It’s once again that annual time of reflection. The winter is with us, the old year is slowing dying, the new year awaits, and it is time to look back across the highs and lows of the virtual year as seen through the pages of this blog.
This year has been even busier for me than previous years, so rather than give you a sea of text to wade through, I’ve opted to break things down into three more manageable offerings, starting with January through to April, and have tried to limit myself to bullet-points to the various links. I’ve not attempted to dot every “I” and cross every “T”; rather my aim is to highlight the main items of news for each month (or those which raised a smile), and those aspects of other VWs I had time to cover and well as a look back on some personal elements of my SL times over the year.
For those into art and SL exploration, I’ve also summarised installations and regions visited by month in the hope that doing so will stir your own memories of those events / places.
- January-April can be found here
- September-December can be found here.
May
Second Life and the Lab
- The Lab announces their viewer release process is to be revamped to avoid the bottlenecks which occurred in late 2012. Further details were also given at an Open-source Dev meeting and later in the month I provide a preview
- The Drax Files episode 5 is released, and Draxtor and I start collaborating on our Conversations With series to run alongside the show
- Following Ciaran Laval’s lead, I contemplated using SL as a platform for “outside” events
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Changes to the ToS spark speculation that the Lab is relating to recent FINCEN guidelines LL update the SL Terms of Service relating to third-party exchanges (TPE) and withdraw the risk API, The move prompts speculation that the Lab is responding to recent FINCEN documents. The Lab later contacts some TPEs, others find their accounts suspended prior to the Lab launching an authorized L$ reseller programme
- Designing Worlds hold a special show on Server-side Appearance and Materials and I provide a summary of the key points on SSA
- The Lab announces its own approach to SL’s tenth anniversary
- Amidst all the interest in Oculus Rift, I take a look at CastAR, an augmented reality headset
- I look at Tatara, a tool for creating mesh and sculpts and also look at SL browser extensions for Google Chrome and Helpers for Firefox
- MadPea’s long-running Carneval closes its gates
Platform News
- A fix for the missing prim issue was held-up at the start of the month due to viewer crashing issues & region crossings were being a pain
- Further viewer-side SSA updates announced, together with materials updates Fmod Ex sound stuttering continues
- The “stay within parcel” update to pathfinding arrive server-side
- The Lab adds JSON support to LSL
- Group ban list work progresses
- At the end of the month, the Lab officially announces SSA and work continues trying to eliminate remaining issues such as SUN-74. In the same report, I cover an issue with sudden region disconnects which resemble a region crash
Art Reviews
- Raglan Shire Art Walk – Raglan Shire
- Nin9 – LEA
- Da Vinci’s World – LEA
- Machinima Open Studio Project – LEA
Events
- World Goth Fair
- Bay City at 5
- SL Home and Garden Expo
- I give a small trailer for SL10BCC
- The Berlin 1920s Project celebrates four years
- SLB10A preview
Pey’s Travelogue
- Keisei
- Luminarios Divide (gone)
- Baja Norte
- Cape Ekim
- SolAria
- It all starts with a smile
- Winter Moon
- Brussels Grand Place
- Lula
- Sol Existence
- FuriZona
- Sea Salts
Personal Notes
- I answer Strawberry Singh’s “Why do I blog” meme
- NASA’s Curiosity rover ‘phones home after a month-long break in communications due to a solar conjunction
- I contemplate my relationship with my Alt in-world and also mark four years of blogging with WordPress
- I take to the water in an E-Tech Sparrow
Other Worlds
- Cloud Party holds a $1000 competition
- Kitely open their market to merchants
- First annual OpenSim community conference announced
June
Second Life and the Lab
- Materials processing arrives in the beta viewer and I give and overview
- The Drax Files features Rod Humble and he confirms the Lab is working on Oculus Rift integration
- The Lab issue a bear avatar which demonstrates materials & celebrates SL’s 10th anniversary. More gifts from the Lab follow through the month
- Uzi Boa provides a comparison page for L$ resellers
- Catznip becomes the latest TPV to offer SSA support together with pathfinding navmesh support
- Magellan Linden returns – if only to get others to do his work!
