Sun 30 Sep 2007
Filed under: Odds and Ends
Today in Second Life we had:
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More: continued here
Sun 30 Sep 2007
Filed under: Odds and Ends
In the latest issue of Wired, there’s a short supplement called ‘Geekipedia’, which is a compendium of all the latest trends, Web 2.0 issues, and general tech hotbuttons, in Encyclopedia format. As I was flipping through it, I noticed an ad for the Intel Core 2 Duo line of machines on the back cover. This series features a single person repeated a few times, in varying attitudes and poses. These ads are meant to indicate the power of the Duo line by stating that one can just do more with this processor.
The ad on the back cover features a SL avatar, replete with long purple hair, blue-furred (or -feathered) ears, and slick fashion-worward clothing, jumping or flying or dancing, it’s hard to tell against the black background. The ad copy reads ‘Enhance your Second Life world experience with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.’ It goes on to talk about Intel’s in-world sim, complete with coordinates. Elsewhere in this issue is a similar ad featuring a Blood Elf from World of Warcraft.
So, from this we can see that Intel’s not afraid to throw in and promote their involvement with SL to the masses, as well as marketing directly to SL residents. I don’t know how much involvement LL had in this ad, or who the avatar in the picture is. Does this ad benefit anyone other than Intel? Would it attract non-residents to SL?
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More: continued here
Sun 30 Sep 2007
Filed under: News
SceneCaster is a new company that lets you create your own mini-virtual space on your website. This article writes up what the author considers its main features, and they’re pretty good ones, including the integration of Google’s 3D Warehouse, which will likely mean higher-res models in your scene. There is still so little known about SceneCaster, though, that I almost hate to try to make comparisons between it and SL, but here we go:
Read the main points on that article, then return. Got it? Okay. SL’s main selling point is its user-creation tools, which SceneCaster does not have. Let’s say you want to use SceneCaster for marketing. If you’re using the 3D Warehouse for your objects, what are the chances any of those objects will include your product in 3D form? If they don’t, what are you gaining by having your own 3D space?
Secondly, the social aspect of virtual spaces. You will go to where your friends are, no matter what the space they inhabit looks like. Hi-res 3D models or not, if your friends are there, you’re there. This is as old as IRC, which still exists and is still popular, despite its continued lack of graphics. So is SceneCaster really any sort of threat to SL? Chime in, O Learned Audience.
(Via webpronews)
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More: continued here
Sun 30 Sep 2007
Filed under: News
Thanks to the new VAT bombshell, one of SL’s most beautiful and influential sims is in danger of disappearing. Lauk’s Nest, created by Laukosargas Svarog, was later sold to Lukas Mensing when Svarog decided to pursue other projects. Lukas has been maintaining it ever since. However, Lukas’s VAT on Lauk’s Nest is 25%, which is rather steep. So now Lauk’s Nest is once again available for sale. It could be saved by someone from a non-VAT-enabled country purchasing it, or we could try a different approach.
WIth the exception of the sim that Linden Village is on, does LL own and maintain any other areas? I’d love to see LL take over Lauk’s Nest and host it for the enjoyment of all. Think about it: it’s famous, it’s an amazing build, it’s great for PR purposes. You could call it SL’s Yosemite National Park. LL could use it in all their promotional materials as a shining example of the possibilities of SL. When the mainstream press is still so hung up on all the sensational aspects of SL, a showing like this would help to offset that perception. What do you think? Any other ideas?
(Thanks, Morris!)
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More: continued here
Sun 30 Sep 2007
Filed under: Mixed Reality
Having been in a few Focus Groups for various products in RL, I was curious about this article, which focuses on Hyro, an online services company, and their recent experiment with conducting a focus group in SL.
You can read the lists of what did and didn’t work yourself, so I won’t repeat them here. I’m curious about what a recurring focus group setup would take. Clearly, to participate one would have to already have an account in SL; anything else would be too complicated and messy. Also, what products would be best suited for talking about in SL? You would have to talk specifically about its look, or the feelings engendered by the product, to have meaningful interaction. No passing around a gadget, or playing a new game, or tasting a new snack.
Actually, does it make sense to do focus groups at all?
(Via sitepoint)
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More: continued here
Sun 30 Sep 2007
With Havok 4 now live in beta on the beta-grid (actually it’s Havok 4.6), Andrew Linden scheduled a session yesterday to talk about the deployment and testing process for the new physics engine.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen family commitments, Andrew could not be there, but Program Manager Sidewinder Linden took his place. Thanks to Pavig Lok for providing us with a transcript of the session, we’ve summarized the key items for you below the fold.
“As you probably are well aware this is a project that’s been in motion for a long time, with a variety of issues holding it back, so part of this was figuring out how to clear the roadblocks, help people focus and figure out which features should be taken off the map to get here.”
Sidewinder Linden outlined the basic goals for the current Havok 4 beta. “First is to see how many crash modes are left in the current build. We have tried ‘a number of interesting toys’ and haven’t seen much that can crash the current sim, which is hopefully good news. frankly, i’d like to know if there are any ‘kill modes’ left for these sims … With that said, please do NOT go trouncing through the beta world and kill off all the sims if you find one, ok? that’s not too nice to everyone else :)”
“Second is to try to make sure that we don’t break existing content. As much as possible, we’d like for things that used to work on havok1 to continue to work with havok4. I know, and we know, that you will find things that don’t work the same in havok4, whether in products or behavior - if you find products and scripts that don’t seem to work right, or the same, please post a JIRA [issue] with the specifics so that we can take a look at it, ok?”
How soon can we expect Havok 4?
“Rollout is as soon as possible,” says Sidewinder, “but how [soon] that will happen depends on this beta, and how many bugs there are to clear. I’m sure we will have some real work to do as a result of the beta, so we won’t be going to the main grid right away. We will likely do another beta round (or more although i hope to have it go two cycles).”
The actual rollout on the main grid will most likely be staged, Sidewinder said. “We will be using hetgrid to start with havok4 on a very few regions in a “corner” of the world, and then expand from there as it looks like we’re ready.”
On testing, “The trick to ‘testing physics’ in an environment like second life is that there are also a lot of interactions between av’s and objects, so the full test model is a many sided beast … one thing i’ve been working on is expanding our testing models to work through these issues.”
“This is not expected to be a super fast cycle beta because it is a highly complex replacement for everybody. There are lots of reasons to push this quickly and lots not to. The more [information] we have reported in terms of items that don’t work, the more we can look at fixing.”
Sidewinder is maintaining a Wiki page on the Havok beta here.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More: continued here