Further to comments passed at the March 21st Simulator User Group, Signal Linden has formally announced the shutting-down of the LSL XML-RPC functionality.
A method for enabling communication between remote systems and LSL scripts, LSL XML-RPC has been deprecated since the introduction of HTTP-In back in 2009. As noted at the SUG meeting and again in Signal’s post, requests using LSL XML-RPC have dwindled to just a few dozen requests per hour.
As a result:
Rather than use development resources into maintaining it, LL would prefer to focus their resources on developing new features.
Recommend that those users / creators with functionality that depends on XML-RPC, migrate your scripts and supporting services to the more secure HTTP-In.
To allow time for those still using LSL XML-RPC to ensure their scripts are properly migrate their scripts, and to ensure there are no services users may have forgotten about and which might otherwise break if LSL XML-RPC were simply shut-down, the following time frame for the terminating use of the functionality.
April-May 2023: one or more unannounced circuit-breaker exercises will be performed by temporarily blocking incoming LSL XML-RPC traffic. This will give residents and Lindens a chance to experience XML-RPC shutdown and perform any required corrective actions (Upgrading scripts to HTTP-In, etc.) before permanent shut down.
June 1st, 2023: incoming LSL XML-RPC traffic will be permanently blocked.
For further information, please refer to Signal’s blog post. Questions / concerns about this move can be raised at any Simulator User Group meeting. These are held every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT, at Simon Linden’s meeting place. I will also update status in my weekly SUG summaries.
The 2023 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference takes place between Thursday, March 23rd and Saturday March 25th, 2023 inclusive. A grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments, VWBPE attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year. Its primary goals are to foster discussion on, and learning about educational opportunities presented through the use of such virtual spaces, a defining core values and best practices in doing so, including:
Helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;
Providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and
Offering access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education.
In the context of the conference, a “virtual environment” is an on-line community through which users can interact with one another and use and create ideas irrespective of time and space. As such, typical examples include Second Life, OpenSimulator, Unity, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and so on, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or any virtual environments characterised by an open social presence and in which the direction of the platform’s evolution is manifest in the community.
Each year, the event has a central theme, which for 2023 the organisers describe thus:
Our theme for the VWBPE 2023 conference explores the concepts behind our Uncommon Realities. Learning from each other’s perspectives in how we visualize challenges, the skills we bring to bear in working through alternatives, prototyping solutions, and the personal meaning we find in interpreting the results of our efforts.
We face unparalleled challenges in the world today. Embracing our uncommon realities can be a source of inspiration to bring people together. To tell our own stories. To show people our strengths. And to inspire others to not be afraid of being different. More importantly, it allows us to explore a profusion of ideas we may never have thought of if not for our willingness to share and be seen.
– From the introduction to VWBPE 2023
VWBPE 2023 – The Main Auditorium
Programme
As with previous VWBPE conferences, this year’s event includes speakers, workshops, presentations, social activities and more.
The best way to find out what is going on over the three days of the conference is through the VWBPE programme page, However, here are some of the highlights of major events (note: all times SLT and held at the main auditorium unless otherwise stated):
Thursday March 23rd:
08:00-08:50: Kick-off event at the VWBPE Gateway.
09:00-09:50 SLT: Keynote address – Dr. Tom Boellstorff (Tom Bukowski in SL): Making the Metaverse a Common Reality.
12:00 Noon-12:50: What’s Up at the Lab? With Grumpity and Patch Linden.
13:30-14:00: The VWBPE Parade, commencing at the VWBPE Gateway.
Friday March 24th:
08:00-08:50 SLT: Keynote address – Dr. Stylianos Mystakidis (Stylianos Ling in SL), Hellenic Open University, Greece: Metaverse: Pandora’s Pithos or Panacea for Education? 7+1 Uncommon Truths about the Edu-Metaverse.
