[How does your avatar look today ?]

[Senra vs NUX]

Does anyone have any copies of the NUX avatars, or were they limited to a few select folks?

As far as Senra, I've managed to make a zaftig take with Jamie. I chose to replace the head... lelutka Raven to the rescue! For the body shape, I used a custom one based on Raven that I optimized for Erika. 

Senra needs support for heels though... Flats and sneakers are fine but sometimes I want to be spicy lol!

[New Article: "SL's loyal users embrace its decaying software and no-fun imperfections"]

2 minutes ago, Leslie Trihey said:

I see alienating the type of people that get upset by rainbows as a win. 👍

Exactly, none of the agendas people bring into SL (or any other metaverse for that matter) bothers me. It surely tells one something about the person complaining of such things.

IDK... personally, while I consider myself largely a leftist of sorts, it's never stopped me from interacting with people who have different views from myself, especially IRL. I mean, what am I supposed to do, live like a hermit?

Ok, so what was this thread about again? Lol...

[New Article: "SL's loyal users embrace its decaying software and no-fun imperfections"]

4 minutes ago, Sadvhi said:

I don't know about VRChat, but comparing Second Life to Fortnite and Roblox doesn't make any sense

VRC has a more modern feel to it VS SL. Far easier to use, and as I've been told, mindbending sometimes with VR goggles. I can't run goggles with my PC, don't like the headaches due to long periods of use, so the boring old flat screen it is for me. In my experience, a lot of avatars there have the anime influence. I mainly came on board to check out some recreations of SL sites, including the defunct Derpyland and Ahern. I pop in occasionally to explore, haven't bothered to use voice yet. I am a female in VRC... not sure if they want to hear from a 48 year old fella and I am not in the mood to use a voice synth in world... anywhere, really (yet). 

[How did you hear about SL?]

I've read bits of what SL is about since about... 2010 or 2011.

Didn't bother to join as I thought it was some kind of digital cult.

Wrote it off for the longest time... then one day, in April of 2021, during covid-19 and mostly working from home, said to myself "WTF?" and finally decided to take the plunge.  My first avatar was a mature one, Gretchen. I thought she was the most elegant thing, with her updo, green gown and a bit of shyness (I think, based on her AO). I wasn't really bent on being female in world as a RL male, but I quickly realized as in the RW, females have the biggest advantages as far as existence, never mind the pitfalls so much. 

[Avatar on a budget challenge]

On 5/2/2024 at 11:00 AM, Unca Avro said:

Just realized what you were asking. No that is not Jamie. It is Bitsey, the very first free female avatar they show you. Sorry.

If I remember correctly, isn't she the avi that carries a dog in a large purse, sports a large hat with straight brown hair (love that and use that hair/hat combo sometimes) and an iPad tablet?

[Suggestion - Avatar legality checking station.]

36 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

Not having to have every little thing checked and approved is the exact reason I chose Second Life over Sine Space

sine.space? Is that thing still around? It's been three years since I messed with that place. I did try it shortly after I first arrived in SL three years ago. It was well optimized when I sampled, but quite barren, even more so vs SL/OS... I think I have my account written down on a text file...??? Lol (probably in Win11, tried the Linux client but that was badly built).

[Why Second Life is Good, Actually]

Yes, I do enjoy being a cat... not too many like her

 

[Creators who stopped creating:]

On 5/10/2024 at 12:27 PM, Rufferta said:

I found one of his avatars at https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Homeless-Howard-Avatar-created-by-Tooter-Claxton/6345472

 

Haha... that's one of the avatars I messed with when I made my first alt, a younger adult male. Thanks for linking it, added the store to my favorites. I love coming across vintage SL/OS material.

[Something to consider about Second Life beyond people playing around with some garbage behavior.]

On 5/10/2024 at 8:12 PM, Sparkle Bunny said:

I'd like to be a more realistic height in theory, but when I try putting an avatar less than 6ft in a Linden Home it just looks ridiculous. So I adjust my size to fit my surroundings, rather than expecting the surroundings to adapt to me.

Yeah, I get this. I personally don't bother much anymore. I've accepted that my usual choice of smaller heights as an adult will price me out of the larger objects in SL. 

I mean, sure, I could make yet another alt or body shape that is size compliant if I really need to... just choosing not to fight the typical limitations, I get it. *shrug*

 

[How does your avatar look today ?]

[I Believe The Stink Of Adult Activities And Related Social and Political Issues Hold Back Second Life]

4 hours ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

I sooooo want to like a few of the points you made.  They are good ones. Then you lay in with the insults and the good points are buried under the avalanche of negative rock-flipping.

 

I'm OK with some of Zal's takes. I feel like she's channeling some of my favorite classic comedians with strong opinions... George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Judy Tenuta... Yup. I often lose my coffee or beer at times while reading her commentary.

[I Believe The Stink Of Adult Activities And Related Social and Political Issues Hold Back Second Life]

2 hours ago, stlshayne said:

VHS beat Betamax for a reason.

I used to own both formats... the Betamax tapes have vaporized. I still own some VHS machines and tapes. Anyway...

[How Does Your SL Look Today?]

