Year: 2015

SU2C raises over L$3 million in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

logo-2From September 12th through September 27th 2015, live performers, DJs, entertainers and venues from across Second Life came together for two weeks of music and entertainment to raise money for Stand Up 2 Cancer’s world-wide activities in funding practical cancer research and treatment.

Organised by the incredible Still Braveheart, Stand Up 2 Cancer in Second Life 2015 brought together over 150 entertainers across more than forty venues during the two weeks of the event, and the total amount raised in-world has now been tabulated – and it is impressive:

L$3,040,393

That’s around US $11,784.47. As per SU2C in Second Life’s stated aim, the money raised will be divided equally between SU2C’s work in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“I watched so many of you put aside everything to come together and make this so successful,” Still states in her blog.

“We did something this year that no one else has done before (at least to my knowledge)….we said global and we did global As Stand Up To Cancer grows so will we.  Many that have refused to do other things came out and worked with us on this. Commenting on the two weeks to me, she added, “thank you to each and everyone that came out to an event, for together we truly made a difference.”

Stand up 2 Cancer 2015; Siobhan Muintir, September 2015, on Flickr Myst and Mew with Paris Cloyd at the Lemonrock Cafe for SU2C in SL – photo by Siobhan Muintir

In addition to being able to make donations in-world, those in the USA and UK also had the option to donate directly to SU2C’s work in those countries to the SU2C in SL Team Pages – and these amounts have yet to be included in the above total. Doubtless, Still will announce those figures as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, the full transaction report for in-world receipts of donations received through the kiosks and boards placed at the participating venues is available,  although as Still notes, it may be liable to additional revision and tidying-up.

Congratulations to Still and all who were involved in SU2C 2015, whether assisting in the organisation, or as venue owners, performers or supporters. And here’s to 2016!

About SU2C

Stand Up 2 Cancer provides an innovative  approach to ending cancer, which puts funds directly where they are needed: into leading-edge cancer research and treatment, and undertaking aggressive research programmes through what is called Translational Research. 100% of all donations made through SU2C goes directly into funding this work, none is lost to “administrative costs” or put aside for CEO or executive salaries, etc.

Such is the success of this approach that as of 2014, and in the USA alone, SU2C has raised over $261 million in seven years. This money has all be used in directly supporting 141 clinical trials of possible cancer treatments, involving 750 scientists and 5,000 cancer patients, and which have spanned 112 US institutions.

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Enter Valyria with Calas Galadhon in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween ; Inara Pey, October 2015, on Flickr Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween (Flickr) – click any image for full size

As we enter the twilight months of the year, one of the things I enjoy doing is visiting the Calas Galadhon themed regions. Every October and December, Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith have brought us fabulous themed builds under the Calas Galadhon name which have allowed Second Life users to fully enjoy both Halloween and Christmas. And October 2015 is no exception, the Calas Galadhon Halloween region having opened its gates.

Valyria is currently accessible to members of the Calas Announcement Group, and will be available to all in the first weekend of of the month. I’ve been fortunate enough to have special preview access over the last couple of days, and can say with hand on heart, anyone who loves Halloween, fantasy and the works of JRR Tolkien and / or GRR Martin, is not going to want to miss what is on offer.

Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween ; Inara Pey, October 2015, on Flickr Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween (Flickr) – click any image for full size

This is a region which draws inspiration from both of these great story tellers and mixes them together with Ty and Truck’s own unique vision, to present a seasonal environment which is simply stunning to behold and to explore. Spread across, under, and over the region are a series of environments which naturally flow one to another, presenting visitor with much to see and discover – so much so, that I actually don’t want to say too much about it, because I don’t want to spoil the joy of discovery.

As is common with Ty and Truck’s builds, the landing point offers plenty of advice to get you started, and the information boards are worth a read – then it’s a case of following the paths and seeing whence they lead.

Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween ; Inara Pey, October 2015, on Flickr Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween (Flickr) – click any image for full size

To further help you in your travels, there are also two tours on offer: one by boat – which you can join near the landing point – and the other by dragon, which you’ll have to make your way to. In doing so, you’re liable to find the path through the region offers many branches and splits, each one enticing you onwards into deeper explorations. Some might climb upwards into the hills, others may lead downwards and underground. For the latter, a flashlight is on offer near the landing point, so you might want to pick one up before setting out.

The dragon tour will also serve to see you started on a quest which is designed to help you find your way to parts of the region which you might otherwise miss; just look for the “journey cloths” after dismounting your dragon.

Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween ; Inara Pey, October 2015, on Flickr Valyria, Calas Galadhon Halloween (Flickr) – click any image for full size

The centrepiece of the build – at ground level at least – is a marvellous ruined city. It is here that the various touches from GRR Martin and JRR Tolkien seemed to fuse into one for me. Exploring it, I felt as if I was both walking through the remnants of Tolkien’s Osgiliath, now the haunt of Sauron’s fell creatures, and also walking amidst the destruction which befell the City of Valyria, after being struck low by “the Doom”.

It is within the ruins that the Portal lies. This will take you to a further part of the build, up high in the sky, and which has another nod to the lands of Westeros.

With caverns and builds hidden below ground, the wonders of the city above ground, the world of The North in the sky, all bound together with dragons, winged beasts, monsters, spiders and so much more – including touches of Ty and Truck’s wonderful humour, Valyria is not something to be missed. It makes for another generous gift from a partnership who have given so much to Second Life over the years.

As noted, members of the Calas Announcement Group can enjoy Valyria ahead of the official opening, and the rest of SL from the first weekend in October. When you visit, do please consider showing your thanks by donating towards the upkeep of the Calas Galadhon park and make sure you have the audio stream enabled; Truck has once more produced a superb sound track to enhance explorations.

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Second Life project updates 40/1: server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey
Discover science and oceanography at The Abyss Observatory - blog post
Discover science and oceanography at The Abyss Observatory – blog post

Server Deployments week 40

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest news and information.

  • On Tuesday, September 29th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the server maintenance package previously deployed in week #39 to all three RC channels, comprising internal fixes to improve inventory performance.
  • On Wednesday, September 30th, the three RC channels all received the same server maintenance package, comprising:
    • A fix for Region Debug Console help text
    • A fix for a server crash issue.

Following the Tuesday restarts there were assorted reports of issues being encountered on various regions – teleport failures, external communications issues (e.g. IMs to e-mail forwards, scripted object e-mail failures, etc). These appeared to be related to possible capabilities (caps) failures on restarts. Further restarts appear to have cleared some – but not all – of the issues encountered.

SL Viewer

On Tuesday, September 29th, the mesh uploader RC viewer, version 3.8.4.305119, was promoted to be the de facto release viewer. This viewer comprises a modified mesh uploader to (optionally) improve debug output, perform name-based LOD association, and handle models with many materials. It allows models with more than 8 unique faces to be uploaded. At import, these models are automatically split into pieces so that each satisfy the current face limits for a volume.

Also on Tuesday, September 29th, the Quick Graphics project viewer updates to version 3.8.4.305380, with further fixes for issues occurring with the Avatar Complexity options (such as avatars failing to render correctly after having been previously “Jelly Babied”). However, there still appears to be some issues which may require further updates (e.g. BUG-9962) before this viewer progresses to RC status.

Other Items

FmodEx Update

The Lab has received a contribution for FmodEx which should fix the “chirp” windows 10 users hear when launching the viewer.  This requires testing and a license update for the Lab to use, but should hopefully be making its way into a viewer update at some point.

STORM-2121

Cinder Roxley identified an odd little bug recently: if an object is set for sale at L$0 from the Object Profile floater, it will revert to a minimum price of L$1.00, rather than leaving it at L$0, as is the case when setting the price via the Build floater.

Pricing an object for sale at L$0 through the Object Profile floater will force the price to L$1.00, rather than leaving it at L$0.
Pricing an object for sale at L$0 through the Object Profile floater will force the price to L$1.00, rather than leaving it at L$0.

It’s not clear how long the bug has been around, but if it has been for a while, it hasn’t caused that much of an inconvenience – possibly because price may well price via the Build floater. Cinder has already contributed a fix for the issue – see STORM-2121 – and it is unlikely to encounter issues in being incorporated in a future Snowstorm viewer.

Kokua 3.8.4: mesh uploader and RLV updates

Posted on by Inara Pey

kokua-logoOn Tuesday, September 29th, Nicky Perian announced the release of Kokua 3.8.4.37073,  which brings the popular SL and OpenSim viewer to parity with both recent Linden Lab code releases and with Marine Kelley’s RLV, and includes additional tweaks and fixes from the Kokua team.

This release comprises a considerable amount of work by the Kokua team, although the visible functional changes may not seem that great to some users. In particular, RLV has undergone extensive updates and testing over the last few months, as the team have worked to bring Kokua up to parity with the most recent RLV releases and ensure there are no issues or breakages elsewhere in the process.

The Lab code releases in the viewer comprise:

The Maintenance release comprises over 50 fixes and updates covering a range of topics and issues, including: crashes, snapshot bugs and issues, group ban bugs, avatar mute & block bugs, texture editing issues, rendering issues, UI bugs and simplification, performance improvements and localisation updates.

