Thursday, September 29, 2011

SecondLife "There Are Only 2-1/2 Viewer's Worth Using"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Yep, If you read here on a regular basis, you already know my strong bias towards the Phoenix and FireStorm viewers, and Hitomi Tiponi's StarLight skin mod for LL's Viewer 3.

    Hey if you actually like the lab's official Viewer 3, than that's your problem, not mine.

JayR Cela

Virtual World Imprudence Viewer 1.4 Beta 2 Released

By Avatar JayR Cela

    As of Monday or Tuesday this week, the Imprudence team finally released their newest Virtual World beta viewer, 1.4 B2, it is mostly bug fix's, and believe me Beta 1 had a ton of bug's. So if you are an Imprudence fan, I can defiantly tell ya it's worth the download, and a big step up from the last stable 1.3.x version.

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife "And A New Video Card" "On The Cheap Side"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Wow, with the price's of video card's dropping through the ceiling lately, it really is about time to consider an upgrade. At least for me it was, about 3 or 4 years ago I replaced an ATI Radeon with 128m onboard ram with a Nvidia 8400GS and 256m, If I remember correctly it cost about 150$. it was a PCIE card, and has worked quite well for my use's in SL. Recently it went on the fritz ! Ka-Putt !! It just stopped working correctly.

    So it was time to cough up what little money / spare change I have and find a replacement. Being the penny pincher that I am I decided to get a bottom of the line NVIDIA GeForce 210 by a company called GALAXY.  A 70$ card on sale for 50$ at my local Best Buy Store.

    Boy what a difference, this thing has a 16 multi-core processor, and 1 Gig of Ram. So for 1/3rd the price, I got 3 times the processing power, and RAM, and picked up about 7 FPS.

    Now that's pretty darn cool if ya ask me.

JayR Cela :_)


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

SecondLife "Mesh Is A Joke" New Machinima's" "Flufee On A Meshion" from "Pooky Amsterdam"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    So are you ready for a really good laugh ? The subject matter of course, is the recent introduction of MESH graphic's into SL. As seen through the wild imagination of SecondLife's very own Pooky Amsterdam, and friend's.

    Two episode's of the hapless character Flufee, as he struggles to understand the monumental question. Can Prim's and Mesh object's peacefully coexist in SL.

    So grab a drink, pull up a chair and head on over to The VW Technologist Machinima Channel
                                  http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSLTechnologist#p/a

JayR Cela

P.S. Can't We All Just Get Along :_)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Mesh? On Phoenix? Whaa???

Mister Acacia is online

That's true. Now. Mesh code is making its way into Phoenix. The next release of Phoenix will be 1.6 something. The source is at http://hg.phoenixview.com now.

What does this mean for Firestorm? Will the hundreds of thousands of users who are still on Phoenix stay with Phoenix?

Will all those Phoenix users now expect every V2 feature to be supported?

Have the Phoenix Project bitten off more than they can chew?

We'll see in the coming days.

Oh, and if you're wondering when it will be released, the standard "when it's ready" applies.

Mister Acacia is offline

Monday, September 19, 2011

My 6th Year in SecondLife

By Avatar JayR Cela

    OMG is hard to believe September 19 2005, I was watching television and saw something about this odd Virtual Reality World, called SecondLife, Your World, Your Immigration, Be Anything You Want To Be. Or something along those line's.

    Wow how time flies and thing's have changed quite a bit since then. Beside's the Viewer 2 release botch job, mostly for the better, or I would not still be here.

    Anyway's Happy Rezz Day To Me

JayR Cela :_)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Firestorm 3 system requirements

Mister Acacia is online

So there have been a few requests for a list of system requirements to use Firestorm. The Phoenix Viewer Project doesn't have such a list, instead relying on LL's page.

