Lucia in Second Life

Lucia is celebrated in Sweden on the 13th of December every year. Lucia with lit candles in her hair, and her maidens and star boys, brings light and hope to us all at a very dark time  of the year. It's an old tradition, probably a mix of Christian story's about Saint Lucia and more heathen traditions.

A heart warming ceremony

Kicki Spingflower as Lucia

And there are wonderful people in Second Life that arranges Lucia for us here too. Read all about what happens on this years Lucia  and find updated links on PG Bergman's blog, Tina's Universum.

You may have missed the one that was held today tho - it was one day early. Beautiful - and fun - traditional and modern Christmas music was played and Kicki Spingflower sang the Lucia song. In a sim dressed in snow and ice. It was all very beautiful just like Lucia should be.

The beautiful Lucia crown is available for free at CurWay Mainstore in Second Life.

Missing tail?

I've never seen a meeroo with a tail like the one on the Stair Meeroos statue they sell at Roo. Could this be the
missing tail in the tome?

But this statue isn't new so someone would have spotted it by now, wouldn't they?

I'm probably going nuts looking around Roo for clues to the future.

Resume of Interview with Levio & Allison at Sacred Tome

Sacred Tome arranged a Q&A with Levio, Malevays programmer and Alison, the community manager.

I've made a resumé for myself my partner and I think it may be useful for others too. It will not cover all that was said during the interview though. It was an hour and fortyfive minutes long. Time crammed with things you may want to know. So if you have time, listen to it. Remember this is my interpretation of what was said and what is important, always better to hear it first hand.

Link to the recording made by Donna Heartsdale: http://www.sacredtome.info/?p=10

The interviewer is Antonia Cascarino, who does an excellent job asking and forwarding questions from the audience.

A short summary about Malevay in the beginning: Catherine, Levio and Chimeric created Malevay together. Catherine in charge of marketing, Chimeric of animations and graphics and Levio for programming and scripts.

**About the upcoming expansion:

The Nocturnals, the first expansion, has been planned from the beginning. It will introduce some new species, coats, traits etc. We will be able to  keep breeding the Diurnals as well as breed the Nocturnals and crossbreed between the two. They will all be compatible.

There will only be basic coats coming from the chest we buy for the expansion. The chests will cost the same as the starter packs do now, they will eat the same food and be able to use the same stumps.

About the two Oracles: Just like Vashara has been protecting the meeroos, so has Orlex. While she sent them to different parts of the world, he led them underground to protect them. He is now coming up and we will be able to choose to join him or stay with Vashara.  It's not a good and evil side, they just have different ideas on what's the best protection for the future of the meeroos. But Levio adds that there may be a darker side to the nocturnal meeoos who has been dwelling under ground all this time.

We will choose what faction to belong to but it will be roleplay more than having any impact on breeding - at least for now.

We will still all use the same hud but there will be an updated version.

According to Levio the expansion will be introduced piece by piece as they are ready. We will not have to wait forever and then get it all at once. He uses the word soon for when the first parts will come, but soon is of course a very relative word. To us impatiently waiting - tomorrow?

**The update:

There will also be an update to the meeroos we have now. New things like coats and traits will be added to and come from existing meeroos. We will not have to buy any new boxes to get them.

Allision pointed out that the new coats may not be coming from the higher species or coats but as well from the lower ones.

They have not yet decided all about how to retire coats. But when they are retired we will no longer be able to breed them from our existing roos. If we have nests with that coat we can coax it and it will have it's coat but not pass it on to the children. Much like the Dryads works now.

If you're only gonna listen to bits of this interview I suggest the bit between 00:12:30 and 00:12:33. I hate spreading rumours that turn out to be wrong. You better listen for yourself and see what you make of it.

Antonia asked if they had considered offering a special coat if you have discovered them all, as a reward. Levio answered that they plan to keep adding new coats so there will always be more to discover.


**Other things:

There will be no petter that you pay once and then have it pet as much as you like.  They are still trying to work out a way to restore the value of regard in a way that doesn't upset everybody. No matter what they do all players will not be happy.

Levio repeats that regard matters, but the genetics is still "the king". If you try to make a Kimodo, no matter how much regard you have if the parents don't have the genetics you won't get a Kimodo.

No magic potion to make the meeroos give better nests or surgical tools so we can change the gender will be introduced.

The Bengal will come from our existing roos one day, and they are at least thinking about Captain Blackcoat since he has such a fan club.

There will not be a feature on the hud showing the rarity of a roo. We need to discover the rarity levels on our own.

There will be no stumps for more than eight meeroos. The text has to go within the 256 characters limit of the prims textfield.

If there is more than 12 homes within 20 meters it can cause problems with getting them to attach to the right stump. Levio knows what the problem is and how to fix it so when we get updated scripts that should be fixed.

Levio is not negative to the idea of emergency food that could be fed to any meeroo if it turns out to be possible to implement in the scripts.

