September 2021 – Page 9 – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

Lab issues Performance Floater viewer for feedback

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Inara Pey

Among their stated goals, Linden Lab is working to improve the user experience with Second Life with a number of projects. One of these is in making the viewer UI and viewer controls more accessible, and as a part of this work, the Performance Floater viewer (version 6.4.23.562625 at the time of writing) was issued as a project viewer with the intention of gaining feedback from users on the changes / options it incorporates and how they are presented.

As the name implies, the Performance Viewer is focused on bringing together various options and controls than can help improve viewer performance, and presenting them through a single new floater called (in difference to the viewer’s name) the Improve Graphics Speed floater.

This new floater can be accessed in one of two ways: via World menu → Improve Graphics Speed or by enabling the Graphics Speed button within a toolbar area. It comprises four button options, together with the viewer’s current FPS provided in large, friendly numbers at the top of the floater.

*The Performance / Graphics Speed floater and accessing it*

The four buttons open dedicated panels within the floater, each focused on a specific group of settings:

Graphics Settings: pulling together the most commonly-used Graphics options from Preferences → Graphics and the Advanced Graphics Preferences floater:
- Quality and Speed.
- Draw Distance.
- Toggles for enabling / Disabling atmospheric shaders and Advanced Lighting Model, together with a drop-down for setting Shadows.
- A toggle for disabling / enabling water transparency and a drop-down for setting the quality of water reflections.
- A “Photography” option that most of us will recognise as being the RenderVolumeLODFactor debug setting.
- A button to open the Advanced Graphics Preferences floater, should further adjustments be required.
Avatars Nearby: a set of options related to rendering the avatars around you or in general:
- The Maximum Complexity slider (from Advanced Graphics Preferences), with the value rounded down to the nearest whole thousand.
- The option to Always Render Friends (from Preferences → Graphics).
- A new checkbox for de-rendering all avatars in a scene (toggles Advanced → Rendering Types → Avatars (CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-4) off / on).
- The radio buttons for showing / hiding avatar name tags (from Preferences → General).
- A list of nearby avatars, with indicators giving their rendering complexity, colour-coded to denote fiends.
  - Running the mouse over a name in the list will highlight it, and offer an Information icon to open their profile.
  - Right-clicking on a name will bring up options to render them fully or as a “jellydoll” (neutral grey avatar) or remove them from your Exceptions list (exceptions being those set to never / always render, no matter what your Maximum complexity setting).
- A button directly under the avatar list to open your Exceptions list, where you can again right-click on names and alter their render behaviour.
Your Avatar Complexity: a list of worn attachments on your avatar with a guidance on their relative rendering cost, and an option to right-click and on any of them and remove them.
Your Active HUDs: a list of worn HUDs, again with a relative rendering complexity indicator and the option to highlight and remove any of the listed HUDs.

*The Graphics Setting and Avatars Nearby panels in the Performance / Graphics Speed floater*

Prior to the release of this viewer, concerns were expressed at a number of the Content Creation User Group meetings that doing so before the re-working of the Avatar Complexity values through the ARCTan project would lessen the impact of those changes when they are eventually deployed. I’m not sure such arguments hold that much weight, simply because a) a lot of people have already made up their minds about avatar complexity and Maximum complexity, so are unlikely to be swayed by any change in how the values are calculated; and b) those who already take note of avatar complexity and the options for managing them, no matter how the values are calculated.

That said, playing with the viewer did raise a number of niggles / ideas with me:

Consistency of terminology: we’re all used to terms like “Quality and Speed” and “Draw Distance” in relation to graphics settings – so seeing these arbitrarily renamed to (the contextually meaningless) “Shortcuts” and “Visibility Distance” is a little disconcerting. I hope that labelling overall – whichever terms are used going forward are made consistent across the viewer.
That said, the use of numbers to denote quality settings rather than the “mid” to “ultra” labels, is an improvement, and I certainly hope that it is fed back into Preferences → Graphics.
The use of the word “hide” in reference to the Maximum Complexity slider is misleading – avatars are not “hidden” when using this slider, but are still rendered, if only as simplified grey humanoid shapes.
It would be useful to have Max No. of Non-Imposter avatars added to the Avatars Nearby panel, as for some this is a preferred method of reducing avatar impact on their system over seeing “jellydolled” (or “greyed” as it should perhaps now be) avatars.
The Avatars Nearby panel could perhaps also benefit from some additional explanatory text, such as a more rounded note on Maximum Complexity to help encourage people to use it.

