Month: June 2018

Entering The Vault in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Vault – dare you enter?
There must be twenty ways to kill your avatar, twenty ways to kill your avatar.
Just slip off the bar, Lars, get hit by a ball, Paul.
Step on the grill, Jill, and crisp yourself dry.
Jump for the gems, Jen, just watch where you might land.
Then drop off the ledge, Reg, and get yourself dead.

(with apologies to Paul Simon)

This little ditty kept running through my mind as I took part in The Vault, the absorbingly frustrating and fun free-to-play challenge game offered by Crowley Corporation.

Located on Crowley Corporation’s home region, I was alerted to The Vault by Whirly Fizzle, who also supplied a video link demonstrating the game (just make sure you don’t have the volume set to high when playing the video!). It is reached via a teleport portal located at the region’s main landing point. Once you have done so, follow the yellow floor markings to an elevator that takes you down to the entrance The Vault’s entrance.

There are twenty rooms with obstacles. Just try to get through them without dying. For the more experienced, there are gems to be collected as well.

– CrowleyCorp, the designer of The Vault, describing the aim of the game

The Vault

As noted in the quote above, the aim of the game is to stay alive (and if the mood takes you, collect the gems which may be on offer in some of the chambers within The Vault). while this is a free-to-play game, to help cover the costs of the game and the region in which it resides, CrowleyCorp offers a flash-light and hard hat for modest amounts, which can be worn while making your way through The Vault’s 20 chambers although they are not essential to game play.

To get started, make your way to the first of the vault doors – large, almost daunting things in themselves, and then throw the lever to the right of the doors to open them. Each chamber in The Vault is presaged by similar doors, which may open directly onto the next chamber or form an airlock between two chambers, or provide access to a passageway that must be followed to reach the next chamber.

The Vault … “oh… balls…!”

The obstacles within each chamber vary in nature and specific skills are required to negotiate them – notably an ability to walk (or run!) in a reasonably straight line, the ability to jump accurately, together with a sense of timing and have a degree of patience in places, rather than just rushing at things.

The obstacles themselves come in a variety of forms, some individually, some combined, depending on the chamber you’re in. They include jumping between floating islands, walking along narrow beams, avoiding moving objects (rolling ball bearings, spinning and moving saw blades, etc), laser beams. Getting struck by any of these will kill you, or knock you into the bottomless pit or the lava, etc., over which the obstacles are built, also killing you. Death will result in you re-spawning at the start of the chamber you are attempting to cross.

THE VAULT: shouts: :::::::: Inara Pey fell to their doom! ::::::::

The Vault keeps you informed of any mishaps 🙂

The further into The Vault you get, the more challenging the obstacles become. Also, in some chambers time can be of the essence – stand too long in one place, for example, and you might find it falling out from under you.

The Vault: mind the blades

One point to note, if you leave The Vault before completing all 20 rooms, on your return, you’ll have to start over; thus it is advisable to try to complete all 20 – time permitting – on a single visit. However, if you have to log-out for any reason and have the viewer set to log you into the last SL location you visited, you can can log directly out from The Vault and then return to your last location within it when logging back into SL – but do note that if you are away from the game longer than about an hour, your scores (times killed and gems obtained) will be lost.

I am currently working on an expansion of perhaps a dozen more rooms, and should be completed within a month

CrowleyCorp on future expansion within The Vault to keep things fresh

And should you wish to relax after getting dropped, fried, boiled or zapped, you can teleport down to the ground level and partake of a round of golf. CrowleyCorp is the maker of the CC Elite golf system – which is my personal favourite when golfing in Second Life.

You can also enjoy golf while visiting the Crowley Corporation region

I confess to not having completed all 20 rooms in The Vault – the realities of life prevented me spending the amount of time needed to do so. However, I can say I found the game to be a fun, engaging and addictive (in the more positive meaning of the word), and I definitely want to find the time to go back and try the game again – and maybe even get to the end.

SLurl Details

  • The Vault (Isle of Innovation, rated: Adult)

Barbara Borromeo at Serena Arts

Posted on by Inara Pey
Serena Imagine Arts Centre: Barbara Borromeo

I admit that until I received I received an invitation to visit her exhibition at Serena Imagine Arts Centre, I was unfamiliar with the art of Barbara Borromeo. As such, visiting the exhibition – called simply Barbara – produced to be a delightful revelation: Barbara Borromeo is an exceptionally talented artist, who produces art that is stunning in its depth.

