Month: December 2012

Treat yourself to the best Christmas gift in SL

Posted on by Inara Pey

Last week I paid a visit to the 2012 SL Christmas Expo, which features fund-raising efforts for Relay for Life. Proceeds from special vendors in the Expo stores as well as donation to the familiar RFL kiosks will be going directly to RFL SL.

One of the things you can get at the Expo is a CD containing 39 Christmas songs and bonus track. This is available from special vendors at the Expo, with all proceeds again going to RFL SL.

The RFL Xmas CD
The RFL Xmas CD

The album showcases some of the finest musicians and singers performing in Second Life, and is a veritable tour-de-force of the talent on offer through the medium of the platform. The songs, ordered by track / artist(s) are:

  1. Away in a Manger – Grace McDunnough
  2. Sleigh Ride – Voodoo Shilton
  3. Where are you Christmas – Shaye Dezno-Jonstone
  4. Christmas is the Heart – Jon and the Anonymous Virtual Orchestra
  5. Mr. Grinch – Damian Carbenell
  6. I Want Things – Sara Tiemogo (Saramarie Philly in SL)
  7. Jingle Bell Rock – Gina Stella
  8. Noche de Paz – Eliz Watanabe
  9. I’ll Be Home for Christmas – Kitty Zeddmore
  10. Christmas Waltz – Nad Gough
  11. White Christmas – Lyrica Acoustic and PT Beardmore
  12. Destiny Christmas – Quantamis Navarathna
  13. Silent Night – Amereth Popstar
  14. Happy Xmas – Clairede Dirval, Dixie Silverweb and Tristan Silverweb
  15. O Holy Night –  Laura Savio
  16. The Christmas Song – Jean Munro
  17. Little Drummer Boy-Peace on Earth – David Csiszer
  18. Joy to the World – Louis Landon
  19. All I Want For Christmas is You – TerryLynn Melody
  20. Ave Maria – Antonio Galloway
  21. Santa Baby – Sassy Nitely (Barbie Horsley)
  22. Deck the Funk – Gweeb
  23. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – AMForte Clarity
  24. Blue Christmas – Starrfish Ohmai
  25. The Perfect Gift – Anek Fuchs
  26. Jingle Bells – Tamra Hayden (Tamra Sands in SL) and Eugene Gwozdz
  27. Fairytale of New York – Maximillion Kleene and Stella Silvansky
  28. Who Put the Dick on the Snowman – Mandoaa Dragonash
  29. Please Come Home for Christmas – Hogan Baily
  30. Mary Did You Know – ScarlettLa Roux
  31. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Savannah Coronet
  32. Winter Wonderland – Carah Nitely
  33. Let it Snow – Joaquin Gustav
  34. Jesus, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Tamra Hayden (Tamra Sands in SL) and Handarido Optera
  35. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas –  Kristina Helene (Therese Nightfire in SL)
  36. Merry Christmas from the Family – Karter Stonecutter
  37. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Damian Carbenell
  38. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – AMForte Clarity
  39. Feliz Navidad – Jase Branner
  40. Winning – POL Arida (Bonus non-Christmas Song)

(And yes, you did read the title of track 28 correctly!)

The cost of the CD is L$500 – but you can donate more if you want.

The package includes an in-world media player and download system which ensures a very smooth playback of all tracks (if you use the media filter common to many TPVs, you might want to turn it off or ensure you trust the CD domain in order to enjoy uninterrupted playback). The player itself allows you to shuffle back and forth through the track and play tracks randomly rather than in order. There is also a link to a webpage where you can download the tracks outside of SL and take them with you wherever you go.

For those unfamiliar with RFL and RFL SL, there is also a short history of both included in the package, which highlights the fact that SL users have, over the years, raised in excess of $1 million for cancer research and treatment.

All of us have more than likely been touched by cancer in one way or another, either directly or through a family member or friend. As such, this CD provides a very special way of helping in the march towards finding a cure – so why not take a jump over to the Christmas Expo and treat yourself to a copy?

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Steam: SL on your TV?

Posted on by Inara Pey

SteamGabe Newell, co-founder and Managing Director of Steam’s parent company, Valve, is aiming high.

On December 3rd, 2012 the company launched the Steam Big Picture mode, with the slogan The revolution will be televised, which had been in beta since earlier in the year.