12:00 Noon-12:50: Keynote address = Alexandra Humphreys (heddwen1 in SL): Playing with Reality: Gamifying Education in the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Saturday March 25th:
18:00-19050 SLT: Closing ceremony.
If you cannot get in-world to attend any of these or the other major talks and presentations at the conference, note that you can watch them via You Tube – check the VWBPE website for the full schedule of live streams.
WWBPE Wetlands Visitor Centre
Region Themes and Facilities
For 2023, the conference returns from space, where it has been for the past couple of years, to a more Earthly setting, presenting a series of biomes in which events will be held and people can explore and play. These comprise:
Canopy Biome (Canopy Point): a canopy biome is a forestry ecosystem characterised by a dense layer of vegetation at the top (the canopy), under which can be found a diverse forest ecosystem.
Rainbow Basin: an ecosystem found within a basin or depression within the Earth’s surface, often characterised by wetlands, rivers, lakes, with the environment ranging from dry through to very wet.
Jungle Habitat: a tropical forest environment generally characterised by high levels of rainfall and warm, humid temperatures. These are often among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.
Meadow Biome (Floating Meadows): a meadow biome is characterised by a mix of forest and meadow habitats, generally in temperate zones with moderate temperatures and rainfall.
The four regions form a square and feature the main auditorium straddling there adjoining corners. They are supported by:
Grasslands Biome – home to the VWBPE Gateway.
Badlands Biome (Badlands Wild): badlands are characterised by their rugged, eroded landscape, featuring ravines, canyons and buttes. They tend to be semi-arid in nature. Here they are also home to the Rock Theatre Workshop.
Wetlands Marsh: an ecosystem characterised by a combination of shallow water, emergent vegetation and saturated soils. Here they are also home to several of the VWBPE social venues.
Desert Hinterlands: a region receiving very little rainfall, resulting in a dry, arid environment, often with high daytime temperatures and very low night temperatures. Home to the Oasis Lecture Theatre and The Ruins Workshop.
Tundra Expanse: a cold, treeless biome form in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, characterised by low temperatures, strong winds and little precipitation and vegetation limited to shrubs, mosses, lichens and the like, the ground being generally frozen. Home to the Quadrivium and the Hearth Lecture Theatre.
The VWBPE Gateway
At the VWBPE Gateway you can find information on the conference – including the schedule for the day, a Swag Bag which includes the conference teleport HUD for easy access to all locations and venues, information on the biomes comprising the conference regions, and more. And, of course, VWBPE volunteers are on hand to answer your questions!
Core Facilities and Locations
Within these regions the following core facilities for the conference can be found – but please refer to your conference Swag Bag (and teleport HUD!) for full information on all locations and facilities at this year’s conference.
The VWBPE Auditorium: with three access points Auditorium, Canopy Point (Waterfall); Auditorium, Floating Meadows (Gallery); Auditorium, Rainbow Basin Mezzanine), the auditorium features floating seating – just click on a barrel, tyre or box on one of the rafts to sit or claim a box / block on the bleachers!
The VWBPE Social Centres, all of which are located within the Wetlands Biome: the Wetlands Visitor Centre; the Coastal Coffee Chat; the Science Centre and the Viewing Deck, all of which will be host to gatherings and events through the conference period – check the main schedule for details
The Teleport HUD
As noted above, the VWBPE teleport HUD is the best way of getting around the facilities. It can be obtained via the Swag Bag giver at the VWBPE Gateway and is delivered to inventory in a folder. Open the folder and right-click → ADD the HUD. Note that you will need to grant teleport permissions for it to work.
VWBPE 2023 – Teleport HUD
By default, the teleport HUD attaches to the bottom left of the viewer window, with a single button – SHOW – available. Clicking this will expand the HUD to show:
Buttons for teleport to venues and locations within the conference regions. Click on these will either teleport you directly to the destination (Gateway and Lest We Forget), or open a sub-menu of destination options (e.g. Auditorium access points, talks and presentations venues, etc.).
