Confused - SL GO - Going? - What Does It Mean To The Average Resident?

[Jinnywitha Cleanslate]

I know this may be a very silly question - but I don't think I'd even heard of Onlive SL Go  (I could have forgotten, because I actually have rl Amnesia), but what is/was it? - and how will it's absence affect the average resident?   

I am on an old laptop, running Vista, on  a very old Firestorm viewer - I read on the Firestorm blog something about XP computers, and in the other thread about 'how it will affect LL', something about older computers, not being able to run SL after 30th April - so obviously this worries me.... but I don't even know if it affects me, as I've never heard of OnLive SL Go, and certainly not paid anyone for it. 

Can anyone explain it to me/those of us, who aren't so technically minded. 

 

Thank you so much.

[Derek Torvalar]

Anterograde or retrograde?

[Ren Toxx]

SLGo! is a service that basically does the 3D rendering part of SL remotely, on relatively powerful computers, and they stream the resulting image to you, in near real-time and therefore with low enough input that it becomes essentially as playable. You still need a heck of a fast connection, even more so than with regular viewers because you won’t be downloading just select data (textures, mesh, etc.) whenever necessary... rather, it will be a constant download of relatively high quality video (720p, to be exact), with enough framerate to make it fluid, and in fact some additional margin to let you actually control it SL-like with unperceptible input lag.

But if you have such a fast connection and it’s just your computer that is underpowered, SLGo! makes sense; that’s why the service was offered also to portable devices (mobiles and tablets), most of which certainly lack the horsepower to render SL natively with the same quality as a full-fledged computer, but still might have fast connectivity.

There’s a lot more that could be said about SLGo!, but now it’s largely academical because it’s going to go away.

 

About your situation, I don’t think you need to worry yet. First, you’re not on XP; second, even if you were, there still are some viewers that will keep supporting XP for some time –as long as they possibly can, I reckon; third, with enough fiddling it might be possible in a pinch to install a newer OS on your laptop, perhaps bare to the bones in terms of software, drivers, utilities, visual effects, etc., but still. Until recently I had one that was, oh, I think easily 10+ years old, and I managed to install Windows 7 on it and make it actually usable... including an SL viewer. It obviously didn’t give me sky-high framerate and visual quality, but it did work.

 

And finally, by the time that no viewer is longer able to support either XP or Vista, which may still be at least a couple years into the future, I suspect that the inherent hardware requirements of SL will have grown by themselves enough that you will essentially have to upgrade your computer –and therefore sticking to Vista will become unnecessary as well.

[Jinnywitha Cleanslate]

Higher Level - Chronic Functioning Retrograde Amnesia is what they have labled me with - after spending the first 4 months assuring me that everything will come back.   I basically have a 4 - 5 week memory span, unless something is connected with something negative in some way, or upsets me, scares me - or I do something every day, or at least it's repeated or bought up in that time scale.  It's been like this since 22nd June 2010 now.   It certainly makes life interesting. 

[Jinnywitha Cleanslate]

Ahh - phew!  Thank you!!!!!!   That makes me feel happier!  LOL. 

 

Better start saving all the stuff I want to keep, from my inventory, like notecards, and photos, though.  hehehehee

 

Thank you so much!!!

[Sean Heying]

it's certainly an "interesting" move by Sony. Only a few weeks ago they offloaded Sony Online Entertainment to Daybreak, another company, leaving just the Playstation Division doing games. It's clear they don't want this for their own games any more - they simply don't need it.

So, what patent did this company hold that Sony thought was strategic enough to spend the money to buy?

Maybe it's to do with how their phones can become a screen for the playstation?

 

Either way, my kudos to the devs at Firestorm who spend so much time and effort to create a tie in, to have the rug pulled from under their feet. Even though it was a short collaboration, it showed that you are a strong team. The loss of those hours of dev work will be made up in other ways.

[Derek Torvalar]

---

Jinnywitha Cleanslate wrote:

Higher Level - Chronic Functioning Retrograde Amnesia is what they have labled me with - after spending the first 4 months assuring me that everything will come back.   I basically have a 4 - 5 week memory span, unless something is connected with something negative in some way, or upsets me, scares me - or I do something every day, or at least it's repeated or bought up in that time scale.  It's been like this since 22nd June 2010 now.   It certainly makes life interesting. 

---

You mean malingering then.

[Rhys Goode]

I don't think it means much to the average SL resident, and I doubt there would have been massive appleal had it stuck around.

Yes, it rendered a high frame rate, largley independant of the quality or age of you graphics card. I tried it out, thinking it might be a resonables substitue for not doing the upgrade to a new $2000 laptop that I have been contemplating. They had just announced support for tablets, too, but not when I trialed it.

I was quite disappointed. First, 720 p might look nice and sharp on a tablet, but not so much on a 17 inch screen. I found that I liked 15 fps fully rendered a lot better than 70 fps in fuzzy low rez video.  Second, it required a a very high qualitly internet connection, and used about 5 - 10 times the amount of data than standard SL.  I travel in my RV a lot, and using 5 GB/hr is just not realistic on my mobile data plan. And the internet connection at the places I stay when I travel are seldom first rate. So it would have been pretty much useless on the road. Third, you could not save pictures, or chat to your local hard drive. And you could not upload images, or animations, or mesh models from you hard drive. So, it was pretty much useless for building.

I am sure it had appeal to some, but I think for most people, the negatives outweighed the positives, and it is hard for me to imagine it ever being used by a large fraction of residents.

[Cam Mode]

SL go is( until the 30th) wonderful. After years of seeing grey-- waiting for rezzing-- to actually see the world as it is-- skylines, vistas , looking down a street -- rooftops- weather vanes---seeing it all is wonderful.

 

LL viewer was slow and awful -- FS on a tablet-- fantastic.

 

Do yourself a favor before month end- -- set up an acct , get the app and see SL as it is. Unless you have a top of the line system you probably won't ever see the world like this again.

 

Really hope Linden does something to fill in the void SL,go leaves - and soon.

 

 

[juma Capalini]

I actually subscribed to it in early march,but since last friday i get a error message saying my subscription has ended with a error message and told to renew my subscription at slgo's website.A bit weird when the service is free until april 30th,but it won't let me log in,i'll point out i was paying the 650 linden a week (paying 2600lindens for a month) subscription and not the credit card monthly payment for privacy reasons,anyway when i click the subscribe button on the slgo webpage it takes me to a credit card fill in form,so i fill it in and it will not process on a credit card or a bank card giving me a message about a problem with the card used.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

I enjoyed it..it was much easier to move around in busy places..

Oh well, it was good while it lasted..

Maybe something else will come along like it in the future..