Project Skylight, the Web-based viewer for Second Life seems to be in operation now. You can find it here, though there’s a few caveats.
Firstly, remember, that this is targeted at people who’ve never used Second Life before, and that Linden Lab is using it to evaluate marketing effectiveness. Therefore, any existing users messing around with it will skew the figures some.
Second, it assigns a guest account to you – you can’t use your existing Second Life account with the Web viewer.
Thirdly, it uses the Gaikai cloud-rendering service, so watch out and proceed with caution! Remotely rendered systems can use a ferocious amount of bandwidth, and much of the world does not have unlimited Internet usage (or even fat usage caps). If you’re on any kind of capped Internet plan (that would be 80% of the world) you might want to pass this one by.
(Update: Usage of the Skylight viewer is limited to one hour, by IP address, during which time it uses an estimated 1080MB of bandwidth if the back of my envelope is correct)
Load up the page, wait 45 seconds (which is the length of the promotional video) and then system will perform a selection test. Winners get the Web viewer by submitting their email address, while losers will get a link to the usual signup page. You could probably tip the odds in your favour by hacking the javascript a little with your favourite page-bending tool.
Three things come to mind from looking a the promotional parts. One, is that “Giddyup” isn’t traditionally spelled that way. It normally has an “A” in it. A small thing, but kind of jarring. The second is that looking at Second Life avatars performing typing animations (in the promotional videos) without context is … well, actually it looks a bit weird and creepy. To the new user there’s no indication as to why they’re making the strange flailing motion in the air – since there’s no text to see and no typing sounds.
The third, well, the promotional video presents a very polished-looking experience – and I can’t really blame the Lab for wanting to do that – but the dichotomy between that presentation and the actual experience could well lead to an increase in first-hour abandonment.
As for the escapism theme that runs through it all, well, I’m going to leave that alone.
Thanks to sharp-eyed reader, Dimitrio Lewis, for spotting this.
Just spent an hour flitting around in Skylight. All it took me was to refresh the page a couple of times. This shows promise.
It may be just me, but the viewer had a hard time dealing with streaming music. The stream was very chopped up unless I was turning in place. Things rezzed impressively quickly, though. There’s stuff here that should be in the main viewer.
Most of the listed destinations didn’t have many people (of course) and my first rez was in the middle of a shopping mall (Surprise. Reminded me of my original rez day).
In other news, there are two videos; the one I first saw was very music-centric, showing people dancing and playing concerts, with a pretty catchy soundtrack.
Overall, I’d say this left me with a very positive impression, from the standpoint of a 4-year resident. If this were to be developed as an alternative viewer, I think they may be onto something.
It has possibilities as a marketing tool if they can come up with a livelier set of suggested destinations.
I recently got a Chromebook. Even more recently the desktop PC I was using died. So I began searching for a way to use SL. I saw Project Skylight on YouTube, So I created this account for the sole purpose of being used with skylight. The only problem is that I have been unable to find a URL for it anywhere, So I’m asking the good people of this website two questions. Has Project Skylight been released? And if so what is the URL?
I regret to inform you that Skylight was discontinued quite some time ago now. It seems that people just didn’t much care for using Second Life in a Web-browser, and the costs of running it as a one hour demo would have nixed it unless it was very successful. Remember, it used Gaikai, which means that it was only available in a portion of the USA (and environs) and only for an hour, and that itself involved some heavy bandwidth usage.
Bummer for me. Thanks for the info. Since its been discontinued I will stop trying to find a URL.
[...] Found here, you can sign-up and check it out for up to an hour. As always, Tateru Nino has scoped it out in detail, noting that not surprisingly it’s a bandwidth hungry beast and that once you watch the [...]
The gobs of bandwidth required is actually a huge problem and is where cloud based solutions fall flat on their ass. Bandwidth is currency, that’s why your ISP account comes with either a set amount or a acceptable usage policy. Say your ISP has a 20GB per month limit (about average use), one hour in SL just gobbled 5%.
This service is limited to an hour per IP, that isn’t for your benefit either, that’s to help offset the costs incurred by LL, Yes. you log in, you cost LL money, clearly this isn’t going to be sustainable or something that gets left on.
If anything this looks more political than practical.
New residents, I’m not so sure, the first hour in SL can be a tough one. Only now your first hour is crippled and you get to be part of a new special kind of underclass, the ultimate freeloader. The quality of that first hour is questionable at best, especially when the destination locations are pretty much junk.
The lab have never spent real money chasing johnny Newbie before and I don’t see them starting anytime soon. This isn’t consumer marketing, a few lousy banner ads in place of IMVU and frendzoo and the rest would have been marketing.
