Hey, wouldn’t it be nice if you could directly login to a friend’s pad or hangout spot? Guess what? We’ve got that in Viewer 2.5 Beta! There are a couple preferences boxes you need to check, and I’ve got you covered from start to finish, so download the 2.5 Beta and watch this video to see exactly how to make this work for you:

Here’s da lowdown from Q Linden:

Subtle tips:

• This works on an account-specific basis. Changing the Username at the login screen shows that account’s favorite locations, if you have Show my Favorite Landmarks at Login enabled.
• The Start at dropdown shows your fave landmarks in the same order they appear on the inworld Favorites Bar — drag ‘em around to sort.
• Alternatively, if you trigger a SLurl to launch the Viewer, it can also log you in to another place. The more you know, right?

Do you ever feel like you’re collecting frequent teleporter miles? Share your favorite SL travel tips in the comments!

In addition to many grid enhancements that FJ shared last week in his technology update blog post, the Viewer 2.5 beta cycle begins today. Viewer 2.5 Beta 1 is now available and includes several new features, usability improvements, and bug fixes.

Improved Web and Viewer Resident Profiles
The biggest change in Viewer 2.5 Beta 1 is that we’ve replaced the Viewer-based profiles with web-based profiles. You can access the redesigned profiles on the web using your Second Life user id and in the Viewer itself. For example, here’s mine. In the Viewer, profiles now open in a web browser and you can open as many profiles as you like at the same time. And, if you wish, you can even connect other social identities from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to your profile.

Logging In to your Favorite Locations
A long-standing feature request has been the ability to access some of  your favorite Landmarks from the login screen, so you can quickly teleport to places inworld. In the Viewer 2.5 Beta, we’ve added a preference that gives you access to the Landmarks on your Favorites Bar from the Login Screen. To use this feature, go to Preferences > Privacy and select the check box labeled, “Show my Favorite Landmarks at Login.” If you log off and then restart your Viewer, then you’ll see a list of your Favorite Landmarks in the “Start At” drop-down box on the login screen. Also, when this feature is enabled and you share a computer account (login) with other people, they will see your list of Favorites if they run the Viewer 2.5 Beta.

Decompression Performance Improvements
For a long time, we’ve used an older version of the Kakadu library known as KDU to load textures and images in the Viewer. The KDU Library has been updated to version 6.4 in the Viewer 2.5 Beta, which allows the Viewer to take advantage of significant decompression performance gains; our preliminary measurements gauge the performance gain at 30% for decoding images, which should translate to a visible improvement in rezzing time for complex scenes.

Please note that per our support policy, we’re also deprecating Viewer 2.1.1 today. If you’ve been running Viewer 2.1.1, you’ll be prompted to download the latest Viewer release. To stay up to date on future deprecation announcements, please subscribe to @secondlife on Twitter.

As  always, we want to know what you think of the latest beta so please keep that feedback coming. Share your impressions with us on Twitter and use the hashtag #SLViewer2.

Helpful Links

• Download Viewer 2.5 Beta 1:
  • Windows | Mac | Linux
• Viewer 2.5 Beta Release Notes
• SL Forum on Viewer 2

In addition to many grid enhancements that FJ shared last week in his technology update blog post, the Viewer 2.5 beta cycle begins today. Viewer 2.5 Beta 1 is now available and includes several new features, usability improvements, and bug fixes.

Improved Web and Viewer Resident Profiles
The biggest change in Viewer 2.5 Beta 1 is that we’ve replaced the Viewer-based profiles with web-based profiles. You can access the redesigned profiles on the web using your Second Life user id and in the Viewer itself. For example, here’s mine. In the Viewer, profiles now open in a web browser and you can open as many profiles as you like at the same time. And, if you wish, you can even connect other social identities from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to your profile.

Logging In to your Favorite Locations
A long-standing feature request has been the ability to access some of  your favorite Landmarks from the login screen, so you can quickly teleport to places inworld. In the Viewer 2.5 Beta, we’ve added a preference that gives you access to the Landmarks on your Favorites Bar from the Login Screen. To use this feature, go to Preferences > Privacy and select the check box labeled, “Show my Favorite Landmarks at Login.” If you log off and then restart your Viewer, then you’ll see a list of your Favorite Landmarks in the “Start At” drop-down box on the login screen. Also, when this feature is enabled and you share a computer account (login) with other people, they will see your list of Favorites if they run the Viewer 2.5 Beta.

Decompression Performance Improvements
For a long time, we’ve used an older version of the Kakadu library known as KDU to load textures and images in the Viewer. The KDU Library has been updated to version 6.4 in the Viewer 2.5 Beta, which allows the Viewer to take advantage of significant decompression performance gains; our preliminary measurements gauge the performance gain at 30% for decoding images, which should translate to a visible improvement in rezzing time for complex scenes.

