Update: The below machinima was, sadly enough, not shot in Second Life, but is a demo of the the nVidia PhysX fluid physics. I refer you to this comparison of the nVidia PhysX fluid physics demo being rendered on the the CPU - Central Processing Unit - and then the GPU - Graphic Processiong Unit. Replacing Lindsey Warwick’s video with the test comparison one, and hoping she just ‘mistagged’ in stead of intentionally fooling me! ;)
Image for your Second Life: pools of blood and/or champagne, throwing water balloons, wet t-shirt contests, fountains of eternal avatar youth, … . All those might be already possible, if you just know how to activate them*, who knows what the SL physics engine already is capable off? Take a look at this machinima by Lindsey Warwick (human: Sara Carter), shiny bump maps, shading & liquid, bloody water, it has it all:
Don’t ask me ‘how’, I’m just as ‘muchos curiositos’ as you! ;) Things were obvious to graphical juicy to be true. :d If you already know, care to tell? But if the big flood would someday hit the grid, this end of Second Life’s drought would be a great step for virtual mankind! Still, shall we start building a solid prim ark, big enough to hold 60,000 concurrency? ;)
* For the wet tshirt contest tshirts, just alpha the entire tshirt at least 25% (so soft grey on your alpha channel in photoshop) or just the places you want to appear ‘wet’, et voila, the needed bits will shine through.
Recently both me and ArminasX - pronounce ‘Ar-min-AXE’ - wrote about How to pick a great SL avie name (and what to avoid). Of course, our problem was that we would only reach people that are already registered and read or blog, or who google for ‘avatar name’, etc. Miss Dandellion Kimban found the *prrrr*fect solution: Give name creation guidelines at the Second Life & other registration pages.
The JIRA issue that could use your vote is #WEB-809 and titled ‘name guidelines on the registration page’:
So many residents have “ugly” names, those that are hardly pronounceable, hard to remember and spell, with numbers… and after a month they are not happy with them. We all register all over the Web and rarely those usernames are used for anything other than registering, so it really doesn’t matter what the name is. But in SL names are important, they are part of the identity and they are used daily.
Please, put some text on the registration page explaining this to new residents. There are few good sets of guidelines for making a good name, like Vint Falken’s http://www.vintfalken.com/how-to-choose-a-second-life-avatar-name-10-tips and ArminasX Saiman’s http://www.secondeffects.com/2008/06/how-cool-is-your-avatars-name.html as a starting point.
This JIRA issue is already assigned to the ‘WorkingOnIt Linden’, so I guess it will happen eventually. But not a bad idea to speed up eventually with a few votes, especially if you are tired to talking to John69, Frank45, Vint1984, … . ;) Another nice suggestion is made on this JIRA issue by Marx Dudek: ‘I agree wholeheartedly on this issue. Further, perhaps a one-time name change option be made available (for, say, $25 or something, or as part of a premium account upgrade).‘. What do you think? Would a 1 time general name amnesty be a good thing? Would you use it to change or refine your avatar name? Or are you happy with what you have chosen back then?
It could be you don’t have a Second Life account yet - get your ‘citizenship’ here -, that you are in desperate need of an alt, or just got tired of your old ‘virtual you’. What makes a great Second Life name?
10 Tips for a Second Life name, that lasts
No numbers! However convenient ‘John84′ might be to remember when ‘John’ is already taken, it’s not something you want to go by. People will have a hard time remembering your name and even more so, pronouncing it on voice. Maybe try ‘Jonathan’ instead?
Gender: Before signing up, spend a minute or two thinking about which ’sex’ you want to play, a female avatar named ‘Alexander’ just makes no sense. If you’re undecided, something gender neutral like ‘Alex’ will do just fine.
Internationalisation: Second Life has a broad audience. Names such as ‘Parthasarathy’, ‘Kanyakumari’ and ‘Małgorzata’ might be popular in your country, but hard to pronounce and spell - and thus remember - for foreigners. You could consider shorting them down: ‘Parthas’, ‘Kanya’ and ‘Malgo’.
Originality: do something funny in combination with a Second Life surname, this is a great help for people remembering you. But beware, if you make it to funny, people might not take you serious anymore! ;) Good examples: Tender Littlething, Coke Supply, Lovely Person and Totally Unsustainable. Of course, remember you will go by your first name most of the time, thus ‘Tender’, ‘Coke’, ‘Lovely’ and ‘Totally’. Oh, and you do want to avoid the most used avatar first names!
Capitalisation: Keep to the ‘real life’ way of doing this. Both first name and surname get a capital letter. So no CHRIS, cHRiS or chris as first name, please!
Length: try to keep your the total length - first & last - of your avatar name under under 15 letters. It will most likely sound better - and thus remember & spell better - than ‘Francisaner Zebrastripe’.
Match your first and last name. ‘Nevar Blackmountain’ and ‘Barry Guisse’ sound ridiculous, where as ‘Barry Blackmountain’ and ‘Nevar Guisse’ match nicely. Just say it out loud few times, and you are bound to distinguish a good from a bad name combination. Having matching letters for first and last name, seems to help. eg. Callie Cline
Inspiration: all the good ones are already taken? Why not pick one from a strange country? Consult wikipedia for ideas, but do mind ’spellability’ and ‘internationalisation’.
Association: beware the association that some first names evoke. ‘Pamela’ reminds us all of Pamela Anderson, thus choose that one only if you want to play a cheap bimbo. ;) Something like ‘Sissy’ sound playful, Joseph shouts ‘old & serious’ and ‘Margaret’ sounds ‘chilly’. What kind of person do you want to be?
Real Life: if you plan on mixing both lives, it might be interesting to start with your real first name and choose a matching Second Life last name. That way, people you know in ‘both lives’ don’t face the dilemma how to say ‘Hi!’ in Second Life, on the web and in Real Life.
For another take on this and a little test to see how good your chosen name exactly is, I refer you to Mister ArminasX - pronounce ‘Ar-min-AXE’.
Imagine what flexible sculpties would do for the SL fashion industry (moving hoodies, bouncing leg warmers?), normal building (sculptie flags?) or even the SLex industry (non-static penises, breasts bouncing up and down as you run and bouncing sexgen beds?). Flexi sculpties, a dream of many - 357 votes, a lot for JIRA standards - and a real possibility as demonstrated in the videos below. The ‘hack’ that enables flex sculpts a viewer side patch, as shown in JIRA issue VWR-9203 Flexible Sculpted Prims.
Want to test? No problem, Chalica Yao compiled a Second Life client that implements these flexible sculpted prims patches. Available for download here (as Miss Chalice asked for Mirrors). You do not need to install this client, just unpack to a folder and run it.
Do mind that this is a large hack, so don’t expect prime performance and you do not want to leave sculpties like this all around the grid, so please, clean up after testing! Zwagoth Klaar, one of the ‘parents’ of this patch shares some good advice: ‘Appears that scale has to be applied using the method for normal prims, not the one for sculpts. This seems to fix things. It also brings up another issue with these. You lose half your resolution because things that are in the negative region of the flexible do not behave correctly, this caused me a large amount of confusion, it makes things warp and flip inside out, also causes distortions. So, for the moment, people wanting to create sculpts for this, should keep their exports above the 0,0,0 center of the sculpt frame, or it will not behave correctly. Objects flex along the Z axis, keep that in mind.‘
Once more, thanking Mr Malburns for pointing this out to me.
Major changes compared to Feburary, as I switched sources to SLnamewatch.com. For Second Life surnames, Adz Childs currently only has a list available of the most popular ones you can still register for, I hope he soon publishes an overview that takes into account all last names.
More SL avatar name facts
The most popular surnames exist of 2 letters only: 4413 avatars on average / last name. ‘Oh’ and ‘Ah’ are most popular. ‘Go’ is surprisingly unpopular.
There are 2,847,973 avatars with a last name that consists of 6 letters. A record, followed closely by 2,680,595 avatars with a 5 letter surname.
Longest Second Life last name is ‘Triskaidekaphobia’, which means having an irrational fear of the number 13.
Most SL avatars have an 6 letter first name, 2,956,376 avies to be precise.