So I'm taking it upon myself to make one for Firestorm 3 (Phoenix doesn't need one, LL's page is sufficient, and FS 2 is obsolete already). And I need your help. I want you to email me with your system specs, and your opinion of how Firestorm performs on your system. Here's what I'm looking for:

  • A copy of your Help > About Firestorm
  • The number of items in your inventory
  • The average framerate for your home location (Ctrl+Shift+1 shows that)
  • The slowest framerate you've experienced, and the sim you were on at the time
  • The highest graphic setting you can use and still maintain 25 fps or better
  • Clientside lag that you experience, such as freezes or bake failures
  • If you had problems installing or running FS 3, the system (not viewer) changes you had to make to get FS 3 working, such as selecting an alternative video driver or running the AppFix (Windows only).
  • For Windows users, your choice of anti-virus software and whether it detected FS 3 (or SLPlugin) as a virus.
  • For 64-bit Linux users, what you had to do to enable audio.
Of course, if your computer will not run FS 3, you are still welcome to send me your Help > About from whichever viewer does run, as well as the exact error messages you get, but I cannot help you resolve those errors as part of this project.


If you don't want to reveal your identity, I understand. Just create a gmail account and email me from there.

Helping us make the best viewer for you is what it's all about.

Mister Acacia is offline

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Virtual World's " Why I Write About Them" "Phillip Rosedale Had It Right" "And Then He Turned It Over To Idiot's"

By Avatar JayR Cela

     So why is it that I continue to post here as often as I am able to. I may not be playing with a full deck of card's all the time, but with all the insanity that people are coping with in real life right now. Virtual World's offer a place to just be cool. Hang out with wonderful friend's from various and vastly different country's and cultures.

    SecondLife is a very friendly place, in a few day's I will mark my 6th year here. Friend's have come and gone in that period of time. But every now and then I will hear from someone I have not talked to in year's.

    I find it completely unacceptable that Viewer3 still does not allow me to read legacy chat file's. What's the problem here, the entire source code is open source. The Phoenix and FireStorm Viewer's are both capable of doing it.

    I want my ability to read legacy chat file's without having to open a separate text editor.

    And while I'm on a rant........................................................................ Oh Well

I'll finish this tomorrow

JayR Cela :_)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

SecondLife "Dolphin Viewer 3.0.4.20422

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well if you are looking for enhancement's to the standard LL version of Viewer3, this may be right up your alley. I'm not really sure exactly what Lance Corimal is trying to achieve here. This release is rather ho-hum in my opinion. But if  you just so happen to like the UI of V3 this may appeal to you,

                                             HOWEVER

    I still cannot read old legacy IM log's. Still cannot mute annoying group chat's. Still have an over sized Camera Control, that is pretty much worthless.

     You do have multiple Open Sim Grid log in option's, and some additional goodies. I defiantly feel that it is better than the standard LL version. But the question remains ? Will I use it ?
                                                   


                                                          NO !













 





So what's the point ?

     Most folk's in Open Sim are using the Imprudence viewer anyway's, and believe me, any further development toward's SL on their part  is a very slim bet.

      So all in all, I wish Lance the very best * Bigg Hugg's* Lance

JayR 

Monday, September 12, 2011

SecondLife "Phoenix FireStorm Has Quick Up Date"

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Just mere day's after it's initial release of the 3.x Mesh Beta, a new version was announced over the weekend. It mostly affect's user's that have the Meta Harper skin activated. There is also a fix for somewhat slow IM communication's.

http://phoenixviewer.com

JayR Cela :_)

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Virtual World Machinima "Bleau Oleander's" "ART OF MIND"

By Avatar JayR Cela

   Now this one ya just have to see, and probably several time's before the creator's message sink's in. It is a very cool example of a creative person given for the most part open source tools as a new medium for expressionism. At time's it is quite ordinary, but then will suddenly burst into momentary genius.

    I really like this.
http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/09/machinimuwa-iv-bleau-oleanders-art-of.html

JayR Cela:_)




Friday, September 9, 2011

SecondLife "Phoenix FireStorm V3" " You Will Eventually Figure It Out"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    I really like the new FireStorm Viewer, but dammm, trying to explain all of the hidden setting's to a relatively new user is nearly impossible.

JayR Cela :(

Thursday, September 8, 2011

"Tablet Pc's And How They Will Change Interaction With Virtual World's ?"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well I have been drooling over the various choice's of Tablet Computing device's for the past several month's. I do use Apple Mac's in the recording industry, but quite honestly I prefer Window's and Linux for the majority of thing's I do. But I got ta tell ya, the Tablet Revolution and Virtual Reality World's will be making a huge paradigm shift within the next 2 year's.

