Monday, April 30, 2012

Phoenix ~ FireStorm : The Nightly Builds

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Perhap's I am sticking my neck out on a limb here, but I have just got to say something.

     The next release of FireStorm will not only be Rock Solid, with a revamped preferences settings menu, it will just work, right out of the box. No need to wander through mindless, confusing menu's and obscure setting's.

    Just make sure you clear you cache before the install, and you will have the best viewer available.

    When will the next version be out ?

    When it's ready !

    And not before !

JayR Cela

Niran's Viewer 1.33 No More Reviews Until the Next Version

By Avatar JayR Cela

    This saddens me a great deal, this 1.33 release is a really great start towards a truly wonderful viewer, but it has caused so many problems with anti-aliasing settings for me, un-installing and re-installing various Nvidia drivers, I am just about completely fed up. I need to take a break.

JayR Cela :(

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Nirans Viewer 1.33 : An In Depth First Look : Part2

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well we are off to a good start, the UI ( Part1 of this series ) is a stroke of genius in the useability department, but how is it on system resource consumption ? Very good !

    Taking a step back in time when Viewer2 was first introduced,  I was horrified at what a complete dog it was, lousy User Interface and a resource hog as well.  Then one day I stumbled upon the Kirsten  Version of V2, it had a much nicer UI and better performance than the stock V2. After a period of time the system requirements kept increasing to the point that eventually I was no longer capable of running it any longer.

    I was thrilled when NiranV introduced her version, and I was once again able to have the advanced feature set available, and usable on my aging hardware. But after a number of months gradually passed the hardware requirements continued to increase with every release or so. Eventually it got to the point I was unable to use it as well. Upon talking with Niran she said the requirements had changed to a  64bit format with 6gig ram, and at least a mid range Nvidia based video card. *sighs* :(  So I was no longer able to even load the darn thing in order to write a review.

    I am very happy to say that trend has been reversed. For instance, I have 2 older computers that are currently running 1.33 quite well, an AMD 64 2200 using Mint Linux12 / 32bit and Win XP / 32bit as the OS's. One gigabyte of ram, and a Nvidia 7300GT w/512mb ram. Computer #2 is an Intel P4 at 3.4ghz 32 bit dual thread capable, 3gig of ram and a Nvidia GeForce 210 1gig ram running Win XP and Win 8 CP both are 32bit editions. Each of these box's are running 1.33 quite comfortably with more than adequate performance during normal operation.

    How did she do it ? I have no idea ( LOL ), but Niran somehow managed to pull a seemingly magical rabbit out of her hat, and has actually lowered the system requirements. Now keep in mind, your preferences settings play an awfully large part in your ability to use this viewer or not, here is where the real time numerical FPS readout meter really comes in handy. ( As a mater of fact this has just got to be the coolest feature anyone has ever come up with so far in the SL viewer arena, bar none. ) You now have the ability to fine tune the viewer to your hardware capabilities easily, no more hit and miss, guessing about what features to turn on or off. I Love It ! :_)

    Now I did have some problems with anti-aliasing while using Win8, but more and likely that is a driver issue. From what I can tell so far, at least on the Linux build the Open Jpeg render engine has undergone a total rewrite, I would imagine that accounts for the higher performance when logging into a new area and waiting for things to fully rezz. Wither this has carried on over to the Windows version or not, I'm not sure.

    Also as has always been the case with the Niran viewer, the camera controls are very smooth, with an almost silky feeling at times, much less jerky than the stock V3 or any of the TPV's currently available. And it could just be my imagination, but flying and sailing also seem to be much smoother, with a noticeable increase in the ability to accurately control your direction and speed more precisely than what I am used to experiencing.

    Memory consumption, there's no leaks here ! ( LOL ) If there is any memory leakage going on under the hood here, I'll be dammed if I could find it. Last night I had 3 instances of Chrome, 1 session of Internet Explorer and a file manager ( Free Commander ) with Niran 1.33 all open and running at once on the P4 system. I never dropped below 1 gig of available free ram. Your results may vary of course, I have not had the opportunity to stress test it in a busy sim yet. I will get to that in Part3 of this series, dealing with photography and Niran 1.33