In ‘A different view on Second Life‘ I asked how that amazing stereo 3D machinima of Second Life could have been created. Was there a stereo Second Life client I knew nothing about?! Kippie Friedkin from The Grid Life was quick to point me in the right direction: the UM3D lab from Michigan University did develop such a thing - and other interesting stuff such as a Virtual Jet Ski Driving Simulator: ‘… the 3D Lab added support for stereoscopic viewing. Wearing low-cost stereo glasses, users can now experience the 3d world of Second Life in full stereo. Objects pop out of the screen and terrains stretch into infinity, a truly unique enhancement for exploring 3d worlds. Linden Lab will soon provide the stereo function as a standard feature of its viewer. Using anaglyph technology or polarized light, Second Life can be experienced in stereo on laptops or desktops as well as on advanced projection systems similar to IMAX theatres‘.
Dale’s 3D Stereo Viewer
‘Linden Lab will soon provide the stereo function as a standard feature of it’s viewer’ is a rather dubious statement, depending on your definition of soon, but yes, they are working on it. In the mean while, for all your stereography delight, you should try Dale Glass’s 3D Stereo Client which comes in both Windows as well as Linux version. Binaries as well as source files, FAQ and a whole lot extra can be found on Daleglass.net.
Not only the stereographic capabilities - anaglyph (the red/green thingie), passive and shutter glasses - are interesting, but also a different download and update system then we are used from Linden deploys of the client: ‘This version features an improved installer that automatically grabs files from existing SL installations, and only downloads what can’t be obtained from the user’s system. This drastically reduces the size of the download: Instead of the 35MB or so of the official viewer, each update only needs to download about 5MB.‘ For Visa users, beware, this - probably - caused my install to file the first time. Second try all went well, so don’t give up! ;)
Even if you’re not to keen on Second Life ’snapshottery’, you can still enjoy this viewer: zoom in a bit (ctrl+0) and just start running (ctrl+r to toggle ‘run’ on) around the grid! Mind that you can get seriously dizzy from doing that! ;)
How to work Dale’s Stereoscopic Client
You’ll find that the client - based on 1.18 - feels like a jump back into time, and that the graphics tab feels strangely uncomfortable. Regardless, that’s where you need to be:
Go into Edit >Preferences > Advanced Graphics Tab.
Located ‘Anaglypic System’ and turn that one one.
In the Graphics Tab set your draw distance to beyond 200-something, as it is standard set to a boring and ineffective for stereography 64 meters. (I had it on max. for my stereo images here.)
Locate ‘anti aliasing’ and turn that on.
Save & close the Preferences Settings.
Start taking stereo Second Life images!
Tips for great stereo images
Get a neutral or big same coloured areas as background, this makes your front image ‘jump out’ more.
Shoot a scene with not to much colour in it. To much different colours will lessen the stereographic effect.
As with RL photography (and normal SL photography), frame your image to have a a clearly divided ‘foreground’, ‘in-between’ and ‘background’. This will enhance the stereographic effect. A good example is the image of me at the Darklands Cemetery. You can place an object on the foreground by clearly cutting it off with your frame.
To have larger ’stereographic differences’ (red & cyan zones are bigger), thus a better effect, you need to fool your Second Life camera. Zoom out a lot (scroll mouse) and then zoom in again using ctrl+0. (Ctrl+9 will restore your settings to default. If using the number pad does not work, use the numbers on top of your keyboard.) Sometimes you will want to do the reversed with ctrl+8 though. Experiment! ;)
RL rule that goes for SL too: bright & heavily coloured items will appear closer, dark ones farther away. Perfect example: my (lovely, no?) pink skirt in the Darklands Cemetery stereo image that really ‘pops out’.
Don’t shoot your scenes to dark. The red/green glasses you were for viewing stereo images filter out certain temperatures of light, and thus make that less light gets to your eyes, thus that things appear darker.
Personal taste, but I ’stereo thingies’ looked best at ’sunset’ settings.
Dale’s 3D Viewer drawbacks
Most of these drawbacks are because the client build is based on a very old official Linden client: 1.18. This means that there’s no glow, no WindLight, alpha textures don’t always render that well (see the carrots at greenies lawn) and it tends to dislike sculpted prims. Regardless, it’s an impressive client to play around with! I just don’t think I’ll use it full time for dizziness reasons! ;)
I guess this makes Second Life a (3D)² world when playing with this client? Sadly enough, no info on where to get the client, and not much on the Teen Grid Resident ‘Trifile Toshi’ - except for a Flickr Stream - that uploaded this 3D machinima. Trifile, if you read this, please share with us, any way to _get_ that ’stereographic’ Second Life client. Would love to try it for snapshotting! (And even if you just post-processed the video, would be swell to know how you did that. ;)) Stereography works with two slightly different camera angles layered over each other, which - in combination with the red/cyan difference - creates an illusion of depth. Best viewed with appropriate glasses!
