Indigo Mertel

It is obvious that some procedures need to be revised. This and Belleza's claim that the DMCA case filed against them was abused show that the procedures as they are today lead to lots of problems.

Ebbe Altberg just replied to my tweet on this case, saying that as far as he can tell the problem was caused by a mistake. See the Twitter thread here: https://twitter.com/IndigoMertel/status/544164250110132224

Unfortunately the process is a bit convoluted. If the parcel is Linden protected land, you can't buy it. If it's abandoned land (this is usually indicated in the parcel description) you need to claim the land. After you claim it, LL will auction the parcel. You'll have to bid and if you win the auction the parcel is yours. There are different rules when you already own land in the same region. If you own land bordering the parcel on 3 sides or if you own the majority of land in the region, then LL sells the parcel directly after being claimed. To claim the land you need to open a case at this page: https://support.secondlife.com/create-case/ For the "What type of problem are you having?" dropbox select : Land & Region For the "Land & Region" dropbox you could select : Linden Lab owner parcel issue In the textbox specify that you want to buy the parcel, the region name and its coordinates. After submitting the case wait for an answer, which may take several days. Good luck.

Microsoft has announced that it will make Visual Studio, its professional development platform, free for students, startups, open source developers and small companies to get access to it easily with no restriction on the usage, valid for production scenarios and commercial apps, with the only exception of enterprise applications. This move will have interesting implications for Virtual Worlds developers. This is important if Linden Lab will stick with the choice of adopting C# as the scripting language of choice for SL2. And, my guess is that LL will base SL2 rendering on Unity 3D. Visual Studio has a free plugin to develop for Unity 3D. Furthermore, the fact that MS has finally decided to officially port the .NET core to the Linux and Mac worlds is another important change. And now that the OpenSim devs are talking about adopting C# as a scripting language, this move may have an impact on OpenSim as well. If you top all this with the fact that MS also offers a free repository system (TFS) for work groups of up to 5 people since a couple of years and that Visual Studio seamlessly integrates with GitHub as well, this move can put a complete multi-platform professional development system into the hands of a lot of VWs scripters. It's an important change. Check this post for further reading: http://bit.ly/1uoPnXM

Thank you Sara. I was aware of Inara's posts but could not remember where I saw that bit of information before.

A ping to Phoeix gives me 149ms, while asset-cdn.agni.lindenlab.com gives me an average of 20ms. I am located in Milan, Italy. Where do you get the location of the CDN server?

I have created a community for users of the Allegorithmic tools: Substance Designer and Substance Painter. All those who wish to share information on these excellent texturing tools are welcome. The community has categories dedicated to texturing models in specific contexts. At this time we have categories dedicated to Second Life and Unity. More can be added by request. Please join and share. http://bit.ly/1rYE6Yd

This is great! Thanks a lot. I have shared your post with all my social network accounts.

Perchè non apri un account PayPal? E' gratuito. Una volta che hai l'account puoi fare un bonifico direttamente al conto Paypal. In alternativa, puoi andare in un ufficio postale e chiedere una carta ricaricabile PostePay.

Non riesci a fare acquisti di L$? Io ho lo stesso problema. Ho aperto un ticket con LL per chiedere se potevano darmi dettagli sul perchè il pagamento viene rifiutato ma a loro risulta solo che la banca ha rifiutato il pagamento, nonostante la carta sia attiva ed ho credito. Da alcuni mesi le banche hanno introdotto un sistema di doppia verifica per i pagamenti online. Quando viene fatto un acquisto online viene inviato un SMS con un codice che va inserito sul sito. Io ho due carte di credito con due banche diverse ed entrambe hanno introdotto questo sistema. Se non si abilita la doppia verifica gli acquisti online vengono bloccati. Quello che temo è che il sistema di pagamento di Linden Lab non tenga conto di questo cambiamento e non riesca ad addebitare il pagamento. La PostePay richiede la doppia verifica per i pagamenti online? Ce l'ho anch'io ma non la uso mai.