The mesh uploader updates, which became the de facto SL viewer release also on Tuesday, September 28th, comprise a modified mesh uploader to (optionally) improve debug output, perform name-based LOD association, and handle models with many materials. It allows models with more than 8 unique faces to be uploaded. At import, these models are automatically split into pieces so that each satisfy the current face limits for a volume.

Please refer to the Lab’s release notes for both of these releases (provided via the links above) for full details on the updates they contain.

The RLV updates bring Kokua fully up to par with RLV 2.9.14, released on September 17th, and includes merges with RLV releases 2.9.7 through 2.9.13.

The Kokua team updates comprise:

  • A fix for inability to disable HUDs in snapshots Ticket #345
  • A fix for custom snapshot sizes not working when saving to inventory Ticket #350
  • Inclusion of hover height adjustment for OpenSim use Ticket #352  – note this is currently inactive, as it is pending server-side support in OpenSim.
  • A fix for high memory usage and crashes when connected to Avination Ticket #349.

I confess to not having have that much time to drive this release due to my schedule being a mess. My apologies to Nicky on this, who provided me with advance notice on the release at the weekend, but I was unable to act on it.

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Autumn at The Trace Too in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Trace too; Inara Pey, September 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr) – click any image for full size

Having allayed recent concerns over her health, Kylie Jaxxon has competed a new make-over for her region, The Trace Too, and has been inviting people to pop over and take a look – something I was only too happy to do as the week started!

The new design sees The Trace Too leave the summery beaches and sandy low hills behind, as it becomes a beautiful autumnal wonderland. Rich in greens, reds and golds, the sandy landscape now covered in grass and falling leaves, with trees, shaded walks and scattered houses, barns and pavilions presenting  visitors with an altogether captivating look and feel.

The Trace too; Inara Pey, September 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr)

From the landing point on the wet side of the region, a long avenue of trees leads the way to the east, and a large house which appears to be undergoing preparations for decorating upstairs. A signposted crossroads along the avenue points the way to a barn and horses to the south, and a path through the tree leading north, which will eventually bring you to the water’s edge. Here lies a board walk providing access to an ornate pavilion sitting just across the water on a small island.

And that’s just for starters; there is plenty more to see and discover. It actually doesn’t matter which way you go from the landing point, as you’re sure to come across something that will have you smiling and feeling at home before you’re walked too far.

The Trace too; Inara Pey, September 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr)

You can, for example, travel south and west and climb a hill topped with wheat to come to a little wooden hut sitting atop a rocky outcrop where you can watch the geese, perhaps startled by the dog at the side of the track, take flight. Or you can travel north and west, over (or around) another small hill, and pay a visit to another of the region’s houses, where interior decoration also seems to be the order of the day.

Stroll along the hills on the north side of the island and you’ll come to a narrow neck of water over which can be reached a rocky island with wooden look-out of its own. The offers an ideal spot for looking out over the water and admire the nearby pavilion. Or you can simply roam inland, taking advantage of any of the numerous places to sit and relax, indoors or out.

The Trace too; Inara Pey, September 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr)

It is also inland that you’ll find a little nod to the approach of Halloween, with pumpkins on sale alongside a little greenhouse. Back at the landing point, and if you missed it on arrival, is an opportunity to assist the World Food Programme in efforts to bring humanitarian relief to some 6 million displaced Syrians.

Kylie’s region designs never fail to delight me, and I’ve loved watching how things have evolved at both The Trace and The Trace Too. However, with this particular design,  I cannot help but feel Kylie has excelled. It is simply gorgeous. I have little doubt that photographers are going to be hard-pressed to tear themselves away from it; I know I did!

The Trace too; Inara Pey, September 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr)

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MadPea auction raises L$1.6+ million for LLK and Kenya school

Posted on by Inara Pey
A purpose-built entertainments area has been built for the MadPea event, with auction boards placed around the dance floor and stage
The purpose-built entertainments area built for the MadPea Charity Auction in aid of LLK and the Nakuru School construction project

The weekend of the 25th through 27th September marked the 2015 MadPea Charity Auction to help further the work of Live and Learn Kenya (LLK) in building a school in Nakuru, Kenya, where young children will be able to receive an education (you can read my background article on the event here).

The weekend featured live entertainment throughout, provided by 22 entertainers and live performers, at a specially constructed stage and location over Stargazer Bay, and gave people the opportunity to bid to spend time with a host of well-known Second Life residents and  Linden Lab staff, and to gain special goodies in the process.

Over 60 people had signed-up to participate in the auction, with boards placed around the stage area, which included a beautifully crafted model of the school in Nakuru, Kenya, which has been under construction since 2014, with the first phase having opened in January 2015.