There are no plans for changes to the sizes of meeroos.

There will be water meeroos at some point. They won't need any special habitat with water.

Mee-pets resets to zero regard when they are rebuilt because they aren't supposed to have any regard at all.

Just a final thanks to Sacred Tome for arranging and sharing this with us, to Donna Heartsdale for publishing the recording and to all participants and Antonia Cascarino for the interviewing . And to Malevay for those amazing meeroos :o)

We will get mesh in Phoenix - soon

We will get mesh in Phoenix. We won't be able to import mesh with Phoenix but to use it and see it. All this thanks to Henri Beauchamps and his work with the Cool VL viewer. And Ansariel Hiller who's got the code into the Phoenix build.

All of us that likes the v1 interface have a lot to thank them for, but so do those that want to use mesh on the grid. It can't be much fun to build or try to sell objects most users can't see.

Read more about it here on the Phoenix site. Of if you can't wait for mesh in Pheonix, try the experimental version of the  Cool VL Viewer.

My first Loch

Look at my beautiful little loch girl Nessa. Pink eyes to go with her pink paws and if she was just a tad greener she'd be a watermelon meeroo. If she has a baby boy meeroo that looks like her I'll name him Torley even if the green  is a little too pale.

Did I mention she's lazy?

She is all from our own breeding so needless to say I'm dead proud of her. She's got a handsome young loch boyfriend with dark mysterious eyes and we will hopefully have a bunch of little greenies chirping on Fort Serenity soon. 

Pet-O-Matic Magic!

Well, more mechanic than magic really.

But the Pet-O-Matic is here now - the official Malevay auto-petter. Debated of course. Some are disappointed that it's created at all, petting should be a thing you do yourself.  Some are disappointed Malevay said they wouldn't make one and then did anyway. Some had the old (with dubious scripts) auto-petter and think this is way too expensive since you have to pay for the petting it does.  Many are happy to get a legal auto-petter.

While I myself would have preferred no auto-petter at all, I think this is not such a bad compromise. You will now have to pet, or pay to get the petting done. I do wish Malevay felt more confident in enforcing the game as they intend it, but I suppose it's the price for having a company that listen to their customers. We're not spoiled with that and it sure has it's advantages too.

That meeroo on the Pet-O-Matic looks
kinda mischievous?

AND - it's really hard not to like the Pet-O-Matic when you see it. It's adorable.

It's made out of an old box and a wonderful - if somewhat greasy - oven mitten. The power comes from old batteries the clever Anthropologist that first found  the meeroos managed to somehow power with help from nature. Very mysterious, but to me how an ordinary battery works is a mystery too, so I don't mind.



How it works
You get the Pet-O-Matic for free from the main store in Roo. To make it work you need to load it with batteries (available from Roo and on the marketplace). The batteries come in four sizes:

• Mega:     24 pets a day for 7 days   (L$575)
• Large:     12 Pets a day for 7 days   (L$290)
• Medium:   8 pets a day for 7 days    (L$195)
• Small:       4 pets a day for 7 days    (L$100)

You can set the frequency in the menu, so it pets more often and then doesn't last as long. Or less often and make it last longer. And you can pause it and resume again. It will pet all meeroos within a 10 meter radius and it doesn't make any difference how many they are. (To measure, make a cylinder 20x20 meters and hollow it or make it semi transparent. It can be set to pet your meeroos only or your own plus any fellowshipped meeroo.

Yay! I got a Sula

Had to try my luck again, so I went to Roo and bougth three more nests. And there he was, the watcher of the North..

He is awfully pretty, isn't he? But they all are of course. With meeroos I tend to fall in love with them just by looking at them.

Now I have all four of them and no clue how to get them to give me their warning message.

Went to Roo last night and looked for clues there but I couldn't find anything. The crack in the ground from all those quakes is getting larger, the buildings are falling down and there was this meeroo statue home nose down.

If you want to give these dryads a visit they are on mainland in the region Ess. Just by the road, you can actually drive there. We have a limit to how many meeroos we are supposed to have on our sim, so these are housed with a friend.

No worries, even if they are just by the road they are very well protected.

Messenger meeroos are here

The Oracle created them from leaves she found in the ashes after the second great war. The Ancients were losts, man had used them in their warfare and now they were all dead. She blow life into four leaves and sent four Dryads to watch over the North, the South, the East and the West.

The Troo - probably the most common of them.
I like it's subtle colors and the warm green.

The Myrr with striking autumn colors.

That is - in a very abbreviated version - the background of the limited edition of messenger meeroos that is being sold from now to september 20, at the store in Roo and on the Second Life Marketplace. You buy a random nest for L$300.

They can be bred like any meeroo, but won't pass traits special to them like eyes and coats. It will be interesting to see what is in them.

They are pretty of course. And like all meeroos very well made. I am a little partial to the more down to earth looking meeroos tho. But they are very photogenic so I couldn't resist showing some pics of the three I have (at least so far).