This smells like investor bait, a quick and dirty step forward intended to show up a competitor that presents well yet doesn’t stand a chance without this technology. Bluemars, an empty world full of empty promises and empty content that’s dependent on this very solution. Second Life, rich and vibrant and here and populated and running right now, and yeah we can actually deliver that cloud thing if that’s what it takes to get your support. Nothing quite like stealing the competitions thunder.
Kim has been busy, the Lab have just scored a home run and the crowd goes wild.
PWNT
Last I looked, the median monthly data cap in first-world countries was 5GB/month, according to the broadband report. That takes into account the few countries with ‘unlimited’ options as well.
@Trinity
Gaikai is an advertising service more than anything else. So it’s not really comparable to what Blue Mars is doing. If you read Gaikai’s FAQ, Linden Lab is paying them by the minute of each person’s use. ’til we hear or see otherwise, more than likely Linden Lab is using Gaikai as Gaikai intends for it to be used, a lead generation service where trial experiences convert to something else. In Linden Lab’s case, probably a guest account upgraded to a full account which requires a client download.
Ideally, this is just a start and a short-term experiment/marketing avenue and not THE browser-based solution for the years to come.
@Ezra My point is there isn’t going to be a browser based solution, this is it, this is a quick one time magical pony. It’s over kill for new users and way way beyond what can be classed as speculative try before you buy for a free product. This is intended to get attention, investor attention.
I agree with Trinity that this is probably it as far as browser-based solutions go. I’m not sure about the investor part at this stage. I’ll need to think about that some more.
Charged by the minute, you could only justify it if the conversion rate is good, or if the user is generating enough revenue for the Lab to cover the cost of the rendering service.
So, you could probably have ‘X minutes per month’ of browser-based service as a premium account incentive, maybe.
@Tateru The guest accounts are leeches, no inventory, no need buy things, no need to buy L$, can’t buy L$ as no persistent balance, can’t contribute, basically a disposable freeloader account. There is zero revenue into LL/SL in any form.
This literally is show and tell, so what does it do that the already free client doesn’t?
If this was about new users, LL could have just made a stripped down walk and talk quick start basic client and spend the money selling that to new users.
There has to be ROI, solid tangible ROI. Random Joe newbie X signing up for a full account just isn’t it.
Here in Alaska, paying through the nose for the Super-Duper-Ultimate-XXtreme package we get a 75GB per month cap. Which is handy as we are both on and using SL and Blue Mars
Wondering what problem the cloud-based systems are solving if it sucks that much bandwidth for the user?
@Fogwoman Cloud systems solve 2 basic problems. Poor hardware clientside. Keeping the IP serverside.
It’s like pay per view vs blueray disks.
Let’s not forget this is just a trial – to test out some ideas and see what people think of them. Clearly the final browser version, if they choose to progress it, will be hosted differently and will not be limited to an hour. If Avatar Reality is doing it I’m pretty sure it will be possible for LL to put something out there.
I truly don’t see how this is going to help Second Life’s conversion rate. I mean…wasn’t the amount of people TRYING Second Life already significantly high enough? The problem was retention I thought. This would only make sense if a retained person could continue to use Second Life in the browser.
If this is really going to work the way it seems to be thus far (60 minute time limit guest account, after that, get a full account and download the client), it comes off a bit bait and switch to the exact same trouble area Second Life has always been in.
[...] Give the Kids Commerce: Second Life and the Teen Grid Dwell On ItMicrosoft Kinect in the wildProject Skylight, the Web-based viewer for Second Life now on the WebThe clock is ticking Living on a PrimIn Memory of David on Veteran’s Day 2010Eulogy On A Prim – [...]
There’s at least 3 videos, I saw one with no typing animations and no live music stuff but which showed off a whole bunch of destination guide locations, steampunk, sci-fi etc, made SL look like an exciting game.
admittedly bandwidth usage at the moment would be a problem but thinking longer term it will become less of an issue. Remember we were all on dial up only a few years ago, bandwidth is growing & will continue to grow.
IMO the future of computing will be mobile, not desk bound. Lowish powered devices with streamed services which this would fit (eventually).
Question I have is does a service like this get around the problem of scalability that SL currently suffers from, only several 10′s of avatars & huge lag in a region. Could a service like this allow for tens of hundreds of avatars at an event with good frame rates for all?
Is this the “live experience” Philip alludes to in his TIME 100 Roundtables ( http://ow.ly/3ar8i ) answer to “What people will pay for”?
This is sounding more and more like an experiment, testing marketing methods amongst other stuff. Which might be a good sign. If they can link a trial with an actual download-and-account, they might be able to learn a bit about how to sell SL. But I’m not sure it does anything for long-term retention. A lot of the WTF new things in SL might not have been needed with better handling of signup, for instance.
