Tag Archives: Second Life

SL Go Announces Linden Dollar Payment Option

by

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

Firestorm’s Tool Tip: Clean Install the Easy Way

by

Here’s Firestorm’s Tool Tip Tuesday video. We all know how frustrating it is when a new version of Firestorm comes out, because as exciting as the new features are, we all dread doing the dreaded “clean reinstall.” Even if you follow the rather intimidating instructions on the Firestorm Wiki, we all worry about losing chat logs, preference settings, etc. It is probably my least favorite thing to do.

In this video, Jessica Lyon breaks down a clean install into simple, easy to follow steps. Enjoy!

Here is the link to the Firestorm Website: Firestorm Viewer
I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media

Skarvald — Where Vikings Are Alive and Well in Second Life

by

One of the fascinating things in Second Life are the roleplay sims. In SL, you can find just about any kind of roleplay (RP) your little heart desires — Fetish, Rape, Combat, Capture, Gor (BTB or otherwise), Vampire/Lycan, Steampunk, Fantasy, Historical, Pirates, Sci-Fi, Urban/Noir, etc. Some are strict on rules and behavior within the RP sim; some are fairly loose with the rules. Some are obviously geared towards sexual activity, and some are for serious RPers. These serious RPers bring their RP into Second Life as a way to bring their favorite MMORPG (which itself stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) into a world where you can completely control the way the world moves around the characters and settings, rather than having the game play limit what choices are available to the players. These are serious gamers that are serious about their RP, but also come here to have fun, immerse themselves in their game and meet fellow gamers.

One of these gamers is Balder Foehammer. Balder has been in Second Life since 2009, and started out by being frustrated with his inability to find Viking-themed items in Second Life. Being a creative and industrious soul, Balder learned how to build, and began creating his own things for others doing Viking RP. His business grew, and finally he decided it was time to create his own Viking RP sim, and the final result is Skarvald.

Balder purchased from Linden Labs his own full prim sim, commercial grade and went to work. His sim underwent many transformations as he experimented with exactly what he wanted to accomplish. In January of 2014, Balder began creating Skarvald from the ground up, using a 90 percent mesh build in order to save on land impact. He opened for business on July 11th 2014. Skarvald is a brainchild of Balder’s and springs completely from his vivid imagination, with significant input from his SL wife and RL girlfriend Ellie Foehammer. Loosely translated, Skarvald means “scarred land.” Balder tells me that he has always been fascinated by the history of the Norse people and their folklore. The term “Viking” actually means “seafaring traveler” or “raider by sea.”

Each RPer must fill out an application in order to participate in the sim. Each RPer creates their own character, their own backstory and incorporate it into their sim history or sim lore. Online and console gamers that want to be more creative can create their story from Skyram, Elderscrolls, Dragonage, Tolkein, Lord of the Rings, 13th warrior (Michael Crighton) Historical viking lore norse culture, Camelot King Arthur, etc.

Balder and Ellie have created a Viking kingdom accurate down to the last building. It’s a fascinating place that is kept as accurate to the time as possible. Cabins and homes are rented out and the sim rules require that any items put down remain true to the Viking theme.

Balder tells me that there are 212 members in the Skarvald group. The number of active RPers right now is about 70. The sim can support 40 to 50 RPers at a time.

There are different factions and guilds within the RP. There are guilds that are in allegiance with the kingdom, and there are those who seek to overthrow the Kingdom. There are thieves and shadows and assassins. The tension between “good” and “evil” creates the RP and creates the battles.

RP is scheduled if there’s a major event. Otherwise it’s just random and spontaneous. Important roles are handed over to people who earn it. Skarvald members are dedicated RPers who truly involve themselves in the RP. They are not exclusive and they will RP even with noobs. Balder and Ellie try to ensure that the RP does not become “cliqueish.”

When asked what his favorite thing about Skarvald, Balder said, “The people.”

What really makes this place special is Balder and Ellie’s love and dedication to it. Their pride in this place shines through every pixel and prim. I highly recommend you check out this amazing place.