Lindens are tollerant about it but you should take into account that your bridge may be returned at any time. Also, are you sure that you won't block the way to some very tall vehicle? You never know what may run on the SL roads. What if the next Giant Snails race runs on that road? I would go with the zebra crossing suggestion. Or, you could build a swing bridge. That's what we did at the East River Community for one of the rivers that crosses the community.

It doesn't seem to me this is good news. I don't see the advantage of favoring a proprietary format compared to an open format such as Collada, unless I am missing something.

Jewell, if a full ready system is what you need I suggest you check Sasun Steinbeck's kiosk.net. I have used it for years with very good results: http://sasun.info/

... and possibly set at height 0m rather than 20-24m as it is now

Ebbe, can you share something about what graphic engine will LL use for SL2? Are you going to use Unity, by chance? Or, will you develop your own?

@Lyric, it's difficult to tell you what is optimal for models in SL is, as this depends on the model. Optimal is whatever best quality you can get out of a model with the least number of faces. What is important to consider is that models should not tax the system, and in order to determine this models inworld get a measument unit called LI (short for land impact). A LI is determined by several factors. To get an idea of how mesh models work in SL I suggest you take a look at the wiki: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh

Javascript (please note spelling) is one of the most used script languages in web development, LSL is strictly limited to SL. There is no comparison between the two, Javascript is a far richer language than LSL. Also, LSL is strictly coupled with SL features so there is no way to convert an LSL script to Javascript. I don't think there is any other way for you other than learning Javascript. Being such a diffused language, there are lots of tutorials and information on the web, as well as books. Considering all this, I don't see a reason for HiFi to use LSL.As for adopting other languages, to date I am not aware HiFi plans to adopt more, though I really wish they adopted C#. That said, it's probably a little too early to understand what the dynamics between SL and HiFi will be, and if there will be any.

Thanks for the tips on LI reduction, Drongle. I have not worked on the lower LODs models yet. Actually, as I have been experimenting with the result on Aditi I have set the lowest and low LOD to 0 in the uploader. I am not even sure about the medium LOD, as the stairs will be in a room so I don't need it to be visible at a great distance. Previously, the uploader estimate was a 46 LI.

Thanks a lot for the great tips, guys! I think you have nailed the problem and I am going to try what you suggest after this reply. Here are some additional info: Rotation and scale are already applied. I have noticed before how these can cause problems I believe the problem is that the model is made of different objects while the collision shape is a single object. Thanks for pointing this out, I was not aware of it. Chic, the model looks really nice inworld. The wires don't cause problems. LI is 11, a tad high but I may be able to reduce it further. Thanks again, you have been of great help.

I am not sure to understand what I am doing wrong with the collision shape of a mesh model I am making. This image shows the model: And here is the collision shape I made for the stairs: However, when I check the collision shape of the stairs in Aditi this is what I get: Any idea on why the shape is all messed up?

