[Mesh goes gridwide: Create, sell, buy & enjoy all-new things in SL]

"And some people liked SL just the way it was before it had Sculpties, Flexiprims, Voice, Windlight, Mono, Sound & Color "

Dunno about Flexiprims, Sound and Color. Because this was before January 2009. User concurrecy has been cut by a third since then. In spite of Mono, Voice, Sculpties, Windlight. We´re back in January 2008.

Shiny technology, self-serving techie progress and a few nerds isn´t what makes Second Life attractive, and never was.

[Mesh goes gridwide: Create, sell, buy & enjoy all-new things in SL]

"of course being that I'm 5 months pregnant would be nice to see them come out with mesh dresses that have a pregnant belly lol but baby steps for now"

Oh, I think that full body imported clothes objects make my avatar look like 5 months pregnant so far, at least they make my avatar look as if i had six weeks of excessive chocolate orgy. And the "flowing" effect...well IMVU looks better there, cause in IMVU nothing will "flow" anyway. Obviously full body clothes only make some valid sense when crafted to fit some uniqe avatar import.

[The Second Life Economy in Q4 2010]

Right now at 1:15 AM SL Time SL has 39,005 people logged in.  IMVU has 80,068.  That is why SL should aspire to be more like IMVU.

 

Why should Ferrari copy a bcyicle? Only cause more people ride a bicycle than a ferrari right now, at 1:15?

An don´t oversestimate Mesh imports. IMVU has it, right? The result is ... trash.

[The Second Life Economy in Q4 2010]

IMVU is pure crap. The content there is about ten times worse than anything of quality you can see in SL. It´s not a Virtual Reality, it´s a more or less ugly, restricted 3D chat room.

There are only three major advantages:

1.- It is bloody cheap (yes, cheap)

2. It is rock solid reliable

3. It is extremely simple

And that´s it. SL is the by far superior environment by almost all means. And, you know, if you give people a choice, two thirds of them will go pulp, and only one third will go Shakespeare.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

The point is: Second Life is back on early 2008 level by all means. The point is that Second Life moves backwards, not forward. The point is that Linden Lab did not raise any kind of systematical or valiuable customer poll since mid 2006. The point is that Linden Lab decisions seem to be based on personal opinions exclusively, not on any kind of insight or research or true feedback. As a resullt, the point with Viewer 2 is that a maximum of 20 - 25 percent of the customer base find this software usable at all.

Linden Lab should get used to the thought that it may be pretty smart to raise some kind of public poll on certain topics before they decide to release another drama which they are not able to fix in full scale.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

If Linden Lab would react on user feedback, the Viewer 2 UI would be trashed completely, and if not completely, then at least the not user allowed exposure of ANY SL data on the open web. Maybe the board members complained here, or one of the most major sub-contractors, or the account of some exec was hacked, or even facebook complained for some reason. User feedback? Pffft. As if someone at LL would care.

[The Second Life Economy in Q4 2010]

Can we please have some more realistic reviews again?

 

Better NOT.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

The entire Viewer 2 drama and failure is the result of some exec folks at Linden Lab thinking about how to "improve" the user experience - i do not doubt their good intentions. But...the problem is that they obviously do not know what the "user experience" is at all, because they never did any user polls nor market research nor anything close nor participated actively in Second Life as active users. Viewer 2 and a lot of other useless "improvements" and pathetic decisions would never have been an issue if Linden Lab had done their homework properly, instead of declaring the biased opinions of a few out-of-touch execs to be the holy grail, worth a million dollar investment.

Web profiles are nice option, but should remain there and not become obligatory. But they do not help the totally off-track Viewer 2 interface, nor will they increase the number of Viewer 2 users in SL (which is about a quarter of all log-ins at best). So another bunch of dollars wasted.

[Linden Lab's New CEO]

Sure, they KNOW we need mesh..

They KNEW we need "Viewer 2" (The people KNOW that it is unusable and this shows in numbers),

They knew a LOT of things, all of which caused SL not only to stagnate but shrink. If they proceed with KNOWING what´s best for the sheep the sheep will simply go elswhere, to a place where they are not considered being sheeps, nor rats in a not working test lab.