The services was announced thus on the Steam website:

Heading to the living room—or anywhere there’s a big screen—is Steam’s soon-to-be-released big-picture mode, offering simple, easy-to-read navigation designed specifically for TV. With full controller support, big-picture mode will let gamers kick back and enjoy their favorite games on the biggest screen in the house.

Gabe Newell, co-founder and MD at Value

Steam’s big-picture mode doesn’t require any additional development from you. Just ensure your game works well with a controller, and we’ll take care of the rest. And don’t worry, keyboard and mouse aren’t going anywhere—users will be able to switch between input devices at any time.

Nothing beyond a physical connection between a computer and TV is required for the new service to work.

The move is just the start of Valve’s living room revolution”. Speaking to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier (who also did the in-depth write-up on The Big Picture mode) at the Video Games Awards last week, Newell confirmed that in 2013, he expects companies to start selling “Valve-approved” PC-based systems designed to hook up to a TV and run Steam straight out of the box – and which will be able to go toe-to-toe with traditional console offerings.

“I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them,” Newell said. “‘Cause they won’t have to split the world into thinking about ‘why are my friends in the living room, why are my video sources in the living room different from everyone else?’ So in a sense we hopefully are gonna unify those environments.”

The big picture: could it also include SL? (image courtesy of Steamworks)

There are significant hurdles to be overcome for this to work – the PC boxes won’t be as open to tinkering, for example, as Newell notes in talking to Kotaku. There’s also the case as to how well some games may translate from keyboard to controller – although the company is, interestingly, working on a “moddable controller” with elements which can be switched around to allow for customised gaming, as well as a system by which the controller can be used in place of a QWERTY keyboard for conversing in role-play based games.

Lotus: using an XBox 360-style console as a replacement keyboard (image courtesy of Kotaku)

So, with Second Life expected to arrive on Steam “pretty soon” TM if not possibly “real soon” TM, these moves could yet see Second Life itself make the move from the computer screen to the big screen – and possibly broaden its appeal in the process (although that is perhaps an awfully big “possibly”).

Michael Abrach (coutesy Techcrunch)
Michael Abrach (coutesy Techcrunch)

Valve are also moving ahead in other areas of hardware development which may also benefit SL. Newell’s interest in wearable computing options such as motion sensors, etc., is well-known. It is an interest shared by Michael Abrash, in a blog post on the matter also revealed he has a common source of inspiration as Philip Rosedale. Wearable / motion sensing systems have been connected with SL for some time now, particularly where Kinect is concerned. If Valve develop a system which works out-of-the-box with SL, it could well have a major impact on carious combats systems / environments in SL and potentially further leverage SL as a games enablement platform with the attraction that the environments in which the games themselves are played is totally configurable via SL’s content creation options.

Does this really mean that Second Life is coming to a living room near you? Well, maybe, maybe not. Part of this may come down to how the TV in your lounge is used (and what you get up to in SL vs. who else is around in real-time to witness it!). However, the TV was itself long ago freed from the lounge. It can be found in the bedroom, the study, the den … so one can see a certain attraction in sitting up in bed and spending time in-world (as some do) with just a hand controller and the TV rather than a laptop perched on legs…

Time will tell, as they say. In the meantime, these developments from Valve, if successful, could be of major impact to gaming as a whole, and are doubtless going to be watched with interest.

With thanks to Kotaku.

SL project news: week 50/1: Server, JIRA, mesh and Shining

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments

Due to the offline e-mail issue involving scripted objects, as reported in my last news update, there has been no Main Channel deployment this week. Two RC deployments are currently planned for Wednesday 12th December, however. These are:

  • BlueSteel and LeTigre: should receive the same maint-server project that rolled to Magnum in week 49, with bug fixes arising from that deployment. The release notes are available for review
  • Magnum should receive a superset of the changes scheduled for BlueSteel and LeTigre, which includes extra bug fixes, including stability improvements and a memory leak fix.  
    • The only new feature new to Magnum is an increase in the allowed animation asset size – the 60KB size limit on animation assets has been raised to 120KB. This change is to allow for longer and more complex animations to be made in the future, once an viewer-side update to allow 60-second animation loops has been implemented. Magnum’s release notes can be read here.
So be sure to read them :-) (with thanks to Whirly Fizzle for the link)
So be sure to read them 🙂 (with thanks to Whirly Fizzle for the link)

Update on Key Region Issues

Physics Memory / Region Performance

As reported last time, the physics memory issues affecting some regions, which I reported in week 47, had been tracked down by Simon Linden to a Havok issue related to navmesh rebakes. His fix for this problem cleared QA and forms a part of the RC deployments for the 12th December, together with a fix for a low-level threading problem within the simulator code which has also been causing region crashes.

