Month: July 2013

Return of 50% discount to educational & non-profit groups

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeOn Wednesday July 24th, Linden Lab announced the official return of the 50% discount on both private region set-up costs and tier for accredited educational and non-profit organisations. The announcement came via a blog post which reads in full:

We’re pleased to announce an update to Second Life pricing for educational and nonprofit institutions. Effective immediately, any accredited educational institution or any organization with a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit tax status (or equivalent) is eligible for a 50% discount on private region set-up costs and a 50% discount on private region maintenance costs.

As long-time Second Life users will note, the discount on maintenance costs is similar to a discount previously offered to these organizations. More recently, after reviewing our pricing, we have been offering this discount directly to individual organizations, but today we are happy to formalize this pricing, extend the discount to also include set-up costs, and open applications for all that are eligible.

For more details on the offer, including how to apply, please see the wiki page here. 

Organizations eligible for this discounted pricing are also eligible for invoicing of the private region costs. Invoices must include a minimum of six months of maintenance. Additional details can be found here.

Deep Think East - one of the regions operated by the UK's Open University, one of the educational organisations which still operates within Second Life
Deep Think East – one of the regions operated by the UK’s Open University, one of the educational organisations which still operates within Second Life and now eligible for the renewed educational / non-profit discount.

As noted in the announcement, this comes on top of a move in March 2013, where selected educational and non-profit organisations were offered a similar deal. While it is pure speculation, and despite doubts expressed at the time, it might be the renewal  / extension of the offer to all educational / non-profits might be as a result of the “private” offer being well-received.

Whether or not this is the case, the move is to be welcomed as a reversal of a decision which struck many as possibly unnecessary and damaging at the time it was taken in 2010. Leaving speculation aside, it will be interesting to see how many organisations do respond to the offer (assuming LL release any details) as time progresses and as the offer fits with various budget cycles.

There are inevitably some requirements for qualification for the deal. Not only do organisations applying have to be properly accredited (e.g. hold 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit tax status in the case of US-based organisations), but payments must be for a minimum of six months maintenance (tier), on top of the initial set-up fee, again as noted in the blog post. However, these are to be expected, and were a part of the original educational / non-profit discount offer.

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With thanks to Mona Eberhardt.

SL projects update week 30 (1): server releases, viewer, SSB/A

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments – Week 30

As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for news, updates and feedback.

Second Life Server (SLS Main) Channel

On Tuesday 23rd July, the SLS Main channel received the server maintenance package previously deployed to BlueSteel. This comprised a further package of under-the-hood changes related to the experience tools.

Release Candidate Channels

On Wednesday July 24th, the three main Release Candidate channels should receive the following updates:

  • BlueSteel should receive the same server maintenance project that was on LeTigre in week 29, and which additionally includes the experience tools updates deployed to the Main channel
  • Magnum and LeTigre should both see Server-side baking / appearance (SSB/A) enabled, and should both receive the experience tools updates deployed to the Main channel.

Viewer Updates and Release Process

The second release candidate viewer was made available on Friday July 19th. Version 3.6.2.278609 comprises the long-awaited Vivox updates. This was followed on Monday July 22nd by the third release candidate, version 3.6.2.278615, which contains Google Breakpad updates.

Commenting on the first two release candidates to be deployed (the Beta Maintenance RC and the Vivox RC), Oz Linden said at the Open-source Dev meeting on Monday July 22nd that, “they each got as many users as we asked for, and we’re getting good data on them.” However, this doesn’t mean that either one will is likely to become the de facto release viewer yet, as Oz went on to note, “we configured both of these for a relatively small number of users just in case… we might want to raise it before we make a release decision.” Given that the Google Breakpad RC has been added to the mix, any decision on which get promoted to release status may well be held over even longer as numbers are crunched.

Release candidates are now also listed on the Official Alternate Viewer wiki page, where they can be downloaded manually. In light of this, I’ve updated my overview of the new viewer release process to include notes on manually downloading and installing release candidate viewers.

Server-side Baking / Appearance

As noted above, following the RC channel restarts due on Wednesday July 24th, both Magnum and LeTigre should be running with SSB/A enabled. Overall, the response to SSB/A deployment both on LeTigre (week 28) and Magnum (week 29) has been good, with few issues being reported.

Of those which have, some may be tied to the way in which some TPVs have implemented the Current Outfit Folder (COF). To help determine whether this is the case, Nyx Linden issued an e-mail on Monday July 22nd, outlining how the Lab anticipates the COF should be set-up within a viewer, and has asked all TPVs to verify that they’ve met the requirements.

More on COF Mismatch Issues

In week 29, I referred to the issue of COF Mismatch Issues. These tend to occur when your viewer and the baking service disagree on the COF version number on which your appearance should be based, resulting in “COF version mismatch” errors appearing in the viewer. Part of the problem is due to the inventory protocol relying on both HTTP and UDP messages, some of which have failure callbacks and some which the viewer may wrongly assumes completes successfully – and the “COF version mismatch” results.