Please note that per our support policy, we’re also deprecating Viewer 2.1.1 today. If you’ve been running Viewer 2.1.1, you’ll be prompted to download the latest Viewer release. To stay up to date on future deprecation announcements, please subscribe to @secondlife on Twitter.

As  always, we want to know what you think of the latest beta so please keep that feedback coming. Share your impressions with us on Twitter and use the hashtag #SLViewer2.

Helpful Links

• Download Viewer 2.5 Beta 1:
  • Windows | Mac | Linux
• Viewer 2.5 Beta Release Notes
• SL Forum on Viewer 2

In the epic tradition of me promising to followup when wishes come true…

With the Viewer 2.4 Beta comes with the exciting, long-awaited GRADUATION of several “advanced” features to SUPPORTED* status, as denoted by their inclusion in the PREFERENCES window (instead of being buried obscurely under-the-hood).

You may know a lot of my video tutorials feature the Advanced menu, which, despite its name, has features that are useful for even beginner Residents once you get your hands on them. However, it can be tricky for some to get the right keystroke combination down, so we’ve added a checkbox!

Be sure to download the beta first.

1. Select Me menu > Preferences.
2. Click Advanced tab.
3. Check Show Advanced menu.

And ooh, what else do we have here? A checkbox to Allow Multiple Viewer, another thing that’s been on the hotlist for… <BRIAN BLESSED Blessed>ETERNITY!!!!</BRIAN BLESSED> My venerable-yet-creaky instructions may soon vanish, replaced by what is a deservedly simpler method. To make this work, still in the Advanced tab of the PREFERENCES window:

1. Check Allow Multiple Viewer and click OK. (It seems a restart isn’t required but let me know if you find different.)
2. On Windows, double-click your existing Second Life Beta Viewer shortcut (it’s probably on your desktop). On Mac, right-click the app package and select Duplicate, then double-click the copied app. (I don’t know what the Linux process is, please deplete my ignorance.)

Another Viewer should spring to life with no “Second Life is already running” error so you can have a party with your alts without worrying whether you put one or two dashes in front of the flag (old joke).

Also be sure to see Jack Linden’s Viewer 2.4 Beta blog post for what else is fresh.

And hey, on a tangent, if your computer supports it, have you played with DEPTH OF FIELD? Mighty fine inspiration coinciding with the snow, lemme tell ya… the first few are post-processed, but I find DOF makes it so much easier to achieve “lofi” and “analogue” camera looks.

* This is a Beta so to set your expectations, stuff is subject to change. Also, while making these features visible is supported, stuff contained inside — like the myriad Advanced options — is not necessarily, unless mirrored by something already surfaced. Augh, subtleties.

Today we’re making available the first beta release of Viewer 2.4. We’ve done a great deal of maintenance work for this release, with significant help from the Second Life open-source community, including fixing a number of interface problems, hunting down and eliminating some key crash bugs, and making several performance improvements.

A number of features and changes are worth noting with this release. For the most part, we consider the work we’re releasing today to be intermediate steps on the way to a better future:

• A new auto-updater: Whenever there’s a new viewer release, the viewer will now download the new installer automatically in the background, and offer to install an upgrade when you next log in. You still control whether you want the new version, of course. We’ll continue to improve the auto-updater experience in future releases.
• Clearer preferences: We’ve reorganised several of the preferences tabs to make them more understandable (and to make it easier for us to create new preferences, should the need arise). We’ve added some colour and transparency options, and fixed some bugs too. There will be more work to come in this area as we strive to make the viewer more customisable.
• External text editor support: This is one we’re extremely happy about, as it’s something Residents have wanted for a long time. If you’re a scripter, then you can now use your own text editor for scripting. The feature still needs a lot of user interface work, but as we work more on build tools in coming months, it will keep getting better and easier to use.
• Graphics improvements: We’ve also integrated some graphics improvements as we work towards integrating mesh import into Viewer 2. Our graphics systems are undergoing major renovation, and there have been improvements to anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and snapshots, with more to come in future releases.

So, although Viewer 2.4 is fundamentally a maintenance release, it has a lot of great stuff in it. Please give it a try and give us your feedback!

Download the Viewer 2.4 Beta today, try it out, and Twitter your thoughts using the #slviewer2 hashtag.

Helpful Links

• Download the Viewer 2.4 Beta (Version 2.4.0, Beta 1)
  • Windows | Mac | Linux
• Viewer 2.4 Beta Release Notes
• SL Forum on Viewer 2

Today we’re making available the first beta release of Viewer 2.4. We’ve done a great deal of maintenance work for this release, with significant help from the Second Life open-source community, including fixing a number of interface problems, hunting down and eliminating some key crash bugs, and making several performance improvements.

