Year: 2016

Previewing Team Diabetes 2016 Winter Art and Showcase in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

posterThe Team Diabetes of Second Life 2016 Winter Showcase and Art Show opens its doors on Thursday, December 8th, and runs through until Sunday, December 18th. It will include ten days of live performers, DJs, concerts, tribute acts, hunts, ice skating, ice fishing and, of course the  Winter Showcase and the Kultivate Winter Art show. All to raise money for the American Diabetes Association (ADA), through Team Diabetes of Second Life, ADA’s official and authorised in-world fund-raising team.

The 2016 Winter Showcase is sponsored by Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery, Ghee, and Potomac Signature Homes and features the following brands:  *DBS* Designs By Soosy, alme., Balderdash, Becksley Shoes, Black Rose Designs, BYRNE, ChiC buildings, Chiffon, Chop Zuey, EED Home&Garden, Emerald Couture, Feyline Fashions, Gee, Ghee, Get Jiggy!, Giulia Design, IC From Within, IT! (Indulge Temptation!), Kitty’s Claws, Le Fashion Wh*re, Lillou Merlin Design, Mahlberg Tailors, Mara’s Mysteries, Miss Darcy, Mousies Family Store, Park Place Casuals, Park Place Home, Pink Ice Boutique, Potomac Signature Homes, Romance Couture, Sophisticate, Sonatta Morales, Spyralle, Steelhead Outfitters, Stone’s Works, Sweet E’s Designs, TASHI, Tayren’s Fantasy Fashions (TFF), The Gold Club, TRS Designs, Vengeful Threads, Whimsical Happenings, Winterwood, & Wood Works.

The Showcase occupies the west side of the region, with stores arranged around a central square offering seating –  including a chance to sit on Santa’s lap! The events area can be found on the north-east side of the region, alongside the Kultivate Winter art show.

Team Diabetes 2016 Winter Showcase
Team Diabetes 2016 Winter Showcase

Sponsored and produced by Kultivate Magazine, the Art Show features the following artists and photographers:  Aradia Aridian, ArtemisGreece Resident, Bamboo Barnes, Bryn Oh, Brynedarkley Cazalet, CalystiaMoonshadow, Catalina Staheli, Cica Ghost, Cubito Smit, Eleseren Brianna, Eucalyptus Carroll, Giselleseeker, Hana Hoobinoo, ilyra chardin, iSkye Silverweb, Jamee Sandalwood, Johannes1977 Resident, JolieElle Parfort, JudiLynn India, Kaijah Chrome, Kayly Iali, KodyMeyers Resident, Layachi Ihen, Lucia Tophat, Lulyboop Resident, Miele Tarantal, missabstract Resident, Myra Wildmist, Pam Astonia, Paradox Messmer, Ramsa Luv, Rosy Highwater, Roxanne Fayanucci,Sabine Mortenwold, Sandi Benelli, Sheba Blitz, Silas Merlin, Slatan Dryke, Sparkie Cyberstar, Tisephone, TriplePlayNitely, Veruca Tammas, Warm Clarity, Wintergeist Resident, & WrenNoir Cerisse.

Full details on all the activities planned for the event can be found on the 2106 Winter showcase Calendar. However, highlights of the even include:

  • Thursday, December 8th, 18:00: SaraMarie Philly in concert
  • Friday, December 9th, 18:00: Metallica Tribute concert
  • Saturday, December 10th, 13:00: Elysium Cabaret
  • Sunday, December 11th, 14:00: CeCi Dover
  • Monday, December 12th, 17:00: DRUM
  • Friday, December 16th, 18:00: Bad Amp Christmas Show
  • Saturday, December 17th, 16:00: TSB Orchestra
  • Sunday, December 18th, 13:00: a special winter fashion show organised by Models Giving Back where participating merchants will show off their winter fashions and creations.
Team Diabetes 2016 Winter Showcase
Team Diabetes 2016 Winter Showcase

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.

Additional Links

Note; SLurl to the event may not be available for public access until the event opens on Thursday, December 8th.

Full Private region LI upgrade now available in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

As per my coverage of the increased LI allowance across Second Life (see here and here), the Lab announced the availability of an additional 10K LI for full private regions on December 7th, 2016.

The recent LI increases represented, on average, a 33% increase across regions. now  – as announced in Upgrade Your Full Private Region to 30,000 Land Impact Today! – owners of FULL private regions can increase their LI allowance by a further 50% – taking them from 20,000 to 30,000.

Upgrades can be requested by submitting a case through the support portal on the Second Life website under the case type Land & Region > Land Impact Change Request. However, when making a request, keep in mind:

  • There is a one-off upgrade fee of US $30 applicable to each Full region being increased to 30,000 Land Capacity.
  • There is an additional monthly maintenance fee applicable to each updated region. This stands at US $30 per month at the time of writing, but please refer to Land Impact Change in the Managing Private Regions Knowledge Base article for current fees.
  • The upgrade must be maintained for a minimum of one calendar month.
  • Downgrading to 20,000 Land Capacity will incur a further one-off charge of US $30.
  • No pro-rating or discounts are permitted with the upgrade.

Telrunya Winter; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr Telrunya Winter – blog post

Fris’ Land: a little treat in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Fris' Land, Liebe; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr Fris’ Land, Liebe – click any image for full size

In 2014 I, like many other Second Life users, paid my first visit to Frisland, the region designed by Charlie Namiboo, Anna Barzane and Frislanda “Fris” Ferraris which was based on the phantom island that appeared on virtually all of the maps of the North Atlantic from the 1560s through the 1660s.

The region became an instant hit with visitors, changing its face to match the seasons, and drawing people back time and time again. So much so, that when it did finally come time to say goodbye, it was obvious many would miss it.

Fris' Land, Liebe; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr Fris’ Land, Liebe

It seems that Charlie and Fris also found it hard to leave their beloved creation behind, because they’ve just opened up Fris’ Land. While in no any way intended to be a replica of their original vision, it nevertheless offers those of us who miss Frisland with the opportunity to recapture memories of its wintertime look.

Occupying the eastern half of a Homestead region, Fris’ Land presents a snowbound landscape in which familiar pieces from Frisland – the little church, the horses and their little barn, the deck sitting over frigid water – sit alongside barns and houses not seen with the original, offering as new setting to explore and enjoy.

Fris' Land, Liebe; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr Fris’ Land, Liebe

From the landing point, located near a large barn offering indoor seating, complete with pot-bellied stove and fireplace to ward off the cold, visitors can wander north or south across the snow, to where either the little red church sits at the north end of the region, or to where a large timber-frame house occupies a study wooden deck on the southern side.

Along the walk to the church, visitors will pass a small deck extending out over the waters between the islands, chairs arranged alongside another pot-bellied stove, just as they did in Frisland (do, as well, keep an eye out for the little black kitten on the deck – he’ll certainly be keeping both eyes on you!). When heading south, be sure follow the stone-line track which meanders past the horses and their hay shed.

Fris' Land, Liebe; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr Fris’ Land, Liebe

Throughout the region, there are plenty of places to sit, indoors and out, including an old greenhouse frame sitting on a small dock behind the main barn. However, when exploring, and while there are bridges leading to them, do please keep in mind the island to the west are private residences, and not open to the public.

It’s a delight to see Fris and Charlie sharing their creativity again – and my thanks to Charlie for sending the invite for us to visit. Firs’ Land will remain open for “a couple of months” – so enjoy it while you have the chance!

SLurl Details

2016 SL project updates 49/1: server, viewer, issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

La Digue du Braek, Muppets Island; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr La Digue du Braek, Muppets Island – blog post

Server Deployments

On Tuesday, December 6th, the Main (SLS) channel was updated with the same server maintenance package deployed to the three RC channels, comprising internal simulator changes.

On Wednesday, December 7th, the three RC channels will received the same new server maintenance package, which includes the following feature requests:

  • BUG-6377 – llGetObjectDetails(id,[OBJECT_ATTACHED_SLOTS_AVAILABLE]) – Returns a value that is number of attachment slots allowed by the server minus the number of attachments worn by avatar. Returns 0 if avatar is not in the same region or if UUID is not an agent.
  • BUG-40871 – llGetEnv() constant “region_object_bonus” – returns the object bonus set for a region.

SL Viewer

On Monday, December 5th, the Project Bento viewer, version 5.0.0.321958, was promoted to de facto release status. See the official blog post here and my post here.

This leaves the current viewer pipelines looking as follows:

  • RC viewers:
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 4.1.3.321792, dated November 30th – some 42 fixes and improvements
  • Project viewers:
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer, version 4.1.3.321712 dated November 23rd – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review
  • 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.

Other Items

Mesh and Texture Rezzing

People have been noticing increased delays in object mesh and texture rezzing, with fingers being pointed at the Lab’s CDN supplier(s).  Raised at the Simulator User Group meeting, it prompted Simon Linden to comment it could be a CDN issue, and re request was passed for the Lab to have a poke around at things.

Duplicated No Copy Items

Raised a couple of weeks ago, this is an issue where region crashes are being exploited to create duplicates of No Copy items (i.e. the duplication is happening server-side, rather than the objects simply being copied using a viewer, making them indistinguishable from the original), with the duplicated item – mostly obtained through gachas – then being put up for sale on the Marketplace.

The Lab is continuing to look at the problem, but as yet, no answer / solution has been identified.

StormEye in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
StormEye: LEA24
StormEye: LEA24

With the assistance of Lemonodo Oh, artists Douglas Story and Desdemona Enfield have resurrected StormEye, subtitled A Meditation on Waves for the month of December. For those unfamiliar with the piece, it first appeared in Second Life back in 2009 – the time before mesh – above the New Media Consortium campus where it proved to be a popular attraction.

An immersive, visual and aural installation, StormEye invites visitors to pretty much do just that – enter the eye of the storm, literally and metaphorically. It has been brought back to Second Life in pretty much the same condition as when first exhibited at the NMC campus seven years ago.

StormEye: LEA24
StormEye: LEA24

In order to fully experience StormEye, it is essential you enable full streaming media (not just audio – use the film camera icon). The instructions provided with the installation refer to using the latest version of QuickTime. However, as I’ve reported in these pages, QuickTime for Windows is no longer a viable option for people on that operating system – but any up-to-date Windows viewer utilising VLC (as provided by Linden Lab) or GStreamer should manage the audio and video in the installation.

StormEye release comprises two parts: an undulating red landscape built from sculpties using manufactured using mathematical data derived from Desdemona’s work using real-world data from the US Geological Survey and NASA. These have been overlaid with macro flower photographs by Douglas. Over this ruddy, almost Mars-like landscape floats a gigantic eye, optic nerve trailing behind it. constructed of around 1,000 prims with their surfaces used to display video, sits the Eye – and it is into this visitors are invited to climb.

StormEye: LEA24
StormEye: LEA24

On entering the tube of the “optic nerve”, which undulates gently in a waveform, you are surrounded by a gently changing cloudscape (if the video surfaces aren’t in motion, toggle the media (film camera) button a few times) together with the sound of brds carried on a gentle breeze. But wait a few seconds and the collective scene will change: the wind rises as the rumble of thunder can be heard and the birds fall silent. Around you the clouds move faster and darken to swirl around you as lightning catches up with the roll of thunder, accompanied by a torrential downpour across the surfaces around you. Then, almost without warning, everything changes: the storm vanishes and white clouds move across a blue sky; you are in the eye of the storm. Wait long enough, and the cycle will repeat as you pass once more through nature’s fury.

The shifting scene can be witnessed from within the tunnel of the “optic nerve” or from within the eyeball itself (both are recommended, as is watching the changing scene in Mouselook). When you wish to return to ground level, touch the semi-transparent tornado in the eyeball – and take a close look at the window pane where you’ll land. A nearby teleport spike will return you directly to the Eye if you wish to experience it again.

StormEye: LEA24
StormEye: LEA24

As noted above, StormEye will remain open through until the end of December 2016.

SLurl Details

My thanks to Douglas for the personal invitation to visit the installation.

Second Life: my ten (and counting!)

Posted on by Inara Pey
Pey time: over the years from then (top left) to now (main)
Pey time: over the years from then (top left) to now (main image) – first published in 2013

Ten years. 120 months. 521 weeks. 3,653 days. It all adds up to a long time. For me, on this day – December 5th, 2016 – it means I’m marking my 10th anniversary since re-entering Second Life (I’ve previously dabbed with it, but had wandered away).

Every year on this date for the past three or four, I’ve look back over my time in SL. Each year that gets harder to do because really, there’s only 12 months of “new” stuff to go over each year – the rest is a re-tread of things already said. But still, ten years is ten years, so pardon me if I ramble for a bit.

Perhaps the most surprising is that I’m actually writing about the fact that it is now ten years since Inara Pey burst forth onto the digital scene as I decided to give “that Second Life thing” another go. Little did I realise just how much a part of me would enter her – and  indeed, how much she would become a part of me. Back then, I re-entered SL With A Purpose, and determined not to be a wanderer looking for a role-play home. That purpose may now be a part of my virtual past, but it was enough to encourage me to stick with SL, meet like minds, make friends, explore and, eventually, to start writing about Second Life. And so the snowball started rolling.

Holly Kai Park: continues to occupy a portion of my time as is still proving to be fun
Holly Kai Park: continues to occupy a portion of my time and is still proving to be fun

Of course, there have been many ups-and-downs through the last decade, both in terms of SL and personally. With the latter, there have been a fair few times when I’ve felt I really should just quietly put everything back into inventory and silently slip away. With the former – well, I’m not going to rehash the good or the bad; we all have our opinions on that! Suffice it to say, Second Life continues to roll (and sometimes creak) forward despite all the proclamations that The Sky Is Falling along the way. My one passing regret is that I couldn’t earn L$250 for every doom-laden prediction which has appeared in comments on these pages over the years 😀 .

But all that aside, I continue to do what I’ve always enjoyed doing: logging-in, meeting friends, exploring, taking pictures, writing, and trying to understand more about what lies behind the curtain of this incredible world in which we invest so much of our time and energy.

Yup, I'm still flying!
Yup, I’m still flying (and boating)!

I’ve no idea what lies ahead for 2017. Again, being honest, there was a time when I’d targeted my tenth anniversary as the point at which Inara would quietly bow out of Second Life; but plans have a habit of changing as time moves forward, so I don’t see that happening any time soon (touches wood!). Frankly, it’s hard to think of a day where I’ll get up without a thought about Second Life, the friends I have here and what the day might bring when I log-in.

Anyway, I’m not going to ramble on. Instead, I’ll finish with a few words of thanks. These go to everyone who has passed on rezday congratulations via blog comments, Twitter and IM, and to all of you who give you time to read and comment on this blog: you are genuinely the one reason I keep writing. Thank you, especially, to Caitlyn, for making the last 15 months so much fun throughout all our adventures and expeditions; and thank you, Linden Lab, for providing us all with this digital playground to share with one another. Long may it continue!