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

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

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.

TestFlight is only for iOS (I thought so, but just asked Google).  I assume Android has some kind of Beta app system too.

[Arielle Popstar]

26 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

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.

Afaik, Testflight is an IOS app only. There are alternatives for android but I haven't heard any mention of the Android version.

[Vanity Fair]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

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..

I didn't even know there was a Mobile subforum! Going there now...

[CaerolleClaudel]

3 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

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

I hope when the mobile viewer goes live (if?) they will do a better job of explaining how things work than they have in the past, at least IMO.

[CaerolleClaudel]

3 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

(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).

Even if it does work on the iPad Pro, I hope they get it to work on the average class of mobile that people who game might use. Of course, I don’t know what people use to game with, but I am guess desktop-class tablets don’t make up a very large percentage of them.

Edited May 29 by CaerolleClaudel
Corrected to include the word ‘don’t’

[CaerolleClaudel]

3 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

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.

How do you feel about the current Sensa avatars wrt the expectations of the sort of people LL thinks will be attached to SL on mobile?

I keep wondering, do they have a profile of the sort of person they hope to attract? I wonder if they did any focus groups to get info on that rather than just making a guess.

Edited May 29 by CaerolleClaudel
Change ‘Sensation’ back to ‘Sensa’ after *****ing Apple autocorrect changed it to Sensation (and yes, that is the official name of the Apple autocorrect ‘feature’

[CaerolleClaudel]

5 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

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!

So, just for clarification, the mobile app in its current form enables you to do all the things you want to do on mobile? If you don’t mind describing those things, I feel it might give those of us who have never seen the app a better idea of where things stand right now.

Also, I don’t know the generations of the iPad lines, but my guess is that you have the base iPad, and it is a couple gens back? So that would have a processor that might be in the same range as the types of mobiles that most people who game would use, and even less than flagship mobiles from the last couple years?

Thx!

Edited May 29 by CaerolleClaudel
removed 'mobiles from ' for clarity

[Love Zhaoying]

44 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

So, just for clarification, the mobile app in its current form enables you to do all the things you want to do on mobile?

Interesting question. Definitely not for me. I am looking forward to @Vanity Fair's answer.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

2 hours ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

I wonder if they did any focus groups to get info on that rather than just making a guess.

The inner workings of LL's Department of Fail are a closely guarded secret, but leaked information from double agents suggest they DO use a form of "focus group".

It works like this.

Clueless Linden gets up from their desk and walks to the office coffee area, they get a cup of coffee and stand there sipping it, then ask "the question"  of the first 4 other Lindens who show up looking for coffee.. Then they add their own opinion on "the question" and work out the percentages..

 

This was the method used LAST time LL wasted time, effort, and money on an Awful Mac Only Mobile fail viewer, because this method of "focus grouping" said that 60% of all SecondLiifers used Awful Mac whyPhones, despite them never actually asking anyone who uses SecondLife, as a result of 3 out of 5 back office Lindens who only log in once a year for the annual staff group photo, admitting they owned a whyPhone.

 

 

[Phil Deakins]

17 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

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.

You'll find that there is no comparison between them. The mobile app runs SL very much like a viewer does, but Speedlight is very limited in what it can do. It is very useful but not for actually running SL in the normal way.

I find it useful when I am logged in with the phone app and I receive an IM. Even when the app is closed, I still get a message on the phone telling me that I received an IM. It's useful for customer service. I can carry on an IM conversation and, if necessary, I can log in on the desktop to deal with it better.

The main thing about a Speedlight Gold account, which is paid for unless it's the perk of P+, is that avatars stay logged into SL 24/7, regardless of whether or not the app or viewer is running. Without a Gold account, they stay logged in for 6 hours - unless you log them out, of course. In both cases, avatars are logged out when the sim they are in goes down for a refresh or the weekly update. They are not logged back in automatically.

Edited May 30 by Phil Deakins

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/29/2024 at 4:38 PM, Love Zhaoying said:

Interesting question. Definitely not for me. I am looking forward to @Vanity Fair's answer.

I probably should have clarified my comments. Am I pleasantly surprised at what I can already do using the Mobile client on my 8th-generation iPad? Yes. Am I completely satisfied and think this app is ready for broader release? NO. There's still a lot of bugs, and there's still a lot I would want to see working properly.

In my opinion, the three biggest bugs are:

1. the app crashing whenever you teleport into any region with more than 4-5 avatars, regardless of the avatar rendering settings;

2. the lack of dialogue boxes, or any input except for selecting and sitting on an object using the default sit pose/animation; and

3. problems with deformation of certain mesh bodies that still aren't fixed (e.g. Belleza Jake).