      For one thing the User Interface, will most certainly be the first of noticeable changes. LL will have to scrap the Viewer3 UI, and for that matter they are already preparing for this. On the forefront is Esbee Linden diligently working toward's a new one. Hitomi Tiponi of StarLight Fame, and I imagine the Phoenix FireStorm folk's will soon follow. The official LL V3 is, well it's V3, there are a number of people that like it, but i doubt if it will survive in a Tablet based environment.

     Here is the trick, can ya make it work seamlessly, between a Smart Phone, a Tablet, Net Book, Lap Top and a P.C.

     One thing is for sure, the V3 User Interface day's are numbered.

JayR Cela

SecondLife "The Kirsten Viewer Exit's The Virtual World Scene"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Due to an unfortunate turn of RL event's the Kirsten Virtual World Viewer Project has been shelved.

    We still have a link listed on the lower right hand side of this blog.

    Best wish's to you Kirsten, and your team.

*Bigg Huggs*

JayR Cela :(

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Phoenix FireStorm V3 "Major Improvement's To Building Function's"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Overall the newest version of The Phoenix FireStorm Viewer, at least for myself is very stable and easy to use, even for building purpose's.
 
                                                                                               

 

.




 


 The only thing's missing are the Taper 2 and Radius Trim Function's.

JayR Cela :_)

Phoenix FireStorm V3.0.1.22525 "First Look" & "Do A Clean Install !!"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well the newest version of the Phoenix FireStorm was released into the wild last night. There are several new feature's, but I believe most things were under the hood enhancement's, that more and likely you won't really notice. One major difference is a camera control that is truly just that, an actual fully, functional darn close to a modern with a  RL movie camera feel about it.

    All in all,I'm getting a good FPS, I can selectively Mute Group Chat's, and Read Legacy V1.x Chat File's without the need to open a separate text editor.

    Now as far as installation goes. It is always a good idea to do a clean installation of any new viewer. The Phoenix Web Site has a very good section on this procedure.
                                      http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=clearing_settings
     And so do we
       http://jayrcelasecondlifetechnologist.blogspot.com/2011/08/secondlife-installing-or-upgrading-to.html

    The UI is mile's ahead of the standard LL Viewer3, but it does take a bit of time to familiarize yourself with.

    So the Big Question Is ? Do I recommend it ?

    YES !!

JayR Cela
















Tuesday, September 6, 2011

SecondLife "Phoenix FireStorm" V3 Availabe For Down Load NOW !!"

By Avatar JayR Cela


    Well this is fairly Hot New's
Phoenix FireStorm V3 is now available for download

So here is a quick link

http://www.phoenixviewer.com/

I have not had a chance to check it out just yet, but I will.

Lol

Byeee for Now

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife "Today's Rolling Server Restart BORK's User's"

By Avatar JayR Cela

     I have no Idea what the LL Server Team did today, but the recent server update should be considered a complete flop. So many thing's are screwed up, it is unbelievable. If I try to TP to a new location, I end up getting a double TP, if I try to sit on a pose ball, i end up in a murky blue never never land.

    I certainly hope they solve the problem's soon

JayR Cela :(

Why We Have No Advertising On This Blog

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well there is one reason, and one reason alone, there is no advertising here. It annoy's the crap out of me when I read other folk's Blog's. I have several people that help out with contribution's in the form of written Post's. And we do this because we care about Virtual World Technology. And the vast untapped potential they  offer for so many numerous purposes.

    My personal experience with SL has  helped me to survive a stroke in RL, and feel like a whole person again. I have made quite a few friend's along the way as well.

    I do tend to ramble on sometime's about various topic's, but I have to let you know one thing.

    The fact that your are reading this post, is reason enough to continue to keep you entertained and informed.

*Bigg Huggs*

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife Conspiracy Theories Abound "Is The Lab Secretly Derailing FireStorm ?"

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Well this new's just in, the lab has been actively involved in a nefarious plot to stop the new release of Phoenix FireStorm. They recently hired a well know drunken idiot to crash his 1963 Chevy Biscayne into the main telephone pole of The Phoenix's teams Server Headquarter's, thereby severing their connection to the RL world.

