Month: September 2016

Holly Kai Park: ready for a new season in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Holly Kai Park: the artists are preparing for the next exhibition
Holly Kai Park: the artists are preparing for the next exhibition

We’re ramping up for a new season of events at Holly Kai Park – there will be an announcement on the next Art at the Park exhibition, opening on the weekend of the 24th / 25th Sept, via the Hollykai blog very shortly – and there will be new events to follow it. In preparation, the last few days have been spent in making some final adjustments to the park’s layout, to ready it for everything we hope to be supporting.

Most notably for regulars to the USS regions by boat, and who may sail past Holly Kai, the Pavilion, our live events venue, has been relocated to the west side of the region, replacing the under-used beach front there. It now has dedicated moorings for boats, which include a 2-hour loiter time, and re-rezzing spots for boats if people sty longer.

Holly Kai Park: The Pavilion - relocated and ready for live events
Holly Kai Park: The Pavilion – relocated and ready for live events

Remember, the Pavilion is available for live music, charity and private events. We do not charge for using it, but simply request a donation to our adopted charity, Stand Up to Cancer. For information on booking, please see the Hollykai website, and the Pavilion booking form.

Moving the Pavilion has allowed us to introduce a new area to the Park: the Storyteller’s Circle. Located in the south-eat corner of the Park, Storyteller’s circle offers a circular path beneath fir trees, with places to sit and  a place to picnic. It is also a place which will offer special events in voice – story telling, workshops and more, when the central grassy circle will be converted for presentations and activities. We hope to kick things off at the circle with a special Halloween event!

Holly Kai Park: Storyteller's Circle
Holly Kai Park: Storyteller’s Circle

As a part of the changes, the rocky area and waterfalls have been removed so that there is even move of a natural flow across the park from one side to the other. New trails and tracks have been added, together with a few more secluded cuddle spots 🙂 .

If you’ve not visited Holly Kai Park recently (or at all) I hope that you’ll find time to do so. We’ve had a lot of fun revising things, and in adding bits here and there, and we’re looking forward to kicking-off an expanded series of events, with the weekly music at Caitinara Bar, the monthly Art at the Park events, complete with Stories at the Park, and the upcoming Voice events at the Storyteller’s circle!

SLurls to the major locations are below. Do please say hello if you happen to see one of us there when visiting – and please consider making a donation to Stand Up To Cancer via the donation boards located at key points in the Park.

Holly Kai Park: new trails
Holly Kai Park: new trails

Holly Kai Park SLurls

All rated Moderate

Lab issues important update on Second Life viewer evolution

Posted on by Inara Pey

Linden Lab have issued a blog post on upcoming changes / evolutions in the Second Life viewer, most of which will hopefully be familiar with readers of these pages – particularly my project updates and viewer notes.

In Important Viewer Evolution Update, the Lab outline three developments coming to the official viewer, and also indicate the ending of support for some versions of Windows and Mac OSX. The three developments are:

  • The Project Bento avatar skeleton extensions. For those needing an introduction to Bento, which adds enormous new capabilities to the SL avatar skeleton when working with mesh bodies and attachments, please refer to my Project Bento updates.
  • 64-bit viewer support. The Lab is working on 64-bit versions of the viewer for Windows and Mac. A project viewer is expected “real soon now”, and should offer much improved memory handling and reduced crash rates for 64-bit OS users. The 32-bit Windows version of the viewer will continue once the 64-bit arrive, and the Lab’s advice is that for those who can, to switch to 64-bit when available (or with a TPV, most of whom offer 64-bit versions).
  • Introduction of VLC for better media support. In April, Apple announced they were immediately ceasing support for QuickTime on Windows, leaving some potential security vulnerabilities unpatched (see my article here). As a result, the Lab has implemented media support using  LibVLC for Windows. A release candidate viewer is currently available via the Alternate Viewers wiki page. A Mac switch to VLC is anticipated when the 64-bit versions of the official viewer arrive

OS Support Changes

In the post, the Lab also announce that from this week (week #38 2016 at the time of writing) discontinuing support for the following operating system versions:

  • Windows Vista
  • Mac OS X versions less than 10.9.

The Lab note that the viewer may continue to operate on those OS versions which are no longer supported, but they won’t be testing against them or attempting to fix any compatibility issues related to them.

With this part of the announcement, the Lab note that Apple has released OSX 10.12 Sierra, which has caused some Mac users issues. They therefore offer this advice:

We do have reports that installing this upgrade will clear your Second Life inventory cache. Normally, that should only cause some performance impact as the cache is reloaded, but in some cases at least in current viewers it causes your avatar to appear as a cloud (see BUG-37653). The workaround is to open your Inventory, find an outfit folder, and drag the outfit folder onto your avatar; after this, you can modify your appearance using any of the usual methods.

Required Viewer Update

Finally, and as a result of recent and upcoming changes to the viewer, the Lab note that they will be making upgrades from any Viewer version older than 4.0.5 a required update, and in line with the ending of support for Vista and Mac OSX versions below 10.9, they have updated the SL system requirements.

Lab seeks Halloween photos for Second Life campaign

Posted on by Inara Pey

Second Life Community Manager Xiola Linden has blogged about an opportunity for residents to have their photographs featured in an upcoming Halloween e-mail and selected banner campaign.

In the post, Xiola notes:

Share your pic on our Official Flickr Page with the tag “SLHalloween2016” so that we can see all of your amazing work. You may submit as many as you like between now and October 5, 2016. Please include your avatar name in the image description so that we know who to credit!

We’ll showcase the chosen image(s) in an email to Residents, as well as in some banner campaigns. We’ll let the chosen image creators know via Flickr.

