Month: September 2019

2019 SL User Groups 38/3: TPVD meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey
HollyWeird, Hotel California – August 2019 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on September 20th, 2019. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to Pantera for recording and providing it. This was a relatively short meeting, with the majority of topics covered in the first 20 minutes.

SL Viewer News

There have been no further updates to the official SL pipelines since the updates at the start of the week, leaving them as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.3.1.530559, formerly the Umeshu Maintenance RC viewer, dated September 5th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Vinsanto RC viewer, version 6.3.2.530962, September 17th.
    • Ordered Shutdown RC viewer, version 6.3.2.530901, September 16th. This viewer has changes intended to make crashes on shut-down less likely, but does not have any changes to existing features.
    • EEP RC viewer, version 6.4.0.530150, August 19th.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17th. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.530473, September 11th.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th.
  • 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.

Note: Bakes on Mesh introduced an at-login crash that some viewers are experiencing. This has been the subject of a bug report and a fix will be making its way into a maintenance viewer.

Brief Viewer-Related Notes

EEP Viewer

EEP progress has been slowed down for the time being – but for good reasons. The Lab has hired two new rendering system experts, one of whom has already started. They are due to work on EEP related rendering but they will both take time to be introduced to the Lab’s working environment and the EEP project as a whole. This expertise will also be put to work on general rendering work through projects such as the Love Me Render pipeline.

Voice Viewer

The long-awaited Voice viewer update should be appearing in week #39 (commencing Monday, September 23rd), containing assorted fixes for the viewer side of voice.

  • In particular, it is hoped this update will fix the (predominantly Mac-related) issue of disconnects as a result of a user speaking too softly / having the microphone set too low / pausing for extended period when speaking.
  • However, there are some issues believed to be server-side that are still being addressed (such as users appearing to be on a separate voice channel to the region of a region, requiring a relog).
  • It is believed the version of SLvoice.exe in this viewer will function OK with TPVs, although the Lab has obviously not tested this.

Once out, this viewer will likely be pushed through to release status as soon as progress / lack of issues allow.

Viewer Caching / Texture Memory Use

This work is again getting attention, but it will still be a while before it received “substantive” attention once more, in order for a project /RC viewer to make an appearance.

Viewer Build Related Notes

Viewer Build Manifest Updates

From a development perspective, the Voice viewer also includes change to the viewer build manifest, so it accurately reflects viewer build library requirements and correctly reports on missing libraries. Those who self-compile should listen to the video between 10:30 and 14:00.

Viewer Build Tools Project

The work to update the viewer build process to use Visual Studio 2017 and Xcode 10.3 for OS X is still progressing. It is anticipated that results from this work will be visible in the next few weeks.

Mercurial to Github Migration

Bitbucket, used to manage viewer repositories) will be sunsetting support for Mercurial; Linden Lab will therefore be switching to git on bitbucket for their repositories.

  • Currently, the Lab is experimenting with converting come of their internal repositories from Mercurial to git to see if it is possible to do code merges in both directions via the same tool.
  • If successful, LL will document the tool and process, then move to try the same procedure against their build repositories, then run things in parallel before finally switching over.
  • The process is expected to be measured in 2-3 months rather than weeks, and the documentation the Lab produces will be made available to TPVs to allow them to migrate where required, and efforts will be made to keep TPVs informed on overall progress.
  • Overall, it is anticipated that the overall process will not be quite as “scary” as has been feared.

Art and inspiration in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Impossibleisnotfrench

Opening on Saturday, September 21st at THE EDGE Art Gallery, curated by Ladmilla, is a new ensemble exhibition entitle Afflatus (“inspiration”). Running through until Monday, October 21st, 2019, the exhibit features the work of Impossibleisnotfrench, Jessamine2108, Davenwolf Dagger, Loegan Magic, together with gallery “regulars” (residents?) Kapaan, Larisalyn, PartrickofIreland and Trisharose, all rounded-out by a display of art and words by Ladmilla and her SL partner, Eli Medier.