     Before I go, I want to make mention of a few things. The Linux version runs faster ( higher FPS ) than the Windows version, and that should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Linux in general. Also while loading 1.33 for the first time on Windows I was greeted with a message that the correct version of Flash was not installed or I needed a HTML 5 compliant browser, upon attempting to download Flash the Adobe download page identified the proper version necessary was for the Safari Web Browser, so no big deal, I just installed Safari, and then Flash and was all set to go. ( That's weird I don't recall having ever run into that situation before ) And as far as the anti-alialiasing problem with Windows8 CP I had mentioned earlier, I ended up downloading the newest tweaked Nvidia 301.x driver for Win7 from the web site www.tweakforce.com and that cleared the problem right up, while introducing a couple of other minor glitches, which is no big deal, the Nvidia control panel just needs a little bit of fine tuning. And that brings me to another point in regards to Video Cards and drivers. ATI video chip sets have always had problems when it comes to dealing with various viewers and SecondLife. The Niran Viewer has proved to be no exception to this semi standard rule of thumb, I am happy to say that the Niran Blog announced a fix this morning for the latest odd-ball ATI bug, so you may want to check that out.

    Stay tuned for Part3 tomorrow.

JayR Cela :_)

Nirans Viewer 1.33 : An In Depth First Look : Part1

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ya know I have been following this viewer from it's beginning, NiranV worked on the Kirsten Viewer for two years, and afters it's sad demise she decided to continue the project. It's been one heck of a ride. So many changes at such a rapid pace, but I think you really owe it to yourself a download of this very unique fork of the ongoing evolution of Viewer3. It's really something else indeed. The Initial opening of Niran 1.33 presents a very cool machinima mini movie, that show's off just what this viewer is capable of !

    The first thing you will notice is a complete departure with the basic V3 menu system. From the initial vertical drop down expanding menu's, right on through to the preferences settings. Every thing is logically laid out and grouped accordingly. It did take me a little bit of getting used to at first, however after a bit of exploring I found it to be intuitive and easy to use.
















    All easily available for you in the upper left hand corner, not having to run your mouse pointer all over the screen horizontally, is a very nice feature indeed. In addition to that, the main menu bar is loaded with functions as well.
               Including the ability to turn on/off a numerical readout of the current FPS





 






 
   The Preferences Menu's are a joy to work with, no more having to guess where every thing is located. All of your choices are arranged by 5 main groups each with it's own appropriate sub groups, and a few nested sub-sub group settings.






























    Incredibly easy to use  ( With Some Practice :_)  LOL ). When you consider the amount of advanced features offered here, an intuitive UI is imperative. And Niran's 1.33 has definitely achieved that goal.

    But how does it perform ? What are it's system requirements ?

JayR Cela :_)

P.S. stayed tuned / LOL :_)

 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Virtual Worlds : The Zen Viewer 3.3.3.0 : A Grid Hopper

By Avatar JayR Cela

    A couple of months back SL resident Zena Juran introduced us to a new incarnation of Viewer3, it had enough nice features that truly set it apart from a few of the other's and I did a fairly thorough review, since then I have looked at it occasionally and found the majority of changes to be incremental, mostly tweaks and fine tuning.

    Recently however Zena has taken a major step forward in the world of V3 based viewers, the actual ability to add your own grids has been added. I'm not talking about the standard run of the mill Open Sim preset's, those of course are present,

















 


    along with a host of others via a constantly updating list maintained by Zena herself.




















     I'm talking about an easy to use actual option to add any grid of your choosing, without having to manually edit your log in path.




















     I recently spoke with Zena about this new feature :


[13:15] JayR Cela: does that extra alternate OS grid selector automaticaly update its self ?
[13:17] Zena Juran: The Zen Viewer pokes the list on each startup. The actual list is updated by me. Some of the grids may go belly up before I notice and new ones may be available before I can add them. I don't have a real good method yet for keeping it updated.   :-)
[13:18] JayR Cela: wow and that is something you have created ?
[13:19] Zena Juran: The initial list was created by Armin Wearherwax. I maintain it as a download from the same site where the Zen Viewer downloads are hosted.  :-)
[13:20] JayR Cela: that is so kool 

     I have not had the time to try this new feature out myself yet, but I hope to be able to soon.






















JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife : The Gamification Of : Good or Bad ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Personally I think it is a good thing, I know they are some naysayer's out there that want everything to stay just as they are, but that's just not going to cut it if SL intends to survive. I see no reason why we can not have the same old SL as we know it and new SL area's devoted to gaming right along side of the old.

