Community Roundtable May 20, 2024

[Kathlen Onyx]

14 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

She said that she's using an iPad Pro (2nd Gen). 

 

It just got an update and will be supported for at least another year.  I guess my point is that who is going to be buying a new device just to use SL?  My IPad works perfectly fine with everything and even some graphically heavy apps.  

People don't even want to spend the money on PC's to run SL. lol....good luck with that.

I could try it on my Samsung phone but I'm not sure what the app is called in the google store. I looked up test flight but it's not in there and my email from SL is for iOS.

Edited May 21 by Kathlen Onyx

[Blush Bravin]

14 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

While I agree that the younger generation does use mobile more, my son who games, bought a pretty hefty destop recently to replace a laptop he had been using.  He plays silly games on his phone or watches youtube but for games, he and his friends all use desktops.  

My son who is 37 uses consoles for gaming. He is on his phone or Ipad for everything else. His kids use Ipads or consoles as well.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

10 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

While I agree that the younger generation does use mobile more, my son who games, bought a pretty hefty destop recently to replace a laptop he had been using.  He plays silly games on his phone or watches youtube but for games, he and his friends all use desktops.  

Very true. I'm extremely behind the times still using only one single monitor these days. Most PC setups have at least two, sometimes three, and streamers up to four or more. A mix of landscape and portrait orientations, depending on the use. A tiny mobile screen ain't it.

Desktops (or consoles, if the in-game voice chat doesn't suck) are essential for serious multiplayer gaming and anything extremely graphics heavy (someone's out there buying up those RTX 4090s). For mobile options, a lot seem to like the Steam Deck for the easy access to the Steam library, and devs are very under pressure these days to make their games Steam Deck compatible right out the gate on release. Mobile (phone/tablet) gamers tend to like more casual games and RPGs/JRPGs.

[Madi Melodious]

8 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

My son who is 37 uses consoles for gaming. He is on his phone or Ipad for everything else. His kids use Ipads or consoles as well.

A friend of mine has SL running on his steam deck.  I asked "why?"  He said "because."   

Perfect answer. 

[Rowan Amore]

7 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

My son who is 37 uses consoles for gaming. He is on his phone or Ipad for everything else. His kids use Ipads or consoles as well.

He USED to use consoles but they really aren't needed as much as they used to be.  My son is 24.  The last console he got, after being a Play Station user, was an Xbox.  It was collecting dust so he boxed it up and tucked it away.  

PC games actually went up in sales more than console last year.  And both grew more than mobile which decreased although it still has a huge majority.  Might be a new trend?  

[Arielle Popstar]

23 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

When my computer was down about 10 yrs ago, I kept in touch with people via off-line email.  Now, people (not me) keep in touch on discord.  I can't see any reason I'd need to be connected through a mobile viewer.  But, I might be the odd one since I don't even play games on my phone.  The only non-phone thing I do on there is use the Kindle app if I'm waiting for an appointment. 

Well, my mother prefers her phone for a lot apps (not games) because instead of being glued to her non mobile laptop, her smart phone allows her to do the housework and still be readily available for phone, texts, e-mails and the like. Myself I can do the same even when logged in to SL and the yard needs maintenance, odd jobs need doing around the house etc but I can still be around if a friend comes online.

[Arwyn Quandry]

5 minutes ago, Madi Melodious said:

A friend of mine has SL running on his steam deck.  I asked "why?"  He said "because."   

Perfect answer. 

Steam Deck might be the perfect solution to the Adult content issue of mobile. Steam allows adult games so SL wouldn't have that issue there. Smaller user base than mobile, obviously, but still a chunk of new folks. 

[Istelathis]

I doubt the future is going to stop producing desktops, but the general feel I get is that it is going to be mostly mobile for most people.  A lot of the tasks will be aided by machine intelligence, we will likely see augmented reality, games will be streamed as a service, and people will just not need to be seated in their home to play games.  Desktops will likely mostly be used by hobbyists, people that like to tinker and have more control, everyone else will have no reason to continue to use them.  

I would guess, more people will have mobile technology in their pockets, or sitting on their nose, than be seated at a desktop.  

Even right now, for a slightly comparable platform, Roblox has 78% of its users on mobile.  78%, that is just wacky!  

 

Edited May 21 by Istelathis

[Love Zhaoying]

25 minutes ago, Kathlen Onyx said:

It just got an update and will be supported for at least another year.  I guess my point is that who is going to be buying a new device just to use SL?  My IPad works perfectly fine with everything and even some graphically heavy apps.  

