Mr Amore

The *decade* of Linux gaming is here. I no longer game, so it's not going to change much for me. And I haven't had much success with Proton in the past, so I'm skeptical about their 100% compatibility claims. But Valve's devices will bring Linux a step closer to mass market appeal.

Gabe is the best thing to happen to Linux, since Linus himself. The 2020s will be good for Valve, and Linux too courtesy of the Arch-based SteamOS. The Steam Deck, the VR headset codenamed Deckard and the rumored Steam Console(this time built by Valve). All running on SteamOS. Linux gamers make up around 5% of the marketshare now, once millions of these units are in the wild, it'll boost that figure to the point Linux gaming will need to be taken seriously. Epic and Battleeye have already acknowledged this by releasing their anticheat software for Linux. A real win would be a Linux release of the Epic client and GOG(which has supposedly been under development for a decade). Valve really pushed Linux gaming forwards during the 2010s until it seemed they had abandoned SteamOS, but it's back with a vengeance and the 2020s will bring Linux gaming closer to parity with Windows.

This pixel art and the soundtrack go so well together. The gameplay hasn't fared so well, they should have stuck to making a feature length pixel art movie with that crazy concept.

Incredible to see wildfire smoke spreading across states.

Succession is finally returning this month. For whoever hasn't watched it, feel ashamed, then watch seasons 1 and 2.

For those who've been following the 'Facebook is bad for girls' revelations, the actual whistleblower will attend a hearing tomorrow. Far be it for me to defend Facebook, but people have always had insecurities. Before social media, we were blaming a rise in anorexia and bulimia on teenage magazines and fashion models. Decades later it's still the same issue with the blame thrown onto a topical target. Will pointing fingers at Facebook help the children? I doubt it. Is there a responsibility on media giants to engineer public opinion? It already happens, but for their own ends.

If I was banning things from SL to protect the younger residents, smoking wouldn't even reach my top 20 activities of concern.

Gamesfromscratch has been covering the USD format: Activision's USD project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZCT6y2iXc NVIDIA Omniverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCBCqrxeikY AMD's Hydra for Blender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJkapaKuKv0

Yeah, nothing at all of substance today. Thankfully their presentation is watchable at 2x speed. The first half is just a rehash of the metaverse concept, anything of note begins at 34 minutes in. Aside from the politics and regulation, the only real takeaway is the idea of multi-metaverses where users can carry their avatar and clothing(and presumably inventories) across metaverses. Pixar's USD has been adopted all over this year, it's basically a format for sharing scenes(and live collaboration) between modelling software, game engines and anything. It's possible we'll see the USD format or similar in metaverses as a way of distributing builds(i.e. a scene of many objects, modeled in Blender, by a team, can be uploaded directly. In the game, everything is scaled and positioned identically.). A similar, universally agreed system could applied to avatars and their inventories too. And on another note, Zuckerberg once tried to push the two-tier Internet. With the 'scum' slumming it on the slower, congested lines. And the privileged paying for premium access to the Internet. It's probable Facebook's metaverse will be tiered too, with the free users being farmed for their data, and the paid tiers enjoying enhanced levels of privacy. Hence, digital class systems of the future.

The 'metaverse' is becoming more political than technical. The full article is here. The digital class system will be determined by which metaverses you have access too.

Been watching Squid Game, a similar theme to Alice in Borderland(Japan), they both have their brutal moments. Korea's been on a roll, with Sweet Home and Kingdom are all worth watching.

It's not unusual for today's AAA games to spend the first two years after release fixing bugs and broken content. It's expected now. Some studios will 'infamously' spend 6-8 years fixing their game. Second Life is nearing its 20th anniversary and the roadmap ahead appears to be another 2 years of bug fixing. In doing so they're deferring new content to 2024 and beyond. Also it was said in that meeting, and other places in these forums, but I don't agree with the statement that residents are resilient to change. Practically everyone has been updating their mesh body, head and skins every 2-3 years. Because SL residents are agreeable to change. YES. There is that hardcore of avatars from 2004 still attending meetings and shouting Residents are Resilient to change. That's them. And them alone. The future roadmap should be focused on drastic updates and if it breaks old content, that's okay. My inventory is a museum of obsolete content I'll never rez again. Going forwards SL needs: An updated default body and head, open sourced so everyone can create for it. No onion layers, no alpha cuts, new UV map, support for specular/normals with BoM. Support for IK animations, mesh clothes layering system, and everything needed for an updated avatar. Yes, it will break existing content. But opening the system to new creators will expand the marketplace too. Introduce Sansar style Experiences into SL. Dynamically hosted regions which are only active whilst in use, with larger footprints than 256x256, add options for instancing when crowded. SL's default asset library is 20 years old. Create a new asset pack for residents and the ability to construct and share scenes, as is happening with those other virtual worlds. New methods of distributing and rezzing content, without the artist/creator transferring ownership of the prims to the consumer. Improve the client performance, it's a relic conceived in the 1990's. A complete overhaul is in order to make it functional with mobile devices and the upcoming Steam Deck/consoles too. If SL wants to stay relevant, it needs to modernize. No amount of bug fixing and thumb twiddling over ancient issues will take this platform forwards.

