On Tuesday April 2nd, Linden Lab issued a blog post on pricing for private region moves on the grid (i.e. moving a region from one location to another on the grid map), and for renaming regions.
If you have a private region in Second Life, there are several special services you might occasionally need, like region moves and name changes.
The charges for these services depends on the number of private regions you have, and to make it easier for all of our customers to understand the fee structure, we now have laid it out in this chart in the Knowledge Base:
(New region fees – poor readability due to original also being of poor quality – click to enlarge)
To request one of these private region management services, please submit a case through the support portal.
The guidelines for actually moving / renaiming private regions remain unchanged.
Also unchanged is the cost of transferring a region to new ownership. This remains at $100 per region (plus VAT for Europe), which includes moving and renaming the region, transferring billing for the region and changing the estate ownership settings.
The fifth Second Life Fantasy Faire will be held from April 20th through 28th 2013. There has already been a call for designers – which has been very well supported – and on April 1st, the organisers opened registrations for bloggers.
Once again, those wishing to blog about the event can do so in one of two ways:
Become an “official” blogger, complete with certain requirements and benefits
Remain a “casual” blogger, but enjoy access to the regions on the press preview day.
To qualify as an “official” blogger, a blogger must (among other things) have been blogging for at least 2 months, update their blog at least weekly and be required to blog about at least one item designed specifically as a RFL fund-raising item for the Faire, as supplied to them by each of the four stores to which they’ll be assigned. In return, the blogger will be listed on the Fantasy Faire website.
Full details on the requirements can be found on the blogger application form. Note that applications must be received no later than Friday April 5th.
One of the stunning official Fantasy Faire 2013 posters – picture: Tamzin Xiglia; design: Alia Baroque; logo: Marcus Inkpen
First Regions Announced
The first three regions for this year’s event have been announced, together with their sponsors and participating designers. They are:
Crimson Fields: sponsored by T R I D E N T; featuring: lassitude & ennui; [ContraptioN]; Satyrs Moon; FallnAngel Creations; meadowWorks; Unzipped; and with themed stores: The Muses; Vengeful Threads; Psst…Here Kitty, Kitty; Kishi Creations; ImpWerks; – NaLa –; MysticHope Design; TempT; The Elegant Goth; De La Soul
Evensong Woods: sponsored by Roawenwood; featuring: Boudoir; ~*Star Kindler Designs*~; Illusions; Mystique; Mindgardens Creations;ThatChick; and with themed stores: Swings Paradise Furnitures; Unique Obsession; Kotori; +Half-Deer+; {Lemon Tea}; An Lema; EagleHeart Designs; ~Sa-eela~; ~ Mystic Sky ~; .:EMO-tions:.
The DragonSpire: sponsored by: The Arcanum; featuring:Dark Goddess Designs; Curious Kitties;Favourite Genes; Black Veil Outfitters;The Golden Thorn; ~Refined Wild~; and with themed stores: Niekra’s Dreams; Wilds of Organica; Tayren’s Fantasy Fashions;
Sparkle Skye Designs; Elvenbreath; Dysfunctional Designs; *.:!Completely oBVious!:.*; Talevin’s Designs; Whatz; Analog Dog Hair.
Linden Lab have announced that as from April 2nd, 2013, Creatorverse, the first in their new range of products to be released in a “full” version, is available free-of-charge for the Apple iOS (iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone) – however, “advanced tool” packs will now be sold within the application itself.
The announcement of the move reads in part:
SAN FRANCISCO – April 2, 2013 – Linden Lab, the makers of shared creative spaces including Second Life®, PatternsTM, and dioTM, today announced that CreatorverseTM for iOS is now available for free. Previously, Linden Lab had offered Creatorverse for iOS for $4.99, and Creatorverse Lite for free, but now Creatorverse is available for iOS as a single, free app. Creatorverse for Android and for Kindle Fire will soon follow the same model.
The announcement goes on:
For more complex creations, packs of advanced tools like teleporters and motors, are now available for purchase within the app. In addition, a new capability for Creatorverse, thrusters, are now available in the Rocket Tool Pack, which will allow users to easily add rockets, jetpacks, and more to their Creatorverse designs.
Creatorverse – “Full” version now free on iOS – other than “advanced tools” – Android and Kindle to follow
The the first of the “advanced tools” packs will be an “Advanced Creator Pack” priced at $4.99 However, all those who have purchased Creatorverse for iOS prior to the pricing model change will receive this pack free of charge – and it is assumed the same offer will be extended to Kindle / Android users when these versions also switch to the new pricing model. Whether or not other “add-on” packages will be offered at the same price remains to be seen – but it appears likely.
Downloads rapidly tumbled on Google Play (Dec 2012)
It’s been hard to gauge how Creatorverse has faired since being launched; while initial interest was high, it did appear – within the Android market at least, to tail-off very quickly, with downloads plummeting rapidly. Today, downloads appear to be so low, they are no longer graphically represented on Google Play
As I commented on the launch of the “Lite” version of the application, it’s hard to judge the move on LL’s part – is it a clever marketing ploy or a further attempt to bolster an application which isn’t actually making much headway?
Doubtless, there will be many who see the move in terms of the latter.
Creatorverse Lite downloads on Google Play (Mar 2013)
However, offering the app free, but holding the more advanced tools back as a purchasable option could actually be a canny move – and it is possible that downloads of the Lite version of Creatorverse have encouraged LL to think in these terms. These appear to be running at a somewhat higher daily average compared to the full-price version – which is suggestive that there is a market for the free version of the app out there, and that the marketing additional features and capabilities in “advanced” tool packs could be a tidy way for LL to continue to generate revenue off the back of that popularity, and to maintain interest in the product as a whole.
