Jump to content

Torley Linden

Lindens
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,510

  • Joined

 Content Type 

Blog Comments posted by Torley Linden

    Delby Linden

    Join the Festivities at Winterfest

    in Inworld

    A group blog by Secondlife in General

    Posted

    I'll be at the first snowball fight (I was hoping to be at the second, too, but checked my calendar and I have a family commitment that is strangely not seasonal). As Leonardo Dicaprio might say, "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN." I'll also be taking pictures with a waterproof lens. Some of them may even use the experimental new DEPTH OF FIELD blur so your snowballs are in focu — *SPLAT* AUGH!!! Too early! Who threw that one?

    Protip: when a Linden is down for the count, ask them for their Linden Bear!

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    I should also mention that ANOTHER place to find the Advanced menu in Viewer 2.4 Beta is World menu > Show > Advanced Menu, where the shortcut is also shown.

    5241034983_99a3410d8e_z.jpg

    @Adam You're most welcome!

    Some Residents find the very sight of extra options scary, and are afraid they might activate something they shouldn't. Also, visual clutter is a concern for some. So there's that ongoing balance of "When you need it, you can find it easily."

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    Friendly greetings awesome Residents!

     

    @Daedalus Ah yes, I LOVE how tilt-shift looks, I should try that with some monster trucks in SL. I did this tilt-shift experiment long ago:

    462433509_1a0b53bd24_z.jpg

    @Steve The build I was using AND NEWER (as long as DOF is in it) should work. I see that confusion with the version numbers, so try this link instead to get "2.4.0 (215872)". Thanks for pointing that out.

    @Joshooah I apologize I have no allocated time/plans for updating the massive "Taking snapshots" page, but anyone who wants to replace the old 1.x references should feel free.

    @Opensource Excellent, I also added info about the DOF debug settings from davep/Runitai Linden himself!

    @Loraan Let me see if I can get those details from Runitai. Also, antialiasing conflicts with these graphical effects, but changes to antialiasing are being worked on.

    @Ochi Version numbers are confusing and I hope in good time, DOF will be included in the "regular" Mesh Viewer download so that trickiness becomes a moot point. Projectors are amazing for 70s-style psychedelic dance parties.

    @Luc I haven't tried DOF with SpaceNavigator that way yet, but I shall. Thanks for bringing that up.

    @Uni Right on! I've had "hit and miss" experiences too as I learn how to use DOF hands-on — what counts is you had fun, and it sure sounds like it.

    @Leal Thanks for those examples! I'm glad you had requested DOF preemptively.

    And I've noticed transparent particles and some objects can make DOF behave weirdly.

    Delby Linden

    Save the Date for Winterfest 2010!

    in Inworld

    A group blog by Secondlife in General

    Posted

    Even with how much the world has grown, I'm glad to see community traditions like this continue.

    Oh! If you've never seen a Linden inworld before, we're not just mythical creatures... here's your chance. Don't forget to ask for our bears. Most of us are photo-friendly if you want to take snapshots with us like we're Santa Claus. Maybe right after you wallop *snowball thud* AHHHH MY EYYYYYYYYYES

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    "When are we going to have estate-side sky and water settings?" is one of those BIG OPEN QUESTIONS I still haven't heard any word on, since it's not a high enough company priority (and has been shuffled amidst other projects several times), but I'd eventually love to say "IT'S HERE"... and hopefully it won't be by the time we all look like that guy who took a sip of the false grail in Indiana Jones. I know some of you have been expecting it since, well, 2007, and I keep checking.

    @Ferd I love that those 3rd-party viewers included mine and some cool ones by Resis I use regularly. The list gets pretty long with 100s tho, so I wish we had preset sorting "folder" categories like some of my fave audio plugins have. AHHH, WISHES.
    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Ceera I seem to remember there was a change to the walk in Viewer 2.x, I couldn't find a source. As Winter sez. Still, to those of you going "It wasn't as far as an improvement as I hoped!", I, as someone who walks regularly, agrees.

    @Suella All three are great examples, (3) is closely related to (1). "Torley Jr." (the female me) is feeling fiiiine for the wintertiiiime.

