Month: October 2016

Spooky stories, drabbles and poems, hauntings and headstones

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library is at Scare Me Silly 2016, October 16th - see below
Seanchai Library is at Scare Me Silly 2016, October 16th – see below

It’s time to kick-off a week of story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, October 16th

13:00: Spooky Stories at Scare Me Silly

As guests of Kultivate Magazine, Seanchai Library and friends presents an hour of thrilling tales in the festival haunted House: Hana Hoo presents an original tale, Things That Go Bump in the Night; Vortran Torvalar presents Ray Bradbury’s The Coffin; Derry McMahon, Aoife Lorefield, & Caledonia Skytower present Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart; R. Crap Mariner adds Haunted One Hundred Words Stories to the mixture!

15:00: Stories at the Park

Join Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop, and R. Crap Mariner for an hour of original short stories & poetry inspired by the current Art at the Park exhibition at Holly Kai Park. Just climb the steps from the landing point and just us at the Storyteller’s garden, surrounded by the art displays.

Holly Kai Park: Stories at the Park, October 2016
Holly Kai Park: Stories at the Park, October 2016

Monday October 17th, 19:00: A Spectre is Haunting Texas

Gyro Muggins concludes Fritz Leiber’s 1969 novel telling of a world in which Texas had secretly run the United States from 1845 through until the Third World War, after which the former state conquered the entire North American continent.spectre

Of it was never given out to the general public in the states, who never had no brains or guts nohow & flustered easy, that this assumption of leadership was annexation–but it was always known to the Speaker of the House & the senators who counted in Washington that secretest treaty Texas was boss…With the coming of the 3rd World War & the atomization of Washington, New York, San Francisco & so forth, secrecy became unnecessary.

Now, Scully Christopher Crockett La Cruz an actor, fortune seeker and adventurer from the isolated orbital technocratic democracies of Circumluna & the Bubbles Congeries, has arrived in what he believes to be Canada. He’s come to reclaim family mining interests, but finds Canada is now N. Texas, ruled over by primitive, backslapping, bigger than life anti-intellectual “good ol’ boys” convinced of their own moral superiority.

Tuesday October 18th, 19:00: More Madness and Other Tales

S.E. Schlosser is the author of the popular “Spooky Series”, illustrated by Paul G. Hoffman, focusing on spooky tales and lore from around the United States. Join Trolley Trollop as she delves into a rich vein of tales to suit the season.

Wednesday October 19th, 19:00: The Witch’s Headstone

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. His story forms the focus of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, from which this particular tale is lifted to form a short story in its own right.

Thursday, October 20th

19:00 Ghostly Suspense

With Shandon Loring in Second Life and Kitely (Check Kitely event announcements for specific grid location).

21:00 Seanchai Late Night

More spooky tales with Shandon Loring.

Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.

The featured charity for September-October is Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a childhood cancer foundation dedicated to raising funds for research into new treatments and cures for all children battling cancer.

Additional Links

Sunday, October 16th: Stories at the Park in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Holly Kai Park: Storyteller's tree and garden, surrounded by the art displays
Holly Kai Park: Storyteller’s tree and garden, surrounded by the art displays

Sunday, October 16th will see the third in the Stories at the Park series, jointly presented by Holly Kai Park and Seanchai Library – and I hope that you’ll pop along to the event, which starts at 15:00 SLT.

Stories at the Park coincides with the monthly Art at the Park exhibitions at Holly Kai Park. Each month, story writers and poets from Seanchai Library and beyond are invited to visit Holly Kai Park and view the 2D and 3D art on display, and then to write a short story (“drabble”) or  a poem about any of the pieces of art which inspire them, with the following criteria applied:

  • Stories must be  exactly 100 words in length
  • Poems can be UP TO 100 words, but no longer, and in any format  (blank verse, iambic pentameter, haiku, sonnet, whatever appeals).
Holly Kai Park: Art at the Park, October 2016
Holly Kai Park: Art at the Park, October 2016

Submitted stories are then read in the live voice session for each Stories at the Park event, which take place at the Storyteller’s Garden in the centre of the art display area. Authors can either read their own works or if they prefer, have one of the Seanchai Library staff read them. Submitted stories are also published on the Holly Kai Park blog.