You'd think being so special they might be a bit stuck up, but nope - they are just as sweet as any meeroo. Skips around and sleep in a bunch around the food bowl. And stretch up to you to be cuddled in that way you just can't resist.

The Azra the second rarest.

I don't have the very rarest of them all - Sula the watcher of the North. I'll see if I will take the chance at the nest lottery again or not. To buy one right now from someone else cost so much it seems cheaper to play the lottery. But then again I may just settle for the ones I have. They are pretty enough for me :o)

Fort Serenity Meeroo Ranch has opened

We - Major McCaw and Molly Wellesley and me - have opened a store where we breed our Meeroos. We sell the pretty and natural habitats with waterfalls, and nice little huts to use as covers for the nests. Meeroos love to hide themselves and any treasures they find under the huts so we made them go up and down on a single left click.

The water and rock in the habitats texturechange so they fit in any landscape. They come in different versions and sizes too. Major has added demos with rings to show optimal placings if you want more than one stump, which of course I have ignored in favor of a  pleasant chaos. I do have to admit tho, his meeroos seems to hang out quite happily anyway and it is a lot easier to pet his meeroos than mine :o)

We sell nests too of course.

Everyone is of course welcome to visit us and the meeroos just to say hi or look around. We have lots of different coats and traits now. Reds, Autumn, Sierra and Molly even has an Amber now.

This is the link to visit us.

Nile Meeroo - new species is here!

The Nile Meeroo is here and it's gorgeous. The proud owner kindly tp'd us to see it. Felt like being part of a historical moment.

He did his best to hide in his stump, but then I suppose he got curious about us too, so he came out to take a look.

A Meeroo from a new species trying to make sense of all his admirers

Had to get two pictures so you can see the coat properly. If that was a cat I'd call it blue creme.

A really neat looking new coat

Will be real exciting to see what the next generations will look like.

Breeding Meeroos

A meeroo is infertile until it is 5 days old. So you will have to wait for both of them to reach that age. The text on the Status tab of the HUD will say IMMATURE.

They need to be in season. They go through Two Days Wait, 1 Days Wait,Raise, Peak and Fall. They will mate during Raise, Peak and Fall and it doesn't make any difference which one of them they are in.

All Meeroos all over the grid of the same personalities goes into season the same day, so when they are 5 days old they will slip into the schedule for their own personality.

Their personalities have to match:

They are a perfect match for the same personality + two more

If they are both the same personality it means they also match each others seasons best, which does make things easier.

When they are ready to mate the male will build a nest and wait for the female to come add a little Meeroo to it. There is love of course. In a cute PG way with hearts floating.

Once the nest has a Meeroo in it you can coax it or put it in your inventory. Unlike live Meeroos a nest can stay in inventory as long as you like.

Now begins a new wait. After they have made a nest they will both have to wait 5 days before they can breed again. The text on the Status tab will say TOO SOON until they are ready again. After 5 days they will enter the season schedule just like when they became mature.

A Masked Emperor Meeroo skips in the grass

An empress actually, a little Japanese Meeroo girl. Very sweet and happy. This is one of the new coats I really like. There are still some I haven't seen other than on pictures, like the Cinder coat. I'll keep looking for that :)

If you came here to see how it looks and want to see them all, the best place for that is at Mo's place in SL. I'm not sure Mo wants a link to her place published here, and she's not online for me to ask. But ask for a LM in the Wonderful World of Meeroos group and you'll get one (or many lol). She makes a chart (that you can buy for L$0) and updates it with the new coats as fast as she can. It would be great if everyone that finds a new coat in their nest sent a picture to Mo.

The cinder coat looks good too, but I still haven't been able to see any live to get a snapshot of my own.

I have so much I'd like to write about Meeroos, but between RL and taking care of those little angels there isn't much time for anything else.

A waterfall habitat for Meeroos

Look what was waiting for me when I woke up this morning. Major has built a brand new waterfall habitat for my little Meeroos, with a little lake in ground level so they can walk up to the water. Just large enough to have a couple of stumps set to 5 meter range like I do. And it texture changes so the Meeroos can pick different waters and rocks every day if they like. Naaa.... I think I'll choose textures, some of them are mischievous and we could end up with an iceberg in the park :o)

He's made a larger one too for more wide ranging Meeroos. They will show up in the Fort Serenity Waterfalls store soon so others can have one too.

The Meeroos liked it too, looked at it with that special curiosity they have. I swear my Meeroos are real little animals.

Btw, I've planted some Daisies in there. It's not really very smart since the Meeroos can get lost in it. But on the other hand searching for your Meeroo and finding him like this is just so awesum it's worth it.

Ghostie Meeroo sleeps in the daisies

I've seen a Koi Meeroo!