To eliminate this, the Lab is working to update the Agent Inventory Services (AIS), which will see the most error-prone operations related to the COF converted to use AIS rather than UDP. The hope is that this work will both remove the most prominent causes of COF mismatch errors and reduce the number of network calls needed to update the COF. This work has been ongoing for a while, and will form part of the next phase of SSB/A work once the current deployment has seen SSB/A go grid-wide. These updates will involve further viewer-side updates, and include a range of additional improvements, although as yet there is no time scale for their release (particularly as the Lab is only just starting discussing them with TPVs).

Group Ban List

There is not a lot to report here. Baker Linden is still working on the viewer-side code. Giving a brief update at the Simulator User Group meeting, he said, “I’m currently deciding on the format of the data coming into the viewer, and adding it to the group manager subsystem in the viewer. That’s about it :).”

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Desura – grand ambitions

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update: Linden Lab sold Desura to Bad Juju Games on November 5th, 2014.

Kris Ligman over at Gamasutra had an interesting chat with Rod Humble recently, in which the Lab’s CEO discussed the acquisition of Desura earlier in July, providing more of an insight into why it was done and – perhaps – some of the longer-term thinking going on at the Lab.

I’ve been intrigued by the acquisition since first reading the press release. Of all of the Lab’s moves to establish itself beyond SL, this is perhaps the one which could stick, and stick well – if they can follow-through on it. For one thing, Desura isn’t a start-up facing an uphill fight to gain a marketshare. It’s already established and, despite being a minnow to Steam’s whale, has nevertheless carved out a niche for itself in a sector which offers the potential for growth.

I’m not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but in digging around Gamasutra, Desura et al, I tend to agree with Iris Ophelia on the positives around the move.

Desura: have LL boxed clever on their latest acqusition
Desura: have LL boxed clever on their latest acqusition

There would also appear to be attractions beyond those Iris states. For a start, there could be the opportunity for something of a symbiotic relationship between the Lab and game developers which grows out of the acquisition.

The Lab is looking around and trying to establish a broader portfolio of products and hopefully develop them into revenue streams. At the same time, it is possible that some game developers are looking at Desura as a means of honing skills and perhaps getting noticed “out there” by a games house. Thus, through Desura, the Lab potentially gains a platform through which they can scout talent they may wish to recruit at some point, and game developers have a service they can use to promote their offerings without jumping through hoops or fighting for attention, as Iris points to being the case with Steam’s Greenlight, and be aware that the Lab might just see something they like and snap them up.

While it is unlikely to have been a consideration in the acquisition, Desura does now mean the Lab has a direct channel-to-market for any PC / Mac  / Linux games and software they produce – such as Patterns, which is already offered through Steam, but which would appear to be a good fit for Desura as well. Might we yet see the hinted-at versions of Creatorverse for PC and Mac popping-up on Desura at some point in the future (assuming Creatorverse is actually still under active development)?

Patterns: an additional channel-to-market via Desura?
Patterns: an additional channel-to-market via Desura?

However, Humble’s comments in the article make it clear that the Lab is looking at Desura in far broader and more ambitious terms. In framing the reason for acquisition to Ligman, Humble states (emphasis mine):

[We want] to make it the most open, developer- and user-friendly distribution service for all kinds of digital goods, starting out with games and mods and going from there. For us it’s a natural step… We’re about user-to-user transactions and empowering people’s creativity.

This is a pretty hefty ambition, and suggests that the Lab might be willing to take Desura into more open competition with Steam, which started offering “other” digital goods in the form of non-games software last year. And while this is pure speculation on my part, could it perhaps also be that LL have their eye on content creators interested in being able to sell their mesh creations to users of virtual worlds – not just SL, but OpenSim (and perhaps even Cloud Party)?

This may not happen immediately (if at all), but the idea needn’t be that much of a stretch. Desura is already geared to handle payments in the user’s local currency, so it would be relatively easy – and attractive to content creators – to provide a means by which they could potentially reach multiple grids without having to fiddle-fart with local on-line markets or deal with different virtual currencies. Sure, users would mostly likely have to upload whatever they buy to their chosen grid (and pay any associated upload costs), but this needn’t necessarily be a huge blocker to the idea.

Pushing my own speculations to one side, that the Lab does have ambitions for Desura inevitably raises a couple of questions: can the Lab actually live-up to its own ambitions. and will it actually be allowed to do so?

