The Backstory and the Future

May 14, 2012

Yesterday, Ener posted an interesting piece on her blog, iliveinsl, about creativity. In that post she mentioned the Station by saying "… it’s the story of the place that draws me in – regions like a shipyard with housing (PortSide) and alleys and a medical dome - none of it having to do with how many prims or texture sizes. Excelsior Station piques my curiosity – the notion of it entertains me by telling a story – what’s the history of the place, what’s going on now, what other places are there to explore within it, why is there combat, what’s being fought over? it’s the story and not the details he has toiled over that make it what it is … ". Which sparked my own thoughts.

The story of a place is just as important as the place itself. The only way I can show the importance of backstory is by posing a question. What would Greece be without its backstory?

With that came the realization that Excelsior Station's backstory is still a bit vague and outdated. I had started it with the thought of it becoming an independent VW, but that has changed. (Nice thing about fiction, you can change it as you need). With the Station now having a home on Created Worlds and the current end result of the build, the backstory needs a bit of further development.

Here it is.
…

I'm a soldier-of-fortune who has been successful enough to be able to purchase a defunct starport and settlement on a large world, CW. Using robots and drones, the settlement has been repaired and refurbished and things are almost ready for people to immigrate to and settle in at Excelsior Station.

There's a small shipyard for the building and repair of starships. Portside is open and ready for merchants, crafters and residents to move in and setup. There's lots of room beneath the landing field for storage and repair shops. If anyone wants to set up, well, they can simply move in and stake out a space. Of course, they'll have to defend those spaces from others, but that's pretty much how Life goes, doesn't it? There's always someone trying to take yours away from you, no matter what laws rule the land.

The Colony has also been brought up to standard and will serve as the main Landing Point for new arrivals. There's even the SkySpires, a structure that was left behind by an avian species who had tried to farm the land and failed. True bird brains since they never seemed to understand that the land is simply too arid and nutrient depleted to be much good for growing anything.

I've never been very good at submitting to Authority. Can't stand those big Corporate ruled worlds with their crowded cities and all those "Don't Do This, Don't Do That" rules. Let people do what they want. If they want to blow each other's brains out over a glowberry muffin, let them. I figure there's only 3 laws that anyone needs. No rape. No child molestation. And give the other guy a fair chance to shoot back. Forget all that lawyer mumbo-jumbo. The only Habeous I'm interested in is whether I end up as the Corpus or the other guy does.

But, some people want that little bit of extra security, so land is being set aside for those that are safety conscious. They'll be able to have their plots of land to build a house or workshop on. There'll be a small merchants area as well, for those merchants who don't care to risk gun fire around their shop inventory. At a reasonable rate, of course.

…

There is a future story for the Station, though that is still to be written. Perhaps I will dedicate a page to the stories that people will have about Excelsior Station. I think it would be fun and interesting to see what sort of history we can make.

And there's no need to wait until Created Worlds officially opens to begin creating those stories. They are accepting applications for Beta accounts. Created Worlds has now completed its transition over to AuroraSim and logins have been enabled. We've been bug hunting and so things are coming along just fine.

One of the big concerns people have with a new grid is the security of their content. Created Worlds is very aware of this and are dedicated to the security of content. In fact, to quote one of the owners, Zarta Vargas, from a recent conversation "… the important things with this transition are that we now have variable-sized regions, other benefits that come with aurora, and also a way to track original creation/ownership of items. to me, the last is probably the most significant, …". I added the bold for extra emphasis. Zarta continued and also said "… all cw travelers and settlers can be assured that we'll continue to make improvements that can help with creative endeavors, undertakings, projects within cw… … …. without creativity, cw (and any virtual world) is nothing, …". Again, I added the bold for emphasis.

Now, I'm not going to tell you how Created Worlds is able to track that ownership. And I am not going to tell you about any other security measures that they have in place.That is because I don't know. Nor do I want to know. Furthermore, even though I can figure out how some of how it works, I am not going to weaken that security by posting my thoughts on it.

Fellow gridlings, I am as aware of the scams and rip-offs out there as you are. I have the confidence in Created Worlds to have Excelsior Station there. That's two years of work that I have dedicated to the building and development of the Station and I have placed its safety and security in their hands.

Created Worlds is accepting Beta memberships and have a Beta land deal happening right now. They are seeking all class of creators, from fashion to scripts to animations, everything. I encourage you to contact them and talk with them. They are approachable and are always willing to talk with you and to answer your questions.