    Here is a recent quote from Rodvick Linden  "We're all about gamification here. If it's good enough for Zuckerberg to shell out a billion dollars, it's good enough for us."  

    And he is absolutely right on the money, it is just a matter of how the Lab goes about implementing it, and not alienating long time customers in the process.

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife : Are you Interested In Viewer Development ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    So possibly you are a budding SL Viewer developer, or perhaps someone that is just interested in what direction(s) the current state of Viewer3's future may hold. If that is the case then there is no better place to be than Oz Lindens twice weekly meetings. You can find the calendar  here

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:User_Groups

JayR Cela :_)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

RETRACTION : The Niran Viewer Bites The Dust ? Well It Is Not Dead !

By Avatar JayR Cela

     A few days ago I reported that Nirans Viewer was dead,  We said a few things to one in other, that just never should have even been worth getting angry about in the first place.

    Therefore I have withdrawn that post and the subsequent  comment's, and would like to offer my most sincerest apologies for even allowing things to escalate to the point of which they did.

    It was my fault, and I am truly sorry.

JayR Cela   

Monday, April 23, 2012

SkyDrive Free Edition To Drop From 25gig to 7gig : If You Don't Act Fast !

By Avatar JayR Cela

   This news just in 1:00pm EST today, Microsoft as of  very soon, probably by May 1, is dropping their Free Cloud Storage service, "SkyDrive" from the 25gb limit to 7gb. However they are grand fathering the old 25gb limit to already existing Windows Live users, If you act fast, I mean like as soon as you possibly can. Now would be good Idea.

    You can read more about this form these two post's on Neowin.net here.
http://www.neowin.net/news/big-changes-in-store-for-skydrive

http://www.neowin.net/news/hands-on-the-new-skydrive

    Or just goto  https://skydrive.live.com  log into your account and select to keep your current 25Gig limit.

JayR Cela :(

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Nintendo Game Boy Turned 23 This Month : Watch The Original Commercial

By Avatar JayR Cela:

     I was reading an article today      http://www.neogamr.net/news/game-boy-23-years-on
From   Neonin.net, nice article if you have been gaming for years on end.

     Wait until you see the original commercial for the Game Boy,  It is absolutely hysterical so I included a direct link to that here as well.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGHNB9hJtd0&feature=player_embedded

Lol / Enjoy

JayR Cela :_)

Friday, April 20, 2012

Virtual Worlds : I'm Having A George Costanza Day :_)

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Have ya ever watched the TV show Seinfield ?

    George Costanza is one of the character's in the show.
 He somehow manages to blow every little thing out of proportion, and create situation's that would never have existed, if he had not lost his mind.

      Since I am home bound, without much to do besides hang around in various virtual worlds, mostly SL. I sometimes find similarities with my RL and my SL.

     I have been following Open Simulator for a while, and InWorldz, and a whole bunch of start-up's. They are all kool, so are all of the various viewer's being contributed to the Open Source SL SnowStorm project.

    Every now and then I get some crack pot numb-skull trying to leave a comment here on this blog, that really tick's me off. So I don't publish it.

    For crying out loud, most of the people are doing their work as a labor of love, or a hobby.

    While his fictional character, George is absolutely hysterical, I seem to see a lot of people freaking out about Virtual Worlds in general, and making wild observation's that are not based in fact's.
 Just like George.

     Will ya please just stop pissing and moaning, and enjoy.

JayR Cela

SecondLife : Animation Overrider's : AO's : Oz Linden Considers Making It A Standard Feature

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Recent talk on some of the SL blog's are suggesting that Oz Linden is considering making, AO's a standard part of the official SL viewer.

    AO's built into the viewer, first introduced by the Imprudence team, are a great concept, but dam they are a pain in the ass to set up.

     Just let Oz do his thing, and make it simple for us.

  Having certain standards that need to be adhered to, is a lot better than a convoluted, conflicting mess.

JayR Cela

SecondLife Fashion : My Favorite In-World Shops : Why Supporting Them Is Important

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ya know there are some very talented clothing designers in SL. Supporting your favorite ones is a very important part of the SecondLife economy. I'm not talking about just buying stuff on the Market Place, ya really need to go and visit the In-World stores.

    My favorites include, Bare Rose of Tokyo by June Dion, Velvet Rhythm's by Velvetori Twine, Diana Debevec Shoes, Abia Capalini's store, and my good friend and sister Solyence Houston, there are so many others I would be here typing away all day trying to list them all LOL :_)

    The point I am trying to make is that a lot of effort, and hard work went into creating these shop's. The SecondLife Market Place is kool, so don't get me wrong on where I am going with this.