My wonderful, amazing, fantastic partner has given me the go ahead to do a little Meeroo breeding :)

So yesterday I went searching for nice ones with my experienced friend (she's been a breeder for almost two days). I'm not buying a Koi tho unless they become a LOT cheaper. One of them went for L$ 131 000 at an auction the other day. Nope, that is not a typo and I have had it confirmed. Took a snap of it of course:

Adorable, but a bit too expensive for me.

Mesh is on it's way!

Mesh will be rolled out on the main grid between July and August. And the timeline was published in May just as Tateru Nino reported it would be. Just the fact that we got a timeline and our need to plan ahead was considered is a good sign.

It should also mean 64x64 meter max primsize. That is great news for sure :o)

Meeroos!

Cute and totally irresistable. BUT... I'm going to resist until I know a little more. I AM! I have to keep telling myself that a LOT. I better find out what I want to know fast before I just happen to come home with one. They REALLY are irresistable :)

They launched on Sunday and I bet they are already all over the grid.

I've tried to gather some facts for myself that I will share on this page. The official page is here.

There is some nice lore about them being discovered in the 1930's. Haven't studied that much, since it's not that interesting unless you actually get into it. But it does give a nice touch and the story seems to promise a lot more to be discovered.

I've read the FAQ and watched all the tutorials to get an idea of how it works. Doesn't look all that complicated, just enough to make it interesting. The video tutorials are very good and easy to follow.

They sleep when it's night in SL

I've registered on the webpage so I can see how customers are treated by the owners and each other. I care a lot about that. I'm in SL to have a pleasant time. Don't want to see group chat full of bureaucratic or condescending remarks flickering across my screen as soon as I log in. So far it's looking good, mostly nice people. The tone will be set by the creators/owners so I'll keep an eye on how that develops. I've met some very helpful people asking around today.

I like how it's based on cooperation in fellowships. You can create or join fellowships to help each other out with petting the Meeroos or looking after them. And you can mate your Meeroo with another one by setting them to a fellowship. I think that is really good for SL, just like the fact that there have already been announcements on the SL forum from at least one Meeroos owner offering a job to someone willing to pet their Meeroos. They were released two days ago, so that promises to be a growing job market. Which is good news not only for people needing a job but also to help keep new users in SL. And in the next step for content creators and sellers. There may be other job opportunities developing around Meeroos too.

I like the professionalism from the creators. The Meeroos have been through a long beta and at least as far as I can tell they seem to have listened closely to feedback. A lot of attention seems to have been payed to how they affect sim performance not to cause unnecessary lag. The FPS on the sims I've been to have not seemed to be affected much. The support infrastructure seems to be in place before the launch. There are lots of reports, pictures and videos from those taking part in the beta so a nice open process.

I like that they are a new special species that only exists here in SL.

Prices

To buy one Meeroo with a stump to live in and food for a week costs L$999. Watch the video about how to safely open the chest or you can lose the Meeroo!

Food for one berry eating Meeroo for 30 days cost L$225. For six L$1200 (I assume that feeds one Meeroo 180 days).

It costs L$1500 to convert your Meeroo to a pet not needing to be fed.

If they mate you don't have to "open" the nest at once. So you don't run the risk of suddenly drowning in Meeroos.

Tippa and Ghostie, our very own Meeroos

My resolve didn't even last long enough to get this published on the page. I thought of rewriting it, but I may as well let it serve as a warning to others. If you don't want Meeroos - don't look at them.

There was a ball at the Castle last night

A beautiful, wonderful ball at Vadstena Castle in Second Life™. We were invited by the proud owners of the castle, Ewa Aska and Gertjan Koenkamp. It is based on the one that housed King Gustav Wasa of Sweden in the 16th century. I think its history starts before that tho. The theme for the ball was a little later than that, 18th century. We were all dressed up and so awesum we all won the contest for best dress :o)

Before the ball started we were royally entertained by the show Dance In Light, a stunning glittering show with great music staring Junivers Stockholm with choreography by Medora Chevalier.

Then we were whisked off into the stylish ballroom where we pranced about elegantly in a minuet. I've put together a video from clips I filmed during the evening. I filmed less than I had wanted, didn't want to miss all that spiritual and witty conversation.

Much as I love my jeans and tanktops, isn't that just wonderful?

Short first visit to the Home and Garden Expo

The Home and Garden Expo is open. I strongly recommend a visit. It's a bit laggy but not as bad as I expected really, nowhere near as bad as the Hair fair for instance. Me and Major have just been for a short visit today but already come across some stunning content. We started in Home Expo 2 since it wasn't so crowded.

This is the dining room in an amazing 17th century manor/castle from Kismet

The manor or castle from Kismet is well textured, well built well everything. Not exactly cheap at L$ 11000 but it's obvious that a lot of time and work went into creating it.

I am something of a house collector. I couldn't resist this pretty cottage. The money goes to Relay For Life. A great excuse for shopping.