I sure didn't (buy a new device just to use SL).  However:

1. My iPhone is so old, I could have upgraded that for free.

2. My iPad was so old, it would NOT load the newest for a lot of different apps. Apps I 'needed' not related to Second Life. So, I had a reason to update my iPad anyway.

 

Edited May 21 by Love Zhaoying

[Love Zhaoying]

24 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

PC games actually went up in sales more than console last year.  And both grew more than mobile which decreased although it still has a huge majority.  Might be a new trend?  

I predict it is cyclic at this point, until Mobile finally outpaces PC speed and graphics and PC doesn't really catch up.  (That may be awhile, with all the advancement in graphics cards, etc.)

[Chery Amore]

Mobile is just another way in. Doesn't mean they aren't going to get on the PC when they get home for a better experience.  Hook 'em by any means necessary. 

[brodiac90]

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I predict it is cyclic at this point, until Mobile finally outpaces PC speed and graphics and PC doesn't really catch up.  (That may be awhile, with all the advancement in graphics cards, etc.)

Big screen is important! I play SL on my 48' LED TV. 

Being able to access SL on mobile while out and about would be cool though. 

[Blush Bravin]

Personally, I HATE mobile. I don't own an Ipad. You couldn't get me to use a laptop even if you gave me the latest and greatest. My only concession to anything resembling mobile, other than my seriously-outdated-but-still-works-perfectly-fine-for-me phone is a really old Kindal. 

I love my desktop PC!!  

Just didn't want anyone to think that just because I can envision a life in the very near future where mobile displaces PC, that I actually like mobile or use it other than my phone. 

Edited May 21 by Blush Bravin

[Cristiano Midnight]

I spent nearly 7 months in the hospital, and during that time, found a way to use the full version of Firestorm with my iPad. I was able to remote into my desktop pc at home and use Firestorm with Splashtop. You install a small program on your pc to be able to connect to it remotely via Splashtop. I was able to add custom touch controls to make it even easier. Splashtop also works on my phone as well. I get the full SL experience without any limitations, even over cellular. The mobile app holds no interest to me. I still use the same setup at home when I am in bed if I want to use SL on my iPad. It works fantastically.

[Istelathis]

1 minute ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

I spent nearly 7 months in the hospital, and during that time, found a way to use the full version of Firestorm with my iPad. I was able to remote into my desktop pc at home and use Firestorm with Splashtop. You install a small program on your pc to be able to connect to it remotely via Splashtop. I was able to add custom touch controls to make it even easier. Splashtop also works on my phone as well. I get the full SL experience without any limitations, even over cellular. The mobile app holds no interest to me. I still use the same setup at home when I am in bed if I want to use SL on my iPad. It works fantastically.

I've played around with moonlight, it was pretty cool to see SL running on my phone, and my raspberry pi, as well as tablet.  I also had Cyberpunk 2077 running.  The problem I mostly had, was going through my inventory and moving, I did not invest a lot of time in it to get everything running perfectly, I just wanted to tinker around with it and see how well it ran.  At the time, my Internet connection was not the greatest so it all had to be done from my local network if I wanted to get decent results, but it was a blast.

Hardware requirements were more or less, have a screen 🤣 I would have loved to get it running through my Amiga 1200, but I don't think nVidia would consider making an application for it.. *grumbles*

[Cristiano Midnight]

2 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

I've played around with moonlight, it was pretty cool to see SL running on my phone, and my raspberry pi, as well as tablet.  I also had Cyberpunk 2077 running.  The problem I mostly had, was going through my inventory and moving, I did not invest a lot of time in it to get everything running perfectly, I just wanted to tinker around with it and see how well it ran.  At the time, my Internet connection was not the greatest so it all had to be done from my local network if I wanted to get decent results, but it was a blast.

Hardware requirements were more or less, have a screen 🤣 I would have loved to get it running through my Amiga 1200, but I don't think nVidia would consider making an application for it.. *grumbles*

That is what was so great about Splashtop vs other remote software. I am able to create on screen touch controls. I have it configured so I can do everything I normally do - the movement is very smooth and I am able to build and take pictures. I have almost as precise control as I do when using a mouse and keyboard. I even use voice dictation on the iPad for my ims when needed (with some amusing results sometimes that I won't share for NSFW reasons lol). The whole setup is fantastic.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

1 hour ago, Istelathis said:

Even right now, for a slightly comparable platform, Roblox has 78% of its users on mobile.

