What are your hopes and fears for Second Life Mobile?

[Persephone Emerald]

I hope the Mobile expenrience brings in loads of new players who don't bother us "real SL Residents" too much.

I've been imagining Mobile users getting 16m × 16m skyboxes, so they can have a home similar to what some might be used to in IMVU.  I hope the Mobile experience is simple, easy and fun for new users. Once they start to make friends in SL, then I hope they want to stay and do more.

[Enola2017]

I already answered something similar. For me the mobile version would be great if I can fish, collect or hunt. Unfortunately, Lumia is not supported - it was difficult to do fast TP in it - the world took a long time to load, but you could disable avatars - which is a plus, since the less lag in the games I mentioned - the better. If you didn't load the world (as beauty for high graphics), it would be better - we would save our traffic. many people move around the world for various reasons - business trip, treatment, or like me - evacuation - it's hard to find a computer there - a mobile phone is a good solution. Currently, only chat is available, but I would like other important things. and also - after all, review the statements about APPL and Android! Android is used much more in the world. thank you

[Akane Nacht]

I foresee me having to take my glasses off every five minutes to see who I accidentally sat on. 

[AmeliaJ08]

10 hours ago, Constance Finchy said:

1. If you swipe out of the SL app to quickly use another app, does it log you out? Or if you swipe back within a few minutes, does it keep your progress and you don't have to log back in again? How would this appear to other users -- you're AFK or something?

Android/IOS are true multitasking operating systems. They are both quite aggressive about 'suspending' background applications given memory constraints though, I would assume you would write the client in the assumption the operating system will do this from time to time so yeah they'll have to consider it. Many phones operate with quite limited RAM so this is of course necessary but yeah, I'd hope it's considered. Not sure how other social game apps handle this, anyone know?

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2. If the SL app turns out to be very popular with new users, is that then going to be the standard for a lot of people -- that things will be oriented toward mobile users? I think SL runs better and you can do a HELL of a lot more on desktop.

This is my concern too. We'll have to wait and see what the capabilities of the client are like, SL is supposed to be moving to a new era of graphical content with PBR though so I'd hope that the mobile clients can also support this for phones/tablets that are capable of it. Phones/tablets also vary massively in how good they are at rendering graphics - just like PCs - so the client will have to accommodate this with fallback modes... maybe automatically too, you can't just throw a complicated graphics options panel at most mobile users.

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by AmeliaJ08

[Candide LeMay]

11 hours ago, gwynchisholm said:

 Im tired of my gaming PC in all its capabilities being brought to its knees by 5 avatars in my line of sight and people defending that for some ungodly reason.

Tell that to people who make and/or demand clothes and avatar accessories where every tiny detail is modeled and textured so that you can zoom in and see the dust particles. No professionally produced game has assets that are as heavy/wasteful as SL does. SL creators throw more geometry on shoe laces than commercial games do on whole characters. Yes it's a failure of LL to set reasonable limits on attachments (something a like geometry and texture "budget" for your avatar) but that ship has sailed. Maybe LL can do some sort of background reprocessing of assets for mobile users to reduce the load, we'll see.

[Aiyumei]

15 hours ago, gwynchisholm said:

Im tired of my gaming PC in all its capabilities being brought to its knees by 5 avatars in my line of sight and people defending that for some ungodly reason.

What kind of computer do you have? 

I can easily load 40 avatars while maintaining steady 80+ fps(I also run on BD which is heavier on the performance than FS)

[gwynchisholm]

2 hours ago, Aiyumei said:

What kind of computer do you have? 

an i9 11900K, 64gb of ram and a 16gb arc A770 running firestorm in 4k at max settings minus render distance depending on locale

Having the avatars tank my framerate is absurd, that all that can draw a complex scene pretty well but the second you start mixing in people it falls through the floor. It’s outright unacceptable to anyone with a decent pc but especially anyone with an average system that SL performs like complete trash in comparison to many more graphically demanding titles out there, simply because of a lack of utilization and optimization.

Thats the next thing I hope for as a downstream effect of mobile and mobile users, I want to see a whole lot of new people completely shut out the old tech illiterate users who have been vehemently defending the lack of development into making SL not run like garbage. 
The fact that firestorms bandwidth slider says “may cause issues” for 3000kbps+ in an age where I have 2 gigabit fibre internet is a joke. Where their page tells you to not use Microsoft edge because “it has problems downloading firestorm” or whatever despite that’s not how any of that works at all.