   Stay tuned to this Blog for further update's, and your local weather report.

JayR Cela :_)

P.S. LOL Please do not take me seriously.

Second Life, Real Life, Not as Seperate as You Think

by Cummere Mayo

I don't post here often. When I do, I know I make several people groan. But sometimes that can be a good thing.

For a while I have stated that SL and RL can be very dangerously brought together with very little information and that Linden Lab needs to take a stand, close some major exploits, and get their heads out of their asses about Facebook and web profiles.

It seems someone might be listening. I've noticed Facebook "like" buttons have become much more scarce and have even disappeared from some places. Thank you, whoever made that call.

The trouble is, LL is continuing to react to privacy matters, too slowly, and far too late. Remember how I said like a broken record in past posts that it doesn't take much to link SL to your RL no matter how careful you are?

Well various groups around SL have taken that to heart. One even has a wiki that has been leaked at least once a year that proves that not only can this be done, but it has been done, and in fact continues to be done. In fact despite apparently being told they could no longer use this wiki, this group is continuing to grow it.

What is worse is that there is proof that Linden Lab is a willing accomplice. At least two previous Lindens were given access to the wiki according to wiki entries this group added themselves. Plexus and Teagen. I have not asked Teagen if these accusations are true. I honestly don't wish to know.

What information about users is included in the wiki?
Well according to the wiki's creator, something like 1/10th of the users of SL are in the wiki. Each entry varies greatly. For some its really small and bland. A couple of sentences such as "so-and-so met this person at Ahern and they seem okay."
others are not so benign.
Entries on at least one real life couple include not only information about their main second life accounts, but information about their real life names, occupations, the companies they work for, schools they attended, geographic location, possible medical conditions, alternate accounts, even their children.
Another entry included information on another woman who found out her partner used fake information to bypass the age verification system. In it despite that she immediately cut off contact with that person, they accused her of illegal sex acts with minors, and then went on to list real life information on her, and her employer, even documenting trips she and her boss took. To my reading it stopped just short of accusing her of having an affair with her boss.
Other users had private emails, private conversations, blogs both private and public, facebook and/or linked in accounts, and even photos of themselves and their houses. Some of these entries are even on people this group thinks are or might possibly be minors.
Multiple people now have uncovered tracking systems that this group used to track avatars and someone even found a chat recorder hidden on their lands by way of well known exploits. These systems recorded the locations and/or conversations of the users and was compared to facebook searches, google searches, and ip addresses to attempt to id a person.

Even accounts that were not tracked had information gathered from innocuous bits of data compared with Google searches, Linked In, Facebook, blogspot, wordpress, and other sources.

Before you say this is all a game, you should know this group admitted to calling and emailing employers and universities in attempts to get people fired or expelled; bragged about tailing people around the SLCC conventions recording, doccumenting, and possibly photographing every move; admitted to filing homeland security complaints for "cyberterrorism;" and, my personal favorite, contacted the family of a user pretending to be friends of that user to both confirm that user was dead and to add more information about his family to their wiki.

A former linden has confirmed that Linden Lab has known about this group AND OTHERS LIKE IT for years and has done nothing for fear that stepping in might cost them financially or hurt their image. Worse LL has pretty much given these groups free reign knowing full well what they were doing under the advice of their legal department.

Rodvik: It is time to step up. Fire all the Lindens that colluded with these groups, fire all the lindens that colluded with these groups, find new legal council for Linden Lab, reverse the bans that came about because of these groups AR parties, and make a policy where deliberate attacks on other users privacy get swift bans and possibly legal action.

A huge 10,000 post discussion thread which has many relevant links, screenshots, and so forth can be found at http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/63339-jlu-harvesting-ip-addresses.html but many other sources have carried this including the herald and other blogs. There is now an online petition to have this group shut down and several comments and replies to comments posted on Rodvik Linden's profile page.

The FTC seems to have been brought in as well with complaint reference numbers being 32191970 and 32301189.

Don't you just love deadlines?

