Sean Martin

Thanks. Whoever fixed it.

I've tried to reboot my modem, router, uninstalled all viewers, manually deleted appdata files, and still I get stuck in the air when I log into SL. Others around me move just fine. I CAN tp. I CAN interact with objects. I can even rez objects and change my outfit. This has happened years ago to my account and it required weeks of waiting for a linden to manually reset something. Is this how premium members get treated still after coming back?

Thanks. Yes I tried uploading a simple mesh. My colliding box I use for physics. It still wouldn't work and crashed to the desktop. I now have Firestorm for the first time ever. Something I never thought I would do because LL could just point to them for any account issues down the road. Anyway the mesh I wanted to upload works just fine now in Firestorm. I might want to add that maybe my method was the cause. Unless others have done this too with no problems... I basically took LOD from lowest and placed it in medium. I set lowest to 0 and added higher detail in medium to get a better 'average view' result with lower land cost. It didn't look that great from a few meters away after uploading the first time. So I wanted to redo it with more standard settings. Only I couldn't anymore. Nor any other mesh. So if that is the cause, is there any way to reset the upload settings? I didn't think it even saved them. I even reinstalled the viewer to try and reset it and it still failed. Anyhow I got it working for now in Firestorm. I would rather use default just to check them though.

Does anyone know why I was able to upload mesh perfectly for a day, then for no apparent reason I can't upload anything at all without crashing the client? I've done the usual, clear cache, checked models for too many materials, etc. The fact is I can't upload anything, even old versions that would upload just fine a few hours ago. From what I gather in other posts on this topic, there really isn't any solution since nobody has an answer. Is that correct? I'm starting to remember why I left SL in the first place. Hours of BS for a few minutes of progress. I may actually break a big rule of mine with never using a 3rd party viewer. But I'm guessing they all do the same given the topics I've seen about it.

Sacrifice noobs to the Linden gods. I think really it comes down to community rules and standards. We would require avatar ARC to be below a certain amount for events. Audience members would have to conform to it as well. Some don't like it, but those are people who don't understand how things work in SL anyway. Especially when dealing with physics. In addition, when lag spikes hit, we just called it wind. Sometimes wind just blows people off the sim for no apparent reason too. :matte-motes-smug: It's all part of the game.

Ah I see. So it's the curse of recreation and the market is flooded already. I suppose it works with unique items but then you lose the classic collectors appeal. Since nobody relates to a unique product outside of SL. And they don't come into SL thinking about it. So yeah, it would be more about the organization itself. And making a standard that way.

I'm not someone who makes RPG's in SL or anything. I just don't have the time or resources. But if I did, one tiny side reward would be to have each players kills on a certain type of NPC counted in a database. Then when they reach say.. 100 kills. They get a mini version of that NPC to show off as a pet. Typical MMO stuff but tied into rewards. And gives them a social aspect to it. Much like the 7 seas as mentioned. My point being, that requires some land to fight the NPC on. Obviously. But people need a reason to do so. Other than stats.

That can be done. But I think to make it more stable, there needs to be a standard developed by one person or brand like mentioned above. But also provide a kit for arena's, tracks, for people to setup their own events and races. This allows the community to set things up as they see fit. It gives them some control. And also provide an affiliate vendor for all of them to display related products, airplanes, or other tools. But that should be obvious. Then organize the best of those tracks into one tour or committee. The tour would showcase each track by having events over time, going from one track to the other. That just adds to variety. You could still have a main center race track of course. But without other tracks it becomes pointless. Nobody wants to fly at one place all the time, it gets old. Not to mention only so many users can fit in one sim at any given time. SLTV basically does this with our Simball kit for the Japan community. And CSR did something similar for a year. VSN before that with classic simboarding. Which you can still find on Treet.TV under VSN Simboarding. So it definitely can work.

That is actually the only solution that I have seen work. For a time there we're 2 sims for boarding. One for pro's, the other for amateur events. But the cost just wasn't viable at the time. And there is a big gap between products supporting a sim, let alone 2 sims. Unless your at the point where other products support secondary products, and so on.

