Until earlier today, I had a fairly up to date IBM laptop, with plenty RAM, a reasonable CPU and such - at least that's what I thought. It got a bit stale recently, but overall it did the job. But as of this moment, my trusted T43 laptop is officially designated 'old'.
Why, do you ask? I installed todays' update to Second Life Windlight, version 1.18.5.74642. And for the first time since I got this laptop, an installer told me that my hardware was no longer supported. Not good enough. Not fast enough. Not capable. In short..Old. It said I could of course try to install and run the SL Windlight viewer, but I would experience lag and other malfunctions. And lag I did experience, even in an almost empty sim.
I have talked to our hardware guys about this laptop, as I said it did get a bit stale recently. But this is proof positive that I am really lagging in hardware upgrades..
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
It's the time of the season!
Even these tropical islands get a "winter look and feel" makeover these days :-)
posted by Sered Woollahra on Timandra using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
more Windlight reflections at Bug Island
more Windlight reflections at Bug Island
posted by Sered Woollahra on Bug Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]
this shiny test reminds me..
..of a real life office building. The difference: this thing is warped on the outside, at that office the warped things work inside :-)
posted by Sered Woollahra on Bug Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]
an army of pacmans
This army of pacmans is another windlight test, for the bump mapping and shiny part. Again the results on my screen differ considerably from what I should see according to the accompanying hud.
posted by Sered Woollahra on Bug Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Torley's windlight test
Vint Falken proposed a Windlight test for different graphics cards; today Torley Linden appears to have such a setup ready. Here I am testing with different settings. The results are not all ok: the live view and the hud screenshot should be identical, and it appears they are not. At least not for the midnight setting. I'm still testing the rest.
posted by Sered Woollahra on Bug Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The three servicemen
The three servicemen, vietnam veterans' monument
posted by Sered Woollahra on The Wall using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Saturday, November 24, 2007
San Francesco Assisi, detail
yesterday I posted a pic of the outside of this church build, but be sure to view the inside as well. Rich in detail; it must have cost a lot of effort to bring this together.
posted by Sered Woollahra on san francesco assisi using a blogHUD : [permalink]
San Francesco Assisi
..what an amazing build! A must see, rightly mentioned in todays' NWN article "The Best of Second Life's Ten Best of Second Life".
posted by Sered Woollahra on san francesco assisi using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Friday, November 23, 2007
Games booming business in The Netherlands
This news today captured my attention: "Nederlandse Gamesindustrie groter dan filmbranche", which means: in The Netherlands, games are bigger than movies - in some respects. The article cites the chairman of the Dutch gaming industry organization NLGD, who claims that, in 2007, the game industry will employ over 1500 people and have an annual turnover of an estimated one billion dollars - more than the Dutch movie industry.
Of course, the Dutch movie industry isn't exactly Hollywood, but it's still significant when something new overtakes the old, isn't it?
What makes this really interesting from my point of view however, is that it's especially the 'serious games' (training, simulation, education) that do well; they create most of this economic activity. One of the biggest universities of The Netherlands, the University of Utrecht, created the "center for advanced gaming and simulation" (English site), in a joint partnership with the Utrecht School of the Arts and TNO.
This looks very promising for anyone with an interest in virtual worlds and their usability in business or work situations. Especially the work of the center at Utrecht University looks promising. I wonder when they''ll have an event in Second Life..?
Of course, the Dutch movie industry isn't exactly Hollywood, but it's still significant when something new overtakes the old, isn't it?
What makes this really interesting from my point of view however, is that it's especially the 'serious games' (training, simulation, education) that do well; they create most of this economic activity. One of the biggest universities of The Netherlands, the University of Utrecht, created the "center for advanced gaming and simulation" (English site), in a joint partnership with the Utrecht School of the Arts and TNO.
This looks very promising for anyone with an interest in virtual worlds and their usability in business or work situations. Especially the work of the center at Utrecht University looks promising. I wonder when they''ll have an event in Second Life..?
enjoying the afternoon sun
I built a little perch up in the sky, to be able to enjoy the afternoon sun. Nice view, I really like Windlight. I ran OnRez and Windlight together to be able to really compare, and once you've done that, you'll never return to the old viewer!
You know what was eerie? Yesterday I watched the moon rise here, between the scattered clouds. Beautiful! After logging off, I went out for a smoke, looked up at the RL sky and it looked almost identical!
posted by Sered Woollahra on Timandra using a blogHUD : [permalink]
I think I'll like it here
I haven't owned any land for quite some time, but as the stipend Lindens kept coming in, I felt it was time for a small investment. So now I own a nice small plot of land, next to a Linden owned waterway, with a view of the ocean nearby. Nice sunsets here, too.. I think I'll like it here.
posted by Sered Woollahra on Timandra using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Thursday, November 22, 2007
something wrong - redux
Todays' first experiments with Windlight atmosphere shaders didn't turn out well, as an earlier post revealed. A search of the jira bugtracker for RADEON ATI X300 pointed me in the right direction: I might need a driver update. So I installed the latest Catalyst stuff for that card, and sure enough, atmosphere shaders now work flawlessly. Second Life sure can look pretty with Windlight fully enabled!
For others suffering from this issue, here's the JIRA reference: http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1235
posted by Sered Woollahra on caLLiefornia using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Sundown at Ciuso Prime
I've been wayyy to busy recently, almost no time to blog - but I had to try out the new Windlight viewer. Looks nice, although, as you can see at the previous post, I do have problems with atmospheric shaders enabled. It gives the world a funky color - not exactly what's intended, I think! But the water and lights effects are great, both in SL and in OpenSim.
Something wrong...
I just started playing around with todays' version of the Windlight first look viewer. After enabling atmospheric shading, this is how the world looks. I must be doing something wrong :-)
posted by Sered Woollahra on Dulce Dal Mare using a blogHUD : [permalink]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)