For automatic operation the portal could be set on a timer. Once you know the length of day, and night, the timer's duration can alternate between the two and set the portal as required. As for the listening script, the listen event can use the 'id' with llGetObjectDetails and any number of parameters to verify the source of the message. I feel it's overkill, unless there are persistent issues with players, filtering your llListen with the mob's name should be enough and is easier on the sim too: llListen( integer channel, "mob name", key id, string msg );

This soundtrack from The World To Come, went well with the visuals.

Profiles are like politicians, they're full of 💩! But surprisingly it works, we live in an era where outspoken hardmen are elected as presidents (I love the movie Idiocracy for predicting this back in 2006). The profile trends I liked from roleplaying sims: 'RP Limits : NO GAY SEX' - This was often in capitals to convey the author was really, really struggling to stay in the closet. 'I'm a dominant man...' - Transparent as it appears, these corny lines actually work. 'I'm an evil bastard...' - Without fail, you will find these characters always cuddling the cutest, pink anime looking avatars on the sim.

Add another upcoming 'Multiverse', but this one has some pedigree behind it The generation who played UO and SWG are all 30+ now so maybe this platform will attract more adults. The 'metaverse' is a loose term right now, so far it sounds like another Roblox/Core Games, but hopefully aimed at a mature audience. https://www.playableworlds.com/news/riffs-by-raph:-revealing-our-technology/

Back when I timed the response from a database at the same AWS location, it was within 0.2ms. The improvements I'd like to see for the Experience store: Accessible anywhere Increased KvP limit from 4k Option to store data as a list type, and to act upon it directly with llList style functions The SL Experience, KvP store and implementation of JSON are popular hate topics, I'm in the few who appreciates them. But the data limits are crippling, in scripts and in KvP transactions too. A few years back, I did an urban sim's communication system where characters could leave messages for one another. Characters also had a criminal record(viewable by law enforcement), and medical records(viewable by clinic staff). Then to communicate, there was a character directory to find the individual you wanted to message. I spent more time scrapping, redesigning and refining the data structure than actually coding, with every KvP byte accounted for. In this instance, the script created multiple KvPs for every character joining the sim. Using the Experience store could be so much simpler if we could search, or extract xx elements at a time, or just use the store as a 128MB extension of the LSL list.

Another method is to expand on the game currency with additional units. e.g. a 'Planetary Bond' worth 1B credits. It could even be an inventory item, to be cashed in/out from designated terminals. And that simplifies the whole process of displaying a balance on the HUD. The real trouble with ingame currencies is there are many avenues for earning, but few for spending. It leads to players amassing vast fortunes and the inevitable inflation. Whatever you're building, factor in routine expenses for the player too.

That's my excuse ;)

From what I've noticed, sending a Friend Request to an offline avatar will reach them, but when they login and accept it will fail. Both sender and receiver need to be online for it to stick.

There's more to do than AFK'ing in my skybox? Thanks for posting those lists, clearly I need to get out more.

How to meet the untapped potential of virtual learning? It's generally falling to the familiar forms of teaching as you've described, over the past years I've been to many conferences and SL classes(Blender). The attendance ranges from 20 - 50 avatars. Interestingly, women are the overwhelming majority, I've been to classes with just a couple of men and 20+ women. Is the classic structure still working in virtual worlds? Anyone can take a look around Blender Bender's exhibition area and see the mesh items and images of students' creations. These are people who probably never would have taken up Blender, who have now learned to create, texture and upload their mesh to SL. It's difficult to see how Blender could be taught in any other way in SL. But other subjects could benefit hugely from interactive experiences. Imagine being taught the medieval period at school, through a survival-style crafting game, with new chapters every week unlocking other facets of medieval life. After having immersed your students into the experience, they can write an essay. It's exposing the class to similar levels of content as a lecture, but I'm certain they'll retain more of the information. Then mathematics could be taught like this too, but in a 3D environment (It's a great channel for gaming maths):

@katiapfurtscheller Everyone takes a break from SL, when you've reached that point just do it. It's causing you more stress than it's worth, so uninstall the game and spend that time on positive activities in your life. When you're feeling someone on your sim hasn't worked hard enough, then it's time to pull back. This isn't paid employment, we cannot expect anyone to commit hours of their day virtually working without compensation. People login to roleplaying sims for socializing and entertainment, the whole employment aspect is there to facilitate the former and not to become its focus. Those who take on IC roles burn out very, very quickly when it becomes all work, and no play. I know several who've been there, myself included. So take a break from SL/roleplaying, eventually you will return with a fresher perspective. With less expectations from roleplaying sims.

I was watching this to explain today's SL outage.

I completely missed this. Somehow. From the opening scene it's off to a promising start.