    I just believe it is important to support your local merchant's, wither that be in RL or SL.

JayR Cela :_)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Ted Neugent : I just have To Say This

By Avatar JayR Cela

     I have been working in the Detroit Music scene for a number of year's. This guy is  a trip.

     He is a good guitar  player.
And That's About It !

    Not a whole heck of the lot in the brains department.

      JayR Cela :_)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Virtual Worlds : Your Favorite Viewer

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well they are all pretty good, there are feature's from them all that contribute to the over-all SL experience. Just Use The One You Like The Best.

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife : Ya Gotta Love It : Hitomi Tiponi :Changed Second Life

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Wow, I don't know about you, but I think the new path finding feature's will be very cool, I know Hitomi Tiponi is working on it, and her Viewer Skin, Starlight is killer.
 I am not sure if she has implemented it yet. I will more and likely chat with her soon.
    If ya ever meet Hitomi, she is so kool
 
     Her contributions to the SL V3 Project have made one heck of a difference

Ya gotta try this out, you will find the link, to your lower right.
or ya can just go here

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewer_Skins/Starlight

    My personal opinion  is StarLight  should be the default.


JayR Cela

Monday, April 16, 2012

The World Is Ending

By Avatar JayR Cela

   Ok, if your dumb enough to read this post, ya deserve it.




Ha-Ha

 Look every one is freaking about nothing

LL is going to do things

Ya Can Bitch All Ya Want


Just Let Em Do Their Thing

JayR Cela

If You Follow This Blog : You Are As Crazy As I Am :

By Avatar JayR Cela

      Hey I gotta say this, This Blog has been a very kool thing for me to do, and everyone that has been a regular reader.

Thank You

JayR Cela :_)

Light Hearted Humor : Virtual World's

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Wow, sometimes I just get lonely, and then start just writing stuff.

    Who Know's what I will say Next / LOL :_)

JayR Cela :_)


Speaking Of Cool : Cool Viewer VL

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Wow, Henri just continues to amaze me.  He put out a new release over the weekend, incremental changes, but is definitely worth the download

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife : Every Thing Will Be Cool

By Avatar JayR Cela


Wow All these people freaking out about nothing. Look LL owns this place. That is all there is to it !

Love Me Or Hate Me !

I'll Be Back To Bother You Again Tomorrow

JayR Cela :_)

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Just Keeping Ya Laughing !

By Avatar JayR Cela

     I been writing this blog for about two years, I get about 200 hit's a day, sometime's I am serious, other times I just go off the deep end.

    It does not matter.

     Thank You For Reading

      *Extra Bigg Huggs*

      Plus A Gazillion More

JayR Cela :_)


Why Does This Blog Go All Over The Place ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

     I have been asked why my opinion's and this blog seems to go all over the map in things I say.

    It's because I'm a Kook !

LOL :_)

JayR Cela :_)

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Virtual Worlds : I Would Have Died From Loneliness With Out SecondLife

By Avatar JayR Cela

        It it were not for SecondLife, I think I would have just lost all hope and gave up on life. I was very blessed to have met my SL partner Cathy.

    When you are physically handicapped, unable to do things for yourself that for most people seem to be routine everyday part's of their lives, it can get depressing.

    And then you meet someone in a Virtual World, who has similar difficulties in Real Life. At that point you have one in other. And that is very cool.

JayR Cela  

This Blog May Be Hazardous To Your Mental Health

By Avatar JayR Cela

   LOL : I just had to say that.

JayR Cela :_)

Linden Lab : SecondLife : Protecting Their Right's

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Look for the past 2 day's I have been reading various blogs, and post's accusing LL of all sort's of wild various conspiracy theories. The removal of a grid manager in TPV viewer's, now we have some crazy rumors that TPV's can not offer alternate grid log-in option's.

    Get a Fricking Life, have you ever been to some of these alternate Open Sim Grid's ?

     There is nothing to do there, in most of them. They are pretty much empty wastelands set up by hobbyist's.

    Which is cool, but look at it this way, why do you even go to SL ?

    To Socialize !

    Are you going to do that in Open Sim ?

    Yeah I guess standing around, all by yourself, with no one to hang out with is cool.