Click on this link to get the SLurl: Skarvald Viking RPG

Click on this link to find the Skarvald website: Skarvald

Click on this link for more information on RP in Second Life. Role-Playing Communities

Here are some photographs:

Skarvald_002

Balder's pic 1

Balder's pic 2

Balder's pic 3

Citidel of Knowledge_001

Citidel of Knowledge_002

Citidel of Knowledge_003

Citidel of Knowledge_004

Citidel of Knowledge_005

Citidel of Knowledge_006

Citidel of Knowledge_007

Citidel of Knowledge_008

Citidel of Knowledge_009

Citidel of Knowledge_010

Citidel of Knowledge_011

Citidel of Knowledge_012

Citidel of Knowledge_013

Citidel of Knowledge_014

Marketplace_001

Marketplace_002

Marketplace_003

Marketplace_004

Marketplace_005

Rae, Ellie, Lola

Rhys, Rae, Balder, Vox

Skarvald Jan 11th_001

Skarvald Jan 11th_002

Skarvald_001

Skarvald_003

Skarvald_005

Skarvald_006

Skarvald_007

Skarvald_008

Skarvald_009

Skarvald_010

Skarvald_011

Skarvald_013

Skarvald_014

Skarvald_015

Skarvald_016

Skarvald_017

Skarvald_018

Skarvald_019

Skarvald_020

Surprise along the East Road

The Arena_002

THe Path to Knowledge_001

THe Path to Knowledge_002

THe Path to Knowledge_003

THe Path to Knowledge_004

THe Path to Knowledge_005

THe Path to Knowledge_006

THe treasure room_001

Underwater garden_001

Vox, BigSven

Western Plains Porter_001

Western Plains Porter_002

Western Plains Porter_003

Western Plains Porter_004

Western Plains Porter_005

Western Plains Porter_006

Western Plains Porter_007

Western Plains Porter_008

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

Firestorm Tool Tip: Command Line

by

Who knew?? This short video shows some awesome tricks available simply by typing in a few keystrokes. This is especially helpful when being griefed, and you need to instantly TP to an altitude in order to rid yourself of the griefer without being crashed by the graphics crasher. You can instantly achieve altitude with a few keystrokes, among other tricks!

Watch and learn! And don’t forget to attend Firestorm’s Odds & Ends Classes to learn these and other tricks! Join Firestorm’s in-world group for more support and information.

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

High Fidelity Raises $11 Million

by

One of the biggest things to hit virtual worlds is the idea of being able to experience it in the immersive Virtual Reality, or VR. High Fidelity is open source software for shared Virtual Reality, and they are the first to move forward with this technology in the virtual world environment. Second Life 3, or whatever it is going to be called, is going to be geared toward that kind of technology also, using the still rather clunky VR headsets such as Oculus Rift. While we are still in the early stages of the development of this technology, it is exciting to watch it grow and develop.

It was announced yesterday in an article posted on the techcrunch.com website, that High Fidelity, the San Francisco-based startup from Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, has raised another $11 million in funding in a round led by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital. The funding was noted in a SEC filing recently, and was confirmed to the TechCrunch website by Rosedale himself. Hi Fidelity is clearly a forerunner and a big player in this exciting, developing technology.

I’m quoting directly from the article below. But you can find the original posting by clicking on this link: Hi Fidelity Raises $11M

“Founded in 2013, High Fidelity is building deployable virtual worlds, combining the ease of rolling out a VM instance on a modern cloud platform with the interactivity of Minecraft and the immersion of virtual reality. Over the course of several hours at High Fidelity HQ yesterday, Rosedale demonstrated the state of the startup’s tech and the vision he has for turning it into a viable business.

“The main idea driving High Fidelity forward is the ability to quickly generate a virtual space to meet in and interact with. While the interface is far from final, it’s already at the point where you can pick a template, choose a name, and instantly have a space accessible by others. Each space is essentially a small video game world, filled in with the same 3D models you’d build for a game built with Unity.

“The startup has built enough logic that you can jump in with friends, have a quick virtual chat, and interact with the virtual space. If you want more stuff to do, you can grab or sculpt your own models and create logic in JavaScript to tell the world how interaction should work. Rosedale showed off this capability by dropping a billiards table he’s been working on in his free time into a world. Using two Razer Hydra controllers, you could pick up balls, roll them around, or throw them at one another and see them react with realistic physics. Similarly, the studio has invested a ton of time into naturalistic facial/gesture capture and 3D audio, making it the closest thing to the ideal virtual reality chatroom.

