The 9th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference took place between Wednesday, March 9th, 2016 and Saturday, March 12th, 2016 inclusive in both Second Life and OpenSim via the AvaCon Grid,
The conference featured a rich a varied programme of keynote presentations, workshops, panel discussions and social events across the VWBPE regions, with a highlight of the conference for for many Second Life users being an open Q&A session with Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg (transcript and audio available here).
Journal of Virtual Studies: Proceedings for the 2016 VWBPE conference
Following the conference, the Journal of Virtual Studies complies, edits and publishes a special edition featuring the proceedings of the VWBPE conference, and on Saturday, April 9th, Rockcliffe University announced the 2016 edition is now available.
At just over 100 pages, the proceedings include peer-reviewed papers, along with those from the Quadrivium sessions, featured speakers at the conference, together with summaries of the topics presented during the general sessions, and a special feature paper by Dr. Karl Kapp about using virtual worlds for instruction.
The journal is available for reading on-line via the link above, and the PDF file can be downloaded using the same link.
In addition to the journal, the full set of video recordings from the 2016 conference are also available on a dedicated YouTube playlist, allowing those who missed the conference or who wish to revisit specific presentations / discussions to catch up with them.
The 10th Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference will take place between Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 and Saturday, April 1st, 2017 inclusive, with the theme of Legacy and an invitation for attendees to “Play * Explore * Engage * Immerse * Learn”.
Just opened at MetaLES is Queens Gambit Declined, a new installation – with some familiar motifs – by Rebeca Bashly.
The title is drawn from one of the classic opening moves of chess, wherein the player using the black pieces can respond to the white player’s opening Queen’s Gambit, by declining the opportunity to capture a proffered pawn, opting instead to defend their own exposed man. However, precisely how title / reference fits with the installation has left me a little bewildered 🙂 .
Two great stone towers, perhaps the last remnants of some gigantic bridge, rise from the waters of the flooded region, their appearance slightly reminiscent of Manhattan’s famous Brooklyn Bridge.
Suspended between these by massive chains, sits an enormous circular stone platform, its top occupied by a large hedged maze. Above this, and also tethered to the remnants of the bridge by heavyset ropes, floats a massive heart, similar in nature to the one seen in Rebeca’s When Life Gives You Apples … Run (which I reviewed here), but with arteries and veins bearing rose-like thorns.
Transparent walkways link the bridge towers to the platform, allowing visitors to explore the maze, in which sit a number of artefacts: three busts with transparent foreheads inside of which lie objets d’art; two snow globes with tiny scenes within and wrapped around them; and four rose-like plants, their flowers forming lips, all geometrically positioned within the maze.
At the centre of the maze a female figure kneels fully bent over within a pool of red. Her back is to the sky, a green shoot rising upwards from it, reaching towards the floating heart. When looked at from above, this figure, in the centre most circle of the maze, appears to be cupped within a slightly lopsided Venus symbol formed by the surrounding hedge (although this could be an accident of design, rather than symbolic).
Nor is this all. sitting atop the second of the bridge towers is a black chess pawn. Touch it, and you’re carried up into the heart itself, and a dark-walled place in when sits a series of tear-drop containers held within metal structures, particles falling slowly within them. Meanwhile, under the circular platform sits a huge black pawn, it’s base forming the basin in which the kneeling figure at the centre of the maze resides.
Touring the installation, I kept being drawn to the ideas of birth, growth and life, and renewal – ideas that also immediately struck Caitlyn when we visited together. Quite how these are related by to chess and the Queen’s Gambit Declined, however, is something which escaped us both.
Perhaps this is part of the purpose in the piece: to offer enigmatic hints at possible interpretations. One thing is sure, however you look at Queen’s Gambit Declined, it offers a fascinating and intriguing installation.
The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer (TPVD) meeting held on Friday, April 8th, 2016. A video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report, my thanks as always to North for supplying it, and time stamps in the text relate to this recording.
