[Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived]

I won't upgrade to this quite yet due to several concerns.

First, I've heard you cannot use web profiles to share inventory. Big problem considering the "share" feature added a few versions back is broken. Most of the time I go to open the "share" window and go to "near me" it tells me there are no avatars near me. I can be standing in a room full of people and it will tell me no one is nearby. I believe this is due to the SL viewer having never been fixed to accomodate builds created higher than the old, old height limit from years ago.

That's the big problem. Beyond that, I'm waiting for LL to make improved web profiles. I've been told we're getting expanded/improved profiles, which is great SL has needed them for years now, but instead the web profiles display less information, less efficiently than the 2.x profiles, which themselves displayed less information less efficiently than the old 1.x profiles. We need bigger, better profiles, why does LL keep making the profiles less useful?

 

On a side note, why do LL's viewers still hide my notes tab from me? I used that all the time and now I can't access it unless I log in using a third party viewer.

Beyond all that, I think that moving profiles to the web is a great idea, I'm just disappointed by the execution so far.

[Getting Immersed in Second Life]

I hope you find getting immersed in SL fun. It would be a great change to have more in-world understanding at LL. SL is great, and a lot of fun, but there's so many obstacles and issues when it comes to immersion.It seems like LL has never had many people with videogame industry experience working on the immersion end of things.

SL's camera placement (I made my own scripted HUD to make my camera placement more like a third person videogame), SL's many scale issues, the lack of tools in creating more engaging content (like the ability to drop NPC "objects, avatars you can dress up, script, and animate to populate an environment) etcetera all seem to be major impediments to SL's continued growth into the mainstream.

Hope you get around to visiting some of the more immersive builds around SL, like Insilico and Doomed Ship. They really push what can be done in SL now, and give a glimpse at what might be possible in the future if certain improvements are made.

[Linden Lab's New CEO]

I have no idea how much of a free hand the board gives LL's CEOs, but I'm hoping Rod can bring a bit of sense to LL in terms of visual design, immersion and interactivity, not to mention the social side of things. These are areas where LL has been extremely lacking from the start right up to the present.

Someone with a background in videogames might more easily see that, and given enough room to work they could really turn SL's downward slide around and tap into all that potential LL has been studiously ignoring for the past 7-8 years.

[Viewer 2.4 Released!]

The appearance editor is still displaying incorrect height for avatar shapes. This has been the cause of a lot of confusion, with many animations being marked for incorrect avatar sizes and customers making misinformed decisions with animation and shape purchases based on false information provided by the viewer.

It also contributes, along with SL's poor camera placement, to SL's widespread scale problems.  I'm hoping this can be fixed soon.

[Help Us Test the SL Web Viewer Beta]

I'm looking forward to trying this myself, just to see if it works as well as everyone seems to say. From the screenshots and videos I've seen my only concerns are the same presentation issues which have always been a problem for SL retention rates.

The starter avatars have some scary proportions, and while most people won't sit there thinking, "Wow, their heads are way too small and their arms are freakish short!" these proportions will translate to "ugly graphics" in the minds of most users. The same goes for the default animations. People do judge products like SL on these kinds of details, so I'm hoping it's something LL intends to seriously address.

SL's default camera placement is also incredibly awkward, this is a problem in the main viewer, considering part of the web browser version's screen is obscured with things like the avatar/location select menus this gets emphasized even more. Something closer to eye level, like the "over the shoulder" view favoured by third person videogames, would be more appropriate, more immersive and if also done to the main viewer would solve a lot of content creation problems.

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

Is AgentHeight fixed yet?

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

"Why the hell should a real life professional work for something liek SL? Linden Lab does not PAY for such work, they actually CHARGE for it."

You're assuming none of us are professionals. You're wrong. Some of us professionals happen to enjoy creating, and love the virtual world concept.

  My argument is that LL should be willing to pay professionals for pro quality content for fundamentals such as starter avatars and tutorial environments. This, in turn, would give people a good idea of what is possible in SL when they first log in, rather than setting the bar low and giving new users a poor impression.

I'm also saying LL has been ignoring the content creation tools, there's lots of little problems. Broken features that need to be fixed, guides that could help users of all skill levels to create avatars and buildings and vehicles and all the things we love to create in SL.

And finally, when LL does that, it would raise the bar of expectations, people would see more of what is possible and strive for it, while keeping things simple enough for anyone who has never before considered an interest in 3D modeling to rez their first plywood cube and run with it.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

I've been in SL since 2005. I'm one of those creative types you're talking about and that is exactly the perspective I'm speaking from. Yes, the economy is a problem. The problem with the economy is that SL is not retaining users It's losing people as fast or faster than people come in. New user retention has abysmal, always has been, and now it's really catching up with LL that the heyday of the SL hype is long gone.