    @Techwolf Yes, no conversation about AOs is complete without following up on out how some third-party viewers already have a viewer-side/client-side AO, and how this is one of those ideas floated around for YEARS that many wish would simply be in the official Viewer. More on that a bit later.

    @Keli *yay hands*

    @Stephan Creating an AO (from scratch?) is more advanced (thanks for the pointer, Urantia), and I openly welcome scripters with expertise in this area to share their knowledge. A number of popular AO scripts are open-source and available to examine, although I don't know which are the best-commented for learning purposes.

    @Medhue Good points.

    @Oz Hey you! I also remember our classic discussions wondering when LL would upgrade the Gestures editor. :o Thanks, as you originally influenced me, to always keep culture close at hand — those who forget the past, well, you know how it goes.

    I hope introducing animation overrides to newer Residents will continue increasing awareness that some features that seem so long-in-the-tooth are STILL relevant and count for a lot today, and implementing them well would solve direct and peripheral usability issues. Avatar body language isn't just icing on the cake, it's fundamental to how you see yourself in this virtual world. If you walk like a powerless moron, you'll feel like a powerless moron (we don't want that).

    Whenever the opportunity comes up at internal Linden meetings, I point to Resident feedback like this where you keep the flames alive about what continues to matter. After all, even though the only proverbial constant is change, you can still constantly remind us what of what should change.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Oliver Linden Lab's had internal discussion about having an URL-shortener before, no word on if we'll do it. I know some other services like WordPress have "rolled their own", so to speak. In the meantime, Resi innovation rulez. Speaking of...

    @Meadhbh I've gotta check that out! Thanks!

    @Hellespont So glad you noticed, AOs can make an incredibly expressive difference and everyone should know about them, because it's such an inevitable question. I'd like to see AOs available from the get-go.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    Great discussion, especially with some of you helping each other!

    @Keli I hadn't seen that article before but it's a very helpful explanation. Joel Foner was Sidewinder Linden and I used to check with him to fact-check and understand technical "under-the-hood" stuff — and that's what we need a continuation of here, clarifying why this Maximum Bandwidth setting is the way it (still) is.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Suella Yay! At least we can share this process of discovery together!

    @Celierra That's a good one for those who want to generally have their typing anim on, but not all the type. I remember when that was the general workaround before we added the preference to disable typing anim.

    @Sue Dayum, I wish I had seen their tutorial! Do you remember who made it/ where it is?

    @Irene Me too! That was one of the things that started me on a "right-click everywhere..." journey.

    @Boroondas That IS a quirky mystery. So glad you brought it up, that's weird — it's especially bizarre when such an undocumented feature has been around years.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @SuezanneC and @Tinker and @MB.Robonaught It's true with a number of features, that right-click menu as an additional option is also useful (and more convenient). We'll keep an eye on how Copy To Clipboard is being used, to inform further involvement.

    @Winter Thanks for going ahead and reporting that, it's been awhile since I played with Unicode group titles.

    @Vick That's my wife. I feel even worse now.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Cybin I totally hear what you're writing. But, what you suggest could also cause further problems, like non-Premium/Concierge Resis clicking a "Live Chat" link that sends them to the self-help "fallback" page, and being confused and heaping "this is broken" tickets on top of that.

    However, I resound with your notion of making it clear what support your account type has, and I already forwarded this thread to be considered by the Lindens who work on the Support Portal.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Deltango While I'm not suggesting "whole universe on a single page, closely related topics would provide context without feeling overwhelming. What tends to happen is, as a wiki page grows larger, parts of it get split into sub-pages. If there are particular help pages that should be divided, let me know those URLs.

    I agree about your well-articulated merits of sensible hierarchy — and to complement that, also note the distinction between "browsing" and "searching". When someone doesn't want to dig through a lot of links (common scenario: they have a problem, are frustrated, and want an answer FAST), they search, and if search functions as expected, their requested info is at the top or near that.

    We do have other organizational tools (navboxes, categories) that can be used as-needed, and organization also depends on the target audience. I periodically check our backend stats for most-searched terms on wiki.secondlife.com , to see if there are any hot ones that aren't bringing up the right pages. Trawling the forums and seeing "I can't find an answer to this!" also gives indication.

