Jun 26, 2010

Tame Those Sculpties! (Second Life)

Ok, with the updates on Viewer 2 I've noticed that Sculpties tend to have a hard time rezzing correctly. If you're one of those people in-world who are afflicted with Sculptie Dysfunction (it's treatable, I swear!) then read on:

Simply crack open the Debug Settings (located in Advanced menu)

  • Getting the Advanced menu to show up: Press CTRL ALT D
Then Type in the Debug Box: RenderVolumeLODFactor

You'll then see the following:



Chances are, it's set to something really low, like 1.25 which would be the problem with the sculpties not rezing correctly. Simply set that number to at least 4 in order to get the sculpties to load up the way the digital gods intended.

Enjoy the quick fix!

Jun 25, 2010

vBusiness Link




This week has definitely been an interesting and productive week in the virtual world, with the announcement of Mark Kingdon stepping down from CEO of Linden Lab and Phil Rosedale filling the void, to the uneasy silence on community issues from Mr Rosedale's speech at SL7B, the virtual world has been all abuzz as to the implications going forward.

Among this, though, it was business as (un)usual for myself on behalf of Pixel Labs, as I gave a presentation during the grand opening of vBusiness Link in Second Life. While the rest of the virtual world fretted and dissected the meanings of what was said in Linden Lab this week, I was busy addressing a rather large turnout in The Crucible (Auditorium) of vBusiness Link sim in Second Life, and explaining why it is imperative that we consistently do everything wrong.
I wouldn't say my performance was stellar, but I did manage to get my points across in a manner by which the audience was pleased. With a total turnout of around 24 simultaneous attendees, it is safe to say the presentation was a success.







It is at this point you may be wondering exactly what vBusiness Link is all about?

vBusiness Link is a virtual community of practice, specializing in virtual business operations and supportive services, for entities wishing to harness virtual environments and/or virtualized systems in their day to day operations. Through experience, client engagement, comprehensive capabilities and extensive research, we collaborate with customers to achieve milestones through prudence and mindful conversation.

It's also an interesting business community to explore, and attend for presentations and classes when available. With offices for rent, business services, and attention to detail.

The presentation carried on for about two hours, despite being scheduled for one hour, and the crowd enjoyed the interactive portion of the presentation which saw the group taking a field trip to the Pixel Labs island for a marketing challenge. While I strived to do absolutely everything wrong in the first half of my presentation (reading off of the slides, using dark backgrounds for good news, giving the presentation a ridiculously long name) the point of which was to illustrate the massive difference between that and how to actually do it right in the second half of the presentation.

vBusiness Link is scheduled up until August 2010 with presentations, so by all means check their website and find out who will be coming to the Crucible soon! If you're interested in doing a presentation at vBusiness Link, I'd suggest getting in contact with the staff there to make arrangements. As they are booking up quickly, I was lucky to have been invited personally to present on opening day, and I didn't disappoint with the crowd :)

Visit vBusiness Link: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Business%20Link/129/108/27

vBusiness Link Website: http://wwww.vbusinesslink.net

Presentation Download: http://bit.ly/9g7xtc [slideshare link]



Jun 9, 2010

SecondLife Gets a Dose of Reality

With a 30% expected reduction in staff at LindenLab, and a push toward a browser based integration solution, any betting man (or woman) can see that the powers that be over at SecondLife don't seem to understand the magnitude of what they've taken on.

Simply put, you can't remove the technology evangelists from the equation, toss in some high profile management and a world-class marketing team, and redesign the viewer while expecting the ship to continue to float. At some point, one must realize you've essentially ripped the soul out of the company.

In the world of virtual environments, you need that holistic thinking if you want to succeed.

One of two things is happening at Lindenlab right now:
  1. They are hitting dire straights and trying to spin it so it doesn't look as bad as it seems.
  2. They are trying to lower operating costs to maximize revenue so they can paint a big red "buy out" target on the company.
I'll let you decide.