Month: May 2013

Almost monochrome in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s hard to believe it is May and that summer is supposedly just around the corner. After a burst of sudden warm weather which suggested spring had finally arrived, the weather has been a riot: rain, odd bursts of hail, thunderstorms and high winds. They’re even reporting snow in Devon!

I’m not sure if the weather in real life has affected my thinking about Second Life (some of my thoughts about the platform and my involvement in it has been a little on the grey side this last week), but while running through my list of places to blog about and rifling through the folders of snaps I have of places, I was struck by just how summery my snaps look. So I set off to try something different, although I hadn’t a clue what.

Winter Moon
Winter Moon

Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend too long scratching my head over what it is I was looking for. As soon as I stepped into Winter Moon, Dream Shadowcry’s evocative homestead region, I knew I’d found it.

In a world of often bright, vibrant colours, it’s not often you come across something which is almost  – and quite naturally – monochrome in Second Life, but Winter Moon is precisely that – and it is precisely that in a most magnificent way.

Winter Moon
Winter Moon

Rain pours from the sky when you arrive, and breakers crash against the shore. The lowering sky reduces everything to shades of grey and washed-out colour over which bright white falls tumble, while muslin-like clouds scud across the sky. “Atmospheric” doesn’t come close to describing the way in which this region has been put together – I strongly recommend that you keep to the region windlight settings when you arrive for the first time and, if you can, run with Advanced Lighting Model (“Lighting and shadows” in older viewer versions) active – you can keep shadows set to “None”.

There are paths to follow around the region, and places to discover; wandering and discovery are invited, and in places handy camera and telescopes point to vistas and images worthy of a snap or two – not that the entire region isn’t highly photogenic. Here and there are places to sit, either alone or with a loved one or friend. Some of these lend themselves to quite introspection, others provide an opportunity to dance. All add to the whole.

Winter Moon
Winter Moon

The attention to detail is wonderful – make sure you drop into the little orangery on the south side of the region. This is a beautifully composed piece, complete with half-eaten pizza lying in is box, together with a couple of Pepsi cans alongside the bed which clearly evoke a feeling when seen, and the movie playing on the projector at the foot of the bed further enhances the mood.

I advise keeping to the default windlight when making a first visit – particularly if you can run with Advanced Lighting Model active – because the overall monochrome effect of the region allows for a number of quite unexpected surprises, with sudden splashes of colour appearing as you pass the lamps and lights marking paths and gates.

Winter Moon
Winter Moon

For those not into greys and rain, the region also lends itself to a wide range of windlight settings, making it another perfect location of the SL photographer and explorer, as I hope the few scattered through my sideshow from a previous visit will demonstrate.

A highly recommended place to visit.

(view slideshow full-screen)

Related Links

SL projects update week 20 (1): server, JSON, viewer release process

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments – Week 20

As always, please refer to the release forum  thread on the weekly deployments for the latest updates and discussions.

Second Life Server (Main channel)

On Tuesday May 14th, the Main channel received the Experience Keys project which is widely regarded (and referred to by LL staff) as the “experience permissions”. This means the project is now available across the grid, although there are no visible changes to be seen at this point. Release notes.

Speculation is still running high on exactly what the new project is – and whether it is “just” the experience permissions to partner the existing advanced creation tools ot something more – as well as whether the capabilities will be available for use across the grid (i.e. on Mainland as well as private estates). Details will be forthcoming from the Lab in time; for the moment, they’re holding their cards close to their collective chest.

Release Candidate (RC) Channels – JSON Capabilities

On Wednesday May 15th, all three RC channels should receive a new server maintenance project (release notes (Bluesteel)).  The project is designed to fix two crash modes and two bugs, namely:

  • A fix for ‘Overriding “Sitting on Ground” animation while sitting on the ground makes “stand up” button disappear’ (BUG-2424)
  • A fix for ‘ApplyImpulse now works only in the root prim’ (SVC-8227)

In addition, this project introduces new LSL support creating and parsing for JSON-formatted strings. The new LSL functions comprise: 

  • list llJson2List(string json) – converts the top level of the json string to a list.
  • string llList2Json(string type, list values) – 
    • Type is JSON_ARRAY or JSON_OBJECT
    • Converts either a strided list of key:value pairs to a JSON_OBJECT or a list of values to a JSON_ARRAY
  • string llJsonGetValue(string json, list specifiers) – gets the value indicated by spcifiers from the json string.
  • string llJsonSetValue(string json, list specifiers, string value) – returns a new json string that is the json given with the value indicated by specifiers set to value
  • string llJsonValueType(string json, list specifiers) – returns the type constant for the value in json indicated by specifiers.

