts:

• Facebook and Twitter are nice and well, but basically just a pin-board for publishing meaningless nothingness about ones private life. Creativity offered? Zero.
• WoW and many other games are just that: games. You get a prefabricated environment, can act along a prefabricated story, and get foreseeable results.
• 3D environments, software, that allows one to create environments, like "Blender" are wonderful creative tools, but it is hard to enjoy the work done when its just sitting on ones own computer and no one can access it.

But what impression do people outside of Second Life often have?

• Second Life? What is that?
• Wasn't it successful in the.. 90ties? (i have read this in a business newspaper, seriously. No kidding. Written by a so called 'journalist')
• SL is anyway just sex.
• etc

Serenity in the nature

So, what needs to be done?

fantasy world

First of all, if you haven't done so, go and explore. Use the inworld search or refer to some travel blogs about SL. A bunch of these are in the blogroll here even. Then, a nice way to promote SL, i have seen in Natale's blog, where i just quote now, because i can't put it better into my own words:

I hope you will find ways to get this information out to friends and others unfamiliar with Second Life. Just posting about it in your SL related blogs is not much help. Also, while I like Plurk and Twitter, putting tweets in with #SL and #SecondLife hash tags is not much help. Use hash tags like #Berlin, #Germany, #History and whatever other pertinent tags you can think of.  Send a link in an email. If you post in other forums unrelated to SL, mention it there.

Be smart, creative, and honest with your promotion.

The above was mentioned in regards of a blog entry about a themed Region that shows Berlin in the "golden twenties". Hence the hash tag reference to Berlin. However, the example can be used on any other region as well. If you know how to handle the phototools that are provided in the Firestorm viewer, take pictures and tag them in a similar way when posting them.  Use Flickr and other means, and reference with tags that have a connection to First Life as well as to Second Life.

Let me repeat this: hash tag your posts (blog entries, forum comments, pictures) in non-SL-areas with descriptions that match a First Life description as well as a Second Life one

Forgotten city

This way, people who were not searching for "Second Life" related topics, will still stumble upon them. And they will learn, that Second Life is not "something from the 90ties", but a very well doing parallel universe.

List of locations from this blog entry:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Land%20of%20Glory/92/104/21

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/World%20of%20Beauty/76/117/3412

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neva%20River/46/174/24

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/pteron/225/129/33

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forgotten%20City/115/124/83

How to make your SL faster! Part 3: Graphics within the viewer

In part 1 you have learned how to identify your speed in graphics, in your viewer. In the second chapter, you have seen what you need to do before you actually start fine-tuning inside SL. The second chapter is essentially helpful also for NVidia owners.

Now we will look into options you can use within your viewer to speed up your SL. Basically, you will have to find a balance between "Looking good" and "Being fast". As we saw in Chapter one, comparing bandwidth usage and FPS, the more information is there that needs to be computed, the slower your FPS is.

We will start with the Graphics menu in the "preferences". As mentioned in previous posts, i am using the Firestorm viewer. So the menu is under "avatar - preferences - graphics", most viewers also respond to CTRL-P for preferences and then select the "graphics" tab.

click to enlarge

You see a slider and a button "advanced". Click the "advanced" button. If it has been clicked already earlier by you, the window might right away look like this, otherwise, it should do so now:

click to enlarge

The top slider "Render Quality (lower is usually faster)" is a quick way that changes some of the options, that you can alter individually, after you opened them with the "advanced" button. We will focus on the individual settings.

It is always good if you have the statistics bar open (see chapter 1), when playing with this window, so you can see the effect right away.

The most obvious fast effect you will see when you toy with the "draw distance". Draw distance tells the viewer, how far away your horizon is, until which you want to see things and people. In my picture, that is 256 meters. And that, is way too much for most uses. Reduce it to 96 and watch the statistics bar. Set it up to 512 and watch the bar. Play with it. In most environments, you are fine with 96 meters.
(Quick tip for firestorm users: you can also type in chat "DD 64" to set your Draw Distance to 64 meters, or DD 128 to set it to 128, etc.)

