Month: December 2020

A path of reflection in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Path to Oneself Reflection

2020 will be – indeed is being – recorded as one of the most unpleasant years of the current century. For some, it marks the culmination of a period in which the politics of division and deceit have held sway, bringing forth the best in some and the worst in others.  For all, it has been the year in which a pandemic held sway, bringing personal and community hardship and suffering, whilst further amplifying both the best and worst in people in terms of care and support, and selfishness and carelessness.

The coming of the end of the year will not bring an end to all that has happened – the pandemic will not up and vanish;  nor will the division and deceit be so easily overcome. However, the end of the year does mark the opportunity for reflect on all that has happened in the last twelve months. With the Path to Oneself Reflection, the SL Random Art Crew led by RoxkSie (Roxie Logan)  have sought to do just that, by offering an immersive, art-focused environment that seeks to encourage us to review the year and consider all that has happened, and the manner in which it has both divided and united people.

This is both a complex and evocative installation, one in which art, mythology and history are brought together to frame our exploration of the year and offer subtle context to help steer thoughts and consideration. This actually makes Path difficult to define in writing, but when visited, easy to conceptualise – and as such, I do encourage people to pay a visit before it closes at the end of December 2020.

Path to Oneself Reflection

From the landing point, visitors descend steps to a path through a canyoned landscape in which the seasons pass as a part of the passage through the high rocky walls. Along the way, visitors pass first Michelanglo’s David, together with a explanatory text. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues, it came to symbolise the defence of civil liberties within the Republic of Florence. Thus here, it is a reminder that the years leading up to 2020, as well as the year itself, have seen the very real erosion of the civil liberties afforded to some; whilst for others, the sensible constraints we have all been asked to observe until effective vaccines can be made available to overcome the threat of COVID-19, are – somewhat foolishly – have been an unbearable toll on their liberties.

Beyond this, a  statue of Mnemosyne encourages us to consider our own memories of the year and to recall how the year has affected us, together with a general introduction to Path, providing us with the approach the installation takes in informing, challenging and encouraging; the vignettes that follow recalling the events of the year – both directly and indirectly, and through the use the of figures from history and mythology -, each offered within the season of the year in which it occurred, culminating with the cold of winter, where we can consider the coming year and the role we might play.

Path to Oneself Reflection

Throughout the installation, events are presented in a manner that both gives pause for our own reflection and which offer counterpointed views. For example, up on a peak, we’re encouraged to consider the way fear of the pandemic led to a run on essential goods in stores as a result of selfish hoarding by some, counterpointed by the fact many acted selflessly to ensure the vulnerable within their families / communities were correctly shielded and cared for.

Also to be found are warnings that, as mentioned above, all that has happened both throughout 2020 and the the years leading up to it is not going to vanish with the turning of the year: there are wounds that will take time ho heal, and the pandemic itself has yet to be brought under control. Which is not to say this is a dark, brooding, installation. The presence of the art, the use of mythology and historical characters reminds us that humanity is capable of creating lasting beauty and has the ability to come together for its own betterment, whilst the setting itself reminds us that, like the seasons, life is always changing, offering a chance for renewal and growth.

Path to Oneself Reflection

Again, words alone do not do justice to this installation; a visit really is needed to grasp all of its context. Doing so also provides the opportunity to help the artists in their support for Relay for Life by making a donation at one of the RFL kiosks to be found within the installation. For those who enjoy the spoken word, stories are offered every Monday – details are available at the story amphitheatre that forms a part of the installation – and when visiting, do make sure you have local sounds enabled for the fullest experience.

Slurl Details

Fourteen years, Oh my!

Posted on by Inara Pey
Contemplating fourteen years

I logged into Second life to receive a greeting from Johan Neddings congratulating my on reaching my fourteen rezday – and I have to state that, but for his IM (And tweet, when I looked at Twitter!), the date honestly would not have registered with me at all.

While I try not to bring the personal and the physical world into this blog too much, the fact is that 2020 has been a real stinker of a year for all of us, thanks in large part to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has impacted so many people around the world in so many ways, and in relation to work and things, I’m no exception. There have also been some personal matters, particularly in the last month or so and which will continue through the next few months to varying degrees, that mean SL is not currently a primary focus for me, although I am trying to keep abreast of news and articles.