So much of this community from a technical level is run by people who believe basically anything. 
That is a whole separate issue, and I cannot hope enough that mobile SL opens the doors for new voices to complain and demand change, silencing all the lie spreading nerds.

[WereBeast Alpha]

My hope is that the app won't deter people to pretend to be an adult like the imvu mobile app. It brought in so many minors on there that lie about their real life age and causes major problems. My biggest fear is SL turning into something like IMVU where there is no protection for legal adults against minors. imvu doesn't have a club on how big an issue that is. Parents these days use phones and the internet as a babysitter instead of being a parent and looking after children's devices to see what is going on with their kids. I don't want to interact with minors at all period. 

[ValKalAstra]

I'm a creature of comfort so my hopes are that it will be a neat way to kick back and relax away from my computer. Over the years I've tried a few solutions like streaming but it always stumbles at one point or another. On the flip-side, my biggest fear is that they will mark mobile users in some way. It's not like SL needs yet another reason for people to discriminate.

[Anna Nova]

I am hoping it is impossible unless they fix the way the servers don't work even on superfast desktop machines with huge memories.  So they fix that first.  And then we all get the New SL.

[Rowan Amore]

10 minutes ago, WereBeast Alpha said:

My hope is that the app won't deter people to pretend to be an adult like the imvu mobile app. It brought in so many minors on there that lie about their real life age and causes major problems. My biggest fear is SL turning into something like IMVU where there is no protection for legal adults against minors. imvu doesn't have a club on how big an issue that is. Parents these days use phones and the internet as a babysitter instead of being a parent and looking after children's devices to see what is going on with their kids. I don't want to interact with minors at all period. 

There's no protection now against running into minors.in SL.  Chances are, it'll get worse, not better with the phone app.

There were 2 at the Welcome hub yesterday dumb enough to say they were 14 and 16 in RL right in local chat.  😳

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

My fear is if the app is successful it could replace the desktop clients and SL become mobile only.  My man play a couple of games on the desktop and recently they went mobile only.

[John Nova]

I doubt I will ever use the mobile app as why would I want to use a tiny screen for Second Life?

However if it is marketed well and signups via the mobile app take new residents to an orientation place geared for the mobile app and not the desktop then it just may bring in new blood.

If the mobile app is just dropped without any serious marketing and people are thrown into the desktop app tutorial areas then it is destined to burn.

[Jaylinbridges]

When Brad O was first interviewed one of the key growth strategies was to get the youngest crowd in SL now (16 and over I guess), and let them migrate as they age into the full adult SL with of course desktop computers.  I think most that stay in SL have or will have desktop setups.  The smart phone is just to always be in touch so they don't miss any rumors or parties.  Mobile phone video sex is rather common now, as was phone sex before the internet.  Once the mobile crowd finds out what is going on in SL I think they will be assimilated.  The DD regions should have record growth.  

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Jaylinbridges

[Istelathis]

I don't really know what I hope for at the moment, I want a mobile app but at the same time I don't want to see drastic changes to SL that stifle creativity or move us over to a more ad generated revenue platform.  I want LL to be successful, but not at the expense of SL as a lot of us currently appreciate it.  I'm concerned how much the platform may have to change, to be able to be accepted on the google and apple app stores in the future, if it becomes more popular and the general public starts putting more demands on it as we see the platform exploited as many are when they get more popular.  

Some concerns I have for the app itself, outside of the changes that may or may not occur to SL are how well it will run on generic mobile devices, and how it will handle latency.

For now, we do have a mobile app that is very promising, Speedlight, unfortunately it runs pretty slow on my phone which is a generic no thrills smartphone that I purchased a couple of years ago.  I imagine for some it works great, especially with more expensive phones that have been built for gaming.   

I kind of hope and fear, that mobile becomes its own platform, separate from SL despite wanting a mobile app.  The pessimist in me sees the potential harm it could cause to the platform, the optimist in me see the good it could cause as well, so I do not really know which gut instinct I should go with 😜 With Speedlight, I would not be to disappointed if mobile were to become its own platform though, and of course, I would still play around with it regardless.  

[Bree Giffen]

I hope it works well because there are times when I’m away from the computer and only have a mobile device.  Getting SL to run on limited hardware could also make it run on VR. 