Once you have set your draw distance right, have a look at "max particle count". For this, find also a source that emits "particles". What are particles? These are textures, that change in size, and move, and then vanish again. You will find particles for example for achieving effects like:

• snow
• rain
• chains (from cuffs to collars, or cuff to cuff, or pet to owner....)
• foam (waterfalls, mist etc)
• fire (smoke, flame)
• dust

and many more.

Particles cause some load on your system. If you set ""max particle count" to 0, all the above mentioned effects will be invisible to you. So, for example, if others see snowflakes, you don't. But in return, your system is faster. Reasonable particle count is 512. Good is 1024. And totally pampered is 4096.

The next option to check is "basic shaders" and "atmospheric shaders" and "Lightning and shadows". I could write at length what they do. But most likely you will see it immediately on your screen when you toggle them on and off. The more are on, the more beautiful it is. And the slower.

These effects are, from what i experienced  the most effective ones in speeding up or slowing down. All other settings have an effect too, of course. But lighter in their impact. You are encouraged to read the help there, and most sliders are then easy to understand.

Two hints now at the end of this chapter:

1. Firestorm users can also activate a quick-menu for these settings.  

Search this button:

If you can not see this button anywhere, click any other button on your Firestorm viewer with the right mouse, so you get this menu:

Then select "toolbar buttons" and drag and drop the Firestorm button into the other existing ones. There you go.

Once clicked the Firestorm button, your quick menu comes like this:

2, As i wrote above, the "Draw Distance" is telling, how far away around you, details are rendered. One of the major projects in 2013 for SL is the so called "Interest List". This means, your viewer will try to render only things, that you can really actually see and which are not hidden by other obstacles like a large house. (yes, that is very simplified as explanation, i know, dear techies.). If you are interested in details, a good read is here: http://blog.nalates.net/?s=interest+list

More about how to speed up your SL comes in the next chapters.

How to make your SL faster! Part 2: the graphics

Imagine your computer like a sandwich, in how it works:

• Hardware
• Operating System
• Drivers
• Software

What you see, is the result of all components playing together, but the "Software-Layer" in this sandwich is actually then producing the result. For example, the letter in a word processing system, or the 3D World of Second Life. Two components in this layer are pretty much set in stone for most of us:  the hardware layer, as we simply don't buy new computers on a whim but when our budget allows. And the operating system layer, as most of us are not that tech savvy to switch from one System to another.

The Driver Layer is the one that, in my opinion  almost never got the attention that it deserves, when it comes to "how to optimize SL". The Driver connects your application (SL) with your Operating System (Windows, Linux, Mac...), virtually. 

If your driver is bad in performance, you can tweak in SL all you want - it won't lift off. Now, before you take care of your driver, first check what driver you actually need. That is simple and even to figure out within the SL viewer:

Go in your SL viewer to "Help - About..." where the ... is then whatever viewer you are using. In my example for this blog, i am using the Firestorm viewer. But it is less crucial than many think, about performance, what viewer you are using. A list with all viewers can be found here, by the way: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory.

When you selected "Help - About..." you get a window like this:

click to enlarge

I have highlighted for you the important part already: i, on my computer, want to look for NVidia drivers for my operating system. The update processes for drives on your operating system vary too much as that i could cover them here in an efficient way. Google for example for "NVidia driver update Windows 8" or whatever, and make sure, you always get the original driver from the website of the maker! Do not download third party drivers as these would be an ideal way to infest your computer with malware.

Once you updated your driver, i found a very interesting and helpful article about drivers and Second Life. It is a bit older, refers to 1.X viewers still, but all of the statements there are valid also today. So, here is the source: http://shoppingcartdisco.com/digitallife/tutorials/tutorial-letting-your-graphics-card-do-the-heavy-lifting/

I have worked through the above blog entry and adjusted the screenshots to my driver, my OS and my viewer, and have experienced a boost in performance of 50%. So, i trust, you want to check that out.

This was all very techie, i agree. However, it is the foundation  and if your computer sucks here.. you can not succeed in any later move. Now, how can you measure your performance gain? read the previous article again and compare the FPS results.

