Archive for November, 2007

Habbo Revamped

Published at November 30, 2007 in Habbo Hotel. 0 Comments

UPDATE: Ha, apparently Habbo USA just upgraded its looks as well. I might move back if they trigger the “FREE Furni per day on Xmas!” promotion…

I just noticed the Habbo USA uses the old homepage that no other Habbo Hotels use any longer. See for yourself (Habbo USA , Habbo UK , Habbo Finland [First hotel]). The new intro really gets you into the idea of joining, plus its fun to watch over and over and over…

About the revamping thing, the new hotel sites use a much cleaner page that (tested) takes less resources to display, render, and load on Firefox, Internet Explorer, and (possibly) Safari. Plus, they have all-new hairstyles (new ones, that is), glasses, hats, facial hair, belts, and a wider selection of shirt, pants, and shoe colors. If Habbo UK will work faster than Habbo USA (due to real geographical location), and Habbo USA won’t update, I may move! I will lose my current (3 lousy) coins, furniture, and friends :???: . On second thought, i’ll stay on Habbo USA for now and Habbo UK…

Here’s a little comparison between my Habbos on the two hotels (left is US, right is UK):

VS.

So, do I look cooler in Habbo UK or what??? Oh, and did I mention their price of Habbo Club is 20 coins a month instead of the regular 30 on other hotels??? Wacky! Plus, their Habbo Club program has the 4 other dance moves that others don’t…

Oh, and here’s the new intro if you wanna see. Stay a little longer before hitting “START VIDEO” to see some sample Habbos (that are REAL! It picks them randomly):

Continue reading ‘Habbo Revamped’

Introducing TSL Network

Published at November 28, 2007 in DuoGrid Web Services. 0 Comments

After seeing 2LifePeople is built on Ning, I started reading what “Ning” is. I managed to get a social network created in five minutes, and kept it closed, up ’till now :) . The site is now ready, and open for teen grid registrations! I created it in order to have a (temporary) replacement for TSL Profiles, Katharine Berry’s old service for the teen grid, matching up to SL Profiles, only on the teen grid.

Main griders, you are welcome to check it out, and teen griders wanting to sign up, here’s the link. One or two adult main grid residents will be accepted though, for staff purposes. Don’t start applying!

Ahem, is anybody even visiting the DuoGrid website?

Published at November 27, 2007 in DuoGrid. 0 Comments

No, really, do you even CARE about this little project i’ve begun? If you do, or don’t, whatever, here are a few updates you should note:

  1. I got two “Shared Assets”: a Holo-emitter system, and Storm Thunder’s Neko skin. See the full category here.
  2. First “featured” creator — Vint Falken! Be sure to see it here.
  3. You can get FREE real life cash for optimizing your product (including web apps) for teen grid use! See this on Home.
  4. We’re now in DuoGrid.com . Not tslwiki.vintfalken.com/duogrid/??? :???: . But, if you still wanna use tslwiki.vintfalken.com , be aware everything after it that is not a file or directory, will link to an appropriate wiki article.

Second Lounge and Noob Camp — I need your help!

Published at November 27, 2007 in DuoGrid Web Services. 0 Comments

I’m trying to find adequate (fitting, matching, etc.) web apps to run Noob Camp and Second Lounge on. (like the forums system, PhpBB, or the blogging system, WordPress? Those are web apps) I need AJAX-powered web apps for at least Noob Camp, and if possible Second Lounge as well…

I tried some nice little tutorials, including Adobe’s “framework” that, as expected, isn’t easy at all.

If you find a nice little web app for it, be sure to email me at Smiley [at] DuoGrid [dot] com.

Linden’s Second Life VS. Sony’s Home — Is “Home” winning?

Published at November 27, 2007 in Second Life. 0 Comments

I just went to check my blog subscriptions, and lookie here. Sony’s (ALPHA) “Home” virtual world application for the PlayStation 3 is getting tons of new stuff, one of them, and listen carefully, in-world building. The world was up ’til now just a buy-and-place world. Did Second Life just lose the only feature it has that no other world has, or can have? Did the “Prims system” get a kick in the crotch just now? Will I be able to get a friggin’ invite any time soon to report? We’ll have to wait for the official release in 2008 to find out, or until I get an invite and a proper connection. Stay tuned.

You can view the full post at PlayStation Universe right here.

