Nearly a year ago now, our favorite watermelon-loving Linden, Torley, announced to us the plans for a very shiny addition to the Second Life Client. This would be codenamed ‘WindLight’ and would contain new atmospheric rendering capabilities.


Linden Lab acquired Windward Mark Interactive LLC. The company already developing the WindLight product for use in three dimensional environments for example flight simulators and gaming.

WindLight entered into a long Second Life First Look & Release Candidate process and in April of this year reached the masses when it became the main viewer.

WindLight brings us amazing skies along with some other new additions; for instance Avatar Imposters and Glow. Glow is a whole new lighting effect for objects which will soon be scriptable. Avatar Imposters on the other hand help reduce lag by only drawing avatars beyond a set distance in 2D rather than 3D.

What is WindLight?

“With WindLight, Out-The-Window rendering means exactly that. Unparalleled visual fidelity and atmospheric representation are now within the realm of realtime simulation.” - Windward Mark

WindLight allows users to define the look of the sky and the water to suit their need at any given time - "The trick is to build a unified lighting model where whatever you put it on, whether it's a watermelon or an F-16, it looks good" Windward Mark president Asi Lang - Boston


WindLight has dramatically changed the way we all view Second Life, from photographers, machinima creators, stylists to every day explorers no more will our sky and water be flat and rather unappealing.

I have personally been using the WindLight First Look client for a long time, but as WindLight spreads its wings on our grid I contacted Andromega Volare a wonderful Second Life photographer, and Halden Beaumont a Machinima creator, who both embraced the new dimensions that WindLight has to offer, and asked them a few questions.


Beyond Magic from haldenbeaumont on Vimeo.

How has WindLight changed your experience of Second Life?

Andromega Volare : WL is a very important add-on for me, especially for landscapes the mood can be gorgeous and impressive. Not only the light settings I don´t want to miss in SL, the clouds and the water-reflections are a must-have too!
Halden Beaumont: WindLight has brought about an enhanced level of reality to the Second Life experience. Login using the WindLight viewer and the technology afforded makes the user feel closer to everything, as it approximates to the real world and it expands the options you have to create a precise atmosphere for a specific scenario. Since its WindLight’s first release, I only use that viewer. Once you experience it, you will not want to log in using a previous viewer.

How has WindLight changed your content creations within Second Life?

Andromega Volare : With WL you have endless possibilities of setting weather and lights, I spend hours with snap-shooting the same motive in different variations. Usually I do this in high resolution, so I have to clean my hard drive from time to time cause it is messed up with gorgeous WindLight shots.
Halden Beaumont: I often need to review details, especially those connected with lighting and the environmental settings of a location. I produce many videos, where the main goal is to convey the potential of Second Life. Many times, the audience consists of persons who are skeptical of the Second Life platform; they perceive it as a "game", unable to conceive it as a powerful tool for communication and dialog.
Once I began using WindLight, the videos I produce provide a much brighter and appellative representation of Second Life. Using WindLight as a tool in my Machinima productions, allows me to convey the feeling of Second Life, demonstrating that Second Life is more than a "place". It's difficult to make persons who have not actually gone "in world", understand what Second Life is, to have them feel the essence of it. "WindLight allows the viewer to feel the "wind" upon their skin, with their eyes". Once a friend told me about WindLight that is something that cannot be fully described, merely felt, I guess she is completely right about that.

How do you feel WindLight will change the average user's Second Life experience?

Andromega Volare : Most of the users will love WindLight, if they use the sliders of the environment editor. Some will hate WindLight, because they can´t use their face lights anymore or their skin is too bright and looses texture.
Halden Beaumont: The emotions felt by users in Second Life are quite real. WindLight expands these for the viewer. Second Life is evidence that "believing is seeing". If you have technology which can expand that evidence, the experience will be richer, affecting every sense. The experience becomes far more realistic and in many cases, much deeper.

Do you have any complaints about WindLight rendering as it is now a main viewer?

Andromega Volare : I don´t really have complaints, but there is something what perhaps could be added in later versions of WL. First thing: no more prim clouds, I really hate them; a key to hide them would be fantastic. I wish there would be a button to switch off all the face lights of the avatars on my screen. The amplitude of the waves could be greater, and thunderstorms with flashes of lightening would be cool.
Halden Beaumont: I had a huge one, but they finally corrected in this latest release :) It was a bug with joystick flycam, where the local lights start pulsing and the shooting scenes become most of the time obsolete. But they finally corrected.

WindLight is a spectacular addition to the whole Second Life experience so without much further ado, get in world and start tinkering with your sky settings, you will not be disappointed.

Sources:
Windward Mark
Boston
Andromega Volare
Halden Beaumont

Pictures Copyright Andromega Volare. Movie Copyright Halden Beaumont. Special thanks to both gentlemen for their time and allowed use of their creations.