Within Second Life, 2020 has certainly been interesting. On the technical front, things have clearly been dominated by Project Uplift and the Lab getting everything transitioned to run on Amazon AWS services. Much could be said about this,but I think the most important aspect to it is that while some remaining services have yet to be migrated, and we have yet to go through a period of fine-tuning / performance tweaking, overall, the entire process has been really smooth. Yes, there are some visible teething problems that need to be sorted, but when you consider there were a fair few SL services transitioned to AWS without users ever noticing they had been moved, LL have done a really good job with what might have been a really disruptive undertaking.

Of course, one of the visible changes to SL that has come along this year is EEP – the Environment Enhancement Project. While this also has some issues that are still to be sorted (and some UI niggles that may not be, given they tend to be subjective in nature), I’ve found it to be a very flexible and usable capability, if a bit of a beast to get one’s head around at first. I’ve particularly had fun creating a number of personal Fixed Sky environments, as well a 24-hour  day/night cycle for Isla Caitinara (and I will at some point get back to my tutorial on Day Cycles, which has again be pushed to one side due to the aforementioned physical world matters).

A gibbous Moon rising over Isla Caitinara, part of the Day Cycle for our island home

On the personal SL front, things have been pretty quiet. Circumstance / opportunity led to us shifting home to settle within the “new” Second Norway estate, now under the management of Vanity Bonetto and her team (which also includes Ey and his team), and as someone who has followed that entire situation from initial rumours through the takeover to becoming a resident there, I can honestly say Vanity and her team have done a superb job, both in maintaining the core of the estate in its “mainland” regions, and in revamping the estate’s island offerings, and in bringing in new opportunities and features to the estate, as I noted in Second Norway: a closer look. In fact, we’re so settled that we actually recently up and relocated to a slightly larger island within the estate!

2020 also saw me unexpectedly get involved in administrating an in-worlds arts group – the Phoenix Artists Collaboration. Things  haven’t gone quite as well as had been hoped, particularly in the area of exhibitions, largely due to all three of us who have taken on the responsibility for managing the group all being hit with physical world demands. But hopefully, once the page has turned to mark the start of 2021, we’ll be able to start properly pulling things together.

The garden of our new Isla Caitinara home
Fourteen years in Second Life is a long time, so do I have any insights to share? Oddly, no I don’t think I do. Second life is still offering me the three things I enjoy: fun, discovery and freedom, so I’ve little doubt I’ll be marking 15 years in-world in twelve months time. Perhaps the one thing I would say is that while fourteen years have passed since “Inara Pey” first arrived, I actually don’t feel any older than my first days in-world with her. Wiser (I hope!) perhaps, yes.  But not older. In this, I think my avatar has been a positive influence; largely unchanged in terms of looks for 10 of those years, she has – as past studies have pointed out in reference to people and their avatars – she has encouraged the vanity in me to exercise regularly and (generally!) mind my diet in an attempt to (in my own way) also look as good.

And of the future? perhaps the most burning question is that of Linden Lab and Second Life post the current acquisition process.

As I’ve noted before, I’m interested to see the overall shape of the revised board, and whether or not some current members will retain a minority holding. I’m not overly concerned about the risk of LL being stripped or sold on; as I’ve noted in these pages, the two incoming principals between them have good track records for long-term investment and company growth. Certainly, the Lab aren’t slowing down their own plans for SL: beyond / alongside of the “uplift” work, there are major plans for overhauling several aspects of the viewer to hopefully make it more performant and efficient, and projects to further improve things on the back-end as well. Much of this  work is fairly long-term, which speaks to a good level of confidence for the platform’s future, and I currently see no reason not to share in that confidence.

In the meantime, here’s to a happier time of things in general in 2021.

RFL Christmas Expo 2020 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Christmas Expo

The annual RFL Christmas Expo opened its gates on December 4th, 2020, and will run through until December 13th in support of The American Cancer Society and RFL of SL.

Located on fourteen regions (including the Linden Homes preview region (to the north of The American Cancer Society region) and the Linden Lights of Hope region adjacent to the main Lights of Hope region, this year’s expo once again offers a wide range of shopping opportunities, entertainment and more, all presented around the theme Christmas Memories. As with 2019, all funds raised during the event will go towards supporting The American Cancer Society’s Childhood Cancer initiatives,where they will be used in support, research and palliative efforts to help children with cancer.,

Over 200 merchants from all fields are participating in this year’s event, which includes daily entertainment at the Holly Jolly Café featuring a mix of live performances and DJs. The schedule of entertainment provides a day-by-day breakdown of the 100 hours of live entertainers, DJs and dance performances. which include live performers and DJs, all of which culminates in the Holidays of Hope Gala Ball. However, some of the highlights of the event are listed below.

