| 15:00 |
Carl Metropolitan |
It is 3 PM, SL Time, and it is time to start. |
| 15:00 |
Kara2016 |
Smiles brightly for Gronk. |
| 15:00 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Welcome to this Sunday's Oxbridge General Q&A. Andrea and I are here to answer any of your questions about Second Life, Caledon, Oxbridge, Steampunk, Linden Lab, Virtual Worlds, and anything vaguely related to any of the above. I'm also good at trivia questions. |
| 15:00 |
Carl Metropolitan |
If we don't know the answer, we can Google it. In other words, we know where to look, or at least can probably put you in touch with someone who does know the answer. |
| 15:00 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Before we start with the questions, Andrea do you have any announcements? |
| 15:00 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
Two for today Carl. |
| 15:01 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
This coming Tuesday night the 21st we will be having our dance at my warehouse hideaway. Trilby will be providing the music for us along the lines of A-Pop-alypse. We get started at 6 PM The music and build is going to be upbeat, but end of times theme. The idea of the theme is that there has always been the belief that the end could be coming. But we are still here. Everyone is invited to attend. We will be bringing back an old favorite to help relieve any stress. Trivia! |
| 15:01 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
Everyone is invited to join us at the Sky Clearing this coming Sunday from 4 to 6. This will begin a bi-weekly Sunday fundraiser event this coming Sunday the 19th. Sasha Prismara will be our DJ spinning the tunes to a spring theme. So dress accordingly and a woodland creature is welcome. A tip Jar for the COU will be there if you wish to donate. LM available by IMing me. |
| 15:01 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
That one is today. Let me post the LM. Caledon Oxbridge Village (151,200,1322) |
| 15:02 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
Hope to see you there. |
| 15:02 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
Back to you Carl. |
| 15:02 |
Kara2016 |
Smiles brightly. |
| 15:02 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Thank you Andrea. Now for the Weather. :) |
| 15:02 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
It's cold and wet. |
| 15:03 |
Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) |
Hi nikki. |
| 15:03 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I'd like to go directly to questions, because I've not been on much at all this week and don't have any idea if LL has done anything noteworthy to talk about. |
| 15:03 |
Carl Metropolitan |
So let's have questions! |
| 15:03 |
Carl Metropolitan |
You ask them, we answer them. |
| 15:03 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Hopefully. |
| 15:04 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Or try to |
| 15:04 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Hmm... this may be the shortest General Q&A on record :) |
| 15:04 |
Gronk Seriman |
Has anybody tried the Marketplace today? It seems to be down. |
| 15:05 |
Vanessa Hamer |
I just got it to come back… try refreshing |
| 15:05 |
Vanessa Hamer |
The servers were overloaded. |
| 15:05 |
Audrey (audreyshigh) |
Not down. |
| 15:05 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I am able to log in to it now. |
| 15:05 |
Vanessa Hamer |
“This website is under heavy load. We're sorry, too many people are accessing this website at the same time. We're working on this problem. Please try again later.” |
| 15:05 |
Gronk Seriman |
Oh, OK. |
| 15:06 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Maybe it is an intermittent problem. Possibly related to the high use of SL on Sunday afternoons/early evenings. |
| 15:06 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Or someone is doing a Denial of Service attack on them. |
| 15:07 |
Carl Metropolitan |
It works for me, though. |
| 15:07 |
Gronk Seriman |
It seems fine, now. |
| 15:08 |
lovejoy2199 |
Ok, Carl. I have a question. Given the stress on SL, what do you think is the least settings we can set our computers to? |
| 15:08 |
Gronk Seriman |
Somebody must have kicked the plug out of the Packard Bell computer sitting on a folding chair in the corner of LL. |
| 15:08 |
Carl Metropolitan |
The best thing I can think of is to minimize draw distance and number of avatars fully rendered under Graphics Preferences. |
| 15:09 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Those reduce the amount of data downloaded to your computer and reduce the amount of data your computer has to render. |
| 15:09 |
lovejoy2199 |
My computer is ok. I mean on the system. |
| 15:10 |
Carl Metropolitan |
They reduce the amount of data that has to be transmitted by SL to your computer. |
| 15:10 |
lovejoy2199 |
Ok |
| 15:11 |
lovejoy2199 |
I spend a lot of time sitting. |
