SL Go by OnLive
Linden Lab and OnLive have just announced SL Go by OnLive. SL Go by OnLive is the first Second Life mobile app viewer that enables you to experience Second Life on your Android device over a 4G/LTE or wireless connection. Because SL Go runs on the OnLive game platform and is rendered on their servers and the rendered video is sent down the network to the OnLive software, it comes close to giving a rich desktop experience.
I have to admit, I’ve been playing with SL Go for the past week now on an android tablet as well as on my tv and, at times, it actually worked better than it does on my computer. I crashed a lot less, things rezzed a lot quicker and I was able to move around and go about doing things faster with a lot less lag.
Here is an image of me landing on the New York City sim which takes me 8 minutes (I counted) to load on my computer (check my computer specs here) and when I landed using SL Go by OnLive on the Samsung Galaxy Tablet SCH-I905 it took exactly one minute to load.
Then I was able to walk around with no lag or issues. I did crash twice because my inventory was still loading (it’s over 100K.) While on my main avatar, Strawberry Singh, I crashed twice with this and I got these two messages: Network Problem and Network Quality Problem I’m assuming this also possibly had to do with my network connection during those moments. This didn’t happen to me when I was logged in with my ALT (ManBerry) who has less than 5K inventory. It was so smooth and fast and lag-free for me. I was on a 10 inch tablet and had shadows and was exploring around lag free.
While exploring with the tablet, I also took many pictures that you see in this post. These ones are actually screenshots I took by using the screenshot button on the tablet itself. However, I also took images by using the snapshot button inworld and then sending the snapshots directly to my.secondlife profile feed there are two that I took there.
I also tried the OnLive Gaming System by plugging it directly into my flat screen HDTV. It needs to be directly connected by wire to your network for it to work efficiently. I was not able to do that because my HDTV is not close to a wired connection, so I used a wireless bridge instead. It worked, but ran sluggishly with a bit of lag and some pixelation. Obviously this is my fault because I wasn’t connecting it the way it is supposed to be connected. I did however love the way the joystick made it so easy to navigate and explore Second Life. I might work on setting up some sort of wired connection close to my television so I can SL on my HDTV because the joystick made it so much more fun and easier to explore!
Here are some links where you can find more information about SL Go OnLive:
SL Go by OnLive website
SL Go in the Google Play store
Linden Lab’s announcement about SL Go by OnLive
Promotional Video by OnLive
Inara Pey also did a detailed post with loads of information, along with pricing.
Draxtor did a great review in his video which shows him building and exploring using the tablet.
So what does this all mean to the old-time Second Life resident, like myself? I think not much as I can’t see us using it that often unless we are travelling or wish to sit on our beds and laze around as we play SL. I tend to take a few vacations a year so now it will be great for me because I can just take a tablet with me and login when/if I need to. I can see it coming in very handy for those users that don’t have a high-end computer and wish to experience SL as it can be. It’s also great for when you want to get into an event or a sim that is very laggy, without constantly crashing.
However, the costs are also there; $3/hour to use it. I can’t see this replacing my regular desktop use but I can see it possibly grabbing the attention of new users and those residents that are more mobile than I am. I think it’s definitely a step forward in terms of mobility and possibly getting the attention of a new market of users.
You can download the app and give it a try for free. They give you a free 20 minutes on sign up. Try it out and see how you like it.
Is this something you can see yourself using?
Credits:
*Skin: Al Vulo by Hlin Bluebird
*Hair: Truth by Truth Hawks
*Clothing: Mutresse by Eeky Cioc
*Purse: Hucci by Eboni Khan
*Shoes: Gos by Gospel Voom
Location: NYC Sim
*Tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab SCH-I905 (Provided by OnLive)
*OnLive OGS: OnLive Game System (Provided by OnLive)
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OH Awesome! Can’t wait for them to extend it to the Apple devices!
I’ve been waiting for this moment all my second life! Maybe on the next update we will be able to use the oculus rift headset. Wouldn’t that be cool?
And I was so hoping that the big announcement was that they were removing that little paragraph about taking creators rights on other residents’ stuff that caused so many content creators to bail on SL.
Don’t get me wrong…this is nice, but some people actually earned their livings off of their creations in SL and because of that little clause, a lot of them have decided to either leave, offer their wares on grids none of us use or just give up altogether.
I’ll check out the app of course but still…was just hoping the news would be a little different than mobility. 😛
p.s. Berry, I need your RL job and income!! Sheesh woman!
The camera settings are still… Errr…
It *looks* awesome, but I baulk at paying even more to access SL than I already do (what with a paid account and a full sim’s tier to find each month), even with the fact that OnLive is acting as a go-between and it’s their server use that I’d be paying for.