[Linden Lab's New CEO]

No one needs mesh. Mesh Imports only favors a tiny, but extremely vocal minority which is either rich enough to spend 5,000 US dollars on recommended Autodesk software and the necessary high end hardware - or is able to spend a tremendous time and afford on learning something like Blender. Within SL it contradicts "competition" agressively, in fact, for it raises the bars for every newbie to get an - even smallest - share in higher quality content creation. The only reason for the mesh crowd to call for Mesh Imports is the dollar sign blinging in their inner eye. A pity that LL listened.

Second Life as a whole does not compete with well crafted games. It cannot, not technically and not by content. And it never did. Complex imported meshes and outstanding looks are NOT what made Second Life successful - and are  NOT what makes a Virtual Reality a Virtual Reality. Comparable venues, like Blue Mars, which exclusively used Mesh, just failed miserably. Anshe allows mesh imports, but extremely restricted, revised and licensed only, same for IMVU. They KNOW why.

The decision to develop a mesh renderer certainly was not a bad one. But allowing almost unrestricted mesh uploads for a not really headache causing price - while burdening the environment with another potential showstopper, while refusing  progress on the much more desired and used in-world tools, is just plain idiocy. A waste of time and one of Linden labs more deadly sins.

[Linden Lab's New CEO]

Welcome, Rod, hopefully a game developer pro will bring LL back on track.

Now please trash the trash nemed "Viewer 2" and make these guys fix the mono bug which stalls entire SL.

Good Luck and I wish you all the best!

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

If you do not wish to create with meshes, then nobody is forcing you to.

 

Right. Sculpts are enough for my needs. I can do meshes, if i wanted, but i do not see any reason. They do not spice up my SL.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

IF EA gets upset, then the thing thats going to happen is that the offending content gets removed and the offending user gets warned, or worse, banned from SL. Its the current practice.

 

Well, then the current practice is a pretty risky one. Remember Napster?

A beginning modeller can download blender, work through one or two tutorials, and he will be able to create his first mesh.

 

Are you real? Do you think people join Second Life for learning something monsterous like BLENDER? Or for spending REAL money on some really adequate 3D modelling suites???? Yeah, sure, some will, but then they will be mainly among themselves, just like in the good old Active Worlds days. Btw, Active Worlds is still out there - somehow.

game characters

 

Right. Game Characters. And you honestly think that the "beginners" will create a "game character"???? No, be honest: All your arguments are ONLY made with your own existing and expected profit in mind. You know as well as me that NO "beginner" will ever be able or motivated enough to compete with your skills if it comes to 3D mesh modelling. And you do not have SL or the common sense on your mind by hailing Linden "progress" or by spinning the landslide user loss into something adorable, You only want to protect your own, still existing profits and claim your spot in a SL "market" with expected less competition than now.

That´s ALL. I do not blame you for it, but please stop with playing the altruist.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

..mesh will allow professionals and beginners alike to bring their creations into SL the way they imagine them to be, beyond the limits of what sculpts could offer previously.

 

Professionals and beginners alike??? You make me laugh.

Sculpts had one big advantage over mesh: They were limited and all but easyily made, so they could not cause too much trouble. Allow a "beginner" to upload any kind of self created 3D model - or even turbosquid stuff - into any game of your choice. Great idea, right? I wonder why EA hates it. IMVU limits meshes far more strict than LL does with sculpties. They cannot be off track, cause IMVU attracts more users than SL does right now. While Blue MArs, which is all mesh imported, not only crashes any midrange GPU within 15 minutes but hardly attracts anyone at all.

And of course LL changed strategy. Admitted by Phil and almost every other high ranked LL exec on almost every public occasion. SL is not "Your world - Your Imagination" anymore. They want to change it into a real life focussed 3D facebook, in fact. That´s the official plan, and V2 as well as mesh import and teen merger are only a few steps towards this brave new world among many others.

Regarding the rip-offs: "SL is that way" is a very polite description for tolerating criminal activities. Does "SL is that way" imply that you actually favor robbing, stealing and ripping off? Does it make SL better or more legal? What happens if EA really gets upset over 1:1 copies of their games in SL (which collada will most probably allow in a much more efficient way than any existing format)?

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

"Mesh Import allows you to bring models into Second Life from the many  popular 3D tools such as Blender or Maya(t), using the COLLADA file  format."