For this exhibition, part of the lawn between the gallery’s indoor exhibition spaces has been turned into a garden display, with paths meandering around work by the quite delightfully name Impossibleisnotfrench (using the Display Name Harry Cover – the name I’m going to go with here, simply for brevity of typing!), and Trisharose. I’m starting here in part because it is the most obvious element in the exhibition, sittig as it does in the midst of the gallery space, but also because Harry’s 3D work is utterly captivating, and it’s the first time I can recall witnessing it in Second Life.

The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Impossibleisnotfrench

For My Third Life Harry present 25 eggs, the majority of which are each slightly larger than an avatar’s neck and head, all of them mindful of Fabergé eggs, but eschewing the gold and bejewelled exteriors in favour of external painting and design in keeping with their contents. Within each (just click the lid on those that might be closed and hiding their interiors) is the most remarkable diorama or model, all of them spanning a broad range of subjects from little World War I Sopwith Camels patrolling the air over their base, to miniature paintings to tiny goldfish swimming in their bowl, with landscapes, figurines and even a couple of cheeky and humorous pieces (think the girl is taking a shower? look more closely!). All are actually drawn from elements of Harry’s life and family, thus offering a “3rd life”, so to speak, reflection of his first life. They are, individually and collectively, an absolutely must-see display that is mesmerizing in its beauty, inspiration and skill of execution.

Alongside Harry’s installation, Trisharose presents Be Kind, Laugh and Smile Today, a selection of ten avatar studies and two – for me – quite eye-catching studies of that staple of Second Life landscape, the lighthouse.

The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 -Trisharose

Within the gallery buildings can be found the installations by the remaining participants in the exhibition, each of whom presents pictures on a theme of their choosing.

Following the order of buildings anti-clockwise from behind the outdoor display, these are Jessamine2108, who offers us a series of Musings, images ranging from studies of avatars in motion (Passion) through to composite pieces (Transcendence) by way of landscape studies to present a set of pieces that do indeed encourage the mind to muse on them. With All Creatures Great and Small, a wonderful selection of landscape and animal images captured around SL, Larisalyn channels the spirit of James Herriot (actually veterinary surgeon Alf Wright), and I challenge anyone not to find a smile at the title piece alongside the entrance to her gallery space.

For Vintage Virtual and The Promise Loegan Magic and Kapaan respectively focus on black and white images, albeit it in very different ways. With his images, Loegan presents  scenes from Second Life that suggest we are looking back over many decades, to a time before the advent of colour photography; only the appearance of the shells of road vehicles in a couple breaks this illusion.  More than that, however, is that in their monochrome rendering, these are images suggestive of a mind in sleep recalling the places it has seen through the medium of dreaming.

The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Loegan Magic

Kapaan’s work, meanwhile is of a darker tone and presents itself as a narrative, each image potential a scene from an unfolding story – a journey undertaken by a lone hero. But to what end? That, perhaps, is for us as the witnesses to decide. Or perhaps the clue lies in the small annex to the main display space.

Davenwolf Dagger is a photographer in the physical world whose work first came to my attention earlier in 2019, and towards which I admits to having something of a fascination. With Industrial Fusion he offers more of his images from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, and which make up his Blacksmith series. Here they are combined with industrial pieces from SL to provide a unique blending of ideas.

The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – Ladmilla and Eli

Puppets presents more of Ladmilla’s always superb and evocative images – here with a slightly surreal slant – coupled with Eli’s masterful use of prose and poem to present a series of pieces encompassing reflections on life, identity, relationships and human nature, all of which meld the physical and the virtual to stir the mind and the eye.

Surrealism is also very much a part of PatrickofIreland’s Four Elements – Essentials of Life. This is something of an immersive installation, commencing within the courtyard of the gallery space. As the name suggests, it offers a celebration of the four essential elements of life  – water, air, earth and fire, with each represented through fabulously surreal pieces.

