SL expands to STEAM and improves graphics

[Paul Hexem]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

But my point is that is seems pretty improbable that it won't have occured to anyone at either Valve or LL that this might be an issue.    I have no idea what's going to happen, but it just seems to me a bit unlikely that Valve and LL won't have discussed this at some point by now.  

Maybe they won't have; I dunno.

 

 

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Well, of course it wouldn't occur to anyone at LL, they're idiots. It's Valve I'm curious about. Either way, this thing should turn out really interesting.

 

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

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Nuhai Ling wrote:

Anyone else old enough to remember the montra, "Second Life is not a game.... Second Life is not a game...."

 

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*Raises hand* I do, I do.  In fact, I vividly recall if someone referred to SL as a "game" on the old forums (usually a new resident) all manner of hades would break out.  In the last year or so I see the usage of the word "game" referring to SL on the forums regularly.

*Sits back in my rocking chair.*  Ah, the "good ole days." *Grins*

 

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Technically speaking, it IS a game. That is, it's a 3D virtual environment that requires the same kinds of equipment. I know when I refer to it as a game, I'm talking about the technology.

[161488303349]

linden is making other games as well now. seems logical that them games going to be released on steam. so adding SL as well makes sense for linden to do

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doesnt make make any sense to just release SL on steam and not the others unless SL is being stabilised on Project Shining and then maybe parked up as a mature product

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is like total speculation but maybe linden not like totally worried about SL losing sims. maybe the server capacitycoming available thru loss of sims is going to be  taken up by the new games they making

[Cully Andel]

I'm not a huge gamer (SL and one other game), but I do know what Steam is. My only instinct with this it to put my feet up, get the popcorn, sit back and watch the fun. Let's face it, the way SL runs at the moment, adding all these potential thousands of players from steam will be a great laugh. We already have lag, tp crashes and numerous other problems. Suddenly adding all these players will just make the whole thing worse, and I'm guessing the steam players will soon get word around to avoid SL.

I saw mention (I think it was 16) in this thread that LL are now making other games. Where do I find information on this? It would explain why SL's the way it is. 

[Gixxxer Geesink]

Very true... SL still uses the ancient OpenGL protocol for Graphics.

i'm using a system with 2 graphics cards in SLI mode giving me 3gb of graphics ram.

the client of SL only supports 512mb texture memory lololol... talk about 1980's

ohh and now i'm still ranting..  the cpu load of the SL client is way too high in comparison with recent big game!

 

things will only get worse in my opinion, especially if LL will let Steam handle the logins.

If that's gonna happen i'm signing out forever since steam has no Opt-Out!

[Kenbro Utu]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

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Gadget Portal wrote:

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Lindal Kidd wrote:

I'm not familiar with Steam either.  Does Valve police all their users???  Will this mean there will be a "higher authority" than LL to appeal to?

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That's actually a really good question. Steam users can go to Valve for refunds on software purchased through Steam when the developers/publishers don't stand by the product. Valve then disables that particular product key, and gives a refund on the purchase cost.

If a Steam user buys L$ with USD and then the L$ purchase goes bad (like they so often do) and LL says "Sorry, delivery failures aren't our fault." or "We don't get involved in resident to resident disputes.", the user will then go to Valve with the complaint...

The question is then, what will Valve do to LL? The more I think about it, the more likely I think Valve will kick LL off Steam.

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I don't understand.   I think the only things you can buy from LL are L$ on Lindex and land from the land store, and those don't usually go wrong.    If you're referring to in-world purchases going wrong (or purchases on the marketplace),  then that must surely have been discussed and resolved between Valve and LL, unless Valve have no idea what SL is like and LL's legal department are completely incompetent, I would have thought.

 

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I believe all Lindens traded on the Lindex are either being sold or bought by residents, and the Lab only facilitates the transaction.  They don't actually sell Lindens themselves, so that just leaves the land store. 

[161488303349]

linden acquire the game studio making LittleTextPeople. is here: http://lindenlab.com/press/releases/12_02_16

at the time was lots of chat. on sluniverse (if i remember) rodvik linden confirm that they was looking at doing 2 other things as well. seems like Steam is one of them. so just leaves the other one to find out about now

[Maryanne Solo]

The SLims?

(an oldie but a goodie)

[161488303349]

 

jejejjejejje (:

sounds a bit shady to me

[Cully Andel]

ty 16. That explains where they're all hiding

[Herbert Hawker]

The time must be ripe for someone to launch a viable alternative to Second Life. Linden Labs seem increasingly determined to turn what was an innovative, unique, member-driven, inspiring community of people into yet another gaming lanscape for adolescent youths. Sad really.

[161488303349]

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Herbert Hawker wrote:

The time must be ripe for someone to launch a viable alternative to Second Life. Linden Labs seem increasingly determined to turn what was an innovative, unique, member-driven, inspiring community of people into yet another gaming lanscape for adolescent youths. Sad really.

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party at cloud's place

[Amiryu Hosoi]

Why keep ppl say that? Take a look at our sims and I will asure you you will think different. Its time people stop using bad quality scenery and pictures in blogs about SL. We have lots of good quality to offer. Just look around or ask the right ppl. Moving to Steam will be a big thing especially with improved graphicd.

