Xah Second Life Blog
updated the panel index. i lived in Second Life for 4 years, 2007 to 2011.
Second Life in those years, its full of the most creative and talented people, i ever met. including programers. but also, they are usually fringe, and poor. not sure about now.
one-on-one first person shooter
haven't been in Second Life for 7 years. Doing some cleanup of my blog.
- Dancing in Second Life
- High-tech Architectures in Second Life
- Second Life Furries
- Pretty Girls in Second Life
- Second Life Leisure Activities
Second Life griefing scenes Second Life: Griefing, Child, Alien
Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet
few hundred shortcuts. i mastered them like muscle memory.
Second Life lonely and pretty
and i remember my Second Life days. lived in it from 2007 to 2011. Lots of lonely n sad people, with pretty n rich second lives. And i don't suppose things have changed, except more pretty avatars.
Xah's Second Life Build Tutorial (added navigation panel)
Second Life LSL Tutorial (added navigation panel)
Great scify, The Expanse
YouTube clips are removed. search for “The Expanse Donnager Battle” and “The Expanse Protogen spin station assault (roci vs stealth ship)”
Zelda, Breath of the Wild, Inscriptions
Nier Automata, On the Sex of Humanoid Fighter Bots
Best Keyboard and Mouse for Second Life
for Second Life or general gaming, the best keyboard is
mechanical keys, and QUIET! and programable function keys, extremely easy to use software. Builtin memory, not requiring the “CLOUD” (internet) for your profiles.
The best mouse for Second Life is:
Logitech G600 Gaming Mouse Review
new blog, keyboard blog. Xah keyboard Blog
subscribe: http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboard_blog.xml
What is Mouse DPI? Does Mouse DPI Matter in Gaming?
new version out. Emacs LSL Mode
old videos. Second Life Combat Xah Videos
someone bought this “Logitech G35 7.1-Channel Surround Sound Headset” Buy at amazon
good for Second Life. Math Models of 3D Input Control
LSL Particle System (updated)
added a Random Page button at top.
Installing Second Life Viewer for Linux 64bits
now my products are back online. Xah Productions
Mont Saint-Michel in Second Life
Second Life: bots, mechs, cybernetics, transformers
updated some old pages.
oldie but goodie. Second Life Combat Videos
Online Gender Research from Charles Darwin University
RESEARCH PROJECT: Personality, sex roles and Avatar identification in online gender selection
Charles Darwin University, in Darwin, Australia, is conducting a psychology study on online gender selection. See: http://cduhes.asia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_brQ0uYKeagINqo4
via Amalia Badawi, for Dr. Jon-Paul Cacioli
Second Life, the Worst Hack in Universe
best particle making machine: Xah Particle Maker, still.
Updated the playable arenas: Second Life Tech Warfare Guide
Technology for Knowledge in Past Decades
Mont Saint-Michel in Second Life
NSFW: Second Life Dolcett Role-playing.
Second Life: How to Give Out Things Full Perm But Not Script.
Google+ Which Circle to Put Your Friends In; Google Plus Real Name Account Debate
Second Life: How to Stop Showing as Cloud
- If you are shown as a cloud forever, one way to fix it is this. Go to menu [Advanced ▸ Character ▸ Character Tests ▸ Test Male]. You should show up. Then, you can put back your avatar.
See also: Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet
A new version of lsl mode is out. This version, v1.6.0, added function completion and snippets for 18 new Linden Lab functions. Get it today, at Emacs LSL Mode.
New version of Blender v2.5 just released. The major news is that it finally got traditional user interface.
Second Life Problems: llSitTarget as Teleportor.
Cyberpunk in Second Life
from a new friend's store:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/c-3Fwi6-fOg?rel=0
link dead as of 2020-07-04
“Neurolab Inc. - Machinima Second Life (2011-03) 1080p”
His home page is:
http://www.neurolab-inc.com/
Sex in Second Life: Video Interview with Paisley Beebee.
Want to buy lindens? I sell them. You get better rate than Linden Labs. See: Buy Lindens Special Offer.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z2WqmJguUQ] “2009 ABC Television Interview with Paisley Beebe in Real Life”
In case you don't know, Paisley BeeBe (sl name) runs a TV show in sl. Usually interviewing people. I've attended a couple. First in around 2008.
i'm giving a special for my Xah Particle Maker. For 1k linden each. Just IM me in sl (sl name: Xah Toll). Offer last till end of this week (ends in Sunday Feb 27 midnight).
Discovered some new 3D tools. See: List of 3D Modeling Software.
Thanks to Ina Centaur.
Linden Labs raised the group limit to 42 now. That means, you can join a max of 42 groups, instead of the old 25.
Here's how to change Phoenix to support that.