Note that after being teleported to a location, the HUD will automatically minimise itself.
Four buttons to the right: visit the VWBPE website (VWBPE logo button); MAIN – return to the main set of teleport option buttons; HELP – receive a note card on how to use the HUD; HIDE – minimise the HUD.
VWBPE 2023: The Hearth
To keep up-to-date with the conference, be sure to check the VWBPE website daily.
As has been noted through various Web User Group (WUG) meetings, Linden Lab is engaged on a refresh and update of Second Life web properties.
This initially started in November 2021, with an overhaul of the Second Life Web Search, starting with a a facelift the the Search page before moving on to an overhaul of the ElasticSearch engine behind it as well, including the implementation of a scratch-built relevance engine.
Following this, time and effort was put into developing tools and capabilities intended to allow the Lab to more quickly refresh and update all Second Life web properties, and make them more uniformly manageable whilst affording them a newer, more modern look and feel. In February 2023, this work led to the roll-out of the new Land Portal front-end, as I reported in my February WUG summary.
Granted, and like the initial deployment of the Web Search update, there was not really anything behind the initial update – it initially just offers (at the time of writing) a fresher, cleaner portal by which to access the various Second Life web pages dealing with all matters of Land – Linden Homes, renting land, buying land, etc. However, it gave a feel for the direction the Lab is taking with its web properties, and work is apparently in progress (or about to start) in overhauling the Linden Homes pages to bring them into line with the styling of the Portal Page, and we will doubtless be seeing the results in due course before the work moves on to other land-related pages.
In the meantime, the Destination Guide has also gone through a facelift, with the new look being quietly deployed in the last week(ish) to present a new look Destination Guide with improved features. This new design follows the broad brushstrokes of the Land Portal in terms of layout – menu bar with logo to the top, large corporate footer area, user sign-in / log-out / sign-up links to the top right, the use of the new colour scheme, and use of large(r) images (than the “old” DG), etc. At the same time, it retains some of the look and feel of the “old” Destination Guide: the left sidebar with its list of categories, with the right side of the page used to display information on locations within the various categories. It also includes a plethora of navigation options and small touches. For example:
Clicking on any category name in the left sidebar will refresh the right side of the page to display locations in that category, and adds the category name to the small navigation bar at the top of the sidebar, between the top menu bar and the Search field.
Clicking on the HOME icon on this navigation bar will return you to the main Destination Guide page.
If the Category has sub-categories with in – indicated by the presence of an arrowhead – these will be exposed within the sidebar on the main category name, with the details of locations in the first sub-category/ies being displayed on the right of the page.
Alternately, clicking on the arrowhead will display the list of sub-categories below the main category name without moving you to a display of destinations with the category, allowing you to then display a list of destinations for that sub-category by clicking on the sub-category name.
Those items in the category list which have sub-categories of destinations will also display a small navigation bar at the top of the main page display, allowing you to move back and forth between the sub-categories of destination by clicking on their names.
Second Life Destination Guide refresh
In addition, clicking on the image, name or descriptive text for any destination location will move it to the top of the right-side list of destinations of the given category, together with:
A full description of the location, as provided by the owner.
A teleport button for visiting the location.
A Share/ embedded option button for creating a widget for the location which can be embedded in web pages.
A list of clickable Destination Guide categories and sub-categories in which the location is currently listed – clicking on any of these will move you to the category / sub-category.
Second Life Destination Guide refresh
Other touches include a little tick mark in the top left corner of the picture for any location currently featured in the Editors Picks section; a much clearer option for submitting locations for inclusion in the DG (Got A Favourite Spot?, at the bottom of every page); the ability to order the listings for a category by newest first, or alphabetically / reverse alphabetically, etc.
Some Grumbles
The new layout also has some irritating features I hope LL will address:
No option to view a location on the World Map. I find this a personal irritant because:
The Map gives locations within the DG / Second Life a sense of place, that they are part of a world and not just individual environments separated from everything else, suggesting they are stand-alone environments (a critique often levelled at Sansar).
