Who - aside from users - will benefit from the Mobile Ap

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

Yes, I already have gotten into the alpha/beta test group through my one Premium Plus account. By the way, I have tested, and once you are accepted and have installed the alpha mobile app on your device, you can also connect using any of your alt accounts; they don't have to be Premium Plus members (for example, I have successfully logged in as Vanity Fair, and she is only Premium).

HOWEVER, I just got a new iPad Pro 11 for work, which is on a different Apple ID, and I have to jump through all the hoops again to get a link to be able to sign in on *that* device, which is a pain in the ass. I have made a request using my Premium Plus account, explaining that it is a separate device on a different Apple ID, and given them the associated email for that device, so we'll see how it takes for them to get back to me.

That's interesting. I didn't think to try it with my one Alt yet. I should do that to post mobile vs. normal pictures of her (like I did for my main).

Luckily, all my Apple devices are on the same ID.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 10:34 AM, Qie Niangao said:

Right, but there's a list of things that people seem to dismiss as impossible on a mobile device that seem perfectly doable to me. Some might benefit from more UI refinement than others.

I'd absolutely go to live music events and clubs with a phone or tablet. Didn't they made a big deal of getting parcel audio to work in the mobile viewer a couple months ago?

Yes, parcel audio works, and it works well.

The problem is, at least on my 8th-generation personal iPad, that the alpha mobile app consistently crashes when you visit any region that has a lot of avatars in it. (I have my request in to test it using my new work iPad Pro 11, to see if that helps.) So, unless LL can figure out a way for you to visit busy clubs without crashing, this is obviously going to be a big problem.

Also, LL recently forbade mobile users from visiting any regions rated Adult, so for example, I can no longer visit my favourite club to park my avatar and listen to the music stream anymore.

Edited May 29 by Vanity Fair

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 11:23 AM, Love Zhaoying said:

The good news: Mobile has decent 3D graphics, basic navigation, you can "touch" and "sit", and you can teleport places. You can chat, and listen to a stream.

The bad news: Last I saw, Mobile didn't have any way to access inventory, switch avatars (I could have missed that update), teleport to a "place you search for", choose individual items to wear / remove, run scripts, see script dialogs, etc. 

So it does a lot, and is missing a lot. TBD, y'know?

 

You can switch outfits on your logged-in avatar (at least, you used to have that option; I have been testing since January, and perhaps it was removed?) However, actually having your avatar load 100% is currently a bit of a crap shoot (for example, sometimes my mesh head won't load).

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 12:19 PM, Codex Alpha said:

Mobile could also encompass VR or other like headsets as an interface, though I'm not a VR fan. Then the form factor of a screen is less of a problem.

There is NO WAY that SL can attain the necessary frame rates, consistently, to avoid getting VR sick. That's one of the reasons why LL embarked on the Sansar project in the first place.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 1:19 PM, Roxy Couturier said:

Well, assuming that inventory works the same in the mobile app, you can double click the item to 'wear' it. 'add' is a right clickto menu then add. And you have to know that the workaround exists in order to use it. It would be great if 'add' were the default and not 'wear'.

Given the track record of LL's 'New User Experiences', how do you think that will pan out for those new users?

No, you currently don't have access to your inventory, although you did have access to saved outfits and were able to change your avatar using the saved outfits.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 3:18 PM, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I've watched some SL mobile videos on YouTube. Juicybomb had one about three months old, which was mainly just a sitting/trying to stand demo. Saw some others from SL Official where it showed off the walking around, sitting, dancing in clubs, etc. Those were more recent.

It looked pretty clunky overall. Pretty slow to rez things, which will probably surprise anyone new to SL. Kinda laggy when walking. Can't comment much on the UI as I barely saw much but whatever that bottom left control thing is (movement, I guess?).

I can't see someone who's used to mobile gaming being all that patient with this, but we'll see how that goes.

I have been testing the mobile app for five months now, and I have seen a LOT of improvement in it over that time. However, you do have to have a much more limited draw distance on a mobile device, but I have also been pleasantly surprised at how well it does render the landscape around me in many regions.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 3:58 PM, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Oh wow. I saw it took Juicybomb quite a bit to figure out how to stand once sitting. Is that actually explained anywhere? Like a control scheme you can pull up in a menu or somethin'?