    LL is only protecting themselves, there are certain licencing terms that need to be observed. If A TPV does not want to be a part of that, the resolution to the problem is quite simple. don't include SecondLife as a log in option.

JayR Cela

Friday, April 13, 2012

What SecondLife Really Need's : Path Finding Games

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well for one thing, customer retention, I have been to numerous Open Sim based grid's. There is nothing to do there. If you own some land, or are running your own grid, that's cool, but it is boring, build a home, do some landscaping, and perhaps figure out this confusing Hyper-Grid crap. And if you are eventually able to figure that out, do you really think people will come ?

     Give me a break,  the path finding initiative being put forward by LL is a great idea. What needs to happen now is let Oz Linden loose, the guy is a genius, if LL would stop hampering him from applying ideas and concept's we could eventually end up with some very cool stuff here in SL

     And while I am on the subject, there are a number of different viewers available, but let's be realistic, they are all going to have to comply with certain rules and regulations. It is Linden Lab's world, plain and simple, if ya don't like it, OK, go somewhere else. There is no one stopping ya.

    Path Finding games within SL are just an evolution for this platform, if you want to stand still, you may as well become a Tree.

      It would be nice to see a complete rework of the SL UI, at least make the camera control re-sizable.

JayR Cela

SecondLife : We Need A Viewer 4

By Avatar JayR Cela

    I really do not care how many people hate me, and my relentless ramblings.

        Viewer3 is a piece of garbage. How in the world can any sane person expect to attract new CUSTOMERS with this piss poor junk.

    We need a Viewer4 : totally  modular: with the ability to write plug-ins that will enable an extensional and available option to provide what ever options you would like.

    Oz Linden is an very intelligent person, and gifted programmer, personally I think he is being held back by a bunch of lame brained idiot stock holders, that just can not see the big picture.

JayR Cela

SecondLife : Rust Never Sleeps

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Ok another Neil Young rip off, but let's face it LL is scrambling to regain some sort of relevance in the Virtual  World arena. They are no longer a major player. So many things are happening in the Open Sim universe. It has got to be hard to keep up. I can not even imagine what it must be like to employ hundreds of people, most of them having never used the product, and trying to offer some sort of support.

     We got a lot of cool thing's on the burner as far as SL goes, this path finding thing might just do the trick.

     But unless LL get's off their ass and starts pushing out new product's and reason's for CUSTOMERS to remain here, it is a lost cause.

JayR Cela

Is SecondLife Dead ? : Not Yet ! : We Need A Modular Approach

By Avatar JayR Cela

    If these clowns continue upon their current course of continuing to piss off a majority of their customers, and please note the word CUSTOMER.

    I see absolutely no future for the platform. They seem to be desperately grasping at straws. I'll tell ya, if it were not for my SL partner Cathy and her humongous wardrobe of beautiful clothing, I would just say the hell with it and jump on over to InWorldz, or some other grid.

    This recent decision to not allow TPV's to offer alternate grid log-in choices has been the straw that broke the camel's back. Viewer3 suck's, no one use's it, no one like's it.

    Until LL get's it through their lame brain heads, that some one needs to be fired on the Viewer Development Team, things will languish in a never ending bunch of crap.

    Hitomi Tiponi's StarLight Skin should have been used as the default over a year ago, the Zen Viewer, by Zenna Juran, she fought for months in order to get listed on the official LL TPV list. And her viewer is kick-ass, so is every one else's, depending upon what you like.

     I prefer to use FireStorm, does that mean it it is the best ? No way !!! It' works well on my 32bit computer.

    I know I tend to piss a lot of people off, I don't care.

    I got something to say, and I'm going to do just that.

    What we really need is a modular approach, Plug-In's, WTF is the problem here with exploring this in use with the SL viewer ? There is no reason to hard code everything, when you can accomplish the same end results via Plug-Ins.

JayR Cela

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Support Your Third Party Viewer !!

By Avatar JayR Cela

    The recent announcement that LL will no longer allow Grid Managers, or the listing of other optional Open Sim based grids in order to be allowed the listing on the so cherished TPV list is a complete slap in the face.

    Screw Em, make your viewers, and don't include SecondLife as an optional Log-In choice.

    So if you happen to have a Third Party Viewer that you really like, give them all the support that you can.

