Website with Places classification

Hi all

I'm a newbie so sorry if this is old stuff.

Three questions please:


1. Is there a website that shows an entire list of places broken down by its main activity?

For example I was expecting a load of places (and their teleport URLs(?)) classified under, say,

Disco ;
Kill Zone ;
Offices ;
Transport ;
Nuclear explosions;
Rural

I know SL has the Place dropdown, but I have to a guess at what the place name might contain i.e. just a wildcard feature. Any ideas pls?


2. When I am walking around and I talk to people, am I right in thinking that is an actual person replying to me, and not artificial intelligence?


3. My frame rate can be quite slow and the picture jerky despite a 20Meg internet connection. Could I need to buy a new graphics card?


thanks

1. Not sure.

2. Not sure. I thought I was talking to a person the other day but the responses were so canned and disjointed, that I finally concluded she couldn't be real.....or was really stupid.

3. Maybe - what kind of card do you currently have? What are the rest of your specs?

Thanks. Just a Dell desktop, about 6 yrs old. Not sure exact specs

1. The grid and all the posible places are so fluid to change that by the time such a list was compiled it would be out of date anyway. For now, Search is the only tool we have.

2. If they reply at all you can usually assume they are human.

3. "6 year old Dell" doesn't say alot, but I would be willing to assume your specs are on the low end. Since it is a Dell, if you give me the service tag # I can get a detailed spec from Dell's web site of what that computer was shipped with originally. This would also let me know if it is even possible to upgrade your system. For what it's worth, I replace mine at home every 3 years and 5 years is the average life span of a home computer.

Yeah, what Yosef said. You can certainly operate SL with a lower end, older computer, but it's not going to be a happy experience.

Gm Yosef

Emphasis on "usually".

1) No such list exists. Nobody has the central responsibility, so no such list really *can* exist. Keyword searches is one way to go, but really, it's more about finding a community you like and go on recommendations from there. (And indeed, many communities do compile such lists, but it's with a focus on their specific purpose/interests). It's not uncommon to see a thread here in the forum where somebody asks, "Any recommendations for good places for [something]?"

2) If you can't tell the difference... they have earned it! (And that goes for both sides).
Joking aside, while SL would be an awesome environment for Turing tests, computers just aren't that good (yet). Some avatars you see are indeed computer-controlled, but they are used for special purposes and are not likely to even answer, let alone engage in conversation.

3) A 6 year old computer is almost certainly on the low end of what can run SL. SL eats quite a lot of raw power, graphics-wise, since the models are made from generic tools, and not custom-drawn and optimized as they are in a "normal" game engine.

1. Wouldn't such a directory be lovely? I remember a notecard of Art Galleries in SL I found from visiting one, which was fabulous to find others. I have no idea who maintained it or how but it was updated (but I haven't looked in about a year). This would be a great wiki project if everyone agreed on a format and categories and wasn't spammed.

B. It used to be everyone was a person, now there are "bots", but they usually don't interact and usually don't look like most people (or view profiles and see how real they seem?)

III. Make sure your draw distance in the Graphics of Preferences is set as low as it can go, turn off fancy features if they are on (you can set your draw distance even lower via FarRenderClip in debug settings of the advanced menu, which when I was using a slower system doubled my fps by setting it to about 50). Try turning off things like local lights and shine, there used to be a notecard passed out to newbies called "Got lag?" which had great tips.

Finally. Welcome to SL!