Images should be taken in-world and be Halloween themed in order to qualify. They should also be appropriate for all audiences.  Xiola also offers some submission tips:

  • Layout:
    • The main content of your image should be near the center and to the right of the image – similar to the images you’d see on the Second Life login page.
    • Horizontal images work best.
  • Show your avatar or avatars in a scene in-world – an image that tells a story is going to make an impression.
  • Keep your image free of additional text/logos.
  • Higher resolution images work best.

 

The official blog post includes a couple of example images to help visualise finished banners / headers.

So, if you fancy having a go – snap away, and good luck!

2016 SL project updates 38 (1): server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Yasminia; Inara Pey, September 2016, on Flickr Yasminia – blog post

Server Deployment: Week 38

There was no update on the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, September 20th. On Wednesday, September 21st, all three RC channels should receive the same new server maintenance package, containing further “minor internal changes”.

SL Server

As noted in my article at the time, on Thursday, September 15th, the Lab promoted the Visual Outfits Browser viewer to de facto release status.

Also as similarly reported here in a separate article, the  Bento viewer reached release candidate status on Wednesday, September 14th. This leaves the current list of official viewers as follows:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.8.319463, dated September 9th, promoted September 15th – formerly the Visual Outfit Browser RC viewer
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) RC version 5.0.0.319688 released on September 14th
    • VLC Media Plugin Viewer RC, version 4.1.1.319583, dated September 13th  – replaces the QuickTime media plugin in the Windows viewer with one based on LibVLC
  • Project viewers:
    • None.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Ladyslipper Constantine: celebrating a life in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

ladyslipperAs many of us are aware, long-time Second Life resident Ladyslipper Constantine passed away on Saturday, September 17th, 2016.

Having joined Second Life in May 2008 and deaf, Ladyslipper (or L.S., as she liked to be known, having taken her name from the flower of the US state she lived in for many year: Minnesota) quickly became involved with Virtual Ability  (you can read more about her on the VAI website), and also joined Burn 2, becoming a leading member of DRUM, as well as being a Burn2 Ranger.

In addition to these activities, Ladyslipper was very involved in Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education events, many Second Life Birthday celebrations, and more recently, with One Billion Rising.

Ladyslipper lost her life to cancer, passing away peacefully on the 17th, surrounded by loved ones. For all those who knew her, I’ve received notice from Gentle Heron of Virtual Ability that, VAI will be hosting a Celebration of Ladyslipper’s life on Saturday, October 1st, starting at 11:00am SLT on the north-east lawn of Virtual Ability island.

“The celebration will begin with some of her friends offering memories in text and voice,” Gentle says of the event, “because LS was part of the deaf community in SL. There will be a slide show of the many events LS participated in. And there will be music and dancing. LS loved a good party.”

To help with the celebration of Ladyslipper’s life, VAI are asking that if anyone does have  images of Ladyslipper at SL events which might be included in the slide show, to please consider passing them to iSkye Silverweb.

Further details can be obtained in-world from Gentle Heron, Eme Capalini, or Treasure Ballinger.

My condolences to Ladyslipper’s loved ones, and all who knew and worked with her.

ArtIfacs in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
DaphneArts : ArtIfacs
DaphneArts: ArtIfacs

“it’s not a misspelling,” Seafore Perl (aka Nick Friess, Master of Fine Arts in the physical world) notes of his exhibition, called ArtIfacs, now open at DaphneArts Centre, “but a deliberate play of words. My art (I) resulting in facsimiles, (facs).”

Having served in the United States Army Special Forces – the Green Beret – as a medic, deployed to both the tri-border area where Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam meet and to Delta area near the Cambodian border, Seafore uses his art as a means to explore his wartime memories. In doing so, he also considers matters of self perception as coloured by memories and emotions.

DaphneArts : ArtIfacs
DaphneArts: ArtIfacs

With ArtIfacs, he presents a series of images, most of them paired or in a group of three, each offering an interpretation of a scene in different mediums. So, for example, there might be a photograph, a digital rendering and an oil painting, all of the same scene. While the same subject matter might be used, each image is entirely unique in its interpretation, the individual use of colour, tone, lighting, and emphasis on elements within each piece drawing the eye differently to each one, so that different aspects become prominent s we shift focus one to the next and back again.

In this, ArtIfacs – for me at least – presents itself in three layers. In the first, there is the literal presentation of “artistic facsimilies”: the majority of the images, be they photographs, digital renderings or paintings, are of physical world object; thus, each image is literally a facsimile of the objects it represents. In the second, there is the element of the artist processing he experiences of active duty through his art; thus there are semiotics perhaps present, “artistic facsimiles” representative of his own thoughts, reactions, feelings and perceptions of he time on active duty in a hostile environment.

Then there is the third layer: how we respond to the images each in turn. Why are we perhaps drawn to one over the other(s), when all represent the same scene? What is colouring our own perception of, and reaction to, each piece? Is it the way different aspects of the scene are given prominence, or something else? What role do semiotics play in shaping our response, and how much of it is driven by our own internal processes – our own artefacts of memory and self, if you will – impinging themselves upon our conscious reaction?

DaphneArts : ArtIfacs
DaphneArts: ArtIfacs

Also included in the exhibition are insights in Seafore’s creative processes through a 3D model of one of his pieces and drawings showing the development of his ideas. There is also a large image of the avatars he has used over the years, making for another intriguing opportunity for interpretation.

As with Awakening, which I reviewed here, this is a deeply thought-provoking exhibition, albeit far more deceptively so. Nuanced, and with more to see than may first meet the eye. Like Awakening, Seafore’s ArtIfacs is fully deserving considered time and attention. It will be open through to mid-October.

SLurl Details