Is Aviation DEAD in Second Life?

I have been asked this question many times in the past. The first question that comes to mind here is 'Why would anyone think it's dead?' There could be several reasons for this, but let me begin with the reassurance that NO, I don't think aviation is dead in SL. Granted, aviation has CHANGED a lot in recent months, and it might seem dead to those who have been in-world long enough to remember how it used to be... I'll call it the Golden Age of (SL) Aviation. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Well, it was.

The Golden Age of Aviation

Those of us who have been a part of Second Life aviation for a while most likely have fond memories of Abbott's Aerodrome. As a RL pilot,this was one of my first destinations in SL once I figured out how to walk/fly/teleport. It was an exciting place, with all sorts of expensive (to a n00b) planes and helicopters to dream of someday owning. There was a runway with automated air traffic coming and going, which added to the overall appearance of a busy real world airport. Free demos lined the runway and filled the main hangar as a temptation to those who would slip the surly bonds of Earth, and dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings.



The first planes were simple by today's SL standards, and to cheat the LL vehicle limit of 32 prims, many of the more detailed planes were 'attachers', meaning that the extra prims needed for a better appearance were worn by the avatar as an attachment. Some of these planes are still available today if you search Marketplace for Cubey Terra or Mifune Thibaud. Mifune pioneered the limited use of sculpts in his builds to save prims, and today the use of sculpts is in far greater use by most builders. As a result, we have seen a vast improvement in appearance over the years.



More recently, however, came the push from some to go to what is known as 'mesh'. Touted as being 'better' than either sculpted or prim builds, problems began to arise once mesh-capable viewers became introduced. First of all was the problematic Viewer 2, which was actually released by mistake. The person who designed this viewer completely redesigned the interface in the process, and despite firing this designer shortly after the public release of V2, Linden Labs chose to move forward with it anyway. The biggest complaint from the general SL population was that V2 was completely different from what everyone was already accustomed to, and would require seasoned users to relearn SL all over again. The second problem was that the viewer was actually slower, and textures seemed to take a bit longer to load.

Linden Labs went ahead and made V2 its default viewer, and anyone who came in as a new user after its release automatically signed on and learned with V2 from the beginning, so they really didn't know any different. This was all a part of LL's plan, I'm sure. They were more concerned with accommodating the new users than they were with the concerns expressed by people who had already been using the 'normal' viewers for years. This created a divide.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am Old School when it comes to viewers. While I'll freely admit that I have tried V2 and similar compatible viewers, I always went back to the older type (I currently use Phoenix, but we'll see just how long that will work before the changes render it obsolete), partly because I did not want to relearn how to use the SL interface all over again, and partly because I found the new viewers slow and laggy, particularly when trying to fly a virtual aircraft from one sim to the next.

The proponents of Mesh will holler that 'I need a new computer'. Hah, you have no idea... I have upgraded to one of the most up-to-date PCs available, with an excellent graphics card set up specifically for gaming. It's not my computer, trust me. It's SL. Every time they make a change it is painfully obvious, as things get even slower and even laggier. People complain about it being SL. Well, it IS SL, but it's not that they have screwed something up, per se; they are busy trying to make Mesh work with their limited resources, on antiquated servers, and with a platform that was never designed for aviation to begin with.

I suppose it's evolution. Once things are normalized and everyone has the same viewers, it won't seem as bad (or at least we will all be suffering equally). Personally, I prefer my older viewer. Oh, I didn't mention this part: I hate Mesh. There, I said it. Some of the shills who are reading are SHOCKED that I would DARE to say anything against Mesh. I would venture to say that most of the people in that mesh boat are ones who have no idea what mesh really looks like, at least to the rest of us, and they probably actually wear mesh clothing, as well.

Mesh: The OTHER White Meat

What do I have against mesh, you ask? Well, the way it looks, to begin with. Anyone who still uses the old browser can only see Mesh as a conglomeration of colored blobs and or boxes. Apparently Mesh is nothing more than a trick, a series of textures applied to the sides of an eight-sided prim (or a box with a notch out of it), manipulated by the newer type viewer to appear as something that it really isn't. The proponents of Mesh claim that it's 'better'... LOL, I fail to see why it is any better than the old style builds. Yes, I have seen it using a newer viewer, and the rendering doesn't look any better than the textures looked on the non-Mesh aircraft. Why is it 'better'? What is the actual advantage of Mesh? Oh, but it's easier to make... Ah HAH! NOW we're onto something.



(Yes, that is an airplane in the above picture. I believe it's an F-4 Phantom. THAT is how Mesh REALLY looks!)

"It's easier to make"

So, now we have come down to the REAL reason the proponents (i.e. BUILDERS) and their shills are pushing so hard for Mesh: IT'S EASIER TO MAKE. What ever happened to honest builds, where the builder tweaked and tortured prims in-world to actually BUILD something? All Mesh is is a bunch of textures applied to a few prims, and they call it a build. The way I see it is that the buyer is getting cheated because they THINK they are getting an object that has been lovingly created, when in fact, it has been shown that at least one popular builder was discovered to have been uploading pre-made textures from a known online source, calling it a new build, and charging just as much for it as he would a build that he actually did make. In my book, that's kinda shady.

Another issue with Mesh is that it is inherently laggy. Mesh is known for having border-crossing issues. Most of us have seen Mesh planes stuck and abandoned on sim borders everywhere, and I have personally watched them come to a full stop on crossing and then finally reluctantly cross to the next sim. Some of the more honest mesh owners will even admit to these things, but many succumb to peer pressure and do not want the stigma of having badmouthed Mesh to be associated with them (lest they be banned from certain stores and airports).

There are other issues with Mesh that have nothing to do with aviation, and I will address those at another time. Meanwhile, until LL requires all of us to switch to a Mesh-enabled viewer, I'll be flying something a bit better, using a faster and better viewer.



Please feel free to leave a comment. If I like what you say, I might even paste it here, for all to see. I'm not opposed to differing opinions. After all, I could be wrong (but I don't think so!). Until next time,

~Jamie~