[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

 

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Amanda Linden wrote:

As customers, your satisfaction and input is critical to the success of Second Life. However, we know that it has sometimes been confusing and difficult to communicate with us and we can always do a better job of  listening.

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And yet here we are several months after being told that inworld group chat was going to be fixed 'soon' but with no updates posted on the status of that project.  If we knew more of what was going on then maybe we'd be a little more forgiving about the delays in getting it fixed.  But as it stands you're losing residents to other platforms because of all of the problems that we're not receiving updates about.  It used to be that we'd receive notices on our login screen about inworld items, and we used to get gridwide announcement while logged in to notify us of various things that were going on and were being addressed, but now it's all on the often poorly updated Grid Status page.  I really hope that's not an indication of how you're 'Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community'.

[[TIPS] Get the most out of your input devices!]

Myself I've had some success with using a Playstation2 controller with a USB adapter (I just lack the hand-eye coordination to really make the best use of it though), it's not as nice as the spacenavigator for moving around but the abundance of buttons makes it easy to set up special actions and the dual analog joysticks and directional pad make it fairly easy to use.  By using a program like 'joy2key' (http://electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version.htm a program that allows you to map your joystick so that the controls generate a corresponding keypress in response to button presses or movement) it's easy to setup macros like what Torley mentioned, and best of all these PS2 controllers are really cheap so if you happen to wear it out it's inexpensive to replace.  Of course you can also use similar game controllers from other manufacturers (some of which look identical to a PS2 controller).  Walmart used to sell a game controller adapter for connecting a multitude of different game controllers to a computers USB port, it had support for Playstation controllers, Xbox controllers, Gamecube controllers and the old PC gameport style controllers too if I remember right, I don't know if they still sell it but I'm sure you can find adapters like it online pretty cheap, I bought my Playstation adapter from Radio Shack about 6 years ago for less than $10US (I don't think they sell them anymore though).  Additionally if you want to use an old Xbox controller you can hack the end off the cable and splice on a standard USB plug and with a special driver you can use the Xbox controller with a PC without having to spend money on an adapter, here's an article on making the necessary changes, http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=223, do this at your own risk though as it is possible that if you make the wrong connections you may damage your USB port or your computer, USB is only 5 Volts but that's still enough to fry a chip if it's sent in through the Data lines, most USB ports have a sort of circuit breaker to protect them but not all do.

ETA: @Torley, I don't see the relevance of an article on Lifehacker about Notepad++ macros to SL.  That article is specific to creating macros for Notepad++ and those macros cannot be used outside of Notepad++.  A better site to link to would have been the site for the scripted macro tool 'Autohotkey' (http://www.autohotkey.com/) which can be used to create macros to automate many tasks.  There is even a utility to compile the macros into standalone executables, the link for that utility is on the main Autohotkey website somewhere (can't remember exactly where, sorry).  I was able to use Autohotkey in combination with a simple homemade infrared receiver and the program Winlirc to create a macro to allow me to control Windows Media Player and other programs using a Universal Remote Control (cheaper than buying one of those fancy add on remote kits).

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

Regardless of the reason they are yet another software developer that no longer supports Mac OSX 10.4, so again I say maybe it's time to upgrade.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

Well, considering that even Phoenix has stopped supporting Mac OSX 10.4 it's not really that surprising in my book.  Looks like it's time to upgrade.

[[FIXED] Newer Residents *can* post to the forums and blogs!]

No offense to you Torley, I know you actually do your best to help improve conditions for residents.  But if someone had actually had the presence of mind to actually do some testing BEFORE they implemented the single name and display name features this would have likely been caught BEFORE it became a problem for people.

But as usual the programmers at LL can't actually be bothered to test things before they push them on us.

[Next Steps for Mesh Import]

If you're looking for a program that allows you to 'sculpt' by pushing pulling and such there are several available.

3D Coat (currently on sale for $235US dollars at http://3dcoat.com/)

Autodesk MudBox (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=13565063, $745US)

Zbrush (one of the more popular, http://www.pixologic.com/home.php, $699US)

Sculptris (final beta before the author sold out to Pixelogics (makers of Zbrush) is still available as freeware, links posted in this thread)

Sculptris doesn't support exporting to collada dae format but there are free utilities to convert from .obj to the collada .dae format.  Sculptris also features built in texture painting capabilities that some of the above choices may lack.

Sculptris has just about all of the features you requested, as does 3D Coat and Zbrush, can't say for sure about MudBox though having never used it myself.  One thing to note though, Sculptris is only available for Windows as far as I know.

ETA: forgot to mention that 3D Coat also has built in support for working with Second Life Sculpties!

[Next Steps for Mesh Import]

I probably should have said "FOR" SL not 'IN' SL admittedly, however there are a few inworld sculpty creation tools if you'd bother to look, so yes sculpties are being made inworld (admittedly likely not very many, but it is happening).  I'm sure that eventually we'll probably see inworld tools for mesh creation too, probably starting with utilities to convert prim builds to mesh and eventually tools to actually make meshes from scratch.

