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Newbie Comments and Questions

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by EJtheK, Nov 28, 2018.

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  1. EJtheK

    By:EJtheK-  Nov 28, 2018
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    New to SS user here. Just logged in yesterday.

    Now granted, I only ran around the welcome region and then my default home plot, and haven't been elsewhere yet, but I wanted to share/ask a few things coming from a fresh introduction to SS.

    Some background: I've now got a fairly high, pro-hobbyist level grasp of level design in Unreal, and have built many custom game maps that are still in regular rotation on busy servers for a mulitplayer war game. I enjoy building those levels, but I've grown a bit bored with the limited (understandably) constraints of a specific type of gameplay. I've begun dabbling in SL for a few months now, and found that though there is a steep learning curve (and thus a vast social gap between newbies and established users) it does feel like a stable, mature, usable platform in many ways (using the Firestorm browser). What is a bit frustrating is the challenge and cost for building on SL's platform. And I can't shake the feeling that SL's time has come and gone though.

    I heard of SS in a casual side comment on SL's forums. Curious, I searched for it and found what I have possibly been looking for: a creative platform akin to AAA game development, with the SL-type social platform built around it (and an active, informative community to support it). So let me begin by saying, with the limited exposure I've had so far, I'm actually feeling a bit excited for having discovered SS. I'm hoping to find out it is what I've been looking for.

    That said, here are some first impressions and newbie questions...

    UI, UI, UI... sigh. I get all excited to try out a next-gen creative platform, log in, and am greeted with a elementary school interface from 2002. Cyan everything with bright green bubble buttons? Really? Seems like an odd choice, and a bit jarring given your web presence is very current and appealing visually. Cues could be taken from the Firestorm viewer, and at least, the color palette toned down a bit, IMHO.

    I find the camera controls incredibly confusing. Yes I know, I haven't spent more than an hour using them, but... it is so different from Unreal defaults and Firestorm/SL defaults. I find it extremely tedious and frustrating to navigate out of the box. For example... right click free cam should dolly in/out on mouse up/down. And default mouse sensitivity is way too high. I don't know, maybe there is a magical input settings panel I haven't seen yet, but I would suggest focusing on a smooth, intuitive navigation system because that (and UI) is the first impression players have.

    The basic avatar is okay, and the sliders appear comprehensive, but there should likely be a larger amount of basic hairstyles, for example, to choose from immediately in viewer, rather than have to learn about the currency and store system first. And physics...umm... why does my avatar lean at the ankles when he turns?? No one I've ever seen walks like that. I find very distracting to the immersive experience.

    So currency...I understand the gold. Straight forward value, clear and fixed(?) exchange rate... got it. But silver? That is confusing. It appears to have no value. The FAQs say it has no value. Than what is the value to having it in-world? Simply a social motivator? I don't know, I don't get the point. Sellers will ultimately only want gold no? I just don't see the point if there is no exchange with gold. (Perhaps there is a cool business model that makes perfect sense... if so, please enlighten me.)

    And regions...I assume the 128mb limit is only in file (?) size and not in in-world dimensions. And each region appears to exist in visual isolation right? No nasty neighbors to spoil your view? But when creating, especially in Unity editor, how can I check the limits of the scene I'm working on to verify it will fit? Also, what is meant by concurrent users in the subscriptions? Visitors to a region?

    I don't mean to be harsh or mean in this post, though I may sound like it. I am actually excited by the potential I see on this platform. Thanks.
     
    Spiral Silverstar likes this.
  2. Trilo

    By:Trilo-  Nov 28, 2018
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    I'm sure one of the guides or staffers will chime in too.

    If you feel that creating content in a previous gen world like SL has a steep learning curve, you may be in for a shock when it comes to Unity. Unity is a modern game engine that's on par (though considered slightly easier by some) with Epic's Unreal engine. It's probably worth noting that with SL, just as with Unity and Unreal, the cost of development varies widely depending on the cost of the tools you want to purchase and use. There are free open-source tools available like Blender and Krita for modeling, texturing, and painting, and the sky is the limit when it comes to what you personally can and care to spend on tools.. your mileage may vary.

    UI and controls, yep they're terrible. SineSpace staff are well aware of how terrible they are, and they are planning to improve them, but it hasn't happened yet. If you've got specific issues or requests that you'd like to document in detail, use issues.sine.space to post them (even that has a clunky interface, but it's worth kludging through to give the development team your feedback in a more actionable manner).

    You're right, silver has no real-world value. It can't be cashed out. It's an engagement or promotional currency - it can be earned through engagements (like finding mining locations or completing quests) or be used for promotionally priced items (makers and sellers would use them promotionally or to increase traffic).

    As for region size, yes the limit is the size in megabytes (128MB is the free plan, there are several other options). Yes, the regions are self-contained and do not have issues with neighboring builds. A region creator could link different builds using teleporters or some other similar scheme if they cared to, there are pages on the wiki they can read through to figure out how to set that up. After signing up for the creator program and installing both Unity (currently supporting 2017.2.4) and the SineSpace Editor Pack (13p17 is current, I believe), a creator then uploads their build using the tools provided in the pack. Once a region is processed the creator receives an email letting them know the processed file sizes for each platform, plus when hopping onto the preview grid to check the upload you can easily see the region's current file size. You can then revise and tweak the build easily in subsequent uploads to get the project closer to whatever target size you're looking for. It's worth noting that if you're planning to build something you or your customers would then be able to furnish, you'll want to allow some kind of overhead for their furniture and decor (that stuff takes up space too).

    Concurrent users means the number of users in the space at a time. For a personal space, I imagine the base concurrency is something like 10, and ought to be fine. If you're looking for larger numbers of people to be visiting simultaneously (maybe you're building a nightclub, or space for spectator/team sports), or a larger community to explore, you will probably want or need to accommodate more concurrent users.

    As for wanting to see more of a particular type of item, get cracking and start making some of whatever that is . When SL was still in beta (more than 15 years ago) they had lots of gaps in the assortment or categories without many offerings, but as it evolved and as makers stepped in to fill the voids the place eventually had plenty of options to choose from.