Lab Gab with Grumpity and Patch Linden streams on October 21st

via Linden Lab

On Friday, October 21st, there will be a livestream edition of Lab Gab, featuring Linden Lab’s Vice President of Product,  Grumpity Linden and VP of Product Operations, Patch Linden.

Both will be discussing Second Life development thus far, and will be announcing some upcoming features that will soon be appearing on the platform. In addition, they’ll also be answering question from residents.

If you have a question you’d like to to to Grumpity or Patch (or both!) to answer, the Lab is currently accepting submissions via the the Lab Gab Google Form, so be sure to make sure you send your while the form is available! Note that not all questions submitted may be asked during the session.

I hope to have a summary of the session available some time after it has streamed; in the meantime, the salient details are summarised below.

Viewing Details

A European styled Perpetuity in Second Life

Perpetuity, October 2022 – click any image for full size

For those in the northern hemisphere who want to grab a last touch of the late summer before winter throws its chilly cloak over us, should consider hopping over to Perpetuity, the Full region held and designed by Camis and Tamara Sierota. For while the leaves there are turning golden brown for autumn, there is still a sense of summer warmth waiting to be found for a little while longer.

The last time I visited the region in April 2022, it offered the look and feel of Smalltown USA in the spring / early summer months, so a return to the region as the years starts to close out is perhaps appropriate. However, a greater reason for dropping in again is that the region, in keeping with the tradition Camis and Tamara have for presenting different settings for the appreciation of visitors, now appears to have its roots in southern Europe, with hints of Italy’s Tuscany and France’s Provence to be found nestling among its trees and overlooking its rugged shores.

Perpetuity, October 2022
A place for quiet moments and photography with areas to bring your partner or to come alone and relax surrounded by nature in all it’s beauty. Join the group to rez & support the sim.

– Perpetuity’s About Land Description

The first hint of this European styling comes at the landing point, tucked into the north-west corner of the region. Here visitors find themselves on the lower terrace of a distinctly Greco-Roman ruin, the upper portion of which stands as the remnants of an open-air baths, the water still fresh and inviting and overlooked by the weathered statues of gods or perhaps former patrons of whatever estate may have once stood within the lands south and east.

Perpetuity, October 2022

Suggestions that this was once an extensive estate are quick to locate: a broad cobbled road runs due east to where a walled villa and its outhouses sit before and a little above a broad expanse of beach. Rows of vines stand to attention on either side of this road, hinting that grapes and wine might have long been a part of the history here; and while the villa and its outhouses – like the tall clock tower close by – are clearly of far more recent times than the baths, the exposed stonework on the villa’s walls does suggest it has perhaps just material from a much older structure which may once have stood here.

The clock tower stands between two further roads that both run due south. The first dips down the undulating land to reach another Tuscan-style villa,  this one sitting on a broad paved terrace fronting the sea, a single outhouse converted into a cosy and inviting café. Where the road to this villa descends, the second road alongside the clock tower rises, hopping up a gentle slope to pass under trees and between bushes and hedges to reach a further junction, one arm of which point eastwards once more, and the second curves left and right to reach the arms of an imposing Provencial summer house.

Perpetuity, October 2022

Built from great squared-off blocks of stone, this imposing build appears to be a club or resort of some description; its three buildings sitting on three sides of a terraced pool. The largest of these buildings forms the main part of the facilities, offering a central pubic room with two small rooms bracketing it. All are open to the public, as are to the smaller buildings flanking the pool, and the pool itself.

Away to the east, the remaining arm of the road is carried over a stream by a little bridge, itself just a short walk from where it falls down the face of sheer cliffs into a bay tucked between two headlands. The smaller and lower of the latter forms a part of the resort grounds, and offers a look-out point separating the bay from the resort’s span of beach. Meanwhile, the taller of the two headlands is home to a farmhouse which appears to have been converted into more of a vacation property, the road to it running past the head of another waterfall that feeds the bay below.

Perpetuity, October 2022

As well as the cobbled roads, tracks also run through the landscape, offering further opportunities for exploration, whilst the furnished nature of all the buildings, together with the fact that they are all open to the public, provide many opportunities to sit and pass the time, particularly with a loved one / partner. For those who prefer, there are also numerous outdoor locates scattered across the region offering places to sit.

There are some rules to take note of when visiting Perpetuity – nothing onerous, just make sure you accept the offered note card on arrival -, and those requiring photo props can gain rezzing rights by joining the local Group. The note card also references bike and horse rezzers, but I have to say, I didn’t notice either in my wanderings and camming so I’m not sure it these were from a previous iteration of the region or I simply missed them; either way, it doesn’t change the fact Perpetuity remains an engaging visit.

Perpetuity, October 2022

With thanks to Shawn Shakespeare for the suggestion of a re-visit.

SLurl Details

2022 SUG meetings week #42 summary

Green Acres, August 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please see the forum deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, October 18th, the Main SLS and Events channels were updated with server release 575585.
    • This release should contain two new functions llGetObjectLinkKey (specified under llGetLinkKey) and llSHA256String.
    • In addition, a slight change to the simulator code may help with the issue of people’s on-line / off-line status not being properly reported. It  is not an actual fix for the problem, but LL would like feedback as to whether people are seeing an improvement. See : BUG-232037 for more information on the issue.
  • On Wednesday, October 19th, the simhosts on the RC channels will be restarted but remain on simulator release 575585.

Available Official Viewers

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.4.575022 – hotfix for Crash at ~LLModalDialog() – promoted September 15 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance 3 RC viewer, version 6.6.5.575257, September 23.
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.5.575055 September 19.
  • Project viewers:
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  October 12.
    • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

Local KVP / “Linkset Data”

From the server deployment thread:

We have a new feature build on Aditi for a new feature called Linkset Data. This feature works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data. Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature. For more details, see the in-progress wiki pages https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Linkset_Data. You can try out the new LSL functions related to this feature at the following Aditi Mainland regions:
  • Blake Sea – Arabian ; Blake Sea – Atlantic ; Blake Sea – Beagle ; Blake Sea – Binnacle ; Blake Sea – Black ; Gothlauth ; Jigglypuff ; Mauve ; Moonberry ; Sapas ; Smithereens
We’re looking for feedback on this new feature including bugs and input on anything that might be missing or not work the way you’d expect. Please file a BUG Jira in all of those cases

This work is currently with the Lab’s QA team, and if cleared, could be a part of an RC channel deployment in week #43 (commencing Monday, October 24th, 2022.

These upcoming release sparked a conversation on data storage and access – please refer to the video for details.

In Brief

  • BUG-232037 “Avatar Online / Offline Status Not Correctly Updating” – LL believe that have a “handle” on the where the issue is originating, but there has been no time to take a deep dive into the actual cause as yet.
  • Further discussion on making multi-region crossings by vehicle more robust.
  • A general discussion on lighting.