I personally never use 3rd party viewers for security reasons. After the Cryo and Emerald mess. No thanks. From a developers standpoint, I thought the whole open source idea was a mistake from the beginning. Anyone with half a wit could see it would cause the exact issues we all see now. Viewer based copy bots, easy GPU extracting and theft, inworld content conflicts where different people see different things. It's a developers nightmare. I know theft would exist either way, but when more than 50% of the user base can press a button in a TPV to copy something? Then why would any developer dedicate time to creating quality content? It's a simple cause and effect and the community suffers for it. As a developer myself, one of the only reasons I'm still in SL after 6 years has been scripting. And the potential for games that make use of external php/database for gaming still holds some value. Not to mention the new gaming options that LL is working on. But even that has it's threats. So I can't say I'm a fan of TPV's. Again it would all exist anyhow, but I don't believe it would be to a crippling extent. At least now it's not as bad as it once was. I should say I do respect those that make quality viewers. And I know a few that work with those teams. I'm just an old SL fart that likes to rant about old topics maybe. :matte-motes-smug:

This is something we had to deal with in the Simboarding community. By it's nature, learning to simboard is like learning to skateboard in real life. You can't just jump on and do 720's all day long. You have to learn when to time your jump, spin, etc. When VSN was placed on the destination guide (years ago, it no longer exists), we had the same problem. New users thinking a product is 'broken' because it won't do the job for them. Yet it only took one person to ride around showing others how to use it, then all of a sudden it made sense to them. They could see value in learning to ride it after they realized they can do their own tricks and styles with it. Which happens to be one of the draws to real life skateboarding, snowboarding, etc. So it only worked when others we're around to help. And tutorials, signs, or intro's had minimal impact. New people would never think of reading such things. They mostly want to jump on, press a button, and have the game do things for them. So targeting the market is definitely an issue, and having the right introduction process in place. So as great as it is, the destination guide isn't always the best option for developers. Unless there is some way to introduce new SL users to both the product, and second life, at the same time. So even basic SL tutorials are needed at times on top of your products tutorials. It gets to be a bit much and just doesn't work well. In the end it actually hurt the sport somewhat. Too many new people who don't understand common SL actions, and limited sim space for avatars. That made no room for those who we're part of the community and actually knew how to use the product and wanted to enjoy the sport / game. And when they felt pushed out. There we're less around to show others. It creates a cycle. This is still an issue even now.

I'd have to say poker is still one of my favorit SL games. Sure I could play it outside of SL. But what fun is that? Plus you can use L$.. I mean.. fake payed for chips. :matte-motes-zipped: Or just play with a buyin option. A fee to play the game that just happens to go to the last standing. I still don't see that as gambling personally. Not sure if LL really see's it as such either. Never bothered to check.

I think for Second Life, it's more about social interactions with others while you play a game. At least from my perspective. If we wanted to race, there are far better racing games outside of SL. The same for playing first person shooters, sports, etc. With the exception of having a game that is unique to Second Life only. Even then, that, plus social interactions with friends is typically the main attraction. Even HUD based games are often linked with others. Like Tiny Empires. Games in general are about social interaction. And Second Life obviously provides the social aspect for developers to tap into. In that sense, Second Life doesn't become a game in itself. It's the platform in which we all play other games together. To me, SL games are not unlike Facebook games in that way. But even more interactive.

How is the f2p supported in your case? Is it f2p but actually micro-payment? Or just free, and supported on the creators side, out of pocket like a hobby?

There was one game developed in second life that made it to the Nintendo DS. I believe it was called Slingo, or Zingo? One of those 'ingo' games. That was years ago though. I want to say around 2005.

I suppose I use a type of micro-payment method simply because it's the only accepted method in SL at the moment. However there are other methods like donations. Or a mix of several methods put into one when done correctly. For example we sell various models of a product that can be used in a game. Each model with a different effect, and in this way it's more of a choice of what the player wants to be. Rather than a benefit to make you better than others. That helps pull the game out of the 'scam' stigma. And more into simply providing players more choices. And of course always provide a free version that IS less effective in the game. Because that is more of an intro to the game, and not micro-payment tier system. Also mixing other methods like donations with micro-payments. We don't take donations directly, but some parts of the community have donation pads that we do provide with the kit. And these pads count towards a prize for whoever wins the game at their arena. Basically it's another tool to allow the community to support itself, rather than the creator support it, which ends up being pointless if nobody plays for awhile. So in my opinion, partly mixing donations in that way allows the community to build up excitement for their own tournament based on the amount they donate. Making it more community oriented, rather than one business trying to 'scam' people out of money. That in turn benefits the creator as it allows the game to support itself. And more people play. So each method can work if used correctly. But within Second Life, I personally have only found that self supported games, with a side micro-payment system, to be viable. I would be interested in seeing what others have used however.