Mister Acacia is online

Well, it's unfortunate that the Phoenix team hinted at a deadline and then couldn't meet it. It proves that their policy of not giving deadlines is a good one.

Firestorm 3.0 had an unofficial but leaked release date of yesterday. But Murphy is helping with the code and introducing one bug after another, and they're pretty much showstoppers. On behalf of all of our diligent, dedicated and unpaid volunteer developers, testers and support staff, I ask for your continued patience while they work non-stop to bring you the best V2 viewer ever.

Of course, as always, if you're dissatisfied with the team or our viewers, don't hesitate to ask for your money back. Every penny you paid for Phoenix or Firestorm will be cheerfully refunded.

Mister Acacia is offline

Mister Acacia is online


Update: The Phoenix team's main server host has suffered a fiber cut. Data is being rerouted, but throughput is in the toilet. It's only going to add to the delays.

Mister Acacia is offline

Sunday, September 4, 2011

SecondLife "The Side Bar Will Soon Be History"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Yep you heard it hear first, according to various undisclosed inside resources the nefarious and much hated Side Bar of the SecondLife Viewer 3 will soon get it's well deserved R.I.P. into the trash can of Really Crappy Idea's In Soft Ware Design History.

   Esbee Linden is back on the team, ( and has been for about 2 month's ) thus regaining control over several new project's designed to bring SL to new platform's. Hand held's, and Tablet's.

    This will defiantly affect everyone that use's SL, and in a positive way.

    Stay tuned for more info as quick as I can get it

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife "Sufficiently Breathless" "Phoenix FireStorm About To Put All Other Viewer's To Shame"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well the day is close at hand, The Day quite a large portion of the SL population has been waiting for. The Release of the next version of Phoenix FireStorm.

    I have been a Die-Hard Phoenix user since day 1of it's release, ya cant beat it for building or content creation, it is simply the best SL viewer available, for that matter for anyone. I do quite a bit of exploring in SL, and I all way's have the Show Viewer Client option turned ON. That way I can see who is using what particular SL Viewer Client that different people are using.

     Hand's down the race is between the Standard LL 1.2.x Viewer and Phoenix, and FireStorm. Ya see a trend forming here ? Yes you do, the SL user base has spoken, though not verbally, but in their choice of which SL Client they choose to use for day to day socializing.

    About a month ago I went to using FireStorm almost full time. Somewhat begrudgingly because it lack's several key building function's I use on a regular basis. I am not going to elaborate on this because, I can easily switch back and forth from Phoenix to FireStorm at any time I feel it is necessary.

    Now I am not part of the FS team, but I do know several folk's that are.

    So Get Ready !!

    Kiss everything else Good Bye !

Phoenix FireStorm V3  Will Leave Everyone "SUFFICIENTLY BREATHLESS"

JayR Cela :_)

Happy Birthday Phoenix

Mister Acacia is online

Yesterday  was the first birthday for the Phoenix Viewer Project. Phoenix Viewer was released on September 3, 2010. And the team and however many users that could get to the sim partied. Jessica Lyon and Arrehn Oberlander spoke about the past, present and future of Phoenix and Firestorm. Listen and watch here.

It feels good to be part of this team. It really does. Even with all the angry people, the ones who hold their breath and stomp their feet and throw tantrums at me simply because I wear the Support badge and so I must be responsible for all their problems. I am, I think, because it's up to me and all the others on the support staff to fix those problems to the best of our ability. And when we do, it is very gratifying. And we don't get paid, we do this so that you, the user, can enjoy SL.

On the horizon, Firestorm v3 is terribly close. It's in QA now, and even though it picked up some new bugs and inherited some LL bugs, and it's not a release candidate or official release, it's pretty awesome.

I wish I could say when it will be released. To be honest, no one knows. We have desires internally, and we are trying very hard to get Firestorm released quickly. But our primary desire is to get rid of as many known bugs as possible so that your SL experience is better. In Jessica's own words, "we have incredibly ambitious goals."

That being said, I understand a new blog entry will be posted tomorrow on our site. I hope I don't have to eat those words.

