Month: February 2023

February 2023 SL WUG meeting: Land Portal + Marketplace

Posted on 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, February 1st, 2023.

WUG meetings:

  • Are held in-world, generally on the first Wednesday of the month – see the SL public calendar.
  • Cover Second Life front-end web properties (Marketplace, secondlife.com, the sign-up pages, the Lab’s corporate pages, etc.).
  • They are not intended for the discussion of Governance issues, land fees / issues, content creation & tools, viewer or simulator development / projects. Please refer to the SL calendar for information on available meetings for these topics.

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 subject timestamps to the relevant points in the video are provided. Again, the following is a summary of key topics / discussions, not a full transcript of everything mentioned.

Updates for January 2023

Land Portal Release

  • [Video: 06:00-08:00] The new Land Portal has been launched. This is intended to be a central hub from which to get to all aspects of land “ownership” – purchasing regions, renting land from a private estate, renting or purchasing Mainland; obtaining a Linden Home.
  • [Video: 10:33-10:49] There are currently no actual functionality changes to the pages behind the portal – these will come in time.
    • [Video: 8:51-9:22] The first of the Land pages to undergo update and improvement will be the Linden Homes page. This will make it easier to see and select available Linden Home styles – but this update “will be a while” before it is surfaced.
  • Translations for the Portal and the Land pages will come in due course.
  • The Portal has been used as something of a prototype, bringing together tools and technologies the Lab intend to use to build-out updated versions of their websites and portals, and ensure they are mobile-friendly.
A portion of the new land portal front-end – click to visit
  • A technical blog post on what the web tools and ongoing website redesign means will be published be the Lab in the near future.

Marketplace Updates

  • [[Video: 08:04-8:43] Search:
    • The deployment of the Marketplace Search updates has been further delayed, as indexing all searched to date is taking longer than anticipated to complete.
    • All other work is completed – the code is in place and ready to go – but LL want to ensure that search and order histories all remain in place when the switch is thrown.
    • once fully deployed, the new MP Search will have a close parity with the updated web search deployed in 2023, including its own relevance engine.
  • [Video: 17:29-20:26] “Marketplace 2.0” – the Refresh / Rebuild:
    • Still being discussed / developed.
    • Will likely included further Search capabilities: fuzzy searching; negative tags / Boolean search options; the potential for improved filtering.

Marketplace Discussion Summary

Marketplace “Gold Star” Mechanism

[Video: 31:49-35:30]

One idea being floated internally at LL is the idea of awarding worn / attached items a “gold star” to items with a “low Land Impact”.

  • The suggested approach would be to have some form of automated “side bake” mechanism which takes avatar attachments and assesses their LI, and then awards them a “gold star” on the basis of whether or not they remain within some defined “LI threshold”.  “Gold star wearables” would then be searchable as a category / categories within the MP.
  • The core aims of this would be to:
    • Encourage wearable items creators to ensure their clothing and avatar attachment are more render performant/efficient (avatars currently have perhaps the highest performance impact, as no real constraints are currently placed on the complexity of worn items, so there is no incentive to model them as efficiently as possible).
    • Encourage consumers to consider what they are purchasing and its impact (“the gold star means it is better for you and SL”).
  • This does raise concerns of further gaming of LOD (level of detail) in order to bring items in under the threshold, with the result that while they gain the “gold star” they nevertheless immediate collapse into one (or a small group) or triangles when seen from even a minimal distance – with creators who do so then “recommending” users set their viewer’s LOD rendering unnaturally high – and in the process further negatively impacting viewer performance.
  • Alternatives offered at the meeting:
    • Utilise the revised avatar complexity calculations which form a part of the ARCTan project by which to measure the complexity of worn items (the problem here being the ARCTan project stalled some 2+ years ago and has yet to be re-started).
    • Utilise the “good LOD” calculations used for Animesh to encourage creators to model their clothing / attachments responsibly.

General Marketplace Discussion / Exchange of Ideas

[Video 20:42-31:45 + local chat]

  • Variants (officially “Styles” – e.g. having multiple colour options for an item in a single listing) was again raised. No further direct feedback on this was given; however, at the January meeting it was indicated the work (which has apparently largely been done) is being “re-prioritised” in the face of the delays in deploying the updated MP Search.
  • “One click demos” were suggested for the MP – being able to click on an attachment offing in the Marketplace and the item is temporarily worn in-world. This is something Garfield Linden indicated was of interest to him, and requested a Feature Request Jira on the idea.
  • Search:
    • Phonetic searching was requested (particularly handy for those not well-versed in the currently-supported languages / dyslexia, where fuzzy search might over-compensate with results).  Sntax [sic] Linden acknowledged the “appeal” of phonetic searching.
    • Filtering clothing / attachments by body type: this is something the Marketplace Team are already looking at in terms of the “most popular” bodies – although how representative this might be of SL’s diversity is hard to determine.
  • Pay what you want – suggested as a possible option to allow merchants to offer items for free, but with the option for buyers to offer a “tip” in payment.
    • The functionality for this may be overly complicated to implement.
    • However, in considering Marketplace updates / a rebuild, LL have looked at options for offering coupons, sales, and “price changey” options, so this idea will be added to the list for further internal discussion.
  • It was acknowledged that Marketplace load times in the viewer’s browser (and the load times of other SL web properties a user may already be logged-in to) are “to darn high”, and that there are “performance skirmishes” to be had in this area.
  • A suggestion was made for the Marketplace to support “related items” between stores. This would require engagement by Merchants, but the idea would be if Merchant A produced items intended for use with something Merchant B produces, they could mutually list one another’s products as being related. It could also be technically complex to implement.
  • Marketplace and CasperVend integration: this is something LL would like to do following the purchase of CasperTech, and have had discussions about, but there are no firm plans as to have it might be tackled as yet.

