Hiya all!

What have I been up to, you ask? – I’ve been up to a lot, but a big project I’ve been working on is ‘AoRep’. AoRep is an Avatar Reputation System. It allows you to rate a persons reputation based on your opinion. If you don’t like someone because they’re rude and inconsiderate, you can give their reputation a thumbs down. If someone is very nice and considerate, you can give their reputation a thumbs up. If 50 people rate that persons reputation, someone else who doesn’t know that person and who uses AoRep can get a good idea of that persons reputation. – This is very useful if you want to find out how much the SL community likes a person before buying something from them or dealing with them. With AoRep, you can also rate a persons appearance, just like the old ratings system that SL used to have in the profile window.

AoRep also allows you to set basic profile information that SL Profiles lack: Gender, sexuality, relationship status, avatar age and avatar type. The gender, sexuality and relationship status are indicated by their appropriate symbols on the AoRep’s scanner display for convenience.

When will AoRep be ready? Soon! Currently it’s in an internal BETA phase and it should be ready for a public beta either this weekend or sometime next week.

AoRep will be available in two flavors.

AoRep Free: Allows you to view ratings, set your profile details and view other profiles. This version will not cost you anything.

AoRep Premium: ( Otherwise just known as AoRep, ‘Premium’ usually isn’t included in the name ) Allows you to do everything AoRep Free can + the ability to rate people, change your HUD theme and have access to other future premium features. AoRep Premium will of course not be free.

Q & A

Q: Can I rate people who do not own AoRep?

A: Yes. Anyone can be rated by AoRep, they simply need to exist in Second Life.

Q: Can I opt-out of AoRep so people can’t rate me?

A: Currently, no. There is no opt-out feature. – I will research anti-abuse systems once AoRep becomes public.

Q: What about privacy! What information is stored, what information do other people have access to?

A: No private information is stored. UUID’s, names are stored, but these are not private information. The name of the region you’re in is stored in an irreversible SHA1 hash. The ‘region name hashes’ are used to determine who’s in the same sim for the use of providing ‘scanner’ information to AoRep HUD’s and for deploying notification messages to users in only one region. – The only information that is accessible to AoRep users is the information that you apply to your profile. When you rate someone, users in the same sim or just the target if the target is not in the sim same but is online, will only receive a notification that the targets rating has changed. No one will know who placed the rating. It is completely anonymous.

Q: How much will it cost for AoRep Premium?

A: I have not decided on a price yet, but it will be around the L$500 range. There won’t be any subscription fees. ( Though that may be a payment option in the future if you don’t want to pay ~L$500 )

Q: What if I have a lot of enemies that give me an over all bad rating?

A: Currently there is no solution to this. But I will research anti-abuse systems once AoRep becomes public. – However, a good preventive measure you can take now is to not make so many enemies.

Q: Can I use AoRep to prevent people with low reputations from entering my land?

A: Not right now, but when it is possible, this will be a separate product. ( Note: I understand this may cause problems like other ban systems have in the past. I will take every step I can to ensure the system will be as fair as possible )

Q: How efficient is the HUD?

A: 54 prims, 3 scripts, 192KB of script memory and it idles with and average of 0.012ms of script time. ( Note: These specs may change before the official release )

Q: What could I use AoRep for?

A: AoRep can be used to spot griefers, as a factor in deciding if you want to deal with someone you don’t know well, to find out basic information about someone ( Gender, sexuality, etc. ) and it can even be used as a basic radar. It does show on the scanner display how far away the avatar is.

Q: What’s the detection range for the scanner?

A: There is no official range, but if you’re not using a TPV that supports the client radar and are the only user of an AoNS equipped device ( Such as AoRep or Phenom ), the range is 96m. – However, the more AoNS device users there are in the sim, the longer the range is. If at least one of those users is using a TPV that supports the client radar or has a built-in sim scanner, then the range is unlimited. AoNS devices share their scanner data with other AoNS devices.