A number of features and changes are worth noting with this release. For the most part, we consider the work we’re releasing today to be intermediate steps on the way to a better future:

• A new auto-updater: Whenever there’s a new viewer release, the viewer will now download the new installer automatically in the background, and offer to install an upgrade when you next log in. You still control whether you want the new version, of course. We’ll continue to improve the auto-updater experience in future releases.
• Clearer preferences: We’ve reorganised several of the preferences tabs to make them more understandable (and to make it easier for us to create new preferences, should the need arise). We’ve added some colour and transparency options, and fixed some bugs too. There will be more work to come in this area as we strive to make the viewer more customisable.
• External text editor support: This is one we’re extremely happy about, as it’s something Residents have wanted for a long time. If you’re a scripter, then you can now use your own text editor for scripting. The feature still needs a lot of user interface work, but as we work more on build tools in coming months, it will keep getting better and easier to use.
• Graphics improvements: We’ve also integrated some graphics improvements as we work towards integrating mesh import into Viewer 2. Our graphics systems are undergoing major renovation, and there have been improvements to anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and snapshots, with more to come in future releases.

So, although Viewer 2.4 is fundamentally a maintenance release, it has a lot of great stuff in it. Please give it a try and give us your feedback!

Download the Viewer 2.4 Beta today, try it out, and Twitter your thoughts using the #slviewer2 hashtag.

Helpful Links

• Download the Viewer 2.4 Beta (Version 2.4.0, Beta 1)
  • Windows | Mac | Linux
• Viewer 2.4 Beta Release Notes
• SL Forum on Viewer 2

As  part of our continued efforts to provide Residents with new ways to  promote and discover products, services, and inworld businesses, we have  recently launched the SL Advertising Beta at advertise.secondlife.com and we invite you to join the program.

Second  Life Advertising is a self-service advertising system allowing advertisers to purchase targeted display ads on multiple Linden Lab web  properties such as the SL Marketplace and SL Land Auction sites. If this test is successful, then we hope to extend advertising  offerings to additional Second Life web properties. To learn more, check  out Torley’s video tutorial on the wiki, where there’s also more information about the program.

Among other things, SL Advertising features include the following:

• Display banner ads evenly over the time period you select
• Target ads to specific SL Marketplace product categories

To join the program, just go to the SL Advertising Beta site and click on the “Get Started Now” button. Please send us all of your feedback, requests, or suggestions to sladsbeta@lindenlab.com. And if you’re on Twitter, please use the #slmarketplace hashtag.

As  part of our continued efforts to provide Residents with new ways to  promote and discover products, services, and inworld businesses, we have  recently launched the SL Advertising Beta at advertise.secondlife.com and we invite you to join the program.

Second  Life Advertising is a self-service advertising system allowing advertisers to purchase targeted display ads on multiple Linden Lab web  properties such as the SL Marketplace and SL Land Auction sites. If this test is successful, then we hope to extend advertising  offerings to additional Second Life web properties. To learn more, check  out Torley’s video tutorial on the wiki, where there’s also more information about the program.

Among other things, SL Advertising features include the following:

• Display banner ads evenly over the time period you select
• Target ads to specific SL Marketplace product categories

To join the program, just go to the SL Advertising Beta site and click on the “Get Started Now” button. Please send us all of your feedback, requests, or suggestions to sladsbeta@lindenlab.com. And if you’re on Twitter, please use the #slmarketplace hashtag.

As we explore ways to make the Second Life experience faster, easier, and more fun, we are testing a number of approaches to bring new users closer to the richness of our virtual world. Yesterday, we quietly launched a beta test of a new technology that opens up Second Life to new users like never before: Second Life on the Web! The SL Web Viewer allows new users to become Second Life “guests” through the Web and enjoy basic SL functionality while exploring exciting destinations in Second Life — all without downloading a Viewer.

We need your help to test the SL Web Viewer!

Just click http://interest.secondlife.com/beta to check it out. There is a 45-second video that will run while the system loads and then you’ll either be offered an “Explore Now” button — which means that you have successfully qualified — or a “Join Now” button — which means that you do not qualify for the test at this time*.  If you qualify, you’ll be asked to share your email address to create a temporary guest account to use the SL Web Viewer.

We’ll be running tests like this from time to time, and we may ultimately choose to further pursue some or none of these approaches, depending on what we learn from our testing, but we’re very excited to make SL an easier experience for guests and look forward to hearing what you think.

*Note: We’re in the early stages of testing this technology, and not everyone who navigates to the link will be able to access the SL Web Viewer.

