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The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds
Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it. Virtual environments covers a whole lot of ground. From William Crowther's original efforts in 1976 that based a game in a virtual version of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, virtual environments have been a part of gaming, artificial intelligence and behavioral research, modeling, telemetry and process control and more. Nowadays we're seeing Second Life, Blue Mars, There.com, IMVU and others trying to find places in non-game contexts, like content-development and prototyping, publishing and performance, entertainment and social, education and business; efforts that are met with varying amounts of success.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC6)
Linden Lab has released the seventh 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This is accompanied by a new download page for all versions which appears to be designed to make Mac and Linux users feel like poor cousins. Mighty Mouse users, while we were told that your problem was fixed in the last release candidate, it appears to be an open issue again. Perhaps it wasn't fixed at all. The nasty message from the smartheap library are supposed to be gone, and the way property lines have been glowing through objects has been changed. (There doesn't seem to be any indication that the vanishing skirt issue has been fixed -- April Fools' Day is long past, boys)
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC5)
Linden Lab has released the sixth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. Mighty Mouse users, rejoice. We're told that this release fixes your problems using this release with the device. As for everyone else, 8 specific crash fixes and a fixed problem that caused serious problems with some nVidia drivers -- well, that should raise a few smiles!
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC4)
Linden Lab has released the fifth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This is a rush-release, as you might notice that the previous RC3 was released only yesterday (Wednesday). Apparently attempting to enter the appearance editor caused an instant crash. Oops. So much for QA. There isn't a lot else new to speak of in this viewer, except a known issue with terrain textures on MacBook Air notebooks, and that llLoadURL opens in the external web-browser by default, instead of the internal web-browser.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC3)
Linden Lab has released the fourth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. Apparently we're back onto one-release-candidate-per-week, which will no-doubt please some and irritate others. Each new release candidate is a mandatory update from the previous release candidate. Most of the fixes in this look relatively minor, though apparently there might be some issues with the voice component. Issues with UI window sizes after startup appear to have been fixes, and some lossless texture-compression bugs, among others.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC2)
Linden Lab has released the third 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This release candidate fixes the instant crash for most Linux users, but it is still very crashy for all platforms if the graphic settings are turned up. Likewise a crash bug has been fixed that was specific to German, Korean and Japanese viewers. We're not noticing skirts vanishing so frequently in this version (hooray!), but this still feels more like an early beta-candidate than a release candidate. Unless you're feeling particularly adventurous, you might want to give this series of release-candidates a miss for the time being.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC1)
Linden Lab has released the second 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This release candidate restores the Friends dropdown on the map, disables avatar imposters -- as they're a suspected cause of crashes on nVidia hardware/drivers, fixes SLURLs which were bollixed up, fixes two crash bugs and adds a crash-on-startup bug for Linux users. Linux users should NOT get this version. To avoid getting a forced upgrade, add --channel skipRC1 to your viewer startup parameters.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC0)
Linden Lab has released the first 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. The numbering scheme is changing - the least significant digits groupis being dropped from version numbering, so the next release will be 1.21. This release candidate contains Windlight, Dazzle, the default Dazzle skin (which we don't care for so much) and the Tools menu handily only appears when the edit floater is open (this is one change we heartily approve of!). There's improved joystick/3D mouse support in this release, and support for high altitude building.
"Inside the Lab" podcast with the Windlight team!
Second Life is looking a lot more like First Life. The new viewer based on Windlight technology completely rewrites the lighting and rendering of the world -- more realistic lights means better looking textures and skins, and a world that looks and feels more real and up to date.Linden Lab's own Melissa Linden sat down with the Windlight team for a wide-ranging discussion on what Windlight can do for the user experience, how well the new viewer works with creaky old graphics cards, the extra features Windlight adds in for free, and what new things are to come. More on all these things ... after the break.
Cinemassively: Rouge en Bulle
As far as this blogger knows, the only time you could previously ride in a bubble was with the Starax wand, at a hefty price of 16,000L. Now that the wands have been off the market for over a year, Jacek Antonelli has made considerable improvements on bubbles. Not only are these bad boys pilotable, but they also have a built-in group chat system!Our very own Tateru Nino suggested this Second Life machinima by the unstoppable Codebastard Redgrave. Codie was asked to film the Bubble Ride Party at Cuddlefish Junction on March 15th. Blending different Windlight settings, she composed their adventure as if it were in a surreal version of reality.[Thanks, Tateru!]If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Windlight in full release
As we predicted the Second Life 1.19.1 release candidates have been finalized and have now been released as the official viewer. Admittedly a day later than we predicted. We're going to have to send out for some crystal ball polish. With the new release Windlight becomes a standard. Windlight was a rendering engine developed for high-performance gaming and graphically realistic environments. It was a whole lot faster and more relaible than Linden Lab's own rendering pipeline and had the advantage of some nifty eye-candy almost for free.
