Month: May 2019

City of Solace in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

City of Solace; Inara Pey, May 2019, on FlickrCity of Solace – click any image for full size

Sitting just off Wellington Road as it arcs around the southern bulk of Jeogeot, sandwiched between Route 9 and 10 sits the City of Solace, a region-wide, futuristic city design by Jean K. Smit (jeankyn) and of Bill R. Smit (BlackBlade Smit). It’s an interestingly curious place, easily accessible by road, and with a direct teleport set to deliver people to the main rental office high overhead.

From this latter comment, it should be obvious that this is a location offering rentals – both residential and commercial; however, it is also a place open to visitors, and where casual role-play is potentially encouraged, the Destination Guide description noting:

Solace. A city of wonder, mystery, and amazing vistas. The City of Solace could be considered a city of tomorrow, today. Futuristic architectures, places to see and visit, things to see and do. In accordance to the city, there is also a space installation to explore, named S.O.A.R. Rentable habitation pods, access to starships, etc. There is lots to do for avid role-players.

City of Solace; Inara Pey, May 2019, on FlickrCity of Solace

At the time of our visit, a number of the city units had been rented, so some care is perhaps in order when exploring at ground level. This is reached via a teleport booth outside of the rental office, should you arrive there first. This gives access to three ground level locations: a nightclub, the city’s motor centre (which also supports Get The Freight Out), and the SmitCo headquarters.

The majority of the ground-level city is laid out along a network of enclosed roads which in turn provide access to both Wellington Road as noted above, and with the airport at Annyong to the north-west. Thus those driving through the Mainland or flying over it can pay a visit to the city if they wish.

City of Solace; Inara Pey, May 2019, on FlickrCity of Solace

The residential units appear to be of two sizes, single floor and split level, while local businesses occupy some of the high-rise buildings. There was no sign of role-play when I dropped in; but given the city appears in the Destination Guide’s Recently Added category, and elements of the supporting infrastructure – such as a promised web site – still appear to be under construction, this is perhaps not surprising as the city is still building is residents and businesses. Or perhaps role-play is more focused on the space station.

Located in the sky, the space station is officially called the Solace Orbital platform for Astromineralogy and Research (SOAR). It is reached via a separate teleport system to the main pods, being based on Stargate SG-1 style ring systems. One of these can be found just outside the rental office, lying within a grassy dimple. Another can be found at ground level in a circle of trees towards the south-eat corner of the city, just below the turn-off from  Wellington Road that’s marked by the tall Blue Star truck stop and travel centre sign.

City of Solace; Inara Pey, May 2019, on FlickrCity of Solace

SOAR is a large facility offering both research and residential opportunities. In fact, with its docking facilities, a mid-level public deck, that sandwiches habitation pods between itself and the biodome of the uppermost level, where visitors arrive when using the ring system teleport. One might be tempted to comment it is “a port of call – home away from home – a place of commerce and research…”, even if it isn’t big enough for a quarter million humans and aliens….

The multiple decks of the station are connected by a central elevator system, and while some areas are devoid of content, the public deck offers a bar and a cafeteria area looking out over the docks and their varied visiting spacecraft. The outer sections of the station feature restricted access and contain the main administrative offices and research facilities. Again, usage at the time of our visit appeared light, but this may grow over time as people discover the city and the station.

City of Solace; Inara Pey, May 2019, on FlickrCity of Solace

Overall, there could perhaps be a few more public spaces – the apartments feel a little cramped in their vertical stacking in the city – but overall, City of Solace and SOAR is an interesting – if unexpected – find whilst motoring through Jeogeot. It’s also a place that offers an interesting potential backdrop for photography.

SLurl Details

Fantasy Faire 2019: as the Sun dips towards the west

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Fantasy Faire

The official events of Fantasy Faire are over. The DJs have played, the artists have performed, stories have been written and told. Memories have been born, friendships renewed or made. As it is with every year, Fantasy Faire 2019 will leave its mark on all who attended it, whether for their first time, their fifth or as someone who has been a part of the magic since its inception.

But while the formal events have now ended, The Fairelands remain for one more weekend; so if you’ve not yet had the time to visit this year’s realms, now is the time to do so.

