Month: June 2020

Glastonbury comes to Sansar for 2020

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Glastonbury Shangri-La Gas Tower in Sansar. Courtesy of Lost Horizon

Those who attend the annual Glastonbury Festival in England are likely aware that the SARS-CoV 2 pandemic has caused this year’s event to be cancelled in the physical world. Nevertheless, one part of it will be going ahead within the virtual realm – and the venue for it will be Sansar.

The team behind Glastonbury’s night-time activities  – called Glastonbury Shangri-La – have teamed up with Wookey Technologies and VRJAM to stage a two-day virtual festival on Friday, July 3rd and Saturday, July 4th. The virtual event, called Lost Horizon, will take place across four purpose-built stages in Sansar. More than 50 music acts including DJs Peggy Gou, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox and Pete Tong will play during the daily 12-hour sessions. In addition, the festival will also feature more than 200 visual art pieces, curated by the ShangrilART group on the theme of human connection.

As well as being available directly through Sansar as a ticketed event – those wishing to attend can get their free ticket via the Sansar website – Lost Horizon will also be streamed via You Tube, Twitch, Beatport and other platforms, will be viewable on a mobile app (to be made available from June 26th, 2020), and sets will be broadcast via radio.

Another view of the Gas Tower stage in Sansar, courtesy of Lost Horizon

The stages for the virtual event include Glastonbury Shangri-La’s famous Gas Tower, the focal point for event activities in the physical world. It will feature the likes of Fatboy Slim, and tech-house Ibiza favourites Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler. Alongside of it, the Freedom stage will feature Frank Turner, Alabama 3 and Coldcut. You can see the full line-up of acts on the Lost Horizon website, while the ShiTV stage will include films, documentaries, theatre, live art, comedy, animation and talks.

Glastonbury Shangri-La first took place in 2008. Over the years it has grown and evolved, offering those attending Glastonbury a rich mix of music and art in “after hours” sessions that take place overnight when the “main” sets have all finished.

With its roots deep in contemporary music, art and activism, Shangri-La has established itself as a legendary field in UK festival culture, engaging a truly dynamic community of artists, builders, and revolutionary creators and known for showcasing the latest “off main stage” acts.

– Lost Horizon, Glastonbury Shangri-La

Glastonbury Shangi-La Shitv stage in Sansar, courtesy of Lost Horizon

Glastonbury Shangri-La Creative director Kaye Dunnings conceived the idea for Lost Horizon shortly after the decision was made to cancel the physical world Glastonbury Festival in March 2020. Whilst the event is virtual, Dunnings hopes the same sense of activism that permeates the physical world event will filter through into the virtual as well.

While tickets to the event are free, attendees will be encouraged to donate to The Big Issue, the world’s most widely circulated street newspaper, raising money to offer homeless people / those at risk of homelessness, the opportunity to earn a legitimate income and helping them to reintegrate into mainstream society, and to Amnesty International.

Activism being so important to us, we wanted people to come and rave and interact and party and have a really great time. But we are also really passionate about being conscious, while you are doing that, of the world around you and how you can get involved in things. We want people to take action now more than ever. We want people to get involved in stuff outside the festival, so they come and have a great time but actually do something meaningful afterwards. We want to inspire people to actually take it that step further themselves.

– Kaye Dunnings, Glastonbury Shangri-La Creative Director

Dunning also recognises that as well as offering the opportunity to present Glastonbury Shangri-La during the pandemic, Lost Horizon could be the start of a new means reaching a global audience – much as how Linden Lab hoped, and the Wookey team continues to hope.

With Shangri-La presents: Lost Horizon, we’re delivering the music festival of the future: deeply immersive, fully on-line, accessible to anyone and anywhere with a PC or phone at their disposal. Shangri-La presents: Lost Horizon exists at the vanguard of something truly incredible, and we couldn’t be more excited to turn this page. The future of live events is virtual and we’re incredibly excited to be bringing it to fruition.

– Kaye Dunnings, Glastonbury Shangri-La Creative Director

Whether that is the case, remains to be seen. In the meantime all those interested in Lost Horizon can find more details below.

