New World Notes

Lumiya Update: Android App for SL Unpublished from Google Play Due to Sudden Terms of Service Changes, Dev Team Now Working to Republish

Important update for Android users and owners of Lumiya, the popular SL viewer for Android devices, which was recently removed for unknown reasons from Google Play -- as pointed out by reader/Lumiya user Mondy:

According to the notice sent through the Lumiya in-world group, the reason for the delisting on Google play was because of a change in SMS policy from Google. Lumiya has a backup feature for chat so if it uses SMS to send those then that's probably what it refers to. I know a lot of popular apps that use SMS also got hit recently for the same kind of thing and without being updated in time apps get removed automatically. According to the notice they're working on getting re-published as soon as they can.

Screengrab of that group message update above. And indeed, Google did announce some policy changes to Android apps last month related to apps and the use of SMS.

And as Lumiya's group manager says, until Lumiya is restored to Google Play, the recommended download channel for Lumiya is from the SlideMe Android market.

Lumiya, Popular SL Viewer Recently Removed from Google Play, Still Available on SlideME Android Marketplace

While Lumiya, the popular SL viewer for Android devices, was recently removed for unknown reasons from Google Play, it's still currently available on SlideME, a curated market for Android apps. I'm not too familiar with SlideME but it's recommended by some Android news outlets as a popular alternative to Google Play. More key, Lumiya creator Alina Lyvette herself recommends SlideME as a Google Play alternative, especially for people who to want to purchase a copy from her using PayPal. Some SLers have pointed to alternate sources for Lumiya which might be unauthorized/ripped copies, and of course, it's far better that Alina get the sales: Go here to buy it on SlideME.

Lumiya, Popular Android Viewer for Second Life, Gone from Google Play -- But Still Works (For Now)

Update, May 6: Lumiya still seems to be available on SlideME Android Marketplace

Frustrating and possibly bad news: Lumiya, the popular SL viewer for Android devices -- over 100,000 copies have been bought at $2.99 each -- is no longer in Google Play. This about a year after word that Lumiya, created by SLer Alina Lyvette, was removed from the official Third Party Viewer Directory.

The good news is it still works: I just logged into Second Life with my Samsung tablet, and the SL replica of Notre Dame Cathedral faithfully started to display. (And impressively well, for an Android client!)

I've reached out to both Linden Lab and Alina for clarity, and hope to update this story soon. I haven't received any message from Alina since 2014, when we talked about her real life as an LGBTQ person in Putin's oppressive Russia. But no reason as yet to assume anything -- it may just be a simple technical issue.

Does This Open Source VR Viewer for Second Life Make the Virtual World Look Better Than VRChat?

There's a new update to Firestorm VR, a Second Life viewer for virtual reality headsets, from developer Peter Kappler (links available here on his YouTube page). It includes some fixes and improvements to the open source project from since I first blogged about it last month; specifically new mouse and keyboard controls (as you'll see in the video above) plus better performance: "Stereo should look smoother now", Peter tells me.

And while Second Life is over 15 years old, he believes the VR experience his viewer offers is better than what you'd get in leading social VR platforms:

"Honestly if you go to other VR worlds you will find out that the worlds and avatars are not so complicated," as he puts it to me. "I bet if you build a sim properly and use proper avatars you can make SL look like VRChat -- even better. I saw some avatars that were looking pretty realistic in Second Life which I've never seen in VRChat."

How accurate that is, I leave up to brave early adopters who want to give Firestorm VR a try -- here's some instruction tips and advice from Peter:

Can a Multiple Texture Upload Feature Improve Second Life Performance?

Here's a new feature request on the Second Life JIRA worth following, submitted by Firestorm developer Beq Janus, who explains her reasoning for it in a New World Notes comment:

As was raised in the past in this blog, one of the problems we face in Second Life is inefficient content design, and a move that encourages the creation of high resolution (1024) textures as part of a default workflow is going to lead to a worsening of this situation. To this end I have proposed an amendment to the viewer (and server) that would allow for the simplified creation of multiple resolutions in a single transaction. Ultimately I would like to see this generate a range of resolutions from a single (high resolution) source image, for a single upload fee. I think the feature has value without the single fee change, but the take up would be far lower. The hope is that with such a feature, artists and creators can work with high-resolution images and the viewer will produce multiple resolution uploads allowing the creators to test the appearance and make better decisions about when a 1024x1024 image is really needed.