3 hours ago, ValKalAstra said:

Finally gave the Alchemy Viewer a try the other day and haven't looked back. It's perfect for a photo nutjob like me and plays much nicer with my usual shader shenanigans.

I'm happy to see another viewer that rivals Black Dragon lol (sorry, Niran). I rarely run BD under Wine in Linux anymore. 

[Who's using mirrors?]

Here's a test shot from the latest Cool VL Viewer update, in Linux. The textured ground finally shows up in a non LL viewer! I maxed out many of the graphic settings during this run. 

I'm guessing the mirror looks smoother in the LL Materials viewer. Will check that later.

ETA: oops, forgot to drop the preview shot before snapping... but anyway, I'm running a GTX 1050 for the GPU, Intel 8th Gen i7 8750H CPU, 32 GB RAM, Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS.

[How Does Your SL Look Today?]

Not sure if Tia Rungray was performing when I took this test shot with the latest Alchemy viewer beta... at least it looks as if I can let my PC display more than 65 avatars in less complex looking venues.

 

[Who's using mirrors?]

1 hour ago, Qie Niangao said:

Are you trying with the mirror probes, though? At least on my machine, they're pretty much real time with my avatar movement, on those lucky occasions I can find my avatar in the reflection. It's way different and (if you can find the reflection) better than the pre-mirror PBR reflections. But the optics are… idiosyncratic, to say the least, in every contorted configuration I've tried so far.

ETA: Guess I should list hardware config from Help/About:

CPU: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11600K @ 3.90GHz (3911.99 MHz)
Memory: 16236 MB
Concurrency: 12
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit (Build 22631.3527)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060/PCIe/SSE2

OK, guess I'll go back and try again with the LL Materials viewer. And ugh... boot to Win11. (I'm usually in Ubuntu when I spend time in SL.)

[Will The New TOS on Child Avatars Ensnare Short Adults?]

55 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

Me yesterday, standing just over 6 foot tall, in a group of shoppers.

Height, IMO, means absolutely NOTHING in SL. Never has!!!

Oh lawdy... I could be shorter than most of the adults there, especially if I use my Prim head, she's usually hovering at 4.5 feet lol. 

[Who's using mirrors?]

I still find the real time response to reflections to be rather slow. Anyone else experiencing this slowness in much faster PC's? I'm on a laptop from 2018... 8th Gen Intel i7 CPU, 1050 GPU. 

[I Believe The Stink Of Adult Activities And Related Social and Political Issues Hold Back Second Life]

OP, I'm sorry, but you are like the blind leading the blind. Do you even attempt to actively engage outside of your typical SL social circle? Something tells me you don't seem to do that. 

I engage with both older and younger users in SL (when I'm not in Open Sim... which has even more of the content you personally detest, but still...). Most of the people I talk to aren't having sex or BDSM... a lot of them usually spill stuff about their RL lives, or tell me about this thing I should try building, or even *gasp* talk about politics and religion... lots of exciting stuff that has nothing to do with X rated games. 

All of that said, I agree with Rowan. It's hard to see SL without the ability to do adult things. That's something that attracted me to coming in world... I resisted for years because I thought it was nothing but $3x. Boy, was I wrong! That also said, I do wish there were better safeguards in admitting younger users into SL. Some of that has been addressed recently, but there will never be a clear cut answer to this issue, it has to be constantly looked at.

IDK man... maybe just get along with your fellow SLers because there really is very little else like it IMHO on the internet... well, maybe Open Sim, thanks to the code fork that happened in 2008! Yay!

[Example pics Official Viewer vs. Mobile]

Ah, so it looks as if the graphics can be reduced in the mobile viewer? I might be able to run it on my Droid someday...

[Second Life Mobile 2023 - First Look]

No. The mobile app is still in beta for Premium Plus users to mess with.

[Freebies for your Avi]

On 5/7/2024 at 6:22 PM, Eddy Vortex said:

They disabled flying in the sim so getting to the other rooms in the sky is extra challenge. 😆

Soo... got to hop around like QBert then, huh? I'll figure it out.

[Lelutka Announces 4.0 Update]

On 3/28/2024 at 6:34 PM, AmeliaJ08 said:

SLUV is as good as dead anyway so yeah, ditch it properly.

I guess standards are always created by the market, I know some have been semi-worried about the sort of gatekeeping of the 'EvoX' layout due to it being a brand and I think maybe that needs to change. EvoX is just a sort of loose standard layout in the industry anyway.

To this end maybe "EvoX" needs to become "SLUV2" or something similar and it needs to be made very clear to the community that the UV layout is for everyone to use and enjoy without any fear of attracting the wrath of people who think you need permission to use it.

 

I answered the poll when dropping SLUV was a choice the devs wanted to make. Also added that if people wanted to continue using the older skins (I know I will, I find them useful for vintage vibes and such), they should keep copies of heads made before the 4.0 update.

[I wiped my hard disks. Now my pictures look awful! Here's a link to show you what they looked like before. :o]

Photos from Facebook always look slightly pixelated to me. It's because of the heavy compression used to make it easier to transmit photos through the web and phone apps. I'm sure your original shots from Firestorm or whatever viewer look much better.