In this regard, the idea of generating income from “expansion packs” isn’t new – it’s something those at LL with a background in games will be very familiar with. What’s more, it is putting Creatorverse in the same marketing model as Versu.
Don’t forget that Magic Box retirement commences today. As per a recent announcement from Linden Lab, from April 2nd:
Merchants will no longer be able to list unlimited-quantity items for L$10 or less using Magic Boxes.
Any active, unlimited-quantity listings for L$10 or less using Magic Boxes will be unlisted.
Therefore, if you are selling items at L$10 or less, and haven’t already migrated them to Direct Delivery – you’ll need to set aside time ASAP or risk seeing them unlisted as from April 3rd.
SL Marketplace: first phase of Magic Box comes into effect from midnight SLT on April 2nd
To assist with migration, the Lab has a Direct Delivery Migration FAQ. Also, for those who have experienced specific issues with DD in the past, the Lab has re-issued the Merchant Outbox project viewer with some fixes which should overcome any issues previously experienced.
Additionally, merchants should again note that from April 16th:
Merchants will no longer be able to list unlimited-quantity items using Magic Boxes, regardless of price.
Any remaining active, unlimited-quantity listings using Magic Boxes will be unlisted, regardless of price.
As per the original announcement:
Limited-quantity items (i.e. those to items to which the merchant does not have rights to copy – such as breedables) can continue to use Magic Boxes for the time being
There is still no confirmed date by which limited-quantity items must be migrated to Direct Delivery, and the Lab is still intending to present merchants with a 30-day lead time for migration once the date has been set.
The best laid plans of mice, men and Linden Lab gang aft a-gley…
Back in my week 12 update, I reported on the Lab’s hoped-for deployments, viewer-wise in the upcoming weeks, noting that if all went well, CHUI would reach the release viewer late in week 13, and open the door for Server-side Baking to move to the Beta viewer at the start of week 14 – possibly even on April 1st (and no, that wasn’t an early April Fool’s joke from Oz!).
However, a couple of things have come up which are tweaking things slightly.
Communications Hub User Interface
There are a number of unresolved issues with CHUI, not all of which might necessarily prevent the code moving to the release channel, but some of which do have significant performance / useability impacts, such as:
CHUIBUG-132 – Frequent performance issues on recent CHUI builds – fast timers show problem is in “URL Complete”
CHUIBUG-183 – cancelling an inventory search before the search is complete results in blank inventory contents (issue thought to be the result of a refactoring of the inventory code which is included with the CHUI code)
As a result, there was a further release of the CHUI beta viewer on April 1st (3.5.0.273174), which was followed by a further development viewer update (3.5.1.273259) on the same day.
Server-side Baking
Server-side appearance baking – no beta viewer just yet
It had been hoped that the viewer code for SSB would move to the beta channel once CHUI had moved to the release channel. As CHUI is now remaining in beta for a while longer, the move with SSB has been delayed.
In terms of SSB’s viewer beta run, LL are re-assessing the time frame. Again, on March 22nd, Oz Linden suggested that the beta run would be between two and four weeks and liable to sway towards the latter – with the caveat that a lot depends on issues / bugs which are found during the beta run. The current thinking at LL appears to be more pragmatically focused on seeing what occurs during the beta run, rather than pinning matters to a firm timescale – as such, SSB is liable to be in beta for around two weeks, possibly longer.
However, in terms of the server code, the plan remains to cut-over to the new server code capability after the SSB code has reached the release channel of the SL viewer – although again, it is possible some initial testing regions may be running on Agni prior to the SSB code appearing in the release viewer. Until now, LL have indicated that the server-side deployment will be gradual, again as indicated in my week 12 notes linked-to above; however, exact plans still have to be confirmed within the Lab, so this may well also be subject to change in the future.
One issue with the SSB server-side code is that crossing from an SSB-enabled region to a non-SSB region triggers the need for a manual rebake (going from a non-SSB region to an SSB-enabled region will trigger and automatic rebake), and some concern has been raised that this might cause some upset as the SSB code is deployed. However, and as Oz Linden points out, manual rebakes are currently a fact-of-life on SL, and as such, this is unlikely to be seen as a reason for an immediate deployment of SSB right across the grid; nor does it warrant time being spent on ensuring rebakes are handled automatically during such region crossings as once server-side deployment does commence, the issue is liable to be relatively short-lived.
Oculus Rift and Leap Motion
The Oculus Rift headset has been garnering a lot of interest. While still very much under development, the headset has already gained considerable support from the likes of Valve Software and other game-makers. This has inevitably lead to some asking whether LL have their eye on the technology.
Whether they have or not is unclear. What is clear, and while not quite the same, is that there has been some informal experiments with the Leap Motion system, courtesy of Simon Linden, as reported on in the SL blog and also in these pages.
Commenting on the Leap Motion work which chairing the Open-source Dev meeting on monday April 1st, Oz Linden said, “If an open source dev wanted to pick up what Simon started, that would be great. That was a side project of his, and right now we don’t have time to do much more with it internally.”
The code for the work Simon has completed was also made available when his experiments were made public – so if anyone is up for the challenge, the links are still live!
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: March 31st, 2013
SL Viewer updates:
Development viewer rolled to 3.5.1.272979 on March 28th
Sunshine (server-side baking project) update to 3.4.5.273172 on March 29th
Niran’s Viewer updated to 2.1.5 on March 30th – core updates: UI updates, including build floater revisions, HTML-type tagging in text for bold, underlined, coloured text, snapshot floater updates – release notes
On Tuesday April 2nd, Linden Lab issued a blog post on pricing for private region moves on the grid (i.e. moving a region from one location to another on the grid map), and for renaming regions.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 