Here is the SLURL for Home Expo 1. If you want to check where it's least crowded for the moment it's better to search for Home Expo on the world map and pick a region to TP to.

Welcome to Second Life™

Sounds nice and inviting? Then you're not a Second Life user.

I hear it or read it close to every day. In group chats, in forums, in blog comments, from friends. And I say it myself.

It's the response to any problem you have in SL. You buy something on the market and it's not delivered? You buy something in a shop and come home with an empty box and the store refuses to help? Welcome to Second Life. Learn to live with it. Or file a complaint, an Abuse Report, not that LL gets into user to user conflicts but it may help to vent. Besides even if they did it would take them months to get to it.

You register a creditcard with LL, make sure it's valid and has the right amount of money. And you have used it for months or even years to pay LL successfully. You get an email that says you don't have a valid payment method. You have 30 days to pay or you will lose your land holdings and the content of your inventory. If you don't catch this in time your account is blocked. You can't log in, you can't update your payment method.

Every little bit of problem is totally on LL's side. But you fix it. Learn to live with the fact that the customer is always wrong and has no rights. If you were to threaten to give up on SL - who cares?

I've been in SL for almost four years now. When I hear stories like this it's mostly from oldtimers that laugh about it. "Welcome to SL ..."

My guess is that if you are not an oldtimer, if you just became a premium member and went shopping or bought land and this happened to you and when you turn to the SL forum or some group for help you get the same old reply (probably a slap in the face to you who haven't learned yet that the customer always is wrong), you'd just shrug and decide to get out of here.

The worst isn't that LL screw things up and treat us like a bunch of gatecrashers whether we pay or not, it's that we look at ourselves the same way. Take a look at the forum and read the responses to people that complain about something that happened to them. And it's not even from unkind or unfriendly people. The "Welcome to SL ...", "Learn to live with it", is more like comforting phrases.

I wouldn't have written this if I hadn't seen a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. A hope that the attitude is changing at the lab. The new CEO Rod Humble has stepped in and saved the Elf Clan sims that were on the way to close down over billing issues. A sign that users matters even up there at the top. I'm sure there are employees at LL who would welcome that kind of change too.

I love my SL. It's a world like no other, where anyone can find an outlet for their creativity. It's full of fun and interesting people that build amazing places and make awesum items. I want new users to come here to help keep the SL society, and economy, alive and prospering.

There are some good signs, like the mentors being brought back to help newcomers. And I'm not sure when this happened but lately I have a much better performance in SL, on the same computer, same ISP connection and same viewer. I can cross between regions without much lag at all, and I sometimes forget I have my graphics settings on Ultra cause it's so smooth. Things are improving.

Mesh is on the way. And the fact that even if it won't happen this month we will be presented with a timetable for it. That's a huge information improvement. Kinda respectful actually. (not a sure thing, see my comment)

Since I am (and plan to stay) totally addicted to SL I have to believe that Welcome to Second Life will get back that tone of promise it once had. That feeling of "Your world. Your imagination".

Free horse rides on Fort Serenity Ranch

We have two gorgeous horses on Fort Serenity Ranch that anyone can ride. And a beautiful landscape to ride in. You can ride them anywhere on our sims. They are clever enough to TP home when they are abandoned.

It's just the two on the picture that guests can ride. They are waiting inside the barn so you should have no problem finding them.

This is the SLURL for the barn.

DOF in Kirstens Viewer or Focus on me!

I made this short clip today to test the Depth of Field in Kirstens Viewer S 21.

There is a lot of info about what it is and how to enable it in the official SL viewer here along with a great tutorial by Torley. It was pretty much the same in Kirstens Viewer even if I couldn't find all the Debug settings. I used CameraFocalLenght 200 for this clip. If you have a lower number the effect is less obvious.

It was real easy to shift the focus point. I just had to move the mouse around.

My FPS was terrible as I say in the video. But it really didn't feel all that bad and the video clip came out ok.

I filmed in the Chapel Park on Wiladma Island, where this lovely little mallard family lives.

Add on for off sim reefs

We have quite a few off sim reefs in our store. Now they are getting inhabited. Well at least there is housing available on them. You'd have to be very small and since they are meant to be outside the region border it may not be a good alternative to a house on land. But it looks pretty.

Romantic isn't it?

This is the tropical island add on, in case you didn't guess. Not in the store quite yet, but will be soon along with a western variety and maybe some surprise one too!

A completely new bridge

Major McCaw has made a completely new model of bridge. It has a steep peak and a beautiful arch. Here's me and the mallards enjoying the cool new look of the landscape.

It comes in two sizes. The one in the picture is 30 meters, there is a 20 meter version too. You find them in Fort Serenity Waterfalls store.

Amazing sculpted avatars by Ub Yifu

We were out looking for a sculpted cowboy today.We didn't find any but the search sure wasn't wasted anyway. Came across this region full of amazing sculpted avatars by Ub Yifu.

