Day: April 20, 2020

Second Life: EEP – the Environment Enhancement Project

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Environment Enhancement Project introduces an entirely new way to create and use environment settings for the appearance of the sky, day cycles and , Linden Water, within the viewer. Among other things, EEP capabilities include the means to apply environment settings to individual parcels, allows them to the sold and bought,enable day cycles that can last up to 168 hours, and permit the use of custom Sun / Moon textures, as seen here, with settings by default automatically to all viewers they affect.

On April 20th, 2020, Linden Lab announced the official release of the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP). Originally announced in 2017 – see Second Life Windlight environment enhancements – it has taken longer than anticipated to reach a release status, but it brings with a host of new features and capabilities.

What is EEP?

For those who many have missed it, EEP provides an whole new way of creating, modifying and applying environments (sky and water settings and day cycles) in Second Life. in brief, EEP:

  • Uses environment objects that you can keep in your inventory and / or share with others – including selling (subject to the SL permissions system) via in-world stores and on the Marketplace.
  • Provides parcel-level control of environments.
  • Allows up to four different, independently controlled sky layers.
  • Allows the Sun, Moon and Cloud textures to be replaced with custom textures. uploaded to the viewer.
  • Provides an extended day cycle of up to 168 hours (thus allowing a 7-day, 24-hour day / night cycle to be defined, for example).
  • Allows users to override region / parcel settings as seen within their own viewer for the purposes of photography, etc.
  • Provides new LSL functions to allow scripts to interact with parcel environments.

Currently, to use EEP, you will require the official Second Life viewer – version 6.4.0.540188, dated April 15th (or later). However, TPVs will be releasing version supporting EEP in due course.

I’m in the processes of polishing a basic EEP Primer and an in-depth EEP tutorial, which will be published shortly. In the meantime, here’s the official video on EEP.

2020 viewer release summaries week #16

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, April 19th

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  version 6.3.8.538264, dated March 12, promoted March 18th. Formerly the Premium RC viewer – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.540188 on April 15th.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Magic, mysteries, music and murder 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 unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Monday, April 20th 19:00: The Higher Space

Gyro Muggins reads Jamil Nasir’s 1996 novella that mixes science and magic.

Bob Wilson is a lawyer with a house in the suburbs, a beautiful wife, and a predictable life. Then he agrees to represent a neighbourhood couple in what looks like an open-and-shut custody case.

But no sooner do the Wilsons take in fourteen-year-old Diana Esterbrook than Bob must ask himself some troubling questions. Is Diana a computer genius or a dangerously disturbed adolescent? Why is his house being bugged? Who is the mysterious man in black? And what about Diana’s birth mother, a convicted kidnapper just released from prison?

Wilson’s quest for answers will lead him to an enigmatic private detective, a meek professor with dreams of immortality, and finally to the secrets of a discipline called Thaumatomathematics a strange blend of magic and science where death becomes the key to beatific ecstasy.

Tuesday, April 21st:

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym, Live in the Glen

Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session at Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: The Dancing Mice & The Giant Of Flanders by Laura E. Goodin

A young mouse, Elisabeth, prepares her mask for a coming of age dance in which the young mice hope to choose their mates. A crooked old mouse uses magic to assist her, with dire consequences. with Corwyn Allen.

Wednesday, April 22nd, 19:00: A Nun in the Closet

What do two Benedictine nuns, a secretive man-on-the-run, a Tibetan monk, three hippies, members of the Mafia and children of migrant workers have in common? Why, A Nun in the Closet, of course.

When a cloistered monastic community of nuns inherit an old house with 150 acres in up-state New York courtesy of a mysterious benefactor, they are at a loss as to what to do. Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe are therefore dispatched to give the property the once-over and report back. A simple enough assignment, except neither Sister is entirely prepared to deal with all that they find.

From hippies on the lawn to suitcase stuffed with money sitting at the bottom of a well, disguised cocaine and a wounded man who has hidden himself in a closet to avoid Mafia hitmen, not to mention strange apparitions in the night, It might have been better had Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe remained cloistered in the abbey. 

But it is amazing what two nuns can achieve armed only with their faith and boundless energy – up to and including a shocking revelation or two about ghosts, gangsters – and murder.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads Dorothy Gilman’s 1986 mystery.

Thursday, April 23rd

19:00: Legions in Time

Shandon Loring reads Michael Swanwick’s short story. Also in Kitely – grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).

21:00: Seanchai Late Night

Contemporary sci-fi fantasy from such on-line sources as Escape Pod, Light Speed, and Clarkeworld magazines. With Finn Zeddmore.