- Another version that was also posted: Forum Link: Transcript Posting
- This version shown on this page: Forum Link: Transcript Posting
Edited log Town Hall log, 2/27/04:
["You" = ?]
Haney Linden: if I can have your attention, we are going to try something different
Haney Linden: for those who have questions, please form a line at the North entrance,
Haney Linden: behind me
Haney Linden: and please, only the person first in line should talk'
Philip Linden: hi all!
Haney Linden: ok, lets settle down
Haney Linden: Ok, new plan
Haney Linden: if you have a question , just IM me that you have one
Haney Linden: and then we will go in order of those who IM me
Haney Linden: you dont have to IM me your question but please have it typed
Haney Linden: Ok, lets settle down
Haney Linden: IM me if you have a question
Haney Linden: and please dont trade calling cards
Haney Linden: so, heres Philp
Philip Linden: OK hi everyone.
Philip Linden: Sorry about the sims acting badly.
Philip Linden: We boosted the avatar limits for the meeting,
Philip Linden: knowing many would be here.
Philip Linden: And it looks like we went too far
Philip Linden: So sorry... we'll go as best we can.
Haney Linden: Ok, less chatter please
Philip Linden: So thanks all for coming.
Philip Linden: Being in the middle of these seats is weird
Philip Linden: perhaps I'll turn once in a while
Philip Linden: But don't take my back as an insult!
Philip Linden: Yes, that is a good idea...
Philip Linden: but the 4 corners (in theory) gives us even more capacity.
Philip Linden: Anyway...
Philip Linden: On to business
Philip Linden: I wanted to talk a bit about version 1.3,
Philip Linden: and about land.
Philip Linden: To give out some common stuff that all should be interested in.
Philip Linden: First, some feature details on 1.3
Philip Linden: You've probably heard about terraforming improvements,
Philip Linden: but there are a number of other interesting things in 1.3:
Philip Linden: you will be able to save snapshots with places,
Philip Linden: and see them in the finder
Philip Linden: Also in the finder will be a list of popular places by dwell.
Philip Linden: Also in the finder,
Philip Linden: you will be able to see land for sale, including snapshot, price, etc
Philip Linden: And additionally,
Philip Linden: you will be able to see auction listings,
Philip Linden: and jump to the bid page if you like.
Philip Linden: On the performance side.
Philip Linden: there will be numerous bug fixes - we have given ourselves more time there
Philip Linden: The mac will render signifigantly faster,
Philip Linden: and the fullscreen antialiasing probs on ATI will be fixed
Philip Linden: Also,
Philip Linden: we have found with ATI the problem causing texture LOD bugs...
Philip Linden: black flickering.
Philip Linden: It was an ATI bug in their driver, and it is verified fixed.
Philip Linden: It will go out in an update to their drivers, hopefully in next month or so.
Philip Linden: on the scripting side,
Philip Linden: 1.3 will also have improvements to object communication,
Philip Linden: and the ability to email from outside the world to scripts will be added.
Philip Linden: Cory will have a meeting on more details on tech/scripting before the preview.
Philip Linden: On schedule...
Philip Linden: The preview for 1.3 will be up within 2 weeks.
Philip Linden: I don't have an official date for release, but as always, it will be soon after preview.
Philip Linden: So that's the skinny on 1.3
Philip Linden: As for land...
Philip Linden: We'll finish releasing or selling the southern continent next week,
Philip Linden: and there will be another large set of sims coming on
Philip Linden: immediately afterwards.
Haney Linden: If you have a question, IM me and we will go in order. You dont have to send me the question.
Philip Linden: So we will continue to add land fast.
Philip Linden: OK so that is all the stuff that I think is relevant to all
Philip Linden: Let's go to the questions and talk.
Catherine Omega: Are there any plans to give us LSL functions to control things like object shear and top size?
Philip Linden: Not in 1.3, Cat... but noted.
You: I know that there are still two days before the deadline, so more entries may turn up, but how was the the turnout for the games competition?
Philip Linden: We've had in the range of 10 entries so far.
Philip Linden: I'm not sure exactly - we expect more before deadline.
Huns Valen: there are issues with vehicles... particularly when you cross over a sim line, you kind of "drop" for a few seconds, sometimes permanently... are any fixes for this on the horizon?
Philip Linden: huns...