Or are you seriously suggestion SL does not have problems with user retention and marketing image?

I'm not saying LL should begin selling avatars and animations and whatnot, I'm saying the defaults should be good enough to keep people here not scare them away. There's a difference. I'm also saying the tools could be much better to let us create better content. I'm not saying they should add in scary advanced features that would scare people away,

I'm talking about simple, basic stuff, like showing avatar height in the appearance editor, and providing simple guides so we easily see when we're out of proportion. Fix little things like that, and larger things fall into place. Animations, which are often made with correctly proportioned figures in programs outside of SL will work better if your avatar is proportional. Move the camera down to eye level and you no longer need to supersize buildings, which means you free up a lot more space and prims to play with meaning a larger, more detailed SecondLife.

Actually, LL gets their default avatars from the community. I think a good answer to the problem would be LL opening up their pocketbook and offering to pay for professional quality content instead of asking for freebies.

And I agree with you on one thing, SL is not a game. I've never called it a game. It's also not a platform. It's a virtual world, plain and simple. SL has players and users, but no matter what you call yourself, if you pay money into SL, whether to pay tier on land, or to dress your avatar up, you are a customer of the service LL provides.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

Yes, there are places in SL that look great. The problem is, these places are far and few between, and they are not what SL is known for. They are not what SL's reputation is based on

I'm saying that LL needs to step up its own game, make the environments people new to SL see first, as well as the avatars and animations, look great. Sell people on it. Raise the bar for player created content, and provides the tools to make it easier.

User created content does not mean sacrificing quality for passion or creativity. LL needs to show that if they want to attract more customers.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

It's not about LL caring about you or me, it's about LL caring about their own bottom line and understanding how to improve it. LL is a business, I expect nothing more from them than to make sound business decisions.

Mesh has the potential to be extremely beneficial to SL, I'm not certain what your complaints are there.

  Those who make the most of mesh will be able to get a lot more detail, while using far fewer resources. Already amazing builds like Insilico or Doomed Ship could be done better looking, with a huge reduction in polygons (which means much higher framerates). Prims and sculpted prims especially, are polygon hogs, using many unnecessary polygons, which means lower framerates for everyone.

Really, many of the things LL should be doing to make more money are things we, the customers, benefit from. I think Linden Lab is just having some difficulty figuring out what those things are

They've spent so much time spending too much money on projects that did not benefit their customers (such as Enterprise and Viewer 2) that they have found themselves in a very tough spot.  Now they need to figure out what they did wrong and push on towards things that will actually make their customers happier, and bring more customers in.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

Player created content will always have the issue that not everyone is a talented professional, so not all the content will be that quality, but that does not mean there's nothing LL could do to make SL look better, and polish up its reputation as far as graphics.

In fact, in many cases it's not the customer created content that is the problem, it's LL's own content. The default animations are terrible. The starter avatars are all horribly ill-proportioned. The Welcome Areas, Infohubs, and tutorial sims are nothing to brag about either. These are all areas where LL should be trying to sell SL. A potential new customer has logged in for the first time, they're surrounded by LL content to start with, that is where you show what is possible. Then even if the person teleports directly from the welcome area to a random poorly textured box shaped club full of scarily misporportioned hoochies and gangstas, they know that's not the limits of what to expect.

The tools need improvement too. Professional artists use guides when drawing or modeling characters, so they get the proportions right. Videogames with character editors limit the player to realistic proportions within the style of the game. SL allows you to go way beyond realistic proportions, but provides no guides to help you.

The appearance editor did not even display avatar height until 2.1, and now that it does...the height it shows is wrong!  AgentHeight is broken, displaying height that is half a foot or more shorter than the actual avatar height.

And the windlight settings! LL recently let go all their windlight devs. In the years since introducing windlight, they have not finished the tools. Estate level controls are apparently on the way, and windlight as inventory may be coming to, but what about the defaults? The default day cycle in SL is terrible, it's one of the things that makes SL look bad to everyone.How about finishing the day cycle editor so people can save and load multiple day cycles

How about fixing the camera placement? SL's camera placement is reminiscent of a videogame from 2000, there's been  10 years of advances in camera placement and behaviour in videogames, why does SL not benefit from that

Mesh will be a great improvement, and will certainly help make SL look nicer too, but mesh uploads won't fix poorly proportioned avatar, or sway LL into providing better starter avatars and default animations

There also needs to be improvements to the social and interactive elements. Letting people network more easily and find communities they might be interested in, as well as allowing content creators to craft more immersive experiences. Like letting us populate our sims with NPC avatars that can be scripted as guides, RPG characters, wild life, and videogame enemies. As it stands, environments in SL are more statues we can climb around than living, breathing environments.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for this announcement, and the promised improvements. On the technology side of things, LL really seems to be seriously making an effort to  improve the user experience. My concern is just that they seem to entirely ignore these other important aspects of SL, and there has been no improvement on them since at least when I joined SL in 2005.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

If only it were about profits, at least that would make some sense. the thing is, as long as LL ignores presentation, and fails to develop our ability to create engaging content, they are hurting their own profits as well as ours!