Most of us remember the time when ‘WindLight’ was a vague promise by the Lindens. Some remember the invention of ‘click clack shoes’ and ‘facelights’. And a few avatars originate from the ‘no attachments’ virtual world era. But did you ever see footage of terraforming - the only possible way - by throwing grenades? Have you heard of ‘bouncing water’ - liquids! - and tsunamis? A flashlight on your camera? A ecosystem with ‘Ators’ which ate birds, which ate rocks? Population control with grenades? But does anybody remember ‘LindenWorld’? Good times, when every avatar owned a gun! ;)
Jesse & Andrew Linden share machinima footage shot with a revived 2001 build of the LindenWorld / Second Life client. Call it ‘Retro Second Life’! When can we play? Jesse says: ‘Although we lost the destructive power of grenades, I still think we made it a better world’. I’m not sure and now want popcorn and explosions! Behold this little piece of Second Life history:
Satisfying widespread curiosity and - hopefully - high expectations, Exit Reality - tagline ‘The entire web in 3D!’ - is set to launch tomorrow, or late(r) tonight, depending on your timezone, Danny Stefanic confirms on err… Facebook. ‘You will be one of the first people on the planet to view, interact and chat with fellow attendees in the Exit Reality Plaza. From there you can explore the millions of worlds online and decorate your own webspace in 3D.‘ 2AM London UK, so 6PM SLT (today, Sept 17th).
To visit the ExitReality Plaza in 3D, go to this rather strangely build url at launch time! If you have not installed the ExitReality plug-in before, you will be asked to do so in order to enter. If you have previously installed our Private Beta version, you will be asked to upgrade to the all new version. I wonder - and am anxious to test - what http://3d.exitreality.com/?q=http://www.vintfalken.com will lead to! ;)
Ariana Barnes was one of ExitReality’s beta testers and shares a review on virtualunderworld.net. A short summary of Exit Reality’s pro’s and con’s (anno July 2008), until we all can discover it for ourselves:
ExitReality Pro
Real time chat functionality connecting people visiting the same websites. Indeed, see Weblin.
Standards: VRML - Virtual Reality Modeling Language, which is X3D’s ancestor.
Automatically convert Web 2D to VRML. Special designed templates for popular websites. (Check Ariane’s post & Mr Ambling’s.)
ExitReality Cons (or could use more work)
Does not do FF3.
Cheesy, stupid name. Right, let’s add to the stigma that virtual worlds’ inhabitants already suffer.
Cheesy, boring avatars: VRML was never designed for displaying human like avatars.
Still, curious - I admit my mesh is far from perfect humanish real in Second Life anyway - and wondering how far we can push those breast sliders in VRML! ;)
Thought of and directed by Arahan Claveau & Nebulosus Severine ‘Orientation’ is a short, funny machinima featuring rabbits that bare a huge resemblance to George Orwell’s ‘1984′ characters going through an orientation process to end up in a factory which is a combination between a ‘this is how the body works’ instruction video & a Soylent Green like setting. Strangely enough - Arahan (or Steve Miller, for the humans) being involved there is a total lack of ’shock’ content. Except of course, if you are broadly offended by rabits holding an ‘I <3 anal' sign. Shot at Virtual Holland by Chantal Harvey. Overall judgement: cute, with a lovely sick twist!
Update: Apparently the previous video was removed from youtube. I wonder if it was because of the ‘I <3 anal' sign? Anyway, here you go:
What really does crank me up is the song that’s playing in the background. It’s a melodic version of a song I only know in Dutch ‘Sex met die Blonde’ (Sex with the Blond haired girl, low quality youtube link). What’s the English original, assuming there is one?
If you want to see more from Arahan Claveau & Nebulosus Severine, make sure to check out Arahan Claveau’s stream at Blip.TV For Nebulosus, you should also check out video & photo material from her Garden of NPIRL Delights build and check out the work she did with Callie Cline on a dress for Passion of Black Swan for which she is one of the participating designers.
