Everyone's been talking about the voice features coming to Second Life over the next few months, but Linden Labs have recently announced two further features which could make significant changes to how SL looks.
The first is "sculpties" - prim objects whose shape is defined by an "image" file built by an external application like blender. For the first time this opens up the opportunity to create things that will work in virtual worlds other than just SL, but it also means that SL objects can soon have curves and bumps and irregularities which are just too prim-hungry at the moment. At a stroke Sculpties could make redundant a lot of existing SL objects, especially those which are meant to be "natural".
The second is WindLight. This is a new atmosphere engine designed to deliver far more realistic (and customisable) skies. SL sunsets can be very pretty, but they are stunning. The screengrabs of WindLight skies are superb. Promised add-ons include a cloud-sculpting tool, cloud shadows, longer days (goodbye 4hrs) and shooting stars!
And all this while Linden Labs say that 70%-80% of all there effort is focussed on stability and performance of existing features.
Next on our wish list? Seasons in SL so we can make it snow and see trees lose their leaves!