[Next Steps for Mesh Import]

You want free and easy to use try any of these:

• Art of Illusion (free and has a built in Ray Tracing renderer for creating more realistic textures/scenes)
• Albatross3D (free and has a built in Ray Tracing renderer for creating more realistic textures/scenes)
• Sculptris (final beta is freeware and not only provides free modelling abilities similar to sculpting with clay, but free texturing capabilities as well that allow you to 'paint' right on your model with user definable brushes and materials as well as the ability to paint using textures)
• Blacksmith 3D (free version is available in the installer package that provides free texturing capabilities similar to those found in Photoshop CS3/CS4/CS5)
• K-3D
• Now3D
• Ayam
• Truespace (at one time ranked right up with 3DS Max and Maya as being one of the best 3D modelling applications available, the final release of Truespace was released as free after Microsoft purchased the company that originally produced it, many people claim that Truespace is very easy to learn to use)
• YASM3D
• Aztec
• Wings3D
• 3D Canvas

 

Several of the above programs are available by searching on the sourceforge.net website, the rest should be easy to find by using a web search engine like Google or Yahoo!.  I'm sure there are many many more free 3D modelling programs available that like the majority of the ones I have listed are easy to learn how to use in comparison to programs like Blender or Maya or 3DS Max or many of the other high end modelling programs.  www.download.com lists almost 200 free programs in their 3D Modelling Software Category many of which I'm sure are also relatively easy to use.

The tools to remain competitive are available for free, one just needs to avail themselves of the oppurtunity.

[Next Steps for Mesh Import]

That's your choice, personally people with attitudes like yours aren't the sort of people I'd want to stay anyway, just my opinion, just like leaving is your choice.

[Next Steps for Mesh Import]

Nobody's removing anyone's freedom to create anything in SL, they are merely getting more options for ways to create things.  JUST like when sculpties were introduced!

I have posted names of several FREE 3D modelling and texturing programs that ANYONE can use to make 3D content, unlike with Sculpties where there is a rather limited number of free options available for Sculpty creation there are a good many free resources available for mesh creation that are easy to learn to use in comparison to 'professional' level programs like Maya and 3DS Max and Zbrush and many others.  You and any other would be mesh creator are equally free to either use them or not.

Nobody said this wouldn't impact the economy of SL, I'm sure the SL economy was similarly impacted when Sculpties were introduced, those that wanted to make it as content creators had to adapt and learn additional/new methods of making their content, the same is true of when mesh is finally taken out of beta, contrary to your statement it IS up to individuals to adapt and learn to deal with these changes, you and those who don't wish to are always free to leave SL nobody's keeping you here anymore than anyone is keeping me here.  Just like those who can't cope with RL you can always withdraw, it may not be the most popular choice but it is one where you don't have to deal with change as much.  And that's the basis of this whole discussion, change, it comes whether we like it or not and we are forced to adapt to it in RL so why should we not do so in SL as well?  Again I put it to you that you (as well as anyone else in SL) are always free to leave and go someplace else if you don't want to accept the coming changes.  Maybe you should follow the Emerald developer team and move to Red Light Center/Utherverse/VWW (or whatever they want to call it since they can't seem to settle on a name on the company websites).  Or if you're that opposed to change why not simply install OpenSim on your own computer and stay there.  Nobody ever said we had to like change but like it or not it is coming and you can either accept it and try to adapt or you can leave, the choice is entirely up to you.

[Next Steps for Mesh Import]

In keeping with your furniture theme, it's really no different than with the advent of powertools to produce furniture, it's up to the individual to keep apace of current trends or to cater to specialty markets, those who cannot adapt are doomed to extinction, the tools to create mesh content in RL have been around for a very long time now, the majority of those individuals who make the top of the line prim products have been doing so using 3D modelling programs for a while now to 'bake' realistic textures on their products, for those individuals mesh will only simplify things, I believe that just like there is still a market for hand made furniture that there will still be a market for prim based content as well (though I'm sure that market will not be as large as it currently is of course).  It's also not much different than what happened when sculpties were first introduced.  Sure some will be affected by it, but in truth it's just like in RL, you need to adapt to changes in order to remain competitive, if you can't do that then you're not going to make it either in SL or in RL.

There is at least one current free program that I can think of that makes it simple for those that are not familiar with the intricacies of 3D modelling to create 3D content in much the same manner as they would model something with clay, the program Sculptris offers that capability (though the creator of Sculptris sold out to Pixelogic maker of Zbrush, one of the beta's of Sculptris is still available as freeware from the original sculptris site), and while it doesn't support exporting to the Colada format there are a number of free easy to use utilities that can convert from .obj formats to the colada .dae format.

The tools to remain competitive are available it's up to the individuals to use them.