Where do all those ‘virtual worlds’ keep coming from? For being a ‘total failure’ as some people claim, Second Life must sure as hell be inspiring! Next in ‘can I haz virtual world’ line is Next Island, based on MindArk’s Entropia Universe. Host and co-founder of Next Island is Katlean de Monchy, - apparently - a famous television personality. Next Island seems a bit confusing offering real money and prizes and virtual fantasies at the same time. Tagline: ‘Live your fantasies in a Virtual World!’ I wonder if that means they are inviting all the furries over, and how they plan to distinguish between ‘commonly accepted’ and ‘down right dirty’ fantasies.
update: Sign ups for Next Island will be fixed/restored/working again starting Wednesday (that’s the 1st of October) I was told. Release for the world itself (as previously mentioned, based on the Entropia Universe, so it is more or less a planet - is scheduled for January/February 2009.
“Next Island Membership (which is free) will be able to set up and live a virtual life in a parallel universe paradise, find a fantasy profession with real cash benefits, pioneer new lands, even time travel.” According to David Post, Next Island’s creator, “the mission is to have netizens keep coming back because the experience is both fun and financially rewarding.” Next Island will be officially announced September 22, 2008.
Although Next Island did not launch yet, the site promises rewards for joining and some functionality already: ‘Next Island’s revolutionary virtual world will launch later this year. But you don’t have to wait—you can win free gifts, choose and learn your virtual career, bid on a celebrity, and make new friends NOW. All you have to do is SIGN UP—it’s free.‘ I must note that the ‘click here to see who’s winning what’ link is a dead one! :D Looking at their ‘what you can do in a virtual world’ video there is nothing we - second life avies - can’t do. As far as their claim that they will have the first ‘virtual comic club’, I am sure that Zoe Demar, who even participated in ‘mixed media SL-RL comic shows’ will protest that.
Regardless, I have attempted at signing up - not sure if it works, I get referred to a ‘under construction’ page and did not get an email reply - and took a list at their - virtual - job offers. Oh, and they promise you will ‘get your starter kit to help you succeed in your new profession’ and kick start your virtual career. Worth a try? ;)
Next Island Jobs I’d consider
Blp Sniper - Hunt other Players for a living (Mercenary is one of those real life jobs I don’t have the guts for, but sound appealing.)
Colorer - Have a good eye then provide colouring services to all tailors and manufacturers. (Where did I put my crayons?)
Film/Video Maker (Just because I’m hoping the starter kit contains a license to Adobe Premiere Pro! ;))
Professional Revenger (See Blp Sniper)
Talk Show Host/Producer (Everybody does say the accent is cute. :D)
Professional Detective (Ruining people’s ‘real lifes’ by doing investigation work for a jealous wife or husband? Oh yes, please!)
Spaceship Pilot – Warp Speed Captain? Taxi Driver, Bus Conductor, Smuggler or Pirate hunter all these hats belong to you. (I learned from the best alien drivers: Greenies!)
Make Up Artist – paint the Faces of your Fellow Colonists – Real life Skills apply here (You mean I can be a great skin designer?! Woot! Let us call it a hidden fantasy! ;))
I definitely do not want this virtual profession
Animal Tamer – Tame certain animals to be pets and Sell them. (That’s like Furry BDSM, right?)
Mentor – Train Noobies and Be Rewarded when they Graduate. (I just don’t have the patience to over and over tell people to chat using correct spelling and grammar! ;)
Banker (Did they learn nothing from Second Life?!!)
Graphic Designer – Create Signs for shop owners, banners for the forums and Sigs for the Avatars (It’s my virtual, fantasy world, right?)
Journalist – get out there and start Writing about what’s going on. Forum pwners will love you. (I suggest this profession to that what shall not be named. Unless, she wants - for once - a different career.)
Community Developer – Find a job working for land owners (Hell no!)
What profession would you pick, if you were to start your ‘virtual career’ all over again? Take a look at the professions of ‘Next Island’ list here, or try to sign up for their service - let me know if you’re more successful at that then I was - here. Oh, for comparison reasons, does anybody know if the official secondlife.com ‘example virtual careers’ page still exists?