- LL announce SL Marketplace to transition to SL billing engine, this is completed later in the month, and additional new payment options are introduced for purchases
- The official SL 10th anniversary press release and infographic are released, I answer the BBC’s question of “Whatever happened to Second Life?“
- A tie-in with Dell sees US SL users have a to chance to win a high-end laptop to mark SL10B
- Misty Mole resigns from the LDPW
- RFL of SL reports $300,000 already raised in 2013, with the Relay Weekend still to come
- Firestorm gains SSA support
- A preliminary settlement agreement is reached between Evans et al and Linden Lab in a long-running dispute over account bans and virtual land ownership, after the judge denied the Main Class of the suit, but granted the Subclass A of the suit
Platform News
- The Lab continues to try to resolve SUN-74
- LL announce scripted means to return objects in a parcel which appear in a server-side RC update later in the month, only to be temporarily rolled-back due to a potential griefing vector
- Snapshot issues continue and the mesh deformer remains stalled
- The Lab moves closer to resolving the SUN-74 asset corruption issue
- A further SSA load test takes place on the main grid and server-side deployment announced as “imminent”
- Materials Processing reaches the SL release viewer, and Black Dragon and Kokua offer materials support
- Region visibility issues continue, additional issues are found with materials, and the materials resources get a listing from me
- The “stay within parcel” pathfinding capabilities result in some regions suffering continuous navmesh rebaking, hurting simulator performance
Art Reviews
- MadPea Art Festival and Art in Hats – MadPea / Art India
Events
- I preview the SL10BCC A’stra live stage; later in the month the event launches, and I provide my personals Picks of the Day through the week, starting with Monday, and on through Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and the Lab joins-in; finally, and on behalf of Toady and Flea, I offer a special on the A’stra Live Stage
- 2nd annual Sol Regatta for RFL of SL
- SL10B by Us
- UWA Centenary Challenge with L$20,000 in prizes
- The Dickens Project looks to the future
- Under the Sea Expo
Pey’s Travelogue
Mont Saint-Michel – click for full size
- Alpha and Omega Points remembered
- Forgotten City
- Flocke
- Beta Participants Wall
- David Rumsey Maps
- Mont Saint-Michel
- Rougham Town
- The Sands of Time / Majilis Al Jinn
- Jordan First
- Kusanagi
- Inspiration Point
Personal Notes
- I start experimenting with post-processing snapshots, which leads me into an attempt to participate in Strawberry Singh’s film poster meme
- Work commences on preparing Curiosity for the drive to “Mount Sharp” and two special one billion pixel interactive images are produced from the mission
July
Second Life and the Lab
- An oopsie with the release of Firestorm 4.4.1 results in the release of version 4.4.2
- LL start A/B testing their “Social Islands” and “Leaning Islands” alongside the existing Destination Islands with new users
- Imprudence tries to catch-up
- All Things D publish a Q&A with LL’s Rod Humble while FastCompany provide a more detailed look at LL and SL
- Pointers are given to Blocksworld, acquired by the Lab at the start of the year, may launch in July,
- Lance Corrimal, buried under the needs of real life, provides a brief update on the Dolphin viewer
- Richard Evans, one of the minds behind the Lab’s Versu, looks at making NPCs more human for simulation and training
- The Lab announces it has acquired the Australia-based Desura digital distribution service
- LL launch their new viewer release process; following this, Rod Humble talks to Gamasutra about it and both Desura and Blocksworld debut on LL’s corporate web pages
- Calas Galadhon parklands close the gate – temporarily
- The 50% discount for education and non-profit originations officially returns
- I offer a personal look at separating the (Oculus) Rift from the hype
Platform News
- People ask “what is a reasonable fps rate?” with ALM required for materials, and concerns continue about the potentially negative influence of materials on the land impact of complex prims
- SSA starts deployment server-side and Catznip updates to the latest SSA viewer code from LL while Exodus becomes SSA ready; the z-offset issue remains a point of contention as do COF mismatch issues