SL Server Deployments – Recap
There was no scheduled deployment to the Main (SLS) channel this week. All three RC channels received the same server maintenance package, comprising a fix for (non-public) BUG-11163llHTTPRequest returns 400 from some sims and not others, and some minor improvements. Assuming nothing goes sideways with this update, it should be promoted to the Main channel in week #15 (commencing Monday, April 11th).
As of the Server Beta User Group meeting on Thursday, April 7th, it seems that there will not be any RC deployment in week #15.
SL Viewer Update
Maintenance Viewer
One of the changes within the new Maintenance RC sees the When I Spend Or Get L$ notification tick box (Preferences > Notifications) split into two options
A new Maintenance RC viewer, version 4.0.4.313759, arrived on Friday April 8th. This includes fixes for a range of issues related to viewer crashes, memory leaks, input/cursor issues, graphics bugs, formatting, notifications, etc.
This Maintenance viewer sees invisiprim texture UUIDs revert to their “old” behaviour: they will mask whatever they are covering (feet, water in dry docks or in boats, etc) when ALM is disabled, and are ignored when running with ALM enabled (see here for further background on recent changes to how these texture UUIDs are handled by the SL viewer).
The Maintenance RC viewer sees the return of the “old” invisprim texture UUID behaviour: masking items (e.g avatar feet in shoes; Linden water in dry docks – above – or boats, etc), when ALM is disabled (left) and being ignored by the rendering engine when ALM is enabled
During the TPVD meeting, Grumpity Linden described this as a “partial” fix [11:35, in text], and Oz Linden indicated that the Lab has not reached a final decision on how these textures should be handled in the future [18:35]. both of these comments suggest further work is yet to come with how invisiprims are handled.
Quick Graphics Viewer
[00:50] The Quick Graphics viewer, version 4.0.2.312297 at the time of writing, is being merged with the current release viewer code, but still has some remaining bugs to be resolved. It would therefore seem unlikely this viewer will be promoted to release status in the immediate future.
[31:44] Testing has shown that this viewer is relatively successful in preventing people wearing mesh graphics crashers from crashing it. While those using this viewer can experience a drop in frame rate in the presence of such crashers, they tend to remain connected to the simulator.
Change in how Avatar complexity is calculated means that other avatars such no longer appear as “rainbow avatars” when the slider is set to Unlimited
[33:24] A further change to the view means it no longer uses attachment geometry when calculating avatar complexity. This should prevent situations where setting the Avatar Complexity slider in the viewer to Unlimited still results in some avatars still appearing as solid colours.
[35:00] However, the recommendation is that if you want to have avatars mostly rendered normally but still have protection against like graphics crashers, you set the Avatar Complexity value to 350K rather than Unlimited.
[36:05] Avatars rendered as solid colours have been informally referred to as “Jelly Babies”. However, as this is actually a trademarked name (Bassett’s / Cadbury-Schweppes / Mondelēz International), the Lab prefers that it is no used, and are informally referring to solid colour avatars as “rainbow avatars” and more formally as “muted avatars”.
Oculus Rift Viewer
[06:49] The Lab is still committed to getting the Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296 and dated October 2014 at the time of writing, updated. Progress has been slowed due ongoing changes in the Oculus SDK. However, the plan remains to have this viewer support the consumer release version of the headset.
64-viewer
[28:48] The Lab has started building 64-bit versions of their Windows and Mac viewers. There is no firm date on when these will appear as project viewers, but the progress to date has been relatively rapid.
SL Voice
[07:40] The recent HTTP / Vivox release viewer (version 4.0.3.312816) contains a number of updates to improve issues like Voice quality, drop-outs, connection failures, etc. The Lab has suggested TPVs might want to investigate dropping the updated voice package into their own viewers, if not about to update to the 4.0.3 code base, so users can benefit from the newer Voice package.
Widespread Voice Drop-Outs
[08:40] There have been instances of widespread Voice drop-out across SL recently. These are apparently the result of DDoS attacks aimed at the Vivox services, rather than any issues within SL. Vivox are working to reduce the impacts of these attacks and improve service resumption following them, but the current updates provided to the Lab obviously won’t help when these issues occur. However, an upcoming version of the Voice package should over improvements when reconnecting to the Vivox services after problems have occurred.