- Pull the menu [Phoenix ▸ Show Advanced],
- Pull the menu [Advanced ▸ Debug Settings…]
- Type “phoenix40GroupsSupport”
- Set to TRUE.
- Relog.
Info source:
http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/technology/blog/2011/01/13/technology-improvements-for-q1-including-raising-group-limit-to-42
Thanks to Arie Kluit for donation for Emacs LSL Mode.
Second Life Viewer 2 Stupidities
Second Life Outfit Links (Inventory Links) Explained
There's a new version of lsl-mode for emacs. This new version added new functions and keywords AGENT_BY_LEGACY_NAME, AGENT_BY_USERNAME, llGetDisplayName, llRequestDisplayName.
Get it now at Emacs LSL Mode.
Second Life Login Name, Display Name.
Thanks to Michael Aldred for donation for Emacs LSL Mode.
Plants vs Zombie; Thoughts on Strategy and Game Formulation
What is Mouse DPI? Does Mouse DPI Matter in Gaming? (random thoughts)
2 months ago, i found a fantastic mouse. But reading amazon reviews today, it seems to have its problems. For video review and detail, see: Mad Catz RAT 5 Gaming Mouse
World of Warcraft (WoW) players are all excited about the upcoming new systemWorld of Warcraft: Cataclysm Buy at amazon
By the way, if you don't know already, WoW is known as the most addictive game in existence. Here's some quotes from Wikipedia:
World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994…
The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was announced at BlizzCon 2009,[10][11] and entered into closed beta testing in late June 2010.[12][13]
With more than 11.5 million monthly subscriptions in December 2008,[14][15] World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG,[9][16][17] and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers.[18][19][20][21] In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market.[22]
On the net, there are quite a few articles, groups, about addiction problems with WoW. Here is a YouTube video.
I remember reading online that there are cases of death in China and Korea. Where, it is reported that the gamer just played non-stop, then dropped dead. There are also news about suicide. The suicide cases are not surprising and likely happen now and then, but am not sure about playing to death by exhaustion.
Several high quality, Free, MMOG:
Second Life: Emerald Viewer Banned by Linden Labs; What Viewer to Use?.
Large update: Second Life: Emerald Viewer DOS Fiasco.
Major drama is going on with Emerald now. Emerald developer LordGrep announced quitting, and Emerald is involved in a Denial Of Service Attack. See: Second Life: Emerald Viewer DOS Fiasco.
3 dance videos added to Dancing in Second Life.
Second Life Hamster Ball Roller Coaster 📺
Second Life: Software for Video Capture and Screencasting (year 2010) (tips; advise)
Want to buy furry avatars? One of the best place is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rocket%20City/195/223/22 Go there, enter the building, then tp to the shop in sky.
Another good furry av place is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Elliquiy/63/131/21
For pictures of furries, see: Furry Soldiers. More pictures but 2 years old are at: Second Life Furries.
LSL Problems: llEdgeOfWorld().
Nice shop and build. flickr
A L$1000 discount on my Xah Particle Maker, for Memorial today. Buy it here: Xah Particle Maker.
Major bug for those sl merchants: Second Life: XstreetSL Item Disappears.
The emerald guys are announcing AjaxLife, a web browser based, text-only, Second Life viewer. So, if you are on a lousy computer with no graphics card and just want to login to chat with your friends or get your IMs, then AjaxLife is your solution. I tried it. It works. Pretty neat.
Start using here: http://ajaxlife-0.modularsystems.sl/.
A lil' new tip. Want to make your av invisible? You can!
Using Emerald, all you have to do is ground sit (Ctrl+Alt+s) while you are in mid-air.
Spend 3 hours and re-wrote my Xah Particle Maker manual. See:
Second Life adult rating system is changing names. Instead of PG, Mature, Adult, the new name is General, Moderate, Adult. For reason why, see: wiki.secondlife.com. This name change already happened in Viewer 2.
A lil tip. Are you annoyed by the overly glaring glow in sl? You can reduce it. Go to menu [Advanced ▸ Debug Settings…] Ctrl+Alt+Shift+s, then choose renderglowiterations, put a value like 1. (default is 2) That will reduce the glow rendering.
Top 10 people who became wealthy thru sl, from BusinessWeek: Second Life Rich List.
Apparently, Stroker Serpentine (rl name Kevin Alderman), a Second Life made real life millionaire, has made several law suits against copybotters, and against Linden Lab as well. See Wikipedia article, link at Second Life Product Market Value.
New article: Second Life Militaries List.
Also, A new sl combat tip i learned today. You know, whenever you land from a high jump, you splat into the ground, with about 1 second being immobile? I always wondered if that can be turned off. Yes you can, with Emerald.
Go to menu [Advanced ▸ Debug Settings…] Ctrl+Alt+Shift+s. Then type EmeraldIgnoreFinishAnimation, set it to true.
When you set that, you don't have the landing delay, nor the delay when starting jump.
Thinking about it, i actually haven't played ANY massive online games except Second Life. In fact, the last game i remember played on PC is American McGee's Alice, and that is in around 2000.
(am 42, and in my teens and 20s and 30s, i surely have played lots of video games. Basically, my gaming behavior is like addiction. When i got into a game, i'd play it for weeks EVERY MINUTE WHEN I'M AWAKE, even skipping food, rush to bathroom, or went sleep deprivation, till i mastered it thoroughly. Then, usually guilt overcame me for playing video game so much, and i'd swear never to play game again. I'd not play another video game for half a year or a year, or longer especially when i get older.)
Though, in the past 3 years while spend several hours in Second Life almost daily, i learned tremendously about the online gaming community today. (note that massive multi-player online games is only a phenomenon say after 2005, because before the internet, net speed, and technology, simply isn't there) Today, i learned about Steampowered.com. Here's a Wikipedia quote:
Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute a large number of games and related media entirely over the internet, from small independent efforts to larger, more popular games. Steam is set apart from similar services primarily by its community features, completely automated game update process, and its use of in-game functionality.
There are over 1,100 games available through Steam,[3] and in January 2010 Valve announced that it had surpassed 25 million active user accounts.[4] It regularly services in excess of two million concurrent users.[5] Although Valve never releases sales figures, Steam is considered by its competitors and clients to be the market leader, controlling an estimated 70% of the digital distribution market.[6]
See also: Introduction to Second Life.
Linden Labs has created a new policy about third party viewers. Basically, viewers that does not respect their Term Of Service policy or does export items without respecting the permission system will no longer be able to login to Linden Labs's server. This policy is enforced starting on 2010-05-01. For detail, see: secondlife.com Policy on Third-Party Viewers.
They also have a page listing approved viewers at http://viewerdirectory.secondlife.com/. Currently there are 7 third-party ones. Some of these viewers have interesting features. For example, a text based viewer, viewer for cellphone (iPod, iPhone, Android), viewer for film makers and photographers (basically high-end rendering).
Note that Emerald viewer is compliant. I highly recommend the Emerald Viewer for power players.
Second Life Product Market Values.
Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet
Second Life: Gaming Headset Reviews (year 2010).
Server 1.36.4 is deployed in main grid. Release Notes/Second Life Beta Server/1.36.
Hot from the press, the Emerald guys has discosed a document of rogue viewers that they know of.
Rogue Viewers are those violate LL policies, such as those can bypass permission system, free upload, IP address spoof (so bans have no effect on them), …, and in some cases, send out your login name and password.
The list is here: http://onyx.modularsystems.sl/viewer_reference.html.
The Xstreet SL Terminals is obsolete, announced by Linden, here: Say Goodbye To Xstreet SL Terminals.
To transfer money between SL and Xstreet, just login to Xstreet on the web. Then, you'll see the links in the “My Marketplace” box. You can also buy lindens on Xstreet too, of course.
Consolidated my blog entries on LSL into one page: Misc LSL Tips.
Consolidated my blog entries related to sl viewers into one page: Misc Info On Second Life Viewers.
Discovered http://slurl.com/secondlife/Racers%20Island/185/97/96 A high quality sim for car racing fans.
Furry Soldiers (screenshots)
Created a Xah Particle Maker Frequently Asked Questions.
Just discovered that Linden Labs has a rating of F (on a scale of A to F) at Better Business Bureau. See: http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/video-games-wholesale-and-manufacturers/linden-lab-in-san-francisco-ca-57373
In this year, often i found many sl news's original source is from this MMORG news site: http://www.massively.com/. Today again, so i take a look.
Discovered Tabula Rasa (video game). It closed down, with a law suit from Richard Garriott, a famous game developer and entrepreneur, for USD$24G.
More detail of this lawsuit, including link to court document, are reported here http://www.massively.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-blasts-ncsoft-with-24-million-lawsuit/
asides from the business aspects, here's a vid of the game play, their final day:
I'm reading Massively's top 5 stories of 2009. The closing down of Tabula Rasa was #5. Another interesting story i learned, is The Matrix Online, also closing down. Here's a vid of game play:
seems boring to me.
while reading gmail today, the side bar prompted these google ads:
3D modeling for SL - easy create 3D models by simply drawing its shape and export to SL! http://www.archipelis.com/
Buy Second Life Lindens Fast delivery,online live support. The easiest way to purchase lindens http://www.tradelindens.com/
Second Inventory Backup Restore tool for Second Life Legitimate CopyBot for OpenSim http://www.secondinventory.com/
Texturama.com Seamless Texture Map Collections 4000+ Download Pro Texture Maps http://www.texturama.com/
A Beautiful Virtual World Create a Whole New Life. Make New Friends, Chat, Play Games, and More! http://www.there.com/
Except there.com, all these are new to me. Quite amazing how diverse and majorish business for sl are growing. Remember slx? which is bought by Linden Lab for gazillions.
While searching for how much Linden paid for slx, i ran into this blog. http://gwynethllewelyn.net/2009/01/21/linden-lab-buys-xstreetsl-and-onrez-%E2%80%94-why/ by Gwyneth Llewelyn. She seems to be a pro gamer, with some insider knowledge.
Starting a blender blog.
http://xahsl.org/blender/blog.html
Subscribe there.
Moved to: Second Life Product Market Values.
Second Life Dive Roll Movement Enhancer Comparison
Fascinating: Corrupted Blood incident.
The Corrupted Blood incident was a widely reported virtual plague outbreak and video game glitch found in the Blizzard Entertainment computer game World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the Warcraft series.
See also: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (aka MMORG). MMORG is pretty much the future of web. (be sure to read the Psychology section of the article in Wikipedia.)
Also note, MMORG game are in my opinion the most advanced and complex software system today. Quote from Wikipedia article, Development section:
The cost of developing a competitive commercial MMORPG title often exceeds $10 million.[34] These projects require multiple disciplines within game design and development such as 3D modeling, 2D art, animation, user interfaces, client/server engineering, database architecture, and network infrastructure.[35]
am wondering, among all the MMORG, which has the most user, and what are their numbers.
World of Warcraft (WOW) has 11.5 mega monthly subscriptions as of 2008-12, and holds Guinness World Record for that. WOW holds 62% of MMORG subscription market. (info from Wikipedia)
Second Life has 16 mega accounts as of . Of course, huge part of it is alts and people who tried and never used again. No reliable data about actual active users. Though, at any time there are about 40k to 60k people online. Total number of active users is probably just a few times of that.
Some online Second Life friends are also getting into Eve online (EVE), which is science fiction theme, with space crafts. Much of my thing. Not much into medieval and sorcery theme as in WOW.
But besides playing, major part of my interest is looking into the business prospects, and the 3D technology and communication technology and social impact thing, i.e. virtual world.
Imagine, if one can teleport from Second Life to EVE, or WOW, or EverQuest, or from any of the MMORG to another. This is similar to different telephone phone networks merging (1900s), IM chats networking merging (2000s), or as recent cell phone networks merging. It is just a matter of time, say 5 years, 10 years.
According to EVE official site http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp, EVE has a record of 51k concurrent users, as of
So, am wondering what does WOW virtual world actually looks like. Here's a youtube vid:
EVE got many very cool vids. See them at: youtube.com EVE online.
Just reading a linden blog about their update on their map technology.
Improvements to mapping and upgrade to SLurl.com (2009-01-22) By Philip Linden.
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/01/23/improvements-to-mapping-and-upgrade-to-slurlcom
Few interesting tidbits. The new tech can update 30k tiles (regions) in 2 days, running on 4 machines. They are using Amazon S3 tech for storage. And of course, they are also using Google maps tech.
Their map API doc is here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Webmap_API.
Best Trackball Mouse (computing)
A look at mouse technology today: Review of Gaming Mouses.
Second Life web based shop the XStreetSL, will start to charge merchants for listing of freebies, within a few months.
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/commerce/blog/2009/11/18/roadmap--managing-freebies-on-xstreet-sl
Be sure to read the FAQ link on that page.
This is a great move. One of the fact we learn from the article is that: “Currently, less than 20% of Xstreet SL listings make at least one sale per month.”.
Here's a summary of the change:
- Monthly Listing Fee of L$99 for items that's L$0
- Monthly Listing Fee of L$10 for all items L$1 or greater
- Minimum Commission of L$3 on all items priced L$1 or greater
- Freebies will be placed in a separate category.
- These new rules will be in place sometimes before end of 2009-02. There will be a 2 weeks noticed in advance.
Second Life. Item using brand names may be a problem. (e.g. Nike, Ford, …) https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/08/11/updates-to-xstreet-sl-listing-guidelines
Mesh is coming to Second Life. http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/linden-lab-offically-announces-mesh-support-in-second-life-at-slcc
Learned today that the Linden Scripting Language was designed by
Cory Ondrejka .
Sources: Cory Ondrejka's departure in his own words (2007-12-11), by Tateru Nino. http://www.massively.com/2007/12/11/was-cory-linden-fired-or-did-he-quit/.
Cory Ondrejka has his blog at http://ondrejka.net/.
A interview about open sourcing the Second Life viewer code. Interview with Second Life Cory Ondrejka (2007-01-17), written by Glyn Moody. http://lwn.net/Articles/217831/
http://lib.openmetaverse.org/wiki/Main_Page, Libopenmetaverse