And you can help with the Station's future history.

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Misfit's Index of Viewers Updated

May 10, 2012

I have just added two more viewers to the MIV, Niran's Viewer and Kokua Viewer. I will begin working on expanding the features that are being listed, so watch for updates.

I would like a little input. Kirsten's Viewer is no longer being developed. I don't know if people are using it on OpenSim or not, although version S21(9) is still available for download. Very simply, should it be included despite the fact that it is no longer being developed?

(edited to add) Oh! And what features would you like to see listed?

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A Decision Made

May 9, 2012

Well, if you've been checking out Misfit's Index of Viewers and the comments, you will have seen that the developer of the Cool VL Viewer, Henri Beauchamp, has taken issue with my non-inclusion of the word "Viewer" in the name of his viewer in the listing. In short, he demands that I use the complete name of the viewer or don't list it at all.

Obviously, I have issues with that. The Index is my work and nobody can tell me what to do with what I create. But, we live in a time of copyright trolls and litigation at the drop of a hat so I thought I'd cover my bases and talked with my advocate about this issue.

And what a meeting! We talked about a number of things and it was really positive, but here's what came about regarding this dispute.

When I explained to Henri Beauchamp that shortening the name for an unofficial list like this is a common practice, he responded by saying that people don't call the Tower of London anything else but that. Although, from what I understand, many people in London call it The Tower, but I could be wrong as confirmed by at least one commentor. More importantly, he used buildings as examples, not products. One of those apples and oranges situations.

Consider the two major beverage companies, Coca-cola and Pepsi-cola. When they first introduced their products to the general public, it wasn't long before people were calling the soft drinks Coke and Pepsi. Did the owners start demanding that people call the drinks by their full proper names? No, they didn't. Instead, they registered those shortened names as trademarks and brand names and took ownership. And so we have a precedent for the practice.

That brings us to another point. One that is extremely important. My advocate searched the US, Canadian and WIPO databases for a Cool VL Viewer trademark, brand name or copyright. He also searched for obvious variations, such as Cool Viewer and CoolVL, Cool VL, etc. None were found. This means that I am under no legal obligation to comply with Henri Beauchamp's demand.

Just to clear up any other potential legal issues, I receive no compensation for this. I make no guarantees of accuracy, though I will strive to keep the information as accurate and up to date as I can. I make absolutely no claims on any of the viewers. Misfit's Index of Viewers has no other purpose than to inform users of the features of the various viewers available so that they can make the best possible choice to meet their needs. Misfit's Index of Viewers is nothing more than an informal list created and maintained by a knowledgeable amateur.

Now, a little explanation for why I have laid out the MIV the way I did, which is a major factor in this issue.

When I began working on the Index, I had to make choices on how to organize it. That meant getting the priorities straight. The biggest priority is to include information in as much detail as possible, yet keep it balanced with conciseness and ease of understanding. Consider one of the entries I use, under the TP heading, which says "calls up World Map". "Opens World Map for teleporting" is certainly detailed and just as easy to understand, but it does take up a lot of space. The entry I have used is detailed, easy to understand and concise. That is why I have not used the word "Viewer" with all the viewer names. Not including the word saves space, which is a major factor of the layout. I'm also going to point out that each viewer does include "Viewer" as part of the name. This can be easily verified by visiting a viewer's home page. This also means that the entry for the Cool VL Viewer has been treated the same way as the other viewers.

That's another priority, to treat each viewer the same, without any bias. That is why I have not included any highlighting of various features. That is because different people have different needs. For me, a builder, having nanoprims to 3 decimal places and showing the build axis on the root prim are very important. But a machinamist will have lighting and shadows as their priority while scripters will want OSSL funcionality. That is why none of the entries are italicized, or bold or underlined. Besides, if I were to do so, that would turn the MIV into a consumer review, not a list. And that is all it is, an unofficial list of viewers and their features.

And when it comes to priorities, it seems to me that the average user will hold the features of a viewer as the higher priority over the name of the viewer. So, when it comes to the layout of the tables, space is given to the details of the features before it is given to the details of the names. If I enter the full and complete name of one viewer, I have to do it for all of them. And that entails a complete change to the layout.

Now we come to the personal issues that are involved.

The MIV is my creation. I do welcome and encourage input, both positive and negative. But, the layout, wording, prioritizing, everything is my decision and nobody else's. If anyone is going to demand that I change something I don't want to change, they will need to do one of two things. Convince me that it is a reasonable change. Or serve me with a court order.