Security / Privacy Improvements
[10:25] In addition to the above, the Lab and Vivox are also working on various security and privacy improvements around Voice. When these are available, they will form a new version of the SL Voice package which will not be backwards compatible with older viewers.
I was drawn to Luane’s World by Owl Dragonash, who recently blogged about this charming Homestead region. The work of Luane (LuaneMeo), the region is the home of her store and is offered to visitors as, “a romantic sim where you can relax, cuddle or hang out with friends. Made with photography in mind”. It also offers a number of gallery spaces featuring the work of some of Luane’s favourite artists,
It is one of the gallery spaces which serves as the landing point, on the north side of the region. This sits alongside a watery fantasy area where you’ll see a unicorn can indeed fly (or possibly take an amazing leap!) under golden boughs and leaves, as misty particles drift through the glade on a gentle breeze. Close by sits a beach overlooked by a long-fingered headland pointing out to sea, upon on which the ruins of an old castle rest, reached by a grassy stair.
Luane’s World
The ruins looks out over the sea, and inland across a woodland copse. Close by sits a small island reach by a little wooden bridge, while the woodland plays house to elk, the misty wafting through it offering plenty of scope for photographs. Travel west via the woodland track, and you’ll come to a gated field where horses graze, and beside it a broad sea of wild flowers separating you from a cottage and windmills – each the home of further gallery spaces – which rise from the tide of flowers on a ridge-sided island of grass.
A cart track running through the fenced field offers the way to another island, every bit as rugged as the headland, and the home of another castle ruin, this one reached by the arched trunk of a once mighty tree. Once explored, you can rejoin the cart track and follow it around the coast to the cottage and windmill.
Luane’s World – click any image for full size
With swings and seats and cuddle beds scattered across the land, Luane’s World offers touch of romance for couples seeking a place to rest and enjoy pleasant open spaces, while the free-spirited can run through the wide expanse of wild flowers as the lovers of SL art roam the gallery spaces.
Luane’s World is a simple, open design with welcomes visitors to explore, with some excellent opportunities for photography. The default windlight is (or appears to be) Annan Adored Morning Dream, but the landscape naturally lends itself to visitors playing with viewer settings. If you do visit and take photos, Luane offers a Flickr group for sharing them; what’s more, there is a photography contest running through until April 30th with cash prizes on offer. Details can be obtained near the region’s landing point.
Tyche Shepherd, who tracks land statistics in Second Life, issued a full Private Estate survey at the end of March 2016. It’s the first such survey she has published since the end of November 2013, representing a 28-month gap between reports. Given this, it makes for some interesting reading, some of which is highlighted below.
Overall, the distribution of regions between Full, Homestead and OpenSim in March 2016 remains very similar to that of November 2013 (in fact these figures tend to remain fairly constant as representative indicators of region distribution).
Year
Full
Homestead
OpenSpace
March 2016
53.9% (+/-1.28%)
45.6% (+/-1.28%)
0.5% (+/-0.18%)
November 2015
53.8% (+/-1.30%)
45.5% (+/-1.29%)
0.7% ( +/-0.21%)
Surveys based on 4,208 accessible regions in March 2016; 4,402 accessible regions in Nov 2013
However, Tyche indicates that, overall, the amount of private estate land has consolidated more within the top 20 estates over the 28-month period from November 2013 (39.5% of private estate land) through March 2016 (49.1%; +/- 1.3%). Using supplied list prices, Tyche estimates that the top 20 estates account for some 40.6% of total private estate tier, compared to 30.5% in November 2013.
In terms of regions held, of these top 20 estates, seven are actually under the Anshe Chung Studio (ACS) brand, accounting for 19.1% of private estate holdings, compared to 13.8 in November 2013 for ACS; again a significant increase.