| 15:11 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Draw distance is how far from your avatar SL downloads and renders images for. And avatars are normally the most complex objects in SL with high res textures and lots and lots of polygons. |
| 15:12 |
Carl Metropolitan |
If you set draw distance to 64m and max avatars fully rendered to 3, you will be sucking up a lot less bandwidth. |
| 15:13 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Another possibility is to lower the Maximum Bandwidth under the Network and Files tab on the Preferences menu. |
| 15:14 |
Agatha Macbeth |
I find turning particles off helps, too. |
| 15:14 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I have high-speed fiber internet, so I keep mine set to 1350 kbps, but you can get away with lowering it if you have slower connections. |
| 15:14 |
Carl Metropolitan |
https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_speedtest |
| 15:15 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I think Particles are all client-side rendered, so that would only help speed up your computer and not affect the load on the SL servers. |
| 15:15 |
|
Agatha Macbeth nods. |
| 15:15 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Hopefully Linden Lab's upcoming move of all SL servers to cloud platforms will allow them to dynamically respond to higher than normal loads better. That should be done by the end of the year. |
| 15:16 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Okay. Next question? |
| 15:16 |
Gronk Seriman |
I remember hearing rumors that SL may get ray tracing in the future. Has anybody else heard that? Or at least mirror reflections? |
| 15:18 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I don't know. I would check out this link for most recent news from LL's public user group meetings: |
| 15:18 |
Carl Metropolitan |
https://modemworld.me/tag/simulator-user-group/ |
| 15:18 |
Gronk Seriman |
Firestorm tried Screen Space Reflections a long time ago, and fumbled it. Then abandoned it. |
| 15:18 |
Carl Metropolitan |
https://modemworld.me/tag/tpv-developer-meetings/ |
| 15:19 |
Carl Metropolitan |
She normally has the best news. |
| 15:19 |
Gronk Seriman |
Thank you. |
| 15:19 |
Carl Metropolitan |
There are always rumors of course. |
| 15:19 |
Frigid Cryotank |
I imagine that will need a serious upgrade in client hardware for real-time. |
| 15:20 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Ebbe Linden has been pretty clear that we should not expect much more than Last Names, a Premium Plus membership level, and transition to the Cloud out of LL this year, though. |
| 15:20 |
Carl Metropolitan |
He's stressed that in the last few recent (February & March) interviews he's done. |
| 15:21 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Probably burned out after Sansar. |
| 15:21 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Maybe that stuff Gronk mentioned are things on their wishlist for 2021. I don't know. |
| 15:21 |
Gronk Seriman |
Premium Plus?! Of course. Mo money! |
| 15:21 |
Carl Metropolitan |
LL should have known better than blowing all the money they did on Sansar. Just my opinion. |
| 15:22 |
Phrynne |
Mine too, Carl. |
| 15:22 |
Vanessa Hamer |
Blue Marsar! |
| 15:22 |
Carl Metropolitan |
People say that SL can't be successful because it is based around a 2002-2003 engine. |
| 15:23 |
Carl Metropolitan |
You know what else is based around a 2002-2003 engine? World of Warcraft. |
| 15:23 |
Carl Metropolitan |
The most successful MMO on the planet. |
| 15:23 |
Gronk Seriman |
LL has always been a hanger-on. When a fad comes along, they try to hang on to it. I bet they regret going open-source on their viewer when open-source was the rage. |
| 15:23 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Dreamwidth is based on legacy code as well. Still going on. |
| 15:24 |
Vanessa Hamer |
Open Source may have been "the thing" but it was also in the spirit of what Rosedale envisioned in the beginning: "your worldæyour imagination". Much of that has been lost on the new regime. |
| 15:25 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
And Open Source is still going on. |
| 15:25 |
Vanessa Hamer |
...and Firestorm is still more popular than the official viewer! |
| 15:25 |
Gronk Seriman |
I really do think that LL thought Sansar would take off with all the expensive goggles people were buying. And I think they may have thought of Sansar as SL2. Everybody called it that. Until LL changed their minds and said it was not. |
| 15:25 |
|
Agatha Macbeth is shocked |
| 15:26 |
Carl Metropolitan |
A lot of that has been retained though because of LL's passive neglect of the platform in favor of Sansar. Many major improvements came from resident content creators. |
| 15:26 |
Jorge Serapis |
I've heard rumblings on LL offering a streaming version of SL, much like SLGO or Onlive did. Any substantiations to that gossip, anyone? |
