EOTB: Philip Linden "Voice Conversation" Wednesday October 1

 

For those wanting to meet Philip Linden (Philip Rosedale in real-life), you'll have a chance on Wednesday October 1 when there will be a "Voice Server Conversation and Load Test" which he will be part of. 

 

We’re excited to invite you to an event with Philip Rosedale on Tuesday, October 1st at 1pm PT at the Linden Estate Services regions. This event will serve as both a community conversation and a technical test.  

 

 

There will be a Questions and Answers sessions in which people are invited to ask about Voice in SL and hear about upcoming features. The event will also double as a test for the new Web RTC servers.  

 

"We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your feedback!"

 

For more information, check the Linden blog (here).  

 

New Firestorm Viewer Update, Promises To Fix Some PBR Issues

 

After Firestorm released their PBR viewer in June, while there was praise for it as it allowed people to see what could be done with this new feature in Second Life, there were also numerous complaints about lag and crashes. In August, Firestorm announced they were making a change to their three-viewer policy and keep the last viewer before PBR, 6.1.17, around permanently, recommending those who were having serious issues temporarily downgrade, or adjust their viewer Preferences, while they were working on an update. A few days ago on Tuesday September 17, they announced that their new viewer update, one that would deal with some of the issues caused by the PBR technology, was ready. 

...a significant minority of our users have been struggling with the higher performance demands of the last release (7.1.9). We have been in discussion with Linden Lab since that release, and, as you can read in the Second Life Blog post linked at the top of this section, there is a significant focus on making the viewer more capable and performant on lower spec and older machines. These updates are being delivered in phases, and this release delivers the first batch (aligning us to the Second Life release known as Atlasaurus). It does not mark the end of those improvements, Linden Lab has laid a roadmap of at least two further releases (DeltaFPS and ExtraFPS) that specifically focus on performance.

This release fixes a swathe of issues, those of you plagued by crashes after TP were almost certainly victims of the “mirror at home” bug. This bug was fixed soon after the release and has been tested throughout our beta phase for this update. the crash rate for this viewer is far far lower than for the 7.1.9 update. Performance too, the performance updates, should see most of you enjoying better, more consistent frame rates and where you had high rates already, simple seeing more consistency as you move around the world.

Also, the viewer was the first to be able to use Second Life's new Voice technology, WebRTC, Linden Lab switching away from Vivox.

This viewer release ushers in a new-era of voice services in Second Life. Linden Lab has been working on a replacement for the ageing Vivox “SLVoice” solution for some time now. The new voice system is based upon open standards, notably WebRTC. The new voice services significantly improve voice quality over the legacy voice system, offering up to 48Khz CD-quality audio. They are directly embedded inside the viewer, removing the dependency on an external support process (slvoice.exe) and hopefully increasing voice stability. Linden Lab has also used the migration to WebRTC to enhance security and reduce “data leakage.” WebRTC point-to-point calls will all route through a Second-Life-managed proxy service, ensuring that your IP address and identity are always protected.

For those used to using the SL-provided voice morphing, this will no longer be available. The team at Linden Lab has put together a FAQ page to help you resolve any questions. Importantly, WebRTC is not compatible with SLVoice. Moreover, the back-end services that support voice cannot co-exist so once Linden Lab roll out the new WebRTC services across the grid, the older voice services will cease to work.

To make it very clear, when Linden Lab rolls out the WebRTC backend across the grid, SLVoice will cease to work FOR ALL VIEWERS. This is not something Firestorm or any TPV can alter/fix/workaround.

For the blogpost in full, Click Here. 

EOTB: Voice In Second Life Is Getting "Big" Changes

 

 

For those in Second Life who use the Voice option, expect some changes. On the official blog on Tuesday August 20, Linden Lab announced some "Big Updates" were coming. 