“If you can code it, you can build basically anything into High Fidelity’s worlds. Between alpha users and the team’s developers messing around in their own time, people have built procedurally generated cities and AI-powered animals that wander around realistically — and that’s just scratching the surface of what’s possible.

“As with Second Life, High Fidelity doesn’t plan to sell you a one-time license in exchange for unlimited play. In fact, the base of the experience is open source, letting anyone host worlds on their own machines with less of a hassle than even the kid-friendly Minecraft.

“Rosedale plans to monetize High Fidelity at the points where the community provides value to itself. While you can generate a temporary name to send to friends so they can quickly jump into a world with you, you’ll also be able to pay a fee to keep a distinct name for longer-term use — kind of like reserving a good URL for your site or username on Twitter.

“Since users can make all kinds of content for their worlds, High Fidelity also wants to host the go-to repository for models and code in a digital store resembling Unity’s Asset Store. Given the product’s open source approach, generous users can give out their offerings for free if they’d like, but if they want to charge money, High Fidelity will take a small cut.

“As I’ve noted before, advertising is probably going to be common in virtual reality. Some might hear that and groan, but in “contemporary” virtual settings, ads done right can actually contribute to immersion. Rosedale says the startup is looking to make ads not only feel natural in High Fidelity, but helpful: while there might be ads for “real” products on in-game televisions or billboards down the road, in the near-term you’re more likely to see ads for cool objects you can pick up from the asset store.

“Virtual reality allows for an infinite range of experiences, and the studios and hobbyists working on content for headsets from market leaders Oculus and Samsung have barely touched on what’s possible. For now, the majority of development in the space happens in traditional game engines like Unity and Unreal. High Fidelity’s deployable worlds put it somewhere between those professional tools and the most customizable video games, opening up innovation in the space to those who are willing to get technical but don’t want to build something from the ground up.:

We are on the cusp of some exciting developments!

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

Improving Viewer Performance

by

The Second Life Wiki has a wealth of information for Second life residents — from answering frequently asked questions, to how to manage private regions, to improving viewer performance.

For those of you using the SL viewer, I thought I would share some good information that can be found in the Wiki regarding how to get the most out of your SL experience by a few tweaks of the viewer. The full article can be found by clicking here: How To Improve Viewer Performance.

Linden Lab suggests always maintaining your computer to run at it’s optimal performance. This can be achieved by following these simple steps:

• Routinely removing unwanted files and programs from the system.
• Defragmenting your disk drive regularly.
• Using anti-Malware software to remove spyware, virues, and other malware.

Follow the recommendations here to improve overall performance of Second Life and to address many common problems.

THE BASICS
• Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements. (Click here: SL’s Minimum System Requirements). It’s best to exceed them to prevent bottlenecks, since they are the bare minimum required to run Second Life. A slower processor, older video card, or low memory can contribute to slow framerates.

• Make sure you have working drivers for your video card. Search the SL Forum for posts on your video card. The latest driver is not always the best. (See my previous post on AMD Driver Updates Wrecking Havoc with Mesh).

• Make sure your firewalls are properly configured. Click on the following link for firewall information: Using Second Life with a firewall.

• Check to see if your hard drive light is showing a lot of activity. If it is, your system may be running low on memory and using hard drive swap space instead, which is significantly slower.

Based on statistics collected by Linden Lab:
• If you are using Windows 8, make sure you have upgraded to Windows 8.1. Our statistics show that Second Life crashes half as often on Windows 8.1 compared to Windows 8.0.

• If you are using Mac OSX, upgrade to 10.9.3. Our statistics show that 10.9.3 crashes one third less than 10.7.5.

• Use a 64-bit version of Windows if you can. Even though Linden Lab doesn’t offer a fully 64-bit viewer for Second Life as of July 2014, statistics show that Second Life running on 64-bit operating systems crashes half as often as on 32-bit systems.

Important: Second Life allows but does not support wireless connections. Always use a hardwired connection if possible.