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Another touch of Scotland in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Auld Lang Syne, June 2020 – click any image for full size

The highlands and islands of Scotland are proving a popular inspiration for Second Life region designers – and rightly so; there is a deep beauty to their rolling hills and high peaks that invites the imagination and leaves the heart filled with a yearning to explore. As such, we’ve visited a number of Scottish themed locations over the last few years, but this is the first time I’ve been able to write about Elo (WeeWangle Wumpkins) Scottish inspired settings.

The latest iteration of her work – Auld Lang Syne – opened recently, and it offers a mix of the rugged abruptness of the Scottish highlands mixed with a strong sense of age within the buildings to be found scattered around it, together with a healthy dose of mystery with a fitting dash of humour.

Auld Lang Syne, June 2020

Admittedly, getting around on foot isn’t easy in places: the island rises sharply from the surrounding sea, and many of the slopes look like they would need a lot of scrambling to get up and down – just as many of the glacier-cut slopes of Scotland’s north may require the assistance of hands when clambering up them and a certain caution in getting down least one feet end up running away beneath one.

This steepness of setting may not at first be obvious from the landing point, which sits on the island’s highest rise within an ancient but intact fortification (Pupito Helstein’s popular Runestone Castle) – just an easy walk away is a group of standing stones inspired by the Neolithic Callanish Stones, located on the west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.  However, descend the slope from the fortification to the ruins of a medieval chapels and its surrounding graveyard, and you’ll immediately get a feel for the region’s natural ruggedness.

Auld Lang Syne, June 2020

Which is not to say it is all hard work is getting around; here and there are paths that make for easier descent to the coastal areas, one of which is just in the lee of the hilly shoulder on which the stand stones sit. It leads to an extensive coastal beach that faces south and offers and gentle sandy walk east and then north, passing hints of the more recent history of the place: the wreck of a fishing boat, the remains of a broken aeroplane engine – presumably all that remains of a past crash -, an aged anchor and the carcass of an old boat.

To the east, the path along the beach is almost blocked by the waters flowing out from a deep gorge. Fortunately, fallen trunks have been joined to offer a way over the water, a heron standing on their backs like as if awaiting payment of a toll in order to allow visitors to proceed.  Beyond the bridge, more tales of past life can be found, together with some of the island’s current inhabitants, a number of whom appear to have partaken of a wee dip in the sea and are now following another of the trails back up to their hillside home.

Auld Lang Syne, June 2020

One of two towers that rise above the island’s rolling hills watches over these “locals”. Broken and holed, it appears to be a disused water tower, rather than part of any castle or fortress, although a owl is now acting as a look-out, keeping watch from the broken drum of its upper reaches. The view back across the island from this tower reveals the landing point on its high hill, whilst below and to one side, the ruins of what might have been an old manor house can be seen, nestled in secret on a north facing shelf of rock overlooking the beach, sheltered from the rest of the island by a rocky upthrust.

Around to the west, and sheltering below the castle’s hill, is another old ruin, similar in nature to that in the north, and now home to a wonderful garden that positively invites visitors to stay within it. The old structure and garden are in turn watched over by the island’s second tower, also the worse for wear as it sits on a rectangular promontory in the island’s south-west corner.

Auld Lang Syne, June 2020

In between these “main” points of interest are others awaiting discovery that add further depth to the setting and increase the sense of realism to the island. As such, taking the time to wander on foot – particularly in circumnavigating the coast whilst keeping an eye on the slopes above – is recommended. However, for those so inclined, the castle hall forming the landing point has a teleport board that can be used to hop to those main points of interest. The second hall of the castle, meanwhile offers a little galley of photos taken around the region, whilst its flat roof provides a view over the island and places to sit.

All in all, a delightful setting, with plenty of detail and with touches that encourage a smile.

Auld Lang Syne, June 2020

SLurl Details

Speedlight: recent updates and iOS development

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Speedlight

Speedlight, the browser based / Android Second Life client, gained a further series of updates at the end of May and the beginning of June, together with an important announcement about the client’s future direction.

