May 2021 – Page 7 – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

A visit to the French coast in Second Life

Posted on May 13, 2021July 20, 2022 by Inara Pey

*La Garde-Aris, May 2021: click any image for full size*

Occupying just under a quarter of a Full region that leverages the private region LI bonus, La Garde-Aris is a charming setting created by Aristide Atlass. It offers a little slice of France for people to enjoy and photograph, and which has little twists of humour about it – including in the About Land description.

Drawing inspiration from the coast of Provence, the historical province of south-eastern France and home to the famous city port of Marseille, La Garde-Aris presents a richly detailed setting that presents a small coastal town nestled under high cliffs that has perhaps seen the traditional income brought to it by fishing the local waters to the more lucrative – if possibly as seasonal – tourist trade.

From the smart little beach and waterfront shops through to the market square and the cobbled roads that wind around the buildings and climb the hills to one side of the setting, this is a place brought to life by the local “inhabitants”, static and animated NPCs that can be found throughout, lazing on the beach, exploring the marketplace, shopping, taking a run, and so on.

Some of these characters would appear to be local, but I’d say that most are likely casual visitors, people who have arrived along the road that emerges from a tunnel to one side of the parcel. This ends at a little car park sitting a short way back from the beach and overlooking a little fisherman’s cove into which a fishing boat is chugging, whilst nest hang to dry on the shore.

The car park itself is witness to the arrival of a young couple clearly here to enjoy some surfing, and a family who have arrived by camper van. Further down the road, a tour bus has pulled up alongside the bridge leading up to what might be the older part of town, allowing its passengers to explore up there, or head across the road into the bustling square with its open market, shops and little café-restaurant.

The older part of town is dominated by the round tower of an aged fort, a place that offers a good vantage point for looking across the town. Directly below it, on what looks to be a terrace of more recent origin – or perhaps a part of the fort that has been newly dressed with stone, a jazz band plays and visitors can enjoy a dance.

It is here, as well, that some of the humour evident in the setting is apparent – the studio gallery alongside the old fort is called L’art te Chaut, which appears to be a little play on a popular edible variety of thistle which sometimes has the word “French” put in front of it. Close by, the converted chapel offers a rather interesting compendium of book titles – although I confess it’s the first time I’ve visited a reading room that includes a dance pole…!

Across the length of the town, and facing the fort and the raised buildings alongside it, is a large villa, a stand of cypress trees separating it from the town. Of Tuscan design (well, Provence is bordered by Italy to the east), the villa may look to be private, but is in fact open to the public as well, and is furnished throughout and is named for the local “historical figure”, Chevalier de la Frite, who features in Aristide’s Picks write-up for the town.

Colourful and with a lot going on when it comes to the NPCs, La Garde-Aris is a charming, easy-going visit – although the region as a whole can be occasionally heavy going for those running with things like Shadows enabled in their viewer and a high Draw Distance as a couple of the other parcels on it have a lot going on, textures-wise), so it might be advisable to tone the latter down if you find things a little bumpy.

With thanks to Shawn Shakespeare for the pointer.

SLurl Details

La Garde-Aris (Stingray, rated Moderate)

A novel lifeboat system for Second Life

Posted on May 12, 2021May 14, 2021 by Inara Pey

*The WALT lifeboat with launch cradle / crane in the background*

Ape Piaggio has released a curious – and possibly niche – product in the form of the WALT Deeplag Horizon lifeboat. It’s a product I was able to observe during development, and got to play with during pre-release.

Originally developed as a part of an oil rig emergency / evacuation game Ape developed with Analyse “Bandit” Dean, the Deeplag Horizon (name that might be a little raw in some cases) is primarily at those who may be involved in SLCG / SAR role-play, and who want to add some training capabilities for oil rig evacuations, etc. However, it is a versatile kit, so might have wider appeal, possibly as a lifeboat for large-scale SL boats – although I note this with a caveat.