If I need to access SL when I’m not at my computer, then I’ll stick with the Lumiya app for Android. Sure, it’s not as perfect-looking as SL Go, but it’s a one-time payment of £1.80 (approx US$3) and it renders just about everything perfectly well, including mesh.
It’s great to see the Lab taking an initiative like this to move SL into tablet and phone use, but – while the likes of Lumiya are still out there – I think many people may pause at having to make repeated payments in order to access SL. It would be fine for an hour here and there, but for heavy users it could get pretty expensive.
Also, I am SO glad to see the Lab branching *SL* out into new markets, rather than trying out new programs and apps, as they did with Creatorverse, etc. SL is still its flagship product, and I have high hopes of Ebbe Altberg, just from his first couple of weeks in tenure, what with this announcement and the re-opening of the JIRA earlier this week.
Positive Skell is positive 🙂
what’s a smart phone? I still haven’t figured out how to send text messages! LOL
but i think we just discovered a new money stream for Linden. 3 bucks an hour if you want to log into SL lag free, otherwise, enjoy your lag! HA HA
I personally don’t see myself using this app. I find it a waste of money for having to play to pay when if you’re on a computer it is free. Even the phone apps out there for both the Android and iOS platforms work just fine for what is needed. Mobility is the key here I guess. I just find it another way of Linden Labs trying to make a quick buck. Also the OnLive company went bankrupt 18 months ago and re structured under a new LLC so I would be very leery about it.
That rises my questions, will be any lag cost for the regular sl user, i mean how will be the behavor on a sim, a live event for example, where they can be more then 50 avatars?
And can any pick up a aboat and sail on those, crossing sims, did any really tird to cross sims with it?
And of course, now Tos lawsuits will start to fload as LL made clear that there will be no change and ts is their justification, at 3 Usd hour!!!
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I’m definitely checking it out. It looked much better than the Lumiya viewer. Yes, the charge is something to consider, but if I needed to feed my KittyCats while on vacay, Go would allow me to do it. I wouldn’t want to chance it with Lumiya.
Three dollars an hour… that must be a joke, right? No, you say it’s for real?! Oh dear, looks like another LL money making scheme and with a recently restructured company to boot. Red flags people, RED FLAGS!
the technology is oh-so-relevant and shows off the power of what google has been doing on the back end these last few years.
but they’re going to kill themselves with this 2.50 an hour subscription model when mommy and daddy get the bill at the end of the month and then find out why this free gaming service just cost them 250 bucks.
it was a poorly thought out stratagem and one which will need quick revision if they want to survive.
peace
/me looks at Berry’s LL Balance…thinks Berry needs a Fake SL Wife to spoil.
You might want to check your graphical settings for Berry Desktop, for me the NYC region loaded relatively quickly, about 2.5 minutes though some textures took longer. This was on a GT220.
That subscription model for the OnLive client would be a killer for any serious SL user, though casual like Hamlet might go gaga for it.
I’m really happy to see you guys sharing your thoughts. I sent the link to the folks at OnLive and they are reading comments. I can definitely see the pricing deterring people from using the service, so hopefully they will take that into consideration.
Crono, I dunno what it is, I always take forever to load at NYC. That’s not the case on other sims for me though so not sure. I’ll check my settings once again.
Anyone know if it works on a Kindle?
I got as far as this screen and then stopped -.-
http://gyazo.com/8e43de0315f00678041861ec53bc2b4b
Still fond of my 3 dollar morning coffees heh.
But I appreciate your article Strawberry, thorough, informative, and thank you for linking back to great resources as well.
I’m not sure how they can claim this product is the first for Android – Lumiya has been around for quite a while at this point. All you need is a moderately powerful cell phone and you can do the majority of same things you can do on a desktop (including feeding a KittyCat ;). And the dev is constantly improving it. I happily plunked down $3 one time for that – Would never, ever pay $3 an hour for an app
I tend to agree that no matter how good it is it is too expensive, particularly given the time I spend on SL! I currently use Lumiya on both cell and tablet (both Android) and it is pretty useable so will have to continue with that for the time being, though my main platform is my laptop. The nice thing is that the technology clearly exists to improve the experience on cell and tablet, and no doubt it will become cheaper in time .
Thanks for investigating!
So much talk about an app that, other than a few merchants, I predict NOBODY is going to use in the long run. USD 3/hour. So if you “play” 3 hours / day x 7 days x 52 weeks = USD 3,276 / year!
Don’t give me the Starbucks analogy… do you know how many pairs of SHOES you could buy for all that!?
Thank you Strawberry for this informative article instead of me having to hunt for bulky info on my own, I was handed all the need-to-know’s on a silver platter. 😀
Ighhhh….sounds cool but I’d never do a pay as you go thing…Maybe a more expensive flat price for the app if I had the money, but not for me….