JayR Cela

SecondLife : Virtual World's : Why We Need A Viewer4

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Ya know about a year or so ago I predicted here on this blog that Viewer2 was a dead end, and Viewer3 would soon come to be. I was also backed up by a few friends, including ThinkererSelby Evans.

    Hey it was just a matter of time before V2 ran out of available numbering schemes. As a matter of fact four years ago I proposed to some Linden person that the Lab take a modular approach to the SL viewer, open the the option for various Plug-Ins, similar to the popular Win-Amp music, video player.  I was practically laughed out of the meeting.

    Two weeks later we had some clown named Mathew Linden, who was supposed to be the Evangelistic Savior of the SL Viewer. After 1 year of meaningless meetings, he managed to come up with the Silver SL Skin. Whoop-De-Doo ! Big Fricking Deal !

    Look I don't work for LL or any other VR company, I just relentlessly rant away here on this blog pissing people off. And that's a good thing.

    What needs to happen now is a Viewer4, completely modular, with the ability to accept plug-ins. Do it now or just fade away LL.

JayR Cela

   

Why On Earth Would You Want To Choose To Use Viewer3 ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well I suppose if you are brain dead, severely mentally handicapped, or just plain stupid, then you will choose LL's Viewer3. As a matter of fact I recently had a respected Virtual World columnist post a response here on this blog that she regularly uses V3 to log into Open Sim based grids. Give me a break and start taking your med's again.

    The only place things are really happening in the Virtual World Viewer area are with the Third Party Developers. It is just another example of how inefficient LL has become.

     When Rod Humble took over the reigns for SL, I had high hopes. This is no longer so. Unless this guy and his team get their shit together, and do it fast, you will more than likely see a mass exodus from SL to InWorldz, and or various other Open Sim based Virtual Worlds.

    It's all open source, but there is one gotcha, GPL or LGPL licences, Viewer1 is General Purpose Licence,  Viewer3 is Limited General Purpose Licence, the latter being able to sub-licence with restrictions to certain portions of propitiatory code base that is fundamental in order for the product as a whole to function correctly.

    If you don't think someone will not eventually back-port all of this stuff, you are living in Dream-Land !

JayR Cela

So You Wanna Go Grid Hopping ? : There Is Only One Viewer To Choose : Cool Viewer VL

By Avatar JayR Cela

     Ok, I guess I will manage to piss off a few more people, but I'm used to it and really don't care.

     If you are interested in hopping around to various Open Sim based Grids, there is only really one viewer to choose, and that is Henri Beauchamps, Cool ViewerVL

    This guy basically wrote almost all of the code for every Virtual World viewer available, yes it was all based on LL code, but those turkey's do not seem to be able to program their way out of a wet paper bag.

     And now the lab seems to be running scared with Grid Manager Paranoia, this has got to be the most Stab Your Self In The Foot Response to an obvious problem that has a very simple solution.

     IT"S OPEN SOURCE !!!

     Look if you want to explore various OS based grids, just do yourself a favor, and check out Henri's web page, http://sldev.free.fr/ down load the current version, and go from there. And while I'm at it, screw LL and their idiotic politics with No Grid Managers Allowed, if that piece of Crap official LL Viewer becomes the only way I will be allowed into SL, SCREW EM !!! / I'm outta there !!

JayR Cela

The StarLight Skin For SecondLife : Why Not Just Do It ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Hey look, I have been here in SL for almost 7 years, things are constantly changing, that's inevitable, if ya just stand still nothing happens. I remember back when Nicholaz Beresford introduced some mod's to correct odd problems with the V1.8.x series of SL viewers. These consisted of a few XML files. It took the Lab almost 6 months before they even recognized the fact that the official viewer was seriously flawed.

    After months of negotiations Nick just gave up and said the Hell with it. As a matter of fact I have a suspecion that Nicholoz was actually Kirsten and the Kirsten Viewer was born as a TPV.

    The first versions were a bit buggy but defiantly superior to what the lab was offering. Then she went off on the deep end, and forgot that not everyone own's a $5000 computer, her arrogant attitude  and insistence upon AMD based devices, and unfortunately some health problems with her RL partner ultimately brought that project to a halt.

    Now we have the Niran Viewer, and I see the same thing happening all over again. Niran has managed to push the envelope to the max, but at the same time alienated just about everyone from even bothering to download or use her viewer.

    On the other hand you have Hitomi Tiponi, creator of the StarLight Skin for SL, this would seem to be the most logical choice for improving a seriously flawed V3 UI.