| 15:26 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Sansar required much faster hardware. |
| 15:26 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I remember Ebbe saying in one interview recently that's something they would look at after finishing the cloud transition. |
| 15:27 |
Vanessa Hamer |
I agree with Mr Carl's WoW comparison. All they need to do is drag this platform into the future. It may be 17 yrs old, but look around–it barely resembles SL when I first joined. |
| 15:27 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
It is hard to see what is really the future and what is marketing consultant enthusiasm. |
| 15:28 |
Jorge Serapis |
I think it would be a great addition to the premium subscriptions, personally. |
| 15:28 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Who knows. It might be part of premium plus package. |
| 15:28 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I do remember Ebbe saying in recent interviews that LL was working on a text based Android client for SL. |
| 15:29 |
Carl Metropolitan |
And after that an iPhone conversion. |
| 15:29 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I don't know the time frame. |
| 15:30 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Elfbiter, Sansar suffered a lot from marketing consultant confusion and trying to attach itself to the current fad. First it was SL2, then it was a VR-centric world, then it was for many avatars per instance for live performances, etc. |
| 15:31 |
Carl Metropolitan |
And as far as I know, it never left beta. |
| 15:32 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Yup |
| 15:32 |
Vanessa Hamer |
Not only did LL lose a fortune, but so did many of the early Beta Developers Preview people they lured inside who had to buy expensive equipment to just participate |
| 15:33 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Cooperating with LL can be very expensive. |
| 15:34 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I heard at VWBPE that LL has just recently relaunched (for the third time) the Community Gateway program. You all may remember Oxbridge decided not to participate in the second relaunch of the CG program due to believing (after talking to them and going to several meetings on it) that LL was not a reliable partner. |
| 15:35 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Okay. More questions? |
| 15:35 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Oh. I see Gronk and Vanessa typing. |
| 15:36 |
Gronk Seriman |
Well LL ebbs and flows so much. Isn't Ebbe the longest lasting CEO so far? |
| 15:36 |
Vanessa Hamer |
(slams vertical blinds shut in computer room) |
| 15:36 |
Agatha Macbeth |
Ebbe and flows. |
| 15:36 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Just behind Philip I think. Philip had two tenures as CEO. |
| 15:36 |
Gronk Seriman |
Oh, yes. |
| 15:37 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I am surprised he is still CEO after the embarrassing failure of Sansar. I can only assume that Sansar was pushed by the LL Board of Directors more than Ebbe. |
| 15:38 |
Gronk Seriman |
I seem to remember in the early days that LL employees were encouraged to spend time in their own product. Than another CEO came along and decided being in SL is "playing around at the office". |
| 15:39 |
Vanessa Hamer |
I see Simon in-world at live music shows all the time, but all that means is - he's making himself visible to us. Truth is, 10 of them could be in this lecture hall right now and we'd never know it. Stealth Lindens. |
| 15:40 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Considering the amount of flak they get when they appear as Lindens, I would not be surprised that they have separate "resident" accounts. |
| 15:40 |
Carl Metropolitan |
Some may be living in Caledon right now, too. |
| 15:41 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I'm reasonably sure I'm not a Linden :) |
| 15:41 |
Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) |
Granted, they could answer my IMs when they do visit Caledon. |
| 15:41 |
Carl Metropolitan |
If I were, I'd have been fired years ago. |
| 15:42 |
Jorge Serapis |
They spring the offer on you unsuspectingly. LOL |
| 15:43 |
Vanessa Hamer |
Carl, if they ask you, I dare you to say "Let's start a new VR platform to exploit the popularity of the Oculus Rift" |
| 15:43 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I am not interested. I have a job. And I'd have to live in the Bay Area. |
| 15:43 |
Gronk Seriman |
Ewwww! |
| 15:44 |
Larky (larkylouz) |
That seems an artificial limitation, given how good they are at teleconferencing. |
| 15:44 |
Frigid Cryotank |
Didn't LL have an outpost in Boston for awhile? |
| 15:44 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I think they did. |
| 15:44 |
Carl Metropolitan |
So any other questions? |
| 15:44 |
lovejoy2199 |
LOL@ Larky |
| 15:46 |
Carl Metropolitan |
I guess we are done then. Thank you all for coming. |