2016 – Page 42 – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

Awakening in Second Life

Posted on September 16, 2016November 17, 2016 by Inara Pey

“I am grabbing things that appear in front of me, moments and sensations. I keep them as treasures, which are open in moments when I want to colour the silence,” Natalia Seranade says in introducing her work. “When my imagination and fantasies are flying, I mix the collected stuff with new things that appear in the moment, I never know what can appear, and I never know what will be the result. I am in another world where I am able to find what was unknown to my eyes.”

It’s a description which encapsulates her work perfectly: moments captured in time, filtered through a lens of imagination and the inspiration which occurs in the very instant of creativity to produce a striking image, often rich in emotion and subtext. And it is a description which in turn is perfectly framed by Awakening, an exhibition of Natalia’s work on display at Nitroglobus Hall, curated by Dido Haas, during September / October 2016.

Awakening is a visual interpretation of the philosophical / psychological idea that everything we see in the world, all the encounters we have, intimate, friendly, happy, unhappy, and so on, in whatever we do, are in fact a reflection of ourselves. As Natalia notes, it is perhaps best embodied on a personal level through our interactions and relationships by the saying your perception of me Is a reflection of you, my reaction to you is an awareness of me.

Within Awakening, we have an exploration of this concept. In viewing the images, colourful, striking, blended through considered use of PhotoShop, we are directly challenged to consider what is it within ourselves that drives our reactions to them, and how does our perception of the art – the individual pieces and the collective whole of the exhibition – speak to our own nature?

It’s an intriguing approach; when witnessing art – or anything we find attractive or unattractive – it is easy to externalise our reaction, as to what is right / wrong about the art (or event or person, etc.). If we consider what might be within us that drives our reaction, it is generally only on a superficial level. We rarely delve deeply into our own psyche to determine what might be working within ourselves to generate that reaction, or what may have been at work to inform any perceptions we have about art, virtual or otherwise. Within Awakening, we’re being asked to do just that.

This may not be a comfortable subject for some – but it is an intriguing one, and something which perhaps gives us greater pause in visiting this exhibit than might otherwise be the case. But just because there is a deeper potential within Awakening for introspection and questions about ourselves shouldn’t be used as a reason to not visit. Jungian considerations aside, as noted towards the top of this article, the images within Awakening beautifully exemplify Natalia’s approach to her art. They are striking pieces, rich in colour, imagery and emotion, deserving to be witnessed and appreciated.

SLurl Details

Nitroglobus Hall (Rated: Moderate)

VOB viewer reaches release status in Second Life

Posted on September 15, 2016September 19, 2016 by Inara Pey

On Thursday, September 15th, the Lab promoted the Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) as the de facto release viewer, version: 4.0.8.319463.

For those who missed my coverage of this viewer when it reached RC status, and simply put, the VOB viewer allows you to use the Appearance floater to capture / upload / select images of your outfits and save them against the outfits in a new Outfit Gallery tab within the floater.

The new Outfits Gallery tab (right-click your avatar > select My Appearance > Outfits Gallery) displays all of your created outfits as a series of folder icons, each one displaying the name of the outfit beneath it. You can replace these icons with an image of the outfit quickly and easily in one of three ways:

You can wear the outfit, then right-click on its associated folder icon and select Take a Snapshot (shown above left). This will open the snapshot floater with save to inventory selected by default, allowing you to photograph yourself wearing the outfit and upload the image to SL, where it automatically replaces the folder icon for the outfit
You can use Upload Photo to upload an image of the outfit your previously saved to your hard drive, and have it replace the folder icon
You can use Select Photo to select any image previously saved to your inventory (including any image supplied with the outfit in question, if appropriate), and use that to replace the folder icon for the outfit.

The Visual Outfits Browser viewer is another of the forthcoming updates mentioned in the official blog post, and you can read my overview as well — The new Outfit Gallery tab in the Visual Outfit Browser allows you to create photos of any outfits saved to My Outfits as thumbnails. You can then use the Appearance floater to scan your outfits to decide what to wear, and use the context menu to wear the one you want

When using the capability there are a number of points to keep in mind:

Both the Take a Snapshot and the Upload Photo options will incur the L$10 upload fee, with the images themselves saved in your Textures folder
In all three cases, link to the original images are placed in the outfit folder
This approach only works for outfits you’ve created using the Appearance floater / the Outfits tab. It doesn’t work for any other folders where you might have outfits – such is the Clothing folder.

