Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
recent posts
- Welcome to New World Notes’ 2006-2025 Archive!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
- Top Five Posts Including: Huge Rec Room Layoff & Meta Boots Neal Stephenson Off Facebook (Briefly)
- Four Glorious Second Life Sims to Explore — After Watching Sabina Valeska’s Machinima Tributes to Them!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
about
Category: SL viewer news
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Loading… Now that PBR graphics are officially part of Firestorm, the most popular Second Life viewer by far, please take this survey about how that's impacted your virtual world — use a mouse/trackpad for best results. Survey reactions published on New World Notes later this week/early next!
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Image featuring PBR by Terry Fotherington A week after Linden Lab added PBR-based mirrors to its own Second Life viewer, the third-party Firestorm Viewer has added physically based rendering to its latest build: It is time! After nearly seven months of testing and seeking bug fixes and merging improvements and features, we are unleashing the…
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In the run-up to its 21st anniversary, Second Life is officially a virtual world with mirrors: Step into a more immersive world with real-time reflections. Our new mirror functionality uses reflection probes, providing stunning and dynamic reflections. Perfect for adding realism to your virtual environments, whether it's for a sleek modern home or a bustling…
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Image featuring PBR by Terry Fotherington After a much anticipation, the Firestorm viewer — by far the most-used Second Life viewer – will very soon going to add PBR: Since Linden Lab released the PBR viewer last November, we have been working with them to identify, prioritise, and squash numerous bugs and usability issues. Our…
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Alchemy, a third party Second Life viewer with a cult following of a few thousand users (by the developer's estimate), recently added the new Physically Based Rendering (PBR) graphics effects. With Firestorm's PBR update still in the works, I believe Alchemy is the first TPV to do so. If you're experienced with installing and running…
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Here's a handy PBR mirror effect tutorial for users of Black Dragon, the third party Second Life viewer optimized for high-end graphics. As presented by SL YouTuber Macmilow, it's a fairly straight-forward process. And as you'll see above, the term "effect" is doing some serious heavy lifting, as the "reflection" is very much not real…
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Got another quick update from Firestorm project leader Beq, on reports that the Alpha version of the viewer integrating PBR is displaying objects too brightly. Beq says the problem is being addressed by the Lindens: "Visuals are still being tuned upstream (Linden Lab); ultimately, the Lab is going to drive that agenda because it would…
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While many Second Life users are waiting for PBR to get integrated into Firestorm and other third party viewers before bothering with it, SL creator Arduenn Schwartzman uploaded a free starter kit for people who want to start playing with it now: PBR Survival Kit. From the description:
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PBR before/after comparison from the official Firestorm blog The addition of PBR to Second Life greatly enhances the virtual world's graphics. According to our recent survey, however, the plurality of Second Life users are waiting to use physical based rendering when it's added to Firestorm, the highly popular third part SL viewer (or TPV). One…
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Here's the results of our survey on PBR in Second Life, and they may be surprising: While over 1 in 4 are excited by what they see with physically based rendering… nearly half (44%!) are waiting for PBR to be integrated into Firestorm and other third party viewers. Firestorm alone is the most popular viewer…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 