For October, Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop, and R. Crap Mariner will be on hand to read pieces inspired by our current artists at the park: Anibrm Jung, John Brianna, Giovanna Cerise, Wildstar Beaumont and Inara Pey.

So, why not join us for some superb stories and poetry from 15:00 SLT at Holly Kai Park? Just climb the steps by the lading point. And of course, you’re welcome to come early and explore the art and the park, or stay after and wander the paths and tracks of Holly Kai Park.

SLurl Details

Visiting The Fallen in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Fallen City
The Fallen – click any image for full size

Halloween is always a time when ghostly goings on and ghoulish gambits of games and explorations take over many parts of the grid. The Destination Guide can be awash with places to visit, so much so that those who love this time of years have both a cornucopia of places to visit, and a bit of a headache in choosing where to go and what to do.

The Fallen, open for the month of October, offers a destination which includes touches of Salem, Sleepy Hollow and Transylvania gathered around a small urban setting overlooked by castle and mansion. It’s a dark, mysterious place which extends over a rolling, misted landscape – and also under it at the couple of locations.

The Fallen City
The Fallen

A visit starts towards the south of the region, beneath the roof of a circular gazebo. menacing sounds grumble and reverberate through the air, echoing hollowly as mist wraps its way around shadowy trees. to the left, the leaded panes of church windows glow strangely, while to the right, rotting piers point broken fingers out to sea. The strains of Speak Softly Love, seemingly played on a trumpet, drift through the air, drawing one along a path to where modern buildings reveal themselves in the darkness.

As one might expect, this is no ordinary town; pentagrams and mystical signs glow on the ground before the entrances to establishments and homes, bats flit and fly, and the locals are somewhat bony in looks. This is a place where you might want to tread carefully as ghouls are prone to rising from the ground, and even some of the plants have an interest in the taste of human flesh; even the local nuns appear to be up to a certain amount of mischief.

The Fallen City
The Fallen

Beyond the town, over a rickety wooden bridge, the road plunges underground before emerging into daylight, the great mass of a castle rising from amidst the densely wooded landscape. Does it offer greeting or more ghoulishness for those who step through the heavy front doors? I’ll leave that to you to decide as you explore, and simply say fangs for allowing the visit, to the castle’s occupant.

Back across the river, the castle is overlooked by a mouldering mansion up on a hill above the town, while a path running north and east leads visitors to an apparently sleepy little hamlet, complete with thatched cottages, creaking windmill and farm animals. All seems normal and safe – until a faded proclamation on a sign reveals you are somewhere near a latter-day Salem, or perhaps Sleepy Hollow. Elsewhere, an old mine plunges underground, begging to be explored by the brave, and stone steps wind their way around a cliff to a small Japanese resting house protected by three Kokeshi dolls.

The Fallen City
The Fallen

Designed by Lily Poptart Kazagumi (iheart Wonder) and #TeamLazy (who style themselves as The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, although this region suggests they actually do!), The Fallen City is an interesting place to visit with lots of little touches throughout, although given all that is going on means it can be a little taxing on systems, particularly when things are rezzing. However, if haunts and Halloween are your thing, why not hop over and take a look?

SLurl Details

Revisiting Invictus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Invictus
Invictus

In August, I wrote at length about Invictus, the stunning full region interpretation of William Ernest Henley’s famous 1875 poem which was given that name in 1900, when it appeared in the The Oxford Book of English Verse.

The installation is a marvellous work of art, deeply reflective of the thoughts expressed within the poem, and of Storm’s own circumstance and the trials she has faced. If you haven’t visited the installation, I urge you to do so before in closes in December, and while it may sound somewhat self-serving, I also offer my thoughts on the installation as well.

I have been drawn back to Invictus a number of times since then, wanting to produce a video of it for posterity. But what form should such a video take? Should it feature music, or the words of the poem itself? And if the words, should they be spoken, or presented on-screen? And if spoken, who should I look to recite them?