OPTIMIZE YOUR DISPLAY PREFERENCES
Optimize your preferences to help Second Life run more efficiently. Try the following:
• Choose Me > Preferences
• Click on the Graphics tab.
• Move the Quality and speed slider to Low.
• Click the Advanced button
• Move the settings on the Mesh detail sliders to “Mid” or “Low.”

Autoplaying music and media can be very demanding on some PC equipment. Use manual play instead:
• Choose Me > Preferences > Sound & Media
• Deselect Allow Media to auto-play.

Review the rest of your preference settings disable any unused features:
• Choose Me > Preferences or press Ctrl-P).
• Try disabling settings such as Play typing animation, Name tags, and Arrow keys always move me.
• Even minor items can add up to significant improvements in performance.

For more information, click here: Setting your preferences.

DON’T DISPLAY EXTRANEOUS THINGS
Make sure your Viewer is not displaying unnecessary information that may reduce performance:
• Choose World > Show> Advanced Menu.
• Choose Advanced > Highlighting and Visibility.
• Select Hide Particles.

Also to improve performance by eliminating gratuitous visual noise:
• Choose World > Show
• Disable Property Lines and Land Owners.

MANAGE YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE
To prevent false cache virus alerts and improve texture cache performance, turn off virus scanning for the following directories and add them to the list of ignored (trusted) directories for Norton AntiVirus:
• The Second Life skins directory, C:\Program Files\SecondLife\skins.
• The Second Life cache directory. To determine this directory:
1. Choose Me > Preferences.
2. Choose the Advanced tab.
3. Look for the Cache location setting.

Click here for Technical overview of Second Life security.

TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
If you followed the advice above and are still experiencing performance problems, try the following.
• Exit and restart Second Life. This often is enough to fix the problem.
• Clear the cache. The cache is where the Second Life Viewer stores data on your hard drive for later retrieval.
To clear the cache:
1) Choose Me > Preferences.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click Clear Cache.
4) After you’re prompted, restart the Viewer.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: FIRESTORM VIEWER EXPERTS RECOMMEND THAT USERS DO NOT CLEAR CACHE EXCEPT IN SPECIFIC SITUATIONS)

Check the Lag Meter:
• Choose Advanced > Performance Tools > Lag Meter. The lag meter breaks lag down into Client, Network, and Server lag, with corresponding indicators for each lag type.
• Click >> to reveal descriptions and advice for solving any lag problems you are having.
• Try teleporting to a quieter area or one with fewer objects, to see if the situation improves.
• Disable antialising.

Check your Ping Sim and Packet Loss values:
• Choose Advanced > Performance Tools > Statistics Bar to open the STATISTICS window.
The ping values are the time (in milliseconds) it takes to reach the server from your computer. If this number is high, it could indicate a problem with your network or internet connection. If Packet Loss is a nonzero number, your network or ISP may be having issues. See Using the statistics bar for more information.

• Check to see if there is anything blocking your computer’s ventilation ports, and make sure all the fans are working properly. Laptops in particular can get quite hot when placed on a flat surface, so you may want to try propping yours on a stand to increase airflow, or consider buying a cooling device like a “chill mat”.

• Finally, if you’ve overclocked or made other modifications to your computer, disable them until you can attain stability. You can use tools like Prime95 to stress-test your computer independently of Second Life.

USING THE STATISTICS BAR
The statistics bar presents a detailed list of information about the performance of your computer and Second Life. While the sheer amount of information can be confusing, knowing what to look for can tell you a lot about what’s going on in Second Life.

To view the Statistics Bar, choose Advanced > Performance Tools > Statistics Bar.

Please keep in mind that some of these tweaks may improve performance (i.e. reduce crashing, reduce lag, etc.) but they also may affect the visual look of Second Life. By lowering graphics settings, turning off antialiasing, etc. it will affect the quality. You will trade performance for sharp visual quality. Play with the settings until you can get a balance of performance and visual appeal.

FIRESTORM VIEWER USERS: I strongly recommend joining the in-world Firestorm Users Group. There, you can get instant online help from FS staff as well as users. Also they frequently hold in-world classes on the viewer. I highly recommend these classes. They are extremely helpful.

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