I trust, you are busy for the day with this information bit, so more to come the other day... stay tuned

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.

Viewer 2.8x - the new features - fasten your seat belt!

I am currently on viewer version Second Life 2.8.1 (236154) , which is downloadable here under the chapter "Beta". Now, i am not sure if i really found all new things, but let me tell you those novelties, that i really liked:

Privacy settings for parcels
When you enter land, you see on the top bar the restrictions that apply, like "no build" or "no scripts". New now is the sign for privacy:

the eye with red circle

 It means, residents outside the parcel can not see any person inside the parcel - and vice versa. Chat on channel 0 (normal chat) is also blocked. This means for example, your private house is really private. Perving by cam  is past. Also listening as 'innocent bystander' outside the parcel is futile now.
To enable it, one needs viewer 2.8, the setting works then for any viewer.
How to enable it as land owner: go to "about land" and disable the checkbox that marks your parcel as "public" - so, the opposite then is "private":

Estate windlight settings
Phoenix user know this feature already, as  parcel description one can set up some keywords, and then all phoenix viewers woud interpret that and set up the light and water accordingly. Lindens took this thought and allow now, for the whole region (sim) to set up similar. The setting can only be done by Estate managers (Sim owners and their proxies) and can be seen by 2.8 Viewers.
How to set this up:
Go to Region/Estate, and there the tab "Environment":

I need to play with this one myself a bit more, as not all effects seem clear yet to me, especially in combination with the build-in windlight editor, but, a nice toy to set an atmosphere, for sure!

The Profile
it changed from its structure quite some, and has a feature, which i find quite interesting. One can leave notes in the profile of the other person, called "Feed".

Here i left a feed on my friends profile... interesting, i think.

These were some of the new features, i am sure there are more. But these wil lhave the most visible effect on the residents, in my opinion.

Body physics (aka bouncing boobs) in Viewer 2 of Second Life

In a beta version of their viewer, Linden Lab has introduced now to  a wider audience the idea of body physics. Phoenix-users know this already as breast physics, Linden Lab takes this idea further. So, todays blog entry will show, what you need to do for seeing it (yes, also men need to follow these steps then, so they can see the bounces) and for using it:

The beta with this option build in can be found here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Snowstorm_Project


once installed, if you are not familiar with the Viewer 2 options ,make sure at first, before you even log in, that your login screen has this:

Mode set to advanced - if it is in "Basic" change it!

After log in, everyone who wants to see bounces, needs to go to "Me -> Preferences -> Graphics"

Set Avatar Physics to "High"

This is what you need to do to see it. Now we proceed for what one has to do for using it:

Open your inventory on the right sidebar (the suitcase) and add a new item, a "clothes -> new physics"

Right click in a folder, new clothes, new physics

Afterwards wear the clothes item.

Right click - Wear

Then edit it:

Right click- edit

And enjoy!

Lots of options

As you can see above, the details of settings go way further than simple bouncing boobs. You can set how softer body parts, like breasts, belly and butt fall and swing, as you move, dance, sit, lie down, etc.

The idea here is, that clothes can now come also with an additional "physics layer", so that for example a bra in SL, now really supports the breasts and gives hold... this is a very nice step and an improvement for viewer 2.

I have seen,but not tried out yet, that Kirstens Viewer in an alpha stage offers the above options as well.. so i think, other Third Party Viewers going for V2, will follow closely and offer the same

Awesomeness!

SL via web interface. Very early beta stage, but, try yourself!

uh oh...

...well.. is this good or bad news?

Rumor: Microsoft wants Linden Labs

JIRA - wassat?

Today, a link for those of you who want to help actively in improving the Seoncd Life Experience: the JIRA: https://jira.secondlife.com

If you notice an error or you want to see an improvement, you can search here, whether anyone else had the same thought already and vote for the entry - or open your own entry.

One entry amongst my favorites is this: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-7677
It is about making windlight available serverside.

The incredible lag bug that freezes everything on a sim as soon as someone TPs in or out, is here: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-3895

Read in the JIRA yourself and find out more.