Month: March 2017

Second Life asset fetching: HTTP, CDN and project viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update, April 1st: Vir Linden’s comments on this viewer, offered at the Content Creation User Group meeting, are appended to the end of this article in an audio file.

Some of my recent SL project updates have mentioned that the Lab is working to remove the remaining task of asset fetching away from UDP running through the simulator and to HTTP (avatar baking information, mesh and texture data have been delivered to users via HTTP for the last several years).

This work involves changes to both the simulator and the viewer, both of which have been subject to testing in Aditi, the beta grid for the last few weeks.

However, on  Thursday, March 30th, the Lab effectively marked the start of testing on Agni, the main grid, with the release of the AssetHttp project viewer, version 5.0.4.324828.

This viewer enables the remaining asset classes used in Second Life – landmarks, wearables (system layer clothing and body parts), sounds and animations – will now be delivered to users the same way as textures, mesh and avatar baking information: via HTTP over a Content Delivery Network (CDN) rather than through the simulator. This should generally make loading of such content both faster and more reliable.

Hang On! What’s this CDN Thing?

If you’ve followed the HTTP / CDN project, you can skip this part 🙂 .

To keep things extremely brief and simple: a Content Delivery Network is a globally distributed network of servers which can be used to store SL asset information. This means that when you need an asset – say a sound or animation – rather than having to go via UDP to the simulator, then to LL’s asset service, back to the simulator and finally back to you (again via UDP), the asset is fetched over HTTP from whichever CDN node which is closest to you. This should make things faster and smoother, particularly if you are a non-US based user.

A generic CDN diagram: instead of the users in India, Spain, Peru and on the US West coast having to fetch data from a central server (marked in red) they can obtain the data more quickly and reliably from local caches of the data, held by CDN nodes located much closer to them.

There are some caveats around this – one being, for example, if you’re calling for asset information not stored on the local CDN node, then it still has to be fetched from the Lab’s services for delivery to you, where it can be cached by your viewer.

As noted above, the Lab started using CDN providers when they introduced the avatar baking service (called server-side baking) in 2013, and extended the use to the delivery of mesh and texture assets as part of a massive overhaul of Second Life’s communications and asset handling protocols spearheaded by Monty Linden (see my HTTP updates). Moving the remaining asset types to HTTP / CDN delivery effectively completes that work.

OK, So, What’s Next?

Right now, this is only a project viewer, and the Lab are looking to have people try it out and test fetching and loading of landmarks, wearables (system layer clothing and body parts), sounds and animations, so they can examine performance, locate potential issues etc.

However, the code will be progressing through project status to release candidate and ultimately to release status over the next few weeks / months (depending on whether any significant issues show up). Once this happens, TPVs will be given a period of time to integrate the code as a well, after which, all support for UDP asset fetching will be removed from both the viewer code, and from the simulators.

A rough time frame for this latter work is around late summer 2017. When it happens, it will mean that anyone using a viewer that does not have the updated HTTP code for asset handling isn’t going to be able to obtain any new or updated asset data from the Second Life service.

Are you ready to help fill the cauldron in Second Life?

Posted on by Inara Pey
Filling the Cauldron: the Garden Design platform

It’s hard not to miss the fact that I’ve not been blogging as frequently as is usually the case for me over the last couple of weeks. That’s because I’ve been buried in preparations for Filling the Cauldron, a fund-raising event to help Elicio Ember and his family.

As anyone who attends the annual Fantasy Faire event in Second Life, Elicio is frequently one of the world builders for that event. He’s also a fabulous creator, owning Cerridwen’s Cauldron, which is itself a fabulous region build and an iconic store design. He’s also an artist in real life and has built art installation in Second Life as well.

Filling the Cauldron: Art Show

Most importantly of all, however, is Elicio has one of the biggest hearts in Second Life. He is wonderfully supportive of those around him, generous, charitable and kind. So when he does – and with a huge amount of reluctance and personal embarrassment – put out a call for help, you can be sure it is genuine.

Earlier this year, Elicio’s father suffered a serious stroke. Despite being a government employee, Elicio and his family were shocked for find their father was without medical cover, leaving the family with extensive bills to cover. You can read more, in Elicio’s own words in this letter from Elicio.

Filling the Cauldron: Cerridwen’s Corner

While he was never asking for anything more than for people to buy his Second Life creations, those of us who know Elicio were determined to do more – and so Filling the Cauldron was born. Given the urgency of the situation and the mounting bills, we knew we had to move fast – and so this entire event has been put together in just three weeks. Even now, we’re working frantically to get everything in place in time to open the doors on Saturday, April 1st.

We may still have a few rough edges to smooth off when we do – but I hope that they won’t stop you from coming by and spending time with us, and supporting Elicio and his sisters but donating to the cause. We’ve got a lot going on, all things considered:

  • DJs, live performers and dance troupes
  • Two fabulous auctions – a silent auction and a live auction with some amazing items to claim, including original pieces of Elicio’s art
  • A display of photography celebrating Elicio’s creativity in Second Life
  • A photo contest with some great prizes – which you can still enter
  • A garden design contest featuring the talents of nine extraordinary builders in Second Life – and from which we’d like YOU to help select the best build
  • A great market filled with stalls from 20 Second Life creators, all of whom are donating at least one item to be sold with 100% of proceeds going to the fund-raising
  • Cerridwen’s Corner – a miniature version of Elicio’s store where you can buy many of his plants and designs – so if you’d rather give directly to Elicio himself, you can do so through Filling the Cauldron and still enjoy the rest of the event.

So… with our doors opening this weekend, please take time to visit the Filling the Cauldron website – and from Saturday onwards, so please, please come along and join us in celebrating Elicio’s work, raising money for his family and having fun! All of the relevant SLurl will be appearing in these pages as we open the doors, and they’ll all be available on the event’s web pages. You can also catch Filling The Cauldron in the Destination Guide!

Filling the Cauldron: part of the marketplace

Calling All Bloggers!

Yes, we know it is short notice, but we’re looking for bloggers to help spread the word about Filling the Cauldron! We’ve been running around trying to get things in place, this nearly slipped through the cracks BUT!  If you’d like to blog about Filling the Cauldron, we’d like you to! SO… we’re holding two guided tours of the event region to help you get familiar with everything that is going on – hop on over the FTC Blogger Applications page to find out more!

2017 Fantasy Faire: blogger applications open

Posted on by Inara Pey
Via Fantasy Faire

Fantasy Faire, the largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, opens its portals on Thursday, April 20th and runs through until Sunday April 30th, 2017 inclusive. It will bring together everyone with a love of fantasy  – enthusiasts, creators, performers and designers  – for eleven days of commerce, special events, live music concerts and more, all to help raise funds for Relay for Life of Second Life.

On March 23rd, 2017, applications to be a 2017 Fantasy Faire blogger officially opened, with the announcement reading in part:

Do you want to shape your visit, your experiences in the Fairelands into pictures and words to be shared with the rest of the world? Do you want to forward and spread the call, alert people of how fleeting the eleven days of magic are, tell them how much there is to see, feel, live?

If you do, then make sure you complete the blogger application form BUT! – don’t hurry there right away. As with past Faires, there are a few little extras to consider!

Fantays Faire 2013: Titan’s Hollow

As with recent years, bloggers are additionally invited to participate in one or more challenges. These are not obligatory, and anyone  – official blogger or otherwise – is free to participate in them. They are: Faire Folk (create a Fairelands character),  My New Shiny (merchant-focused blogging from a personal perspective), Why I Relay (sharing a personal reason why you Relay), and I Remember (tell about your favourite Fairelands of the past).

Those applying to be an official blogger at this year’s faire can also apply to write for the official Fantasy Faire website. This has no influence on the actual blogger application and should be filled only if you are truly interested. There’s very limited spots for this.

So, if you are interested, make sure you check-out all the information for bloggers and that you complete the application form.

Fantasy Faire 2012: Siren’s Secret

Additional Links

Linden Lab announces Second Life Place Pages available

Posted on by Inara Pey
Second Life Places

On Thursday, March 29th, Linden Lab announced the official launch of Second Life Place Pages, making the programme available to land holders in-world.

First announced in a beta programme in January 2017 (see here for more), Places  essentially allows region and parcel owners to create a web browsable page (hosted by the Lab) for their location(s) in-world. These pages can then be shared through blogs, websites, etc.

Included with each page are buttons to allow visitors to the page to launch their viewer and teleport directly to the location (assuming they are Second Life users – if not, they’ll have to sign-up  via the provided link to the main sign-up process).

In order for you to be able to use the Places pages to promote your in-world locations, certain criteria must be met:

  • You must own the parcel / region in question OR you must be assigned a the group ability to Toggle ‘Show Place in Search’ And Set Category within the group owning the land
  • About Land > Show Place in Search must be checked (recurring fee of L$30 a week).

Essential links for finding more information on Places pages are:

Note you may have to log-in to Places when you open the page.

Options on the page are controlled via a menu towards the top right corner, which can be seen when you are logged-in ( highlighted in red, below) – providing you have land which meets the requirements to have one or more Places pages.

The menu options – available to those who have locations in-world which meet the criteria for setting-up Associated Places

The options are pretty self-explanatory:

  • My Places – will take you to a list of locations (regions and parcel in-world) for which you can set-up Places pages.  Clicking it will take you to a listing of the pages, and those you can edit will have the Edit option enabled
  • Upload Spherical – allows you to upload the ZIP file from a 360-degree snapshot you have taken of the location with the Lab’s 360-degree snapshot viewer – of which more below
  • Logout – logs you out of Places.
A Places listing with the Edit option highlighted

I’ve not had a chance to drive things in detail, but one minor issue I noted was that this listing  appears to list Holly Kai Park as Adult, when it is in fact Moderate – which is correctly reporting in the actual page for the region.

The Edit option opens a basic page layout for a Place to which you can add details – text, images, video, etc. Again, see the Knowledge Base article for more details.

As noted above, the Upload Spherical option allows you to upload a 360-degree snapshot of a location captured using the 360-snapshot viewer. However, with this, and at this point in time, it is important to note that:

  • The 360-snapshot viewer is currently only a project viewer, and is awaiting significant update. You can find it on the Second Life Alternate Viewers listing page.
  • I have an overview of the 360-degree snapshot viewer available, but please note that it refers to the initial release (the release prior to the one available at the time of writing this article), and functionality in the viewer may have changed. I’ve also not had an opportunity to test the Upload Spherical capability with the current 360-snapshot project viewer, and so offer no guarantee the capability works.

I’ll have a more in-depth look at Places and setting them up in due course, hopefully including the updated 360-snapshot viewer, once it is available.

Wednesday, March 29th: VWBPE 2017 kicks-off

Posted on by Inara Pey
Image courtesy of VWBPE

The 2017  Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference opens its gates on Wednesday, March 29th and will run through until  Saturday April 1st, 2017 inclusive. A grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments, VWBPE attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year.

2017 is a special year for VWBPE, marking its tenth anniversary. With this in mind, the overarching them for the four days is that of Legacy. Taking place over six regions in Second Life, the conference covers presentations, workshops, demonstrations, and social events with the focus on using virtual environments for education and learning.

You can see the full event schedule at the VWBPE website. However, the keynote presentations will be from (all times SLT), which take place in the VWBPE Main auditorium:

  • Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 17:00:  Dr. Celia Pearce (SL: Artemesia Sandgrain) – The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Twenty Years in Virtual Worlds
  • Firday, March 31st, 2017 13:00: Chris Dede (SL: Chris Olejniczak) – How Immersion in Virtual and Augmented Worlds Helps Students in the Real World
  • Saturday, April 1st, 2017 16:00: John Lester (SL: Pathfinder Lester) – Beyond Escapism: Virtual Worlds, Vulnerable Populations and Social Good
VWBPE 2017

In addition, watch out for the following:

  • Thursday, March 30, 2017, 08:00 – The Legacy Panel – the panel will take a look back over the past and forward to the future, not only with virtual conferences, but also with education in virtual environments in general. The discussion will range from challenges to possibilities, the evolution of the conference, and the technology that made it possible.
  • Above the book: two special sessions featuring Ebbe Altberg, Linden Lab’s CEO and video documentarian and roving reporter, Draxtor Despres. These sessions can only be accessed directly by those who submitted questions. However, they will be livestreamed on the VWBPE You Tube channel, and the details are:
    • Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 13:00:  Ebbe Altberg (SL: Ebbe Linden) – A Conversation about Education and Second Life
    • Saturday, April 1st, 2017 15:00: Bernhard Drax (SL: Draxtor Despres) – Will VR Matter in Education? Lessons Learned from a Second Life Documentarian’s 10 Year Life

  • The Quadrivium:  “the four ways”, to the ancient Greeks it combined space, time, harmony, and science to develop applied critical and creative approaches to issues that required innovative thinking, solutions, and practical mechanisms in an ever-changing world. VWBPE’s Quadrivium It provides an opportunity to share and contribute to the scholarly pursuit of knowledge through interaction with a community of peers in order to develop real solutions to real problems. find out more at the VWBPE Quadrivium schedule page.

VWBPE 2017 – part of the undersea social area

Additional Links

SL project updates 2017 13/1: server, viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

Storybrooke Gardens – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

  • There was no update to the Main (SLS) channel on Tuesday, March 28th, as there had been no RC deployment in week #12. As there had been a deployment to this channel in week #12, it was not restarted.
  • On Wednesday, March 29th, the three RC channels should receive a new server maintenance package, primarily comprising a small update to asset metrics stats logging.

SL Viewer

The current viewers / candidates remain as:

  • Current Release version: 5.0.3.324435, dated March 13th – snapshots to e-mail hotfix
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 5.0.4.324882 released on March 23rd – avatar rendering and other updates – overview
    • Voice RC viewer version 5.0.4.324770 released on March 20th – several improvements to voice
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer updated to version 5.1.0.503537 on March 17th
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer updated to version 4.1.3.321712 on November 23rd, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images – hands-on review
  • Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Other Items

Script Editor Minor Bug

A minor, but irritating bug has been noted when working with the script editor. It is described as:

Open a script, select a reserved word, go to “help” > “keyword help”, minimize the wiki, minimise the script. Observe, you can’t open them individually.

The issue repros in both the official viewer and Firestorm, so is likely to be common to most viewers. A JIRA on the issue is expected.