At the time of writing, the RC deployments still had a question mark over them as testing was, according to Simon Linden when speaking at the Simulator User Group, “down to the wire, although it all looks good.”

Further information on the new LSL support for JSON can be found on the LSL JSON wiki page.

The project is being lead by Kelly Linden who described the reason for implementing them as being because he’s “keen on improving the ability to interface LSL with the larger web. The previous maintenance version expanded the content-type support of http-in and http-out which ties in with this.”

It is likely that further LSL support for JSON will be added in the future.

SL Viewer

Beta Viewer and the Viewer Release Process

A further beta viewer release was made on May 11th (3.5.2.275565) – see the release notes for details – in preparation for the deployment of the new viewer release process. The beta 3.5.2 viewer incorporates changes required by the new service.

While at the Open-source Dev meeting on Monday May 13th, I asked Oz Linden on the status of the new process. “Internally, we’re essentially already using it in that all projects are based on viewer-release,” he replied. “We’re starting system test of the server-side infrastructure changes this week… once those are tested, it’s just a matter of deploying them and we can fully switch over to the new process. ‘just deploying’ on our scale is always an understatement, incidentally.”

This does not mean the release process is about to be deployed, however. The server-side infrastructure testing is liable to be on-going for a while. One aspect which the Lab will be checking carefully is the changes made to the log-in process.

When a user logs-in to Second Life using an official viewer, a check is carried out to see if a mandatory upgrade is required. To prepare for the new release process, is check has been updated. “that’s not something one deploys without having taken every step one can think of to quadruple-check just a bit,” Oz explained.

How long the tests will take to complete is unclear, but it is unlikely the new release process will be deployed in week 20.

Materials Processing

May 8th saw the The materials project viewer updated with the release of version 3.5.2.275470, with the release notes available here.

Detail on the hint of a Katana created entirely using the new materials capability. The sword is made by June Dion and has an LI of 7
Detail on the hilt of a Katana created entirely using the new materials capability. The sword is made by June Dion and has an LI of 7

Work is continuing with the viewer, focusing on the UI issues which need to be resolved in order for the code to progress towards mainstream  release.

Continue reading “SL projects update week 20 (1): server, JSON, viewer release process” →

Lab asks “Are you ready to celebrate” SL’s 10th birthday and hints at planning “fun things”

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeOn Tuesday May 14th, Linden Lab issued a blog post inviting users and communities to submit details of any events they are planning as a part of celebrations for Second Life’s tenth birthday in June for inclusion in the SL Destination Guide.

The post also hinted that the Lab is also planning some “fun things” to celebrate as well, reading in part:

This June, Second Life will celebrate its 10th birthday, thanks to users like you!

We have some fun things planned to celebrate the occasion (keep an eye on this blog for more on that soon!), but we’d also like to highlight your events. Like last year, we’ll have a special category in the Destination Guide [link] for Second Life birthday-related events. No one throws a better party than the Second Life community, and if you’re planning an event to celebrate Second Life’s 10th birthday, we want to know about it!

The blog post goes on to note that the community itself is organising its own celebratory event, and includes a link to the SL10BCC website.

If you are planning a special SL10th birthday event for June 2013, you can submit details for inclusion in the Destination Guide by filling-out the official submission form using the “misc” category, or by e-mailing the Destination Guide editor, using “SL10B” is the subject line of the e-mail.

E-scape with Whiskey

Posted on by Inara Pey

I’ve blogged previously about Whiskey Monday’s fabulous artistry, which has been (rightly) the focus of many SL-related blogs and which last year made the transition into real life as well.

Starting on Wednesday May 15th, a selection of her work, hand-picked by Whiskey, and entitled “E-scapes” will be on display at he the Kelly Yap Art Gallery in Healy.

Whiskey Monday at the Kelly Yap Art Gallery
Whiskey Monday at the Kelly Yap Art Gallery

This show will run through until the 15th July, and features a number of Whiskey’s landscape shots, captured in-world. All of them are intended to evoke a feeling of solitude, although Whiskey herself has resisted added any text (or subtext) to the images she’s chosen to display, preferring to let them speak directly to the heart of those looking on them.

If you’ve never seen Whiskey’s work first-hand, I urge you to go along and see the exhibition; I’ve little doubt you’ve find yourself drawn-in to her work and very probably leaving with a couple tucked under your arm (you can buy any of the pieces on display).

Healy-2_001

For those who are particularly drawn to her work and wish to enjoy it in real life, you can do so through Fine Art America, where a further range of Whiskey’s work is on offer.  And don’t forget her Flickr stream and blog (see the links below).