In terms of the first question, the concerns are twofold. Desura is community-oriented, and the Lab’s track record of community relations within SL hasn’t exactly been stellar. Can they fare better with the Desura user community? The other, perhaps more vital, point is that while it is already up and running and has its own community, Desura is still pretty small and needs a lot of commitment and nurturing in order to grow. This will require time and effort on the Lab’s part – do they actually have the patience and willingness to run the course (as well as the expertise to run it well), particularly among the board, who are liable to have one eye firmly on ROI? In this, it is interesting that the Lab may not actually be looking to go it alone, with Humble admitting they could well be looking to bring-in partners.

The answer to the second question  – will the Lab be allowed to develop Desura in keeping with their ambitions – in a way comes down to Valve and Steam. Currently, Steam’s focus is slewed towards the bigger names in games development, and Steam Greenlight currently appears to have a number of barriers standing in the way of the smaller developers. However, should Valve sense that Desura is getting a little too big, there would be nothing stopping them from making their own offering far more appealing to game devs across the board, undermining Desura’s appeal, and leaving it starved for growth.

The interview with Ligman is perhaps one of the more forthcoming Humble has given – in some respects, would that he’d be as candid when talking SL. It’s fair to say that in the piece he’s gone a good way to answering the question of “why?” regarding the acquisition, and which has been on a lot of lips since the move was announced. As to the additional questions as to whether they can bring their ambitions for the service to fruition – well that, as they say, will be determined in time.

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Viewer release summary 2013: week 29

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
  • 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: July 21st, 2013

Official LL Viewers

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

Additional TPV Resources

Depreciated / Discontinued Viewers

  • SL Development viewer – depreciated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
  • Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
  • Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

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Calas Galadhon: closing the park gates – temporarily

Posted on by Inara Pey

The park and wildlife regions of Calas Galadhon have long been a favourite of mine, and have appeared in these pages a few times. They are a landmark experience in SL – thirteen regions completely open to the public and offering a range of activities and events throughout the year, all maintained out of the pockets of Ty Tenk and Truck Meredith, with the welcome help of donations through the many donation boxes scattered throughout the regions.

Calas Galadhon: looking from South Farthing toward Eryn Vorn
Calas Galadhon: looking from South Farthing toward Eryn Vorn

Sadly, the challenges of real life, coupled with the overall cost of running thirteen regions, are forcing Ty and Truck to re-evaluate Calas Galadhon and look at ways and means to keep the park open, reduce to overheads (which includes the amount of time they have to spend in-world managing the regions as well as the costs involved) and continue to offer the rich and beautiful environs found within the park boundaries.

As a part of these deliberations, Ty dropped me an IM asking me if I could help spread the word that Calas Galadhon will close on Monday August 1st and remain closed through until early September. This is only a temporary closure, designed to give Ty and Truck breathing space to consider options and look to the future. Full details of the closure can be found on the Calas Galadhon website, and Ty asked me to help spread the word after the planned closure of the Park in January 2013 apparently caused a good deal of concern as many people missed the notices about it at the time.

Calas Galadhon: Dimrill Dale in winter
Calas Galadhon: Dimrill Dale in winter

Sadly, the overhaul of the regions is likely to see the loss of four of the regions from the park;  the three main water regions of the Bay of Balfalas, Belegaer & Sea of Nurnen, and also the loss of Eryn Vorn (which I’ve personally always found spectacular). One of the remaining regions may also be converted to an OpenSpace region, although as noted, options are still being considered.

If you’ve not visited the parklands, and wish to do so before any changes do get underway, now is clearly the time to do so. I really cannot over-state how beautiful all of the regions are, and how they make for a fantastic place to visit.

Yes, there are parks throughout SL, but Calas Galadhon presents an astonishing and completely contiguous landscape through which you can wander at will and feel like you are exploring an entire country, or where you feel you are truly in the wilds, far from home. On top of this, Ty and Truck take extraordinary care to present an environment where there is a lot to do, and live events occur throughout the year.

Calas Galadhon: horses gazing in Mirrormere
Calas Galadhon: horses gazing in Mirromere

This is a place you can visit and re-visit in the sure knowledge that things are always changing, evolving, showing the subtle passage of time as new features are added, others mature and evolve, all kept in balance and harmony with one another. For my part, I love all the attention to detail, especially with the wildlife, and the changing seasons through the year. I also love the fact I have the freedom to wander so far without fear of bumping into someone’s private property (there are no tenants in the regions), and can stop and sit at one of the many different campsites, panic areas, lodges, riverside shacks and so on, which are scattered around the park offering places to rest, to think and to simply observe.

There is a wonderful romance across all of the Calas parklands which is quite unique in Second Life – at least for me. Not only are there places where couples can be romantic if they so wish – there are plenty of cuddle spots and a dance locations throughout the parklands – the very names of the regions are themselves romantic, drawn as many of them are from Tolkien’s works, and there is all the romance of discovery to be enjoyed as you wander the trails, paths and cart-rutted tracks, wondering what you’ll find around the next corner or over the next bridge or in the next valley.

