Things have been pretty busy behind the scenes, and things have been pretty tumultuous within Second Life as we all know. In all the hustle and bustle, I haven’t kept this site as up-to-date as I probably should have. I’m going to try and be better about that.

We’ve had a BUNCH of holiday bears this year.. and I haven’t been good about posting them here… so I’ll try and take some time real soon to import that data into the site, and get the pictures up. If you’re a fan of ER’s holiday bears, your best bet is to drop by our shop inworld, and get on the inworld newsletter list. But hopefully I can get the site/blog back to it’s proper place as the clearinghouse for information.

Things are still busy tho, and there’s still lots to be done.. so I’m back to it.

Friday June 25, 2010 - 9:02pm | Filed under: News | Post a comment

It’s the first of May, and I can’t hold on to these updates any more. I’ve had half-a-dozen people offer to do Alpha Masks for me, because they think I can’t. It’s been more than 60 days since Viewer 2 went into public beta, and 30 days since it left beta and went official. It’s time.

In an informal poll, roughly half of respondents were using SL Clients that supported the new Alpha Mask clothing layer. Whether that’s SL Viewer 2, or Rainbow Viewer, or something else.. I can’t say. But the results show that enough people are using an Alpha Mask enabled viewer to make sending out these updates worthwhile, and timely.

Four items are being updated in Phase II.

1. F-Type Robot Avatar
2. M-Type Robot Avatar
3. X-Type Neko Boots
4. Saber Boots

The Saber Boots are scripted, so they will use the standard method of updating. (you’ll wear them, see a message that says an update is available, click the “update” button on the menu.. and receive the updated version)

The other three are not scripted.. so we’ll be doing this update a bit differently. I sent out notices this morning to all the registered owners of the M and F-Type avatars, basically warning them that tomorrow, a package will be sent to them, and to be sure to accept it. Tomorrow I’ll be going through and sending out over a thousand packages. A similar process will happen with the Neko Boots, without need of the warning notecard.

After tomorrow, if you haven’t received the new version of those items (and you own the old one) simply pop down to my shop, and click on the HippoVEND redelivery terminal.. and request a fresh copy of the item you want to update, and you should receive the latest version. A little complicated, I know.. but I think everyone will be able to figure it out, and you can always IM me if you need help figuring out what to do.

The good news is that the packages sold from tomorrow on, will contain both the Alpha Mask, and Invisiprim versions of the items. This will continue to be the case until Linden Lab discontinues connectivity for the 1.23.5 viewer.. which I don’t expect to happen until sometime this Summer.

The X-Type Bomb Guns and Plasma Guns will NOT be receiving an alpha mask update. These guns are designed to be worn on the left hand, OR right hand, OR both, and Alpha masks don’t support clipping one arm or the other.. so these products will continue to utilize invisiprims for the foreseeable future. And of course the Neko set and robot hairs don’t use invisiprims.. so there’s nothing there to update.

So that’s the update on the update.

Saturday May 01, 2010 - 12:06pm | Filed under: News | Post a comment

There’s been a lot of anticipation associated with Second Life Viewer 2, and with good reason. Among the many other new features, changes to the user interface, and all the new options.. Viewer 2 introduces a new clothing item, called an “Alpha Mask”. The Alpha Mask has been promised to us for years, as a replacement for those pesky invisiprims in shoes and other prim attachments. Invisiprims are a sword, when a scapel is needed. They clip away not only the avatar mesh, but any 32bit texture behind it, including water and plants. Unfortunately, invisiprims were the only option available, and many many things have been built, using them. Among them, ER’s popular robot avatars.

When I dropped in to a Linden office hour a few weeks back, I was surprised by a number of attendees turning their questions to ME.. specifically asking “When are you going to make an update to the robot avatars?” The answer I gave then, was a hasty one… at the time I said “When Viewer 2 becomes official”.

Well Viewer 2 became official today, and obviously, no major update is available. I honestly didn’t expect Viewer2 to come out until April 15 or May 1… there are still a number of usability issues that I really beleived Linden Lab would want to fix before going live. They didn’t.. and it’s live now, warts and all.

There are a number of issues holding back an update at the moment, but rest assured, AN UPDATE IS PLANNED.. it will just be a while.