Misc Items

Smart Landmarks

[Video 47:30-48:10]

World API Update

[Video 48:40-49:25]

  • It has been notes that following a recent update, the World API reports banned agents as a part of the Group member count.
  • It is not clear if the update caused this, but if so, it was not the intent. The matter has been noted for investigation.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, March 1st, 2023. Venue and time per top of this summary.

A Celestial Glade in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Celestial Glade, February 2023 – click any image for full size
Celestial Glade transports you to enchanted forest, full of magic and exploration. Tucked away, you will find romantic spots to dance and cuddle with that special someone.

– Celestial Glade About Land

So reads the introduction to Celestial Glade, a Full private region utilising the Land Capacity bonus primarily designed by Roxy Chronotis (Roxy Christenson).

Celestial Glade, February 2023

A mystical setting, the region is predominantly open to the public, although the north-east corner – separated from the rest of the region by tall curtain cliffs – is given over to a private home, and there are some rental cottages sitting within the south-west corner, so the usual warning about trespass and disturbing people’s privacy is given 🙂 .

The landing point sits to the south-east corner of the region, located within a gazebo formed from living trees. It faces the Lyrical Grove, a place for live music events (schedule on the board alongside of the steps leading up to the Grove) and the Lyrical Star Café, reached by descending a further set of steps from the landing point.

Celestial Glade, February 2023

Two further exits lead away from the landing point; one passes through an open field dominated by a single large and very aged tree. Clearly a space for outdoor events, it is bordered by smaller trees, waterfalls, and gigantic crystals; while there is nothing overtly Hobbiton-like about it, a Tolkienite like myself would likely not be surprised to find Bilbo Baggins and his friends and very extended family to be celebrating his elventy-first birthday under the shade of the tree…

The second route away from the landing point provides access to a path meandering under boughs and past glades, tall walls to one side. The latter partially enclose a small commercial marketplace in which store spaces (if available) can be rented. A path from the “birthday field” also runs past the entrance to this space, passing between it and a pond to join the first path as it continues on it way through the region, branching here and there along the way.

Celestial Glade, February 2023

These paths wind between ribbons of hills, tall peaks and blocky mesas, crossing streams and rivers along the way, passing under the shade of trees and through the coloured carpets of flowers. In doing so, they lead the way those romantic spots for dancing and / or sitting and cuddling. They also pass by or offer the route to, the region’s major points of interest.

The latter – which can also be reached via a network of stone teleport disks – include a glade of table-top games, ruins on a promontory, a restaurant and nearby café of distinctly elven styling, and a winding climb up the highest peak within the land to where the slender finger of a tower points a tall spire towards the sky, its teleport door guarded by a dragon.

Celestial Glade, February 2023

Whilst not specifically inspired by Middle Earth, the touches throughout – the aforementioned field with its great tree, the elven-style buildings, the odd Hobbit hole – all give Celestial Glade as shading of Tolkien; one which is acknowledged in a very subtle manner, as careful explorers may note in their travels.

Also awaiting discovery is a wizard’s hideaway, the ruins of a church where weddings might be held, mystical wells and stairs winding around the trunks of trees to reach high platforms. All of this adds to the attractiveness of exploration, as do the local EEP settings, which I would advise visitors to use in order to appreciate the region fully.

Celestial Glade, February 2023

Should you not feel in the mood for walking through the region and feel the teleport network risks missing some of the details tucked into valleys and under trees or within gardens, there is a horse rezzer just down the steps of the path leading away from the landing point, allowing visitors to explore from the saddle. Just keep in mind the horse will vanish if you opt to dismount 🙂 .

Relaxing, tucked into a river sound scape, Celestial Glade should come as a welcome retreat for those who needed, and an inviting place for photographers and explorers.

Celestial Glade, February 2023

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Magdha’s Sole Fragments in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

For February 2023, Dido Haas presents Sole Fragments, a themed exhibition of monochrome photography by Maghda, at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery.

Like Dido, I first encountered Maghda’s work some 8 years ago, but in my case, it was at another shared exhibition hosted at the now-closed DaphneArts Gallery. Also like Dido, I also lost track of Maghda, and had no idea that she had departed Second Life for a time, and only returned in-world in 2022.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

With a focus on avatar studies, often featuring herself as the model and often presented in greyscale or monochrome, Maghda has a talent for pieces that offer single-frame stories, often with an element of introspection or personal discovery.

This is very much the case with Sole Fragments, a title which can be taken both literally – these are pieces offered from a sole perspective – and as something of a double play on words: the images represent a journey – a walk, if you will – through her Second Life and times; and walks are things we undertake on the soles of our feet. At the same time these images are reflections of Maghda’s soul.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

As Maghda herself notes, this is a collection depicting the highs and lows and triumphs and struggles endured; moments of growth and of emotional release. Each image is deeply candid, deeply atmospheric and powerfully resonant – made all the more so through the use of monochrome and greyscale.

Each of the twelve images in the collection is a step on Maghda’s journey, allowing us to share in moments of love, loss, escape, freedom, and self-expression. The order in which we follow the steps in this journey is unimportant; it is the time we take to experience each, both in terms of the story it presents across the entire canvas and the emotional self-expression by the artist – and in allowing that expression and story resonate within us.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – Maghda: Sole Fragments

Given theses pieces are offered by the artist as a means of connecting within the emotions they contain and as a window into into her soul, it is really not my place to overlay them or the exhibition with my own subjective interpretations of specific images. What I will say is that this is a softly powerful collection of images, and I have no hesitation in recommending it as a must-see exhibition.

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