Philip Linden: we are working on sim crossing bugs,
Philip Linden: expect some improvements for 1.3
Philip Linden: yes
Nexus Nash: - Will Linden Lab implement more advanced transaction history features; with unlimited space for any given day(IE Name, Item Name, Amount Payed)
Philip Linden: Not in 1.3 nexus, but noted... we have that on the list.
Oz Spade: Is there any news on Havok 2?
Philip Linden: Oz...
Philip Linden: with respect to havok 2... we are working on it.
Philip Linden: But not in 1.3.
Philip Linden: It is a big project.
Rocket Roentgen: Apparently there is Dramatically more demand for Mature land than PG land - Why is Supply not Matched to Demand in that ratio?
Philip Linden: Good question rocket...
Philip Linden: It is hard to gauge demand in a global way,
Philip Linden: but yes you are perhaps right we are a bit low.
Philip Linden: One challenge is that the way we handle PG/M
Philip Linden: As to PG/M...
Philip Linden: We need to improve the handling on how folks that don't want to see mature sims
Philip Linden: work.. Right now it is still clumsy.
Philip Linden: So that drives some of our thinking.
Philip Linden: But we will follow demand generally... it is good feedback.
Rocket Roentgen: I assume that Since Email-to-Objects is annonced for 1.3 - that means that XML is not on the drawing boards?
Philip Linden: No rocket it is... wait for Cory's session.
Ryen Jade: Ok, I have been asking for this since 1.0 and im SURE lindens know about it (im not the only one asking)
Philip Linden: I don't want to say too much... this is an exciting topic.
Philip Linden: they will not be in 1.3, but we are working on them.
Philip Linden: Thats all I want to say. We know they are top priority.
Philip Linden: I'd certainly like some politician hand waving gestures
Nolan Nash: I was wondering if the auctions are going to remain with the 5 min. extensions in place? This topic seems to have quite a few folks frustrated, some to the point where they just refuse to participate in auctions. Also, do you see the point that some fol
Nolan Nash: folks are making that the bulk of the auction time period is unneccessary, as the realistic, effective bidding is really only done towards the very end of the auction and into the extension period(s)? Also, Would like to know if the other 2 papers Cory
Nolan Nash: Cory referred to on the forum (one by Cory, one by Phillip) are available for our perusal somewhere?
Philip Linden: We will get those papers on the website soon...
Philip Linden: sorry they aren't there already.
Philip Linden: The auction extension seemed like what folks wanted...
Philip Linden: we only added it for that reason.
Nolan Nash: its quite hard to compete with ppl that have tons of L bucks
Nolan Nash: with those extensions in plac
Philip Linden: Indeed, but maybe that means we just need more land.
Philip Linden: And we are working fast on that.
Nolan Nash: agreed
catnip Foo: I guess you already answer this.. I heard about XML rpc, is that coming?
Philip Linden: Catnip... wait for news on that.
Philip Linden: Cory will have a meeting there.
Philip Linden: We are working on it.
Catherine Cotton: Q: arnt you realy just creating a 3d www. Only creative builds will survive if they can afford the rl $ to afford it. Isn't that also true?
Philip Linden: Hmm....
Philip Linden: Catherine, I think it is more likely,
Philip Linden: over time,
Philip Linden: that folks who are skilled HERE are most likely to remain and prosper
Philip Linden: SL really isn't well set up, not does it have a culture,
Philip Linden: that tolerates much real world selling.
Philip Linden: So I think that as we grow (at least this is my hope)
Philip Linden: money coming in will mostly go to the creators
Philip Linden: of great experiences and content.
AnneDroid Lily: Will land set for sale to a single person still show up on everyone's "for sale" map?
Philip Linden: Annedroid...
Philip Linden: no land set for sale to a single person will NOT be on the land finder
Khamon Fate: does the new landmass include any water only/mostly sims for boating and such? will ya'll offer lifetime accounts for a few days before 1.3 debuts?
Philip Linden: Khamon...
Philip Linden: we are working on some very water-heavy sims now yes.
Philip Linden: No plans to offer lifetime accounts right now.
Philip Linden: And happily no terrifying pricing changes in 1.3
Arsai Becquerel: Any new strategies for creating or distributing new sims? Any thoughts on how these strategies affect the scaled SL economy? Or "culture"?
Philip Linden: Arsai...
Philip Linden: as you can imagine we are learning as we go on the new sims
Philip Linden: It seems that beautiful terrain and roads for people to cluster around
Philip Linden: seem the right level of LL involvement.