As noted, this is the first iteration of the viewer and floater in order for it to gain some exposure and generate feedback from those interested in trying it. Those who do want to offer feedback on it should do so via the Jira as either bug reports or feature requests, depending on the nature of the feedback.

Terrygold’s Empty Chairs: remembrance in Second Life

Posted on September 2, 2021January 1, 2022 by Inara Pey

Empty Chairs is a new art installation by Terrygold that opened on September 1st, 2021. It is perhaps the most personal installation Terry has created in Second Life, although its central theme – that of loss of a family member – is a subject many of us can particularly relate to in the current times, given so many of us have had to deal with the loss of loved ones as a result of the current pandemic.

It’s note directly indicated if Terrygold’s own loss was direct result of the COVID situation as I’ve not had the opportunity to discuss the installation with her. However, given the context of the final part of the installation, I am admittedly assuming this to be the case. But even if not, there is no denying the power Empty Chairs has to speak to all of us on the matter of loss.

The installation can loosely be split into three parts. The first presents a series of images together with words by Terrygold that contextualise the feeling she has been experiencing on the loss of her father in a deeply personal, but utterly understandable way; one that particularly speaks to anyone who has lost a close family member, regardless of our relationship with them., and Terry wears her heart on her sleeve in talking about her father and her impact on her.

I Don’t have good memories of my Dad, he was certainly not a good father. But I remember that one day he took me on a trip with the scooter, a different day for me; I thought he could change… I look at his empty chair at the table. Now the last memory of him is this loneliness. Will this sadness ever go away?

– Terrygold, Empty Chairs

These are not easy words to read, and I know they were not easy to write; but again, regardless of our own relationship with those we have lost, the loneliness – the emptiness – Terrygold brings to her words and these images will be familiar. The manner in which their absence gives rise to that loneliness in the oddest of ways, from a chair now sitting empty, to sights and sounds we encounter as we strive to resume our own lives, the memories that, long filed away now come back unbidden…

There are so many ways in which such memories can be triggered: the empty chair, a walk that brings us into contact with a sight or object they would have appreciated and the realisation it is something they will never again see or we can no longer discuss with them, and so on, all of which are reflected in these images. Also, the use of dark tones and shadows within them not only reflects the fact they are dealing with matters of grief but also offer a metaphor for Terrygold’s relationship with her father.

At the end of the walk is a set of pieces that are brighter in tone, and which might be said to be the second element of the installation. Here a trees grows and forest birds flutter beneath its boughs, and the images speak of the point Terrygold hopes to reach; where the darkness and loneliness have given way to warmer thoughts; when memories of her father no longer revolve around unhappy memories or the emptiness of a chair or room, but rather allow her to recall those happier moments like the ride on the scooter. Here, as well, is a doorway into the final element of the installation: a street scene crafted by Terrygold that appears to speak directly to the loss the pandemic has brought on the world.

Within this scene are many more chairs, all empty, sitting along the street and scattered through the little park, each representing those who have been lost. Among them are boards questioning the cause of the pandemic and our ability to truly live as a part of the world around us, rather than apart from it. Again, the tone is dark – but the thoughts and feeling it presents are ones we can all recognise – perhaps with a sense of familiarity. And here too, at the end, tucked behind the little row of shops is a message of hope.

Visualising and giving voice to grief can often be cathartic- and I hope this is the case for Terrygold. Speaking as one who has been through similar loss as a direct result of the pandemic – and while my own relationship with the one I’ve lost was far closer, I think, than Terry’s with her father – I will say that visiting Empty Chairs was moving and offering a further sense of release from some of the memories that still give rise to confusion and hurt. But even without my personal experience, I would have found Empty Chairs richly poignant and with a remarkable depth of content and context.

SLurl Details

Empty Chairs at Solo Arte (Mystic Bay, rated Moderate)

September 2021 SL Web User Group summary

Posted on September 2, 2021September 27, 2024 by Inara Pey

*The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby*

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, September 1st, 2021.

These meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of the month, with dates and venue details available via the SL public calendar. A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found embedded at the end of this article (my thanks to her as always!), and the following is a summary of key topics / discussions.

Web Properties Updates

Back-end work is still on-going and has taken up a lot of time through August.
The updated SL logo has been added to further web pages.
New User sign-ups:
- The e-mail validation check on the new user sign-up pages has been improved.
- Error messages for selected names that are unavailable have been made clearer
Land updates:
- The bug that required Show in Search to be enabled when selling land has now been fixed.
- There have been some repairs to broken links in the e-mail sent to those obtaining a new Private Island.
- The land auction page has been fixed to correctly show the highest bidder on a parcel, and further translations of the page have been added for localisation.
Marketplace improvements:
- The ability to single-click empty a shopping cart has been implemented.
- The meaning of a number of Marketplace error messages have been made clearer.

Mobile Update

There are some bugs with the iOS update LL had hoped to roll-out to the test group in August. These are being ironed out, so it is still internal to the Lab.
The Android version is still awaiting the iOS version progressing.

Marketplace Related

For some reason, some Marketplace merchants are using the Bulk Redelivery option introduced in August to re-send copies of demo versions of goods to people. At least one Jira has been filed on this, and LL will be fine-tuning the capability.
While it has been this way for years, the question was asked as to why payment details must be provided when opening an MP store. The response was that primarily, it is to prevent bots taking out MP stores.
It was suggested that flags should be added to allow users to report items that are not as advertised (e.g. “Item Not As Advertised → Misleading Listing Terms” or “MP listing flag Item Not As Advertised → Item(s) Not As Described”. These were seen by LL as potentially useful flags.
Item variations (e.g. multiple colour options for clothing items) is still a feature LL plan to add to the MP, but the work on providing / implementing it has not yet started, so no time frame as yet on when it might surface.
There are no plans to allow multiple MP stores under a single account – apparently the MP just isn’t set-up to support this.
As an alternative to multiple stores under an account, a request was made to allow goods in stores to be categorised by the store owner. A feature request Jira on the idea was requested.
The request was made to allow users to prioritise / rank the items they add to their wishlists so others can see the items they are really interested in. Again seen as a Jira request.
A “recommended for you” / “you might also like” feature based on a user’s purchase habits on the MP is something that is unlikely to be implemented, as the MP infrastructure is not geared for this.
The ability for creators selling limited quantity items to publicly show the number left has been previously asked for in meetings – a feature request Jira has been requested.
BUG-231142 “Questions and Answers’ tab for marketplace product pages” is a feature request received and accepted by the Lab. Reed Linden requested MP store owners consider it and perhaps offer feedback on the idea at the next WUG meeting.

MP Reviews and Flagging

A request was made to allow creators to disallow reviews on things like demo versions of products to prevent bad reviews on the strength of people not understanding a demo may have limited functionality, etc.
- While it is acknowledged that some bad reviews can be left that may be unwarranted (and can be flagged as such), disabling reviews for items really isn’t an option, as this could be equally abused by creators (by blocking reviews on the basis that they do not like what has been written, however valid. There is also the fact that reviews are at best subjective: just because a creator may not like / agree with critical views, does not necessarily mean they are “bad”.
A separate suggestion was made to allow the possible automatic removal of 1 and 2 star reviews. Essentially, it one receipt of such a review, the creator could respond via their own comment and the user leaving the original comment would then have 7 days to respond. If they do, the review remains, if they don’t the review is removed.
- This was also seen as a potential means for unscrupulous creators to game their reviews, and thus not something LL would consider.
When dealing with reviews, it was suggested by LL that if there are better / alternative flags creators could use to highlight abusive / off-topic / unfair reviews, this would be a better option. Request for possible additional flags should be made via Jira.
A suggestion was made to better denote creator responses to review comments, such as through a border around them or having them appear in a different colour, so as to make them easier to spot. This was seen as a useful suggestion, and a Jira on it has been requested.

In Brief

Premium Plus remains on hold.
Two-factor Authentication (2FA) is still being worked on.
BUG-216465 “Viewer web widgets not HTTPS ready” was apparently fixed in an August update, although the bug report was still open at the time of the meeting.