Key within the updates were the following:

  • The Android app now supports sending error feedback to the Speedlight team to help with bug fixing.
  • Web links are now displayed in IMs, local and group chats, together with a warning that following them will take a user away from the Speedlight site.
Links contain in IMs, chat and group chat are now clickable. Those that connect to external web pages will display a warning when clicked.
  • Further performance improvements.
  • Full-function 3D capabilities are now available to basic and well as Gold subscribers. So, Basic account holders can now move their avatar around.

The feedback capability means that the Speedlight developers are currently focused in bug fixing, although the team also note they are working on group management capabilities – viewing groups, sending notices and moderating group chat, and state these capabilities will be release soon™.

iOS Version Coming

While Speedlight is entirely operating system agnostic in its browser version, allowing it to be used on Windows, OS X, Linux, Android and iOS through a suitable browser, the team has already released a dedicated Android version, as I noted in Speedlight: using the Android app, back in February 2020.

On May 27th, 2020, the Speedlight team have started working on a dedicated iOS version of the client as well, with an expectation that it will follow the same development path as the Android app, and – if all goes according to plan – should initially be made available in around 2-3 weeks.

Observations

The two key points of the recent announcements are likely to be the 3D avatar capabilities now being available to all Speedlight users, Basic or Gold, and the iOS app development, and the upcoming iOS app version.

The former could help make Speedlight a more attractive alternative to users who would like a “light” / mobile client (remembering that with Android, the device must be running version 7.0 or higher, whether using the dedicated app or running Speedlight through an Android browser), but who were not keen on paying a fee to be able to do so.

This does, however, also beg the question as to what the Speedlight team plan to do in order to maintain the attraction of Gold subscription. Currently, there is the mass IM capability, but his is liable to have limited appeal for most SL users, some one can only assume other features will be made available on a Gold subscription basis, although obviously, time will tell on this.

Given that Speedlight is already on the road to developing world rendering with interactive capabilities, the news that they are working on an iOS app version of the client may also be welcomed by users, particularly given that many feel such a capability is is “essential” to a mobile client, and Linden Lab has indicated that it will be some time before their in-development iOS / Android client will have such a functionality.

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Tranquil Droplets at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Traquil Droplets

Opening on Monday, June 8th, 2020 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, is Tranquil Droplets, an exhibition of art by Bamboo Barnes.

There can be few involved in the art world within Second Life who can be unfamiliar with Bamboo’s work; it is by turns vibrant, evocative, provocative, emotive and so often rich in narrative. A physical world artist hailing from Japan, Bamboo works with digital tools to produce her pieces, her finished works strongly assertive in terms of its presentation, ability to dominate the space it occupies and in the way it demands the attention of the eye and mind.

Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Tranquil Droplets

There’s hopeless life still seeking for hopes like abandoned walking shadows of people on the street, my artworks are expression of confusion of life, darkness of light and strangeness of love. I create what I see but maybe you won’t, they are about people’s reality and mind.

– Bamboo Barnes, discussing her work

Much of her works is produced entirely outside of Second Life, which presents itself – along with Flickr – as a means for Bamboo to reach her audience. Which is not to say the pieces offered in Tranquil Droplets originated beyond our digital realm; rather the reverse, in fact, as the focus here is very much on avatar faces.

Not that the pieces offered are in any way a “traditional” avatar portrait / study; far from it. Each is presented in Bamboo’s rich, evocative style such that her use of colour, digital highlighting and layering all serve to add depth to the portraits offered. This gives each piece a life of its own, an expressive richness that presents us with a sense of story.

Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Traquil Droplets

For Bamboo, emotions are a core element of her art, be they those that are invoked by the piece she is working on; those she felt at the time she started working, and / or those evoked by the music she is listening to, as well as those she sees within her subject.

All of this is strongly evident within the 17 pieces offered within Traquil Droplets, each one of which offers unique reflections of both her subjects and of various artistic techniques – abstract, modernist, hints of dadaism / collages, and impressionism, all without ever merely mimicking these styles.

Nitroglobus: Bamboo Barnes – Tranquil Droplets

As Bamboo says, these pieces are like water whose dripping echoes in the silence; once heard, it cannot easily be forgotten, except here, it is that each of these images that continue to live with the imagination long after they’ve been seen, because of their richness of colour, presentation and emotion. In other words, this is a captivating exhibition.

