have you read Philip’s post yet? i know i am critical of the Lab and can rationalize this to myself
however, i still hold out hope for Second Life to become better. not for the sake of the Lab, but for the residents. it’s a great virtual world filled with so many wonderfully creative people
creation, imo, is the highest goal one can strive for in this mortal life
and Second Life offers a way to create wonderful things that can be shared with 1000s of others. that, to me, is what makes Second Life awesome
okay, now on to my critical side . . .
there are only two points that make me go yawn and one is “First on the list should be a big attack on lag and crashes”
really??? this is still on the To Do list? LL is 10 years old and SL is 7, so how is this still the number one thing? it’s been the number one thing since at least 2006 but i guess it still gets praise. this reminds me of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show a few weeks back. he showed clips of Obama saying that “we will reduce our dependency on foreign oil”, then he showed clips of Bush Jr, Clinton, Bush Sr, Reagan, and Carter saying the exact same thing! in 30 years this has never been acted on and i guess it’s always a great sound bite
i don’t know techie stuff very much, but from what i remember in 2006 to what SL looks like in 2010, i don’t see many differences. i think water reflections and better skies came about in mid 2007 but to my eye, that’s all i see. no shadows, no higher poly counts
what is causing all this lag? is it not enough hardware for the number of users? concurrency records have not been broken in about the last two years, so it can’t be that. i don’t know, but it sure seems like seven years of development would have LL beyond lag and crashes
heck, Kaneva is thinking outside the prim with 3D apps that allow “any developer to create their own 3D Applications and 3D social games . . . . opening the door for our community to add new games, like casual games, adventure, mystery, RPG, and puzzle games”. and will be introducing “pets, people, and animated moving objects created by the community. This new feature will allow users to create animated objects for the World of Kaneva. Our designers will be able to make their own 3d objects come alive and move around. These new creations can also be used by developers within their 3D Apps“.
that’s an example of moving forward imo
the second thing was “As a final note, I would note that we are not planning to change Second Life to exclude any categories of users.” that seems true but i wish there was some way they could integrate the Teen Grid and maybe even allow kids under 13 in. Why? because this can be a great educational tool for teachers and parents
right now the K-12 craze is all about 3D projectors. the problem is that they are expensive, even at $500 because replacement bulbs cost the same as the projector, and they need the goofy glasses, and teachers and students can’t create anything in it. this craze will die out in a few years
virtual worlds can offer a far less expensive solution which allow both teacher and student the ability to create. an entire school district could use one sim with the ed discount and have an immersive lab. it’s hard to claim that you are a great educational tool when you keep out the largest number of learners . . .
but i guess virtual bopping is more important (it certainly means a big market for Xcite! products)
i am glad that Philip is back at the helm, but fixing lag and making the viewer 2.oh_no better are hardly the stuff creative dreams are made of. that’s like saying we need to make the roof stop leaking
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ener Hax, Aviano Gearz. Aviano Gearz said: w00t! New post: the lab that cried wolf. #SecondLife http://bit.ly/9j8kAa RT @iliveisl [...]
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18 Jul 10 at 1:38 am
Hmmm, crashes had gotten fewer for me in the last 2 years, but recently I’ve experienced more issues than normal (whatever “normal” is).
Maybe part of it is their aging hardware at LL? Or the millions of new users embracing Viewer 2.0 ? (snicker, snicker… I jest)
When things get too slow, I usually do one or more of these:
1. Ponder getting a newer, fancier video card or even more lil RAM chips. Nah!
2. Turn graphics down temporarily to Low, or UnCheck ‘Basic Shaders’ in the graphics settings (this jumps my FPS up by 10 to 30 points sometimes).
3. TP home, then right back to where I was.
4. Shout “Okay, Blingtards, turn off your 8 HUDs, your 400 prim boots, and your 14 scripted attachments!”
5. Clear cache, relog, and hope for better. *sigh*
6. Take a break and visit Reaction Grid and Ener Hax!
—–
The biggest so-called “changes” I’ve actually seen are more and more sculpties in-world, more attention to textures and details in builds (which causes more lag sometimes), and generally prettier avatars (less noob-looking noobs). And the “fun” level dropping 63% when Ener cut way back on her SL time :(
Good point on the Kaneva innovations. Maybe SL needs to not only fix some of the long-present quirks, but also to introduce some new killer feature to get everyone yelling “Woot Woot!” again.
SL 3D? (I’ll pass). Easy built-in tools for making sculpties? Search that works well? Inventory management tools?
Philip says, “Making content and experience creators more successful is what ultimately drives the growth of Second Life.”