I’m hoping the limits of this beta are just the beta. But if i look at the past LL dont usually change anything from Beta to finished product, once they have their mind set on something and the framework in place. I love being proved wrong by the Lab, PLEASE.
So after reading the comments here, this browser viewer seems nothing more than a glorified advert for Newbs to open up from an advert in a youtube side bar and sample a tiny piece of SL. Ok that might work, thats kinda kool.
But i still want to login to SL on my iPad to quickly visit my friends, see whats going on. To send my mates links for them to quickly loginworld to visit a live music event, or watch a race or show.
I still dont see that happening any time soon.
There are tons of cool contents inside Second Life the outside world never had the chance to see. A web viewer may expose this contents to a wider audience, in a simpler way.
A part of the Second Life new users left after a quick preview, during which they couldn’t find anything interesting. A web viewer may make the discovery process easier.
Just two of the reasons why I think a Second Life web viewer may be a great thing.
Other, even more interesting, related thoughts by Grace McDunnough:
http://phasinggrace.blogspot.com/2010/10/second-life-skylight-browser-based.html
http://phasinggrace.blogspot.com/2010/06/observations-from-linden-lab-layoffs.html (ignore stuff about M Linden, scroll to the ‘VURL’ part)
[as a side note, there are some really venomous spiders here. Make me uncomfortable. Almost made me run away]
@opensource
I’m trying to get better, the counsellor has told me when ever Linden Lab announce something i should think of something pleasant from my early days in SL and try and associate that with the Lab in order to feel calm.
Im also constantly told to ignore whats going to happen in the future and concentrate on what i already have in SL. So no browser viewer, no shadow and lighting, no mesh, no group chat.
Let me start again…… no, actually,….. i got work to do
I love this idea myself… see a lot of potential here..
For those of you saying your limited on bandwidth.. a little tip.. contact your isp and tell them you want business services… its a little more a month.. but they don’t usually put caps on them.
@Trinty @Tateru sorry to disagree but I don’t think this is it for browser based solution.
LL don’t have the engineering resources to waste on a marketing stunt like this.
The browser viewer has to be part of a larger plan/agenda
IMO the biggest asset LL has is the engagement time of its consumers
(Gary’s Social Media Count click on the Games tab & select a duration in the widget http://ow.ly/3axht )
I believe with a browser based viewer & massive eyes on power of Second Life, LL are looking to tap into the greatest source of web revenue, advertising.
If as I asked above the browser based viewer allows for the massive “live experience” alluded to by Phillip, the potential revenues could be enormous.
@lufpleh You’ve got a good point there, though I think most of the effort for this dates back some time Still, the Lab says that even this is only an experiment and may be abandoned.
@Loki
It’d be reasonable to believe the limits of this beta were just limits specific to the beta if they didn’t at all map perfectly to how Gaikai advertises their services.
There’s two ways for example to try and make sense of the 60 minute time limit and guest account requirements:
1. They’re convenient for the beta as it limits the amount of time one person can try it in order to give another person a fair amount of time as well, without loading up the usual 50,000 item inventories or worrying about asset transfers at this point in the beta.
or
2. Gaikai spells it out quite clearly that their service is for trials and demos, not THE play experience. For a game that’d sell on Steam, the ROI is evident, so long as the average amount of minutes purchased from Gaikai before a single box sale doesn’t cut too deeply into the profit margin of that sale, the ROI is there. Linden Lab need only do a little more math and probably already have a formula as to what 1 new resident means on average for Linden purchases.
Skylight is cool and all albeit I don’t see the problem that it solves unless sign ups have slowed this year and this could reverse that trend. But this doesn’t tackle the problem of retention by giving preexisting residents the option of doing things like experiencing Second Life on their iPad. This is a pretty big far cry from what Blue Mars is doing and OnLive has done, i.e. cloud rendering as THE medium, not just a marketing tool for trial accounts.
@Tateru
I imagine even if it makes it out of beta it’ll be subject to being abandoned eventually. Long duration marketing spends are rare, ‘specially one with as apparent a financial bleed as purchasing ad impressions.
I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but “giddyup” is a standard spelling in the United States. The American Heritage Dictionary claims “giddyup” is more common than “giddyap,” Merriam-Webster’s has them appearing equally often, and Webster’s New World tips the frequency balance to “giddyap,” but all consider both spellings to be common and valid. (Also accepted, if even less common, is the older form, “giddap.”)
(From a purely personal standpoint, “giddyap” looks weird. I’d go with “giddyup” myself.)
Hm. Apparently the web-based viewer needs older Java; it tells me so two or three times, then exits with an error. Java 6 build 22 is too new for it to cope with, I guess.
Paste the following in the address bar if you fail:
javascript:$(‘#guide .failure’).hide();$(‘#guide .success’).show();alert(“done”)