Already this year has been a landmark for Fantasy Faire. In 2018, the event raised some US $50,000, all of which was put towards cancer care at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in Nairobi, Kenya, and the American Cancer Society’s plans to build a new Hope Hostel for cancer sufferers and their families and carers at the hospital. The success of the 2018 Faire served as a hallmark event for the Hope Hostel efforts within the ACS, as Kristen Solt, Managing Director of the American Cancer Society’s Global Health Initiatives Programme indicated in an open letter to all Fairelanders.

Fantasy Faire 2019: The Shrine Tree

This year, it had been hoped that 2019 could come close to matching that total, further strengthening the work at KNH, with a target of US $40,000 being set. But then came an anonymous business donor, who offered US $20,000 to Fantasy Faire if the event achieved their target.

US $40,000 is L$10 million – that’s a lot by anyone’s count. But on Thursday, May 2nd, as Fairelanders were informed via group note cards, that target was achieved, and the anonymous benefactor indeed stepped up and presented the Faire with a further US $20,000, bringing the total raised to date for the 2019 event to over US $60,000.

Fantasy Faire 2019: Sanguinely Gardens

And there is still time to increase that amount. the regions of the Fairelands will remain open until the end of day, Sunday May 5th. The stores all remain open for business, and there is still time to join this year’s Fairelands Quest – the Lair of Lantoris:

The Bard Queen’s grandson has been stolen … his parents, the Princess Flora and Garius the Winter King are determined to rescue him. But Oswain has been carried to the lair of Lantoris, a disgraced mage and follower of the Unweaver. His skill at protective spells is so advanced — can you penetrate his barriers? It all depends on you, apprentice of magic,  to gather the ingredients to create the spells that Flora is researching. And then to venture into Lantoris’ realm, where Garius is desperately seeking his son.

As with past Faire Quests, the Lair of Lantoris is HUD-driven, with the HUD available from all landing points within the Fairelands at L$250 for the basic edition and L$350 for the Deluxe edition with a custom outfit for your avatar. It is, again, like previous quests, in two parts, with the second chapter, now open – so, if you haven’t started it as yet, there is still time to catch up over the weekend!

Fantasy Faire 2019: Thornfast

The first part of the Quest offers a great way to discover the Fairelands: you must travel through each one, starting with the Fairelands Junction, where the Bard Queen will set you on your way. Then you must find a series of ingredients (with the aid of a NPC “helper” in the form of The Professor), one per Faireland region (with the exception of Thornfast, which is reserved for chapter 2 of the Quest). The ingredients could by anywhere in each region (except within the store themselves), so you’ll get to find out a lot about each one.

The second part of the quest takes place exclusively within Thornfast – make sure you follow the additional instructions for this part of the Quest carefully! Should you need help with anything, refer to the Quest FAQ, and if your curious about the rewards you’re be granted on completion, check out the Quest prize catalogue!

So, with three days left, be sure to head over to the Fairelands and enjoy Fantasy Faire 2019 before the regions fade into the west for another year. There’s a lot to be found within the stores, and plenty of kiosks in which to offer a donation, and you can also dontate via the Fantasy Faire ACS team page.

Fairelands SLurls

 

Waifs and Lala in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lalalala Gallery: CybeleMoon: Waifs

I received an invitation from CybeleMoon (Hana Hoobinoo) to drop in to a boutique exhibition of her work at the Lalalala Gallery complex owned and curated by Lala Lightfoot. An invitation that allowed me to both visit CybeleMoon’s work – which is something I’m always only too happy to do, being a confirmed fan of her work – and pop in to see Lala’s current exhibition and see preparations in hand for a new exhibition.

Waifs, located in the North Gallery provides a gathering of Cybele’s art focusing on children, and carries with it a definite Parisian theme. It mixes physical world and virtual world images in another captivating display of art with a story, helped among by Edit Piaf via the easel-mounted media board.

Lalalala Gallery: CybeleMoon: Waifs

Those familiar with Cybele’s work will likely recognise a fair few of the images on offer. However, this doesn’t lessen the impact on seeing them here, particularly when framed by their groupings: Place de la Sorbonne, Boulevard Montmartre, Rue Poissonnière. These provide a uniquely Parisian feel to the set of images on each of the walls, and are centred on at least one of Cybele’s pieces in-world art, which perhaps binds images and place names together.

Take Rue Poissonnière (“Fishmonger’s Road”), for example, or Boulevard Montmartre. Both offer images of young children – the waifs of the exhibition’s title. The former brings to mind the route fish would take to the market of Les Halles from Boulogne and other ports, with Cybele painting The Siren’s Call offers and image of a little girl dreaming, perhaps of taking flight like the gulls overhead, or of diving into the waters and becoming a mermaid, free to escape the troubles of land life. With Gigi sitting among the images of Boulevard Montmartre, there is an echo of the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur (admittedly, there are no domes on the house to assist in the suggestion – but the echo is there). This, together with the image of the Eiffel Tower roots the surrounding images in thoughts of the artists who once painted the street life of the district, and he views it offers across Paris, maintaining the Parisian thread through the exhibition.

Lalalala Gallery: LaLa Lightfoot

The rest of the gallery complex comprises two exhibition spaces, one of which was being prepared for a further exhibition by Lala, and other of which features a collection of her paintings, and Lala’s studio space, a cosy social space.

A physical world artist, Lala offers a number of her painting through the exhibition space, all of which  – again at the time of my visit – were on a floral theme. Most (all?) appear to be pastel images, rich in colour and presented in an uncluttered style. The new exhibition appears to be focused on digital art, and I look forward to returning to Thistle in the future to visit it.

SLurl Details

SL Marketplace: store managers introduced

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Thursday, May 2nd, 2019, Linden Lab deployed the latest updates to the SL Marketplace, chief among which is the introduction of the store manager.

A store manager is another user a merchant with a Marketplace store can designate to manage some operations of their MP store. This is a capability that merchants have long requested, both through the forums and the Web User Group meetings, and the response to the deployment has already been positive.

Key points with store managers:

  • Merchants can nominate up to five store managers.
  • By default store managers can:
    • Edit store details.
    • Edit product details.
    • List an unlisted item.
    • View store and product details.
  • In addition, merchants can optionally allow store managers to:
    • Unlist an item.
    • Redeliver items (including changing automatic redelivery status).
    • Add/remove revenue distributions.
    • Add/remove listing enhancements.
    • Change prices.
    • However,these additional permissions can only be added once for a store manager: if they are to be changed at all, the store manager must be removed, and then re-added with the changed permissions.
  • If a store manager does not have any of the additional permissions, those fields appear as inactive in the edit and bulk edit pages. Similarly, the associated controls do not appear for store managers that do not have permission to unlist items, add/remove revenue distributions, or add/remove listing enhancements.
  • Store managers can access the store using their own log-in credentials – not the merchant’s.
  • All store manager action (creation, settings permissions, removal) are set through the merchant’s My Marketplace > Merchant home options.
  • Instructions for adding / removing Store Managers can be found in the official Second Life Marketplace store managers Knowledge Base article.
Store Managers are added via the My Marketplace > Marketplace Home page (1), then clicking Edit Store Information (2) and scrolling to the bottom of the Store Information Page to click Add Manager (3). Add the name of the Store manager and setting the additional permissions for term via the pop-up (4), then clicking the ADD button when all is set (5). Remember that if permissions are to be changed, the Manager must be removed and re-added with the required permissions

In addition, and to provide merchants with oversight of the actions taken on their store:

  • All actions taken by (a) store manager(s) are logged and can be reviewed by the merchant (My Marketplace >  Merchant Home > View audit logs in the left menu.
  • E-mail alerts can also be set to be sent whenever a store manager performs an action on the merchant’s store.
  • Additionally, no store manager will be able to:
    • Archive products.
    • Add/remove other managers.

Again, full details on managing Store Managers can be found in the Knowledge Base article, and any specific issues with the system should be reported via the Jira.

Lumiya client: availability (updated May 3rd)

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update, May 3rd: it appears Lumiya may have been caught by recent changes to changing Google Play policies and Google’s updated developer terms (which apparently require the agreement of all app developers).

The changes to the Google Play policies actually caused some companies  – such as HTC – to temporarily remove their apps from Google Play until they could issue updates in compliance with the new policies, with HTC commenting:

In order to comply with the latest Google Play policy, we have temporarily removed a number of HTC applications from the Google Play Store. Applications will be republished over the coming weeks as we deploy new updates.

Sources have suggested that, subject to compliance with the the new policies, smaller developers have either removed their apps or may have had their apps suspended by Google Play pending their formal agreement to the new policies.

I’ve not heard back from Alina on the subject, but Lumiya Support Manager, Kaleaon, indicated that the above may well be reason for Lumiya’s (hopefully temporary) disappearance from Google Play, saying:

I know Alina’s been busy, so she may not yet have had the time to provide her approval.

I’ll provide further updates should I obtain more news.

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I was going to hold-off blogging on this until I’d heard back from Alina Lyvette, but as there is already some discussion on the matter, as well as some blog posts, I thought I’d add some notes.

Lumiya is currently unavailable from the Google Play website.

However, and at the time of writing (these may change over time):

  • The viewer is still available via SlideMe, which is listed on the Lumiya website as the “official” alternative means of obtaining the client – see http://slideme.org/application/lumiya.
  • Similarly, the Lumiya plug-ins, the cloud storage option and the voice option are still available via Google Play.
  • At the time of writing, the client still works on suitable Android devices, and log-ins work just fine.

It is not at all clear why Lumiya has vanished from Google Play at this point in time. It might be a problem at Google Play’s end, or it might be something else.

I have been attempting to contact Alina (the client’s creator) on the matter (her time in-world appears limited nowadays, so hoping e-mail works), and have also pinged the support folk as well.

I’ll update this piece when / if I get any feedback from Alina and / or Kaleaon about the matter.

Additional Links

Aptoide link removed as a result of questions concerning lack of payment option.

Finding rez zones in Bellisseria – Yasmin’s free HUD

Posted on by Inara Pey
Out and about in Bellisseria on my Piaggio SG33E Roadrunner scooter (reviewed here), thanks to the rez zones and Yasmin’s HUD

On April 24th, I blogged about the arrival of the Coral Waters airstrip off the west coast of Bellisseria, the Linden Homes continent (see Bellisseria gains a coastal airstrip in Second Life), which was also marked by the arrival of official rezzing zones both on land and around the coast of the continent.

Yasmin’s Bellisseria rez zone HUD

However, with reference to the offical rez points, being aware they are around is one thing, trying to find the nearest to you can be another – a list of regions is great, if you happen to know where each region is in the overall map. Of course, if you bookmark the list (or maintain your own list of rez point URLs on a web page), you can always use your browser to find one and hop to it.  However, Having them available on a HUD would make things so much easier.

Well, that’s exactly what friend and fellow aviator  / sailor Yasmin (YouAintSeenMe) has done: created a map HUD of clickable rez points across Bellisseria, including those at the Coral Waters airstrip.

Displayed on the Centre HUD attach point by default (obviously, it can be repositioned), the HUD displays a map of Bellisseria with all of the current rez zones (as of April 29th, 2019) displayed as blue dots on it. Clicking on any of the dots will open the World map focused on the coordinates of the rez zone, allowing you to easily teleport to it.

Its simple but effective, I’m looking forward to having to update it with new map 🙂 . Wear as a HUD, or can be rezzed in-world for use on a signpost (or whatever).

– Yasmin, discussing her Bellisseria rez zone HUD

Available free of charge through Yasmin’s Marketplace store, I can vouch for the HUD, which is now a part of my inventory – although I have made one small change.

In order to be legible, the HUD does take up a fair amount of screen real estate – which isn’t a problem, if you’re using it as a quick on / off reference (as intended by Yasmin). But, me being awkward, decided having it always available while wandering Bellisseria would be easier.

So, as the HUD is modify, it was simple enough to add a scripted root tab prim to it, then drop in a script. When the tab is clicked, the HUD now slides “on” and “off” my screen from the right side. It’s not a vital requirement, but it makes for a quick way to pull out the map (when attached) whilst exploring Bellisseria should I need a rez point 🙂 .

While the HUD can be easily attached / detached when needed, I opted to mod it to have it slide on / off-screen from the right when needed

The map is simple and elegant. Whether worn as a HUD or placed on your land as a signpost for people to use, it is a definite boon to those who like exploring new locations – or who may lose a vehicle whilst motoring / sailing / flying around the new continent – so a big thank you to Yasmin for producing it.

Marketplace Link