Philip Linden: But I think there is still lots to learn here.
Philip Linden: I think our roads are quite nice... esp the bridges.
James Miller: Hello! I'd like to know if you have plans to have more advertising of Second Life, and when we will be getting a new website? (These are sort of related, hehe)
Philip Linden: New website coming very soon... we are working on lots there.
Philip Linden: As to advertising, yes we will be doing more stuff over next few months...
Philip Linden: Details are our secret for now!
Fey Brightwillow: I dont think my question ever showed earlier when i was called... or was possibly answered and i missed it. But will there be in the future interacting Avatar emotes, such as hugs, handholding, dancing, etc... (sorry out of turn but i did try then )
Philip Linden: Hi Fey...
Philip Linden: Yes we are working on both streamig anims and multi-person.
Philip Linden: streaming first.
Jack Digeridoo: Will "Objects for Sale" ever be added to the finder?
Philip Linden: Jack...
Philip Linden: yes I'd like to see objects for sale be searchable too.
Philip Linden: It isn't in 1.3, but we are thinking about it.
Philip Linden: Hard problem to do.
Eckhart Dillon: what is the streaming, like voice over IP?
James Miller: streaming is where you create your own animations, I think.
Philip Linden: Yes... streaming anims means you can create/upload them.
Jack Digeridoo: im lazy, i just want to buy direct from the finder
Philip Linden: maybe it's bad to be lazy
Karma Satyr: i was wondering if you could announce or tell of any plans for european support.. i.e server and such.
Karma Satyr: world wide too.
Philip Linden: we don't have immediate plans for euro servers,
Philip Linden: so I'd say that means don't expect it in H1 2004
Philip Linden: But of course we are thinking about it.
Philip Linden: And will boost international performance as much as we can.
Philip Linden: UK has pulled into #1 international country BTW
Moleculor Satyr: WriteToNotecard() in? Any alterations to how sounds are handled? (Sorry if I'm jumping the gun here, or too slow, my chat is repeating repeating repeating itself.)
Philip Linden: Molecular... I'll check/note... I don't know.
Whystler LaFollette: My group lost 3120 L trying to allocate land properly, and I was raised a tier unecessarily (which was fixed thanks) due to the same process. Are you going to streamline group land business, and group administration in general in 1.3?
Philip Linden: Whystler...
Philip Linden: in 1.3 officers will be able to bid and buy land directly to groups.
Philip Linden: So that will solve those problems.
Philip Linden: We have been all over that one.
Zero Medici: how do land tier fees work beyond owning an entire sim?
Philip Linden: Zero...
Philip Linden: right now it is just linear... stays at the $195 level in 1/2 sim increments.
Stillpink Sandgrain: I just would like to suggest you save one sim here for an SL MUSEUM..creators could donate their objects to SL not for sale ever..just on display forever
Stillpink Sandgrain: since people come and go so fast here
Philip Linden: Nice idea stillpink... noted.
Zalandria Zaius: any plans for a 3d offline clothing designer? the templates leave a lot to be desired.
Philip Linden: zalandria
Philip Linden: Nothing working now, but yes that would be great.
Philip Linden: but over time as we get bigger,
Philip Linden: we'll get a better feel for how much people use/need I think.
annie Lily: Will the tiers we now have ever include more land allotment before fees? Such as the 512 allotment
Philip Linden: Annie... no plans to change now,
Lordfly Digeridoo: howdy philip... sorry i came in late... any word on havok 2.0? *big hopeful grin of doom*
Philip Linden: Lordfly we are working on it,
Philip Linden: but not in 1.3,
Philip Linden: But we are working on it.
Jodiette Flower: can i ask a silly question...what is Havok
Philip Linden: Not silly at all... Havok is the physics engine.
Philip Linden: OK so I will hang around a bit extra and just chat.
Philip Linden: Thanks all for coming today... sorry for the lag.
James Miller: Okay, the NEW landmass to the south of the continent -- how big?
Philip Linden: Big james, big.
Hank Ramos: llWrite2Notecard(); ???
Philip Linden: I've noted writetonotecard()
Catherine Omega: A while ago, I suggested adding the capability to link phantom and solid objects together and have each child object retain its original property in an effort to fake bounding boxes for vehicles. (You obviously wouldn't be limited by a box shape.)
Philip Linden: good point on the prims cat O...
Philip Linden: We'll keep thinking about that.
Zalandria Zaius: how bout scriptable hinges?