Voice services in Second Life are getting a big upgrade and we are excited to share an update on our progress with you! We are introducing a modern protocol - WebRTC and will be transitioning away from our current voice services (Vivox) shortly thereafter. You can try out WebRTC Voice right now and enjoy the higher quality audio, stereo audio, noise reduction, automatic gain control, echo cancellation and improved security.

 

The Lab acknowledged there were some issues, such as "Conference/Group/P2P" not yet available in Web RTC areas. "An occasional popup regarding voice server incompatibility can appear" - which would require restarting Voice, voice-morphing not yet available in WebRTC areas, and switching to another device while in a conference call may drop it. 

 

For more information, check the Linden blog.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Gee's Wonder Island Part One"

(Click here if the video fails to load)

The first part of Lokirat's video review of "Gee's Wonder Island," in which she looks at the island itself, taking a look around and trying a couple contraptions. In the second video, she gives the boats a try. In the third, she ventures to the sky platform to look around and runs into a few pranks.

Impish Glee (229/241/21)

QuickTips: "Meeting and Making Friends"

The next in the series of "QuickTips" videos from Linden Lab about Second Life, "Meeting and Making Friends."

Second Life is a fun and social space, so meeting and making friends is easier when you understand the basic controls and options for chat. Learn about the text and voice chat features that can help you meet and make friends in Second Life in our latest QuickTips video tutorial.

Introduction to Dragon NaturallySpeaking

"Elric Anatine presents information about Dragon NaturallySpeaking (voice-to-text and voice control). Recently, the ability to dictate directly into SL chat text areas has dramatically improved. This is one topic of discussion for this session, held May 26 at 2 p.m. (Pacific)."

Virtual Ability (53, 172, 23)

Voice Morphing

Changing one's voice in Second Life is not exactly new. I heard stories about software that when installed on your computer would change the inflection of one's voice, from male to female and vice-versa. Other equipment could do the job as well. One male DJ friend of mine once demonstrated this when he used a second computer to log-in an alt he sometimes used for a roleplay sim, and used his equipment to alter his voice that made the voice coming from the avatar closer to a girl's.

Now Linden Labs itself will be offering this service. Almost overlooked in the midst of the Linden Labs' layoffs, the 2.1 "Alpha" viewer has been released with the option of "Voice Morphing."


Voice Morphing is a feature that Residents have been asking for almost as long as we've had voice capabilities inworld. Simply put, it's the ability to change your avatar's voice to match any one of a number of tones and characteristics. Want to sound like a robot, a furry, or the opposite sex? With Voice Morphing, that ability is now just a few clicks away. The ability to change what your voice sounds like inworld will not only make it a richer and more interesting experience to be part of a community in Second Life, but will also help introduce voice to Residents who have been reluctant to use it in the past because they were uncomfortable making their real voice heard inworld. With Voice Morphing, you can be whoever you like in Second Life in voice as well as in appearance. As a first step, we're introducing 25 voices, available for purchase via subscription in five packs of five each, with the following themes: scary, feminine, masculine, tiny, and techie. You'll be able to sample each one for free to find the morphs that work best for you.


To both try out the voices for free, and purchase them, one goes to "Voice Island," in the sim of the same name at (131, 125, 22). Buying a "pack" of five morph voices will cost 750 Lindens, with five packs up for purchase: "scary," "feminine," "masculine," "tiny," and "techie."

It will be interesting to see how much this development will affect Second Life. The posts on the official Linden blog suggest roleplaying uses for characters, as well as allow those too shy to use their own voice to use another. When mentioned in the Residents' Disscusion forum posts though, the first thing brought up was about those using voice to make sure they were picking up a girl for a fast date, and how paranoid they must be feeling now. Some thought this might be the end of many in SL acting like playboys. Some were more skeptical, saying some wouldn't be so easy to fool by voice morphing they've seen in the past.

For the Blog posts about Voice Morphing, click Here and Here.

Click Here for the "microsite."

Bixyl Shuftan