    My understanding is that Hitomi has approached LL and OZ Linden about incorporating, or making it the standard. But again, def ears do not hear or read the writing on the wall.

    The current official LL SL viewer is awful. I don't care how much stuff they put into it. I don't like it and I will not use it.

     Number 1 / not everyone has a 32" monitor, and the current SL V3 has a way over sized Camera Control.
So what's the problem, stupid !

    Fix the Gawd Dame Camera Control

    Or Make Hitomi's Starlight Skin the Standard

JayR Cela

SecondLife : More Changes For Third Party Developer's

By Avatar JayR Cela

    Well here we go again, the lab is issuing new requirements for TPV's. Seem's that they are still upset with the fact that almost no one but the most newest of SL customer's are using the official LL based SecondLife viewer. And there is good reason for that, it has a lousy user interface.

    Now I tend to look at it this way, screw em ! It is becoming glaring apparent that the Lab, is frustrated by the fact that their in house developed viewer is so far behind the TPV based one's they can no longer deal with reality. They are about to prevent any TPV from offering the ability to log into various Open Sim based grids

    The reason this has come about is because physic's ( The Havok Physic's Engine ) will no longer be handled on the server side, it has been merged into the viewer code. Which is a good thing, if you only visit SL and no Open Sim based grids, it has something to do with the new path finding games feature's about to be introduced.
and that should be very cool, once they finally work out all the loose ends.

   But there are a few easy work a rounds, say for instance you prefer the CatzNip viewer. I am taking for granted that you are experienced enough to open a DOS Box ( command line ) in Windows, and you wish to visit OSGrid, with Catznip.

C:\Program files\Catznip\Catznip.exe --loginuri http://login.osgrid.org/ --loginpage http://www.osgrid.org/splash/


    Or you can just edit your shortcut link. There are other ways to accomplish the same thing on Mac's and Linux, and some simple searching on Google, Bing or Yahoo will surely lead you to the appropriate solution. And I doubt that it will not be too long before some one writes a boot loader to easily handle the chore for you on all platforms.


    In the mean time I have been reading other various blog post's and some people are freaking out about nothing. LL own's the platform, they can do what ever they like, if that includes running off most of their customers, and continually shooting themselves in the foot, so be it.

    I seriously feel that in two years time SL will be no longer be relevant anyway's.

JayR Cela

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Will Open Sim Overtake SecondLife ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

    More and likely yes, but it will be a couple of years before this happens, the recent introduction of the Advanced Experience Tools and Path Finding experiments in SL are very Cool. The potential is there, we just need better viewer imp-limitation. And Let's face it, the current standard LL based V3 leaves a lot to be desired.

    I know, I know, everyone seems to think I am a died in the wool Phoenix FireStorm promoter, well I am, and for good reason, it work's, at least with SL it is by far the best viewer for me. I have tried every viewer available out there that I can find. And I am getting really tired of it.

     Everyone that has the devotion and time to compiling their own version of a SL viewer really needs to be rewarded with an extra big hug. These people do this with a passion unsurpassed in any Virtual World Video Environment that I have ever seen before.

    Pretty darn soon Open Sim will have NPC's and some sort of Path Finding equivalent, allowing creative minds to create In-World Games. Unless SL drops their prices within the next year or so, I don't see how they can possibly survive.

JayR Cela

InWorldz And Viewer 1.4.4.1

By Avatar JayR Cela

    This new Inworldz viewer was released on March 20 2012, and is a nice improvement over the previous version. Not to complicated and V1.x based it is designed from the ground up for use within the InWorldz grid.






























 

    Will InWorldz ever replace SecondLife?

Maybe not yet.

I have to say, if you have not visited InWorldz yet, it really is time to give it a try. I think you will find it to be a very pleasant Virtual World environment.

    It uses a differnt scripting language than SL, it is based upon LSL, 99 % compatible but with a number of enhancements that pertain specifically to IW, it is called PHLOX and does not compile into MONO, so if you have SL scripts that you have created and wish to transfer, you should keep that in mind.
http://inworldztech.com/techblog/2011/03/22/introducing-inworldz-phlox/
 
     And although there is no real physics engine AKA Havok like SL, many things can be implemented via PHLOX

    As far as pricing goes, it is less expensive than SL. Is it worth it ? Well the initial sign up is free, you be the judge.

JayR Cela :_)