Two of Ub Yifu's sculpted avatars

The guy to the right is a landmark giver and it is free! I also looked at the Second Life Marketplace and saw he has some great artworks there. I have to see more of his works.

For now here is the link to the Ub Yifu's store.

The artist in person(s) Don Quixote AND Sancho Panza :o)

This is my lucky day! When I logged back in to get the SLURL for his store I met Ub Yifu in person. A very nice encounter. He's not just a great artist, he is a pleasant person too :) It turned out he had a sculpted cowboy girl, and that he does custom work.

Fort Serenity Waterfalls Store has a website

Now Fort Serenity Waterfalls Store has a website of it's own,where you can read about all the waterfalls, ponds, streams and bridges we have. The site is still being filled with content but you can already find info about and pictures of some of the most popular falls.

Philbin's Mercantile and Mining Supplies

Fort Serenity Ranch Old Western Town

Have an old west style sim and empty cupboards? No tools for the barn? No gun cabinet?

Philbin's Mercantile and Mining Supplies

Major McCaw and I (mostly him actually, but I helped) have filled the store in our western town with lots of little things a wild west home needs. There are pots and pans and cans of all kinds of food, sacks and barrels and some guns, just in case you get a visit from the wild west outlaws. And lots more. Price level is about the same as it would have been back then too :o)

Fort Serenity Western Hotel

If you pop in next door to the hotel you will find lamp, tables, chairs, cloths and some fresh picked flowers for your home. Do keep peeking into the houses, there are plenty of bargain furniture :o)

How to hide related videos when embedding YouTube videos

Don't like the way the embedded YouTube-player shows other videos when done playing?

It's real easy to set it not to. In the link just add &rel= 0 directly after the url. Like this: 

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB_zWA5XWZI&rel=0"

For the embedded player I had to edit it in the HTML code for the component but that was just as easy. Just right click and pick the option for the component code (my viewer is Swedish that's why I can't quote the exact menu line, but it's probably even more intuitive in the English menu).

There are more parameters for embedding YouTube videos on the page that had that tip.

Shadows in Second Life with Kirstens Viewer S 21

Our home and the stables on Fort Serenity Ranch

I've heard so much about the outstanding performance of Kirstens Viewer I was prepared to be disappointed. But nope, it's just as good as they say. I recorded a video in ultra graphics setting with a decent drawdistance (around 350 meters). My FPS stayed around 15 - 20, which is a very good result on my laptop,  just for using the ultra settings while recording.

To enable shadows in Kirstens viewer you just select it like the other graphics settings, nice not to have to memorize another set of advanced or preference settings.

There were no  problems with transparent textures at all in this viewer. I suppose the good old alpha layer annoyance is still there, but when recording shadows with Phoenix even textures not overlapping each other had bad transparency issues, like going invisible or flickering.

I must say I'm not sure how much of that is Kirsten and how much is in the regular v2. Even with the brilliant perfomance of this viewer I will use it mainly for video recording and photos. Wish I could put my finger on what it is that makes the v2 interface so uncomfortable. I worked hard on getting familiar with it when the first beta came, so it's not just the fact that it's an unfamiliar interface. Now I use it so rarely it could play a role I suppose.

Found a beautiful new free dress!

A customer in the store tipped me off about this beautiful dress from House of Dashwood. It was soo pretty it called for instant dancing in Wiladma Island where we are setting up a new home in Annashire Village.

Not only did I find this dress all for free, I found a new place full of neat clothes to buy too :o)

Medieval us

This is what we used to look like back in the middle ages. It was cold and we had to huddle up together like that in front of the fire :o)

How to use shadows in Phoenix Viewer in Second Life™

I managed to get shadows to work in Phoenix! It looks great, but it does slow down the FPS. I had no problems recording this video with PlayClaw tho.

Here's how to enable shadows:

• Advanced menu (if you don't see it bring it up with Ctrl + Alt + D)
• Debug
• set RenderDeferred to FALSE  (default)
• set RenderUseFBO to TRUE
• set RenderDeferred to TRUE
• set PhoenixShadowsToggle to TRUE

Graphics have to be set to Ultra to see the shadows. (Once I saw them I could lower to High, but that still gave me the same low FPS.)

When I disabled them I crashed first time, but the next time I started by setting RenderDeferred to FALSE before disabling the other two. That worked. I have no idea what those settings really do.

My own shadow didn't seem to be visible except where I had prim clothes. My boots cast a shadow. I'll have to experiment with that some other day.

I recorded the video on our porch in Fort Serenity where the Mayan Adventure begins. The Macaw parrots come from Animania.

My acting debut!

I did have a little role as an extra, as a duck, in a former movie by this amazing director/producer/machinima creator, SodaLemondrop. But in this episode you can see me along with some outstanding SL actors running fast and watching movies. I had a kinda brutal character (sat on little child).