SL Christmas Expo 2020

Special Events and Activities

This year’s Expo includes a number of special events and activities, including:

The Christmas Expo Holiday Market: Back for its 6th year, this outdoor shopping event features 80 merchants for 2020,all offering a variety of shopping options, and you can take a look at the special items that are available.

This year the Market includes a Kids Holiday Market section in Christmas Morning, the the special kids region, and there is also a home décor market for all your needs, indoor and out.

Holiday Raffles: this year sees the Expo offer two raffles:

  • The Big Holiday Shopping Raffle presents two lucky winner the opportunity to gain a super goodie bag of gift certificates and prizes. Tickets can be purchased through the raffle kiosks at L$100 each or three for L$200. The prize draw will take place at 18:30 SLT on Sunday, December 13th, 2020 at the Holly Jolly Café.
  • The Daily Holiday Shopping Raffle can be found at the Holly Jolly Café, with prizes valued at between L$250 and L$1,000. Tickets are L$50 each or three for L$100, with daily draws at 19:00 SLT at the Holly Jolly Café.

Note that all certificates are transferable, and so make great Christmas Gifts, and all proceeds go directly to the American Cancer Society Childhood Cancer Initiative.

Auctions:

  • The Silent Auction: opening on Saturday December 4th, the prizes this year include gift cards with values between L$500 and L$5,000, a home with a pool, merchant mega gift boxes, a winter gown fatpack, an Animesh fatpack. Bidding runs through until 17:00 SLT on Sunday, December 13th, 2020, with winners announced at the Holly Jolly Café, starting at 17:15 SLT on  Sunday, December 15th.
  • Linden Auction items: The chance to bid on three special Linden prizes:
    • An exclusive Linden Home Package, including a 6 Month Premium Membership; a Private Bellisseria lot with their choice of a Linden Home.
    • The ability to create a New Linden Last Name to be added to the list of choices for new members.
    • To Name a Future Bellisseria Region (3 Available).
  • Breedable Auctions: There will be a number of Breedable auctions throughout the Expo, including a One of a Kind auction.

Lights of Hope: once again Second Life’s premier builders are joining the SL Christmas Expo to present the 3rd Annual Lights of Hope Home Decoration Contest. Each of the builders has decorated the outside of one of their stunning houses in holiday style and brought it to the Expo.  Stroll the Holiday Road neighbourhood at the Expo and vote for your favourites by donation to the American Cancer Society kiosk in front of each home! 100% of all donations go directly to the American Cancer Society.

Also be sure to pop over to the Real Estate Office in the neighbourhood where some of the builders have graciously placed out their entry home for sale in an American Cancer Society Christmas Expo vendor.

The 11th Annual Holidays of Hope Ball: will take place between 13:00 and 18:00 SLT on Sunday, December 13th, focused on the event theme of Christmas Memories. Sponsored by T1Radio, this formal ball is open to all Second Life residents, and will feature live entertainment by FlyQueen, together with the sounds of the season with Madelyn Majestic and Trader Whiplash.

New Linden Homes preview: catch the new Linden Homes theme that in a special preview (read more here).

SL Christmas Expo 2020

As well as the above, the Expo this year includes: a gacha, a snowman building contest, Santa’s sleigh ride, and photos with Santa – which this year includes the chance to pose with the Lab’s Vice President of Product Operations, Patch Linden, on Wednesday, December 9th between 13:00 and 15:00 SLT.

Thus, there is a huge amount to see and do at the Expo, so be sure to check out the official website for more information.

SLurls and Links

All regions rated Moderate.

An Alpine touch for Linden Homes in Second Life – updated

Posted on by Inara Pey
The new Linden Homes theme on preview at the SL Christmas Expo 2020

On Friday, December 4th, Linden Lab unveiled the next Linden Homes theme which – I assume – will follow along behind the much anticipated Stilt homes, and this time the Lab has followed popular request, and turned their attention to home styles from outside the continental United States, going for what is a decidedly Alpine feel.

I’m particularly pleased to see the move, as when reviewing the Stilt Homes I made mention that it would be nice to see the Lab cast their net of house designs a little further across the globe, and also made mention of European designs in the forums (not that I’m saying this selection of homes has anything to do with that comment – I was far from alone in making it, and I’m pretty sure Patch and the team has picked up on requests for European style homes long before I put fingers to keyboard on the subject).