Grandfathered Homesteads stand at around the 85.32% mark for 2016, compared to 82.4% in November 2013. The year-end reports do not indicate the percentage of Full private regions that are Grandfathered, but in a comment on SLU following the Lab’s announcement on Grandfathering and buy downs, Tyche indicates that the current number of Grandfathered Full private regions stands at just over 11%.
In terms of private region decline on the grid, Tyche offers the following:
November 2013
March 2016
28-Month Region Loss
%age Decline
19424
17549
1875
10.7%
Comparing annual region losses for the period January 2012 through December 2015 shows that overall, while the decline still continues, it has slowed considerably as a percentage of the total grid since hitting a peak in 2012. However, 2015 did see a slight increase in the rate of decline, but just under 1%.
2012
2013
2014
2015
Loss
%age
Loss
%age
Loss
%age
Loss
%age
2863
12%
1719
8.2%
673
3.5%
825
4.4%
In terms of revenue for the Lab, in November 2013 the Lab was generating approximately US$3,857,000 (+/- US$52,000) per month. By March 2016, this figure was approximately US $3,385,000 ( +/- US $43,000), representing a 12% decline in monthly private region revenues across the 28 months.
While this is a drop, and allowing for the fact that figures can only estimated, it would suggest that the Lab is still generating around $49 million revenue from tier (private + Mainland) at this point in time, representing approximately 80% of their total revenue. Taking into the assorted costs involved in running, maintaining and enhancing Second Life and the company as a whole, this would suggest the Lab is still reasonably profitable.
Which is not to say there are not other clouds on the horizon. The recent buy down offer on regions could pose a problem to small or medium-sized estates where full regions are concerned (given that the majority of Homesteads are already Grandfathered), as they may find meeting the up-front US$600 difficult to meet. If so, this could make it even harder for them to remain competitive on pricing with the larger estates, and potentially lead to further consolidation of land among the latter at the expense of smaller operations forced to turn in their cards.
Tyche’s ongoing reports make for interesting reading – particularly these month-end reports, which have been sadly missed (and my thanks to Ciaran Laval for pointing-out that we now have a new one to look at). As such, I hope the March update might signal the return of these reports are returning to something of a more regular appearance, assuming Tyche has the time to pull them together!
Artist Slatan Dryke drew my attention to Light Thoughts 2, a full region installation by Mario2 Helstein which is now open. “I really would recommend a visit, it’s a jewel!” Slaton said, refusing to give away more. Intrigued, I hopped over to have a peek – and “jewel” is precisely the right description for this build, glittering as it does with light and colour.
The arrival point occupies the centre of the region, which has been flattened and flooded for this installation. Lights flicker up from under the waves, while all around, huge structures and sculptures rise into a midnight sky.
And when I say huge, I mean just that. On one side, great seahorses hover above and exotic torus of spines from which two human figure seem to be attempting to escape, arms and legs snagged by the spines. On another what appears to be a great swirling stage offers an ever-changing pattern of colour beneath turning spotlights which play back and forth across its surface.
Elsewhere the forms seem purely geometric or abstract; however, look carefully, particularly at the larger elements, as there is more to be seen than might first appear to be the case. Take, for example, the DNA double helix rotating slowly at the heart of a huge sphere held aloft by a giant hand. Others elements embody both form and abstract, such as the giant butterfly hovering over exotic plants rising from the water.
The entire installation is both striking and extraordinary. It brings together light, colour, form and motion in the most captivating of ways guaranteed to hold the eye and boggle the brain.
For those seeking meaning in the art they see, Mario2 offers a disarmingly simple description of his creation, “Light Thoughts is a world of forms and light,” he states, otherwise remaining enigmatic on the matter – and quite rightly so. Light Thoughts 2 isn’t something to be witnessed through the dryness of words or through the two-dimensional limitations of images. It is something to be experienced.
This being the case, I will close the same way as Slatan first brought Light Thoughts 2 to my attention: by recommending you pay a visit yourself. And do keep an eye on the LEA blog for news of the music and particle shows Mario2 plans to present at the installation.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 