Costing L$3,000 and available (at the time of writing, at least) through Ape’s in-world store, Deeplag Horizon comes in a neat little package comprising a boxed model of the craft sitting on one of its launch cradles. This contains:

Three versions of the lifeboat:
- The Regular version, seating a total 15 avatars and suitable for general evac / reuse role-play.
- An eXtra version, that is identical to the one above, but with additional singles and couples animations.
- A Short version, seating only 9, and potentially suited for use as a vessel lifeboat.
Two launch cradle / crane variants – these function identically, and are distinguished only by the placement of the support legs.
A HUD for the launch cradle / crane.
A coalesced Lifeboat Crane Tower.
A WALT Adjust Tool Box to assist with adding your own animations to the boat.
A textures set.
The user manual.

*The two sizes of the WALT lifeboats: the R/X variant (top) and the S with one of the side egress doors open*

The Lifeboats

This is a quick overview, the lifeboat (particularly the X version) packs a lot into it – all of which is covered in the user manual.

Outside of the differences noted above, all three lifeboats offer the same overall boxy look typical of these craft, together with the bare bones interiors that speak to function rather than comfort. The side egress doors and rear entry / egress doors open, as do the hatches for accessing the engines, air tanks, etc., while the gauges and indicators on the control panel all work (as do the light switches), offering the potential for Mouselook driving.

Obviously, given their function is to save lives in the event of a disaster, these lifeboats are not going to zip you around Blake Sea at a high rate of knots. However, they will pootle along nicely, with a top speed of 9 knots. Handling at lower speeds is very tight – the smaller of the two designs will literally turn on a sixpence (or dime for my American cousins) and the larger one not far off.

Both chat and dialogue menu commands can be used with the boats, the latter called by touching anywhere on the boat’s superstructure other than the doors. As is usual with boats, the ↑ and ↓ keys (or W and S) will increase / decrease the throttle (with reverse engaged on using ↓ with the setting at 0), whilst ← and → will activate the steering. In addition, PAGE UP will jump the throttle directly to 100% and PAGE DOWN will cut it to 0%, bringing the lifeboat to a stop once its momentum has been lost.

*The interior of the large versions of the lifeboat, with one of the floor panels lifted to give access to the RP air tanks*

For those who wish, control of the boat can be handed off to someone else, and the Settings and Accessories options provide additional options, such as enabling / disabling rocking when the boat is on the water (Accessories) and inverting the rudder movement when the boat is in reverse (Settings) – handy when using a forward-facing camera when the boat is moving backward, if the “inverted” nature of turning when reversing confuses you, and more besides.

The Launch Cradle / Crane

This is a fun part of the system, a combined system for launching and recovering lifeboats. There are three ways to operate the launch cradle / crane: via the Crane HUD, directly by touching the crane to access its menu, or by accessing the crane’s menu through the boat’s menu. Of these, the HUD is a little less efficient on initial use, as the cradle / crane must be switched on to work – and this requires using the menu.

Once turned on, a lifeboat can be mounted in one of two ways: by rezzing one in place via the Rez Menu (note this has several options – refer to the user manual for further detail on these), or by pulling one from inventory and placing it on the water under / in front of the cradle / crane. The latter is the best way to get familiar with operations. Again, the instructions in the user manual are clear, and don’t need to be repeated here.

*The Small variant of the lifeboat sitting in the launch cradle*

When using the cradle / crane, it looks and works a lot better if there is a reasonable degree of elevation between the cradle and the water – 5 metres is a good height – or the additional tower can be used.

Continue reading “A novel lifeboat system for Second Life” →

2021 SUG meeting week #19 summary

Posted on May 11, 2021September 27, 2024 by Inara Pey

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 11th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. These notes relate to the core points of discussion; other topics may have ben raised without specific feedback from LL as actionable items, so please refer to the video at the end of this report for the full meeting and all points covered.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, there had been no server deployment thread available for review.