Havok in Second Life. Is it upon us?
According to Sidewinder Linden, program manager for the Havok 4 project at Linden Lab, Havok 4 will be rolled out across the whole Second Life grid starting Monday, 31 March (depending on the overall performance of the RC3 update over the weekend). Looks like we win the betting pool, and that means candy! More than half of simulator crashes and restarts are tied back to physics problems. That being the case, it seems that this new code will be the most stable Second Life simulator ever. According to the timetable, assuming the current release candidate is not found wanting on Monday morning, it will be rolled out to an initial group of up to 2,000 simulators, followed by a deployment to all the rest on Tuesday, 1 April. We believe you'll also see Windlight (1.19.1) roll out as the official viewer on Monday, or perhaps Tuesday. It's going to be a hell of a start to the new quarter.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.19.1(RC4)
Linden Lab has released a new 1.19.1 Second Life release candidate viewer, 1.19.1(RC4), fifth in the 1.19.1 series (release candidates start counting from zero, rather than from one). Released on a Saturday. We know. Looks like someone's pushing for an official release early next week. In fact, Linden Lab says they're hoping this is the last release candidate for this series.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.19.1(RC3)
Linden Lab has released a new 1.19.1 Second Life release candidate viewer, 1.19.1(RC3), fourth in the 1.19.1 series (release candidates start counting from zero, rather than from one). Almost all the changes for this release-candidate are essentially cosmetic items. Either those are the low-hanging fruit, or we're getting very close to 1.19.1 (and Windlight) rolling out as the official viewer. With our prognosticating hats on, we predict an official release of 1.19.1/Windlight on Monday or Tuesday (though we're prepared to be wrong, we think it is likely).
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.19.1(RC2)
Linden Lab has released a new 1.19.1 Second Life release candidate viewer, 1.19.1(RC2), third in the 1.19.1 series (release candidates start counting from zero, rather than from one). Changes this time include alterations in the length of search terms (user names can be searched for with as few as two characters, and place names with only one); some notecard crashes; fixes to SVG-on-a-prim; crash bugs, build and installer glitches and more.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.19.1(RC1)
Linden Lab has released a new 1.19.1 Second Life release candidate viewer, 1.19.1(RC1), second in the 1.19.1 series (release candidates start counting from zero, rather than from one). According to the new Linden Lab crash reporter, 1.19.1 is expected "to be the most stable viewer so far". This release fixes attachments ignoring users telling them where to go, boosts defective particle systems, makes the new search honor the user's selected language, removes the mess with sculptie previews, and builds strong bodies five ways. Specifics are after the fold.
New Release Candidate - html on a prim phase 1 is the big news!
Over on the official Linden Blog, news of the Second Life Release Candidate 1.19.1(RC0) was released a few minutes ago. This combines Windlight into the main RC line, and thus soon into the main stream. It also, in a rather more exciting move to many, includes a change to the media streaming system to let you see web pages IN Second Life. The system is still in an early stage - there are no interactions, no flash and the like as yet (although interacting with web pages and shared browsing will be along sometime in the future), but it works. Look closely at the picture - that's not a mock up, within seconds of being in Second Life with the new RC, I had Massively's website on a prim. That simple.[UPDATE: there are a couple of twiddles too - the "debug" menus (from Cntl-alt-shift-D) have been compressed into a single "Advanced" menu, same keystrokes though]
Second Life Windlight headed for release
Soft Linden said today that Windlight, which has been confined to Second Life's First Look preview viewers until now, is now on track to release and will appear in the first 1.19.1 release candidate. No timeframe has been provided, but it appears we can expect the 1.19.0(RC4) release candidate to become the official viewer any time now and the first 1.19.1 release candidate viewer to be in front of users around the same time. That puts Windlight's improved rendering pipeline only a few weeks away (approximately) from winding up in the mainline official viewer. Oh, there's some pretty eye-candy there too as a nice side-effect.
New Second Life Windlight release: 1.19.0(80044)
The First Look release of the Second Life Windlight project has been updated for the second time this week. What the heck is Windlight all about? Check out our feature on it here. More details and a list of fixes and changes after the fold. Not too many Windlight-specific changes in this release. The largest change involves building this against the 1.19.0(RC2) code-base and inheriting the bug-fixes from there. Interestingly, Linden Lab announces this to be version 80042, whereas the actual download is 80044. Additionally, the chat font now seems to be in bold.
New Second Life Windlight release: 1.19.0(79674)
The First Look release of the Second Life Windlight project has been updated with a number of bug-fixes wrapped up in a tasty new First Look viewer. What the heck is Windlight all about? Check out our feature on it here. More details and a list of fixes and changes after the fold. Mac Users are urged to update to 10.5.2 - twice, apparently to get the proper drivers installed and running. Mostly the fixes this release are somewhat pedestrian, but it is good to see them all the same, despite the fact that the Linden Lab blog post didn't list all the changes.