Nobody with a brain CARES what Crapblox does, it's for 12 yr olds who can't buy their own PC.

When they grow up, and either get a job or a student loan, they stop playing Crapblox, and get a PC  or a Console or a Steamdeck and play REAL computer games.

 

That's why Crapblox has a customer base that doesn't spend money and why Crapblox is LOSING over 1.2 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

ANYONE stupid enough to suggest SL copies ANYTHING from Crapblox basically wants SL to go bankrupt and close,

 

ENOUGH with "But Crapblox blah blah blah".

 

[Arielle Popstar]

6 minutes ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

That's why Crapblox has a customer base that doesn't spend money and why Crapblox is LOSING over 1.2 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

ANYONE stupid enough to suggest SL copies ANYTHING from Crapblox basically wants SL to go bankrupt and close,

Whether they make money or not is aside from the point that they have figured out how to retain their user base. Something SL has a problem with. Maybe they could learn a tip or two from other platforms. 

[Coffee Pancake]

37 minutes ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

I spent nearly 7 months in the hospital, and during that time, found a way to use the full version of Firestorm with my iPad. I was able to remote into my desktop pc at home and use Firestorm with Splashtop. You install a small program on your pc to be able to connect to it remotely via Splashtop. I was able to add custom touch controls to make it even easier. Splashtop also works on my phone as well. I get the full SL experience without any limitations, even over cellular. The mobile app holds no interest to me. I still use the same setup at home when I am in bed if I want to use SL on my iPad. It works fantastically.

This has been my approach too (hospitals and holidays). When ive needed SL remote and not had the compute with me, I've switched between a a text only client and remote access to home.

Would the mobile client be better in those situations, I was very hopeful .. until they blocked A access, my main use-case went up in smoke and I'm left with an G/M locked SL-IM client that eats battery because there is an empty world to render.

 

 

[CaerolleClaudel]

8 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

Isn't PayPal used to buy Lindens or pay SL expenses and when cashing out?  I know you CAN make MP purchases using PayPal but is that something people actually do?

PayPal wouldn't have access to what we spend out Lindens on or whether it's an adult product or not.

I buy all my Lindens using PayPal. At least L20,000 over the last few weeks upgrading my avi and accessories.

[Cristiano Midnight]

Honestly, for mobile, I would settle for just a way to freaking message people in SL when not there. Discord has worked well with friends for that, but after 21 years, you would think being able to message outside of SL would be a thing.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

10 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Whether they make money or not is aside from the point that they have figured out how to retain their user base...

... UNTIL THEY GROW UP AND HAVE MONEY TO SPEND. Then their user base leave.

 

10 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Something SL has a problem with. Maybe they could learn a tip or two from other platforms. 

So, NO.

 

Edited May 21 by Zalificent Corvinus

[CaerolleClaudel]

8 hours ago, Innula Zenovka said:

…and constrain what you're allowed to access using the mobile viewer (and that's why, at least at the moment, the mobile viewer can't be used to access Adult regions).

So, is there actually a mobile viewer ‘at the moment’? Sorry, I just came back to the Forum and know nothing about that. Is a beta out there or something, or is this just something LL says they are working on?

Thx

[Istelathis]

18 minutes ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

ANYONE stupid enough to suggest SL copies ANYTHING from Crapblox basically wants SL to go bankrupt and close,

 

ENOUGH with "But Crapblox blah blah blah".

 

It is a useful measurement when it comes to trying to predict the future of gaming, or even for platforms like Second Life.  Mobile is unfortunately, the winner at this time with a larger base than personal computers.  This trend is not likely to change, and likewise, unfortunately, as people grow older and have more responsibilities they are not as likely to invest time or finances in any gaming platform, be it Roblox, Second Life, VRChat, numerous MMOs, and so on.

We are a rare breed, a lot of us here like PCs, we like tinkering around with them, and we like a more complex interface with more options.  I don't think most people are like us though, they mostly use the web to stream for entertainment, or use social media.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

2 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

So, is there actually a mobile viewer ‘at the moment’? Sorry, I just came back to the Forum and know nothing about that. Is a beta out there or something, or is this just something LL says they are working on?

Thx

It's a beta, and currently limited "for contractual reasons" to Plooooooose members only.

No $250 a year subscription, no 5th rate SL experience on a tiny screen.

And because Awful Mac, you won't be able to access A rated anything when/if it finally gets released.