The Edge, Afflatus, September 2019 – PatrickofIreland

Inspired and inspirational, Afflatus and its ensemble exhibitions of at officially opens at 11:00 SLT on Saturday, September 21st, with music by DJ Avalon Boa between 12:00 noon and 14:00 SLT.

SLurl Details

A little more Isla Pey: chapel ruins and old pianos

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Chapel Ruins by Marcus Inkpen of The Looking Glass, seated within our “southern island”

It’s been ten months since I bored you with writing about Isla Pey, and at that time I said there probably wouldn’t be any more major changes – and that’s largely been the case. However, over the last couple of months we’ve been re-adding one or two elements of old ruins to the place (a familiar theme with me) – although outside of a couple of walls slipped into the gardens behind the house, nothing really seemed to fit, despite the “south island” screaming to have something placed in it. The towers and walls of previous layouts just didn’t work.

However, a design I’ve admired since it was first released, and which has increasingly been finding its way as a “regular” prop for region designs, is The Looking Glass Chapel Ruins by Marcus Inkpen. Available through The Looking Glass in-world store, this is a truly magnificent piece – and thanks to a combination of size, depth of foundations and luck, it happened to be the *perfect* fit for the land with very little need for anything to be moved or altered – all that was really required was establishing a path to it and around one side of it.

An overhead view of the chapel, with some of my modifications, and a sculpture from Mistero Hifeng

At 66 LI by default, the Chapel Ruins are finely detailed, offering the floor, and broken walls of a single room chapel with the broken square of a tower rising to one side of it, the walls and stairway of which abruptly end just above head height. The windows are without glass, the doors have long gone, and ivy is laying claims to the walls, with fallen stones scattered inside and out. It is, in a word, utterly eye-catching and a worthy centrepiece to any region requiring quality ruins.

Of course, me being who I am, I couldn’t leave it entirely untouched, so a couple of the walls saw some minor alterations (well, one fairly major in that an entire wall section was swapped for another). I also took the opportunity to install some decidedly non-period lighting, together with some additional foliage (pushing the LI to 70) – and then hit a problem.

A view from off-shore

What to do with interior space? Having the ruins really – if I say so myself – set the southern island perfectly; but the rectangle of empty stone floor did look odd – and for over a week nothing came to mind, other than dropping an old piano into it. Which, to be honest, I wanted to shy away from, given such items have also seemed to become de rigueur in a lot of region designs (and I should know- they’ve tended to be de rigueur in my region snapshots of late!).

Fortunately, the answer came in another visit to The Looking Glass. Across the store hall from the vendor for the Chapel Ruins sits a collection called the Our Place To Dream collection, and elements of this collection – notably the wall and the blanket – looked like they might fit with the chapel. And they did.

The “finished” space in the Chapel, with the Our Place to Dream Ruined Wall and Blanket (L) and the Nutmeg Distressed Grand Piano.

With a little modification, the wall offered a fitting suggesting of stonework from the broken wall of the chapel gathered together to form a cosy little space for the blanket, particularly when a DIGS cheeseboard together  with some candles and wines glasses and bottle from various sources were added to make things even cosier. Which just left the rest of the floor space to deal with. A couple of statues by Mistero Hifeng and Silas Merlin helped; but in the end – well I had to give in to instinct and pick up the Nutmeg Distressed Grand Piano.

So, we now have our own ruined chapel, together with a little cosy spot for dancing, sitting and – with the aid of a picnic set, an outdoor corner to share with friends.

The chapel and the house in the background

The last couple of months have also seen some changes to the house itself – not too much, just some trimming and realignment here and there to give it more of its own look whilst also retaining most of the classic Fallingwater lines. Most of all, it’s given us space for a proper dining area – something I’ve never really seen the point of in SL until I moved into my Linden houseboat 🙂 .

I’m not going to wibble on about the house – but I will say that if you’re looking for a nice-looking, functional (as in animated) kitchen with plenty of options, you might want to take a look at the Olivia Kitchen by: Czikitka.

