Month: January 2014

Of willows and water and on finding tranquillity

Posted on by Inara Pey

Annwn Willows, January 2014Annwn Willows – click for full size

I first visited Annwn Willows nigh-on a year ago. Back then, it was known as Just Visiting, and  Joanna Corith had – as she explains in the note card visitors receive on arriving – recently (the end of 2012) started creating small builds within the region.

That visit was marked by me suffering from something of a mental block, blog-wise and struggling to put thoughts together on a number of subjects I wanted to write about. My visit helped clear my mind somewhat, each of the vignettes within the region serving to offer a little haven of peace and tranquillity at a time when even Second Life felt like it was getting a little too full of bustle and noise.

Annwn Willows, January 2014Annwn Willows – click for full size

More recently, Annwn Willows has again come to the attention of a number of bloggers: Ziki, Amy, Honour and more, who have all blogged or re-blogged about it – and rightly so; Joanna’s creativity is infectious in the moods and feelings it creates. As it has been close to a year since my last visit, I thought it time I once again bathed, as it were, in the calming influence of her designs.

One of the major attractions to Annwn Willows, for me at least, has been the fact that it is a water-based region, something Joanna acknowledges herself. This helps imbue the region with a sense of peace and calm, and to bring focus to each of the vignettes created within it. With the current design, the aquatic theme is very clear – the region is almost entirely covered in water, with individual scenes to be found both above and below the rippling waves – or in the case of the arrival point, floating over them.

Annwn Willows, January 2014Annwn Willows – click for full size

Don’t be deceived by the apparent “emptiness” here; there is more to Annwn Willows than may initially meet the eye, and careful exploration is encouraged. This is a place merfolk will enjoy exploring, given there is so much to be enjoyed under water. And when you’ve explored all there is down below, either side of the waves, don’t forget the teleport system, which will reveal more to you in the sky above, including the store area, where proceeds help to keep the region alive.

Calas Galadhon Parklands, December 2013Annwn Willows – click for full size

“Annwn Willows is about a story still asleep. It dreams,” the introductory note card tells us. If this is so, then the individual elements within the region are perhaps images of those dreams slipping into a conscious reality, allowing us to share in them, become a part of them – even add to them through our own presence.

Related Links

Calling all SL communities: it’s time to sign-up for the SL Winter Games!

Posted on by Inara Pey

Marianne McCann of Bay City fame, and Drewski Northman from the East River Federation have teamed-up with the Chamonix City administration to arrange and host the first ever Second Life Winter Games.

Ski run: Chamonix
Ski run: Chamonix

Scheduled to take place in March 2014 (dates still tbc), the games will comprise a mix of sporting and social events throughout, including: hockey, skiing, snowboarding, curling, figure skating, live music, DJs, parties and more.

The focus of the games will be all about community, as Drewski explained when blogging the announcement for the event:

SL is at its very best when a community bands together to produce wonderful creations, tell compelling stories, or host fun events. The Games allow communities of all stripes, Steampunk, Retro, Bohemian, Metropolitan, Futuristic, to come together on common ground to compete, interact, and showcase what makes their community special. Along with the athletic events, there will be a Cultural Exchange Centre that will allow each community to set up an informative display for others to see.

Given the community theme, a further aspect of the games will be that of cultural exchange: presenting communities with the opportunity to showcase themselves, exchange ideas, and for residents to find out more about SL’s many diverse communities.

charm is home to the Global Online Hockey Association
Chamonix in Second Life is home to the Global Online Hockey Association

The choice of the Chamonix City regions for the games is highly appropriate, as it was in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France that the very first official Winter Olympic games were held. Chamonix in Second Life is home to the Global Online Hockey Association, and sits in the historic Snowlands region of Sansara, where Winterfest was hosted by the Lindens in years gone by.

Those wishing to participate in the Games or who would like to help out in any way with the organisation and running of the games, please contact Drewski Northman, or Marianne McCann in-world.

So now is the time for all communities in SL to start planning. The Winter Games are coming, and teams are wanted!

SL projects updates week 2 (1): server releases, AIS v3

Posted on by Inara Pey
The first Simulator User Group meeting of 2014
The first Simulator User Group meeting of 2014

Server Deployments: week 2, 2014

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

Main Channel: Tuesday January 7th

The main channel received the server maintenance project that had been on the RC channels for the past few weeks. It contains a single bug fix, related to vehicles becoming stuck in the ‘sat upon’ state (which prevents parcel auto return).

This issue is related to vehicles getting into a “bad” state if they lose the passenger right at region crossing. The vehicle is left with what is effectively a “ghost rider” sitting in it, which defeats parcel auto return, leaving the vehicle in-world.