Mister Acacia is offline

Saturday, September 3, 2011

SecondLife "Basic & Advanced Mode's" The Difference & Why Linden Lab Need's Starlight"~and~"Phoenix FireStorm"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ok most people a familiar with the SL V3 Basic and Advanced mode selection option available on the official LL SL Viewer3 by now. You are also probably well aware of what a totally bad joke this is.

    The Basic mode is completely worthless, after 1 or 2 log-in's to SL., but it does serve it's purpose to keep thing's simple enough as to not scare new potential customer's away. Then we come to the Advanced Mode, which really should be considered as Intermediate Mode. The next logical step ( In My opinion ) should be the Starlight Skin.

    These are proposed by me ( and myself only ) and should be the standard log in option's for the SL Viewer.
Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, and as an added option,Super User. Which of course would be FireStorm.

   So that much being said, the initial log-in process to SeconLife is severely flawed. There is nothing Advanced about Viewer3's Advanced mode, beside's being a completely poorly designed User Interface. Let's face it this Turkey should have been retired after a 3 month run. Evan HP figured that much out with their Tablet fiasco. Take your loss's then cut and run.

    So this is obvious by now to any long time SecondLife user, or content creator, it will never happen. Thus many of us still cling to the Phoenix Viewer for content creation and building. Why is that ? Because it is a superior product.

    Very soon we about to see the Phoenix FireStorm Team to completely smoke every other SL Viewer available. And all the while the Starlight Mod will keep thing's rolling along, while LL does the job it is supposed to do. Create a solid Open Source code base.

JayR Cela :_)

Virtual World Technology "Explained My Way"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ok here I go again redefining the purpose of this Blog, it's purpose has evolved over a period of time, originality started in November of 2007 to cover what I thought at that time was going to be what is now called Hyper Grid, I wrote a grand total of 7 Post's.

    Whoop-de-Doo , shortly afterward's I realized that LL would never allow this to happen.

    I put it on the shelve and completely forgot about it. That was until July of 2010 and the introduction of the SecondLife Viewer2 project. I really wanted to make a difference. However after a rather drawn out period of time it became obvious to me that covering V2 now V3 was a waste of time, for one reason, and one reason alone.

    The User Interface of V2 - V3  is very poorly designed, at least for my need's and my own personal opinion only holds sway unto myself. I don't like it. As a mater of fact I refuse to even load the darn thing without first applying Hitomi's StarLight Skin mod. Moving on to my next topic.

     The other day, I had a wonderful time with my nephew, downloading and installing Dragon Nest. I intend to try out quite a few more Virtual game's in a similar genre.

     There are new Virtual World's and Game's popping up like crazy everywhere. So I intend to cover as many of them as I am capable of with the equipment I have at hand.


Operating System
MS Windows XP Home 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 550
Prescott 90nm Technology
RAM
3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 199MHz (3-3-3-9)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0J3492 (Microprocessor)
Graphics
GEM GL-821A (1280x1024@72Hz)
256MB GeForce 8400 GS (EVGA) 65 °C
Hard Drives
244GB Maxtor Maxtor 7Y250M0 (SATA) 59 °C
Optical Drives
NEC DVD+-RW ND-3450A
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B
Audio
Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)

    As you can easily see, it is quite dated.

    I really do appreciate the fact that this tiny Blog has a following of 62 loyal readers.

    There is no advertising from outside sources here for good reason, they annoy the heck out of me when I read other folk's blog's. So there wont be any of that sort of crap here.

    I write this blog because I enjoy doing something positive, in a RL World so full of hatred, disgust, war's, crazy politic's...............

     To me this is a medium of escapism, and I fully intend to explore as many new Virtual World's as my old worn out computer is capable of.

*Bigg Huggs* and TYSVM for reading.

JayR Cela :_)



   

Entropia Universe "Part 3" "The End"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well I ended up having some unexpected free time on my hand's this weekend, so I decided to check out loading up and creating an Avatar in Entropia Universe.

    And to be honest with ya'all, I'll be dammed if i'm going to waste any more of my time. If I am offending any of the folk's out there that read this Blog, I just do not think that my 6 year old computer is capable of running the software. Either that or I'm just plain stupid.