At the end of August, and having been reminded by several people that Morgan Freeman recited the poem in the film Invictus (and has done so elsewhere, it being a personal favourite of his), I opted to turn to the marvellous talent of Charlie Hopkinson, who is Morgan Freeman’s voice. And so it is that I offer a short film of Storm’s installation I hope you enjoy, and which encourages you to visit or re-visit Invictus in-world.

 

 

Scare Me Silly in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Scare Me Silly 2016
Scare Me Silly 2016

Scare Me Silly, the first of the 2016 fund-raising season for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) opened its doors on October 13th, 2016, and will remain open through until the end of the month.

The event, organised by Team Diabetes of Second Life, features live performances. DJ parties, a 30+ prize hunt, tricks and treats, a house of horrors, a haunted mansion, ghostly rides and – of course – shopping!

scare-me-silly-posterParticipating merchants include:

AZUL, alme. Ghee, BYRNE, Spyralle, Zuri Jewelry, Feyline Fashions, TASHI, KL Couture, Windlight Workz, IC From Within Presents Autumn-unique art & Artistic Decor, Artwork by Sandi Benelli, Mahlberg Tailors, Romance Couture, EED Exquisite Eye Decorations, [Co’motion], Marquesse, Miss Darcy, Facepalm, TRS Designs, Emerald Couture, Sin Original, Thunder Fashion for Men, Fair Weather Fashion, Stone’s Works, by Chiana Oh, Sweet E’s Designs, Potomac Signature Homes, Lillou Merlin Designs, Park Place Home Decor, Sonatta Morales, [:Rad Design], Chop Zuey, Gee, Abstract Soul, .:Jullytobe:., Pink Ice Boutique, Lady Dragon’s Design, Designs by Soosy, Whimsical Happenings, BORN IN 19921, Art by Euca, Divine Ink Tattoo Parlour, PinUp Tattoo Style, and Cosmo Botique-Plants For Homes.

Performances and events will feature storytelling by Seanchai Library, audience participation cabaret by Whymsee, tribute concerts by Bad Amp Tribute Bands, DJ parties by Veruca Tammas, Sandi Loxingly, Johannes1977 Resident, and Mia Deluca. Other activities include haunted rides, 7Seas Fishing, a photo contest, and the Great Pumpkin Hunt.

See the Scare Me Silly event page for the schedule of events through the month.

About the American Diabetes Association

Established in 1940, the American Diabetes Association is working to both prevent and cure diabetes in all it forms, and to help improve the lives of all those affected by diabetes. It does this by providing objective and credible information and resources about diabetes to communities, and funding research into ways and means of both managing and curing the illness. In addition, the Association gives voice to those denied their rights as a consequence of being affected by diabetes.

About Team Diabetes of Second life

Team Diabetes of Second Life is an official and authorised fund-raiser for the American Diabetes Association in Second Life. Established with the aim of raising funds in support of diabetes treatment and to raise awareness of the disease in SL, Team Diabetes of Second Life was founded by Jessi2009 Warrhol and John Brianna (Johannes1977 Resident), and is served by an advisory board comprising Eleseren Brianna, Veruca Tammas, Sandie Loxingly, Rob Fenwitch, Earth Nirvana and Dawnbeam Dreamscape, with Saiyge Lotus serving as a special advisor.

Project Bento User Group update 30 with audio

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bento: extending the avatar skeleton
Bento: extending the avatar skeleton

The following notes and audio were taken from the weekly Bento User Group meeting, held on Thursday, October 13th at 13:00 SLT at the the Hippotropolis Campfire Circle. and chaired by Vir Linden. For details on the meeting agenda, please refer to the Bento User Group wiki page.

Note that this update is not intended to offer a full transcript of the meeting, nor does it present the discussion points in chronological order. Rather, it represents the core points of discussion, grouped together by subject matter were relevant / possible, whilst maintaining the overall context of the meeting.

RC Viewer

The Bento viewer is now on its third version as a release candidate (version 5.0.0.320160 at the time of writing). It is performing well crash-wise in comparison with the current release viewer, so the hope is – bugs allowing – it might not be too long before the viewer moves up to release status.