Q: Does it make toast and bacon?

A: Perhaps…

AoRep BETA is now for sale!

AoRep Full Version

AoRep Free Version

Hiya all!

This is a short blog post since I am busy with Phenom V3 production, but I felt this news should interest a lot of people.

Just recently, Linden Labs has updated their ToS/Community Standards in the disclosure of private information section to include Alternate Accounts. This means systems like RedZone are now prohibited in SL. The only way the systems can be sold is if the system asks for permission from the owner of the alternate accounts. This of course makes the system useless since you’d be better off asking the resident yourself for the names of their alts. RedZone is especially useless since not only does it now ask for permission, but RedZone and similar systems base their “Alt Detections” off of unreliable data: IP Addresses, which have time-after-time been shown to be unreliable personal identification methods. This is why Linden Labs doesn’t immediately IP ban people. They only IP ban as a last resort to avoid accidentally banning innocent avatars who have/might receive the same IP address.

Now that disclosure of alts is prohibited, will RedZone survive without it? There is no mention that the harvesting of IP addresses is prohibited. So systems that attempt to ban peoples alts, but not disclose their identities to the ban system’s owner(s) might still be able to squeak by the ToS/CS. – Oh well, at least RedZone is out of the picture now.

Link to Jira Original Comment >>

Hiya all!

We’ve had Display Names for a while now, so I thought I’d offer my opinion on them.

When I first heard of Display Names when watching the Keynote presentation by Philip Linden ( Soon-to-be former CEO of Linden Labs ), I figured it was more of a nickname not really a cover-up name that replaces your user name. Something like a more featured group title. It was a bit disappointing seeing how much more extensive and complex Display Names really are.

Some say Display Names are a complete mess and should be removed from SL entirely. I think they just need some re-working. Display Names are fun to play around with, but currently aren’t a very serious feature. By that I mean they don’t really serve a purpose for SL as a whole, they only benefit the RP’ers and people who don’t like their user names.

Here are the reasons why I don’t like Display Names.

• Obviously Display Names make recognizing people MUCH harder. Especially if the name is made up entirely of special characters like “ᾏẛﭐﺚ” instead of just “Ariu”
• A lot of people are choosing exotic names instead of  just variations of their user names or easy to remember and recognizable names.
• There are still issues with DN’s, mainly the “???” issue making it extremely difficult to recognize people since both their DN and UN appear as “???”.
• It is possible to impersonate other residents by making your DN another persons UN. The 7 day waiting period after you set your DN won’t stop people who make “Throw-away” accounts.
• All new residents are forced to use the “Resident” last name
• In some places, only display names appear instead of DN and UN or just UN. ( Such as the Friends Online widget on the dashboard )
• Slutty avatars can and do choose extremely ’sexual’ names and do go to PG/General regions.
• Two people can have the same display name.

Here are the reasons why I like Display Names

• Obviously you can get the name you always wanted. IE: I have “Ariu Kitteh” as my Display Name now.
• Partners can choose the same last name.
• RP’ers can choose more story-like names. IE: “Cpl. Smith” for someone who’s in an SL military.
• They’re much more flexible, not restricting you to just a first and last name with numbers and letters.

Over all, I mainly dislike Display Names as they are now. I believe an option such as “Show my Display Name only to Group Members/Friends/Nearby avatars” would be something useful. That way RP’ers can still be happy without annoying everyone else since their DN is hard to recognize.

Hiya all!

This is another post on the ongoing issue of Script Resource hogging, why it’s bad and how to prevent it.

If you’ve read my previous blog posts you know what I mean by “hogging script resources”, but if not continue reading this paragraph. – Every single script uses the simulators resources even if the script is turned off or isn’t performing any functions. Scripts that are running are periodically checked by the sim to see if any events need to be triggered. Both running and non-running scripts use either 16kb or 64kb of the sims memory. In normal amounts this is a trivial process for the sim, but unfortunately normal amounts of scripts are a rare sight in Second Life.