As we explore ways to make the Second Life experience faster, easier, and more fun, we are testing a number of approaches to bring new users closer to the richness of our virtual world. Yesterday, we quietly launched a beta test of a new technology that opens up Second Life to new users like never before: Second Life on the Web! The SL Web Viewer allows new users to become Second Life “guests” through the Web and enjoy basic SL functionality while exploring exciting destinations in Second Life — all without downloading a Viewer.

We need your help to test the SL Web Viewer!

Just click http://interest.secondlife.com/beta to check it out. There is a 45-second video that will run while the system loads and then you’ll either be offered an “Explore Now” button — which means that you have successfully qualified — or a “Join Now” button — which means that you do not qualify for the test at this time*.  If you qualify, you’ll be asked to share your email address to create a temporary guest account to use the SL Web Viewer.

We’ll be running tests like this from time to time, and we may ultimately choose to further pursue some or none of these approaches, depending on what we learn from our testing, but we’re very excited to make SL an easier experience for guests and look forward to hearing what you think.

*Note: We’re in the early stages of testing this technology, and not everyone who navigates to the link will be able to access the SL Web Viewer.

One of the new features we’ve introduced with Viewer 2.3 Beta are “hints“, little text bubbles that come up and tell you more about a feature when appropriate. You may be familiar with this convention in other apps. For example, if someone types to you, you get a prompt on how to text chat. And there’s one for the new display names feature too.

You can click the “X” to hide a hint, but if you’d rather globally turn them off, just disable Help menu > Enable Hints

Jack Linden recently announced “Viewer 2.3 Beta Available Today With Display Names and More“! In response to hot Resident requests, we made a bunch of design upgrades so that it’s simple to do some everyday things you’ll be using often.

Question: “How can I grab a complicated display name made out of characters I can’t even type?”

Answer: We’ve added an easy Copy To Clipboard button. All you need to do is open a Resident’s profile, which is is accessible in many places via an inspector (green circle icon with an “i”).

Just click Copy To Clipboard, then Ctrl-V (Cmd-V on Mac) to paste both the display name and unchangeable username in any standard text field, including outside of Second Life. This video shows you how in action:

Remember, this is currently only available in the Viewer 2.3 Beta, so be sure to get the special Viewer and go to a supported region like this:

Because we need to ensure that Display Names operates correctly, we will  not enable Display Names for the entire grid immediately. Today, it  will work in a few thousand regions; once we see how it performs,  we  will dial that up over the next few weeks until the whole grid is  enabled. If you want to try using Display Names, then head to Blake Sea  and Bay City, as those areas will be enabled first.

Learn more about display names in our help pages!

^ I was writing these but have been transitioning them into the care of Bea Linden, feel free to comment and let us know your suggestions.

Today, we are excited to launch the latest version of Viewer 2 — Viewer 2.3 Beta — that makes it even easier to connect to friends and relevant experiences in Second Life. We’ve come a long way since we first launched the first Viewer 2 Beta in February. We’ve dramatically increased performance and stability while adding cool new features like Shared Media. We’ve also made many usability improvements, based on your feedback, that make it easier for content creators and developers to build in Second Life.

With the Version 2.3 Beta, Viewer 2 takes another big leap forward. This Beta not only includes many performance enhancements and bug fixes, but it also allows you to more freely express your inworld identity with Display Names, introduces helpful pop-up hints to make it easier to learn Viewer 2, and gives group owners more control of SL Events.

Display Names Arrives on the Main Grid

Display Names, as you know, gives all Residents two names: a unique username and an optional Display Name that you can change on a weekly basis. Display Names gives you the ability to use Unicode characters and multiple words so you can use your current SL Name, your real name, a pseudonym, or a gamer tag. It’s your choice!

Since we originally blogged about Display Names, and subsequently launched the Display Names Project Viewer on the test grid, we’ve made a range of changes to the feature that address the Resident concerns and feedback we received around impersonation and griefing. If you want to learn more, there’s a video below showcasing the enhancements and a full list detailing each change. We have also compiled a Frequently Asked Questions wiki page and two Knowledge Base articles, one on Display Names and another on usernames, complete with video tutorials from Torley that show you how to use this new feature.

Check out this video to see Display Names in action:

Because we need to ensure that Display Names operates correctly, we will not enable Display Names for the entire grid immediately. Today, it will work in a few thousand regions, once we see how it performs,  we will dial that up over the next few weeks until the whole grid is enabled. If you want to know where you can try using Display Names, then head to Blake Sea and Bay City, as those areas will be enabled first.

Group Owners Can Now Control Event Scheduling

The Viewer 2.3 Beta now allows group owners to control events scheduling on group-owned land. Please read more and see our step-by-step instructions on the SL Events wiki pages.

