Month September 2018

SLUniverse Moving To A New Site Called VirtualVerse

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SLUniverse Is Closing Down Soon

SLUniverse

Cristiano the owner of the well popular SLUniverse has announced it will be closing down in the next few weeks after recent issues. The SLUniverse Forums will become archived (read-only) and could be unavailable for some time after the closure.

SLU has a been a great source for the latest news in recent years for me. It’s sad to see it go but at least it’s still going on a different way. I joined SLU back in 2010 and I have enjoyed being part of this community.

SLUniverse Forums Statistics

  • Threads: 108, 739
  • Posts: 2, 408, 831
  • Members: 58, 131
  • Most users ever online was: 11, 462 on 09-24-2013 at 01:35 AM.

SLUniverse Posts Milestones 

Cristiano mentions the following about the closure and the new site going forward…

So a lot has happened in the past 24 hours. I nearly lost 2.4 million posts and obliterated SLU, got them back, perhaps may have cried a little, then made some decisions about what to do about SLU.

I detailed what I was going through my mind in this post, so I won’t repeat it. However, since writing that, I made some rapid decisions that are already in motion.

First of all, I am launching a new site – VirtualVerse, which expands the scope of SLU to all things related to virtual worlds, whether it is Second Life, Sansar, other VR worlds that are gaining in popularity, or game related worlds like MMOs and open world games. I’ve wanted to become less SL centric, but it has been hard to do that with SL as part of the name.

The SLU forums will be closing within the next few weeks, depending on how long the transition takes. These forums will be archived – they may be unavailable for little while but will come back as a read only forum.

The new site domain is VirtualVerse.one – http://www.virtualverse.one

VirtualVerse 

The good news is that SLUniverse is still going to live on but just in a different format on a new site called VirtualVerse which still includes all things Second Life, Sansar, Virtual Worlds and VR etc.

The new forums will be using Xenforo forum software and not the existing vBulletin forum software. It fully supports mobiles which is great. The forums have a light and dark theme to pick from at the moment.

VirtualVerse

What do you think about this transition from SLUniverse to VirtualVerse ?

New Second Life Join Page Goes Live

Daniel Voyager 1 Comment

It looks like Linden Lab have revamped the Second Life Join Page today and it looks very good at first glimpse. I really do think this revamp will now improve the new resident experience going forward along with the new themed learning islands which include many cool genres like sci-fi etc.

Part 1: The classic and fantasy avatars are now shown under a drop down menu on the left hand side with the sign up details on the right hand side of the page.

Part 2: Once you click the Create My Account button you will be taken to the next page where you can select your membership level either Basic or Premium with the experiences you can expect for each.

Part 3: The final page says “Your account is activated” and “Your avatar is waiting for you!”. You can now download and install the Second Life viewer and start the great adventure.

What do you think of the new Second Life Join page ? Please share your views in the comments section below.

Top 10 Interesting Updates From The Recent Town Hall Event

Daniel Voyager 3 Comments

Ebbe Altberg Town Hall Meeting

Ebbe Altberg At Town Hall Meeting

Here are some of the updates that I found most interesting in simple terms during the recent town hall event with Ebbe Altberg the CEO of Linden Lab on Thursday 13th September 2018. To see the whole video of the Town Hall session, see my previous blog post. It’s definitely worth watching. I hope there will be many more Town Hall sessions in the future with more announcements.

1. Return of Last Names

Linden Lab set a goal to return last names in Second Life in 2018. It’s now probably going to be returning either at the end of 2018 or sometime in 2019. There is no date when it will be deployed but the team are on it.

2. Animesh

It’s apparently very close to release and the Environment Enhancement Project is close to public testing very soon.
  • Bakes on Mesh is still progressing and should appear before the end of the year

3. Second Life In The Cloud

Moving Second Life to a cloud infrastructure will not be completed until 2019 as it’s a long-term project. There may be more water spaces to connect between existing continents (TBC).

4. Linden Homes

The land team are working hard on things at the moment and it’s being determined if the new land will be deployed in stages or all at once. More details will be revealed before the end of 2018.

5. Tier Rates

Currently there will no plans to further change the tier rates in Second Life. The lab is still absorbing the data from the June 2018 private region restructure. The reducing of the price of land has definitely helped and the overall responses have been positive.

6. New Premium Subscription Options

There may a project that can start to be rolled out before the end of 2018. The main goals is to offer greater value to users and motivate more users to sign up to Premium levels.

7. Linux Viewer

There is a project that will try to produce a 64-bit .DEB version of the Linux viewer. This is not a priority for the viewer development stage at this time. The lab finds this a difficult issue and Linux represents a small percentage of Second Life users.

8. Second Life Economic Metrics

Apparently some metrics have been restored but not all metrics will restored. Not all of the economic data is suitable for public consumption as the lab is a business in competition with others.

9. Apple Metal Framwork (OpenGL Support)

The lab are in discussions over what steps to take next. As it stands there no plans to drop mac support as a result of Apple’s decision.

10. Re-Introducing 24 Hours Support For Non-US users

There are no plans to bring it back on the basis of the cost, covering time zones and languages etc.

Other updates worth mentioning

  • New games and experiences are coming very soon
  • Marketplace improvements are starting to show up and more on the way soon
  • The new land auctions process has been deployed and the Mainland land auctions are still yet to come
  • Grid-wide experiences may not be deployed before the end of 2018
  • The lab have done a number of tests for the new themed learning islands

I would love to know what you found most interesting during the town hall event ?.

Feel free to comment below.