Tag Archives: OnLive

Happy New Year

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Join the Excitement of Fun and Educational Community Events in Second Life!

 

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Happy New Year, Second Life Residents! If you’re eager to kick off 2024 with a burst of excitement, here are some fun and educational community-driven activities and events lined up throughout the year. Enroll in building classes, attend lively festivals, and immerse yourself in educational conferences throughout the coming year. 

Relay For Life – Unveiling the Power of Unity

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American Cancer Society

The official home of the American Cancer Society in Second Life. Since 2005, cancer patients, caregivers, and volunteers have been able to receive services and support from the ACS in SL without having to leave the virtual world. Visit the island to learn more or to make a donation to fund the world’s largest and most successful cancer research program. More info at relayforlife.com/secondlife

Go on a journey of compassion and support as Relay For Life of Second Life events kick off this year. Mark your calendars as registrations open this month. SL Living Expo, Fantasy Faire, and other event dates have already been announced. Don’t miss out on any details – follow the American Cancer Society Google calendar for all the info! 

Burn2 – Festival of Community, Art, and Fire

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Burn2

Experience BURN2, the festival of community, art, and fire that brings the culture and cool of Burning Man to the metaverse. Learn more at www.burn2.org

Experience the virtual rendition of Burning Man in Second Life with Burn2! With captivating events every quarter, their first event, Winter Burn, starts on January 26th. Explore the details on their website and get more info about their weekly meetings and events in their Google calendar. It’s a virtual festival you won’t want to miss!

VWBPE – Unleashing Educational Innovations

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The Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) is a community-based open conference that provides opportunities for participants in all virtual worlds to share current teaching, learning, and research practices in 3D virtual environments. This year’s theme is “Mythic Origins” and it runs from March 14-16, 2024. Join the event for three days of lectures, workshops, discussions, games, and fun! It’s a must-attend event for anyone passionate about the intersection of virtual environments and education. Learn more on their website at vwbpe.org.

VWEC – Igniting Educational Conversations

Continue to elevate your educational journey with the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium (VWEC) Eduverse! If you’re passionate about fostering collaboration among educators and navigating the virtual landscape, this is the destination for you. You can learn more about VWEC from the Spotlight interview of three of their coordinators. Additionally, you can check their website and their Google Calendar to attend their daily events and fireside chats.

Virtual Ability – Empowering Lives in Virtual Worlds

Virtual Ability, a non-profit corporation founded in 2007, is dedicated to enabling individuals with a wide range of disabilities to flourish in online virtual worlds. They have two major events throughout the year, keep an eye on their website for more information coming soon: 

  1. Mental Health Symposium (May): In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Virtual Ability hosts the annual Mental Health Symposium. This event serves as a platform to share crucial information about mental health and disabilities with the broader population. The cross-disability community within Virtual Ability includes members dealing with various mental health issues. The symposium not only offers a chance for community members to learn from experts they might not encounter otherwise but also opens the doors for the general public to attend a professional conference at no cost.
  2. International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (October/November): Taking place around October/November each year, this conference is a testament to Virtual Ability’s commitment to advocating for disability rights globally. Join this empowering event that brings together voices from the disability community to discuss, affirm, and advance the rights of individuals with disabilities.

Builder’s Brewery – Crafting Dreams Since 2008

For all aspiring builders out there, Builder’s Brewery is your go-to destination. Established in 2008, it stands as one of Second Life’s oldest hubs for learning. Dive into free training classes covering everything from building to scripting, textures, mesh, animations, and more. Check their schedule of classes on their Google Calendar.

 

Find even more educational destinations and exciting events in the Education, Help & How To, and Featured Events categories on the Destination Guide throughout the year!

But wait, there’s more! Along with these community-driven activities, we here at Linden Lab also have a lot in store for 2024 – including the Valentine Shop & Hop which is about to open on February 1st, and of course our 21st birthday celebrations in June! 

Get ready for a year filled with excitement, creativity, and unforgettable experiences in Second Life. Don’t miss out on the action – stay connected: follow our Featured News blog, sign up for our weekly email newsletter, and connect with us on social media.

Let the adventure begin, happy 2024!

Happy New Year From All Of The Staff At Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands Stay Tuned For Estate Updates and Upgrades.

Bright Canopy — Replacement for Onlive!

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BREAKING NEWS! SLers who were sad to see Onlive go, now have another option!!

Remember OnLive? The company that brought you the streaming service which gave you the ability to run SL on older computers? Well there is a new kid on the block named Bright Canopy and they’re aiming to fill the void left behind by OnLive!

Released in the last weekend of August, Bright Canopy is offering SL streaming services for $17 for 20 hours. Additional time costs $0.02/minute, and each session is charged for a minimum of 30 minutes. Their high performance spec servers will stream SL to you through your web browser with ultra high graphics and no visible lag!

According to the Bright Canopy blog, this is how the pricing system works:

“If you sign up for Bright Canopy, you will be charged $17. You will receive 20 hours of server time. Once you have used that time, if you continue to use the service, you will build-up overage time at $0.02 per minute with a minimum purchase of 30 minutes ($0.60). If you use less than 10 more hours, your card will be charged for those additional minutes (plus the $17 for the new month’s subscription) at the beginning of the next month. If you use 10 or more hours of additional minutes before the end of the month, those minutes will be charged immediately.

“So if you use 5 additional hours during the month, you would spend $6 more. This would mean your credit card would be charged $21 at the beginning of the next month. If you use 10 additional hours, you would be charged $12 now and $17 for your monthly subscription at the beginning of the next month.”

This is exciting news and good for those who have older machines, or who wish to stream into SL from a computer that just can’t quite handle the load SL requires. The burning question is: Does Bright Canopy run on mobile devices? The company has stated on their website that mobile is not available yet, but it is coming. Here’s a quote from the website:

“We understand how important mobile support is for many people, and we do have a plan to provide it. We already have clients which will run on mobile devices, but the Second Life Viewer and Firestorm will need modifications to support multitouch. Our plan is to create these features and donate them to the top level open source viewer project, making them available for all viewers.

Right now, we are focusing on the Chrome browser on non-mobile devices (eg. laptops and desktops) so that we can get that right. Then we are working on providing a monthly plan. Once we have those in place we will begin working on mobile.”

I decided to try it out. I’m at work right now in RL, and our computers at work don’t have the graphics capability to run the regular Second Life viewer. So I eagerly signed up for an account using my Second Life user name and email address to create an account. I then ponied up my money ($17 for 20 minutes).

I was so excited to check it out that I really didn’t read the fine print. As I was trying to connect to the Bright Canopy servers (a message pops up as you are waiting to log into the Frame launchpad that Bright Canopy uses, that basically tells you that you cannot “bank” time from one session to the next. Clearly this service isn’t nearly as user-friendly as Onlive, because if I log out prior to my 30 minute time, I lose any remaining time. Hmmmm. Also, after I logged into Bright Canopy and paid, the screen that came up said “waiting to connect to Frame” and said I had 3 minutes remaining. It ended up connecting me after less than 3 minutes but I probably waited about a minute and a half. I’m not sure if they were waiting for space on their Cloud-based server, but it was only slightly annoying to wait.

Then it offers you the choice of using the SL Official Viewer interface or the Firestorm. Since I’m a Firestorm junkie, I chose the Firestorm option. It logs you into SL and looks exactly like it does in your viewer window. However, since I went back to type some more in this blog about my observations, it logged me out since I’d been inactive for 10 minutes. I had to log out of Bright Canopy and log back in. So be careful of long AFKs.

I found when I logged into my home in SL, I was experiencing a great deal of lag. I turned my graphics down a notch (I usually operate on Ultra, so I went down to High) and that seemed to improve things. Our work computers really don’t have much in the way of resources, so that could be part of the problem. I tp’d around to different places and found lag to be better and worse depending on the location. It’s not perfect, but it is an awesome way to be able to access Second Life from a computer with limited resources.

It will be great when they get their mobile app going!

Check them out! Click here for the website: Bright Canopy

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Blogger/Social Media

OnLive Sold, SL Go To End April 30th

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Sadly, a product that was filling a gap for people with older computers and people who wanted to access SL on their tablets is being discontinued.

The folks at Firestorm announced that OnLive issued a press release revealing that their company has just been acquired by Sony, and that Sony will not be continuing the SL Go service. In fact, it appears Sony has purchased OnLive for its patent portfolio in cloud gaming for their PlayStation product only. OnLive has stated that they will continue the SL Go Service until April 30th and that any new subscriptions will be free until their last day.

See the article on Firestorm’s website here: OnLive Sold, SL Go To End April 30th

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Blogger and Social Media

SL Go Announces Linden Dollar Payment Option

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SL Go
OnLive, the service that provides games, including hosting the SL Go site, announces that new users who sign up for SL Go inworld can use Lindens to pay for their service. Please note existing users cannot use Linden dollars at this time. However, it is going to be made available for existing users in the future.