Viewer Hints Make the Switch to Viewer 2 Easy

We understand that there’s a bit of a learning curve when you make the switch from Viewer 1.23 to Viewer 2. So, we have added helpful pop-up hints for newer users around commonly used features, such as walk and chat. These disappear when the user takes the appropriate action, or dismisses the hint, and then you’ll never see them again.

Download the Viewer 2.3 Beta today, try it out, and Twitter your thoughts using the #slviewer2 hashtag.

Helpful Links

• Download Viewer 2.3 Beta (Version 2.3.0, Beta 1)
  • Windows | Mac | Linux
• Viewer 2.3 Beta Release Notes
• Display Names FAQs
• Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback with Video
• Display Names Knowledge Base Article with Instructional Video
• Usernames Knowledge Base Article with Instructional Video
• SL Events Wiki
• SL Answers on Display Names
• SL Forum on Viewer 2

Today, we are excited to launch the latest version of Viewer 2 — Viewer 2.3 Beta — that makes it even easier to connect to friends and relevant experiences in Second Life. We’ve come a long way since we first launched the first Viewer 2 Beta in February. We’ve dramatically increased performance and stability while adding cool new features like Shared Media. We’ve also made many usability improvements, based on your feedback, that make it easier for content creators and developers to build in Second Life.

With the Version 2.3 Beta, Viewer 2 takes another big leap forward. This Beta not only includes many performance enhancements and bug fixes, but it also allows you to more freely express your inworld identity with Display Names, introduces helpful pop-up hints to make it easier to learn Viewer 2, and gives group owners more control of SL Events.

Display Names Arrives on the Main Grid

Display Names, as you know, gives all Residents two names: a unique username and an optional Display Name that you can change on a weekly basis. Display Names gives you the ability to use Unicode characters and multiple words so you can use your current SL Name, your real name, a pseudonym, or a gamer tag. It’s your choice!

Since we originally blogged about Display Names, and subsequently launched the Display Names Project Viewer on the test grid, we’ve made a range of changes to the feature that address the Resident concerns and feedback we received around impersonation and griefing. If you want to learn more, there’s a video below showcasing the enhancements and a full list detailing each change. We have also compiled a Frequently Asked Questions wiki page and two Knowledge Base articles, one on Display Names and another on usernames, complete with video tutorials from Torley that show you how to use this new feature.

Check out this video to see Display Names in action:

Because we need to ensure that Display Names operates correctly, we will not enable Display Names for the entire grid immediately. Today, it will work in a few thousand regions, once we see how it performs,  we will dial that up over the next few weeks until the whole grid is enabled. If you want to know where you can try using Display Names, then head to Blake Sea and Bay City, as those areas will be enabled first.

Group Owners Can Now Control Event Scheduling

The Viewer 2.3 Beta now allows group owners to control events scheduling on group-owned land. Please read more and see our step-by-step instructions on the SL Events wiki pages.

Viewer Hints Make the Switch to Viewer 2 Easy

We understand that there’s a bit of a learning curve when you make the switch from Viewer 1.23 to Viewer 2. So, we have added helpful pop-up hints for newer users around commonly used features, such as walk and chat. These disappear when the user takes the appropriate action, or dismisses the hint, and then you’ll never see them again.

Download the Viewer 2.3 Beta today, try it out, and Twitter your thoughts using the #slviewer2 hashtag.

Helpful Links

• Download Viewer 2.3 Beta (Version 2.3.0, Beta 1)
  • Windows | Mac | Linux
• Viewer 2.3 Beta Release Notes
• Display Names FAQs
• Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback with Video
• Display Names Knowledge Base Article with Instructional Video
• Usernames Knowledge Base Article with Instructional Video
• SL Events Wiki
• SL Answers on Display Names
• SL Forum on Viewer 2

As previously blogged, I’m very excited to announce that the Beta for Mesh Import is now open to all Residents. Mesh Import allows you to bring models into Second Life from the many popular 3D tools such as Blender or Maya(t), using the COLLADA file format. We see this as an important step to empower content creators to make the inworld experience an even richer and more creative one than it is today. You can read more about Mesh Import here and in my last blog post.

Join the Mesh Import Beta

In order to take part, you will need to first download the Project Viewer for Mesh Import, based on the Viewer 2 code base, available below. This special Mesh viewer will take you to the test grid that we call Aditi. This is a separate grid from the one you normally use for Second Life — so any changes you make there will not be preserved nor transferred to the main grid. Whilst the Mesh Beta is open to all Residents, it is possible that accounts created within the last few weeks may have trouble logging into the test grid as they won’t have been migrated across yet; so if you have trouble, then here are instructions for updating your account info on Aditi.

Getting Started with Meshes

So that you can get started straight away, we have prepared a few simple walkthroughs for you to follow once you’ve logged in. You can find them on the main Mesh wiki page along with various other pieces of information. They should give you a good idea of how the Mesh Import tool works before you import your own meshes. Remember that we are using the COLLADA file format, so you’ll need to use a tool that can create COLLADA files such as the free, cross-platform Blender. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to add information to the Mesh wiki page, so do check back often.

