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Second Life moves to 1.23, opens adult continent, allows more content
Linden Lab has released the new viewer, bringing Second Life up to 1.23 a few days earlier than expected, off the back of a very short release-candidate cycle. The new viewer brings three things with it: The new Adults-only continent (formerly Ursula and now Zindra), user-verification by documents or payment-status, and a new Adults-only content rating that opens up Second Life to more extreme sexual and violent content.
Second Life adult content updates: Viewers, namechanges, grannies and grade-schoolers
The 1.23 Second Life viewer with the necessary support for Adult content is still being rushed to meet a June deadline, the exact reason for which seems a little unclear. There's some outstanding issues with the viewer release-candidates, but it seems fairly low on actual showstoppers and looks likely to make an official release in the roughly one fortnight remaining. Definitions for the content ratings have been finalized, though they show little noticeable deviation from Linden Lab's originally proposed drafts. It appears that all the changes have been simple explanatory wording changes. The PG rating holds a couple of surprises, though.
Upcoming viewer changes for Second Life adult content
Thanks to a piping-hot, fresh build of the Second Life viewer, we've been able to get a better look at the upcoming content controls that are due in the next major release of the Second Life viewer. As expected, there are now three content ratings available (though it is uncertain as to what their final names will actually be. Using "PG" as a content rating, for example, has legal issues): PG content, Mature content and Adult content. While it hasn't yet been determined exactly what content will fit into each category (actually, we barely have any idea about the existing content categorizations half the time), the actual usage and integration looks pretty straightforward.
Microsoft embraces its SpeedTree love [update]
Update: Oops, our speculation was wrong as we just learned Lionhead will not be using SpeedTree in Fable 2. Get all the deets here.Today, Interactive Data Visualization and Microsoft Game Studios announced that they will be partnering to license SpeedTree software in most of MGS's upcoming products. For the uninformed, SpeedTree is all the rage right now as it pertains to easy implementation of lifelike foliage in video game worlds. It's seen as the industry's de facto tree generator. Now, with today's news, we know that Microsoft Game Studios is committing to using SpeedTree (just as they did in both PGR3 and PGR4), which can only mean prettier tree'ness for gamers the world over. And yes, SpeedTree trees in Fable 2 are a guarantee.