Tuesday, May 11th saw no deployment to servers on the Main SLS channel previously updated to server maintenance package 558586, in week #18.
Wednesday, May 12th should see the RC channels updated to server release 559341 – for more on this, see below.

Server Update 559341

This update introduces a new Experiences-related LSL function, llOpenFloater();. When invoked, it sends a message to the owning Agent’s viewer, instructing it to open a new browser floater pointed at the URL provided by the LSL script, if the owning Agent’s viewer understands that request.

However, it is important to note that the capability is restricted to Linden-owned Experiences – which are also called privileged experiences – and (in difference to Maestro Linden’s request for feedback on wider applications found in the deployment thread) is not being opened for general use, as the Lab is aware of the potential risks in doing so (e.g. DDOSing / doxing attacks).

As the deployment thread notes, the primary reason for deploying the function is that it will be used with the upcoming work related to the new user experience, which should be deployed this summer.

Group Chat

During the meeting, Simon Linden had this to say on the subject of Group chat:

We just updated the last set of chat servers for this round. I’m not going to promise this will fix group chat, I’ve done this enough times to know that’s not good to say. But I sure hope it helps.

SL Viewer

The start of the week has seen no updates to the current crop of official viewers, leaving the pipelines as follows:

Release viewer: Eau de Vie Maintenance viewer, version 6.4.18.558266, dated April 23, promoted April 29 – No change.
Release channel:
- Project UI viewer, version 6.4.18.558718, issued May 3.
- Love Me Render (LMR) 5 viewer, version 6.4.18.558365, dated April 22.
- Maintenance 2 RC viewer – Fernet, version 6.4.18.558441, dated April 21.
Project viewers:
- Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
- Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365 , dated December 9, 2019.
- Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
- 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

Video

The following video of the meeting is courtesy of Pantera Północy.

Viewing a bare canvas in Second Life

Posted on May 11, 2021January 1, 2022 by Inara Pey

*Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: White Canvas*

The latest exhibition to come to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, is once again intriguing in subject. Put together at short notice by Diconay Boa Cross (Diconay Boa), White Canvas takes tattoos as its theme – a subject which itself is richly evocative, and has potential to be provocative in a number of ways.

The liner notes for the exhibition point to some of the many reasons we may get a tattoo. It’s also true that the tattoos we get can elicit a range of reactions: admiration, repulsion, acceptance, rejection, attraction – perhaps even predatory – and so on. Hence their evocative / provocative duality.

However, with the body as a living canvas, tattoos can also be genuine genre of art; the professional tattoo artist can wield their coil machine, use its needles and inks with the consummate skill of a skilled painter – and, with the right subject – produce pieces as exquisite as any Monet or challenging as any Picasso.

Second Life brings this latter aspect of tattoo art particularly to life, and with a none of the pain that the recipient might otherwise have to face, and none of the limitations the artist may have to deal with as a result of fears over said discomforts. True, the tools of the trade might be GIMP, PhotoShop and an keyboard and / or tablet – but the results are the same.

A further advantage with tattoos in Second Life is that wee are able to change our tattoos as easily as changing a pair of earrings or cufflinks in the physical world. hence why, perhaps, that Diconay refers to tattoos jewellery for the Skin.

The images presented in White Canvas bring to the fore the artistry involved in virtual tattoos – but this in turn echoes the beauty that can be achieved through the application of ink via needle. There is a lean towards the more exotic / erotic nature of tattoos in the framing of the images, which tends to separate them from the supplied liner notes for the exhibition rather than allowing the latter help to extend appreciation of the former.

However, this was an exhibition put together as something of a last-minute affair: Diconary and her SL partner Goodcross were actually due to exhibit at the gallery later in the year, but following an eleventh-hour drop-out, Diconary stepped into the breach so that Dido wasn’t faced with a missed exhibition, so allowances should be made for any apparent disconnects.

Engaging and artistically framed, this is an exhibition that pays homage to tattoos in Second Life as a means for us to express ourselves and stands as a statement to the skill of a very talented avatar photographer.