Offline IMs from In-world Objects Failing to Forward to E-mail

This issue, linked to llInstantMessage(llGetOwner(), caused the RC deployments in week 49 to be rolled back on Thursday 6th December. A fix has been developed and tested and is included in all three RC deployments planned for Wednesday 12th December.

Code Freeze / No Change Windows

Again, to re-iterate from my last report, there will be no server-side code changes over the holiday period as follows:

  • Week 52  – commencing Monday December 24th
  • Week 1, 2013 – commencing Monday December 31st

Simon Linden still hoped that one of the code being deployed to the RC channels this week can be rolled to the Main Channel in week 51. There will likely be a further update on this following the Thursday Server Beta UG.

JIRA / Bug Tracker Update

Linden Lab are still mulling the September closure of the old public JIRA system. Since the initial shut-down, things have opened up a little. Additional JIRAs have been left open as read only beyond the initial triage, while others have been opened and have had their comments enabled in order to allow feedback – such as the CHUI JIRA, which is being very constructively used for comments and feedback and shows how, in an ideal world, the system might work.

Currently, it appears that “nothing definitive” has been decided on the change, although it has been under internal discussion.

Feedback from those in the two JIRA support groups (developers who have significantly contributed code and those who have in the past supplied significant support in handling JIRAs) has been interesting. It appears that the number of feared duplicates on issues has been a lot smaller than had been feared. The overall quality of input given using the new form also appears to have been significantly improved since it was introduced.

Continue reading “SL project news: week 50/1: Server, JIRA, mesh and Shining” →

“SL is like a box of chocolates…”

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update: It appears this region has closed / been renamed.

It’s been a funny few days, bouncing around SL. Things haven’t been helped by members of my family paying their usual pre-Christmas visit for a few days. They say it’s to see friends in the area so they don’t have to rush around over Christmas; I’m of the opinion it’s to ensure my stress levels are in good shape for the Xmas / New Year fortnight, the end of which tends to see them departing once more with me clinging to their legs – trying to gnaw their ankles off…

Anyway, whether it was the impact of having relatives in and out and in and out of the house for four days, or whether it was just me not paying attention, I found that areas I’d lined up as targets for exploration weren’t turning out quite as expected, something which left me feeling as if I should be holding a box of chocolates sans the little card which tells you what’s what, and waxing philosophical. Possibly while sitting at a bus stop.

DDLE2
DDLE2

One such place is DDLE2. The entry in the Destination Guide describes it as “This spectacular location leads visitors along bridges and pathways up into the clouds for some lovely scenic views. Along the way, check out the giant pirate ship and big trees, then take a chair lift back down to the neighbouring region with its verdant forest, gushing waterways, and steaming volcano.”

It’s clear that things have changed since the Guide entry was made; the “neighbouring sim” has either gone or appears to be under new management. However, the bridges are still there, as are the stairs, sconce lights and other things to see and poke around at :).

DDLE-11_001
DDLE2

This is a region which somewhat defies description, coming across as a combination role-play, machinima and photographic environment which contains enough to present the imagination with a lot of options – as those following my feed on my.sl.com will already know, as it one of those regions which lends itself to the telling of a story :).

One thing to bear in mind should you opt to explore the region – make sure you look below you as much as you do up. Some things are hidden in plain sight, but can go unnoticed.

DDLE2
DDLE2

This is another of those regions which lends itself to fiddling with windlight options – and I spent a good deal of time trying out William “Paperwork Resident” Weaver’s new presets on Firestorm through their paces, gaining some surprising results along the way which really added to the overall atmosphere of the region.

If I have any complaint at all, it’s in the fact that some parts of the build seem a little rushed – or perhaps they are being reworked; finding a section of all hanging in the air while climbing the steps up to the top of the main peak was a little disappointing, as was looking up and seeing untextured plywood overhead.

DDLE2
DDLE2

I’ll be honest in that after reading the description of DDLE2, I had expected something a little different as I had with several of the places I picked randomly from the Destination guide to go take a look at. That doesn’t make it  – or them – any less interesting; just that the flavour turned out to be different to that which had been anticipated.

So maybe the man was right after all. (Second) Life is like a box of chocolates … just don’t take the cover picture too seriously ;-).