No lines but I did get a smile from somewhere :o)

Anyway you have to watch them all from the beginning. There are 7 episodes so far and they are all great!

RedZone stopped from displaying alts

From  JIRA VWR-24746 a very welcome statement:

Soft Linden added a comment - 02/Mar/11 12:58 PM
Hey, all. I got the go-ahead to give an update on zF Red Zone specifically. Again, thank you for the ARs with specific info about violations. These have been very helpful for letting Lindens know what's going on.

Tuesday morning, we removed zF Red Zone from the Marketplace for a second time. We removed the in-world vendor distributing the item as well. We determined that zF Red Zone was still in violation of our Terms of Service and Community Standards.

We asked for removal by no later than today of all zF Red Zone functionality that discloses any alternate account names. That is, even if consent is asked, the service may not act on the consent. In addition, we asked for removal by no later than Friday of the interface for and any remaining implementation of the zF Red Zone consent mechanism because it does not comply with our policies. If these updates are not made, we will take appropriate steps to remedy the violations.

As before, we appreciate your help in keeping an eye on content. If you find that any merchant's product is not in compliance with our TOS or our Community Standards, please file an abuse report about the product. Do this even if you filed against a previous version. Include a specific explanation of what you believe is a violation, and ideally select and report the in-world object at issue in case it behaves differently than what's in the Marketplace. Before reporting, make sure you have first-hand knowledge of the issue. Support can best react if you explain specific steps to reproduce or confirm a violation.

.........

Thank you Soft Linden. I now feel a lot safer when it comes to LL's attitude and ability to stop any threats to our privacy.

Thanks also to all those that have worked so hard to make this happen. All the GreenZooners, No2RedZoners and SLU posters (I am a lurker) that have spread information and fought to keep calm and reasonable in an inflamed debate. And a special thanks to Theia Magic for working so hard to make sure no one was accused unfairly and that no one got away with lying their way into the list of greenlisted stores.

Anyway I hope that this is the end of the alt disclosure. That RZ changes into a device that bans griefers and copybots and nothing else. That zFire Xue himself decides to remove names from his database and let it all be over. The hole in the media functions are still there, but that will probably be acceptable if Phoenix includes the option to agree or not agree to be connected to a specific URL (even if masked a bit to protect media stream providers). It would be great if we all could get back to some normality again. 

Almost normality. We have our own tragedy on Fort Serenity with the inworld search engine not showing us when mature is checked. It may lead to us having to give up one of our three sims, Fort Serenity Ranch, that Major McCaw has landscaped into a beautiful western world. That really hurts :(

SodaLemondrop on YouTube Rocks

Something fun about Second Life for a change. Watch my favo docu soap :)

Second Life™ Search Engine - a never ending story

Why is it that I can look for something on the internet and find it? Internet is huge but it's real easy. I just enter words in Google to make my search as narrow as possible and up pops results that are pretty accurate.

Now in Second Life search that is true now and then too. Then over night something changes. Of course there is no way to know what. A changed search algorithm? Or is this a bug?

We run Fort Serenity Waterfalls Store in Second Life, probably the largest waterfall store and we're pretty successful when people can find us. Of course I also think our falls are the most amazing, but I can be biased. That is beside the point.

Since a little more than a week back our waterfalls are deemed unfit to show to Mature residents. You'll find us if you check PG or Adult - or both PG and  Adult (a totally unlikely combo). Of course there is no answer to why search works this way. 

For the ratings were we do show we have competitors marching up the list with the not allowed (?) key word spamming method. They seem to be selling out their store completely - even the store signs are set to show in search as waterfalls.

Maybe keyword spamming is allowed again. Who knows. Linden Lab policies are just getting harder and harder to understand.

Alicia Waterfalls on her way to the store!

I managed to sneak this preview video of the Alicia Waterfalls before it even got boxed and delivered to the Fort Serenity Waterfalls Store!

The Alicia is resizable. It's 10x15 meters at full size, but can be stretched down to anything between that and the tiny little fall you see in the video.

I am soo totally spoiled with beautiful waterfalls but I never stop enjoying - and be amazed - by the waterfalls Major builds :o)

It's on it's way to the store as I write here!

Blocking RedZone

Read Boy Lanes blog to find out how RedZone works and how to protect yourself. It doesn't seem LL has much of an intention to do so in the near future. Not a word from them on the blog. They are looking for new ways to communicate with their customers tho. I assume that is not about listening, but about getting their word out.

If we get totally tired of the way they treat us there is always InWorldz were they don't allow RedZone. Don't get me wrong, I love SL. I don't ever want to have to give that up. But it feels more and more important to  have a plan B.

The Teodor Cave Waterfalls on Wiladma Island

I hope I can get some of the gorgeousness of The Teodor Cave Waterfalls through in this video.

