"Steam has just added the broadcast feature that lets your friends watch you play," says SL Redditor TrinityDejavu, "if you add your choice of Second Life viewer to your steam games then others can watch. This works with all SL clients." I haven't tried it out yet, but after you've added Second Life (under Games, select "Add Non-Steam Game"), you can access those options via View > Settings, as above. I will try it, because I want to try Hamlet's hand at Let's Go-style videos. If you have already, please share your experience in Comments!
By the way, if you haven't played Banner Saga yet, and you geek out to turn-based fantasy with a deep storyline and beautiful art, download it already for god's sake.
I can see this adding to the frustration of people interested in the game but still put off by its reputation or difficulty.
The fact is SL doesn't look good for new players. Simply because the game makes you work for what you get.
You can advertise great looking avatars all you want in great locations, in great clothes etc. But what isn't in the advertisements and player bragging flickr accounts etc. is the work that went into making everything look great. Maybe we don't realize it is work simply because we SL players like tinkering with the avatar controls. We like spending a few relaxing hours designing interior and exterior play spaces.
A great many players don't want that. They want it right now or not at all. Which is why WOW is so perennially popular. It gives it all on a silver platter. That isn't how SL or even real VR platforms are set up. In the future, the next VRs will probably limit options to give a get it and go start. But then, they really won't be true VRs.
Posted by: melponeme_k | Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 06:29 AM
This feature of Steam looks like it could be useful to broadcast SL and OpenSim meetings to those not wanting to or not able to open a full SL Viewer to join in.
On a quick test I can see approx 30fps at 720p and pretty smooth replay for the watcher.
The Steam chat can be shared too, but it could be best to keep that open as a separate window and not have the broadcaster use full screen for the SL/OpenSim viewer itself.
More info and screen captures at
http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2015/01/22/streaming-second-life-via-steam-broadcasting/
Posted by: Ai Austin | Monday, January 26, 2015 at 01:51 AM
Worth noting that "Record my microphone" needs to be ticked on in the Steam broadcast settings in order for the broadcaster's voice to be heard by watchers. All other normal audio, environmental and UI sounds, as well as in world (Vivox) voice of avatars OTHER than the broadcaster play fine.
Posted by: Ai Austin | Monday, January 26, 2015 at 04:26 AM