If you sitting, you can double-tap on the movement "joystick" to stand again. Took me a while to figure that out, too!

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 5:24 PM, Love Zhaoying said:

 

Found other pics - first is Mobile, second is Official viewer (PBR).  This is with a new Lelutka head.

The main reason I hate this is, again the Flexi-hair doesn't work. This impacts my hair, whiskers, and tail; I dealt with the whiskers and tail by switching to non-Flexi in early Mobile testing. However, I really liked this hair.

Yeah, anything with flexiprims does NOT render properly on the current mobile app.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 5:42 PM, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Standing around, walking, sitting, and hopping on dance balls is one thing, but the newest official mobile dev update video mentioned the notification system that works with group notices for sales and events.

Has anyone tried actually shopping yet? Is that a thing you can do?

I think someone mentioned having no inventory yet, so maybe not.

No shopping, since that would require being able to click on vendor panels and follow dialog boxes, both of which don't work yet. You can click on things like chairs and sit down using the default sit animation/pose, but that's about it.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/24/2024 at 7:18 PM, Jaylinbridges said:

@Love Zhaoying

What is the maturity rating for this Apple APP?  Is it even rated yet?  It should be 17+

As I mentioned, a recent change to the mobile app was to only allow avatars to access regions rated General or Moderate. You used to be able to visit regions rated Adult, but this has now been removed from the mobile client.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/26/2024 at 1:56 PM, Arielle Popstar said:

Is there no setting to limit the amount of avatars rendered? If they don't allow that, it's not going to do well.

(Sorry, only on page 14, still playing catch up....)

Yes, there is an option to select how many other avatars you choose to try and render (the operative word here is TRY; in many cases, the avatar will fail to render 100%). Even when that setting is set to 2 (i.e. yourself and one other avatar), I have found that if you try to teleport into a club with a lot of other avatars, the mobile app crashes even if you have it set as low as 2.

I see this is a serious problem with the mobile app, that LL needs to work on. (I am currently using an 8th-generation iPad, but I have a request in to try it out on an iPad Pro 11, which uses a different Apple ID, so I have to jump through all the hoops of the application process AGAIN, which is a pain in the ass).

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/26/2024 at 3:10 PM, Arielle Popstar said:

Think it was one of the Linden meetings where it was mentioned that Linden employees were predominantly on Apple phones which would maybe explain the insistence on an IOS mobile first.

My understanding is that LL is working on both Android and iOS mobile apps in parallel.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/26/2024 at 5:35 PM, BilliJo Aldrin said:

im starting to think Second Life mobile will end up like IMVU, but with better looking avatars.

Or not, since compared to IMVU creating and dressing an avatar would probably be a lot harder than IMVU.

You just get to pick one of the lovely starter avis i guess

Ruth is a nice name, I’ll try the Ruth avatar 😂

I can tell you that the Senra line of starter avatars renders perfectly fine. I would share a picture, but I want somebody to assure me that I, as an alpha/beta tester, am allowed to share pictures here.

[Love Zhaoying]

25 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

Yeah, anything with flexiprims does NOT render properly on the current mobile app.

It's my #1 complaint, still!

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/26/2024 at 8:47 PM, CaerolleClaudel said:

If you mean the things where the game was run in the cloud and just the graphics were downloaded and inputs shuffled back to the cloud for processing, weren't there are couple, and they both went broke? I considered something like that, and it does seems like something interesting for mobile devices. However, while a lot of us spend a LOT of money in SL, and ofc there are Premium and Premium+ subscribers, my impression has always been that SL users in general do not like spending money, or honestly, just do not have the money to spend.

I have known quite a few people who were shut-ins for various reasons and barely had money to live on, but SL gave them enrichment in their lives. These might be some of the people who have a decent (though not flagship) mobile and no computer, maybe at best a Chromebook. But $10/month might be a cost they cannot justify.

ETA: Also, that model failed before, and I can't think of a good reason it would succeed this time around.

Well, apparently, there is SpeedLight, which I had thought failed, but apparently, they are still around: https://speedlight.io/

I have not tried this at all, and I don't know how well it renders 3D environments, which the mobile app actually does a pretty good job at.

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/27/2024 at 10:32 PM, Kathlen Onyx said:

I haven't read the whole thread and don't even remember if I posted in it however...