SL Wiki

"Mesh models must be created outside Second Life using a third-party 3D  modeling tool.  If you're a seasoned content creator, you may already be  familiar with 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, or other popular professional tools;"

SL Wiki

And yes, Linden Lab gets it RIGHT this time. All the "free" tools (except Blender) out there are inadequate for game model design. And game model mesh design is desperately required to really WORK within SL as expected, and not as an ugly, useless, lagging piece of showstopper.

SketchUp does NOT optimise meshes, a dozen or more of such not optimised "models" within range will hurt, not to mention the upload costs for a thousand polygon LOD mesh, which is required for rezzing at distance at all.

If you credit SL for a steep learning curve: What do you expect? Everyone running for teh "free" Blender? Compared to the SL tools Blender has a learning curve as high as the Mount Everest. And what for? For designing something which has been better designed by trillions of semi, hobbyist, professional and amateur modellers all over this planet since 1995? Oh yes, turbosquid and a million free model websites will do, right?

The cost for Photoshop is a joke compared to the cost for ANY really adequate 3D modelling studio, if not by learning curve then by US dollars. Same for DAZ and some other animation suites.

Mesh import will be a showstopper for any kind of in-world creativity.  It hurts SL and will most probably turn it into a worthless off-world created wannabe "game" without game character and even worse overall quality than now.

I know that i cannot change the minds of the mesh lobbying minority. But not only to me import is a strategical error born out of LL already failed strategy change from "your world - your imagination" to "whom will you meet today". Instead of enabling mesh imports, Linden Lab should have improve the in-world experience - and not the desktops of users and the purse of autodesk.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

Who needs a tool? The new tools for content creation FOR (not "in") Second Life are 4k US Dollars and called 3DS, Maya, AutoCAD and the like (as recommended by the Linden Gods). Lindens even "forgot" the "Create/Build" option in the former circular menu in the original V2 release.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

I believe that post was meant to be sarcasm to illustrate the irrational hatred of viewer 2.

 

Yeah, haha. Funny that 70 percent of teh SL userbase is soooo bloody irrational to refuse the adoption of viewer 2. They all must be totally blind, inept, stupid idiots, right?

Btw., the "progress" listed by Fire is definately NOT viewer 2 related, apart from the "outfits" and "Avatar Alpha" rendering options. The rest is pre-viewer 2 or server development. Most of the "progress" it is incorporated in Phoenix, anyway, which is 1.x Snowglobe based for now.

Anyway, even if there were technological progress in some way, people look at Second Life through the viewer, and with a pretty unusable UI looking at the world is NOT fun. Most users do not care about tech, they just want basical and visual things to WORK for them. And if things don´t work for them, then people vote by feet. Which is what they do since a year (User Concurreny down to early 2008 level).

I admit that the decline is not only viewer related (because there ARE usable TPV´s). But the fact that LL really dares to release something like Viewer 2 - which is simply totally off track for the overwhelming majority of the userbase - does not spur confidence in the future of Second Life.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

.. the Linden Cheerleading Squad and Glee Club ..

 

He, he, i think the club gains momentum since the ones who made SL big are on retreat to elsewhere, tired of posting their opinions and tired of permanently working around LL drama, tired of feeding the Lab with content, ideas, energy and creativity for no return but an annoying "Deal with it!".

Merry Christmas, Linden Lab. Hopefully Santa will bring you a capable management.

[Try Out the New Viewer 2.4 Beta, Now Available]

Nice comments, but face it: Linden Lab has lost tons of customers since SL peaked before the introduction of viewer 2. In spite of TPV like Phoenix, which are used by the vast majority. LL messed up the SL experience, not only by viewer 2, but a general misconception and overall strategy. They neither managed to keep their existant customer base nor managed to attract new customers in sufficient numbers. If SL had not such a hard core, loving user base it would be gone by now. And if Linden Lab proceeds with ramming these total misconceptions down the throats of their paying customers, then SL WILL be gone pretty soon. This includes viewer 2, mesh import, the buggy mono implementation, marketplace failure, server RC chaos, search desaster, teen merger...it´s the big picture which makes people run, not only the viewer 2 desaster. The landslide started with the homestead catastrophe and since then it´s going down the hill rapidly - and no strategical correction at Linden Lab.