Overall, it would seem that the VOB viewer has received favourable feedback by many of those who have used it during its time as a release candidate viewer. I confess, I cannot offer any real feedback, as I actually don’t used the Outfits folder that much. However, with its arrival as the de facto release viewer, expect to be seeing it in more TPVs (those which haven’t already adopted the code) as they continue to update.

Revenland: fantasy / medieval role-play in Second Life

Posted on September 15, 2016April 9, 2021 by Inara Pey

Content creator and friend Cube Republic – who is responsible for some superb plants and landscaping kits – pointed Caitlyn and I towards a fantasy / medieval role-play region he’s been helping out with, and which is open to the public although still under development.

Set no later than the 15th century, Revenland offers a rich environment for role-play utilising a variety of races – although there are some constraints on what is and isn’t allowed within the information pack available in the skyborne arrival area. Largely the work of littlenixie, the region represents the continuation of an idea which initially started in AOL before moving to the immersive spaces offered by Second Life.

The region itself is divided into two primary areas: the human-controlled castle and town of Redfoem, together with the Ter’li Fields, separated from the rest of the region by a wooden palisade. Beyond these lies Revenland Forest, home to non-human characters, regarded as a bandits by humans, and the Undercity, home to underground dwellers. Mention is also made of the Honeysuckle Falls – which I think can be found towards the centre of the region – and the Lost City of Lava, which is part of the work-in-progress along with some of the underground areas, as region Admin inboccaallupo informed me:

[They’re] a work in progress. The Undercity is something that will be for a faction and come back new and improved build wise. While some things are a bit more for events, such as the catacombs are on sim and accessible but highly dangerous for the time being, and thus would require a skirmish or group to enter in order to stay safe. Nixie is constantly building her own mesh to update, improve, and bring a more unique look to the sim.

The backstory offers insight into the region and role-play here.

In the past there was a rift between humans and other species, as well as the magical arts. Certain territories (Redfoem, Ter’li Fields) are human-controlled, meaning any who do not look or act human or display magical abilities will be run off, tortured, perhaps even killed (this is up to you). However, don’t expect to stroll into these territories and have nothing bad happen if your character does not seem to fit in with the townspeople.

Like-wise, humans might be ill-received in certain other territories on land, such as in the Undercity.

Non-humans wishing to pass safely within the human areas are advised to either shape-shift into human form, or find an alchemist who can furnish them with a transformation potion. Combat may also form a part of game play; where it does, it is dice-driven rather than metered, although free-form combat is also permissible by mutual agreement. A 1d100 dice HUD is provided in the information pack for most combat situations, together with guidelines on character creation and general rules – the latter of which as noted as being fluid, so as not to stifle developing RP and stories.

If the number of areas within the region seem to be a lot, you needn’t worry about things feeling crowded; such is the design, everything fits together at ground level to leave a good feeling of open space to Revenland. This is greatly assisted by the merging of the region with a mountainous sim surround. So effective is this, that is possible to walk up to the region boundary without realising and then find yourself bouncing off of it whilst trying to continue onwards!

Revenland: Revenland Forest - bandit territoy! — Revenland: Revenland Forest – bandit territory!

Good use is also made of space both above and below ground. Some areas where this occurs may be obvious, others less so, thus demanding people spend time exploring – although again, those in character had best do so with cautious, depending on their race and where they are!

Visitors to the region who do not wish to participate in any ongoing role-play are asked to wear the Observer tag, which is available in the information pack and via the packing crates at the teleport points. Other than this, and a request that they don’t engage in local cha to disrupt and role-play, visitors have a free hand in exploring the region – but do keep in mind there are places available for rent which may be people’s private homes.

For those seeking a new medieval / fantasy RP environment, Revenland might be just the place to hop over to and tour.

SLurl and Links

Revenland (Rated: Moderate)
Revenland website

Bento project reaches RC status in Second Life

Posted on September 14, 2016September 27, 2024 by Inara Pey

Bento: extending the avatar skeleton

OK, I admit I wasn’t expect this until next week, but on Wednesday, September 14th, the Lab announced that Project Bento is now officially available as a release candidate viewer – version 5.0.0.319688 – which can be obtained through the Alternate Viewers wiki page.

And just in case anyone has missed all the Project Bento news, the best way is to catch-up through the official video. In short, Bento adds a wealth of new bones to the basic avatar skeleton (30+ to heads / faces and to hands alone!), making a wealth of new avatars (humans and non-human) and mesh wearables possible.

The reason I wasn’t expecting the viewer to get promoted just year is that the Lab also has a proof-of-concept viewer being tested, so I assumed any push to RC would come after a decision had been made on incorporating those changes (if they are to be adopted). So, not for the first time, I’m been wrong 🙂 .

The move to release candidate status doesn’t mean the project is at an end. There is still further work to be done as remaining bugs are fixed, etc (so updates such as the slider locking in the proof-of-concept might yet arrive in the viewer). What it does do is three things:

Makes the viewer available to a wider audience through the Lab’s RC distribution mechanism, thus allowing any unforeseen issues in merging the Bento code into the current release viewer code (and which may be outside of direct Bento testing) to be identified and fixed
Potentially makes the viewer more widely available to content creators who may not have so far tried the viewer
Means that TPVs can now officially start incorporating the Bento code into their viewers (in fact, Cool VL Viewer has had Bento in its Experimental branch from some time, and Firestorm have also been working to merge the Bento code as well – but this shouldn’t be taken to mean there will be a new release of the latter in the near future).

In keeping with the status of the Bento code, the Lab do ask people – particularly avatar content creators – to give the viewer a go, and to file a JIRA against any issues found.

As noted above, Bento offers a range of opportunities for mesh wearable and avatar creators – you can see a couple of video exploring the AK and Catwa preview Bento mesh heads in my SL project update. Also, back in August, Vista Animations produced a video illustrating the potential of finger animations:

Then, of course, there is a huge range of non-human avatars: centaurs, “rideables”, winged creatures – all of which can be achieved a lot more efficiently through Bento than has previously been the case.

Teager's Bento Raptor using Bento bones — Teager’s Bento Raptor using Bento bones

So – get ready for the Bento Revolution!

Additional Links

Project Bento RC announcement from LL
Alternate Viewers wiki page
Project Bento testing page (wiki)
Project Bento user group page
Project Bento discussion forum
Project Bento coverage in this blog (including weekly user group meeting updates)

Going nautical at Caitinara Bar in support of SU2C

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Inara Pey

Reblogged from the Holly Kai Park blog.

Wednesday, September 14th will see us celebrating nautical and watery themes in pop music and more between 4:00pm and 6:00pm at Caitinara Bar, as we present another Music with Anthony themed night.

What’s more we’re hoping to add to the almost L$14,000 raised at the bar in support Stand Up To Cancer, as we again join in with the grid-wide SL Concerts to Benefit Stand Up To Cancer, organised by Still Braveheart, which sees musical events being held throughout September in support of SU2C, and which I blogged about here.

So, it doesn’t matter whether of not you’re In The Navy, enjoy spending time Under The Sea or Sailing, or whether you prefer to be Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay and looking Beyond the Sea, you don’t need to have any worries whether you might Rock The Boat or are missing those Harbour Lights; come along to Caitinara Bar at 4;00pm and say Aloha Oe to daily worries, let us be your Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and simply go with the Orinoco Flow with two hours of great music and great company – and all for a really great cause!

(Did you see what I did there? 🙂 ).

Our theme night gives everyone a chance to dress-up for the evening – but it’s not an absolute requirement. However, if you want to get out those dress whites, or if you fancy some shore leave from Starfleet (yes, Star Trek can be considered nautical in its anniversary month!), or simply have a grass skirt / hula outfit waiting to be used, feel like being Popeye, get in an early character ready for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19th) – or just want to enjoy some great music, the choice is yours. All we ask is that you come along for as long as you like, enjoy the music and the company – and help use raise a little more for SU2C!

As always, Anthony Westburn will be spinning the tunes and taking requests for the evening, and Caitlyn, Bou and Inara will be there to pipe you aboard, so we look forward to seeing you!

About Stand Up 2 Cancer

SU2C takes an innovative approach to ending cancer by focusing on forming “dream teams” of doctors and researchers who are directly involved in leading-edge cancer research and treatment, and then undertaking aggressive research programmes. 100% of all donations made through SU2C goes directly into funding cancer research and treatment and paying for these teams; 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.