A visit to VUK in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
VUK, September 2019 – click any image for full size

In August we received an invitation from Jacky Macpherson to visit VUK, the Homestead region for the VUK store. Designed by Jacky along with Terry Fotherington and Ines Lauria, the region has been going through a period of development and refinement; on our first visit, there was a small island on its eastern side providing a private space, presumably for region holder and VUK store owner Mr. Vuk. However, on returning in mid-September, this small island had been removed – although it was still showing on the map, suggesting the smaller island has only recently been removed, and ban lines were still in place around the parcel.

The departure of this island (which may only be temporary) means the majority of the region is given over to a single large and rocky island surrounded by a single beach and foreshore. Rising like the shell of a tortoise, the crown of the hill is the location for the VUK store. However, this is no gleaming or fancy store; the location is clearly a former industrial area, and the store sits within the remnants of what looks to have been a factory building. Its roof gone, the walls broken and windows without glass, the building is a place where nature is slowly proclaiming her returning place inside.

VUK, September 2019

Outside of the factory walls is further detritus of human life: the piled ruins of cars and trucks, one of which looks to have become a makeshift shelter for someone. A path winds down the western cliffs from the store to reach what appears to be a once-tidal bay the sea has deserted. The hulk of a fishing boat lies toppled on the grey shore, apparently abandoned well before  the sea deserted the shingle, leaving it to become a backdrop for a makeshift bar and DJ area.

More flotsam and jetsam is littered across the bay – a half-buried container, the wreck of an ancient jeep, a shanty hut and makeshift seating area, all watched over by the bulk of a rusting cable car station brooding under the plaintive cry of gulls and assorted critters. However, it’s unlikely the cars that may have once run along the cables to and from the tower ever carried tourists; more likely they carried material for the hilltop factory.

VUK, September 2019

It is this element of careworn age and of life having largely moved on from the setting that gives the region its considerable character – and offers a lot of discover.

From the bay on the west side, it is possible to circumnavigate the lower reach of the island. This will take you past more of the island’s little scenes and points of interest: camps, the wreck of a windmill, and old pier that also appears to have been long deserted by the sea, and which has now become a kind of sun deck and open-air seating area  (complete with a neat little working racing car set!).

VUK, September 2019

Up on the hill, the factory is surrounded by trees, grass and more signs of former working spaces. But just beyond them, and accessible from the beach below as well, is the remains of a children’s playground. It sits at odds with the more industrial aspects of the island, but at the same time its aged and rusted condition fits right in with the overall theme.

All of this makes for an engaging visit quite apart from the opportunity to check the VUK brand. For those who like to explore together  I recommend heading down to the south side of the island and the deck area mentioned above: there’s a couples walker awaiting you. Also when when visiting, do make sure you have local sounds on so you can appreciate the region’s excellent sound scape.

VUK, September 2019

SLurl Details

  • VUK (VUK, rated Moderate)

2019 SL User Groups 38/2: Content Creation summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grauland, July 2019 – blog post

The following notes are taken from my audio recording of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting, held on Thursday, September 19th 2019 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

ARCTan

Project Summary

An attempt to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs to make them more reflective of the actual impact of rendering both. The overall aim is to try to correct some inherent negative incentives for creating optimised content (e.g. with regards to generating LOD models with mesh), and to update the calculations to reflect current resource constraints, rather than basing them on outdated constraints (e.g. graphics systems, network capabilities, etc).

Current Status

  • An unexpected / unintended side-effect of Bakes On Mesh is the baseline avatar rendering cost has gone up by 1,000. This is due to the additional channels being added in support of BOM (so a basic, naked system avatar will have a complexity of 2,000 instead of 1,000). Vir is going to correct this.
  • Just as a reminder: there is no certainty as to how ARCTan will work – the Lab is focused purely on data gathering at this point, not on implementation. As such it is far too early to discuss policy, rules, implementation, etc.
  • One aspect that is being considered is to provide a set of in-world tools and / or example models to allow creators better understand what ARCTan might be doing and how it could affect their work. Again, this could only be done when LL is in a position to start moving forward with ARCTan.