Release Candidate Channels, Wednesday January 8th

All three RC channels should receive a new server maintenance project, which contains some crash fixes and the new LSL functions for uniformly scaling linksets.

The uniform scaling project was one of the last projects Andrew Linden worked on prior to departing the Lab at the end of 2013. The new functions comprise:

  • integer llScaleByFactor(float scaling_factor)
    • Uniformly resizes the linkset by the given multiplicative scale factor (e.g. 2.0 to double the scale in all dimensions)
    • Returns TRUE if rescaling was successful or FALSE otherwise
    • This function only succeeds in non-physical objects
    • Rescaling is subject to Linkability_Rules and prim scale limits
  • float llGetMinScaleFactor()
    • Returns the minimum multiplicative scale factor which can be used by llScaleByFactor(); i.e. such that every prim in the linkset is >=1mm in scale
  • float llGetMaxScaleFactor()
    • Returns the maximum multiplicative scale factor which can be used by llScaleByFactor(); i.e. such that every prim in the linkset is <=64m and the resulting linkset meets linkability requirements

In addition, the RC project includes server-side support for custom default permissions on newly created objects. This is again some of the last pieces of server-side work Andrew Linden was involved in prior to his departure, and forms the server-side work related to STORM-68.  The viewer element of this work is a third-party code contribution from Jonathan Yap, and should be appearing in a Snowstorm RC viewer in the near future.

Finally, the RC project also contains the server-side work to allow to fetch LSL syntax rules directly from the simulator, rather than downloading them from a manually maintained file. This should enable up-to-date syntax highlighting within the script editor. This work forms a part of STORM-1831, which is a third-party viewer project developed by Ima Mechanic. Again, the viewer-side updates should be appearing in a Snowstorm RC viewer in the near future.

Sunshine AIS v3

During the Content Creation meeting on Monday January 6th, Nyx Linden reported at the next round of server-side changes for the Sunshine / AIS v3 updates are currently being “queued-up” ready for deployment – although not day is as yet available for when they’ll actually see the light of day.

In the meantime, the viewer-side changes are progressing, and are “nearing readiness for release as a test viewer. Those who have been following my AIS updates will know that the Lab has been encouraging TPVs to adopt the viewer-side code updates for use in experimental versions of their viewers, as LL would like to run a pile-on test to test the new AIS updates and inventory handling using regions on the Beta (Aditi) grid. There had been hopes within the Lab that such testing might take place prior to the end-of-year holidays, so expect to be hearing more on this in the near future.

Other Items

Snapshot uploads to the SL Feeds

As many are aware, there have been numerous issues with the SL profile feeds (my.secondlife.com), including issues around uploading snapshot to the feeds.

The problem, which first surfaced prior to the Christmas break, has not affected everyone using the feeds, but those who have been impacted have found it to be most irritating. Simon Linden poked at it, and as a result some people who were impacted were once again able to upload their images. However, for a good number, the problem still remains. As of January 7th, the situation remains that the Profiles team is still attempting to resolve the issue.

Part of the Flash Mob

Posted on by Inara Pey
Flash Mob: a piece by Secret Rage
Flash Mob: a piece by Secret Rage

On January 3rd, and thanks to Quan Lavender, I wrote-up a small piece on In the Belly of the Whale and Flash Mob, both of which are taking place under the auspices of the LEA in January. At the time of writing, Flash Mob was just in the process of starting-up, so I thought I’d pop back and take a peek – although admittedly with ulterior motives.

The event is the brainchild of Secret Rage, who is also curating it across LEA26 and LEA27. As noted in my preview report, Secret is inviting people to submit one or more art pieces (the total for which should not exceed 200 LI) to be displayed within one of the regions through until the end of January – the hope being to keep on adding pieces until the combined 30,000 LI capacity of both regions is reached.

Flash Mob: Frankx Lefavre
Flash Mob: Frankx Lefavre

Already a number of noted artists and SL photographers have responded to the call, and Flash Mob is turning into a fascinating collection of SL art work which is also quite possibly one of the most unique in SL in the way it is both bringing so many different talents together in one place and because there is no central theme or idea on which the exhibits are to be based, leading to an intrigue mix of exhibits.

Piece currently on display include works by Claudia222 Jewell (always a favourite), Giovanna Cerise, Bear Silvershade and Derry McMahon and Ziki Questi (three photographers I greatly admire), Haveit Neox, Betty Tureaud, Ataro Asbrink, Fuschia Nightfire – and more.

The pieces on display range from photos and paintings through sculptures and murals to interactive pieces, all set-out in an open landscape one can explore at will and in whatever direction one opts to take.