Please note, that the Second Life Terms of Service applies on the Aditi test grid, as it does on the main grid. That means that you should not import any content for which you do not have the appropriate rights. But, For more information, see our Intellectual Property Policy and if you’re in doubt over a specific object, then it’s probably best not to import it.

What to Expect on the Beta Grid

Although the base technology that drives mesh is in good shape, we still have some way to go before this is production ready. We wanted to get it into your hands sooner, versus later, to get your feedback. You should only take part if you’re comfortable with beta software that may crash or cause content that you’re working on to break in unexpected ways. In addition, the product design piece — the user interface — still needs some work so you can expect that the interface for mesh will change and improve over time. The Mesh Project Viewer will auto-update as we ship updated versions, so when there’s a new version, then you’ll be prompted to install it.

Another change, that many of you will notice right away for this beta test, is that we have changed the maximum size of a prim, for both normal prims and mesh prims. The maximum for each dimension is up from 10m to 64m. Our hope is that this change will also be available on the main grid as well once Mesh Import ships. But, we need to assess how these larger prims perform during the beta period to ensure that they will integrate seamlessly into the main grid environment.

Releasing the Viewer Code for Mesh

To give our third party viewer developers as much time as possible to work with the Mesh code base, and so that we can get additional feedback and support from the opensource community, the code base for the Mesh Project Viewer will be released by the end of this week. It will be made available on the Snowstorm wiki page.

Giving Feedback on Mesh Import

If you believe that you’ve found a bug, or have a suggestion for how to improve the feature, then please use our public Jira issue tracker to let us know. Before you file an issue there, please do search to ensure that someone hasn’t already filed the same issue before you. If they have, then by all means add your comments there.

Anticipating a Few of Your Questions

Yes, you have questions. Let me anticipate a few. Feel free to ask more in comments and we’ll answer what we can.

• Q: How will Mesh objects look if you’re viewing them from an older viewer, such as those based on Viewer 1.23?
• A: They will look like flat shapes and will not resemble the real mesh objects. See the Mesh wiki page for examples.

• Q: What are the prim costs for importing Meshes?
• A: Aspects of this are still being worked out, but the latest info is on the Mesh wiki page.

• Q: Will you be charging upload fee for meshes?
• A: Yes we will charge an upload fee in L$ when mesh launches into production. For the beta test on the test grid, there will be no fees.

• Q: Will you have Mesh office hours?
• A: We are holding Mesh Import office hours tomorrow, October 14, at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT) at the four corners of Mesh Headquarters on Aditi (SLurl: secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/MeshHQ 1/238/238/26). We will have more office hours in the future, so keep checking the Mesh wiki page as they are scheduled.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all in advance for taking part. We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing mesh creations and hearing your feedback.

Resources:

• Download the Mesh Import Project Viewer   
  • Windows  |  Mac  |  Linux
• Read the last blog post on Mesh Import
• Read more at our Mesh Wiki Page
• Share your thoughts on the Mesh Forum or the Mesh section of SL Answers
• Log bugs on the public Jira
• Twitter your feedback on #slviewer2
• Please upload pictures of your mesh creations to Flickr with the #slmesh tag. You’ll be able to view the resulting collection here.

As previously blogged, I’m very excited to announce that the Beta for Mesh Import is now open to all Residents. Mesh Import allows you to bring models into Second Life from the many popular 3D tools such as Blender or Maya(t), using the COLLADA file format. We see this as an important step to empower content creators to make the inworld experience an even richer and more creative one than it is today. You can read more about Mesh Import here and in my last blog post.

Join the Mesh Import Beta

In order to take part, you will need to first download the Project Viewer for Mesh Import, based on the Viewer 2 code base, available below. This special Mesh viewer will take you to the test grid that we call Aditi. This is a separate grid from the one you normally use for Second Life — so any changes you make there will not be preserved nor transferred to the main grid. Whilst the Mesh Beta is open to all Residents, it is possible that accounts created within the last few weeks may have trouble logging into the test grid as they won’t have been migrated across yet; so if you have trouble, then here are instructions for updating your account info on Aditi.

Getting Started with Meshes

So that you can get started straight away, we have prepared a few simple walkthroughs for you to follow once you’ve logged in. You can find them on the main Mesh wiki page along with various other pieces of information. They should give you a good idea of how the Mesh Import tool works before you import your own meshes. Remember that we are using the COLLADA file format, so you’ll need to use a tool that can create COLLADA files such as the free, cross-platform Blender. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to add information to the Mesh wiki page, so do check back often.