Reached via the teleport disk near to the art centre’s landing point, Barbara’s work is presented in an overhead gallery space, offering a total of twelve pieces of her work (13 if you count the furniture laden carpet, which is also of her design). These present the visitor with scenes that are by turn, beautiful, strange, haunting, nuanced, and rich in potential narrative.

Serena Imagine Arts Centre: Barbara Borromeo

Such is the diversity of styles on offer, it is clear that Barbara is not someone defined by one or two stylistic approaches; rather, she immerses herself in whatever genre best suits the story she wishes to convey. Thus is that some of the pieces here sit in what might be regarded as the genre of fantasy, others are perhaps based on and more abstracted approach to their subject matter; others are rooted in a form of avatar expressionism, while some embrace the use of a broad colour palette, while others are confined to more primary shades.

To offer interpretations on these pieces would in a sense be wasted; while each clearly stands apart from its neighbour, so too they are united in the depth of narrative each contains – although it is up to each of us to interpret the individual stories, whether it is relative “simplicity” of Vintage Car, or falling into the haunting depths of Prison or Dark and Gold or the captivating beauty of Princess.

Serena Imagine Arts Centre: Barbara Borromeo

That said, I found myself particularly drawn to Princess and Avatar (both seen above). These both contrast with one another, and yet are joined through their construction. Within Princess, there is a wonderful fusion of images from Second Life and the physical world, caught within an almost surreal fantasy montage that is simply captivating in its use of darker monochrome tones. Similarly, Avatar offers a somewhat fanciful, surreal image, but one that in a reverse of Princess, using white and grey, rather than darker tones, together with a delicacy contained in the pencil-like strokes of the background image, to form that strong but complimentary contrast to Princess, making them ideal partners in this exhibition.

It is this layering of ideas within the offered works that is perhaps most captivating: when looking at some of them, the subtle construction may not be immediately apparent, but reveals itself slowly. Take Boudoir as an example. The eye tends to be immediately dawn through the “hole” in the wall and to the woman dressing herself, and the ghostly face observing us. Through these were are perhaps drawn into the role of voyeur caught in the act. Both figures can easily dominate the focus of attention, and it is only after re-appraising the image as a whole that the true nature of the darker elements of the “wall” might become apparent, adding a shift in the narrative the image contains.

Serena Imagine Arts Centre: Barbara Borromeo

A captivating, entrancing display of art, Barbara remain open through until July 22nd, 2018.

SLurl Details

Poe, Conan Doyle, Niven and Wells in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, June 24th

11:30 Seanchai And Friends Read Poe

Seanchai Library and Friends present a selection of reading from Edgar Allen Poe at The Philosophy of Furniture. Featuring VT Torvalar, Da5id Abbot, Dubhna Rhiadra, Bryn Taleweaver, and Caledonia Skytower, reading extracts from The Masque of the Red Death, The Imp of the Perverse, Hop Frog, and more.

Take the teleport from the region landing point to the Poe platform.

Poe at The Philosophy of Furniture

13:30: Tea-Time at Baker Street

Caledonia Skytower, Kayden OConnell and Corwyn Allen return with a Seanchai favourite: Tea-time at Baker Street. This time they are going right back to the roots of the legend, and the case which first introduced the world to Doctor John Watson and the renowned Consulting Detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

study-in-scarletA Study in Scarlet was written in 1886 as a full-length novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published the following year. It is actually one of only four novel-length stories Conan Doyle penned about Holmes and Watson in the original canon (the remaining 56 tales of their adventures are all short stories). As it was the first time the two had appeared in print, part of the story was used to establish each of them, and how they met.

It is 1887, and Doctor John Watson, invalided out of the British Army after being wounded in the Battle of Maiwand during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880), has returned to London where he is seeking accommodation. After bumping into an old friend, Watson finds himself being taken to St. Bart’s Hospital, where he is introduced to a stranger carrying out a laboratory experiment. On shaking Watson’s hand, Sherlock Holmes immediately perceives that he has recently returned from Afghanistan, and thus Watson first experiences Holmes’ remarkable deductive abilities – although quite how Holmes came to his conclusion remains a mystery. After a short conversation, he agrees to join Holmes in moving into a flat (apartment) at 221B Baker Street, where they’ll split the rent.

In the story, it is actually several weeks before Watson learns of Holmes’ rather unusual chosen profession. When told, he remains initially dubious until Holmes gives a practical demonstration of his powers of observation and deduction, using a messenger from Scotland Yard as his subject. The messenger has come with a request for Holmes’ assistance; Holmes is at first reluctant to heed the call, but Watson urges him otherwise. So it is that they set out on their first adventure together, one involving poison, a double murder in London and a bitter tale of love, loss and revenge from America.

Monday, June 25th 19:00: Protector

Phssthpok the Pak had been travelling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years previously.

Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days — Brennan figured to meet that ship first…

He was never seen again. At least not by those alive at the time.

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads Larry Niven’s engaging tale of humanity’s past – and future.

Tuesday, June 26th: Walt Longmire

Join Kayden OConnell as he reads more from Craig Johnson’s tales of Sheriff Walt Longmire.

Wednesday, June 27th 19:00: More Poe!

Featuring Derry McMahon, Corwyn Allen, Kayden Oconnell, Fayleen Belois, Shandon Loring, and Caledonia Skytower at The Philosophy of Furniture, reading The Tell-Tale Heart, The Oval Portrait, and more.

Poe at The Philosophy of Furniture

Thursday, June 28th:

19:00 The Invisible Man

Oh! – disillusionment again. I thought my troubles were over. Practically I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose, everything – save to give away my secret. So I thought. Whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold me. I could take my money where I found it. I decided to treat myself to a sumptuous feast, and then put up at a good hotel, and accumulate a new outfit of property. I felt amazingly confident, – it’s not particularly pleasant to recall that I was an ass.

– Griffin, the Invisible Man

Join Shandon Loring as he delves into the classic tale by H.G. Wells of Griffin, a man already consumed by a desire to have power and fame, who finds a way to make himself invisible to the rest of the world – but not the way to become visible again.

The results do not go in his favour, heightening his bitterness and encouraging him to think only in terms of wreaking havoc as his bitterness grows deeper and his desire to revel in the absolute lack of conscience, to commit crime and instil terror, grows to the point of fanaticism… Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).

21:00 Seanchai Late Night Poe

With Finn Zeddmore at The Philosophy of Furniture.

 

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

The current charity is Feed a Smile.

2018 SL UG updates #25/2: CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey

Devin's Eye; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrDevin’s Eye – blog post

The majority of the following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on  Thursday, June 21st, 2018 at 13:00 SLT.  These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

Note that the audio presented here may not be in the exact order of discussion during the meeting; as subjects were at times returned to following their initial discussion, I have attempted to bring together key points of discussion by topic / subject matter. Also, please note that audio drop-out when Vir is speaking appears to be an ongoing problem at his end.

SL Viewer

The Pálinka Maintenance RC viewer, version 5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, 2018, was promoted to de facto release status on Thursday, June 21st, 2018.

The 32-bit Windows Unloop RC viewer, version 5.1.6.515965 and dated June 5th, 2018, was also withdrawn as it is no longer required with the promotion of the Pálinka  RC viewer.

This leaves the official viewer pipelines, at the time of writing, as follows:

  • Current Release version5.1.6.516459 and dated June 15th, promoted June 21st – formerly the Pálinka Maintenance Release Candidate – New.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No viewers (at the time of writing, but a new Maintenance RC is expected).
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Animesh

Project Summary

The goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.

Resources

Current Status

As noted in my report here (and the official announcement from the Lab), the server-side code for Animesh was deployed to the BlueSteel RC as part of the ongoing developing and testing of the capability. For those wishing to test Animesh, there are also five dedicated Animesh test regions available (all obviously on BlueSteel at this point in time):

How quickly Animesh is promoted beyond BlueSteel depends on whether any additional bugs / issues are identified, what else is in the simulator release queue. However, it is unlikely the capability will go grid-wide until the viewer at least reaches release candidate status (at the time of writing, it is still at project viewer status).

No additional bugs have thus far been reported, although there is a claim of slight delays being experienced when starting / stopping Animesh animations.

Vir continues to work on the Animesh viewer’s bugs, which include, but are not limited to:

  • Encroachment / Position / Offsets.
  • Rigged Mesh Level of Detail / Bounding Box Issues (BUG-214736).
  • Broken Rotations Issues.
  • Dynamic bounding box issues: the project viewer (5.1.4.515420) includes updates for keeping dynamic bounding boxes going for rigged avatars (including Animesh). The calculations used in these updates for Animesh attachments “isn’t quite right” and the extent calculations can be incorrect (particularly if an Animesh object is being rendered as an imposter).

The next viewer Animesh viewer update will likely only be a merge for parity with the updated release viewer; the Animesh viewer update after that should include further fixes / changes.

There’s also more performance and stability testing to be carried out now Animesh is on the main grid and facing some “real” simulator loads, as Aditi is not representative of scripting, etc., loads simulators on Agni have to deal with, or the kind of avatar and rendering loads the viewer has to manage.

Bakes On Mesh

Project Summary

Extending the current avatar baking service to allow wearable textures (skins, tattoos, clothing) to be applied directly to mesh bodies as well as system avatars. This involves server-side changes, including updating the baking service to support 1024×1024 textures, and may in time lead to a reduction in the complexity of mesh avatar bodies and heads.

This work does not include normal or specular map support, as these are not part of the existing baking service.

Resources

Current Status

There have been some conflicts between Bakes on Mesh and the inventory service. The latter requires an update, but this has been delayed pending updates related to another project (I presume the Environment Enhancement Project, which also requires changes to the inventory system – see below).

It is still not clear if the additional baking channels – LEFT_ARM_TATTOO, LEFT_LEG_TATTOO, AUX1_TATTOO, AUX2_TATTOO and AUX3_TATTOO, which can be access through the latest version of the Bakes on Mesh project viewer (version 5.1.6.516270, dated June 14th, at the time of writing) will be updated to support the application of alpha layers. The con / pro arguments for alpha support on these channels are seen as:

  • Against adding alpha support: alphas are primarily a means of masking the system avatar; as these five new channels cannot be used with the system avatar, there is no need to add alpha support.
  • For adding alpha support:
    • Regardless of the above, there are cases where creators may want to mask a portion of a mesh on which anyone of these channels are used.
    • Ensuring a consistent means of using alpha masking across all of the bake channels could help in reducing the overall complexity of mesh bodies and heads.

These pro points are being heard by the Lab, and will be discussed further before a final decision is made whether or not to add alpha support to the new channels.

Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)

Project Summary

A set of environmental enhancements, including:

  • The ability to define the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) at the parcel level.
  • New environment asset types (Sky, Water, Days that can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others.
    • Day assets can include four Sky “tracks” defined by height: ground level (which includes altitudes up to 1,000m) and (optionally) 1,000m and above; 2,000m and above and 3,000m and above, plus a Water “track”.
  • Experience-based environment functions
  • An extended day cycle (e.g a 24/7 cycle) and extended environmental parameters.
  • There are no EEP parameters for manipulating the SL wind.
  • EPP will also include some rendering enhancements  and new shaders as well (being developed by Graham Linden), which will allow for effects such as God rays.

Resources

This work involves simulator and viewer changes, and includes some infrastructure updates.

Current Status

Rider Linden is working on debugging the back-end inventory system changes required to support the new EEP asset types – Sky, Water, Days (as per above). As soon as this work is completed (and presumably passed by QA), thing should be set for a project viewer to be made public, and the back-end support for EEP will be deployed to Aditi for public testing.

The first release of an EEP project viewer will not include any scripting support for the new capability – that will be added as the project viewer iterates. Details of the anticipated scripting support can be found in the project definition document, linked to above.

There was also a short discussion between Vir and Rider Linden on the ease with which sets of assets might be added to the inventory system as a result of Rider’s work.

In Brief

Collaborative Creation

The question was asked if the permissions system in Second Life could be extended to allow easier means of collaborative work.

For example: adding an option to the viewer’s Build floater that allows an item to be shared with the same permissions as granted the creator, or providing a means by which an object’s metadata includes the Agent IDs for avatars with whom it can be shared whilst maintained its original permissions.

There are currently no plans to the Lab to work on the permissions system.

Animesh / Mesh Rotation Issues

There was a discussion during the latter part of the meeting on the mesh / Animesh rotation issues. As noted in previous updates in this blog, there are likely a number of contributing factors to this problem, and the Lab has not settled on a solution.

 

 

 

A return to La Clef des Champs

Posted on by Inara Pey

La Clef des Champs; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrLa Clef des Champs – click any image for full size

Update April 2025: Chef des Champs has closed. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

It is a little over a month since I wrote about La Clef des Champs (literally, “the key fields”), a setting which at that time took up a homestead region, which had opened in April 2018 (see here for more).

Since then, there has been something of a change for La Clef des Champs, as Miro Collas  pointed out to me via Twitter recently, it having been moved and downsized to a quarter region parcel within a Full region (and given the changes between my two recent visits, it may still be in the process of being built-out). So, has anything been lost with the move? Overall, I’d say “no”.

La Clef des Champs; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrLa Clef des Champs

As with the original, a visit starts up on a hill overlooking open waters on two sides, and which is topped by a modest café with indoor and outdoor seating. From here, across the grass, a gated track leads the way down the hillside and inland. This runs past a small field and barn to where a fork points the way towards a new feature for the landscape: a large greenhouse sitting on a rugged shoulder of land occupying the inland corner of the parcel. Offering a second commanding view over the parcel, the greenhouse is presented as a summer-house style hideaway with music available from a grand piano and a gramophone, and space to sit or work as one desires.

Beyond the fork for the greenhouse, the track turns back seaward and curves past a brick-built barn to arrive at the Tuscan style house that was also present in the Homestead build. This looks out over the water to the east where the windmill still sits just offshore –  albeit on a slightly smaller island -,  and to the north, where a second small island sits, home to a lighthouse.

La Clef des Champs; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrLa Clef des Champs

An old warehouse completes the set of buildings to be found here. This is the place where  – again as with the original design – more adult pursuits can be shared, if desired.

The use of just a quarter region parcel means that this iteration of La Clef des Champs does, for those who visited the original, feel smaller. However, I would suggest it has, lost little of the ambience it enjoyed when occupying a full-sized region space. for those who have not previously visited La Clef des Champs will still find this smaller version a pleasing excursion, with plenty of opportunities still for photography.

La Clef des Champs; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrLa Clef des Champs

 

Lab blogs Animesh RC deployment

Posted on by Inara Pey
Animesh will make it a lot easier to have animals roaming in Second Life (as well as other things) compared to current methods of achieving the same results

On Wednesday, June 20th,2018, The Lab completed an initial deployment of Animesh to the Blue Steel release candidate server channel.

For those not up-to-speed with Animesh, the goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.

As noted in the official announcement, Animesh has been in development for some time, with the Lab working closely with the content creator community to develop Animesh, with weekly (more-or-less) meetings being held as a part of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meetings.

It is important to note that with this deployment, Animesh is still very much in development, and there may well be further changes before it is fully released.

Animesh Halloween boogie, October 2017. Courtesy of Alexa Linden

Those wishing to try Animesh need to note the following:

  • The server-side support for Animesh is currently only available on the BlueSteel RC regions.
    • Server support for Animesh involves adding a new message and some new LSL functions – see below.
    • If you try to run Animesh objects on a non-Animesh region, you will encounter problems: a) content won’t look right because the server won’t be sending you the appropriate messages; and b) you’ll get script errors because the region doesn’t like the new LSL calls.
  • The Animesh project viewer is required to see Animesh creations correctly. At the time of writing this was at version 5.1.6.516525, dated June 18th, 2018.
    • Animesh content will not render correctly in viewers without the necessary Animesh code.

As Animesh is still in development, and given the caveats noted above, content creators are asked not to start offering any products that are no-mod or such on the marketplace or in-world. Products should wait until at least the Animesh viewer has reached release candidate status – or even has been formally released.

Similarly, TPVs are – as usual when it comes the the Lab’s project viewers – encouraged not to adopt the Animesh viewer code for release purposes until it reaches release candidate status.

Animesh Resources

You can find further information on Animesh via the following resources.

Furthermore, I provide regular updates on the Animesh project via my Content Creation User Group updates, so you can keep up with Animesh development through these.