Flash Mob: Angelwood Bay Arts Center (angel Kingmaker)
Flash Mob: Angelwood Bay Arts Center (angel Kingmaker)

Given the nature of the event, it makes for a highly eclectic exhibit, one which perhaps gives visitors the chance to see works by people they’ve not come across in SL before (that’s certainly the case with me; I’ve already found pieces by several people I’ve added to my list of Names To Watch Out For in art and other announcements).

And the ulterior move for this revisit? Well, I got up the courage to submit 8 of my own images of places around SL, and Secret has put them up in a rather nice little display in what is the first time I’ve exhibited anything in-world.

My little bit if Flash Mob :)
My little bit if Flash Mob 🙂

I don’t expect anyone to visit Flash Mob simply because I have some pictures there, but given the august company surrounding my little efforts, I do commend Flash Mob as a worthwhile visit; It’s a great way to enjoy a very broad cross-section of SL art,

Related Links

MachinEVO: a machinima workshop for educators

Posted on by Inara Pey
MachinEVO logo, used in accordance with licence requirements
MachinEVO logo, used in accordance with licence requirements

I received a poke about MachinEVO, a 5-week workshop for language educators to learn how to create machinima in virtual worlds, which is once again taking place in Second Life.

Building upon the successful 2012 and 2013 series, this year’s workshop commences on Monday January 13th, 2014, and concludes on Friday February 28th, 2014 with a special film festival and awards ceremony hosted at the 7th SLanguages Annual Symposium.

The entire workshop is offered free-of-charge, and registrations are now open and will remain thus until Sunday January 12th. Those interested in participating can register via the MachinEVO Google group. General information on the workshop can be found at the MachinEVO wiki.

“Moving pictures, sound and stories are the most powerful way of communicating learning content,” Heike Philp, one of the workshop’s organisers states. “MachinEVO takes up the challenge of ‘video as a new language of learning’ and purposes to train and equip language teachers to produce visually appealing videos in virtual worlds, commonly called machinima. In this EVO session we will learn how to create machinima, from filming to post-production until the video has been uploaded onto a video hosting sites. ”

Location and Schedule

The five-week course will primarily take place on EduNation Island, but will include visits elsewhere in-world. The workshop will comprise the following activities (also listed on the event’s Google Calendar):

Kick-off event: Sunday January 12th, at 11:00 SLT (19:00 GMT / 20:00 CET).

Week 1: January 13th – 19th, 2014:

  • SL Fast Track – for those educators who have not used Second Life or virtual worlds before, the fast track course offers essentials in logging-in, movement (including the camera), communications, outfit changing, shopping, etc.
  • Film crew group building – brainstorming ideas and forming film crews, developing ideas into a storyboard, etc.

Week 2: January 20th – 26th, 2014 – Basic Filming and Editing: This includes selecting actors, props  and scenarios for filming (using the storyboards developed in week 1), learning basic film production techniques and how to upload videos.

Week 3: January 27th – February 2nd, 2014 – Advanced Filming and Editing: building on week 2  to add things like animation, lip synching, add music, credits, pictures, video-in-video (including live footage) and other essential skills of the filmmaker.

Week 4: February 3rd – 9th – Advanced Editing Techniques: Enhancing productions with special effects, credits and music. Search for free music on the web and learn how to create an intro and an outro (credits) for a video.

Week 5: February 10th – 16th – Final Editing & Uploading: finalising a video and handing-over for jury review. All videos must be handed-over for inclusion in judging for the festival and awards ceremony by February 16th.

Throughout the five weeks, participants will receive practical guidance and feedback from the workshop moderators and also feedback from their peers, making the workshop a collaborative, interactive learning environment. Additionally, the courses will be streamed via Adobe Connect.

Continue reading “MachinEVO: a machinima workshop for educators” →

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 1

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: January 5th, 2014

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.

Official LL Viewers

  • Current Release version: No updates
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • PackageFix Viewer RC version 3.6.13.284995 released on January 2nd – core updates: fixes an issue introduced with the 3.6.12 code base whereby the Windows executable name was changed from ‘SecondLife’ to ‘SecondLifeViewer’, but old executables were not removed from the installation folder (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • HTTP Project viewer version 3.6.13.284698 redleased on January 3rd – core updates: DNS look ups changed; improvements to mesh uploads / downloads (download and release notes)
    • Merchant Outbox Project viewer version 3.6.13.284731 released on January 2nd – core updates: fixes for accurately detecting Merchant status and improves recovery for Merchant Outbox errors (download and release notes)

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates

V1-style

  • No updates

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Group Tools updated to 2.2.26.8 on January 1st – core updates: unknown; no release notes

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links