JayR Cela :(

SecondLife Viewer 3 ~ Vs. "TPV's and Why I Cater To Them"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ok I get questioned from time to time, why is it that I seem to dislike SL V3 so much. And why I seemingly lavish praise on the Third Party Viewer's ?

    Well there is a very simple answer to that question.

    I dislike the poorly designed User Interface or the official LL V3. Let's face it, it is still the sophomoric piece of garbage UI we have had since the darn thing was introduced over a year and a half ago. Yeah, Yeah I know that V3 has the potential to kick some butt. But LL is not interested in the UI design. Nor should they be, The Lab's job is to get the underlying code base working properly and run as efficiently as possible on a very vast variety of hardware configuration's. Quite simply put, they don't have the time to be bothered with the frill's.

    Beside's that all TPV viewer's are based on LL code anyway's.

    It is in the Lab's best interest to attract new customer's, sell L$, and land. So that being said, it make's perfect sense to give a new potential customer a very basic, easy to navigate type of, hey I can down load this game jump right in, and start playing sort of a product upon initial introduction to the platform. Make's perfect sense to me. As a User becomes more familiar with SL, eventually they will move to the Advanced Mode available on the standard LL viewer.

    Ok so what is the next logical progression ? Well it could be Hitomi Tiponi's Starlight Skin Mod. In my opinion this is an obvious first choice, but it may not be so to everyone. StarLight makes no changes what so ever to the functionality of V3, the only change's is that the User Interface has a much more pleasant look and feel about it.

    Now here is where the Third Party Viewer's come into play, not only do they change the Skin, they also add extra functionality. The current state of affair's leave's us with only two really viable alternative choices.

    FireStorm and Kirsten's, and you also have Dolphin, that is to say if you are willing to adapt to V3 in the first place. If not you have Siana Gearz, of The Singularity Viewer, and Henri BeauChamp's Cool Viewer working on back porting everything they possibly can into V1.x

    I am purposely leaving out the Imprudence and Kokua viewer's for good reason, they are no longer interested in SL nor Viewer3, and are concentrating their effort's on Open Sim based Virtual World's. Good for them, Imprudence is hand's down the best viewer available at this particular point in time for OS and OSGrid.

    So why is it that I seemingly cater to the Third Party Viewer's ? It's simple, I like them better.

    So I am going to say this 1 more time.

Use The Viewer That Best Suit's Your Need's

JayR Cela :_)

Friday, September 2, 2011

Entropia Universe "A Closer Look"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Today I will take my first closer look into The Entropia Universe. Yesterday I had mentioned that I was unable to locate a minimum specification's requirement's for your computer, in order to operate Entropia. Well this morning I finally did locate it. Basically at a minimum, you require an Intel P4 with dual thread capabilities, or AMD 64, 2 gig's ram, an Nvidia 7600 or ATI Radion 1900 series or greater, and 10 gigs free HD space. For a look at the entire Spec sheet you can take a look here.
http://account.entropiauniverse.com/support-faq/technical-issues-1/system-requirements/index.xml 

    So now that we have that out of the way, let's delve into exactly what Entropia Universe actually is. Basically it is 4 separate types of game play worlds, with a ton of sub genre spin-off environment's.  The First and original Calypso World Star System is described as a Sci-Fi MMOG filled with human colonist on a distant Alien Planet, for a complete description you can go to the web page.
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/the-planets/planet-calypso/ 

   Next up is Planet Rocktropia, A Hollywood inspired Music World, doomed for destruction, ravaged by plague, thug's, organized crime and zombies. You can read more here.
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/the-planets/rocktropia/

    Then there is Next Island, A tropical paradise with time travel and philosophy as the central theme. Filled with Scientist's, Artist's, and Entrepreneurs.
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/the-planets/next-island/

    Lastly is something that sound's a little bit closer to SecondLife in it's description, and that's the Arkadia World, which seems to be more of a social environment, filled with treasure hunter's and entertainment.
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/the-planets/planet-arkadia/

    As you can see, Entropia Universe is quite a diverse Virtual World environment, to say the least. I just spent the past 4 hour's reading the Beginner's Guide. I highly recommend you do the same from this page.
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/beginners-guide/

    I can see that this is defiantly not something designed to be an easy, hey let's just download this game and jump right in. So before I continue this series, and considering personal RL time constraint's on my part, it will more and likely be at least several day's before my next post about Entropia Universe.

