Linden Lab is building a NEW virtual world

[Madelaine McMasters]

Ebbe Linden (LL CEO) has said that resident names will carry forward to the new world, so stop worrying about that. There's more than enough other stuff to worry about.

;-).

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Valashu Tizzy wrote:

So...my Account is about 8 years old, will we be able to keep our names? Or do we all gain the "Resident" Name.

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Ebbe has stated that our names, friend list and money will all be transferable to the new platform.

 

 

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Valashu Tizzy wrote:

Without decreasing the efford of the resident in sl, but i really would appreciate to let others see my actual SL age there.

If it starts from 0 for everyone, it feels more like loosing something.

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What would you be loosing?  The new platform is not a continuation of SL... therefore, it makes little sense for your SL age to show up there.

 

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Valashu Tizzy wrote:

I mean, i spend a lot of time in SL, i guess that should be rewarded.

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You're rewarded with the pleasure that spending all that time in SL has given you.

...Dres

[Derek Torvalar]

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Valashu Tizzy wrote:

Hello there, my first post in any SL Forum, hope it is not de-placed

 

So...my Account is about 8 years old, will we be able to keep our names? Or do we all gain the "Resident" Name.

Without decreasing the efford of the resident in sl, but i really would appreciate to let others see my actual SL age there.

If it starts from 0 for everyone, it feels more like loosing something.

 

I dont mind about my avi itself, anything i have now in SL i could rebuild or rebuy. And even it may cost some money, i will be willingly pay it aslong as SL2 is really a way better than SL itself.

But my Name is to me a important part of my identity i gained, and i dont want to miss it.

I mean, i spend a lot of time in SL, i guess that should be rewarded.

Thanks for listening, and sorry if i wrote in the wrong forum.

I am just worried alot.

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No, I'm afraid you will have to start over again from scratch. Nothing is going to be transferable, at least that is my understanding.

But you aren't going to care, because Ebbe says it is going to be wonderful, so wonderful you will lose your mind.

[Innula Zenovka]

Names, L$ balances and friends lists will transfer, it seems, so you don't need to worry about that.  

They aren't sure what else will, though.   Scripts certainly won't -- that's already been decided -- but they've not taken any firm decisions about other content.

Ebbe did a long interview about this in October last year.  I have a horrible feeling that if I link to it, the anti-spam filter will zap my post, so let's try it this way (copy the urls and paste them in your browser).   There's a summary of the interview at 

http://blog.zoha-islands.com/ebbe-altberg-discusses-the-new-platform/

 and a transcript and the video at 

https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/designing-worlds-ebbe-altberg-video-and-transcript/

 

[LlazarusLlong]

If Ebbe leaves LL does that mean his promises in this respect aren't worth anything?

[Niecia Davi]

the promise was mad that "as long as the current sl remained  "profitable" it would remain open. so since that promise the integrity and the quality of the sl world has degraded..an apparent attempt in my opinion to crash and burn the cvurrent sl before the new one comes up for release.

[LlazarusLlong]

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Niecia Davi wrote:

the promise was mad

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Agreed!

[Innula Zenovka]

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

If Ebbe leaves LL does that mean his promises in this respect aren't worth anything?

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That would depend on the circumstances of his departure and on what the board wanted to happen next, I would think.    If "The New Thing" still looked viable, I imagine they'd think twice before appointing a successor who wanted to ditch it.

Since simply pulling the plug on the current SL and expecting everyone to move to The New Thing would be commercial suicide, I'd think they'd want to make it as easy as possible for people to visit the new place using their existing names, friends' lists and L$ balances.   That has to be a lot easier for LL to guarantee than is anything about transferring assets. 

Personally, I'm anxious to learn what scripting engine they're intending to use, so I can start planning things to make.    Assuming they use something like Unity or Unreal, it's going to be a lot easier to make fun interactive stuff than it is with LSL.

[MB Robonaught]

One thing people don’t often consider in the reason for creating Second Life 2.0, is the programming architecture for the current Second Life is almost 15 years old. Though the current form is heavily modified, using a modern and far better architecture makes most all items in the current second life incompatible with the new system just like trying to play win95 games on a win 8.1 computer. Adding methods to handle the older items would just gum up the works and nothing would be gained. Besides who still needs that 300 prim hat with 1000 scripts with mesh being available? A few other things you won’t be able to take with you that nobody mentions are lag, script failure issues, sim crossing issues, and rezz issues.