It's a medium size fall. It has two caves, one open and one that is covered. It's very romantic :o)

 Like in all items in the Fort Serenity Waterfalls Store you can change the texture by clicking and selecting textures from a menu. The Teodor  also comes in a basic version that is a bit cheaper and with less prims than the one you see here that has the add on falls on both sides. Those can be bought separately and added later if you want.

I'm still struggling with getting things the way I want them when I record video. I still don't move smooth enough, and find it hard to plan how I'm gonna get everything into the clip without it being too long. And I find the videos are very much alike. But since it's the waterfalls I want to portray maybe that is inevitable.

Also if anyone reads this blog and knows of a way to make the video larger here in the blog I'd be ever so grateful if you told me. I'll have to visit the forum for this place I suppose.

Getting my faith back

Oh I know I've been here before. But I just read Dusan Writers blog where he has interviewed  LL's new CEO, Rod Humble, and now my hopes are back up again for the future of Second Life. 


Listen to this little gem that is like an answer to all worries that LL doesn't care about our privacy:


"Privacy is extremely important for anyone putting themselves out there, expressing themselves, or expressing a side of themselves through an avatar. People don’t want other people to connect the dots from their avatar to their real life person – or even, for that matter, to an alt. One of the ethical obligations we have is to protect people’s privacy."


The whole interview gives an impression of someone with an intuitive understanding of the miracles of Second Life - from that first prim you create -  and that it has potential to grow into so much more. Read the full interview here: Dusan Writers interview with Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab.


I'll stop worrying about SL now. Tomorrow I'll get some machinima done :o)


And btw - if you haven't already voted for the JIRA's to stop RedZone and it's likes to be able to exploit the media functions:


Add options to selectively limit media sources to limit IP discoverability
RedZone Security violates TOS, exposes private information and is being misused

Actually it's best to watch them since that is the way LL knows we think they are important. I know it's a mess with all the emails you get every time someone posts in it, but in this case it may be worth it.

Warning - Alt avatars in Second Life™ are now being connected to your main account and published

If you visit or have visited a store that has the tool RedZone your alts will be public knowledge. I've yet to see a store announce that they use RZ, but it is widely spread and now they have a HUD version so they can go around and scan for our IP and place a cookie on our computer even when we are on our own land.

By all appearances Linden Lab condones this device. As a matter of fact judging from the aggressive attitude with threats of banning from the JIRA, when this was reported as a bug, I assume they even support the use of it. I'm most certainly not a lawyer and I do worry what this means for if someone finds a way to connect our RL information to our accounts. If LL don't risk a lawsuit over it I'm not sure they would act on that either. 

If it wasn't for the fact that RedZone is (so far) highly inaccurate, alts would already be rendered useless if you want to use them for privacy.  That will probably be fine tuned out sooner or later, so if you want an alt to have a chance to be private, don't bother. And if you already have alts with a somewhat shady second life, delete them.

I consider the identity of my alts private data. I don't care if they are totally innocent or not. It's MY choice who I share that info with. The people who need to know who my alts are already know.

Here is a publication of some of the stores that does NOT use the RedZone device if you want some safe shopping: Safe stores

Needless to say we don't use spyware in Fort Serenity Waterfalls Store and our sims Fort Serenity, Fort Serenity Ranch and Wiladma Island  :o)

Trying SpaceNavigator and getting a suprise

I'm very new to using SpaceNavigator as you can prolly see for yourself. I was about to practice a bit today when I had a real cool surprise - and tied to what I had been talking about less than an hour before. Watch the video to see!


About the Navigator - I best get back to learning that now. Can't use the excuse of being new forever.

Denny Waterfalls - another magic waterfall in Second Life™

This is Denny Waterfalls in the Mayan Jungle on Fort Serenity. I so love waterfalls and this is one of my favorites. I hope I can convey some of the magic feeling of standing next to it.

I know I still have a lot to learn about recording videos in Second Life. The camera movements are very jerky. Waiting for SpaceNavigator that I ordered two days ago. Hope that will help me move the camera smoother.

I did manage to merge two sounds - the music and waterfall sounds - in Audacity. 

I made a video on YouTube!

 

Not my first video from Second Life really, but I feel I'm getting a little better at making them and this waterfall is soo lovely.I recorded this on Wiladma Island on Fort Serenity Estate. If you wonder who builds wonderful falls like this it's Major McCaw.

A Coati on Fort Serenity

The landscape on Fort Serenity is a Mayan jungle. It's fun to find animals that aren't too out of place in the landscape. The latest additions are these little coatis. Never heard of a coati? I hadn't, so I looked them up,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati, says they are about the size of a large house cat, have sharp teeth and eat all kinds of icky things.

A forgotten blog!

I'm obviously not a very regular blogger. BUT it's a new year and a good time to become a better me.

Wish I had published more pictures in 2008. My HD broke down since then and loads of snaps were lost.

Wiladma is still there tho and my snaps folder is filling up again.

The mallard family is still there :o)