London City turns 7 in Second Life

London City 7th birthday celebrations throughout September 2016

The virtual London City in Second Life is celebrating their 7th birthday inworld throughout September and everyone is invited to enjoy the celebrations. This year there are live events, a fun fair, themed collectables, vintage memorabilia hunt and much more.

London City in Second Life turns 7

London City is one of the most popular destination in Second Life known for its community atmosphere, parties, concerts and shopping. There are four regions to explore now with so much to discover and enjoy. There is a freebies megastore next to the hangout area which is worth checking out.

Over the years I have blogged about London City in Second Life from events to interesting videos, London City has had a presence at previous Second Life birthdays and other well-known events. It’s a great place to visit in general and in seven years the city has improved so much.

Check out the London City region map (as of 3rd September 2016).

Come and visit London City!

Hangout area and the London Underground

Big Ben Clock 

London City Gateway

Come and visit London City today

• Teleport Link: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/London%20City/73/214/23
• Latest London City news in Second Life: http://mainlandlondon.blogspot.co.uk

Here are some of my historical snapshots of London City in Second Life

London City 2012

London City 2012

London City 2012

London City Winter Wonderland 2012

London City Winter Wonderland 2012

London City at SL11B

London City 6th Birthday 2015

Linden Lab Adds 10 New Fantasy Starter Avatars

Trying out the new avatars in Second Life🙂

Today Linden Lab has introduced ten new fantasy starter avatars in Second Life and they are available right now to try out. They look really nice and rather cool. The good news is that everyone can personalise these new starter avatars. Yay!🙂

“These new avatars have normal “system” bodies with mesh wearables, which makes it easy to change their hair, clothes, accessories, and more!”. The new addition includes a “diverse range of “genre” styles including steampunk, vampires, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic… and beyond!”. 

Me menu > choose an avatar > select them to wear

New residents joining Second Life will be able to select any of these new starter avatars during the signup process and that’s great to hear. New starter avatars today look more realistic and they are simple to customise.

Linden Lab uploaded this internal video today introducing the 10 new starter avatars. Watch the video below and please spread the word.🙂

Back in late 2006 when I joined Second Life there were so few avatars to choose from and they were pretty basic back then. I found this historical photo of what the early avatars in Second Life used to look like back in 2002 onwards. It’s just incredible how far Second Life has come since then for avatars.

Source: History of Second Life wiki page

My first snapshot of my avatar back in late 2006

In the blog post the lab talks about the history of the long-term starter avatar collections…

Back in May 2014, we introduced a round of mesh-body starter avatars to replace even older starter avatars (that you can still find in your inventory’s Library > Clothing > Initial Outfits folder).

Then in November 2015, we superceded all of those with a new batch of “Classic” avatars using “system” bodies that are easier to customize, partially in response to Resident requests pointing out the inflexibility of the all-mesh bodies.

The blog post goes on to say that with the introduction of Avatar Complexity (ARC) project it’s made creators more aware of balanced content in Second Life. The lab talked about how recently with the roll out of JellyDolls has again helped raise awareness of ARC and how it’s helping to control the resources the viewer spends rendering other avatars.

• Check out how the SL avatar evolution has changed over the years

Second Life Viewer v4.0.8 (319143) Adds The Visual Outfit Browser!

On 30th August Linden Lab released a new version of the Second Life Viewer v4.0.8 (319143) via the Release Notes page on the Second Life Wiki and the good news is that it now comes with the Visual Outfit Browser where you can see thumbnail images of your outfits in your inventory.

Me > Appearance > Outfit Gallery 

Right click the outfit folder to either upload a photo from your computer = L$10 or select a texture from your inventory (free) or take a snapshot L$10 for each outfit. The aspect ratio is 256×256 pixel image.

Ever think how nice it would be to see the different outfits you have collected in your inventory? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple thumbnail that you can easily see and select and change into? Well, now you can with our latest Viewer offering!

Introducing operation Visual Outfit Browser! You can now do all of the above with the ease of a customized snapshot tool found in your appearance floater. Simply download the latest Visual Outfit Browser Project Viewer, launch the Viewer, and in your Appearance floater, under the Outfit Gallery tab, you’ll find default thumbnails (currently coat hanger icons). You want to change into those outfits, pose, and then right click on the thumbnail and choose “Take a Snapshot.” It’s that easy! It does cost the usual L$10 per upload which is standard for all textures uploaded. But hey, can you really put a price on awesome?

For more information check out the Knowledge Base article.

Spread the word!🙂