Friday, May 29, 2015

Tradewinds Yacht Club in SL (with a note on the Twitch ban on SL)


On a side note, I was very disappointed to learn of the Twitch ban on Second Life today. The ban occurred months earlier but was too vague for many, including me.

Yesterday, I completed a 20 minute test of Bright Canopy / Frame / Second Life on Twitch  and was fairly satisfied with the results. I had big plans to do regular SL live streams and conduct curated tours of interesting places.

All that said, I understand the reason why Twitch would ban SL.To quote the recent New World Notes article on the subject:

"...just about every SLer knows the noobie humiliation of accidentally taking off their pants in a public space when they meant to remove another article of clothing. In other words, it's very easy for an SLer to suddenly, inadvertently become Adult-rated -- even when they're not trying to do so."
In my own experience live streaming SL on Twitch about a month back, I did a stream of interesting places in SL. One of the stops I made was Fogbound, a very popular blues club. But as the venue and people started to rez, I realized I had to leave quickly in order to protect my Twitch Account. Not because this is a nudist beach. And not because of any sexually charged intentions on the part of the staff, DJs or patrons, but the simple rezzing of avatars provide for more than a second of unintentional nudity. 

At least now, today, it's very clear that SL is banned so I won't have the fear of being banned later. SL was less than 10 percent of my Twitch live stream content. I'll move on and stream a game. 

I could point out Twitch's hypocrisy and unfair policy but nothing will counterbalance the years of negative press SL has received. I'm only one man without the means of fighting an extremely successful company. A company I like and enjoy anyway.

But here's the bigger issue... In this age of easily excitable social justice warriors and outraged Twitterers, expect that Twitch ban list to grow.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Bright Canopy hits and misses

Last night I received the long anticipated email invite to Frame from Bright Canopy.

It was very easy to setup. I gave my name, email address and chose a new password.

Boom, I was in.


I prefer Firestorm, so chose that...



Once Firestorm opened I was presented with Frame's user interface bar at the bottom of the screen.

Here's the lower left portion.



And the lower right.





All of this went smoothly and quickly, so my anticipation was heightened.


I tested a few key objectives. My major questions:

  • Can I capture video for Machinima?
  • Can I take great photographs using Ultra Graphics?
  • Will my 3D Space Navigator work? 
  • Can I fly an airplane or helicopter without too many issues?

1) - The video capture app Fraps will not work, however XSplit Broadcaster does. So there's a work around that takes a little bit longer to setup, but does the job. Another video capture app might do fine. Personally I only use Fraps and XSplit.

2) - Photographs are close to the quality I was able to achieve with SLGo. 




3) - Sadly, my 3D Space Navigator won't work. For now, detailed Video Capture and Photographs will need to be done on my computer using the regular Firestorm Viewer.

4) - Flying is a big test for me. If I can experience trouble-free flying of a vehicle in SL, all is right with the world. I popped over to Hollywood Airport in Blake Sea and much to my chagrin, couldn't fly. I was able to rez a helicopter, but had trouble using the HUD which should have rezzed instantly. It was grey on my screen for 20 seconds. That didn't even happen on my older crappier Intel izero laptop.

The next goal should be max'd Graphics and max'd Draw Distance. I was able to have both in SLGo and my time in Second Life was an incredible richly textured experience of dramatic light, shadows, and moody darkness. I want that again.




It's incredible that all this is happening so soon after the demise of SLGo. I have confidence in the Bright Canopy Project Team and know that most of these issues will be resolved in a short time.


Is Bright Canopy / Frame the next SLGo? 

Not yet, but it will be.