Secondlife.com and there.com

Ah yes! I forgot the building aspect of There! That was the reason I joined up!

Dont know if it's still the same but to build in There, you needed 3D Studio MAX..... which will only cost you about $5000.

Then you gotta learn how to use it. Have fun with that if you're not into working & learning a professional 3D Program such as 3D Max, Maya, Lightwave, etc.

I never got much further as I got tired of the constant "popping in" of the "sell squad". If you were new & on the 'free trial' they'd come around trying to get you to buy into the memberships.

I remember mentioning to one that "This isn't like Unreal Tournament " and the person had NO clue what I was talking about.

Don't Forget the Forcefield! Something SL doesnt have unless its scripted by a user (and those all suck cuz you can still get by those). The Forcefield makes your avatar invincable to anything.

There Name = YiffyYaffle. I live in Tyr in Moonglow Village i think.

Clear Landscapes and Working Vehicles are nice too. I used to use my Buggy to do all my travaling. The Skill system was awsome. You skill up just for putting on clothes or driving. And you can almost do both at the same time. O.o

The world in There is Wonderful looking unless you go to one of the older playfields that have nothing in them like "Frosty". I just didnt like the way water was done. All it was, is Painted Terrain LOL.

EDIT: I notice some people enjoy to run people over with cars and watch them flop around. But think about those of us who dont? ;p I liked the forcefield cuz im usually very busy and dont like people to interupt me.

There is still, uhm there?

Furcadia stil is isn't it? XD

On the matter of vehicles.

LSL vehicle physics *functions* are very good actually. If you want to know why many vehicles are horrible in SL, it's that whoever made the script did not make the correct physics model for the impulses. The modeling makes a BIG difference.

I've seen only few vehicles that seem to have gotten it right. Most others are a mess. I see cars and motorcycles careening out of control as if they were driving on ice. From the way they were moving I can easily see they're programmed with an inadequate model.

There's also the matter of lag. SL's data is so diverse that lag has to be expected.

The functions are pretty good, but there's no point blaming scripters - while it is certainly possible to screw things up, the major problems come from the engine and world itself.

I'm not an SL-basher by any means but it really is out of date there. Air vehicles can done fairly well as long as you don't mind the odd piece of odd behaviour, but ground vehicles are just horrible to work with.

(Mind you, it's the only place I know of where I can come in and start doing physics experiments at all. "There" wouldn't let me script up paper aeroplanes. Not that I can run it anyway, using a Mac.)

I tried There. It cost was too much and was technically far inferior, although the interface was much easier than SL. So after three times in There, I never tried again, as I found SL to be far superior and more engrossing. There, however, is an easy-to-use, no broadband required, low-fi virtual world. For a more casual user, I can imagine it would be quite appealing.

For those who miss voicechat, feel free to use the Indigo Ventrilo Server.

SETTING UP VENTRILO FOR USE WITH SECOND LIFE.

Step (1)
Download Ventrilo's Windows/Mac/Linux Client from:
http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php

Step (2)
Double click the file you downloaded and install with the default install setup.

Step (3)
Fire up the client from Start --> Programs --> Ventrilo --> Ventrilo

Step (4)
Under USER NAME, click the arrow next to it ( -> ), click NEW, and enter your SL Avatar name. You can also set up the phonetic spelling for the text to speech engine, so it says your name correctly when you connect or disconnect from the server.

Step (5)
Under SERVER, click the arrow next to it ( -> ), click NEW, and enter NAME:
Indigo Ventrilo
Then click OK. Then under Hostname or IP, enter:
64.247.43.40
NEXT, make sure the port is set to:
4226
Under password:
indigo

Then click OK again.

Step (6)
That set up will be saved. To connect, simply click CONNECT, and in the future after opening Ventrilo, simply just click CONNECT as the user name and server will be saved.

Step (7)
Click SETUP; from here, you can change your PUSH TO TALK hot key as well as incoming and outgoing amplication. Increase outgoing amplification if you're too quiet to other people, and incoming if you can't hear them well enough. Be sure that "Use Push To Talk Hot Key" is CHECKED, then click in the field next to "Hot Key" and choose a hot key to press when you want to be heard. I use the RIGHT ALT key, then press it to talk when in Second Life.

OTHER THINGS:
Try clicking "CHAT" and "Enable TTS". That's short for Text to Speech, and will allow you to talk through the default text to speech voice, or hear it if others are. This is very handy for residents without microphones or who are unable to speak.

ENJOY!

Regards,

-Flip

I believe otherwise. I still believe it's in the script's modeling. It's not the skill of the scripter I'm talking about but the model they chose to implement for the ground vehicles.

I was able to test part of the corrected model on a flying vehicle and plan to translate the thing to a ground vehicle. Been busy with other stuff so have not finished with my new ground vehicle model. Quite a bit of calesthenics in geometry and physics.

That would make my blood pressure rise, too! I visted There a few times, but it would just nickle and dime you to death to try to make anything. I didn't realize how bad the process was, though.

coco