[Persephone Emerald]

3 hours ago, WereBeast Alpha said:

My hope is that the app won't deter people to pretend to be an adult like the imvu mobile app. It brought in so many minors on there that lie about their real life age and causes major problems. My biggest fear is SL turning into something like IMVU where there is no protection for legal adults against minors. imvu doesn't have a club on how big an issue that is. Parents these days use phones and the internet as a babysitter instead of being a parent and looking after children's devices to see what is going on with their kids. I don't want to interact with minors at all period. 

1 hour ago, Jaylinbridges said:

When Brad O was first interviewed one of the key growth strategies was to get the youngest crowd in SL now (16 and over I guess), and let them migrate as they age into the full adult SL with of course desktop computers.  I think most that stay in SL have or will have desktop setups.  The smart phone is just to always be in touch so they don't miss any rumors or parties.  Mobile phone video sex is rather common now, as was phone sex before the internet.  Once the mobile crowd finds out what is going on in SL I think they will be assimilated.  The DD regions should have record growth.  

Do you think the Mobile app should be limited to restrict it from most Adult content? (It would never be able to keep out all Adult content.) It might not allow users to go to Adult regions or view Adult content on Marketplace. Would this kind of limitation help it be accepted by Google Play or the Apple app store? 

[Bagnu]

My hope is that it will run RLVa

My fear is that it won't.

Without that,  I can't interact properly with the people closest to me, and a text viewer does just as well.  All that said, I would only use it when I can't use my PC and login with Firestorm

Edited September 4, 2023 by Bagnu

[Bagnu]

1 hour ago, Persephone Emerald said:

Do you think the Mobile app should be limited to restrict it from most Adult content? (It would never be able to keep out all Adult content.) It might not allow users to go to Adult regions or view Adult content on Marketplace. Would this kind of limitation help it be accepted by Google Play or the Apple app store? 

If adult content is restricted, I wouldn't even be able to go home if I used it.

[Bagnu]

The only way to really prevent minors from accessing SL, is to require a valid credit card. The issue with that, is many people are afraid of doing that due to privacy reasons.  Especially if they want to take part in adult activities. There many be no charge to join in such case, but it would still be a deterrent to many, IMHO.

Even then, what's to stop someone under 18 from using their parent's credit card in secret?

Edited September 4, 2023 by Bagnu

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Bagnu said:

My hope is that it will run RLVa

My fear is that it won't.

Without that,  I can't interact properly with the people closest to me, and a text viewer does just as well.  All that said, I would only use it when I can't use my PC and login with Firestorm

LL viewers have never supported RLV so I highly doubt they'll include it on mobile.

[Bagnu]

47 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

LL viewers have never supported RLV so I highly doubt they'll include it on mobile.

I know. I agree with you on this. It's not likely.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Bagnu

[Istelathis]

32 minutes ago, Bagnu said:

I know. I agree with you on this. It's not likely.

Speedlight apparently does offer RLV for gold members, as far as if it is free at the moment I am not sure though.  I haven't logged in with this account with it, and this is the only account I use RLV for as it is the only one with wardrobe.

https://docs.speedlight.io/viewer-features/rlv

If you have a decent mobile device, it might still offer you an alternative.  One thing I noticed a few weeks ago, was that my avatar was not rendered perfectly when using it on my desktop, some of the proportions I had set for my avatar did not show in the viewer, such as wider hips, the face was a little off, but otherwise it looked pretty good considering it was mobile and I expect it will only be improved upon.  I don't think you will be doing any high quality photography, but for general purpose it would be something to look in to.  

You can see the differences between firestorm and speedlight in a post I shared for Senra avatars here:

 

Edit:
Another thing to take into consideration, is that if the mobile is released, there may be third party viewers for it, that is completely outside of the realm of my knowledge though.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Istelathis

[Solar Legion]

Hope: It ends up being just a secondary way to log in to do things when one is not at or able to get to their primary setup/PC.

Fear: That they try to make it oh so much more than that and that they end up bringing in the crowd that would demand Second Life to run at three billion FPS on their Daddy Bought Me This Rig, 58K Money Pit PC the same exact way that prepackaged/rendered games (actual games) tend to cater to such crowds.

No, we do not need such a crowd. Period.

[Arielle Popstar]

The predominant fear is that they will make it a Premium feature. They set a precedent by doing so with Speedlight and it makes sense from a perspective of it being a good way to make money on their investment.