 

[Darrius Gothly]

(forgive my late arrival to this thread .. I was otherwise occupied in that h*ll hole we call reality)

I'm somewhat okay with them abandoning existing scripts .. up to a point. The LSL syntax is pretty generic, the development tool built in to the Viewer is pathetic, and the resulting code runs too slowly. BUT ...

If they intend to abandon user-created scripts in entirety, or if they provide a truly crap system library, or they ratchet up the level of skill needed to write simple scripts .. then imho they will put a giant DENT into the shiny new toy they'll be wanting to show off and sell.

The best outcome would be for them to create a "Script Upverter" that takes old LSL code, gobbles it all down and then regurgitates it in the new language with System Calls replaced by their appropriate counterparts. Even cooler would be for them to provide an optional "Back-level Support Library" that is nothing but stubs that call the proper new functions.

I have not read much into their intentions with scripting, so if you have at the ready some links that go directly to their statements then I would appreciate you (or anyone) sharing them. I'll also go do some digging myself (nyah, nyah) to see what I can find.

[Pamela Galli]

I dont recall if they have mentioned a scripting system -- but I would pay a lot of money for a converter! 

[Darrius Gothly]

Yes, the platform is old, rickety and generally way past its expected lifetime. But so are the 100's of thousands of computers running out-of-date OS's, older video cards, and still struggling to get decent bandwidth.

LL still has to prove the point that a newer, slicker, more demanding Virtual World type "game" will not only appeal to the existing customer base but also has the draw power to lure, engage and keep the new breed of power-mad computer owners (AKA Gamers).

If they want to point to SL as a shining example of their skill and expertise .. *cough cough* .. that might not sell too well.

If Ebbe is good at selling blue sky, smoke and mirrors then maybe he can get enough investment bux to open yet another set of doors on yet another software dev project. (Remember that Rodvik already opened and poured money into several other ventures, and I haven't heard anything about them doing stellar business.)

The BALANCE between what is now and what they/we want it to be is absolutely essential to making a success of any SL2.0 venture. But if they go off by themselves and blaze all new trails without listening to us first then they will not only have perpetuated their biggest corporate failing up to this point, but they will have also flushed a LOT of "Other People's Money" down ye olde toidy .. and left a very foul stench in the air.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I dont recall if they have mentioned a scripting system -- but I would pay a lot of money for a converter! 

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Noted. Thank you. *smile*

[Innula Zenovka]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

I have not read much into their intentions with scripting, so if you have at the ready some links that go directly to their statements then I would appreciate you (or anyone) sharing them. I'll also go do some digging myself (nyah, nyah) to see what I can find.

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The most up-to-date info I've seen is the interview with Ebbe back in October of last year that I mentioned earlier.   There he says, 

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Scripts – we’ve said it’s going to be a completely different scripting language. I’m sure there are people out there who will think of ways of creating converters for various things to bring more things over more easily. But we’re trying, in some ways, to simplify things for ourselves as well as not constraining ourselves by just thinking about what would the future be if we didn’t have to think about the past when it comes to content and content creation. And then over time, we’ll be able to provide more information on how existing work can be brought into that place.

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https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/designing-worlds-ebbe-altberg-video-and-transcript/

 

I'm just guessing they'll use something like Unity's implementation of C# rather than inventing their own all over again,, but who knows.   

I'm keeping my ear to ground and will share (probably in the sripting forum) anything I learn.

[Darrius Gothly]

Thank you Innula.

/me puts on his "finding his reading glasses" glasses ...

[LlazarusLlong]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

If Ebbe leaves LL does that mean his promises in this respect aren't worth anything?

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That would depend on the circumstances of his departure and on what the board wanted to happen next

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When he goes it will be because he has wasted Linden Lab's time, resources and goodwill on SL V2.

Or maybe he'll jump before he's pushed.

[Innula Zenovka]

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

If Ebbe leaves LL does that mean his promises in this respect aren't worth anything?

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That would depend on the circumstances of his departure and on what the board wanted to happen next

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When he goes it will be because he has wasted Linden Lab's time, resources and goodwill on SL V2.

Or maybe he'll jump before he's pushed.

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Possibly so.   In the meantime, all we have to go on is what the current CEO is saying.   Presumably he had the board's backing when he abandoned Rodvik's attempts at diversification and, instead, embarked on this project.

Certainly, though, I think LL do have to develop a new platform to accommodate all the advances in hardware and software over the last eleven or twelve years, and I think the decision not to worry about making everything backwards-compatible was absolutely the right one.    Imagine trying to create a new customisable avatar base (with feet, not flippers, articulated fingers,  and so on) while having to make sure all existing clothes, shoes, skins and hairs would work with it.