Please note, that the Second Life Terms of Service applies on the Aditi test grid, as it does on the main grid. That means that you should not import any content for which you do not have the appropriate rights. But, For more information, see our Intellectual Property Policy and if you’re in doubt over a specific object, then it’s probably best not to import it.

What to Expect on the Beta Grid

Although the base technology that drives mesh is in good shape, we still have some way to go before this is production ready. We wanted to get it into your hands sooner, versus later, to get your feedback. You should only take part if you’re comfortable with beta software that may crash or cause content that you’re working on to break in unexpected ways. In addition, the product design piece — the user interface — still needs some work so you can expect that the interface for mesh will change and improve over time. The Mesh Project Viewer will auto-update as we ship updated versions, so when there’s a new version, then you’ll be prompted to install it.

Another change, that many of you will notice right away for this beta test, is that we have changed the maximum size of a prim, for both normal prims and mesh prims. The maximum for each dimension is up from 10m to 64m. Our hope is that this change will also be available on the main grid as well once Mesh Import ships. But, we need to assess how these larger prims perform during the beta period to ensure that they will integrate seamlessly into the main grid environment.

Releasing the Viewer Code for Mesh

To give our third party viewer developers as much time as possible to work with the Mesh code base, and so that we can get additional feedback and support from the opensource community, the code base for the Mesh Project Viewer will be released by the end of this week. It will be made available on the Snowstorm wiki page.

Giving Feedback on Mesh Import

If you believe that you’ve found a bug, or have a suggestion for how to improve the feature, then please use our public Jira issue tracker to let us know. Before you file an issue there, please do search to ensure that someone hasn’t already filed the same issue before you. If they have, then by all means add your comments there.

Anticipating a Few of Your Questions

Yes, you have questions. Let me anticipate a few. Feel free to ask more in comments and we’ll answer what we can.

• Q: How will Mesh objects look if you’re viewing them from an older viewer, such as those based on Viewer 1.23?
• A: They will look like flat shapes and will not resemble the real mesh objects. See the Mesh wiki page for examples.

• Q: What are the prim costs for importing Meshes?
• A: Aspects of this are still being worked out, but the latest info is on the Mesh wiki page.

• Q: Will you be charging upload fee for meshes?
• A: Yes we will charge an upload fee in L$ when mesh launches into production. For the beta test on the test grid, there will be no fees.

• Q: Will you have Mesh office hours?
• A: We are holding Mesh Import office hours tomorrow, October 14, at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT) at the four corners of Mesh Headquarters on Aditi (SLurl: secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/MeshHQ 1/238/238/26). We will have more office hours in the future, so keep checking the Mesh wiki page as they are scheduled.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all in advance for taking part. We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing mesh creations and hearing your feedback.

Resources:

• Download the Mesh Import Project Viewer   
  • Windows  |  Mac  |  Linux
• Read the last blog post on Mesh Import
• Read more at our Mesh Wiki Page
• Share your thoughts on the Mesh Forum or the Mesh section of SL Answers
• Log bugs on the public Jira
• Twitter your feedback on #slviewer2

Following on from my previous post, I am delighted to announce that we will begin the Mesh Open Beta on Wednesday, October 13th, allowing all Residents to experiment with our new mesh upload fuctionality. We’re extremely excited about this project; here is what to expect from the beta program:

On October 13th, you will find a new “Mesh Project Viewer” on the Downloads page, which will be available for any Resident to download. This Viewer cannot connect you to the main grid; instead, it will take you to a development grid (called Aditi) where mesh has been enabled. After you download the Mesh Project Viewer and log in to Aditi, you can then experiment with mesh without impacting your regular SL account. The mesh features should be fully functional, so you’ll be able to upload mesh files, define their physical shape, apply them to objects, and link multiple mesh objects together.

Some aspects of mesh are complex, but don’t worry — we will also provide documentation explaining how to get started with mesh, along with some simple examples to get you started.

The main purpose of the beta is to have as many folks trying out the technology as we can, so that we can improve the quality and iron out any issues early. I’ll blog again on our progress shortly and will also let you know how best to file bugs or give us other feedback. We are still actively working on the user interface for mesh, so you should expect this to look a little rough for a while as we polish it up and make changes based on your feedback.

So, if you’re someone who is comfortable trying out beta software, and you’re interested in creating mesh objects in Second Life — a whole new level of creativity — please do put October 13th in your diary!  The more involved you get, the better it will be!

Today, we’re releasing Viewer 2 (Version 2.2.0 Beta) on our Beta release channel. This is an exciting release for us for two reasons. First, this release marks the first Viewer download since we announced the Snowstorm Team at SLCC in August. The Snowstorm Team has been working in the open to share our design and development process and directly engage with open source developers. Second, this beta release also marks the beginning of a new approach to our release process. Since we kicked off Project Snowstorm, we’ve made the latest Development Viewer available to Residents nightly so they can see our day to day progress and try out new things as soon as they’re in a build.