Related Links

Bobbiekins on Designing Worlds

Posted on by Inara Pey

On April 25th, I blogged about a unique collaboration called BobbiekinWorld which brings together a range of talent connected with Second Life and which includes Tony Dyson (best known for creating Star Wars’ R2D2), machinima maker Chantal Harvey, Slim Warrior and Dawny Daviau, in order to create a series of interactive children’s books which utilise Second Life as a medium for telling and filming elements of the stories.

Currently the subject of an Indiegogo funraiser, BobbiekinWorld will be the subject of a segment of Designing Worlds to be recorded on Tuesday May 14th, 2013, and Second Life users are invited to be a part of the audience.

Both Tony Dyson and Chantal Harvey will be on-hand to talk about the project, and will also be taking questions from the audience about the project.

If you’d like to attend the recording, please make sure you’re at the Designing Worlds studio no later that 13:00 SLT on Tuesday May 14th, when filming will commence.

Related links

Server-side Baking / Appearance: key questions answered by the Lab

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Monday May 13th 2013, Troy and Nyx Linden appeared on a segment of Designing Worlds to discuss Server-side Baking / Appearance (SSB/A), alongside Brooke and Oz Linden, who were there to discuss Materials Processing.

Troy Linden is a Senior Producer at Linden Lab, who has been working on high-level server-side baking, and Nyx Linden is a Senior Software Engineer at the Lab, who has been working with the technical aspects of SSB/A and has been very much the public face of the project. Together, they answered a series of questions on the project put to them on behalf of users (the questions having been requested in advance of the show being recorded) by the Designing Worlds hosts, Saffia Widdershins and Elrik Merlin.

The following is a summary of the questions asked and answers given.

Nyx Linden (l) and Troy Linden (r) on Designing Worlds
Nyx Linden (l) and Troy Linden (r) on Designing Worlds (image courtesy of Wildstar Beaumont / Designing Worlds)

Saffia Widdershins (SW): Let’s start with the basics: what is baking, and how is it being handled now?

Troy Linden (TL): Baking is a process where we take all the information that involves your avatar – how it looks – and we combine it to deliver a finished avatar. Currently, how it’s handled right now [is] your computer, the individual’s computer, handles all of the processing involved in determining your avatar’s appearance, and it sends all the result back to our servers. So it’s a pretty involved process and there’s a bunch of time that it takes to do all that.

SW: So how is that going to be changed in the future … and will it simplify it?

TL: Server-side baking is our new system. It’s where we actually stand up a new service that will handle all of the baking process on our end. And what this actually does is it takes the load away from your computer, the individual user’s computer, and the results are a faster, more consistent experience during the whole baking process in Second Life.

Elrik Merlin (EM): Just to be clear about this … in the new system, what will be handled by the server and what will be handled by the viewer, exactly?

TL: The new viewer will be sending the server and [be] the recipient of all the avatar data, while the server does all the calculations required. So your viewer will download the results [of the baking process] over a lot faster HTTP connection.

EM: So that’s the basics of how it works, so to speak; how would you summarise the benefits to users?

Designing Worlds hosts Saffia Widdershin and Elrik Merlin
Designing Worlds hosts Saffia Widdershin and Elrik Merlin (image courtesy of Wildstar Beaumont / Designing Worlds)

TL: Well, simply put, it’s a much faster, more reliable avatar rendering experience. So hopefully you’ll see less avatars being stuck in their clouded state as well as being stuck untextured. So they’ll actually appear the way the user actually intended much quicker.

SW: So it will be an end to that problem where you half-rez but, (laughs) your make-up is blurred so you look as though you’ve been having a really heavy night!

TL: (Laughing) That’s the plan. We’re actually seeing some great results so far, so we’re very excited.

SW: Are there likely to be any downsides? There will be less impact on peoples’ machines, is that what you’re saying, or could there me more?

Nyx Linden (NL): The one downside to the new system is, because it is such a big change from how we have done things in the past, everyone is going to have to update their viewer. It will be a mandatory update. Users who don’t update will start to see even more avatars fail to load. Fortunately, we have the viewer that people need to download released, and users who use any actively maintained third-party viewer should be able to download an update presently as well. As long as users do update, they won’t see any downsides.

EM: This is obviously nearing completion and we’re nearing implementation. Can you tell us a little about where the project is, what its current status is, and what the time scales are for introduction are going to be?

NL: Absolutely! So, we’re in a multi-stage release; at this point we have our first viewer out the door. So the next stage is that we’re going to be standing-up the service that is going to be doing all the work for rezzing your avatar. Over time we will slowly roll-out the new system across the grid. That’s going to take some time, and we’re going to be following-up through our blogs and forums to let people know how that process is going, but we want to take our time with that process, to make sure that everything is working as well as we think it is.

Continue reading “Server-side Baking / Appearance: key questions answered by the Lab” →