I am sure that by now that you're getting an inkling of my decision about Henri Beachamp's demand. But to be absolutely clear about it …

No.

I will not change Misfit's Index of Viewers except at my discretion.

This does not mean that I won't include the word "Viewer" as part of the names in the future. It does mean that such a change will happen only if the layout and priorities allow it, not because someone demands it.

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Mesh, Viewers and the MIV

May 6, 2012

Thank you everyone for your positive comments regarding Misfit's Index of Viewers, or MIV. One thing that has come up, though, is regarding mesh support. I did not test to determine if a viewer supports mesh, that is, whether a viewer can "see" mesh inworld. I only tested for their ability to import mesh. I have changed the column heading to reflect that.

The reason for not testing mesh support inworld is due to a glitch in my LAN. My setup simply disables, or "greys out', the menu entry to import a mesh model. The one mesh I have in my inventory isn't rezzing, either. Once this glitch has been fixed, I will be testing for inworld mesh support.

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Misfit's Index of Viewers

May 3, 2012

Viewers are as important to the metaverse as OpenSim is. After all, without a viewer you can't access the metaverse at all. But not all viewers are created the same. Each has a little something different from the others. Which is great since each of us seeks the best possible experience. And there's always lots of discussions about the various pro's and con's of viewers. Yet, it seems to me that there isn't a listing of the viewers and their features. Yes, Second Life has their Third Party Viewer directory, but that doesn't list any of the various features. Well, no more. Here's Misfit's Viewer Features Index.

But first, a bit of info about what I've done here. I downloaded the latest release of each viewer listed, current as of May 3, 2011. I uninstalled my current installation and deleted all caches, including the Users files. I then did a clean install of each viewer. In the future, I will simply overlay any new installations, which will keep my settings. I tried to test every feature that I am use as well as those that I see people talking about. I am hoping that people will let me know of features they like so I can add them.

This index will be carried on as a separate page on this site and I've added a link to the menu on the left. I have laid this index out in 2 distinct sections. First, a set of tables that list the features and whether they are available, or what the feature's limits are. I have also included a short section for notes specific to individual viewers.

Viewers come in two distinct "flavours". Those that focus on Second Life and those that focus on OpenSim. Some viewers try to bridge both. I list both types here because many people like those Second Life oriented viewers, though they take a bit of manual configuring to be able to access OpenSim grids. I do not include the Second Life viewer in this index. I do this for the same reason I do not include the InWorldz viewer or the Avination viewer. Those viewers are focused on their particular grids.

I have used a common practice to truncate or shorten the length of the names of the viewers. Just as we do not include the word "Incorporated" when referring to a business, so I have not included the word "Viewer" when referring to the viewers. I did this due to page width and layout and have treated the name of each viewer in the same way. So, "Astra" is actually "Astra Viewer", "Cool VL" is actually "Cool VL Viewer" and so on.

Viewer Features

(Note: 'File Modify' refers to the need to modify the link by adding —loginuri <grid url> or by editing a grid XML file. 'Manager' refers to a built in Grid Manager that allows the user to add, delete and update grids via a specific window, accessible on the login page or through Preferences. 'URL Entry' refers to a feature where the user can manually directly enter the grid URL into the grid menu on the login page, similar to when a user wishes to manually enter the region they wish to login to.)

(Note: Double Click TP refers to the feature of double clicking on the minimap to teleport to that location. This does not refer to teleporting when double clicking on land, which is generally configurable through Preferences. An entry of "calls World Map" means that double clicking on the minimap will open the World Map for your teleport. Command in Chat refers to a feature where the user can say in chat a specific command to initiate something. Example: saying in open chat gtp 128 128 100 will teleport the user to the coordinates of 128, 128, 100. Saying dd 512 will change the draw distance to 512 metres.)

Viewer Notes

Astra:
Does not save the user's settings, requiring repositioning of Inventory window, MiniMap, camera controls, etc every time it is used.

Firestorm, Phoenix:
Both of these viewers use a unique feature, the LSL<>Client Bridge. This Bridge is functional only in Second Life. Disabling the use of the Bridge in OpenSim has no effect that I can discover. This is done in the Preferences. If you leave it enabled, however, the viewer will attempt to attach it, will not be able to and will drop it on the ground, leaving an invisible almost impossible to find and grab prim.

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