    Oh by the way, a full and complete installation, with a Cable Modem connection of 1.4mps took approximately 10 hours to complete, and consumed about 7 gig's of HD space. Also the recommended screen resolution is 1024 x 768 HMMMM ? Oh Well, guess I will find out next week :_)









JayR Cela :_)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Entropia Universe Virtual World

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Oh well, not much exciting happening in SecondLife right now, or at least until all the TPV's get MESH working. And I absolutely refuse to review the official LL SL viewer until the next stable version's release, and I can work with The StarLight Skin Mod again. So out of sheer boredom I decided to give Entropia Universe a try.

    The last time I was here if I remember correctly, was in 2006. Apparently quite a bit has changed, for one thing, you can figure on taking about and hour or more to complete the account setup and basic installation.

    If you want the full experience, you can expect about 8 hours, and will need a fairly hefty amount of free available disk space.
















   

      For those of you unfamiliar with Entropia, it is a Futuristic Space Based, Planetary System's Adventure Virtual Reality World.  As with most On-Line Games these days it is a free download, and Windows based only. I could not find a minimum requirement spec page on their web site, but I would imagine most realitvly current computers should be capable of running it.

     Here are a few teaser shot's from the web sites gallery to take a look at.
 
















   
     Oh well, It's getting late for me in RL, I'll be back tomorrow with a follow up.
     If you would care to check it out for yourself, the main web page address is,
                        http://www.entropiauniverse.com/
                     
JayR Cela :_)

Second Life "LindenLab Offer's 16 New Sandbox Area's for Premium Member's" "aka" "NO GRIEF-ER'S ALLOWED"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well this new's just in, The Lab has just made available as of today, 16 Grief-er Free SandBox Regions. Available to Premium Account Member's Only. This has always been a bit of a headache in SL, especially for newer customers, that have actually paid RL money $$$$ to acquire an account, and just want to have some fun exploring their creative abilities in a Virtual World.

    The problem is, their are a number of bone headed imbecilic moron's that come into SL for the sole purpose of creating mischief. Yeah I know, these idiot's actually think it's funny, as they sit behind the computer screen ( most of them are more and likely still living in their parent's basement ) and bother people with childish prank's.

     If enough people file AR's ( Abuse Report's ) the Lab ban's the account. This does not do much good, when the same person can easily create another anonymous free account within a matter of minute's, and continue harassing people, until they eventually get bored.

    I think this is a brilliant move on LL's part, because it will give people wanting to experiment with the new MESH capabilities that SecondLife now has to offer a place to go and experiment.

    Way To Go LindenLab / 2 Thumbs Up !!

     You can read the official announcement here
      http://webmail.excite.com/084b94d8/gds/popout.html 

JayR Cela :_)

Dragon Nest "On-Line Fantasy RPG Virtual World Suitable For Children"

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well this game is pretty darn cool. My guess is that it will appeal most to the 8 ~ 12 year old age group. Boy's and Girl's alike, it has Gorgeous Graphic's, Spectacular Special Effect's, Cutesy Anime Style Character's, Challenging Quest's, Promote's Group Participation, and unlike quite a few mindless console based game's I have seen. It actually takes brain power to install, setup and use.

    A Free to play PC based only download, so you cant beat that price. But be sure to read the  minimum recommended specs before you do so.


























 

    Make no doubt about it, this game take's time and computer skill's to set up and get running. Thus offering an ideal situation, and reason to spend some family time with your young one's. Rather than just going to your local Game Stop or Best Buy, spending $50.00 on a console based game, plopping Johnny or Jill down in front of the TV, sticking a Game Controller in their hands and walking away from your child, this RPG requires the use of the keyboard and mouse in order to operate.









      Be sure to go through the tutorial, which is quite challenging and fun by the way.


















     Once familiar with the control's and numerous function's of the various keyboard options available. You will be magically transported into a wonderful PG suitable World of Magic, Mystery and Adventure.















    Highly recommended for the right age group's, and some family fun.
                       http://dragonnest.nexon.net

JayR Cela :_)