Should Existing In-World Content Be Excluded?

One area of discussion on ARCTan has been the matter of existing in-world content: should it be subject to the new ARCTan calculations (whatever they might be) or excluded?

  • Arguments for excluding existing in-world content include:
    • Less risk of upset if changing values sees an increase in the land impact of items, prompting confusion among users (“why is my 16 LI bed now 26 LI?”).
    • Reduction in the possible large-scale return off objects by parcels / regions where ARCTan changes take them over their limit.
    • “Easier” to implement, as new costs only apply to “new” content.
    • Less work for content creators in updating their documentation (note cards, MP listings, vendor boards, etc.) to correctly reflect the “new” LI values for their goods that are changed as a result of ARCTan.
    • Reduces the risk of “permanent” content breakage in instances where the LI for objects rises to impact user’s ability to have them in-world, and the creator is no longer active to provide better optimised updates.
  • Arguments against excluding existing in-world content include:
    • Potentially limits the purpose of ARCTan in educating users about using decently optimised content.
    • Introduces questions on how new limited should be applied. On upload? On rezzing?
    • If on rezzing, user confusion may not be negated (“when I rezzed this bed last week it was only 16 LI; now when I rez it, it is 26 LI! Why?!)
    • ARCTan will not be an overnight implementation. LL plan to try to work with creators and users to provided information on changes, and work as far as possible to minimise the risk of content return.
  • The idea of excluding existing content has not been ruled out. But again, until the Lab have baselined their data, carried out experiments and tests in order to see the likely impact of various adjustments to the calculations / costs and investigated what can be done to mitigate some of them (e.g. increase the land capacity of regions), nothing can be decided one way or the other.

Core Content Projects Summary

  • Animesh Follow-On – Project Muscadine: effectively on hold while Vir focuses on ARCTan.
  • EEP: work continuing on rendering bug fixes, with additional resources being added to the project.

General Notes

  • Avatar Impostering
    • Concern has been raised over the complexity handling on Animesh with impostering. Currently, Animesh objects are handled the same as avatars. However, as they are a lot less complex, there is an argument to say Animesh should be handled differently to avatars when impostering.
    • This is being taken into consideration, with the possible introduction of a “max Animesh” setting for the purposes of impostering Animesh.
    • Whether or not this will affect the current baseline for impostering avatars is unclear; the work is still only at the point of discussion.
  • Mesh uploader:
    • There are reports of a rise in issues when uploading mesh models – failure to complete the upload, coupled with the production of hard-to-decipher “mav” errors.
      • So far as the Lab is aware, nothing has changed within the viewer or on the simulator side that might be causing the problems. Those encountering such problems are asked to file a Jira, preferably with  viewer log files.
      • There is a viewer with improvements to the mesh uploader in development. This may not resolve the issues, but it should offer improved feedback and messaging during the upload process.
      • It’s been suggested that the problem could be due to recent updates to Blender in saving .DAE files.
    • Many 3D tools are moving to use / support the glTF file format, which is currently subject to much discussion / criticism. Linden Lab has no plans to support the format at this point in time.
    • A few months ago, it was indicated that custom origin point (pivot point) for meshes would be implemented. This work is currently awaiting some back-end changes. As such, until these changes are made, the work is on hold.

Support Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 2019

Posted on by Inara Pey
via ACS in Second Life / Making Strides

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer has, for the last several years, been a signature event for the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life of Second Life, focused on – as the name implies – the issue of breast cancer.