Rules for ConQuest chapters declared here

Published at November 26, 2007 in ConQuest. 0 Comments

The story “ConQuest” will have different rules than my blog, some may be restricting, but will be done to protect my work.

Continue reading ‘Rules for ConQuest chapters declared here’

Comparison of “OpenSims”

Published at November 26, 2007 in Habbo Hotel, Second Life and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

I have been around the net, looking for “open simulators”, other than the one for Second Life. I found one for World of Warcraft, and one even for Habbo Hotel. Both run very smoothly, especially the World of Warcraft one even with up to 10 people, while playing. Both do basically nothing, but save variables. The World of Warcraft “Ascent” server only saves locations, calculates damage, and sends other objects’ (monsters, players, NPCs [non-playable characters]… etc.) locations and stats. People’s clients do all the physical thinking. Second Life should get that :P .

The Habbo Hotel “Debbo” server, works pretty nicely, and is VERY stable. I’m building a sky city in there, and a single-player mode called “Habbo Hotel: Living in the Metaverse” (Sorry, Dan! :???: ), though the quests part is kinda tricky.

In the end, I see OpenSim still hasn’t reached a nice landmark where it can be used with up to 3,000 people per-realm like the World of Warcraft Ascent server can :???: . Linden should REALLY release the code, or at least optimize it further. Now with Havok 4, they can make regions much bigger, even increase their size by their current size! (current * current = current2). I still haven’t got to that part where i’ll take photos from WoW for my blog logo and Flickr, but I will, soon…

Oh, and did I mention i’m setting up a World of Warcraft server for Israeli players? You’d have to apply for membership though. Sorry! (Plus, no addicted 24-hours-gaming-per-day gamers!).

Tweaking Second Life WindLight

Published at November 26, 2007 in Second Life. 0 Comments

After tweaking around with some Nvidia settings, I managed to get to a nice 30FPS when seeing an avatar in-building, and 45FPS when outside, which was GREAT for a minimum requirements PC! (NOTE: This does NOT include WindLight, reflection water, or ripple water enabled.) But, the objects seem to flicker… Well, must be because I moved the “Quality versus Performance” meter to “Performance”, rather than the normal “High Quality”. After moving it to the “Quality” spot, I got the same results, no flicker, but my network and viewer are unstable again. I’ll check again tomorrow.

Adding ripple water to the batch, lowers the FPS by about 5-7 frames to 23-25, but when enabling WindLight, I poof right down to 3-5. Argh!

I’ll tweak with it tomorrow as well, I wanna see how far I can get with it… :)

ConQuest website ALPHA published, first chapter date announced

Published at November 25, 2007 in ConQuest. 0 Comments

I have finished the first(!) version of the ConQuest site, but it’s an early work in progress. Very minimal, until I get a decent medieval theme. I used the stock “Vader” style in K2 for it, with some modifications (changed the mini-title text to the same color as the temporary logo, added some widgets, installed a few plugins, etc.).

The first chapter will be released (may be released later if real life clashes with the date) on December 16th, 2007 (16/12/07). I haven’t started it yet, but with the speed I wrote my parts in the story in group discussions, I think i’ll have no problems… ;)

Smiley’s Picked News: Week 3

Published at November 22, 2007 in Picked External News. 0 Comments
  1. The end. — Kathy’s now leaving forever (or until the grids are merged or she turns 18, whichever comes first) and she’s closing AjaxLife! WE’VE GOT TO STOP HER!!! And, there goes my last stable “portal” to Teen Second Life :( .
  2. Xbox 360 returned, critical components not included – Ouch. The one time they don’t check the returned Xbox, it’s gutted. Bad luck?
  3. Charlie, she’s trying to tell you the iPhone’s upside down – This is the second time this is happening! Don’t celebrities know how to hold a phone god damn it?!?!
  4. We’re SPINNING the WHEEL of FORTUNE… — Come on, come on, daddy needs a new pair of teleporters!!! AWW! The Habbo Team spinned a (new) virtual wheel of fortune (which should open about a zillion new competitions and upgrade some, like the notorious Fridge Game), and we had to choose one of five objects. The ones who chose the (useless) camera won one for FREE. The camera allows people to take snapshots in vintage colors (for some reason) and upload it to a little PostIt-note-like photo on any wall around their little room(s). WHY DIDN’T TELEPORTERS WON???
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