I have a super computer which tends to run SL fine, and a crappy mac laptop which I just suck it up with crappy SL experiences when I am on the go and it is ok for me.
I still think a new super laptop would cost less than…3$ an hour! I love the server loading idea but price is steep.
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Call me crazeee…but I am intrigued. The cost is prohibitive for more than occasional use, but the experience sounds like it’s also definitely something to explore. I think OnLive will see some business – and perhaps some new users will be attracted.
We already pay a pretty penny for our SLives, so Aeon and I will check this out but will likely stay with what we have going now – and spend our money on new computers (and all the other electronic wizardry) and faster Internet service. Oh…and SHOES! (Thank you for the reminder, Vanessa! Mireille Jenvieve-Woodford LOVES SHOES!)
Thank you, Strawberry. As always, you’re up-to-the-minute! I really appreciate that!
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If the OnLive team is reading this, they should reconsider pricing, or at least introduce a monthly flat-rate pricing package. As a longtime SL resident, I would probably use this on my tablet if I could subscribe to a plan. I don’t think your average “new” SL resident would pay $3/hr just to play a game that they’re not quite committed to yet. Obviously, this would have more appeal to commited SL residents (addicts, fans, etc, lol) or content creators who actually would spend a lil’ money to maintain their businesses, on the go.
An hourly plan makes the service seem cheap (even though it’s expensive), cos I usually associate “hourly” rates with psychics, phone-sex lines, etc..
Speaking of pricing, Draxtor left a comment on my FB Page earlier today, he said he spoke with Dennis Harper, who is the gentleman from OnLive that is also reading this post. He will have Dennis on the drax files podcast tomorrow. In the podcast Dennis states: “We need to study usage pattern and we may be able to in short order offer a subscription package! You can use Lumyia if you want to – it is very good for chatting – but you will NOT have an immersive experience like we provide it!”
Here’s the link to my FB post where Drax left the comment:
https://www.facebook.com/StrawberrySinghinSL/photos/a.340570736017605.77790.132561766818504/602902659784410
So that sounds like after studying the usage they might provide a subscription package. I hope that one might be a bit more reasonable for folks. I guess we’ll see how it all turns out but it is somewhat good news.
I hope they read this plurk from Second Life’s official plurk page where LOTS of people weighed in on it. http://www.plurk.com/p/jskuxk
No thank you! I will stick to http://www.lumiyaviewer.com/ One time pay only.
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This is NOT THE FIRST ANDROID APP for SL. Lumiya is FREE folks… and it’s a 3d experience just like desktop. I just started using it, but it’s been around awhile
Don’t spend you’re money on SLGo. That would just be silly.
Try Lumiya before you spend a penny. Judge for yourself.
This is actually a double-whammy compounded scam deal…
– If you use this tool, you also get LL’s predatory August 2013 Terms of Service 2.3 with Vendor Lock-in + Intellectual Property Piracy.
New World Note writes http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/11/uccsl-tos.html#more
– The JIRA agreement terms goes a step further with predatory Patent terms…
http://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Linden_Lab_Official:Contribution_Agreement
You pay a double-whammy to get your content + ideas ripped off in the final!
This offering also violates EU Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000
Information to be communicated before contract formation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Protection_(Distance_Selling)_Regulations_2000
Sellers: If you want to be compliant with eCommerce + Consumer Protection regulations in 28 countries use:
Online Shopping Assistant from eConsumer.gov
http://www.econsumer.gov/english/resources/shopping-assistant-text.shtm
Customers: Report your International Complaint in 28 countries here
http://www.econsumer.gov/english/report/overview.shtm
and International Blacklisting with
– Scam Alerts here
http://icpen.org/for-consumers/scam-alerts
It is a Buyer’s market, not a Seller’s market!
Interesting and probably a good platform for some users. I doubt that I’d ever use it unless I as engaged in some wild romance where I had to find ways to connect with my love at every possible moment. *giggles*
Great idea. but business model. Computer sales are on the decline every year. Everyone is buying consoles, tablets & smart phones instead. I know numerous 20’somethings that don’t even own a computer of any kind. Second Life should have hopped on the mobile device years ago and furthered it’s marketing reach. But $3 an hour for access? Won’t take off. Linden needs to wake up, expand or die.
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this fantastic blog!
I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed
to my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will
talk about this blog with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
I just had a very bad experience with SL GO, which I have blogged about here – https://whitburnblackburn.wordpress.com/2014/12/23/247-sl-go-epic-fail/
Sorry, I am not impressed, particularly with support!
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The Linden Lab boss Ebbe Altberg used to run a phonesex line before he came to Second Life named so maybe that is why they charge per minute like Ebbe used to do with his phonesex line
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