 

Almost everyone I know offline has tried SL.  Pretty much everyone has heard of it. But, I only know one person offline who got much beyond being dumped in a welcome area.. All of them cite SL's poor graphics and an apparent lack of anything to do as the two problems they ran into.

 

Even LL's own promotional screenshots make it look bad, and so SL has a reputation for looking terrible.

[Back to Basics Technology Improvements]

These are all good things (though the warning that groups may again be lowered to 25 worries me, will we lose random groups if this happens? Most of my groups are for putting out vendors.)

 

One thing that worries me is that whenever LL talks about getting "back to basics" it's always the technology. LL needs to understand that SL isn't just technology. Actually, the biggest problem SL has always suffered has been presentation.

Potential new customers check out SL and are assaulted with incredibly bad animations, poorly constructed tutorial environments, hideously deformed avatars (yes, I'm including the current group in there. LL needs to be conscious of scale and proportion if they want to sell people on staying in SL), the 1995 era camera placement (there has been more of a decade of improvements with camera behaviour and placement in videogames, why has SL not benefitted from any of that?), the ugly windlight defaults, the broken appearance editor and a host of other issues that LL has made no serious attempt to improve for as long as I've been in SL (and I joined 5 years ago!).

Does LL even have a visual design department?  I'm talking 3D modelers and graphic designers, not programmers.

 

@Moni Duettmann

Not everyone uses groups for shopping. Some use them for socializing, maintaining membership in groups dedicated to specific interests which are likely silent most of the time. Some use them for land perms. I sell things in SL, most of my groups are land groups I have to be in because I've got vendors in those sims. Some have activities in SL that require a group membership. Very few of the groups I'm in are active with chat and group notices. Some people just want a group for the group titles they can wear over their head.

[Viewer 2.2 Beta has Arrived!]

Doesn't look like AgentHeight has been fixed yet, still looking forward to that. It's apparently on the agenda, so I'm hopeful.

 

Really looking forward to the plans for improved camera placement, too. Hope that's still in the works. Would love to ditch my scripted camera attachment.

[Check here if you want more options]

As for the question of more features versus a more streamlined interface, I'd agree with the statements that LL needs to cater to two distinct groups. Content creators and casual users.

For the average user, the SL interface should be sleek and game-like. Fun, friendly, and encouraging of socializing and exploring.

Content creators need an interface more like you'd find in pro design tools like Photoshop or 3D Studio. Lots of features and controls allowing them to create the avatars, environments, and other content that everyone enjoys as efficiently and easily as possible.

You cannot meet these needs with a single interface without running into conflicts.

I think that, in addition, due to the broad user base with varying needs, wants, and goals, it would help if the interface was modular, letting people easily install plug-ins rather than relying on scripted attachments which add to the server loads. Sure, it would be a lot of work to create a modular interface like that, which is why LL should have been looking into it years ago.

I believe  LL faces a broader issue when it comes to features. Specifically the needs of the user base and how certain features and UI decisions directly impact the quality of the SL experience in various ways

. For example. Pretty much every third party viewer has displayed more or less accurate avatar height for the past year or two. LL only added this feature with Viewer 2.1. When LL added it, their version was broken. LL knew it was broken as they added it. LL even knows why it's broken but still chose to implement it broken

This is a feature the official viewers should have had first, before SL ever left beta. Before SL opened to the public. Arrives more than seven years late, and broken, where the TPV community has already done better.

  The lack of this feature in the beginning created a lot of confusion regarding avatar height. The broken feature LL recently implemented encourages over-sized avatars (By telling people they're much smaller than they actually are). Scale in SL is a mess because of this (and a couple other problems) which directly impacts how we, as users, design and build environments in SL. Specifically, it has led to drastically smaller and less detailed environments. It puts off professional designers who might be intrigued by SL at first. It directly leads to SL's poor reputation as far as visuals.

Simply learning to recognize issues such as this one (And there are many others I could point out) would have as much or greater an impact on SL's visual quality as the introduction of mesh imports.