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2020 viewer release summaries week #23

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

Updates for the week ending Sunday, June 7th

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 viewer version 6.4.3.542964,, dated May 29th, promoted June 2nd, formerly the FMOD Studio RC viewer – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Tools Update RC viewer, version 6.4.4.543148, issued on une 5th – this viewer is built using VS 2017 / a recent version of Xcode, and Boost.Fiber. It contains no user-facing changes.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer updated to version 6.4.4.543142 on June 3rd.
  • Project viewers:
    • Mesh uploader project viewer updated to version 6.4.3.542535 on June 3rd.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer stable branch updated to 1.26.24.21 and Experimental branch to 1.27.0.1, both  on June 6th – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

A Vulcan crisis, a fallen bridge, flappers and fantasy

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, June 8th, 19:00: Spock’s World

Gyro Muggins reads Diane Duane’s take on a classic figure from science fiction.

In the 23rd Century…

On the planet Vulcan, a crisis of unprecedented proportion has caused the convocation of the planet’s ruling council, and led to Starfleet ordering the U.S.S. Enterprise to the planet in the hope that its first officer, and Vulcan’s most famous son, can help overcome the issues the planet faces.

As Commander Spock, his father, Sarek, and Captain James T. Kirk struggle to preserve Vulcan’s future, the planet’s innermost secrets are laid open, as is its people’s long climb to rise above their savage pre-history, merciless tribal warfare, medieval-like court intrigue to  develop and adhere to o’thia, the ruling ethic of logic, and to reach out into space.

For Spock, the situation means he is torn between his duty to Starfleet and the unbreakable ties that bind him to Vulcan. Confronted by his own internal conflicts, he must quell them and prevent his world – and possibly the entire United Federation of Planets – from being ripped apart.

Tuesday, June 9th

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

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

19:00: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

With Willow Moonfire.

On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.

Thus begins Thorton Wilder’s second, and 1928 Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Influenced in part by Wilder’s own conversations with his deeply religious father, and inspired by Prosper Mérimée’s one-act act play, Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement, Thorton described the novel as a means to pose the question, “Is there a direction and meaning in lives beyond the individual’s own will?”

The bridge of the novel’s title and opening is a fictional Inca rope bridge, and its collapse is witnessed by a Franciscan friar, himself about to cross over it. A deeply pious man, Brother Juniper finds his faith challenged by the tragedy, and as a result embarks upon a “mission” to prove that it was divine will rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who fell with the bridge.

Over the course of six years, he compiles a huge book on the lives of those who perished, much of it obtained through interviews with those who knew them, in an attempt to to show that the beginning and end of the lives of those lost in the tragedy might be a a window into the will of God, and that the beginning and end of every life is in accordance with God’s plan for the individual.

Thus, within his book, he records the lives of those killed, as presented in succeeding chapters of the novel, mapping all that led them to their fate. The novel itself weaves a story through time, from the opening tragedy, then back to the lives of those who perished, then forward to the book’s reception by the church, then back once more to the events that immediately followed the tragedy and before Brother Juniper embarked on his quest.

Through this, we not only witness the lives of those lost, but also Brother Juniper’s own fate as a result of his efforts – a fate itself foretold within his book, and which again leaves one pondering the question Wilder set in writing the novel: is there indeed direction in our lives beyond our own will – and if so, is it rooted in the divine, or humanity’s own attitudes of a given time?

Wednesday, June 10th, 19:00: The Phryne Fisher Mysteries

Corwyn Allen brings us stories about Kerry Greenwood’s Australian heroine of the 1920s, possibly made popular to a globe audience through the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s series, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

Phryne Fisher is rich, aristocratic and far too intelligent to be content as a flapper in the Jazz Age. She collects men, fast cars and designer dresses. she flies, dances, shoots and has a strong bohemian outlook on life. But no matter how delicious the distractions, Phryne never takes her eyes off her main goal in life: bringing down villains.

Thursday, June 11th 19:00: Strong Medicine – Weird Westerns

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