I want to know how you feel about the SL Go service coming to an end.
I’ve heard from people to who this actually means the end of their Second Life because they just can’t afford a new computer or don’t want to go back to a slow grey laggy virtual reality.
In short, a lot of people are really sad for all sorts of reasons and I want to hear them so I can use them in a blog post I’ll be writing after the Dennis Harper interview that will be broadcast this Friday on the Drax Files Radio Hour podcast.
He is going to share some interesting new information, you don’t want to miss that episode.
I’d love to use some of your opinions on SL Go or what streaming SL in general means to you in that article.
So please let me know your opinion in the comments section.
Jo Yardley's Second Life 
Second Life has never looked better than when the first photographs of 20s Berlin in SLGO were posted by Jo Yardley. I use full graphics settings only in a controlled situation for inworld photography, even though I have a relatively good PC and ADSL internet connection. To see Jo and others experience Second Life dynamically using SLGO was an amazing experience, even though I couldn’t use it myself. SLGO points the way forward for expanding the community of SL users. I hope Linden Labs are noting this and planning some future version of the streaming technology.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I mentioned in your previous blog post, I’d been hoping to get my mom into Second Life soon. She’s coming to visit me next month, and a tablet would have been a much more feasible purchase right now than a high-end laptop, for both financial as well as technical reasons. With SL Go gone, our options are more limited. I still want to introduce her to the world somehow — I actually think she’d love SL once she got used to it, especially since she feels quite isolated where she’s currently living — but it becomes a more complicated undertaking and not nearly as “accessible” an experience for her as it could otherwise have been.
I think the same could be said for a lot of people, actually. There are, no doubt, many Second Life residents out there (and potential residents, too, like my mom) who may not have the money to buy the best machine on the market but who could, at least, get something capable of running SL Go. Though I hate to say it, this is probably especially true for the older crowd, who might be more likely to have underpowered computers that they can’t afford to upgrade but who are *just* as able in all other ways of enriching (and being enriched by) Second Life’s community and of finding a home there.
Honestly, with the huge push toward mobile, we’re in a very tricky situation at the moment; Second Life, as sophisticated and demanding of computing resources as it is, far outstrips the capabilities of the commonly available tools that we might otherwise use to access it. (Just look at recent studies that highlight the huge percentage of people who use a smartphone and/or tablet as their primary means of going online.) This “imbalance” will presumably change, as the hardware in our mobile devices gets smaller and faster and more powerful… but in the meantime, I hope that Steadman is right and that Linden Lab will step in. In my opinion, SL Go is too important a breakthrough for Second Life’s survival and future growth for LL to let it disappear completely.
LikeLike
I had always been of the opinion that running heavyweight gaming apps remotely on a powerful machine in the cloud, with hi-def video streamed to the user and control signals going the other way, was going to be an important option, whether it meant being able to use a less-powerful computer or a portable device. Plenty of people took pains to tell me that it would never work as a concept. When SL Go put this into operation it was the fulfillment of an idea whose time, I felt, had come.
I think the loss of this service is a great shame. Although I don’t know how popular the service was, I am sure there are quite a few users who will now no longer be able to access SL, and a great potential for expanding the reach of virtual worlds to people with almost any kind of end-user device, is being lost – at a time when the whole business of virtual reality is getting additional attention and environments like SL are being shown to be a decade ahead of the curve, and when increasingly tablets and mobile devices are increasingly the internet access equipment of choice.
I think Sony should rethink. I doubt for a moment, however, that they will. It is almost sadder that the technology to do this is now going to be locked away, making the hurdles for anyone else wanting to do the same thing in the future almost insurmountable. If it were possible, I would suggest that Linden Lab look at the possibility of licensing the technology – if not for SL then for the next environment.
LikeLike
I had great hope for SL Go, but only got it to work on my iPad 2. Never worked for me on Linux nor OS X Yosemite (Mac Mini). So it *looked* fantastic on the iPad, but I didn’t like using the interface that way – really need mouse and keyboard to enjoy SL (at least, the way I do).
I was hoping it would work in a later iteration, and would have started renting the service again if it had. Oh well.