This is aslo SL:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7114/7433848744_f77accf380_k.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/embed/PB-xDPVapk0?rel=0

http://www.youtube.com/embed/oPs4FTLjav0?rel=0

http://www.youtube.com/embed/7FIwo96b2DI?rel=0

Ami

[Paul Hexem]

Because that's the exception, not the norm. And it's LL's fault, really.

 

Download any game off Steam and start it up for the first time. You get a high quality intro video showing you some cool features of the game, or showcasing the graphics via a flyover of some of the game scenery. Or both. Then you set up (often the game sets the highest possible graphics your computer can handle) and you're in a user friendly tutorial.

 

But SL... Make a new alt with a fresh install of the viewer. No matter what your computer specs, the graphics settings default to some stupid setting with the best features (shadows, lighting, etc) disabled. No intro video showcasing the best SL offers. No preview of those cool looking locations. No flyover of the scenery showcased there. No quality avatar with rigged mesh parts.

 

Then you're dumped in a stupid looking location with pictures telling you how to turn right and left, that take 2 minutes to rez.

 

Of the two, which one gives the impression "Wow, the developers of this really want to impress me."?

[Amiryu Hosoi]

LL made a good start once with the Destination Guide but they screwed up by letting in incomplete and low quality locations. Once it was an honor to be listed in the DG but not for a long time. I agree LL should make the first feel of SL much better. The installer checks your system and adjusts the graphic settings accoordingly but that is not enough. Yes defauot avatars should be of the highest possible quality also. Maybe the joining with Steam will force LL to rethink their strategy ane maybe it will make LL to protect their designers and high quality locations... sigh.

Ami

[Innula Zenovka]

It would be a start if someone did something about VWR-29335: "Update all library avatars that use invisiprims - they are broken for Residents on high and ultra graphics"

These initial outfits are all broken for people with lighting and shadows enabled:

• Female Action Outfit
• Female Average Outfit
• Female Bollywood Outfit
• Female City Outfit
• Female Cosplay Outfit
• Female Cyborg Outfit
• Female Designer Outfit
• Female Fantasy Outfit
• Female Goth Outfit
• Female Party Outfit
• Female Rocker Outfit
• Female Student Outfit
• Male Action Outfit
• Male Average Outfit
• Male Bollywood Outfit
• Male City Outfit
• Male Cosplay Outfit
• Male Cyborg Outfit
• Male Designer Outfit
• Male Fantasy Outfit
• Male Goth Outfit
• Male Rocker Outfit
• Male Student Outfit
• Dragonlet
• Female Shape & Outfit
• Gamer male
• Girl Next Door

So anyone with a decent computer who chooses one of them is going to find they've got weird feet and have no idea why.

[Paul Hexem]

Perfect example.

 

If LL wants gamers, they're going to have to take their thumbs out of their assess and step it up a little.

[danicah]

i thougt i had read somewhere Steam is coming by September 5th... Haha good one... Well, Where is it?

[Hitomi Tiponi]

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danicah wrote:

i thougt i had read somewhere Steam is coming by September 5th... Haha good one... Well, Where is it?

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I don't know where you saw that - but it was never stated by Linden Lab or any source I have seen.

FWIW the viewer that would be used for Steam has still not gone into Beta because of a number of problems preventing the promotion of Viewer 3.4.0, but that may happen in the next week or two.  That would be the earliest we should expect a launch on Steam, but as the elements to run fully on Steam are still currently hidden away it may be a bit longer yet.

Also a lot will depend on Valve's schedule for introducing non-gaming software onto Steam.  Until that happens anything else people say is hot air(containing water vapour):smileyhappy:.

 

[161488303349]

also the valve guy is worried that he is going to get eaten by Microsoft, so he maybe be a bit distracted for while whipping up some w8h8 (:

[Hiro Fluffy]

I'm disappointed that they're adding even more complexity to the rendering engine without updating graphics card support.

They're still on OpenGL when all consumer video cards these days are designed for DirectX.

Only incredibly expensive workstation graphics cards specialize in OpenGL, and who wants one of those just for Secondlife when they need a DX card for all their games?

Also, Crossfire and SLI have been around since 2004 but they still aren't supported. In fact, trying to use SL on a system with either of these technologies often causes the client to crash. People have been complaining about this for six years.

Also, most video cards have 1 to 2 GB of RAM these days but SL can address only 512 MB.

This is why if I ever want to make a killer system look really bad I just start up Secondlife on it.

[161488303349]

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Hiro Fluffy wrote:

I'm disappointed that they're adding even more complexity to the rendering engine without updating graphics card support.

They're still on OpenGL when all consumer video cards these days are designed for DirectX.

Only incredibly expensive workstation graphics cards specialize in OpenGL, and who wants one of those

just for Secondlife

when they need a DX card for all their games?

Also, Crossfire and SLI have been around since 2004 but they still aren't supported. In fact, trying to use SL on a system with either of these technologies often causes the client to crash. People have been complaining about this for

six years

.

Also, most video cards have 1 to 2 GB of RAM these days but SL can address only 512 MB.

This is why if I ever want to make a killer system look really bad I just start up Secondlife on it.

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just say that DirectX is Windows only. linden have a policy of supporting Apple and Linux as well. so that means OpenGL for better or worse

[Edward Vellhi]

heh. well, it it is _really_ a killer system, it will not look bad. it's sad nobody's written a driver level opengl to directx translator. has to be possible, they're both languages for describing the same thing. obviously ms has no motive to create one.