In our Beta and Release channels, we will make Viewers available to you more frequently. Our plan is to update Betas weekly with new official releases happening every 3-4 weeks. This lets us get new ideas and features into your hands faster and it gives us the ability to react to your feedback more quickly.

This latest beta release of Viewer 2 (Version 2.2.0 Beta), is mostly focused on bug fixes, but also includes some great user interface customization options. Here’s a quick run-down of what you’ll find in this release:

Many of these features came to the official Viewer through resident contributions, both directly by way of the Snowstorm team, as well as indirectly through past contributions to the Snowglobe project. Thank you to all of you who have contributed code, testing, and commentary. Please keep it up!

To view a full list of changes, see the Release Notes.

Download the Beta Viewer : Windows | Mac | Linux

Please note that, as always on the beta channel, we only support one beta viewer at a time. If you’re using an older Beta Viewer, then you will be asked to upgrade on your next login.

Thank you!

The commerce team will be migrating listing data from XstreetSL to the SL Beta Marketplace beginning September 16th.

This will be the last migration for listing content.

Review your migration settings on XStreetSL
We would like Merchants to review their migration settings on their “My Inventory” page on
XStreetSL and follow the following guidelines:

• If you have this setting as “No longer migrate Items” your items will not be migrated.
• If you have this setting as “Migrate Items, but set inactive on the  beta Marketplace” you listings will be migrated but no one will be able  to purchase them until you set your item to listed.
• If you have this setting as “Migrate Items” your items will be migrated and your current listings will retain their current active/non-active settings

Product Versions
Where possible, the migration will update the listings on the new marketplace to deliver the latest version of the product that is being delivered by  the corresponding product on Xstreet.

Images for Listings
Listing Images will be migrated separately from the listing content and permissions.

Migrating Permissions
The next migration should bring over more than 97.6% of the permission  settings. However, that will still leave 38,000 permissions on listings that will not be migrated due to the way that the permissions are  described on the XstreetSL listing.

Please review your product listings and review the permissions. If you are not using the following terms your permissions may not be migrated:

Permission Terms to be migrated

• Copy
• Copy + Resizer
• copy and resize script
• Copy, and Modif with Rezize Script
• Copy, Modify
• Copy, Modify, Transfer
• Copy, Resize, Texture change
• Copy, Transfer
• Copy,Resizer System
• Copy/Mod
• FULL PERM
• mixed
• mod
• mod & trans
• mod, trans
• mod, transfer
• Mod/Transfer
• Modify
• Modify, Transfer
• Modify/Transfer
• None
• Other
• Permissions Vary
• Please Read Description
• READ DESCRIPTION
• Read Description for details
• Read Description for Permission Details
• Read Purchase Conditions
• resizeable script,trans
• See Above for Permissions
• see description
• see discription
• see note
• See Text
• trans
• trans and some mod
• Transfer
• Transfer, Resize
• Transferable
• Transferrable
• Varies
• various

Samples of permission terms that will not migrate

• copy, modify (partly)
• clothing layers copy, prims are copy/mod
• Copy, Modify by script
• copy with prim items modifiable
• fullperm sculpted prim,  no-mod sculptmap
• (Copy) prim parts w/resizer
• Card: trans – Envelope: mod/trans
• (Copy) w/resizer
• NMCNT
• Transferable and scripted for resizing
• copy and see description
• No Modify / No Copy / Transfert
• Copyable / Touch to resize

Negative permissions will not migrate
Do not use “Negative” descriptions to note permissions. For example, “No Mod” will not be migrated.

Report issues after the migration
If you find migration bugs, you can file bugs using the public JIRA, also known as the Issue Tracker. File them as Project: “3. Second Life Website – WEB” and Component: “Marketplace”. More info on how to do that. Here is an example. The team will not be reviewing bugs until after September 16th.

Sincerely,

The Commerce Team

Quick Links:

SL Marketplace Help Pages

English

Deutsch

Français

日本語

Português

Migration of Listings and Images
The Commerce Team is extending the data migration of products and images until Wednesday September 1, 6PM PST.  This Migration will apply to all listings – but only listings  that are active will be visible to the public. You can change your  migration preference by going to the “My Inventory page” on Xstreet. If  you find migration bugs, you can file bugs using the public JIRA, also  known as the Issue Tracker. File them as Project: “3. Second Life Website – WEB” and Component: “Marketplace”. More info on how to do that. Here is an example.

Sincerely,

The Commerce Team

Quick Links:
SL Marketplace Help Pages

Deutsch

Français

日本語

Português