    Re: Marketplace category suggestions, please do add to https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-2896

    @Boroondas We still use FlaggedRevs for the Knowledge Base. Most pages *are* editable by any logged-in Resident, with the notable exception of Linden Lab Official: namespace ones and some pages put on temporary lock (which I try to indicate in page history when I do it). If there are some erroneous pages that should be editable, paste URLs.

    @Cybin and @Suella Thanks for explaining, I often find that... well, if I can't find it, what an even harder time Resis must have. OK, gonna bring this inconsistency to support + webdevs, since you can "Submit a Ticket" on both.

    UPDATE: Thanks to a support guru for the following info... the "Live Chat" link inconsistency isn't easy to fix, and here's why: while the overall secondlife.com recognizes whether you're logged in OR out, it doesn't have the same specific, account type recognition as the Support Portal (there's different underlying tech involved, but we visually theme them to look cohesive). Since "Live Chat" is only available to certain account types (like Premium), given that limitation, it's misleading to show that link to all logged-in Residents.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Boroondas "can" and "done" are different, and more Residents would help if they were taught how. I often find opportunities to not just correct broken links, but go beyond that and compile useful pages, that in turn inspire others to contribute. Like Limits.

    Which extension? I'll research.

    I may know who to ask about those "Age verification" emails, but you're right, that points out room for more + better "HEY LINDENS FIX THIS LINK" feedback methods. If you don't know who to contact, that's frustrating.

    Also, sometimes I'm full of irony.

    @Cybin That's on my to-do list to advocate for, then. Thanks! UPDATE: I'm not seeing that link, have a pic?

    @Deltango Some of us do a lot of communicating so other Lindens can get real work done.

    @Void Suggest that to Cerise for the top table in this thread? She's got a good gateway going.

    @Blondie You're right, that's under Documentation Team's domain to update. I've updated some old Viewer references as I find them, but it'll take broader help for bigger things to happen, and a major upgrade is planned.

    @Suella I don't know how to see the most popular searches on blogs.secondlife.com — I can cross-check some data with Google Analytics, but your observations are helpful.

    I've long felt we need a visible Google Custom Search that searches all relevant Second Life resources. It's annoying to have to use all these little specific search engines and not find what you're looking for. (Which led me to make this post.)

    ONE SIMPLE SEARCH FTW.

    @Paulo What Cybin said, but I'm aware if there's broken links in support emails (see above), I'd like to get those fixed. Please always give actionable specifics so I may continue on my... help rampage.

    @JubJub I'm taking that to our web/marketing peeps, thanks. UPDATE: It's on the schedule to be removed.

    @Darren I do agree about the "hit F1" part.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Dimitrio I just had a flashback to the first time I played Tringo! And it was with creator Kermit Quirk in attendance. Come to think of it, I remember most of the first times I ever attended certain kind of events. Made such an impression on me. I used to surf from trivia contest after trivia contest and became surly if there was a gap of half an hour between 'em.

    @Ann I'm gonna check out http://virtualadvisor.ning.com/events , thanks for the suggestion.

    Sorry, I didn't mean to leave comments open here -— continue the discussion in the forum thread!

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    I also know if you do get an offline IM->email, there's a line at the bottom that says:

    To stop receiving these emails, log in to Second Life and uncheck "Send IM to Email" in the General tab of the Preferences window or visit:

    with a link to click. But, (1) that's the wrong UI instructions (maybe it should simply point to the web) and (2) link doesn't appear to work if you're not logged in, with no visible indication of that.

    @Hitomi And yes, thanks for being helpful!

    @Nika Is there already a bug on http://jira.secondlife.com that matches your problem? I don't know enough about that myself, but at least other Residents experiencing the same thing would have a focused place to experiment.

    @Bryon Longer-term, I'd hope that IMs and other inworld communication (like notecards) can be unified with someone's existing inbox. Many people complain of having too many places to check (consider all the social sites out there that have their own "IM" system).

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    This is beloved cultural discussion.