The Alpenrose style of Linden Home
As with past themes, this preview  – I’m unsure of the official title, so I’m just going with “Alpine” – comprises four house layouts, whilst the default exterior finish displayed at the preview is such that you might just get away with calling them “mock Tudor”, allowing them to be seen as a more English village style of home.

The four type of house – referred to as “chalets” are:

  • Matterhorn: 2 large ground floor rooms, linked by a rear hallway with back door, and a central front hallway / reception area with stairs to the upper floor. This has two large rooms, one with gabled windows to the front and rear, the other with large windows to one side aspect.
  • Alpenrose: a two-storey house with offset front entrance with vestibule, three ground floor rooms, one with a side door to the garden. Stairs from the entrance hall provide access to three upstairs rooms, each with windows to a side aspect and either the front or rear.
  • Reizend: a single-storey cottage-style chalet with two open-plan rooms, the front porch opening directly into one of them, with doorways serving the remaining two rooms.
  • Edelweiss: a two-storey house with front entrance to one side serving the stairs to the upper floor and giving access to the single open-plan ground floor room, which also includes a side door to the garden. A landing upstairs provides access to two bedrooms, each with widows to a front or rear aspect, and to the side aspects of the house.
Edelweiss style of Linden Home

All four designs are presented in a wooden frame with white stucco exteriors walls finish (hence the mock Tudor comment above), topped by tile roofs. Each has window boxes with some of the windows and planters on porches, all of which I assume are part of the final designs.

Whilst all four house designs are well in keeping with the name of one – reizend (“charming”) – the names of the remaining three strongly evoke visions of snowy mountains, deep valleys and little villages of houses huddled on slopes. However, here that are presented in a flat landscape that, with the large windmill at the centre and the roads / red-bricked footpaths (sidewalks), seems to suggest The Netherlands.

The Reizend style of Linden Home

This actually  – to me and those I mentioned it to – actually put the houses at odds with their setting; whilst throwing up mountains and glacial valleys isn’t a practical proposition, these are still designs that would benefit from being within a  more undulating setting, allowing them to be grouped together more to give something of a village feel rather than just setting in what feels like an urban tract. Obviously, space is limited within a single preview region – but I would hope that when made available, these are houses that are placed within an environment that more imaginatively meets their largely Alpine names.

At the time of writing this piece, I am unaware of any release date for this new theme, particularly given we’re still awaiting the roll-out of the Stilt homes, so the best place to look for updates on both this theme and the Stilt homes is likely to be Patch Linden’s Linden Homes Update thread.

The Matterhorn style of Linden Home

Following this article, Patch dropped me a line with some further information on  the preview that had not be made available through the Destination Guide:

They are known as fachwerkhaus. Tudor is close, but fachwerkhaus is specifically what they are prototyped after, and we took our inspiration from a local village near where I live known as the Alpine Village of Helen Georgia (in the northeast Georgia Mountains). This made it convenient to gather RL imagery along with having some German and Dutch based Moles on the team helped greatly too. Hills, mountains, valleys and such as backdrops to come.
Oh, and there’s 8 floor plans, 4 were featured today, the other 4 are “open concept” floor plans of the same homes.

So there you have it folks!

SLurl for Preview

Note this will only be available while the SL Christmas Expo is running

A Chocolate Factory in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Chocolate Factory, December 2020 – click any image for full size

Justice Vought, co-owner of the excellent :Oxygen: (see: Getting some :oxygen: in Second Life), and who earlier in 2020 lightened hearts with his homage to Second Life’s famous Greenies (see: Once upon a (Greenie) time in Second Life) sent an invitation to Caitlyn and I to visit his latest creation, an it is once again a setting that is likely to bring a smile to many faces with its sense of fun and interaction.

To put it in a nutshell (which will undoubtedly be assessed by squirrels…) Chocolate Factory pays homage to 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder, and 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore and, most broadly, to Roald Dahl’s timeless story.

Chocolate Factory, December 2020

It does so by presenting visitors with a tour of the legendary chocolate factory (golden tickets available, but actually entirely optional), which takes you from the gates to the factory through its various rooms and assorted places, and back to the the landing point. Along the way, there are rides, things to do and try, and vignettes that pay homage to both films, with perhaps a lean more towards the Gene Wilder version, all of which should be visited with local sounds enabled (the starting point also recommends the audio stream be on, but this isn’t strictly necessary).