DDLE2
DDLE2

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Musical art to aid children

Posted on by Inara Pey

Quan Lavender dropped me a note on a new exhibition taking place over the Christmas period in aid of SOS Children’s Villages India.

music-box-for-children-poster

Hosted by Art India Gallery, which is operated by Veekay Navarathna, the exhibition presents a range of works donated by 25 of SL’s top artists. All of the works are displayed in a beautiful winter landscape created by Trill Zapatero, who also provides a free pair of ice skates for visitors, who are encouraged to skate around the exhibition.

MB-8_001

Items on display are available to buy or are supplied as individual works available for auction. All proceeds from both sales and the auction will go directly to SOS Children India.

Purchases for items on sale can be made via the gift-wrapped boxes alongside of each exhibit (each has a box for purchasing a copy of the art and a box which gives out a notecard on the piece / artist). Each has been created on the theme of a music box – hence the title of the exhibition, Music Box for Children. Prices range from L$10 through L$1000.

The auction runs through until December 22nd, so that the highest bidders will receive their work in time for Christmas. The entire exhibition will be open through until January 22nd 2013.

MB-11_001

Participating Artists

chefkoch, Rebeca Bashly, Igor Ballyhoo, Rose Borchovski/Caer  Balogh, Giovanna Cerise, Shari Davies, Linus Humphreys, Kicca Igaly, Pol Jarvinen,  Pallina60 Loon,  Haveit Neox, Bryn Oh, SaveMe Oh, Melusina Parkin, Secret Rage, Sir Real, Arduenn Schwartzman, Josiane Sorciere, Lorin Tone,  Betty Tureaud, Eupalinos Ugajin, Eliza Wierwight, Ub Yifu and Trill Zapatero.

MB-2_001

About SOS Children’s Villages India

SOS Children’s Villages is an independent, non-governmental, social development organisation that provides family based care for children in India since 1964. It advocates the concerns, rights and needs of children. More than 6000 children and young people live in 33 SOS Children’s Villages and 27 SOS Youth Facilities in the country.

The organisation believes that every child should grow up in a strong family environment, and so helps families to create a loving, caring home. Work focuses on strengthening families, helping them to stay together during difficult times and provide the best care possible to their children.  As family needs can be varied, SOS Children’s Village experts work with families to help them develop a wide range of skills, from house-hold budget planning, how to get a job and earning a living, to bonding with a child or young person and learning to create a stable family life at home.

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Viewer release summary 2012: week 49

Posted on by Inara Pey

This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of  all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
  • By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
  • The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information as the week progresses
  • The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

Updates for the week ending: 9 December, 2012

  • SL Viewer updates:
      • Beta version rolled to 3.4.3.267755  on December 5 – core updates: GPU table updates; snapshot tiling bug fix – release notes
      • Development rolled to 3.4.3.267614 on December 4
  • Dolphin rolled to 3.4.5.26752 – core updates: changes to graphics setting to reflect latest updates from LL reflecting the underlying changes to how graphics cards are grouped into classes; “rebake region” button moved into a menu option in Build/Pathfinding; adds fix for edge-on rotation always behaving as if “snap to grid” is enabled; columns in the Area Search floater can now be properly resized; IM tabs can now be vertically stacked in the Conversations floater – release notes
  • Firestorm rolled to a FULL release – 3.4.1.31155 on December 3 core updates: too many to mention; please see the release notes and my view  (beta release review here)
  • Kukua Beta rolled to Kokua Beta 3.4.2.25211 on December 5 and then to 3.4.3. on December 9 – no release notes available, but appears to be merged with latest LL beta release, including tiling bug fix; also back-out of Opensim texture fetch spamming issue, see here for details
  • Cool VL updates:
    • Stable branch rolled to 1.26.4.42 and Experimental branch rolled to 1.26.5.22, both on December 8 – core updates: shared media implemented; updated and improved fast timers; additional nVidia GPU support added in line with LL’s updates; crash fixes including port from Firestorm for some notecards no auto-opening and reversion of Gimbal Lock Fix to present crashes; code clean-up and optimisations
    • Release notes
  • Lumiya rolled to 2.3.3 on December 5 – core updates: improved texture support incl. terrtain texture rendering; HUD support; flying controls in 3D world view; copy chat / avatar keys to clipboard; clear cache option; restart sim option for land owners; device LED support; assorted fixes – release notes; latest review
  • Libretto – removed from round-up page due to website being unavailable and client removed from the SL Third-party Viewer Directory.

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