An interesting counter-point: though it’s in alpha, and very rough, bleeding-edge, I have seen far superior rendering in HighFidelity on my Mac Mini than I’ve ever achieved by tweaking settings in Firestorm (SL). Here’s why I bring that up: I’m *very* hopeful that the *next* generation of SL that they’re building with some significant focus on Oculus Rift (and its contemporaries) will somehow literally and figuratively change the equation. It seems possible that with more intelligent choices about what is rendered high-res, what is barely-rendered (and perhaps blurred), and what is not rendered at all, plus a better way to make split-second changes as to which objects fall into which of the above categories… the next SL could be an awesome experience with laptop-grade and/or tablet-grade graphics processors.
Maybe even without the fan screaming.
LikeLike
I am an estate owner and pay the premium membership. Normally I use my own computer to run SL but recently my mother had a life altering surgery that has required me to move in with her and use her new but not meant for graphics computer. SL GO has allowed me to continue to service my estate and keep in touch with my residents. The closing down of SL GO will be a hard blow indeed.
LikeLike
I joined Second life five years ago .During that time I have visited in an on and off manner. I came back to the virtual world in January this year. I am not a builder or creator ,my visits are mainly to take part in what I see as a unique social experiment . My main interest is in history and Second life has enabled me to live a virtual life in various historical periods and situations.
I was introduced to SLgo . By Joe Yardley who runs the 1920, Berlin project . Once i saw what Second life and its many artists and creators meant me to see in previously unattainable graphic settings my virtual life underwent a major change . I was able to visit some astounding visual creations and interact with other visitors in a much more rewarding way.
The word immersive is much over used in the gaming world , and I hesitate to call Second life a game as most of us know it is so much more than that . I have found a way to live in another time and place which is visually and socially rewarding mainly due to the enhanced experience made possible by SLgo.
Second life is in danger of becoming a platform which will rapidly become unavailable and unsatisfactory to users as its graphic capabilities quickly outstrip its users ability to use it to its full extent .
I am really not looking forward to returning to my virtual life which consists of walking through treacle surrounded by grey blocks
Aelggyva Fenwitch (Effy)
LikeLike
With SL Go, I could be film maker. The frame rates were smooth while normally my computer skips. …And I could do it with advanced lighting too. I could also do amazing things like waltz into the super busy The Arcade sim, and yard sale hunt at Epic without choking on all those avatars, textures, and meshes densely populating a small area. … I even figured out how to use SL Go for my blog photos. SL Go photography saved the day but when I would otherwise crash trying to get the shot. (Yes, I was brutal with SL Go photography, pushing it past it’s limits with ultra advanced lighting, 16x anti aliasing, and trying to do a larger image size than double my screen resolution and it would crash on me of course. lol) But when I needed fast and reliable, SL Go photography was there for me. … I had big plans to use SL Go for my coverage of Fantasy Faire. I was planning to make movies while the sims were crawling with people, filming them all in thier wonderful and wacky outfits, and I would do all it on Ultra settings too. …. It sent me reeling that something so useful, SL Go, was taken away suddenly without warning and no way to fill void left behind. …. SL Go was a great tool and I enjoyed having it. I hope in the future there will be new ways to solve the problems of making VR faster, stable, able to handle busy sims, be beautifully lit, and of course, do it while waiting in line at doctor office or sitting on the beach.
LikeLike
The loss of SL Go means being shut out of sl again. My mac is too old to run the viewer. And when I can manage to log in, lag is so bad I can’t even move let alone chat. SL Go made it possible to enjoy Second Life like it was back in 2006 when I 1st joined.
LikeLike
I love it. I’m using it till the very end. I’ve been in SL 6 years. And lag was always an issue for me. With SLGO i could enjoy the game the way it was meant to be. It makes me sad that it’s coming to end. I have a hard time understanding why Sony isn’t going to continue the service. I think with a little push it could have been a profitable option for them. They also could have used to work on the technology and find problems and so on. I really hope the people at SLgo are able to pull something out of the fire and open a new service, game streaming is an amazing idea, and a huge leap forward, why does it have to be a thing of the future. The future is now.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Hopes Creations.
LikeLike