Edited May 31 by Vanity Fair

[Vanity Fair]

On 5/29/2024 at 3:54 PM, CaerolleClaudel said:

So, just for clarification, the mobile app in its current form enables you to do all the things you want to do on mobile? If you don’t mind describing those things, I feel it might give those of us who have never seen the app a better idea of where things stand right now.

Also, I don’t know the generations of the iPad lines, but my guess is that you have the base iPad, and it is a couple gens back? So that would have a processor that might be in the same range as the types of mobiles that most people who game would use, and even less than flagship mobiles from the last couple years?

Thx!

The iPad is am currently testing the Mobile app on is an 8th-generation iPad, so mid-range. I do have a request in with LL to get permission to test using a newer iPad Pro 11 which I recently purchased for work use, just to be able to compare with my personal iPad.

And no, while I am pleasantly surprised at what I can already do in the Mobile iOS app, there's still a lot of functionality that I would want to see before a public rollout. I'm just happy that I can consume some SL content and visit some SL regions using my iPad, that's all I meant.

[Love Zhaoying]

 

11 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

I probably should have clarified my comments. Am I pleasantly surprised at what I can already do using the Mobile client on my 8th-generation iPad? Yes. Am I completely satisfied and think this app is ready for broader release? NO. There's still a lot of bugs, and there's still a lot I would want to see working properly.

I would like to emphasize that while I agree with you, I want to see "more functionality" that is completely missing now, before I would want to use it more often. (I listed those in various posts.)

The fact it has music streams and chat is a big plus.  (If I could go to an Adult venue, then I could go to a club now and listen to music, etc.  I'd need to find a "Mature" club currently.)

If I could go to my own Adult home, I would like I did in previous testing. But I can't, so it's less interesting to test overall for me since I have to find places to go, etc.

I see you agreed in this response (vs. just "working properly", which implies existing functionality):

3 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

there's still a lot of functionality that I would want to see before a public rollout

Edited May 31 by Love Zhaoying

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

2. the lack of dialogue boxes, or any input except for selecting and sitting on an object using the default sit pose/animation; and

3. problems with deformation of certain mesh bodies that still aren't fixed (e.g. Belleza Jake).

Agree on #2 (which I listed earlier too).

I didn't notice #3 on my Jake body for some reason, but I'm not too picky probably.

The biggest ongoing pain point for me is no Flexi (hair, clothing, accessories).

[Coffee Pancake]

The fundamentals aren't right yet.

Walking about feels disconnected from the ground, like flying while running.

Once rezzed, your own avatar doesn't stay rezzed between teleports - everything gets binned and the client has to start over.

Constant warnings about memory issues.

Black textures .. because this is preferable to grey, somehow.

Communications feels like an afterthought buried in a burger menu.

It's impractical for actual mobile use, unlike Second Life 2.0 .. aka Discord.

[Vanity Fair]

Okay, I did hear back about whether I can talk about (and post screen captures) from the alpha Mobile testing on my blog. I was told the following:

----

We are glad for your feedback and your interest in discussing the mobile alpha test on your blog -- the best way to check on posting about the mobile app publicly would be to check in with our developer team directly through our feedback portal at https://feedback.secondlife.com/. The mobile app team actively checks and responds to posts on the Feedback forum for Mobile Alpha Testers and this is the best way to reach them.

 

To access the Feedback Portal, please visit https://feedback.secondlife.com/ and use your Second Life username and password to login.  Please note, you will need a verified email address for your Second Life account in order to log in to the feedback portal. If you haven't yet verified your email at SecondLife.com, please visit our Knowledge base article for instructions: Verifying your email address

 

---

So, basically, I have to ask the developers themselves if I can write about it on my blog, and post screen captures, etc. So I will do so, using the process above, and I will let you know what they say.

 

Also, I finally got permission to run the Mobile iOS app on my work iPad Pro 11, and wow, just WOW! There's a marked improvement in performance. I can now visit music clubs, and I can load up to 25 other avatars around me without the app crashing (I did set the memory limit up to 90%). I did find that if I set the number of other avatars rendered to more than 25, and if I was in a place with 75 avatars (e.g. FogBound Blues on a busy night), I tended to crash, but even then, it wasn't an instant crash like before on my 8th-gen iPad, it usually ran for a few minutes on my iPad Pro 11 before crashing. So, overall, I can now visit smaller, less crowded music venues in SL on General or Moderate land without problem, so yay!

 

But yeah, anything with flexiprims looks dreadful (it would be better just not to rez them at all), and for some strange reason, my Belleza Jake mesh body looks like the first picture below in the Mobile app, regardless of the type of iPad (the second picture was taken on the same day, within a few minutes of the first, on Firestorm on my Windows PC to give you an idea of how he's supposed to look in comparison):

 

[Arielle Popstar]

26 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

Okay, I did hear back about whether I can talk about (and post screen captures) from the alpha Mobile testing on my blog. I was told the following:

----

Can you ask how far along the Android version is?

[CaerolleClaudel]

37 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

Also, I finally got permission to run the Mobile iOS app on my work iPad Pro 11, and wow, just WOW! There's a marked improvement in performance. I can now visit music clubs, and I can load up to 25 other avatars around me without the app crashing (I did set the memory limit up to 90%). I did find that if I set the number of other avatars rendered to more than 25, and if I was in a place with 75 avatars (e.g. FogBound Blues on a busy night), I tended to crash, but even then, it wasn't an instant crash like before on my 8th-gen iPad, it usually ran for a few minutes on my iPad Pro 11 before crashing. So, overall, I can now visit smaller, less crowded music venues in SL on General or Moderate land without problem, so yay!

 

But yeah, anything with flexiprims looks dreadful (it would be better just not to rez them at all), and for some strange reason, my Belleza Jake mesh body looks like the first picture below in the Mobile app, regardless of the type of iPad (the second picture was taken on the same day, within a few minutes of the first, on Firestorm on my Windows PC to give you an idea of how he's supposed to look in comparison):

 

 

Thx for all your effort and for reporting back!

So, is this the new M4 Pro, or the older one? I can’t recall what that one had, maybe an M2? Also unsure on RAM…

My point is the same as before, the Pro iPads, esp the new ones, are laptop class devices (even though the OS is still crippled vs MacOS). How many people do gaming on such devices? I can almost see those people as being more likely to use SL than people gaming on their mobiles, but I have no idea. For sure people are not walking about with something as powerful as an iPad Pro in their pockets, and I for  sure cannot see people buying an iPad Pro just so they can play SL unless they are already heavily engaged in SL.

Thoughts?

[Love Zhaoying]

On 5/31/2024 at 9:58 PM, Vanity Fair said:

Okay, I did hear back about whether I can talk about (and post screen captures) from the alpha Mobile testing on my blog. I was told the following:

----

We are glad for your feedback and your interest in discussing the mobile alpha test on your blog -- the best way to check on posting about the mobile app publicly would be to check in with our developer team directly through our feedback portal at https://feedback.secondlife.com/. The mobile app team actively checks and responds to posts on the Feedback forum for Mobile Alpha Testers and this is the best way to reach them.

 

To access the Feedback Portal, please visit https://feedback.secondlife.com/ and use your Second Life username and password to login.  Please note, you will need a verified email address for your Second Life account in order to log in to the feedback portal. If you haven't yet verified your email at SecondLife.com, please visit our Knowledge base article for instructions: Verifying your email address

Just out of curiosity - as a fellow tester of the Mobile app, did you actually log any feedback about issues you saw in testing? And if so, did you see evidence that your feedback was "seen" and may be "acted on"?

For my part - yes, and I was surprisingly please. EXCEPT one case, where I was told to file a specific bug from the Mobile app directly instead of Canny feedback, and when I did, I was later asked for an update on my feedback. 

What I learned is, there's actually no connection between the feedback you submit, and individual bug reports. There's no "bug report number" generated when you submit a bug report via the app, that you can later reference in your feedback.   All you can do is mention in your feedback, "I submitted a bug report..".

 

 

 

 

[Vanity Fair]

Okay, I have been playing around with both my 8th-generation (mid range) iPad and my new iPad Pro 11 and I can tell you that performance is much improved on the latter.

However, once I get beyond 15-20 avatars in one space, the app still tends to crash, even on the iPad Pro 11. Since one of the things I most hope to be able to do is listen to certain popular club's music streams, this was a problem, but I have discovered a sort of workaround.

If I want to listen to a club like LOVE, which is situated on Adult-rated land and I can no longer visit in the Mobile app, I have been able to set up the same music stream from LOVE's parcel details as the music steam in Vanity Fair's (Moderate-rated) Linden home, and visit that! Works very well.

In other cases, for example with FogBound Blues, I just saved a location somewhere further away from the main club itself, but still able to listen to their music stream without trying to render all the avatars and then crashing! It's just a matter of picking a spot where you can still hear the music stream, but not too close to the other avatars. So, if I just want to listen to the Blues, but not really socialize, I can still do it!

However, some spots (e.g. Warehouse 21, Exhale Dance Club) have central spawn points where you teleport in surrounded by a crowd, and pretty much are guaranteed to crash within a minute.