Never change a winning team. "Your world - Yor imagination" was what attracted people to Second Life. Now it´s a banal "Whom do you meet today?". I can tell you, Linden Lab. I meet RL as soon as i wake up in the morning.

There actually is not much "nice" to comment. Linden Lab tries, okay, but the output is by far not adequate for keeping Second Life alive in the midterm run.

[Viewer 2.3 Beta Available Today With Display Names and More]

Keep up the creativity LL.

 

What´s "creative" about introducing stuff no one ever asked for, no one ever needed and no one ever would pay for? LL only was extremely "creative" in reducing the userbase by a quarter since SL peaked in summer 2009 - by introducing stuff no one ever asked for, no one ever needed and no one ever will pay for.

Congrats!

[Viewer 2.3 Beta Available Today With Display Names and More]

So instead of bashing the Lindens for what they do wrong according to a tiny minority's perspective of how things should work, why don't everyone instead make themselves useful by contributing to the Jira's of cases that are in fact real issues.

 

According to the latest Emerald Stats, which were never doubted by the Lab, 50 percent of all log ins were with Emerald - and only with Emerald. There were a bunch of other TPV´s around in August, so add another 20 percent to the Emerald half (Imprudence, Cool, RLV etc.). Then add all the people who still run the official 1.23 (maybe another 15 percent). Phoenix has replaced Emerald meanwhile and tho I don´t have the numbers, i strongly guess that ALL Emeraldf users have converted to Phoenix or any other 1.xx TPV instead of using something unusable.

Face it, the tiny minority is the Viewer 2 crowd. It makes no sense to hail the Lab for a PROVEN, total software misconception, a major desaster in development and a totally unusable GUI. They lost proven 20 percent of their customers since they threw this outstanding example of a borked software design on people.

The vast majority does not want this browser and will not convert to it until Linden Lab refrains from acting like a stubborn little child. Without TPV´s around Viever 2 would have caused a major exodus. Thank TPV developers instead of hailing the Lab - for saving SL for now.

You are totally and proven wrong.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

Anyway, below there is a (very basic given i'm still learning the better way to make meshes for SL) a two floors rustic house, that sure you could create with prims or maybe sculpties if you want such rounded edges, but that would require way more than 2 prims, that is the cost of this one.

 

Right, that´s what i saw on the Mesh Beta so far (apart from some rare expert stuff, turbosquit rips, game model rips and whatever "user created" stuff no one needs).

I do not doubt that you can make more advanced models, but most stuff on the beta does not look better than any prim built crap.

It is only is about 60 percent less primmy (if optimised).

Given the fact that the SL prim ecosystem is based on prim count: Why should anyone still use the in-world tools for creating something?

This will DEFINATELY make object creation an off-world affair, and it´s nothing but a LL order to their slave workers - who struggle to pay their overpriced tier - to either buy a pro suite or learn Blender.

While 3D ripper DX and a million free objects are out there. And no RL professional will join the LL bandwagon, anyway.

Crazy.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

"Why should the talented people be held back, just so people with less talent dont look /too/ bad beside them?"

Ah, so you consider yourself being "advanced" or "better", only because you own and can handle a professional 3D tool? This is exactly the stupid kind of arrogance which will become common in SL and join with Linden Lab greed. What a promising future.

Is McCartney the more advanced or better or more talented musician than Beethoven was, only because McCartney has the electric guitar?

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

But i'm too grown and well educated to give you the only answer you really deserve, that would require two words: one beginning with "F" and the other beginning with "Y".

 

Oh yes. Thank you for your deep insight into education.

 

why don't you go to tell to Pixar's guys why they stick with the blender freebie? Also the viewers you use are freebies, and above all also your brain is a freebie, and not one of the best around here.

 

I am looking forward to see the tons of freebies you and your "open source community" will contribute to Linden lab stock. And why should i go to Pixar? I am not a RL 3D professional as you are. Oh, wait, you use Blender and are not working at Pixar? How come? Maybe Pixar will come to SL instead? For giving away open source freebies?

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

MOAP can be used for much more than just displaying web pages in SL.  As a prim itself can act as a web server it is possible to do interesting things like using text box forms for enering text, display scripttime generated text in all maner of fonts, etc.

 

Can it? I thought it only is able to stream stuff from an external server into SL?