Some time ago, Linden Lab stated that viewer adoption usually takes 30-60 days after a given viewer is released. That means that today, most people aren’t using Viewer 2, and while more will be using it tomorrow, and the next day.. the tipping point won’t be reached for a couple of weeks. Alpha Masks aren’t wearable by people using older viewers. That simple fact complicates any update significantly. The Robot Avatars in particular (M-Type and F-Type)  do not feature a scripted update system. This means that updates must be delivered manually. I’ve kept a list of the people who have bought them, and I’ll definitely post here when any update is released.

The solution I’m considering right now, is to create a “Alpha Mask” compatable version of the robot avatar.. and box it up. Inside the box, I’ll also include a boxed version of the invisiprim-based avatar. This will allow people to use the invisibility technology they prefer, while not removing the option for users of older viewers to use the product. I’ll send out a notecard the day before, to make sure that everyone knows it’s coming, since automated redelivery will be impossible. Roughly speaking, this update will probably take place around mid-to-late April.

Along with Viewer 2.0, Linden Lab also rushed server 1.38 into service. As some of you may know, the deploy of server 1.38 has been a bit spotty, since a “content threatening bug” was discovered and the deployed servers were “rolled back”. As of this writing, 1.38 hasn’t been re-deployed. Server 1.38 includes a number of long sought after functions, including the ability to view some rudimentary script-memory usage statistics, and some new scripting functions that will enable a few scripts to do the jobs that previously required many. These functions will have an impact on a number of ER’s scripted attachments, particularly the colour-changing items, and the jetpack-like items.

Combined with the new avatar mesh “clipping” technology mentioned above, these new functions (when finally enabled) will mean that a great many of ER’s products will be receiving updates. Some, dependent only on the SL server functions, will be able to be done within days. Others, like the alpha-mask updates, may require better market penetration of Viewer 2.0 before an update is warranted.

The end result of all of this, is that while a number of updates will be forthcoming from ER, they’re not all coming tomorrow. It’s important to remember that at the end of the day, Eclectic Randomness is just one person.. me. I can’t work on 20 projects at once, but I will be working on updates to a number of products, and I will make those updates available as soon as possible. In most cases, scripted ER products check daily for available updates.. and if an update is available, you’ll know about it within a few hours. If the item is scripted, there is usually an “update button” on the menu, which you can click to do an immediate check for updates.

The following is a list of the items I am looking at updating in the near future, in the approximate order in which they’ll be made available. They are reliant only on server 1.38′s deployment, so they can be released earlier.

1. ER TwinTails Hairs (all textures)
2. ER SingleTail Hairs (all textures)
3. ER Fetish Doll Hood
4. ER Latex Implants
5. ER Robot Jetpack J-1
6. ER Action Jetpack

The following updates will need to wait a bit longer, for market penetration of Viewer 2

1. ER Saber Boots
2. ER F-Type Robot Avatar (manual update)
3. ER M-Type Robot Avatar (manual update)
4. ER X-Type Neko Boots (manual update)

This is a tentative list. I will try to stick to this order of releases.. but I may do things out of order if needed. Please also keep in mind, I don’t have a big box full of finished updated items. I’ll be working on the updated items one at a time, and I promise that the updates will be released as soon as they are finished.

Thursday April 01, 2010 - 1:41am | Filed under: News | Post a comment

The ER Action Jetpack, ER Robot Jetpack J1, and the ER Saber Boots all received a minor point upgrade today.

The new versions now have the ability for the owner to recolour the flame primss (using the SL Object Editing tools). In the previous versions of these three products, the prim colour for the flames was hardcoded as part of the alpha toggle that shows/hides the flames. Now the colour is no longer bound to that alpha command, so you can totally customize your flight items, down to the colour of the flames themselves.

This fix was requested by a number of users, particularly by the owners of the X-Type Robots (since they offer so many customising options, the flames NOT being changeable was a sticking point for some). It’s now been fixed.

Also, the flames on the Action Jetpack, and the Saber Boots now have an animated texture. I’m not quite sure how I missed that (it was always intended to animate) but it’s fixed as well.

Friday January 22, 2010 - 12:58am | Filed under: News | Post a comment