I have also been testing various mesh avatar bodies, and while Maitreya Lara/Lucybody Atenea works well, and so do Senra Jamie and Senra Blake, the Belleza Jake mesh body still does not display correctly in the Mobile app! I have submitted bug reports.

Edited June 5 by Vanity Fair

[Jaylinbridges]

No surprise the mobile viewer will not benefit any clubs or inworld events.  I can't think of anything the mobile will benefit in SL.  It's just LL's hope that they will get new residents from the LL mobile viewer who will then spend dollars for an SL account.  Those new accounts won't last long unless they also use a desktop system, so they can actually do something in SL besides look at scenery,  or stay away from other residents.  The OP wanted to know how this would benefit anyone else in SL, other than the mobile phone users.

Edited June 5 by Jaylinbridges

[Coffee Pancake]

17 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

The OP wanted to know how this would benefit anyone else in SL, other than the mobile phone users.

Don't think it will "benefit mobile phone" users to be honest.

I keep trying it actually mobile and .. well .. it's a broadly broken experience.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Don't think it will "benefit mobile phone" users to be honest.

I keep trying it actually mobile and .. well .. it's a broadly broken experience.

I'm glad you're actually trying it, not just complaining without having tried it (like most people)! 

[Love Zhaoying]

5 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

Okay, I have been playing around with both my 8th-generation (mid range) iPad and my new iPad Pro 11 and I can tell you that performance is much improved on the latter.

However, once I get beyond 15-20 avatars in one space, the app still tends to crash, even on the iPad Pro 11. Since one of the things I most hope to be able to do is listen to certain popular club's music streams, this was a problem, but I have discovered a sort of workaround.

If I want to listen to a club like LOVE, which is situated on Adult-rated land and I can no longer visit in the Mobile app, I have been able to set up the same music stream from LOVE's parcel details as the music steam in Vanity Fair's (Moderate-rated) Linden home, and visit that! Works very well.

In other cases, for example with FogBound Blues, I just saved a location somewhere further away from the main club itself, but still able to listen to their music stream without trying to render all the avatars and then crashing! It's just a matter of picking a spot where you can still hear the music stream, but not too close to the other avatars. So, if I just want to listen to the Blues, but not really socialize, I can still do it!

However, some spots (e.g. Warehouse 21, Exhale Dance Club) have central spawn points where you teleport in surrounded by a crowd, and pretty much are guaranteed to crash within a minute.

I have also been testing various mesh avatar bodies, and while Maitreya Lara/Lucybody Atenea works well, and so do Senra Jamie and Senra Blake, the Belleza Jake mesh body still does not display correctly in the Mobile app! I have submitted bug reports.

I thought Mobile has a debug setting (everything is a debug setting) for Max# avatars. Did you try that and still crash?

[Flea Yatsenko]

10 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

Okay, I have been playing around with both my 8th-generation (mid range) iPad and my new iPad Pro 11 and I can tell you that performance is much improved on the latter.

However, once I get beyond 15-20 avatars in one space, the app still tends to crash, even on the iPad Pro 11. Since one of the things I most hope to be able to do is listen to certain popular club's music streams, this was a problem, but I have discovered a sort of workaround.

If I want to listen to a club like LOVE, which is situated on Adult-rated land and I can no longer visit in the Mobile app, I have been able to set up the same music stream from LOVE's parcel details as the music steam in Vanity Fair's (Moderate-rated) Linden home, and visit that! Works very well.

In other cases, for example with FogBound Blues, I just saved a location somewhere further away from the main club itself, but still able to listen to their music stream without trying to render all the avatars and then crashing! It's just a matter of picking a spot where you can still hear the music stream, but not too close to the other avatars. So, if I just want to listen to the Blues, but not really socialize, I can still do it!

However, some spots (e.g. Warehouse 21, Exhale Dance Club) have central spawn points where you teleport in surrounded by a crowd, and pretty much are guaranteed to crash within a minute.

I have also been testing various mesh avatar bodies, and while Maitreya Lara/Lucybody Atenea works well, and so do Senra Jamie and Senra Blake, the Belleza Jake mesh body still does not display correctly in the Mobile app! I have submitted bug reports.

I wouldn't get too discouraged. It's still an alpha. I feel like it's at the point of development where they just get stuff working, not optimized, complete, etc. They call it an alpha but it's really just something that's not nearly complete they are letting people test, probably because they don't have enough internal testers. Limiting to Premium+ was probably their way of making sure it doesn't get in the hands of too many people because it's got a long way to go. And even when it releases, it's still going to have a long way to go.