Cool, Philip. Now, stop the copybots… so that artists, designers, and builders can fashion stuff without immediately being ripped off. It’s why many smart peeps leave SL, duh. Oh, that and the rising cost of owning SL pixels/land/whatever.
Anyways, SL is still tons of giggles, and is still the most diverse virtual world. But Reaction Grid and other Open Sims like Inworldz are worth checking out as well, especially if you like building… or owning a Sim at a fraction of the SL price.
The new King is dead. The old King is back, kinda sorta. We hope you don’t disappoint!
DreamWalker McCallister
18 Jul 10 at 2:21 am
@DreamWalker McCallister: “Okay, Blingtard”.
LOL! I have never heard that term, and I suspect I would be guilty, and worse than many.
These 3 ponies of mine carry 2200 prims each. Thats 6600 standing in 2 square meters. *chortle*.
Mind you, “Blingtard” would sound kind. “Freak” & “Wierdo” were more the norm. Not that I took them away from the stable too often.
3 ponies ( http://breenwhitman.com/ponies/3_ponys_picks.jpg ) *probably NSFW BTW*
Breen Whitman
18 Jul 10 at 5:26 am
*Giggles* at Breen…
Ponies?
Your motto should be, “What’s in YOUR stable?”
DreamWalker McCallister
18 Jul 10 at 11:35 am
Ener…
I agree with you about lag (and other related technical issues). IMO… the last two years have introduced more issues along those lines rather than fixing anything or even being flat in incidents for most patrons. This absolutely needs to be fixed if 2nd Life has any hopes in surviving, much less moving forward and innovating this market.
Having said that… Philips comments about ramping up updates on both the server and client side do concern me a little. I remember a time when weekly updates were the norm. They were always scheduled for the same day and time. They never went well and the grid tended to be down for hours and sometimes whole days because of issues associated with the updates. There were a couple of updates that created real long term issues (some of which we are still dealing with today).
I disagree with you on merging the teen and adult grids. I say this because, like it or not, 2nd Life exists because it was first and foremost an adult playground. That does mean 2nd Life is about sex or is a virtual porn environment, that just means it was a place for adults to interact on an adult level.
The teen grid should remain the teen grid. I would love to see it legally open up to younger kids, but absolutely want them in there own space rather than in an adult oriented virtual environment. I say this as a parent of three kids, one of which has a real desire to build and create (like his old man).
In the end, I have heard many of these promises from the Lab and Phillip in the past. As always I will take a wait and see approach. On a positive side… I do think Phillip gets it and always has. Lets just hope he can recapture the original wonder that 2nd Life held for many patrons.
Alec Inglis
18 Jul 10 at 2:24 pm
Anyway….onto a topic relevant to this post. One thing stands out with Philips post and its the avatar images in the responses underneath.
As far as I am aware, nothing else I know allows you to create such a custom stunning avatar within such a strongly dynamic world.
I believe this is strong point of Secondlife.
But….others are realizing this and it will be a more common thing soon.
Yes, IMVU and frenzoo exists but these have a more “teen” look.
I guess by extension, Opensim is capable, but Opensim suffer content shortages.
But if there are other worlds/ganes that can do the avatars in the responses of Philips post I’d be interested to know.
Breen Whitman
18 Jul 10 at 2:38 pm
Ener –
I agree that the Teen Grid/Adult Grid is a problem for schools, since they have users of both ages that need to be in the same location.
One solution would be for LL to give out Second Life Enterprise software to schools so that they can run SL internally. It would raise a generation of kids who know how to create and use the SL platform. They could do it for free — it’s software, it would not cost LL anything extra. Or they could do it at a steep discount, the way that Microsoft gives out low-cost computers and software to schools to raise new generations on their platforms. Though Microsoft has been slacking off on this lately — a lot of students are using open source software, instead.
– Maria Korolov
Editor, Hypergrid Business
Maria Korolov
24 Jul 10 at 10:10 pm
great approach! having an aggressive school program would pay off in the years to come
interesting about Microsoft and open source alternatives like Open Office. i think there are several factors at play – the open source software is becoming very good, people are also getting used to the idea of alternatives (like Chrome and Firefox), they see alternatives in more and more places
i think mashups of free apps is also becoming accepted and maybe even a sign that you are progressive. why code an email form on your server when you can make a contact form in google? with google docs, an email form can become one file with all your contacts in one place and you can be notified of new contacts. you can also access all your contact messages from anywhere with online access
an attractively priced, easy to use virtual platform offering could do well in school settings – after all, the 3D projector craze is pulling in a lot of money
*goes off to make cookie cutter sims for life science, earth science, physical science* =)
Ener Hax
25 Jul 10 at 12:40 am