Around 1.6 million women and men are diagnosed with breast cancer very year, which equates to around 270,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer per year in the United States and around 55,000 in the UK alone. It’s a cause I’ve always supported throughout my time in Second Life, although I will admit it was something brought a lot closer to home for me when I was diagnosed with DCIS – ductal carcinoma in situ, a form of non-invasive breast cancer. I was fortunate enough to be diagnosed early – but many around the world are not so fortunate, and breast cancer remains the second largest (by diagnosis) form of cancer to impact people world-wide; hence to focus of Makes Strides.

In keeping with the changes made in 2018 to Making Strides fund-raising in Second Life, this year will see two major events take place to raise funds to help with the detection, treatment and, ultimately, prevention of breast cancer world-wide: the Out Shop Cancer event and the Making Strides Walk-a-Thon.

ACS has recently put out a final call for merchants to join the Out Shop Cancer event, as well a call for participants in the 2019 Walk-a-Thon, which this year forms a part of the Pink Power Fest; details of both can be found below for those interested in participating in either event.

Out Shop Cancer

  • Dates: throughout October 2019.
  • SLurl: all across the grid – HUD based.

This is a grid-wide shopping event starting on October 1st, 2019 and ending on October 31st. Merchants are being asked to support it by designating specific items that will be sold either in their in-world stores or on the Second Life Marketplace store (or both) as a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer programmes and services.

When the event opens, shoppers will be able to obtain a special HUD enabling them to teleport to participating stores in world and find items on the Marketplace and make purchases, with the funds going to RFL of SL / ACS.

In 2018, 40 merchants participated in the event, and this year ACS is hoping to see 50 or more join in.

Because breast cancer is the 2nd most diagnosed cancer, and because Second Life gives us the opportunity to explore so many different forms of expression, we are planning a shopping experience that will offer something to as many types of avatars as possible. This means that we need a cross-section of designers and creators to represent fashion, hair, accessories, skins/shapes, A/Os, recreation, art, and anything else that would interest men, women, children, and non-human avatars in Second Life.

– Sandie Slate, ACS Event Lead for Make Strides Out Shop Cancer

Merchants willing to take part should follow the links below:

The Pink Power Fest and Making Strides Walk-a-Thon

  • Dates: Saturday, October 19th through Saturday, October 26th, 2019.
  • SLurl: TBA

This year’s Make Strides Walk-a-Thon will be the kick-off event for the 2019 Pink Power Fest, it will run from 10:00 through 18:00 on Saturday, October 19th.

Walkers are invited to join in throughout the 10 hours of the event and participate for as long as they can, walking the track and raising money from their donors for each lap they complete – tool will be provided to track their progress, allowing them to collect the pledges of supporters. Laps will be accompanied by music throughout, adding to the festive air.

If you would like to participate in the walk and obtain pledges from your SL friends and family who are willing to support you, please follow the links below:

In addition, the Pink Power Fest will feature daily events including live music and entertainment from singers, tribute bands and DJs gathering for the festival from across the grid. There will also be raffles, gachas, and vendors, with all donations & proceeds going to the American Cancer Society and the work in treating and preventing breast cancer. On Saturday, October 26th, the Fest will close with the Harvest of Hope Gala, honouring all Survivors & Caregivers, and remember those we have lost. I hope to have more information on the specifics of all of these events and activities in due course.

Hosting your Own Breast Cancer Event

This year, ACS is also inviting SL residents to host their own October event to support Making Strides, with a September 18th ACS announcement noting:

If you would like to plan your own breast cancer fundraiser, you’re encouraged to work within your community or group in Second Life to organize your own Strides Campaign. Make sure to let the American Cancer Society know about it by completing the ACS Calendar Event Submission Form so we can share it with others.

All Strides Campaigns must use the official Strides fundraising tools that are provided by the American Cancer Society. Fundraising campaigns may include events, hunts, shows, sales, or simply putting out a donation kiosk at your club or store throughout the month of October.

Individuals and groups wishing to do so should read the ACS announcement, complete the form linked-to in the quote above, and then obtain their free fund-raising tools via the Second Life Marketplace or by going to the Strides office on the American Cancer Society island.