Philip Linden: scriptable hinges? You can do that now.
Catherine Omega: I've always wondered this: Why is it that groups have a minimum of 3 members, and a maximum of 10 groups? Isn't that kind of silly?
Philip Linden: Hmm... on the group thing.
Philip Linden: I think we need a better way to handle 2 person groups?
Philip Linden: How many folks would like to see some sort of way to change your last name?
Philip Linden: Like if you got married?
Philip Linden: I'm always thinking about that.
Xylor Baysklef: Oh, any plan on allowing client-client content, such as loading a web graphic on a prim face, or what have you?
Philip Linden: Xylor... not yet.
Tiger Crossing: If changing last names had a restiction of some sort, say a largish fee, I wouldn't be against it, but NOT rampant name changes.
Philip Linden: Yes fast/frequent changes are bad.
Eckhart Dillon: are there going to be more themed sims like, trailer park, ghetto
Philip Linden: I think the themes are more up to you guys now...
Philip Linden: but we will do what we can.
Philip Linden: Trailer park... love that one.
Oz Spade: Oh, what about texturing land philip? any ideas on that?
Philip Linden: Oz we are working on that too.
Philip Linden: Not for 1.3, but soon.
James Miller: I think LindenLab should buy There.com
Philip Linden: Yeah James let me get my checkbook out
Xylor Baysklef: Oh, any plans for a way to render text besides llSetText?
Philip Linden: Xylor... noted.
Lordfly Digeridoo: oh, philip... stupid question, if i can ask... how are last names picked, and any chance us players will get to pick some?
Philip Linden: Lordfly... good idea...
Philip Linden: maybe we could have a forum thread.
Philip Linden: We pick them rather randomly.
Tiger Crossing: Philip, I'm with Xylor on the text display issue. The real world has a lot of text it in. It's a vital way to convey information. Our virtual world should have something more robust than llSetText.
Philip Linden: OK Tiger... got it.
Lordfly Digeridoo: oh! philip! feature suggestion, along the lines of the text issues... how about a Text rendering engine that can bake on top of textures?
Philip Linden: yes it is tricky to do that well (text onto textures)
James Miller: What happened to the Jenner auction?
James Miller: The auction for the region Jenner is gone.
Philip Linden: Oh.. .the jenner thing.
Philip Linden: It was the wrong sim...
Philip Linden: It is called seacliff... going up today.
Philip Linden: Whole sim auction.
Hawk Statosky: Oops. And this is why you need the land coordinator
Philip Linden: yep thats why we need the land coordinator
Nolan Nash: is jenner staying mature?
Philip Linden: Seacliff will be mature, not sure about jenner
Xylor Baysklef: You guys hire interns for the summer? O.o
Philip Linden: Yep we hire interns
Philip Linden: send resumes
Philip Linden: darned employment.
Roxie Marten: will there ever be weather in sl?
Philip Linden: Yes there will be weather.
Philip Linden: Clouds are only beginning.
Nolan Nash: What is your take on land traders? I have heard that you want to reward those who bring in great experiences and content, but arent the land traders reaping the largest benefits? Without providing any content save high cost land?
Philip Linden: Nolan...
Philip Linden: land speculation is an issue in RL too.
Philip Linden: Hard to solve.
Philip Linden: because how to you gauge motive?
Philip Linden: I suppose we could limit the profit you could make selling land,
Philip Linden: but that seems an unreasonable restriction of freedom.
Fey Brightwillow: Philip, will any changes be made in land editing, in the form of option to add grass texture or sand where there is none now?
Philip Linden: Fey we are working on land texturing improvments,
Philip Linden: but not in 1.3
Philip Linden: Hm... well the preview will be up within 2 weeks.
Philip Linden: So you will be able to try it out.
Catherine Omega: Yeah, why can't we do custom bump and reflect maps now?
Philip Linden: Cat... wow that is hardcore.
Philip Linden: custom reflect maps would be cool I agree.
Philip Linden: Just adds a lot to the texture download time, which is too high.
James Miller: Philip, what is the Linden earthquake plan? I know it's a grim thought, but, in the event of an earthquake, what is the plan of the Lindens?
Philip Linden: we are in a very solid building right now.
Philip Linden: So I think we would be OK.
Philip Linden: I meant the colo, yes.
Philip Linden: It is a very solid building - a 911 call center, among other things.
Philip Linden: Yes we will be in other colos... system is designed for that.