One way I see SL2 developing, at least in the short term, is as a place hobbyists and enthusiasts put together regions that simply wouldn't be possible in the existing SL, and which residents of the existing SL go to visit, as it were (which is one reason why carrying over names, friends lists and account balances is important).    

I've been chatting with an SL friend who makes 3-D content professionally (I mean, for environments other than SL), and we've got all sorts of ideas for environments we simply couldn't make in SL but could make very easily in, for example, Unity or Unreal Engine.    People certainly wouldn't want to abandon the existing SL to use those environments exclusively (or I certainly wouldn't) but I think a lot of people would spend a lot of time exploring them, and many of them would buy appropriate vehicles and outfits to use when they were so doing.  

Anyway, time shall tell what, if anything, comes of all this.   Speculating about what Ebbe and LL's board may or may not do in a year or so's time isn't really going to achieve very much.

 

[Gavin Hird]

We can all dream of creations and constellations that are not possible in the current SL enviornment, however since Linden Lab is not running a welfare program, for Ebbe and Linden Lab the key question is; is it financially viable and is it financially more compelling than keeping the current SL alive. 

Also, for a new SL to be marketable, it must be running on mobile devices. Already there will parts of your 3D dream crash and burn. 

[LlazarusLlong]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

 

Anyway, time shall tell what,

if anything

, comes of all this.

 

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That's what my money's on now.

I hear LL staff have given the project the codename Sisyphus.

LL is now into virtual software, rather than virtual world software . . .

[Innula Zenovka]

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Gavin Hird wrote:

We can all dream of creations and constellations that are not possible in the current SL enviornment, however since Linden Lab is not running a welfare program, for Ebbe and Linden Lab the key question is; is it financially viable and is it financially more compelling than keeping the current SL alive. 

Also, for a new SL to be marketable, it must be running on mobile devices. Already there will parts of your 3D dream crash and burn. 

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Ebbe has said that LL intend to run the two platforms together for as long as SL1 is viable.    He says in the interview I keep on mentioning that they don't even have any date in mind for a transition, but suggests it's going to be several years down the line yet.   

One way or the other, though, they do have to work on a new platform that encompasses what's possible on contemporary and future technology (e.g. Oculus Rift).    Otherwise SL will become increasingly dated and, probably, will eventually not run on newer operating systems.

I don't quite see your point about mobile devices.   Doesn't something like SL Go already solve that particular problem quite neatly?

[Gavin Hird]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

I don't quite see your point about mobile devices.   Doesn't something like SL Go already solve that particular problem quite neatly?

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No!

Even to serve a concurrency of the current user base would take a render farm bigger than what is serving the current sims. + You will blow any mobile plan in a matter of hours with a streaming solution like that. Remember, in many parts of the world, including Europe the only internet connection they have is a mobile one.

Ebbe has said they want to bring SL v2 to millions of concurrent users.

[LlazarusLlong]

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Gavin Hird wrote:

Ebbe has said they want to bring SL v2 to millions of concurrent users.

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I hear that the project has got as far as:

"YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING" . . .

[Gavin Hird]

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

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Gavin Hird wrote:

Ebbe has said they want to bring SL v2 to millions of concurrent users.

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I hear that the project has got as far as:

"YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING" . . .

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That may very well be the case! :-))

[Innula Zenovka]

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Gavin Hird wrote:

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

I don't quite see your point about mobile devices.   Doesn't something like SL Go already solve that particular problem quite neatly?

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No!

Even to serve a concurrency of the current user base would take a render farm bigger than what is serving the current sims. + You will blow any mobile plan in a matter of hours with a streaming solution like that. Remember, in many parts of the world, including Europe the only internet connection they have is a mobile one.

Ebbe has said they want to bring SL v2 to millions of concurrent users.

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I don't quite understand what you mean about needing "a render farm bigger than what is serving the current sims."   Isn't that OnLive's problem, not LL's?   

Nor do I really understand the point about mobile internet connections.   In the UK, most of the larger operators already offer unlimited data packages as an option with their various mobile contracts.   Certainly Virgin Mobile and Three.Co.UK do.   Are we unique in Europe in that respect?   

[Gavin Hird]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

I don't quite understand what you mean about needing "a render farm bigger than what is serving the current sims."   Isn't that OnLive's problem, not LL's?   

 

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