I have spent the last five days without internet due to a tornado. I had to use both my IPad and phone and after about 2 hours I was so fed up with it I was about to tear my hair out.  I had already had some mobile games loaded but honestly it was so hard to navigate them I gave up. NO WAY would I use the Mobile app on a phone. Possibly on my IPad but I would only use it if for some reason I couldn't get online. Using it as my only source for SL is out of the question.  Good luck SL cause I think this will be a big fail especially taking the A rated stuff off of it.

Well, I actually have always wanted to be able to visit SL via my iPad while lying on the sofa, as opposed to sitting in front of my home PC. And, since January, the mobile app has allowed me to do that. So I already consider it to be a success, even with all the bugs and limitations. I have been waiting for this for years!

[Vanity Fair]

9 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

Speedlight is an app. I have and use the app in my phone. It also runs in a browser, which I used in my desktop until I got the phone app. Neither the app not the browser needs to be running to keep avatars logged in.

A Gold Speedlight account is a perk of Premium Plus, so it is recommended by LL.

See, how did I not know, as a Premium Plus user, that I had a Gold Speedlight account? I have to try this out for myself, and I would be interested to compare the SpeedLight experience with the current alpha/beta mobile app from SL. I had actually confused SpeedLight with another, similar product that closed up shop because they couldn't make a business of it (since they had to pay for the server space the mobile clients are connected to).

[Vanity Fair]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Maybe you're thinking of an older viewer? Speedlight is fairly new and still supported in general. (I was just challenging Phil earlier on whether it qualifies as an "app" since you can just run it from the browser.)

I stand corrected, thanks Love!

[Love Zhaoying]

13 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

Well, apparently, there is SpeedLight, which I had thought failed, but apparently, they are still around: https://speedlight.io/

I have not tried this at all, and I don't know how well it renders 3D environments, which the mobile app actually does a pretty good job at.

Yup. Where've you been? Lol!

[Vanity Fair]

Okay, I am all caught up. I am thinking about writing up a blogpost with my impressions, based on 5 months of alpha/beta testing, but again, I want some official assurance that I am allowed to write about it (and post pictures), on my blog. Thanks!

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

See, how did I not know, as a Premium Plus user, that I had a Gold Speedlight account?

I suspect that after Speedlight didn't take off much, and LL stopped talking about it (I believe Grumpity was a proponent), it wasn't really announced again so "blink and you miss it".

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Vanity Fair said:

Okay, I am all caught up. I am thinking about writing up a blogpost with my impressions, based on 5 months of alpha/beta testing, but again, I want some official assurance that I am allowed to write about it (and post pictures), on my blog. Thanks!

Good luck! FYI, I never saw any kind of NDA. I've also not got any negative messages from LL / mods about my posts on it.

Did you see the threads in the Mobile subforum? I started a few..

[Istelathis]

17 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

Okay, I am all caught up. I am thinking about writing up a blogpost with my impressions, based on 5 months of alpha/beta testing, but again, I want some official assurance that I am allowed to write about it (and post pictures), on my blog. Thanks!

If possible, and you are willing, I would love to see a side by side comparison of speedlight to SL's mobile app.  Things such as battery use, speed of the app, loading times, movement, ease of use, features and so on.  It has been one thing I have been very curious of lately, but I don't have access to the mobile app.  

[Arielle Popstar]

36 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

My understanding is that LL is working on both Android and iOS mobile apps in parallel.

Ok I thought I had heard somewhere that IOS would be the priority and as far as I know, it is the only version being alpha tested. Can you download and test the Android version or just the IOS through Testflight? 

I would wonder too if the Google version has been developed in parallel that it would now be surging ahead. Google is not as likely to be putting up as many roadblocks as Apple.

[Vanity Fair]

55 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Ok I thought I had heard somewhere that IOS would be the priority and as far as I know, it is the only version being alpha tested. Can you download and test the Android version or just the IOS through Testflight? 

I would wonder too if the Google version has been developed in parallel that it would now be surging ahead. Google is not as likely to be putting up as many roadblocks as Apple.

My understanding (and again, I could be wrong, as I only use iOS devices) is that both Android and iOS test apps are available through TestFlight. And that development work is progressing on both in parallel.