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Cloudies!
I’m reading Snow Crash for the first time (please, no spoilers!) but I’ve already seen the many references that ‘inspired’ some of Second Life®’s quirks.
One of them are the “low resolution avatars”. Well, the fun is that SL sometimes loads avatars with a slow connection with “grey textures”. Sometimes, missing images.
And most of the time, the dreadful Ruth, which you can’t even change unless you relog.
Well… the creative designers at LL came up with a new cool idea. It’s a cloud that replaces your avatar until the shape is available! I saw it first on the Beta Grid but with the new release candidate, it was launched on the main grid as well.
Here is how it looks:
Very funny 
Now let’s see if people get used to it. I personally love it, it makes things more surreal, even if some will obviously prefer being Ruthed!
Sadly, the new Release Candidate 7 was just removed (too many people have complained with problems). If you were part of the lucky crowd (I certainly was!) you’d have seen a tremendous boost in performance and rendering quality. Suddenly my avatar was correctly rendered without a Facelight. Or perhaps I was just dreaming… but everything seemed fantastic!
Ah well. Definitely, dramatic improvements are waiting around the corner! I’m eager to wait for them…
Looks very interesting! I shall look forward.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 pmI was pleased with RC7. I also enjoyed the new clouds instead of Ruth as well, very cool. RC7 Also runs so good on my system, to bad many people had troubles with the watchdog crash logger. The new lip sync is also cute.
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:56 amSo next year Philip will have to appear in a cloud of smoke instead of a “missing image” T-shirt at the SL convention?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 amEnjoy the book, Gwyn, I did
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 amAh! and since today is friday…have a nice weekend
While recognising that I am not, perhaps, sufficiently in touch with my feminine side and therefore have a built-in antipathy to being Ruthed, I think the new “cloudie” look will be cool… and almost to be sought for.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:20 pmI wonder if the hordes of Ruthed bots increasing traffic counts will become glowing cloudbanks…
May 24th, 2008 at 4:35 amOkay, maybe this is just too geeky, but I think it would be cool if, rather than a cloudie, I could come in as a Star Trek transporter effect. Maybe LL should give us a selection of particle effects for”beaming in.”
May 31st, 2008 at 3:56 amYeh the new RC is great. It has been much more stable for me so far. I’m all for the new cloudythingies - It means people’s self expression of presence through avatar isn’t compromised every time they appear.
June 1st, 2008 at 10:05 amlike the cloud, amorphous and floating
July 28th, 2008 at 7:52 pm