That is true. It does take some land to setup an arena. One marketing aspect behind Simball is an event based attraction for tournaments, or simply being a hangout where friends run quick games. It is made more as a community tool. Sort of an alternative to placing a club out. There have been some that run events really well over the past year. In addition there is a network that will soon be automated. Sometimes a single location doesn't cut it. A sim can only hold x amount of people after all. So with community based sports, it only seems logical to allow others to setup their own arena's. And attempt to network them in some way. A single group for all of them. Or global feed showing the last game and what arena it was in. Which is what simball uses. So when developing a game I would suggest keeping it social, but not central.

There are a lot of sport games in Second Life. What are some of yours? Or which ones have you enjoyed playing? I've posted one about Simball previously but it may not have been set in the right context. So I'll start things in this category and post about Simball. Since it's what I know. This video explains it: The game is available at Vetox HQ One of the top arena's has been in the Japan community: SIA

There is Simball. A high speed community / event / sport game using one of our other products called a Simboard. And a Simboard is our idea of a mixed, futurist, boarding sport device. A highly adaptable hoverboard, snowboard, skateboard, and skyboard, mixed with a few... other things. But the sport of Simball itself is a high contact, sci-fi version of simplified hockey or football. Players ride various Simboards that contain weapons or special powers designed specificity for the game. 3 Players per team. And a major part of the sport is choosing which boards to mix on a team. A team can develop play strategy in that way. Simball was first designed for Treet.TV after the previous Simboarding sport (Halfpipe Simboarding) had it's run. It has instead become a community supported sport. Meaning anyone with land can get an arena kit and build their own stadium any way they see fit. Then allow others to run games on it which post to the global feed. To explain it in more detail, this video was made awhile ago at previous CSR arena that wasused for MetaMixTV: Also our main channel for Vetox where you'll find related content: http://www.youtube.com/user/VetoxSL And our website: www.Vetox.biz

They claim the network issues have been resolved: http://status.secondlifegrid.net/2011/07/31/post1357/ Yet I still can not log in after waiting 12 hours. I guess this will be yet another test to see how quickly premium accounts get support tickets answered. :edit: Tried all the resets, cache clearing, IP change request, rain dancing, hommage to the Linden gods, etc.

1 Reality Check: Don't quit your day job. Look at SL income as an additional bonus to your RL income. If one day it overtakes your RL income, great. But if LL goes away, then what. 2 Explore: Start off by making your SL business a hobby. (As in, the business itself IS your hobby. Not making a hobby into a business.) So just like you would in any other hobby, you spend a little money on it. So spend a little in exploring what you want to do, and learn what you need to develop in that area. For uploads, maybe personal land to work in so you know how rent and land ownership works. It depends on what your going into but the point is to explore the field your interested in making a business. 3 Grow: Build on what you learned. Create better products, or services, over time. If you develop and sell virtual products, then you'll have an inventory that grows as you create more products, which usually continue to sell themselves. Don't expect a lot of sales at the start. In fact give away your first products at related events or to friends. Take feedback as a whole, don't dwell on what one person says. Learn from the feedback and use it in updates and in later products. 4 Marketing: Develop into a brand. As you build products or create services, you'll want an identity for them. A simple logo or name that fits your products in some way. Also make it as easy as you can for people to find them. But don't spam everyone with your shop landmark. Keep it within your products. And only use advertisments when it targets a market for your particular product or service. For example, if you make sci-fi items, then a community around mid-evil fantasy wouldn't want to see it.

Yeah I remember those, which is why I was wondering. And I only meant the notice as a warning something is wrong after it went down. Since usualy those left online are still attempting to do this or that. In any case, at least their working on it.

The texture has an alpha channel. And this channel interacts differently with glow, full bright, and having the gpu get confused over which alpha is actually in front of the other. This is a common graphic issue in SL and other platforms. Some games have this same issue as well. The trick in developing with alpha is to know where to use it, and when not to. Typically using alpha image in front of a solid background will work. So for example, to create a wall with one part shiny and another part with a normal matted look. You will have a background prim that has shine on. And your alpha image just above it. However if you turn on glow, it will show past the matted part making an odd appearance. Useful for some looks but not others. But the point is the solid shiny under-layer prim will block other alpha images behind it. Making your wall appear normal at the cost of 2 prims. 

Yeah, actually I thought it was an update schedualed for today. Apparently it's just another breakdown.

Ah so that's what it is. Still.. grid notice would be helpful. Unless that broke too. lol Ah well.