The first of the bugs mentioned by Vir in the audio is that the scale locking capability recently added to disable shape sliders from having any influence over joint positions has been reported as working intermittently at times. Vir is still looking into this.

The second is a report instance of pre-Bento content being deformed when viewed on the Bento viewer – see BUG-40672.

The problem appears when a sub-mesh contains bad joint position overrides for various joints that the model is rigged to. Prior to Bento, these joint position overrides were not applied, because the Lab was enforcing a 20-joint minimum: if a sub-mesh was rigged to fewer than 20 joints, then it was not treated as rigged, and the joint positions were ignored.

The BUG-40672 issue as seen in the Bento viewer, and apparently the result of "bad" joint overrides defined in the pre-Bento model, and changes made to how overrides are handled in the Bento viewer
The BUG-40672 issue as seen in the Bento viewer, and apparently the result of “bad” joint overrides defined in the pre-Bento model, and changes made to how overrides are handled in the Bento viewer

For Bento, this restriction has been relaxed to make it easier to produce meshes only affecting part of the avatar (wings affecting wing joints positions, head that affects only head join positions, etc.), making it possible to “mix and match” different meshes. Unfortunately, it also means that any model with “bad” (but previously “invisible”) joint positions defined may now appear deformed.

Reverting the viewer to its previous behaviour is not seen as optimal, because of the potential to break some Bento models and make the extended skeleton less useful (no more mix and match of meshes). Similarly, it is currently unclear as to how much content might be affected if the updated behaviour is retained, so the Lab is still considering what to do.

Makers of pre-Bento mesh avatars are asked to check BUG-40672 and then test their avatars using the current Bento viewer to see if similar issues manifest themselves. The most direct way to “fix” things is for affected content being re-uploaded with the bad joint positions removed, or by adding an animation to fix the joint positions after the fact (assuming said animation doesn’t conflict with others the model is using). Of course, if the model does not require joint positions at all then the option could also simply be unchecked at upload time.

Animating Hands

A complex discussion has been unfolding on the discussion forum concerning animating hands (from around page 122 onwards), and which also encompassed a part of the user group meeting (in text). It’s a convoluted subject involving several elements, of which perhaps the most important thing is understanding how best to animate hands.

To try to address this, Cathy Foil has produced a comprehensive video on hand animations, which anyone developing mesh hands for Bento may find informative and helpful, and so is embedded below.

Cathy also provided some hints and tips during the meeting.

Feet

There has also been forum discussion on feet. Bento doesn’t add and further joints to feet, and there are no plans to change the rig specifically to a support for animating feet. However, as Vir pointed out, there are more joints than the system avatar does not use – mToe and possibly mFoot – which might offer a degree of flexibility for mesh creators. If these are used, a point to keep in mind is that they are not used in the avatar height calculations, so some unexpected results my occur.

Other Items

Bounding Box Clipping / LODs

A non-Bento issue which can be frequently seen at Bento meetings due to the number of meshes being worn is that of bounding box clipping – part of the avatar appears to vanish as a camera is pulled back.

This generally occurs when the viewer is operating at the limit of its imposter avatars setting, and a conflict occurs trying to both display the avatar mesh (which the viewer will try to render at a united LOD (level of detail) whilst also trying to switch to displaying an avatar as an imposter. It can be overcome by setting the imposter slider to No Limit in Preference > Graphics.

While fixing this issue is not part of Bento, it raised the subject of why LODs aren’t used rather than the imposter setting. Vir explained that one reason is this idea that the viewer will try to render avatars and their attachments at a high LOD, rather than stepping down through LOD models, as is the case with in-world mesh objects. Another isse us that many creators tend to only use high LOD models, and incentivising people to use the LOD system correctly isn’t easy, although there are tools (e.g. Decimator in Blender) which help in the creation of LODs for models.

As the whole issue of rendering and associated costs and calculations is now being looked at by the Lab, changes might be forthcoming to help with matters – time will tell on that.

Additional Links