>>> First question: How can I tell before purchase, definitively, if I can terraform a little? In one I'm looking at, in the Place Profile under the For Sale entry it has Terrform Limits: Off. It also has, under Parcel, Build: Off. Surely I should be able to build on it if I buy it, so I'm not sure if what is said in the Place Profile is just what I can do now, as a none-owner of it. So, how do I tell for sure? All I want is to dig a small pond in the corner and move an existing wall and path. <<< I am not sure what you mean with the "for sale entry". Once you own a parcel you can set its properties in the About Land box. In the top bar of your viewer, approximately in the middle, you can see the name of the region, the parcel rating and name. Cick on the writing to open the About Land box, then click on the Options tab. There you set the parcel properties where you can enable or restrict building rights per individual or your group, set terraforming rights, flying rights, etc. >>> Secondly, skyboxes. I've just learned what these are. Can I raise one of my own over my land? I could stick the house up there, and use the 'land' as a garden. (If I could do all that with 128 capacity <<< Yes, you can. I really recommend that you place your skybox at least at 300 meters of altitude to avoid polluting the view. Unfortunately many people don't pay attention to that or simply don't care and skyboxes end up being a source of visual blight on Mainland. Also, take into account that 512 sqm is really small, there isn't much space to build. >>> What is 'Parcel Land Impact' of 19? There was some stuff (the walls below) already on the land that I can get rid of. <<< As you've found yourself, that is the number of prims used on the parcel out of the max capacity the parcel allows. >>> Am I correct that when I buy mainland, off anyone, once it's mine I'm only under LL's general rules and covenents? Or, are there extra rules still imposed by someone else somewhere? <<< That is correct. Technically, on Mainland LL is the only owner of the land, so you are actually leasing the land. But, in practice the difference is blurred and you are the owner, so other than respecting LL's general rules, covenant (usually there isn't any) and land rating you can use the land as you wish. >>> The main parcel that I'm considering appears to have been designed a little already, with a wall running through it and the parcel ends half-way through a wide stone pathway. Nice, but could I move the wall to the edge of my property and basically do anything I want with my bit? the pathway takes a good quarter of the size on one side! <<< You can do anything you want once you own the land. You can also remove the wall, if you wish. Take into account that the owner of the land can sell with or without existing objects. If he/she sells without including existing objects those will be returned to the owner of the objects when you buy the land. Have fun with your parcel... and careful, once you get the land bug it's hard to stop. I ended up buying 5 regions...

Have you tried asking your neighbors if they are interested in buying your land?

Interesting news. I have received Allegorithmic's latest newsletter. Allegorithmic modifies the Substance Painter EULA. From now on it lets users with a non-commercial license to use the program for commercial work for up to US$10000/year This is the text: Substance Painter obviously aims at innovating when it comes to 3D painting. However, our philosophy is also to democratize 3D painting among digital artists and we do not want to exclude independent developers who might not have the budget for a Commercial license. This is why we have modified the EULAs (End User License Agreement) of all our software to reflect the reality of many of our users: you are now officially allowed to use the Non-Commercial license for any commercial work, as long as you don’t generate more than US$ 10,000 in revenue per year. We believe this is a fair limit and a good way to let newcomers and small shops/indies join the revolution. To read the full update, click here. As of now, we will call the Non-Commercial license the “Indie” license and the Commercial license will become the “Pro” license. EULA available here: http://bit.ly/N4rbHf

Steam is just a distribution channel. I am not enthusiast about having to buy the software through Steam but that's the way it is. I hope to have the chance to buy directly through Allegorithmic in the future. Some months ago I also bought the commercial version of Substance Designer at 50% off through Steam. SD is also a very good tool for texturing models and the two programs can work together. The only problem with SD is that it has a steep learning curve. A couple of months ago I suggested to the folks at Allegorithmic to start a wiki the way we have it here in SL. That would help a lot documenting the use of the many filters and features the program has. The staff has showed some interest to my suggestion but it is not a priority at the moment. They probably have a small team. Check the Allegorithmic channel on YouTube for more videos on Substance Designer and Painter.

Pamela, you can export several maps with Painter, as MistahMoose says. Of course, we only need diffuse, normal and specular for SL, while you can add AO and other effects (dirt, grease, weathering, etc.) to the diffuse. When Painter was announced I expected Allegorithmic to set a price in the order of several hundreds US$. The current price is an introductory offer at 50% off to launch the beta, which means that the final price should be US$150. The price is simply amazing for such a sophisticated tool. [EDIT]: I have just read in the Blender Artists forum that with the offer at discounted price available through Steam you'll get a copy of the full non-commercial version. Take a look at these videos to get an idea of what you can do with Painter: Please, remember that the program is in beta and it's quite sophisticated, so there is a lot to learn.