RAG Randt's scale model of the Nakuru school construction project, which featured at the MadPea auction event
RAG Randt’s scale model of the Nakuru school construction project, which featured at the MadPea auction event

Some amazing opportunities were on offer to winning bids – shopping and spending time with Xiola Linden, gong to an event with Simon or Rider Linden or getting one-to-one LSL tutoring from them; time with some of SL’s top creators and special gifts from them, and more.

In all, the event raised a stunning L$1,667,762 (approx. US $6671) through bids and donations by the time the final hammer fell.

The highlight of the weekend was the live auction, where many of those offering their services / time / selves were up on the stage and able to talk about what they’ve been offering, help encourage the bidding and even adding to their lot.

Kess Crystal was kind enough to pass me details of the bid amounts, which were topped-out by an incredible L$150,000 offered for 2 hours with Queen Pea Kiana Writer and input on a MadPea upcoming game!

Celebrity
 Amount Raised
 Celebrity
 Amount Raised
Kiana Writer 150,000 Callie Cline 87,000
Alexa Linden 50,001 Bryn Oh 45,000
Kess Crystal 41,000 Xiola Linden 41,000
Arduenn Swartzmann 40,3000 Isla Gealach 35,000
Draxtor Despres 31,500 Tab Tatham & EvanKeel Resident 30,000
Jessica Lyon 30,000 The Arcade Team 30,000
Inara Pey 30,000 Simon Linden 28,000
Levio Serenity 27,000 Saffia Widdershins 26,666
MadPea Resident 26,000 Ren Enberg & Quai Franklin 25,000
Roman Goode 19,000 Jo Yardley 18,000
Kush Zepp 16,000 Bcreative Wilde 15,000
Chloe Seljan 15,000 Eku Zong 15,000
Sina Souza 15,000 Canary Beck 15,000
Aeonix Aeon 14,000 Josie Anderton 14,000
Dusty Wasp 13,500 Brique Topaz 12,000
Sabbian Paine 11,000 Poulet Koenkamp 11,000
Cacilia McMasters & Ava Jhamin 11,000 Mericat Ireland 10,700
The constructions set and the stage beyond, just before the MadPea auction opened on Friday, September 25th
The construction set and the stage beyond, just before the MadPea auction opened on Friday, September 25th
Celebrity
 Amount Raised
 Celebrity
 Amount Raised
Johannes1977 Resident 10,000 Kara Trapdoor 10,000
Lisa Brune 10,000 Rider Linden 10,000
Dita Lamour 9,000 Harpet Beresford 9,000
Caitlin Tobias 8,000 Tracy Redangel 7,750
Sufferingfrom Lockjaw 7,000 Toxic Darkmatter 7,000
Imre Bellic 5150 Anderian Sugarplum 5,000
Angela McKeenan 5,000 Ayla Barzane 5,000
Esme Capelo 5,000 Gabrielle Riel 5,000
Harter Fall 5,000 Panda 5,000
PinkRyne 5,000 RacerX Gullwing 5,000
Yelena Istmal 5,000 Jake Vordun 4,050
Jenica Penucca 4,000 TerryLynn Melody 4,000
Seductive Dreamscape 4,000 Irrie Ember 3,000
Trinity Yazimoto 3,000 Twostep Spiritweaver 3,000
Leetx Resident 2,000 Winteru Resident 2,000
Synitry Resident 1,500 Maggie Mae Bhaktiguru 1,369
Chris Blackheart 1,200

In addition, there were some lots of goodies, which collectively raised L$25,400, with donation boards also available throughout the weekend.

Commenting on the event, Kess Crystal from the MadPea team said, ” I cannot help but feel immense happiness and pride at this outcome. I’m so proud of everyone was has been involved, and in the Second Life community, all of whom have proved yet again that when we come together with a common goal, we can achieve such great things.

“When I actually sit back and let it sink in that generations of children will have an education because of what we achieved at the weekend, I am humbled beyond words.”

Bique Topaz (r) - Brique
Brique Topaz (r) – Brique Zeiner in the physical world – of LLK / Feed  A Smile, with young students at the opening of the first phase of the LLK Nakuru school in January 2015. The MadPea auction will now help further the work in building and equipping the school

I was only able to spend brief periods at the event on Saturday and Sunday, but the atmosphere while there was tremendous, and it was great making new friends (/me waves to Levio 🙂 ). Special thanks to everyone who took part as auction lots or bidders, etc.  Very special thanks to Jo Yardley for her incredibly generous bid for my time  – I’m looking forward to the film project!

Most of all: congratulations to the MadPea team, to Brique, LLK and the children of Nakuru school – current and future!