Due to the threat of copybotting, designers started selling their products with “No-Modify” permissions. This meant that the customers were unable to in any way customize or even resize the products for their avatars shape. To counter this, the designers added “Resizer Scripts” to the products which required a script in every single prim and very easily turned into monstrous amounts of scripts. The worst part is that No-Modify doesn’t stop copybotting at all since copybots simply rebuild the products from the viewers memory and not from the inventory system. Even if copybots rebuilt the products from the inventory system, no-mod still wouldn’t stop them, no-copy would be the right choice. – Unfortunately, many designers are still selling their products as no-mod and still use resizer scripts. As a result, many sims are under a heavy script load due to the massive amount of scripts residents pile on unintentionally by wearing products with resizer scripts.

3 Tips on How To Avoid Being A Script Hog

1. Obviously the first tip is to not wear or buy accessories/apparel that are no-mod and include resizer scripts. It is ok if the products have mod permissions, because that means you can remove the scripts. ( Viewers like Phoenix have a function under the “Tools” menu called “Remove all scripts in selection” which does what it says and is very useful )
2. On the Phoenix viewer, you have an option called “S.Count” when you select an attachment and click the “More>” button. Use this to track down script heavy attachments. On Viewer 2 you have a memory usage list ( World / Place Profile / About Land / (Bottom left corner ) Script Information/ My Avatar ).
3. Detach items that you do not need. IE: If you’re not dancing, then detach your “Dance Animation HUD”. – Or – If you’re not using your weapons, then detach them or at least detach the “Drawn” versions of the weapons that are invisible. Weapons are notorious for being script heavy.

[17:37:09]  Counted scripts in 4 objects: 982 < – A patron in my sandbox had dual hand guns + holsters that used nearly 1000 scripts altogether. He was cooperative when I asked him to detach them and never use them again due to the guns being insanely inefficient.

[17:34:44]  Counted scripts from 21 attachments on <Anonymous> Fearguis: 2023 < – Unfortunately he also had a massive amount of resizer scripts attached alongside those guns.

With all of those scripts he had attached, he was using over 25% (9.7ms of script time and ~50mb of script memory) of my sims script resources!

Click to enlarge

Only 15 avatars with around ~450 scripts each

Only 14 avatars with less than 200 scripts each

Benefits of not hogging script resources

1. Sim owners like myself are less likely to get mad at your for lagging ours sims.
2. You will teleport faster and have less failed teleports since the current and destination sim have less work to do.
3. Your and other residents scripts may perform better since you’re causing less lag. ( Of course it also does depend on if other people are hogging scripts )
4. Whenever you teleport, your current and destination sim won’t lock up for 10 seconds due to Mono’s rez/unrez lag.
5. You will look less like a noob to experienced residents.
6. In the future, there will be a cap on how much script memory all of your attachments together use. It’s best to be in the habit of regulating your script usage now instead of being inconvenienced when it happens.
7. It’s totally super duper cool.

Before you complain about sim lag, perhaps you and your friends should detach your hundreds of scripts and then see if you have anything to complain about.

Hello world!

In the world of Second Life exists an option that you can apply to any kind of prim, this option is known as “Full-Bright”. What Full-Bright does is it makes the prim fully illuminated, meaning it looks as if there’s a light shining on each side of the prim. This option is ideal for things like light bulbs and buttons, though many people misuse this option not knowing what the option really does. This is most commonly done to things such as hair and jewelery.

When it’s daylight, Full Bright objects don’t appear much more brighter than other objects around it. During nighttime, full bright objects standout much-much more than other objects, this makes full bright hair look incredibly silly. The avatar being mostly dark and the hair sticking out like a sore thumb.

So… When you buy some new hair or jewelery, or any accessory really, make sure the Full-Bright option for all of the prims is disabled. Otherwise your avatar could look really silly in the dark.