- In week 28. viewer-side code for particle blocking reaches a beta maintenance viewer, together with the first part of the code for the new particle capabilities (ribbon particles, glow, etc) and further fixes for snapshot issues. Meanwhile, the strange situation of people’s skins appearing the sky is discussed, and a fix for the pathfinding bug is deployed
- Some movement takes place with the mesh deformer
- Week 30 sees data on SSA-capable viewer adoption rates, together with updates on core issues still to be resolved; Monty Linden provides an update on his work improving mesh handling communications between the server and viewer; the new experience tools continue to frustrate with their non-appearance
- Animation synching issues start to be increasingly noticed, possibly the result of interest list work
Art Reviews
- When the Mind’s Eye Listens – LEA
- Ghostville – Per4mance MetaLES
Events
Pey’s Travelogue
- Taka no Sakura (1)
- Derailed
- del Vino
- Gehena Vampire Clan
- The Untroubled Sound
- Verdigris
- Garden of Eden (closed / moved)
The Untroubled sound – click for full size
Personal Notes
- I give a personal look back on SL10BCC
- Curiosity starts an 8-month drive to the slopes of “Mount Sharp” on Mars
- Loki Eliot releases a starship combat game with the ships using materials, and I have a play
- My new PC arrives as the old one slowly expires, and SL gets a new lease of life
Other Worlds
August
Second Life and the Lab
- Blocksworld officially launches on the ast of the month and initially gains a favourable response
- dio gets an extensive overhaul, but perhaps loses more than it gains
- As the Google Affiliate Network is dues to shut-down, LL team with Commission Junction for their affiliates programme
- SL-based training aims to enhance patient management skills among UK surgeons
- Desura founder Scott Reismanis talks to Root Gamer about being acquired by the LL
- LivingSL blog feed officially launched
- Singularity releases permissions-respecting object back-up and export for SL and OpenSim; Kokua adopts the .DAE export capability
- Patterns is offered through Desura and the Lab launches another Dell / Alienware competition
- The Lab overhaul the Terms of Service, producing a single document design to cover all their products and services; response is initially muted
- NiranV Dean officially announces Black Dragon has replaced his “Niran’s Viewer”
- I offer a personal perspective on Liquid Mesh
- CtrlAltStudio becomes the first viewer to offer initial Oculus Rift support as well as offering a stereoscopic 3D world view
- Versu finally sees new titles added
- Restrained Love adopts the “z-offset” pose height adjustment from Cool VL viewer
- The Blackened Mirror season 2 announced
- The Second Life viewer arrives on Desura
- Calas Galadhon parklands reopen
Platform News
- Investigations show the animation synching issue goes back as far as 2012
- Week 32 sees rezzing / teleport block introduced for regions within 60 seconds of a restart, together with an update so that Stop Animating Me revokes animation permissions server-side to help prevent animation griefing : the Labs starts encouraging TPVs to adopt their viewer updater code, despite it having perceived annoyances while number-crunching continues with the SSA RC deployments in the same report, TPVs voice concern over Liquid Mesh
- Week 33 sees the “grey box attachment” issue appear and concerns over ALM / materials continue, possibly due to confusion of ALM & having lighting & projectors enabled; there are increasing reports of texture thrashing issues in the viewer
- The Lab announces SSA to be live across the grid on August 20th/21st following the deployment, I offer a project update
- Details emerging on the Lab’s thinking on handling the viewer UI in Oculus Rift
- Monty seeks to dispel myths about high mesh debug settings in the viewer and impose sensible limits
- Andrew Linden starts digging into some more anti-griefing measures
- New parcel access controls announced and “grey box” attachment issue fix deployed
Art Reviews
- Machinima Open Studio Project – LEA
- UWA Centenary Art & 6th Machinima Challenge winners – UWA
- Inner Prisons / Escapes – Art India
- Musiclandia – LEA
Events
Pey’s Travelogue
Black Basalt Beach – click for full size
- Jasmine’s Hollow and the Dirty Grind
- Bitacora
- Black Basalt Beach
- Collins Land (1)
- Quiet Wilderness
- Scribbled Hearts
- Calico
Personal Notes
- Curiosity reaches the 1st anniversary of its time on Mars
- I start introducing improved navigation to this blog, including a new top menu structure
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
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