The UI mock-up pictured here is part of Beq's proposal in the JIRA, a way to subtly encourage mesh creators to avoid uploading unnecessarily resource-heavy, poorly optimized textures which are now choking SL performance:

Text-Based Viewer for Second Life & OpenSim? There's an App for That

Linden Lab may be finally ready to release an iOS "companion" app for Second Life, but reader "Saga" points out there's already a third party SL app in the App Store: "There is another app for SL chat/inventory for iOS. I use it now and then, it’s called MetaChat!" And so there is:

MetaChat is a text-only viewer for all Virtual Worlds based on the OpenSimulator software for 3D worlds.

iOS apps CANNOT RUN IN THE BACKGROUND !

There is no 3D view, this is a text-only viewer.

Add accounts from different worlds with different start locations.,
See your friendlist, read messages or write
Chat with groups, see group infos or write group notices
Chat in open world 
Move around a mini-map, teleport to landmarks
See your inventory/worn, preview textures or pictures, send items
Attach/Wear/Detach/TakeOff Clothes
Enter/leave groups
Add friends/invite/pay/remove

So about the same feature list as the late-lamented Pocket Metaverse, but updated more often (check the developer blog here). But caveat emptor, my dude: MetaChat's user reviewers are pretty middling. However, even most of the critical reviews still suggest it's worth considering as a purchase:

How to Make Second Life Look Like It's Cel Shaded à la Borderlands

Because so many readers loved that hack for making Second Life look like a line drawing (someone is already using that to make a "Take on Me" machinima, right?), here's another set of tweaks to make Second Life look like it's cel shaded, as above -- you know, like in the popular Borderlands games. This hack, unsurprisingly, comes from SL graphics master NiranV, creator of the Black Dragon SL viewer. All you have to do, he explains, is adjust SL's screen space ambient occlusion settings: "Set SSAO max scale very low, scale super high, its factor super high and strength super low and viola, you get cel shading via SSAO. For a better effect turn off light softening."

If that's a bit over your head like mine, don't worry -- here's the settings to play with in the Black Dragon viewer, and some tips for doing it in the official viewer:

Watch: How to Make Second Life Look Like an Animated Line Drawing

This is a fantastic visual effect for Second Life created by Kitsune Shan, simply through adjusting settings in the Firestorm viewer: Rendering the virtual world into what looks like an animated line drawing. It screams out for being used in machinima and music videos -- or as Sasy Scarborough put it to me, when she sent this video my way, "Turn name tags off, it would be an amazing short film." Yes.

How to create this effect? Watch the video until the very end, where you see the setting levels she used in the UI. Kitsune figured this out through trial and error noodling:

Black Dragon Update: Control Multiple Animated Avatars at the Same Time

Black Dragon, the third party Second Life viewer with a cult following among hardcore graphics fans (developer NiranV estimates about 3000+ downloads), has a new version available for download: "Animating Dragon".

As that suggests, the latest updates enables this: "The ability to use poses to animate not just yourself but also Animesh now. Previously I added posing for Animesh but you could still only animate either you or them [Animesh-based NPCs) and only one at a time," as he explains to me. "Now you can animate everyone independently and/or at the same time."

So basically, this is a major boon for machinima makers and fashionistas who want to take supermodel shots where they want to control the supermodel too. (Just for starters.)

Video of Animating Dragon in action below. More about it on NiranV's blog (where you can also get the download link). 

Niran, by the way, has a Patreon for developing Black Dragon, and donations sure seem well-deserved. I mean, just look at what he's doing all by himself on his viewer:

Black Dragon Comes With Highly Detailed In-Viewer Poser for SL Avatars

Black Dragon, the third party Second Life viewer with a cult following among hardcore graphics fans, has a relatively unknown feature with a lot of potential uses: In-viewer avatar poser, editing poses with an extremely high and subtle detail, available in the menu via Dragon > My Useful Features > Poser.

"It all started with people wanting a way to synchronize animations like in Firestorm," lead developer NiranV tells me. "I didn't want to implement this as a separate feature. Instead, I made it part of my previous plan of adding a whole animation manipulation suite, which was inspired by my previous 'adjustable slow motion' animation feature."

Niran, by the way, has a Patreon for developing Black Dragon, and donations sure seem well-deserved. I mean, just look at what he's doing in his viewer: