Tomorrow, Sunday 6th November, the legendary Mankind Tracer – in real life one very talented Seth Regan will be hosting his annual “Peace Love and Belief” (PLB) concert across Second Life.
Marking its fifth year, PLB will be broadcast across a total of 60 sims (eight more than last year), with Seth performing for two hours between 12:00 and 14:00 SLT.
This year, 50% of all proceeds will be given to research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects some 350,000 people worldwide, and leads to some 50% of victims dying within three years of diagnosis.
The show will comprise live video and audio streams to the 60 sims involved in the event, and Seth himself will be appearing in-world at one of the locations to take requests.
Regions participating in the event comprise:
Solace Beach, Black Sand Beach, The Majestic, JSP Lounge, Chompers, The Mad Hatter, Club Graffiti Mary Jane Shoes, The Bay, Best of SL (BOSL), Monaco Yachts, Brews & Blues, The Hourglass, Gizza Creations, Miss Darcy!, Champion Horses, Cranberry Cove, MJ’s Blues and Dance, Big Bad Wolf Road House, NY HealthScape Expo Center, Hobo Juke Joint, Mojo Haven Blues and Rock Club, The Rose Theatre, Club NaggnRoth, Bakari’s Island Paradise, Two Moon Paradise, Club Blue Twilight, Neon Moon Lounge, Palazzo Celestiale, Club Myst, Cerridwen’s Cauldron, Nouvel Eden, White Tigers Island, Cafe Andromeda, Villa Lobos, The Crazy Parrot, Crossroads Bar, Yehonatan, Palm Springs, Phoenatopia, Club Kasra, Key west, Fire n Ice, Paris Metro, Plaza Luna, Frank’s Elite Jazz, The Labyrinth Theater, Warung Beats, The SL Enquirer, Sanctuary Beach, Mahalo Kai, PRAKA, Kickin Club, Dream Isle of Love, Giant Snail Races, Blue Bloods Mall, Twisted Thorne Textures, Global Online Hockey Association, The New Colour Factory, Absolut Model District.
Sadly, I can’t include LMs for each venue – I’d be hopping all over the Grid with no time for anything else :). However, each venue will have a Landmark board with a clickable list of venues, which will ease getting to one if you find the first you choose is too crowded. You may, however, wish to start your journey from the board at Good Day Sunshine, or see the Destination Guide.
I don’t really do product reviews in this blog, mainly because others do them so much better than I. But that said, there is a product range I’ve recently become aware of that is worth a mention, as it is pretty neat – especially for those living on a prim budget. It’s the PrimPossible range by Ample Clarity, and it means you can pretty much furnish the major rooms of your house without taking up more than 10 prims.
Yes, that’s right, 10 prims.
Ample uses sculpties to create his furniture – and uses them to great effect. Take his lounge suites. The “full” packs include a 2-seat sofa, an armchair, rug, and generally a coffee table & side table, furniture shadows, together with various extras depending on the set (such as a set of books or a plant on the coffee table, a lamp on the side table, etc.) – and all in a single prim! They even come in a number of styles, either with or without exterior frames.
Lounge suite
Fully menu-driven, the suites include a comprehensive range of male, female and unisex sitting and other animations (massages, dances). All of the animations are fully adjustable, and as Ample uses AVSitter, there are no poseballs and the scripting takes care of where to sit additional people – little risk of you finding a friend ending up on your lap by mistake! The range of sitting options is impressive, and all of the animations are of an excellent standard, and fully adjustable.
A further button on the menu – EXTRAS – provides access to colour-changing options, an allows you to remove unwanted elements – don’t like the potted plant? remove it! want to use your own rug? remove the supplied one! The DEFAULT button will return removed items – although it’s a shame they cannot be toggled on/off individually.
One prim, but still a choice of colours and rug styles
There are also other packs comprising an armchair and sofa (1 prim each) for those that would like the option of adjusting the relative position of their furnishings.
The beds are similar to the suites, but with far more colour combinations. Available in two styles – one somewhat Japanese Gaijan style, the other what I’ll describe as “European modern” – and both nicely styled. They again include a comprehensive range of animations, options to remove unwanted elements (bedside lamps, etc.), and colour changing – and once again, they are a single prim. Like the lounge suites, removed items can be replaced once more by selecting the DEFAULT option from the menu.
Modern bed style
Obviously, it all being one-prim, the lounge suites and beds don’t include scripts for the table lamps (not unless you want a glow-in-the dark sofa or bed!), but it’s a simple matter to add scripted illumination if you wish via phantom invisiprims, suitably scripted and placed over the lamps themselves.
The prim perfect range also includes:
A selection of dining table options with 4 chairs & seating animations
Hot tubs (currently only available via the SL Marketplace due to the adult rating of some of the animations)
A range of three pianos
And – coming soon – one prim kitchen ranges.
Pianos
I came across PrimPossible as a direct result of the pianos. As friends know, I’ve had an ongoing love affair with my Musical Alchemy concert grand by Persephone Milk; I regard it as the finest prim piano in SL and the options it includes are stunning. However, even in its basic display mode, it does eat-up 85 prims; that’s a lot when you’re on a budget. At one prim, the PrimPossible pianos offer those with limited prim space a worthwhile alternative.
At the time of writing, Ample has three models in the range, priced between L$450 and L$1200. All have the same selection of 15 pieces of music, the same seating animation and the same clarity of playback with a good volume range. However, there are other differences.
PrimPossible concert grand installed at home
I initially tried the L$450 model; it is nice enough in terms of styling and is apparently very popular. I’m sadly a detail nut, and I was personally disappointed with the out-of-scale texture used for the piano’s interior workings. Those who are as obsessive as me in this regard may find the L$950 model a better option. This not only fixes the internal texture issue, it also adds colour-changing and the ability to have the lid open or closed.
However, for me the Rolls-Royce of the range is the L$1200 model. It is simply stunning. The look is very refined and the traditional black lacquer finish (there are other colour versions available, but I’m a traditionalist) is excellent. This model lacks the lid open / closed options, but includes a very nicely-done shadow effect. It is also slightly larger than the L$460/L$950 models, so I think of it as a concert grand. All told, it’s a beautiful item, and I’m now proud to have one at home.
Opinion
PrimPossible is an impressive range. At L$950 for a suite / bed, they are around the mid-price level, and given the range of animations include and the fact that they are only one prim, represent a fair price. The sofa with armchair options come in at L$800 (at the time of writing) and offer flexibility of placement for those who need it, for only 2 prims. All items are NO MOD, NO TRANSFER / NO COPY (which seems to be the way with a lot of furniture nowadays), although copyable versions are available at a higher price depending on the item in question.
Do remember in the case of the lounge suites, that they are only one prim, and so individual items in the suite – tables, chairs – cannot be freely repositioned independently of one another.
If I’m totally honest, the overall texture finish on the sofa and armchair in the suites is a little bland: the cushions appear to be almost plain in terms of texture, which leaves them looking a tad odd with some colour options, but when presents an acceptable “smooth leather” look with colours such as the deep red and blue. That said, I would also pass comment that I’ve come across multi-prim furniture at far higher prices in SL that have the same weakness. I’m actually still seriously considering a lounge suite to replace my current set of furniture. I don’t need to save prims in this instance – I just like the items!
Overall, the range cannot be faulted, especially if you are on a prim budget. And even if you’re not, the furniture will still more than grace a home. For those that like to put their prim allowance (or should I say Land Impact!) to work in other ways but still enjoy having a comfortable SL home, then PrimPossible offers an excellent option for doing so.
Sales Aftercare
Ample provides outstanding after-sales care. A rare server-side bug meant I encountered issues with my lounge. While the issue was not Ample’s fault, he immediately offered one of four alterntives to correct the problem. When that failed, he immediately offered a second option which resolved the issue. No fuss, no bother no question.
Game play in SL is becoming “official” as LL slip out a new project. Called “Project LR”, it is currently in beta and available only to those of you with Premium accounts – so pooh to me where trying it is concerned!
Project LR is, to quote Rand Linden, “A fun, creative, and engaging virtual experience produced and provided by Linden Lab. Project LR takes you through basic exploration and game play, where you can earn Linden dollars by gathering gems and completing quests.”
The project apparently comprises 12 regions currently (Prokofy has one or two pictures from a visit) in operation, with a further 24 apparently waiting in the wings.
Project LR: 12 sims right now
Project LR is a game that appears to have grown out of a demonstration given at SLCC-2011 by Durian, Esbee, and Gez Linden. That demonstration introduced the use of basic gaming mechanics into the SL environment and encompassed a few interesting features. While that demonstration was not intended to be seen on the Main grid, it was fairly evident from comments given that the ideas being developed within it would eventually find their way into SL.
An element of the game demonstrated at SLCC-2011
The Project LR game appears to be quest-based, and provides the opportunity to collect gems that can be exchanged for Linden Dollars. Elements of the game require you seek-out certain things, while other can lead you into a lot of trouble – and “death”. Interestingly, the game utilises something that may be new to some in SL, but which is quite familiar to those who use the Restrained Love API: forced teleports. Get “killed” in the game by one of a variety of means, and you are force-teleported to a “resurrection circle”, where you can resume your quest.
One of the items to find in your quest
It’s also interesting to note that, when demonstrating their initial game at SLCC 2011, Gez and Esbee pointed out they were trying to achieve results without the complication of HUDs, etc. – but Project LR does in fact utilise a HUD. I can’t help wonder if this is to perhaps help ease fears some might have about the entire idea of enforced teleports by providing the security that it can only happen when in the LR sims and wearing the game HUD. Or the HUDS could, of course be down to the fact that hey couldn’t simply work the game any other way :).
The HUDs also include other functionality, and are auto-attached to you when you arrive on the game regions. This is to avoid the need to access your inventory, etc., and get you straight into the game itself. The auto-attach is labelled as non-standard SL behaviour, but one cannot help but feel it may have its origins in RLV, with a bit of tweaking from LL. A further tweak is that the HUD actually vanishes when you log-out of SL, to avoid compromising people’s inventory.
Game HUD
To access the game, and possibly to facilitate the auto-attachment of the HUD, people cannot simply teleport to the game regions. They must instead go via one of a number of in-world portals. These are currently located (I’m informed) near the Premium account gift kiosks – whether this remains the case, or more appear elsewhere when the Project is open to all remains to be seen. Access to the regions is also limited – if the limit has been reached, the portals will reject attempts to use them. I assume this is to keep on-sim numbers to a manageable number without overly impacting performance (and is probably why another two islands of 12 sims apiece appear to be waiting in the wings for development).
Those that have been fortunate enough to try-out the game have given feedback that ranges from “Nintendo-esque” through to reports that while they went for a quick try, they ended up staying for over two hours and got thoroughly immersed in things.
Without having seen it for myself, I can’t really comment on the game per se, but it is clear a lot of thought has gone into it, and it potentially serves a useful end as well as being a lot of fun for those that try it. It will be interesting to see if any of the capabilities used within it do find their way into more widespread use – one can immediately see that a “guidebook” HUD that can be attached when arriving on a sim and poofs itself on departure and which, between times, provides a ready means of teleporting around locations of interest, and provides links to supporting web pages or whatever, could be something sim owners would end up drooling over (to name but one possible application outside of all the gaming opportunities).
In fact, while writing this piece, I see Rodvik himself has commented on that aspect of what’s coming, as well as the game itself:
“Yes glad you are enjoying it. As I mentioned back in SLCC we wanted to go through all the pain of reducing friction to make more interactive experiences ourselves and then pass on those tools to our content creators [my emphasis]. It will be on Premium for beta test for a while then we will roll it out to scale later. After we get it working at scale we will roll out the tools and our creators can make some great stuff.”
What else may emerge from this in terms of Viewer UI enhancements, improved camera controls, or whatever, will also be interesting to see – if indeed, any part of this does have impact on the emerging new Viewer 3.2 UI.
One thing is clear – there are some interesting and potentially useful / exciting new wrinkles entering the world of Second Life. I envy those who will get to blog about it ahead of me!
Project LR is currently in Premium Beta – accessible only to those with Premium accounts. Read more in the FAQ. A portal to the game can be found at Nysray.
I’m not sure if people are interested in hearing about the more personal elements of my time in Second Life; I’ve largely avoided droning on about things, but I have tended to slip-in updates on where I’m living from time-to-time.
Guess what? This is one of those times!
Floating rock (click to enlarge
Yep, I’ve again changed house. This time I’ve gone for something very atypical for me. I’ve decided to live on a rock. Or more precisely in a rock.
I’m not sure where the idea originated – other than as usual, after a few months in the last house my little building itch started demanding scratching. I still wanted my house to be airborne, and somewhere along the line the idea of a house built on or against a floating island popped into my head.
It took a while to completely formulate itself into an idea I liked, but I’m pleased with the overall results.
Rock top trees
Up on top is a wooded area – I like having greenery and plants around me in SL, even tho any plant coming into my care in RL tends to have signed it’s death warrant. This has tall trees, a west-facing gazebo, a little camp fire area for entertaining friends, a rock pool and dance area.
Pond dappled by sunlight through the trees
It’s cosy, even if I say so myself. The trees are a mix by FelixvonKotwitz Alter and Hazideon Zarco, proprietor of the delightfully-named (although now apparently sadly gone) Unicorn Cheese Factory. FelixvonKotwitz also provided bits for the pond in the middle of the woods – although I admit, he might not approve of the way I pulled one of his products apart and combined them with bits and pieces of my own. I’ve not put anywhere to sit by the pond as yet…but I might at some point.
Gazebo at sunset (click to enlarge)
For now, the gazebo and campfire provide my outdoor living experience. The gazebo itself is a modification of a piece by Isablan Neva but with a menu-driven seating system added to replace the original static pose balls. It faces westward so I can enjoy SL sunsets and chat quietly with visiting friends. I’ve kept the new place at a height of around 350 metres, as that means I’m above the “traditional” cloud tops (for those that have them active) and am not sitting like a blob in the sky to annoy neighbours and tenants, but I’m still low enough to get the full effect of a sunset over linden water.
Campfire cosiness
The campfire could well be where I do a lot of entertaining with friends. I really like it with sun set to midnight, moonbeams slanting through the trees over the pond a short distance away, and glow flies drifting on the breeze.
This is probably going to be the excuse for me to go buy a guitar in-world, just so I can sit and strum and sing (even if no-one else can hear!)…
House – small and simple
The house itself, as I’ve alluded to, is actually sitting inside the rock itself. It’s about the smallest place I’ve lived in within SL – but then, I don’t need a sprawling house, and since adopting Penny Patton’s excellent camera positions, I’m able to build along more realistic lines (which has the knock-on effect of having friends try out Penny’s camera positions…and then falling in love with the improved world-view they create).
The lounge is a modest affair – enough room to sit with friends near the fireplace, while also allowing me to keep my beloved Musical Alchemy piano. I stopped having kitchens and the like in my homes years ago – but I do still retain a bedroom whenever I build a new place. It tends to end up for show more than anything, and a place to keep my SL magic box (cunningly disguised to the point where I’ll be sad to see it go when Direct Delivery finally puts an end to it), my rental server and other bits.
The magic of the place – for me, anyway, is that SL being SL, I can be safely hidden inside a huge floating rock but can still enjoy a panoramic view of the sea and watch glittering sunsets…
I haz sekrit elevator
Given the house area is inside a rock could make getting in and out rather difficult. Of course, teleporting is the obvious solution, but I felt a sekrit lair deserved something more … well, “Jane Bond-ish”, so to speak. So…cue the hidden panel that reveals my secret transport system: an elevator leading up through another hidden portal to the woods above!
OK..I admit, it’s a little twee. But it does serve to connect what is above with what is below very smoothly, and it’s more fun than just teleporting hither and thither :).
I’m not going to guess how long this house will last, but right now I’m pretty satisfied with it; it’s not entirely what I had in mind when I started out with a need to start gluing prims and bits together, but that’s half the fun of building in SL, isn’t it?
Ever since Display Names came in – and a jolly good idea they are to, in many respects – there has been an on-going reaction to the loss of the last name option in Second Life. To be frank, the removal of the last name option in the hope (in part) of spurring the adoption of Display Names was a bloody stupid idea.
Now it seems, voices may be being heard. A JIRA started earlier this year petitioning for the last name option to be returned has gained a response. Admittedly, it’s a response that is open to interpretation, but it’s a response nonetheless. Commenting on the JIRA, one “ProductTeam Linden” said:
“It’s clear there is a lot of interest in SVC-7125. The intent was for users to specify their last name using the Display Names feature found in users’ profiles, which most Viewers now support. For those that haven’t used Display Names yet, you can also set them on the web: https://my.secondlife.com/settings/profile.
“Know that we hear you and value your passion and that we are currently reviewing some of the decisions that were made with the username / Display Names implementation.”
Does this signify anything may change? Possibly; but equally possibly not. At least it shows someone at the Lab is aware people aren’t entirely happy with the situation. Quite who from the Lab is listening is also open to question; “ProductTeam Linden” is another of those “group” Linden accounts that appear to be on the increase and which seem to be aimed at obfuscating communication as much as anything by generating anonymity behind “official” posts and commentary. Just what is the problem with company representatives using their own names when dealing with customers by way of things like the JIRA?
I’ve never personally understood why LL did away with the last name feature – the ability for the platform to accept new accounts with the traditional first name / last name set-up hasn’t actually been removed, only disabled from the official sign-up page. Those who are prepared to make the effort can find a number of sign-up portals that offer the first name / last name format when creating a Second Life account.
Of course, there are security risks involved in trusting third-party sites – so going and finding one that offers the ability to sign-up to SL is a case of caveat emptor, so to speak. But for those who are interested, I can offer at least one small pointer: there is one portal that should be relatively safe, and that can be found here in the UK, on the Daden servers.
Daden Limited are a Birmingham-based company heavily involved in virtual worlds, most notably OpenSim, where earlier this year they sponsored the initial development of non-player characters well ahead of LL’s announcement to they’d be offering this in the future. As such, it is unlikely the Daden website hides any nasty surprises, although the choice of last names is limited.
There is much to be said against the current sign-up process as implemented by LL, and most of it has been argued in-depth often enough for it to need no repetition here. Suffice it to give just a handful of reasons why it was a bad move:
First names effectively become a one-time use option, as anyone trying to use a simple “Dawn” or “Peter” without having to resort to a numeric string (“Dawn12345679”) or and idiotic name born out of sheer frustration (“PeterXrayHowsYourFatherBongBong”), will testify
People end up spending what can amount to 30 or more minutes trying to find a suitable name that avoids either of the above – as I can testify; and even then, it’s not easy. When testing the new system, I resorted to Maori, Swahili and Sinhalese names – and still had problems. It’s a wonder there has been any upturn in sign-ups, frankly
While probably well-intended (give it’s old connotations), “Resident” actually leaves people without the same sense of belonging that is created when they can pick their name in full and take it as their identity. Let’s face it, would those at the Lab feel particularly happy if real life dictated they all had to adopt “Citizen” as their last name?
Nor does the Linden argument relating to Display Names actually carry any weight in the matter of name choice. Really, it matters not if “Dawn12345679” uses the Display Name option to change her name to “Dawn Glorie” or whatever. To (probably the majority of) those observing her, she will remain “dawn123456789”, because that’s what we see sitting under her Display Name, and that is what most people seeing it will take as her identity in SL, no matter what her Display Name states.
Far better for the last name option to have been retained, as at least “Dawn” would have been able to become a Starr or a Ghost or an Orchid or … well, Pey for that matter, right from the off and not have to worry about looking like a refugee from AOL or CompuServe while wandering SL.
Nor should bringing back the last name option be that hard – as stated above, new accounts with a first / last format can still be accepted by the system, and would it really be that hard to implement a set of last name lists once again that are rotated periodically as part of an automated process? Or how about being really radical, and allowing the use of a space when users define their names. Again, the functionality is there in the Viewer, so shouldn’t be that hard to implement in the sign-up pages.
Finally, it’s a shame that when LL get so much intrinsically right about our right to identity they have, in the matter of names, got it so fundamentally wrong. In the past, the names we chose for our avatars were always personal; we took care in selecting a last name that would reflect our personality or character and which would become as much a part of our in-world identity as the look of our avatar. For those entering virtual business, the name could in fact become a brand around which a reputation is built.
In abolishing the last name option, LL stripped that part of identity-building away from SL, and lumped everyone coming into the platform or who needs to create a new avatar together in some homogeneous pile tagged with the label “resident”. In doing so, the also curtailed some of our ability to embrace new avatars perhaps as closely was we once did. “Inara Pey” is very near and dear to me; I’m not sure I’d cherish “Inara23412 Resident” (were I ever to have cause to create her) to quite the same degree.
So come on, Rodvik & Linden Lab. Stop dithering. Let’s see last names returned. Christmas is coming – it’ll be a nice treat for everyone.
There have been a couple of recent Viewer updates in the last 24 hours. Yesterday I reviewed the latest Exodus Viewer release; it wasn’t alone – Dolphin 3 also saw a new release – 3.1.1.21151.
Both of these are interesting as they include support for two new avatar attachment points: Neck and Avatar Centre.
Neck will allow the wearing of items at the neck point (such as necklaces, collars, etc.), which will move with normal avatar body movement
Centre is a “fixed” attachment point which is static – so it does not move with your avatar’s movements (i.e. in response to an animation such as a dance, etc). This allows attachments that do not need to be seen to be attached to the body, or can be used with reference to vehicles, etc.
New attachment points
Both attachment points are also available in the latest SL Development Viewer (3.2.2.244260 or above) and in any self-compiled builds from the latest Firestorm code release.
There are a few things to remember when using these new attachment points:
As one might expect, items will require a degree of adjustment to fit correctly – especially on the Neck attach point
Don’t use the Avatar Centre point for anything you wish to be visible and needs to move with your avatars movements – it won’t. Avatar Centre isn’t the place for skirts and belts, unless you want them standing on their own on the dance floor while you gyrate!
Until the code is fully supported across all Viewers, to anyone not using a Viewer supporting these attachment points it will appear as if you’re wearing items incorrectly (as with the old Emerald multi-attach issue). Once the code is absorbed into all Viewers, this issue should go away.
If I’m totally honest, there is perhaps too much movement encountered with the neck attachment point – if your AO causes a lot of natural head movement, you may find necklaces, etc, vanishing into your collar bones or into your chest rather a lot. Those familiar with wearing collars may find that rather than the collar remaining relatively static compared to head movements (as when attached to the Spine or Chest points), the collar moves rather disconcertingly.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 