    @Gooden "1000 meter smog layer?" Picture please?

    @Ariu Oh, weird! Funny things randomly appear on Here region sometimes. If my own region was trying to cage me, that'd be cause for concern.

    @Seven

    1. Start with "Quality and speed" = Ultra, click Advanced to show all options. Crank more things up as desired, some people may care more about "Draw distance" than "Objects" detail. Further settings can be increased beyond these sliders via Advanced menu > Debug Settings.
    2. Three things that cumulatively make a BIG difference are "Water reflections" OFF, "Avatar impostors" ON, and "Draw Distance" LOW (like 64 m).

    @Dil I've been wanting those damn foot shadows gone since 2005! I have proof! http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/AlbumView.aspx?id=286 Opsrey (yes, the same one above) also once distributed FootShadow B-Gon.

    @Erica AW YEAH THANX AWESOMELY

    Torley Linden

    [GUIDE] What's a skybox?

    in Tips and Tricks

    A group blog by Secondlife in General

    Posted

    These comments are why I love being here! There are great tips here I'll link to from the wiki help page.

    @Digital Thanks! I believe in showing actual examples to inspire  Residents' creativity. As credited in the guide, the skybox is made by Trin Trevelion, it can be bought on the Marketplace.

    @Ceera That's a good thought to mark the boundaries. Like using chalk on grass, only, well, more Second Lifey.

    @Argent Maybe this calls for a statistical distribution of skybox heights.

    @Inhandra Thanx!

    @ninjafoo The things I've found doing that are rather surprising. o.O

    @Ghosty Yeah, that's current "expected behavior".

    @Adeon  and @Seth That's exactly what I was going for — I was playing with  prototype global illumination lately and... things are getting closer. I  still crash out a lot, tho.

    5000914441_48c386c377_z.jpg

    @Ponsonby  I wish more people would make meaningful meddles to wiki pages. So  THANK YOU for sharing your enthusiasm and personal experiences.

    @Irene That's another good mention to crossover to the Limits page. I swear, every Second Life Resident should have that Limits page close by, it inevitably gets referred to soner or later.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Crap I didn't play the first of either of those, but now am curious to check 'em out!

    On a related design note, I read Gamasutra obsessively.

    @Cybin Thanks! Of course, part of the problem is since Second Life doesn't do "sharding/instancing", this has led to orientation crowding in the past. And single-player games don't need to worry about that at all. And the Viewer would need better hooks to "read" what your avatar is actually doing. Nonetheless, they're inspiring ideas — if we can come up with more scalable ways, like integrating the web better with 3D.

    I've missed "Until after now..."!

    @Irene Why? No particular reason against that. But, I think it's tricky if you're watching a video of what you need to do inworld... yet you're on a webpage. There's a conceptual disconnect, but the gap is getting smaller. As I've advocated for why so many Residents have found my video tutorials useful AFTER being inworld for awhile, more should get a lovely first impression upfront, too. Suggestions like yours DO help.

    Torley Linden

    Posted

    @Vick That's entirely appreciated, THANKS!

    @Ghosty Yup! And some laptops have more usable arrow keys than others. Of course, when given desk space, some laptop users prefer to plug in a USB mouse.

    @Alisha Yeah, like @Nekololi if you open "menu_viewer.xml" in the Viewer's skins > default > xui > en (or another language) folder, look at all the places where it says "shortcut=" and change those. It's still true in Viewer 2. Oh, be sure to (1) BACKUP FIRST and (2) watch out for conflicts with other shortcuts. If you have problems finding that file, I recommend http://www.voidtools.com/

    Also, there external macro programs like QuicKeys (Mac, Windows version is kind of behind) or PhraseExpress (Windows) that can trigger menu items. The Second Life Viewer uses a non-OS-specific windowing system, though, so that may still be unreliable (it was for me before).

    @Aquarius That's a key one (ha) that definitely should be included. Thank you.

    I used to use arrow keys to navigate more, now I use WASD because arrow keys make my left hand cross over to my right side too much.

    UPDATE: added "Mouse-steering, run, and arrow key movement options" video to the "Different ways" help page.

×
×
  • Create New...