Here is the blog post taken directly from the SL Go Blog found by clicking here: SL Go — Now Pay with L$

“You’ve probably heard of SL Go, the viewer that streams Second Life from the cloud in ultra-rich graphics, right to your tablet or low powered computer. You might have wanted to try it, but hate giving out your credit card info and personal information. Well, we now have a great solution for you!

For a limited time, if you sign up for SL Go with a NEW USER account you can buy weekly subscriptions in-world using Linden Dollars (L$). There is a private sign up booth where you can create your free SL Go account, and then pay for subscriptions using L$. Each week is only L$650, and you can buy up to 4 weeks at a time. Also, you can return and renew or extend your subscription in-world at any time.

Sorry, but existing users with monthly subscriptions will need to wait for this feature. It is much more complex to transition an account from US Dollars to Linden Dollars. We will be bringing this feature to you soon.

Paying for SL Go with L$ has been one of the most common requests we have received in our forums and chat rooms. We are very excited to offer this now to new users. We hope this makes it much easier for you to be a part of our growing SL Go community.”

Teleport here to Sign Up in-world:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunny%20Dream/230/147/22

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media

SLGo Now Compatible with Firestorm!

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Onlive is pleased to announce that SLGo now offers you a choice between Linden Lab’s SLV or the popular Firestorm viewer on PC and Mac. If you’re already a subscriber, simply launch SL Go on a PC or Mac, and you will be presented with a choice of viewers.

Onlive is a pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription service that allows you to access Second Life from a PC or Mac and have a high-fidelity Second Life experience with amazing graphics quality, full shaders, shadows and full motion capability. This allows people with older or low-powered computers to be able to access Second Life, where they may not have been able to do so before.

Now, SLGo on PC and Mac offers access to the full Firestorm Viewer interface, including edit menus, inventory, preference settings and chat management. All viewer customizations are saved from session to session, even if played on a completely different device or platform.

SL Go is offered via a monthly subscription at $9.95 USD per month for unlimited access. You can also choose to purchase by the hour. OnLive does not associate any SL Go information with Second Life. Second Life users, personas and avatars remain private. OnLive values your privacy in Second Life.

SLGo also allows you to access Second Life from your tablet, although the interface is significantly different.

If you’re not a subscriber, get started with a 7-day free trial here. (the orange word is a clickable link).

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager

Introducing SL Go from OnLive!

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Have you wished you could access SL from your tablet, and been frustrated with the chat-only client? Have you been out somewhere, or  simply sitting all comfy in your recliner and wishing you could pick up your tablet and get in-world? Well, now you can! SL Go,introduced in beta format, is an SL client that allows you to access SL with full 3-D graphics. This is hot off the presses:

by Community Manager Linden Lab ‎03-05-2014 09:05 AM – edited ‎03-05-2014 09:45 AM

OnLive, the leader in cloud gaming, today released an exciting new service for Second Life users. SL Go, now in open beta, is a mobile Second Life viewer for Android that delivers a fully immersive desktop-like experience on tablets.

With SL Go, you can experience Second Life from anywhere you have Wi-Fi or 4G connectivity, with ultra high-quality graphics, full shaders, shadows, and the Advanced Lightning Model on Android devices. Not only can you get high-quality graphics on a low-powered device, but you also don’t have to sacrifice frame rate or draw distance for high fidelity inworld explorations. Thanks to super-fast gigabit connections with OnLive’s high-performance gaming servers, objects and textures rez quickly when logging in and teleporting. OnLive has clocked the SL Go viewer at upwards of 200 fps set to Ultra with Maximum Render Distance, allowing people to participate in events, engage in combat games, and generally enjoy immersion in Second Life at a level never before possible on a mobile device.

With SL Go, OnLive has brought touchscreen interaction to the Second Life experience, but if you prefer keyboard and mouse, you can opt to connect these devices and interact with your friends in the same way you always have. SL Go gives you access to edit menus, inventory, preference settings and chat management just like the Second Life Viewer on your home computer.

 You’ll need an OnLive account to launch the app, and then you’ll log into Second Life with the same credentials you’ve always used. To learn more, register, and get started with a free trial now, visit slgo.onlive.com.

 For the time being, SL Go is available to users logging in from the US, Canada and the UK. OnLive plans to expand the service to other locales in the future, so if you are interested in having SL Go in your region, sign up here. The company is also pursuing an iOS version of the app. You can sign up here to be notified when it is released.

Thanks, and I always remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager