Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, June 16th
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 6.2.2.527338, formerly the Teranino RC viewer, promoted May 22nd – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Love Me Render viewer updated to version 6.2.3.527826 on June 10th.
Bakes on Mesh RC viewer updated to version 6.3.0.527701 on June 10th.
Project viewers:
360 Snapshot project viewer temporarily withdrawn while awaiting a code base update to bring it to parity with the current release viewer.
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.22.51 and Experimental branch to version 1.26.23.4 on June 15th (release notes).
Mobile / Other Clients
Lumiya is currently unavailable through Google Play – see my article and update here. However, it remains available to new users (or can be re-purchased if urgent) via SlideMe.
Update, June 24th: due to low visitor numbers, Cica ha opted to replace Luna Park with a new dynamic installation called Cubes, which you can read about in Cica’s Cubism in Second Life.
Cica Ghost opened her latest installation on Saturday, June 15th. Called Luna Park, it is once again a whimsical trip into the fantastic.
As usual with her pieces, Cica offers a quote to go with the installation, this one from Walt Disney:
It’s a part of a wider quote from the famous animator and film producer that reflected his entire philosophy towards films and entertainment – and why so many of us find his animated films so endearing: “You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”
This approach is why Disney films can be touchstone to our childhood, a reminder of a time when we were able to forget the world around us and let our imaginations run wild, even if only for an hour or so.
And so it is with Luna Park. It’s an opportunity for us to let go of the adult sensibilities and embrace our inner child; to put aside worries and concerns and simply immerse ourselves in fun, frivolity and lightness. It offers a marvellous landscape filled with curios and strangeness intended to raise a smile.
From a strange horn-like machine that will dump odd metal shapes on you if you stand at the landing point, to tall funnels and box-like stages and boot / funnel-like structures, this is an interactive theme park where visitors are invited to wander, dance, sit, observe and have fun. There’s a lot to see and do throughout – make sure you take the time to hover the mouse over as much as you can, there are dances and poses throughout; make sure as well, that you climb all the ladders to climb into the boxes and funnels where steps are offered – you might find a few surprises!
It’s a place with many reminders of Cica’s past builds – such as her Frogs, a new take on her cats, her delightful flowers and stick figures and crow – even some of the structures present echoes of previous works, making Luna Park somewhat evocative as well.
But, when all is said and done, this is an installation that should be experienced, rather than written about, so I urge you to pay a visit and let your inner child out to play. Luna Park will be only be around for a month – and do please consider making a donation towards the cost of the region and Cica’s future art in SL.
Arthur C. Clarke’s fictional warning from 2010: Odyssey Two, given with regards to Europa. Now we may have a further reason to send a mission to probe the ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust. Credit: NASA / I. Pey
The words in the image above form part of the conclusion to Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two, the sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s collaboration with Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and itself made into a film by Peter Hyams. They come as the alien force responsible for the strange monoliths that triggered the events of 2001: A Space Odyssey cause the gravitational collapse of Jupiter, generating sufficient compression to start nuclear fusion, turning it into a mini-sun.
The actions were taken due to primitive life being found in the waters under Europa’s crust of ice; life trapped in an evolutionary cul-de-sac unless Europa received greater sunlight to melt the ice, evaporate some of the sea to expose landmasses and allow its burgeoning life the opportunity to grow and evolve. The words were issued to prevent humanity interfering in this process.
While there is no sign of aliens, monoliths, or anything like it around Jupiter, we do know there is a vast salty ocean under Europa’s ice, potentially 100 km (62.5 mi) deep and kept liquid as a result of the gravitational forces of Jupiter and other Galilean moons causing Europa to “flex” and generate heat deep within itself – and that ocean could be the home of life.
Europa’s internal structure, showing the subsurface ocean which could be up to 100 km (62.5 mi) deep. Credit: NASA
It had generally been thought that the salt in Europa’s ocean was likely magnesium chloride. Now a new study indicates that the salt could well be sodium chloride – the same salt present in our own oceans. This has important implications for the potential existence of life in Europa’s hidden depths.
Scientists believe that hydrothermal circulation within the ocean, mostly likely driven by hydrothermal vents created on the ocean floor as a result of Europa’s “flexing”, might naturally enrich the ocean in sodium chloride. On Earth, hydrothermal vents have been shown to support life around them, which utilises the minerals and heat from the vent. Much the same could be occurring on Europa.
NASA has had many plans for missions to explore Europa’s ocean. Thus far, none have got beyond the the planning phase. Credit: NASA
Identifying the presence of sodium chloride has been a long time coming. Europa is tidily-locked with Jupiter, meaning it always keeps the same side pointed toward the planet. As a result, studies of the moon have been focused on its far side relative to Jupiter, as this side of the moon reveals much of the complex and continuing interaction taking place between Jupiter, Europa, and Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io, which results in sulphur from Io to be deposited on Europa.
Mixed in with these sulphur deposits are traces of magnesium chloride, which led researchers to believe it had been ejected from the moon’s ocean through the cracks and breaks that occur in Europa’s icy shell as a result of the internal “flexing”. However, when reviewing recent data obtained from the Keck Observatory, the team responsible for the new study found something odd. The data – gathered in infra-red – included the “side” of Europa facing along the path of its orbit around Jupiter – a face largely free from sulphur deposits from Io, although it is still stained yellow.
It had been assumed that this discolouration was due to more magnesium chloride being ejected from within Europa. But magnesium chloride is visible in the infra-red – and the Keck data didn’t reveal any such infra-red signature associated with the discolouration. So what might be causing them?
One of the study’s authors, Kevin Hand of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, realised that sodium chloride is “invisible” under infra-red – but it can change colour when irradiated. Carrying out tests on ocean salts, he found they did turn yellow under visible light when irradiated. He then analysed the yellow in the salt and the yellow on Europa imaged by Hubble – and found the two exhibited exactly the same absorption line in the visible spectrum.
A pair of composite images of Europa. On the left, as seen in natural light; on the right the same image that has been colour enhanced. They show, on the right, the “far side” of Europa relative to Jupiter, the rust colour the result of sulphur ejected from Jupiter’s inner moon Io being deposited on Europa by Jupiter’s radiation belts, and which show evidence of magnesium chloride. On the left, the yellow staining, originally thought to be the result of further magnesium chloride deposits from within the moon – but which now have been shown to be sodium chloride – the same salt as found in our own oceans. Credit: NASA/JPL / University of Arizona
We’ve had the capacity to do this analysis with the Hubble Space Telescope for the past 20 years. It’s just that nobody thought to look.
Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy at Caltech, and study co-author
This is the clearest evidence yet as to the nature of Europa’s ocean and its similarity to our own, life-supporting ocean. However, it’s not absolute proof: the sodium chloride might be indicative of salt deposited in Europa’s icy crust from long ago, rather than evidence of it being contained with the moon’s oceans. However – and despite the fictional warning from Clarke’s novel – the study ups the need for us to send a mission to Europa that is capable of penetrating its icy surface and directly studying the ocean beneath ice, both for signs of possible life, and better understand the processes that might be occurring within its depths.
Starshade: The Quest to See Exoplanets
Over the last few decades, astronomers have discovered over 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars, leading to wide-ranging debates as to the suitability of such worlds supporting life. One of the ways we could better make such a determination would be through direct analysis of their atmospheres. The problem here is that given the distances involved, the atmospheres of exoplanets are effectively masked from observation from Earth by the glare of their parent star.
Plans are in hand to achieve this. When the WFIRST telescope is launched in the mid-2020s – assuming it continues to survive attempts by the White House to delay or cancel it – it will carry an instrument called the stellar coronagraph. This will effectively block the light of a star from reaching the telescope’s imaging systems, allowing it to see the atmospheres of planets roughly the size of Saturn or Jupiter or larger. But to see the atmospheres of smaller exoplanets – the size of the majority so far discovered – an alternative its required. Enter Starshade.
Also called the New World Project, Starshade has been in development since 2005 – although it has yet to gain formal mission status. In essence, it proposes the deployment of a purpose-built space telescope and an “occulter” – a massive deployable, adjustable shade, 26 metres (85 ft) in diameter.
Starshade proposes using a large “occulter” (left) to block the light of distant stars so that a telescope (right) to study the atmospheres of planets orbiting the star. Note this image shows the shade unfurling following its deployment from its carrier vehicle, which also includes the originally-proposed telescope (seen at the right-hand end of the vehicle). once separated, the telescope vehicle would move away from the starshade before turning to align the telescope with it. Credit: NASA, 2014
The idea is that, placed between the telescope and a star with known exoplanets, the shade would block the star’s light – but allow the light from the planets be received by the telescope, allow it to be spectrographically analysed. This would allow scientists to understand the nature and composition of any atmospheres these planets might have, and thus determine their possible suitability for life.
One of the stumbling blocks for the proposal has been cost: developing and launching both a purpose-built telescope and occulter has been put at US $3 billion. However, were Starshade to be used with an already budgeted telescope – say WFIRST – that cost comes down to just US $750 million. Thus, the most recent studies related to the project have been focused on achieving this. In doing so, they’ve raised a significant technical issue: alignment.
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 16th, 13:00 A Midsummer’s Night Dream
One of William Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a four-stranded play set within a forest inhabited by the fairy folk under the rule of Titania and Oberon. There is the over-arching theme of the forthcoming wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and Hippolyta, the Amazon queen, due to take place within the forest. This is to be in part celebrated by a group of six amateur actors staging a play, and who have also come to the forest to prepare. Then there are the four young Athenians who are to be among the guests at the wedding: Hermia, is in love with Lysander, but has been order by Egeus, her face to wed Demetrius, who is deeply loved by Helena, Hermia’s best friend – but whom he dumped to be free to wed Hermia.
Within the forest, Oberon and Titania are somewhat estranged over Titania’s refusal to accede to Oberon’s demand to hand him her Indian changeling. Angered by her actions, Oberon summon Robin “Puck” Goodfellow, his “shrewd and knavish sprite”, with the intent of putting into motion a plan to shame Titania into doing as he wishes through the use of a magical potion. However, as the plot is put into motion, Oberon witnesses assorted actions: the cruel words of Demetrius to Helena, the assery (a deliberately chosen term in the circumstances 🙂 ) of Nick Bottom, one of the amateur players, and the plot inevitably thickens – helped in no small part by a slight case of mistaken identities, until the fairies are forced to convince those with whom they have interacted have just experienced a dream – and Puck suggests that the dream might even extend to the audience.
Hosted by Elrik Merlin and Caledonia Skytower, with performances organised by Kayden Oconnell, the cast comprises Caledonia, Kayden, Da5id Abbot, Fayleen Belois, Ian Quintessa, and Aoife Lorefield, the project’s creator, who will also be interviewed after the performances.
If you cannot attend the event, then why not listen wherever you are, in-world or out, by tuning into fantasy.radioriel.org.
Monday, June 17th 19:00: Incident at Hawk’s Hill
Gyro Muggins reads naturalist and historian Allan W. Eckert’s popular novel.
In 1870, Manitoba became the fifth province of the (then) three-year-old Canadian Confederation. Over the previous 18 months, it had seen strife and rebellion, but for William MacDonald, his wife, Esther, and their family, the lands around what would eventually become the city of Winnipeg, are ideal for farming, and so they have settled and built Hawk’s Hill.
The open spaces are perfect for the MacDonald’s four children – or should have been; while the three elder children thrived, the youngest, six-year-old Ben, became increasingly introverted.
Small for his age, Ben was reserved and prefers being with animals, learning to imitate the sounds of many, and well as copying their movements and actions. In return, the local animals seem to respond well to him – although members of his family and the other locals consider him odd.
But then came the day when Ben, in seeking new animals to mimic, wandered further than was usual, venturing into unfamiliar territory – only to become hopelessly lost. When a storm breaks, he has no option but to hide in a badger hole – an occupied badger hole. And thus begins a relationship spanning several months between young boy and a female badger, to the benefit and comfort of both.
Tuesday, June 18th 19:00: The Penderwicks in Spring
Springtime is finally arriving on Gardam Street, and there are surprises in store for each member of the family. Some surprises are just wonderful, like neighbour Nick Geiger coming home from war. And some are ridiculous, like Batty’s new dog-walking business. Batty is saving up her dog-walking money for an extra-special surprise for her family, which she plans to present on her upcoming birthday. But when some unwelcome surprises make themselves known, the best-laid plans fall apart.
Filled with all the heart, hilarity, and charm that has come to define this beloved clan, The Penderwicks in Spring is about fun and family and friends (and dogs), and what happens when you bring what’s hidden into the bright light of the spring sun.
With Caledonia Skytower.
Wednesday, June 19th 19:00: The Menace from Earth
Young love is often hard on those experiencing it for the first time.
Take 15-year-old Holly, for example. A lunar colonist and aspiring starship designer, who has something of a crush on her closest male friend, Jeff, with whom she shares a particular passion: that of flying.
It’s a popular pastime on the Moon, thanks in part to the 1/6 gravity environment. Taking advantage of this in caverns within the cities where the air pressure can be kept high enough, locals can strap on sets of wings and take to the air. And Holly and Jeff are both fans of the activity.
Another element to life on the Moon is that of tourism: playing host to “groundhogs”, as the locals call them, who like to visit the Moon. One such tourist is Ariel, a glamorous woman to whom Holly is assigned to as a guide.
It all goes well to start with – until Holly introduces Ariel to Jeff. To her dismay, Holly find herself facing The Menace From Earth: Jeff is quite smitten with Ariel. As her jealousy grow, so Holly starts to resent Ariel more and more – but what to do?
Things take a sudden turn when Ariel asks to joins Holly and Jeff flying in the local cavern…
With Derry McMahon, Bear Silvershade, and Caledonia Skytower.
Thursday, June 20th 19:00: Monsters and Myths
Shandon Loring re-opens Bernard Evslin’s work of stories featuring the gods, heroes and monsters of Greek mythology, turning to Evslin’s words on Hecate, variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, light, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery.
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, June 14th, 2019. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it. The key points of discussion are provided below with time stamps to the relevant points in the video, which will open in a separate tab when clicked.
There have been no further LL viewer updates wince the Love Me Render and Bakes On Mesh RC releases on June 10th. This leaves the current LL viewer pipelines as follows:
Current Release version 6.2.2.527338, formerly the Teranino RC viewer, promoted May 22 – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Love Me Render viewer, version 6.2.3.527826, June 10th.
Bakes on Mesh RC viewer, version 6.3.0.527701, June 10th.
Rainbow RC viewer, version 6.2.3.527758, June 5th.
Project viewers:
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.2.3.527749, released on June 5th. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 2017 and promoted to release status 29th November 2017 – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
BOM Alpha / Universal Wearable Issues
Please also see my week #24 CCUG update for details of issues around alpha handling and the universal wearable channels in the Bakes on Mesh viewer. Vir indicated that the Lab has a handle on this, which will require an Appearance Service update and a “small” viewer-side update that will include a new inventory icon for universal wearables.
As per my preview article, the Legacy Profiles project viewer (version 6.2.3.527749 at the time of writing), moves avatar profile in the viewer back into their own floater, rather than using a view of the web profile.
This work is in its initial stages, and the overall aim of the work is in flux. This means that the profile panel itself might be subject to further revision, and that even the web feed itself might gain its own floater, rather than being a tab within the new profile floater.
360 Snapshot Viewer
[6:15-7:33] Note that the 360 Snapshot viewer has been temporarily withdrawn, due to the core viewer code being badly out-of-date. The viewer is currently in the process of being updated – no functionality changes to the 360 snapshot capability, purely an update to bring the core code up-to-date with the current release viewer. It is hoped this will reach the Lab’s QA team soon, and reappear as a project viewer in due course.
A frequent complaint with Group chat is that it can be slow.
The Lab’s investigation in issues shows that actual chat messages and group notices account for the minority of traffic seen in the group chat system.
By far the largest volume of traffic is purely the on-line / off-line notifications that are being sent.
So, for example, in a group of 20,000 members, each time someone logs-in or out of SL, 20,000 messages are generated in the group chat system; for a 50,000 member group, the number is 50,000, and so on.
Note that a couple of years ago, to try to improve things, the Lab disabled the ability to see the group members list for groups over 5,000 members – but the actual messages themselves are still circulated.
The Lab is therefore seeking feedback on how big an impact it would be if these on-line / off-line messages were turned off on the simulator side, either just for very large groups (upper limit TBD), or simply for all groups, in the hope it will reduce the volume of traffic and help improve overall chat performance.
It has been acknowledged that if this is to be done, it would be useful for group members to still be able to see which group owners / moderators are on-line, and for group owners / moderators to see which group members are on-line, so that issues / enquiries can be dealt with. The Lab will investigate whether this can be done.
Note that removing these messages would not affect the “last login” date for the group members list.
It is likely the Lab may carry out some experiments on a small cohort of groups to see what might be done and check for any measurable performance increase in those groups.
Some experimenting has already been done in trying to batch the on-line / off-line update messages, but it’s not clear if this has had any positive impact where it has been done.
An alternative suggestion is to break groups into types: e.g. those purely for chat (which may require more information on users’ on-line status) and those just for outwards announcements.
This is already done to some degree by group owners setting group rules / members’ capabilities; however, it still means the on-line / off-line messages are still sent.
Were the Lab to try to implement a more robust system like this, there would be a major issue is handling existing groups and determining how to define them.
[41:00-41:15] More generally with group chat, the Lab have considered adding an ability to add a server-side block (accessible through the viewer) on chat from groups a user does not wish to hear from, chat-wise. This may be implemented “at some point”.
In Brief
[36:10-36:35] Avatar Teleport on Region Performance: as we know, avatars arriving in a region can have a significant impact on the region’s performance. The Lab believe that have a partial understanding of the problem, and has some ideas on how the impact might be lessened.
[44:20-46:44] BUG-225696 – “All offline inventory offers from scripted objects are lost” – was believed to have been fixed in the Teranino RC viewer, however it still appears to be occurring. As such BUG-227179 has been raised against the issue, and the Lab will look into it again.
[52:16-53:30] Kitty Barnett (Catznip) has been working on trying to clean-up a series of viewer-side events that can cause the viewer to stall after the login.cgi process has completed that can cause region messages (including IMs) to be lost. The Lab is aware of these as well, but would be interested in accepting Kitty’s code contributions if she can get them finished.
The Lab is still looking for a Senior Graphics Engineer to work on Second Life (San Francisco based).
Total Aside
In discussing SL groups (and as a point of humour), Oz and Grumpity revealed the first three Jira items filed internally at the Lab:
SL-1: Second Life should grow to dominate the entire world, thereby making us the de facto world leaders.
SL-2: Build a time machine.
SL-3: Build an army of robot cats.
SL-2 was seen as necessary because the Lab knew that it would eventually need to go back and re-engineer some of the decisions made when first defining / building Second Life and its architecture. Sadly, and DeLorean cars notwithstanding, there are still considerable blockers that prevent its implementation!
I recently received a couple of invitations to visit the new Focus Magazine Gallery, one from CybeleMoon, who is their inaugural Featured Artist exhibiting in the main gallery, and also from Angela Thespian, Editor of Focus Magazine.
The main gallery occupies the upper floor of one wing of a multi-purpose building located within a sky platform designed to resemble a city-space. With the use of projected lighting, it is an ideal environment for displaying 2D – and is especially finely suited to CybeleMoon’s (Hana Hoobinoo) marvellous art-as-stories, the bright, modern lines of the gallery with the muted cream tones perfectly compliment the dark tones and depth of light of Cybele’s art.
The exhibition accompanies a feature article on Cybele in the June issue of Focus Magazine that makes for excellent reading for those not familiar with Cybele herself, offering rich insight into the influences on her life and art. It goes a long was to explaining why I am a confirmed admirer of Cybele’s work; while her art far outstrips anything I could hope to achieve, we nevertheless share common themes of interest: Celtic mythology, the attraction of certain landscapes: misty glens, high moorland fens, remote tors and the beauty of light caught between the branches of trees; the muse of music – notably Ennio Morricone (perhaps the single most gifted composer of the 20th century), James Newton Howard and Klaus Badlet.
But it is her art, first and foremost that attracts me; the richness of tone, the mixing and balance of light and shade, the symbolism and – most poignantly – the depth of narrative. As such – and as I’ve often said, her art is not to be missed, and at Focus, she presents a broad portfolio of her work that offers a superb introduction for those not familiar with her work, and an engaging makes a visit more than worthwhile.
Tucked into a corner across the central area of the platform (which was in a state of flux when I visited, being a green park the first couple of times I dropped in earlier in the week, then sprouting a drive-in movie theatre when I dropped in on Saturday – a sign that this is an evolving setting) is the FAIR gallery – for Focus Artists In Residence programme. Split between two floors, this offers four exhibition spaces which for June feature the art of Naema (mojosb5c), Red Fire (RobinLeia), Tig (tigggg) and Angela herself.
All four present art focused on avatar studies, but the work is so richly various in style and approach that the visitor doesn’t feel overwhelmed by the volume of pieces on offer. These are four artists who individually have a depth of style that is attractive to the eye, and I found it somewhat refreshing to see a gallery featuring male self-portraits as an Artist In Residence exhibit; not that this doesn’t happen – just that it seems at times to be rare.
But I confess it was perhaps Red Fire’s work that most deeply attracted me. Incorporating that subtle balance of light and dark, often carrying a fantasy / fantastical theme, and with that all-important narrative subtext, I found Red’s art utterly captivating.
With strong roots in the arts community through the magazine and it sin-world group – Too Sexy For This Group (TSFTG) -, and with the perspective of using the main gallery space to offer additional focus on their featured artist for each issue, of the magazine, Focus Magazine Gallery promises to make for a fascinating – no pun intended – focus for future visits.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 