Congratulations to Keira, Welcome Back to Reed

This was the last Web User Group meeting to be led by Keira Linden, as she is transitioning to take over management of the Support Operations team – congratulations to her.
As a result, Reed Linden has returned to the Web User Group and will again be leading in from the October meeting – so welcome back Reed.

Next Meeting

Wednesday, October 6th, 14:00 SLT.

Elvion expanded in Second Life

Posted on September 1, 2021April 27, 2022 by Inara Pey

*Elvion, September 2021 – click any image for full size*

Bo Zano’s (BoZanoNL) Elvion has been a popular location for Second Life travellers since he first opened it to the public in 2019. Initially a quarter Homestead, it quickly expanded to cover an entire region, iterating through a series of settings over the years, with a period of absence as well.

Having returned to Second Life earlier in 2021, Elvion has now once again expanded: in August 2021 Bo relocated from a Homestead region to a Full private region with the additional LI bonus. The move has brought with it an expansion to his vision that is richly engaging, in some ways a double-headed coin offering two very different environments that come together as a whole to keep the dedicated Second Life explorer and photographer engaged for what can be hours.

On the ground level there is a rural setting mindful of the earlier iterations of Elvion: a place of open spaces, glades, tall trees, running waters and animals roaming free. At the same time, it offers much that is new to Elvion: a waterfront home for fishing boats that forms a place of commerce for those landing their loads of fish, watched over by the local chapel. Horses roam and open field close by, while further along the coastline is a rugged beach presided over by the ribs of an ancient boat and the tall finger of a lighthouse.

The landing point for the region sits to the north and west of this coastal setting, on the platform of an old railway line. The station serves a little corner-built hamlet, it’s paved square offering hints of cities from across Europe (perhaps most notably London, thanks to the wall-mounted street name). The shops here are furnished and the square rich in detail, making this one of the region’s many settings for photography.

Great oaks rise from the land bordering the town and sit between it and the southern coast. Under their broad canopy are multiple places awaiting discovery. I’m not going to name them all here, as exploration is a central part of any enjoyment of Elvion and I don’t want to spoil that; but wander far enough and you’ll discovery a wild garden with a greenhouse bathroom, ruins of considerable age. bridges awaiting crossing and many places to sit and pass the time.

Also circling its way through the trees and under their canopy is the railway line itself, rusted with age and probably no longer in regular use. A couple of buffered spurs branch from it, one the home of an aging boxcar. Without trains to threaten explorers, the track offer an excellent means to discover many of the region’s sites – and to reveal its chief secret.

I mentioned earlier that this is a region of two sides, each existing in its own right, separate from the other yet part of the whole. The link between the two takes the form of a small tunnel, a former pedestrian way under one of the region’s hills. sits alongside a length of the railway track (and admittedly not hard to miss given the signage 🙂 ), and which is in fact the teleport to Bo’s Sky World.

This is a genuinely magical setting, a series of island floating high in the sky, far above the clouds. Each offers a unique setting, all of them places caught in the midst of Autumn in difference to the summertime of the ground level setting. Some may appear entirely natural, complete with buildings and other familiar structures; others are more fantastical, the home of strange creatures – ShadowBull, giant scorpion and drangonfly or the most unusual setting for afternoon tea that winds its way up a spire of rock, itself topped by a steampunk-esque teapot/clock.

Throughout all of this there winds the rusting lines of the railway track, rising and falling, turning and crossing itself, offering a pathway around and between the islands. In doing so, it forms the motif that joins the Sky World with the ground level, even as they remain separate. Along the track can be found circular signs. Usually marking track point, here they offer teleport jumps to reach those island the track does not directly touch. Walk to the end of the and you’ll find a locomotive taking flight as it starts on its own journey of discovery.

Elvion’s ground level and Sky World both have enormous appeal about them (those used to running with shadows enabled may want to disable them when moving around to lighten the render load) and a which offer multiple opportunities for photography and / or sitting and passing the time.

Sadly, the members of Bo’s own Rat Pack and his three stooges are apparently absent this iteration – so no Frank or Sammy or Curly or Moe waiting to greet wanderers; but again, this is small price to pay for the sheer richest of the settings, and the dreamlike beauty of the Sky World.

Absolutely not a version of Elvion that should be missed.