Calas Galadhon
Calas Galadhon

In some ways, I’m actually regretful that the park doesn’t allow a controlled number of tenants within its bounds; I’d like nothing more than to have a small cottage sitting on the edge of Calas Galadhon itself. It would be my ideal location and perfect home. However, I can well understand Ty and Truck’s desire to keep the parklands tenant-free; as mentioned, I certainly appreciate the fact they do when wandering through the parklands myself!

Calas will be re-opening during September, have no worries about that; it may be a wee bit smaller when it does, and some things may have changed, but it will be re-opening.

In the meantime, why not take a couple of hours and go and experience them to the fullest, particularly if any of those earmarked for closure hold special meaning for you. The chances are that if you do, you may well run into me doing the same. And if you haven’t discovered Galas Galadhon for yourself as yet, now is never too soon, whether or not changes are in the wind. As I said earlier in this piece, it really is exceptional. If you do, don’t forget to drop a small amount of your appreciation into one of the donation boxes :).

Calas Galadhon: Glanduin
Calas Galadhon: Glanduin

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Murder, explorations with avatars, and discovering shapechangers

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff of the Seanchai Library SL.

As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday 21st July, 13:30 – Tea Time At Baker Street

The last tea time visit to 221B Baker Street did not end happily, with Holmes apparently plunging to his death alongside his nemesis, James Moriarty, at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland.

Holmes-returnNow we move forward three years (in story time) as Caledonia Skytower and Corwyn Allen bring us The Adventure of the Empty House, first published in 1903, ten years after Holmes’ last adventure reached print, and subsequently the first (of 13) stories to appear in the 1905 volume The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

Widower Doctor John Watson attends the murder of a young gambler, the Honorable Ronald Adair. Apparently shot at close range with a revolver, Adair’s room was locked from the inside with the only other exit being a 20-foot drop out of an open window to the street below; not an easy escape route for a murderer. While visiting the crime scene, Watson encounters an old book collector, and is perplexed when the book collector follows him back to his Kensington Practice – until the old man removes his disguise and proves himself to be: Sherlock Holmes!

Thus, Watson is reunited with Holmes and learns some of what has transpired in the three years since the events in Switzerland. He also learns that Holmes is still in danger and has baited a trap in which  he hopes to catch one of Moriarty’s henchmen, who, as it transpires, is also responsible for the murder of Ronald Adair.

Monday 22nd July, 19:00 – Let’s Explore David Sedaris (with Avatars!)

Lets ExploreAmerican humourist, comedian, author, playwright and radio contributor David Sedaris is well-known on both sides of the Atlantic (he currently resides in England and has enjoyed a number of BBC radio series in the UK), and has sold over seven million copies worldwide.

Sedaris’ humour is predominantly autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, and his Greek heritage, as well as touching on his life in France and England, and topics such as drug abuse and obsessive behaviour.  His most recent title is Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, published in April 2013, which went directly to the number one spot in the New York Times bestseller list.

Here Crap Mariner brings his own inimitable style, wit and delivery to Sedaris’ work, in what is bound to be an entertaining evening which, time zones allowing, is not one to be missed.

Tuesday 23rd July, 19:00: Ruffles On My Longjohns (3)

rufflesIn 1913, American-born Ralph Edwards established a homestead in Bella Coola Valley, British Columbia, and went on to become famous as a conservationist and the “Crusoe of Lonesome Lake”.

In the early 1930s, following his return to Bella Coola, he was joined by his brother Earle, and sister-in-law Isabel, who came straight from the city of Portland, Oregon on what was supposed to be a vacation visit. However, both of them fell in love with the wilds of British Columbia and decided to move there themselves, settling into a farm near Bella Coola.

Ruffles in my Longjohns is Isabel’s autobiographical account of her pioneering life with her husband, far from all the trappings of “civilisation” in the 1930s and 1940s. It is a firsthand account of homesteading, told with wit, whimsy and panache, the tale of “city girl” living on the frontier in a world of hard-bitten men, and how she coped, told in a loving, personal style.

Join Faerie Maven-Pralou as she embarks on the third part of a reading from this inspiring book.

Wednesday 24th July, 19:00: Vacationland

With Kayden Oconnell and Caledonia Skytower.

Thursday 25th July, 19:00: The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People

beastlyAnother fascinating pick by Shadon Loring brings us this collection of original stories and poems selected by editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, published in 2010 as a part of their “mythic fiction” series for young adult readers.

What do werewolves, vampires, and the Little Mermaid have in common? They are all shapechangers. The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People, brings together works on all of them and more, from authors both established and new.

The volume includes an introduction to the subject of shapechangers and the genre by Terri Windling, and the stories are gathered from all corners of the world – from Finland to India and the Pacific Northwest to the Hamptons of the United States.

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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for July and August is Little Kids Rock. Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

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