The starting point is a little town square where sits a shop in which you can try your hand in obtaining a golden ticket via a L$1-a-go gacha machine. For once the gods of SL fortune were with me, as I got one first go, although Caitlyn received a Wonka chocolate bar she could nibble on while we explored. From here, visitors (with or without a golden ticket) can pass through the warning sign and follow the road towards the factory – reached via a short tunnel – which also offers a chance to pop into Charlie’s house along the way. Once at the factory, visitors should proceed through the gates and into the factory to Wonka’s office, where an Anywhere Door will start them on their adventure.

Chocolate Factory, December 2020

The Anywhere door is the first of the teleports that carry visitors through a series of rooms / locations representative of elements from the story, including a blueberry / bubble room, the squirrel room (where the aforementioned nut assessments take place), the TV room, and so on. These are visited in a certain order (but at the end of the tour there is the opportunity to teleport back to any one of the locations visited, and the teleports between scenes work both ways). note that teleports might be doors, portals of other objects – the latter indacted by 3D arrows.

The Anywhere door delivers you to s Candyland, evocative of the production values fro Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Here one can follow the chocolate path over the lush grass and across the bridge spanning the  river of chocolate that flows from high falls to split the landscape before vanishing into a dark tunnel. Candy sticks and multi-hued mushrooms mark the land and giant butterflies flap their wings. Those with quick eyes may spot the Wonka boat rezzer sitting in the flow of chocolate – but don’t be too hasty to rez one and sit: there are numerous things to discover in this seemingly simple garden – from taking the twizzler rope across the river as an alternative to the bridge, to body surfing in the chocolate or simply sitting on a chocolate biscuit love seat – and more besides – be sure to mouseover things carefully, and not always at ground level!

Chocolate Factory, December 2020

When you’re ready to proceed, rez a boat (if you have problems spotting the rezzer, look along the flow of chocolate near to where a group of coloured balloons are sitting, close to the bridge) and jump in – you may have to be quick, as the boat doesn’t hang about. This will take you on through the tunnel ride to the fizzy pop store where you can have a light refreshment (emphasis on the “light” – for which I should perhaps use the American “lite” – you’ll see why whn you ignore the warning and take a bottle!), then follow the teleport arrows through the window and onwards.

I’m not going to spoil things here by describing every place you’ll visit, suffice it to say you’ll encounter the odd Oompa Loompa or three along the way (actually starting in Candyland) and experience (as noted) aspects of the films, each with its own interactive elements, including a further ride atop a Wonka Chocolate Bar to reach the final location and experience teleport.

Chocolate Factory, December 2020

A light-hearted homage, Chocolate Factory makes for a fun visit, and if you’re feeling like you’ve had enough of the year or are feeling the onset of Christmas Blues, a visit could be just the ticket to cheer you up (did you see what I did there? 😀 ).

SLurl Details

2020 CCUG meeting week #49 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grauland, October 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, December 3rd 2020 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, with dates available via the SL Public Calendar.

The venue for meetings is the Hippotropolis camp fire.

SL Viewer

A new Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.4.12.553053, was release on Thursday, December 3rd. Otherwise, the current selection of official viewers remains unchanged:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No change..
  • Release channel cohorts:
    •  Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.11.551213, November 2.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

ARCTan / Jellydoll / Imposter Avatars

  • Vir has most recently looking at timers / frame rate variability.
  • As a reminder:
    • The current ARCTan work is focused on the viewer-side updates to avatar complexity calculations.
    • Work on providing in-world object rendering costs (LOD models, etc.) which might affect Land Impact will be handled as a later tranche of project work, after the avatar work.

Graphics

  • Work has commenced on separating out the rendering of viewer UI elements from scene rendering.
    • The reason for this is that the UI currently gets rendered on per frame basis, which is performance expensive on what is essentially a relatively static element of the viewer.
    • The aim is to revise the UI such that it is only re-drawn was needed, and it is hoped this will result in a performance gain in terms of viewer frame rates.
    • When this work is in a condition where it can be released, it will appear in its own project / RC viewer, and not as a part of the Love Me Render graphics-specific viewer pipeline.
  • No news on work for replacing OpenGL.

In Brief

  • There may be an issue with the viewer ignoring avatar custom joint positions if they do not have a weight associated with them. This appears true for .DAE files exports from Maya, and possibly with exports from Blender 1.7.9.a / 1.7.9.b (although Avastar may automatically compensate for unweighted custom joints by given them a default weighting). However, it is not clear if the issue lies with the modelling software or the mesh uploader, and its been requested that those experiencing these issues check the mesh upload data to see if anything is being pruned.

Date of Next Meeting

  • Thursday, December 17th.