Being able to view a location on the Map can answer some basic questions for the SL explorer: is it a standalone region? Is it part of an estate that might be further open to exploration? Is it on the Mainland? If so, which continent, and what might it be close to?
Similarly, seeing a location on the map can help determine whether or not it is accessible by means other than teleporting – such as by air, water or road – thus allowing people options in how they visit and (again) offer that sense of interconnectedness between places in Second Life.
The menu options at the top of the DG pages – What Next? Shopping, etc., – open pages in a new browser tab.
This stands in contrast to the Land Portal, when the options open in the same tab (and so the Back button can be used), which many users likely find preferable.
It is also annoying in that one can end up not only with multiple tabs being needlessly opened, but with tabs themselves chomping at a computer’s (potentially limited) resources.
Conclusion
The above grumbles noted, generally, I like the approach taken with the new page format for SL web properties. Fonts are reasonably large and hopefully a lot clearer than the “old” (/current) pages for those with vision impairments, and the use of colour is pretty reasonable as a well – certainly, the use of a lavender pink for the buttons on the pages does allow them to stand apart and be seen as buttons whilst not being as in-yer-face as the orange which has previously been used. That said, the Destination Guide is there for you to poke and decide for yourself as to whether or not you like it.
Borkum, March 2023 – click any image for full size
Yoyo Collas is back with a new Homestead region design for people to enjoy. Called Borkum, this is an easy place to visit and well suited for helping those of us in the northern hemisphere get ready for the coming of spring and summer and the inevitable thoughts of getting away from it all.
Borkum is a photogenic Island . A great place with many hideaways…time for feelings…dancing…time for two…lonely beaches all by yourself listening to music or enjoying the awesome people and views.
– Borkum About Land description
Borkum, March 2023
This is an easy-on-the-eye place to visit – as is the case with all Yoyo’s designs – offering an entirely natural setting in the form of a sunny island, largely given over to a sandy beach and grassy spine rising from south-west to cliff-edged north-east. The landing point sits to the east side of the island’s hilly back, the beach sweeping around it from east through south to west, the grassland rising gently up towards a little gathering of buildings towards the northern end of the island, the grass hiding a spread of lavender and yellow flowers which are the focus of the local sheep.
The buildings on the island suggest that this might have once been a place for processing fish prior to moving them on the mainland for sale. On the west side, sitting at the southern end of the cliffs, is a former industrial building, now converted into a comfortable apartment-style house, its cosy interior mixing with its slightly run-down exterior offering an attractive personification of shabby-chic, whilst facing a small shed or out-house across the lavender and yellow flowers.
Borkum, March 2023
This outhouse also appears to have undergone a transformation from what might have once been a storehouse to an artist’s retreat, a deck extending from its east side to overlook and overhang the run of the beach as it reaches the start of the cliffs. Further evidence that this might have been a working location sits below the warehouse-converted-to-a-home, where a small wharf has a trawler tied-up alongside.
Beyond the house, the grassland levels into a table of land pointing the way towards the candle-like white lighthouse with its bright red top. The land here forms something of a meadow where horses – a common and welcome element in Yoyo’s designs – are grazing peacefully, a fence along one side of the hilltop preventing them from going down into the shallow valley and upsetting the sheep (or vice-versa!).
Borkum, March 2023
Scattered across the island are many places where people can escape and relax – in the house, along the beach, out in the shallows just beyond the sand, among the horses as they graze or at the foot of the cliffs and so on. There’s also a kiteboarding rezzer located on one side of the islands beaches, but I confess that when I tried, the boards I rezzed refused to respond to my keyboard inputs; you might have better luck on your visit. Further around the shore from the rezzer is a little boat where those who wish can also try a little bit of fishing.
Peaceful and finished with an easy soundscape and with a local EEP which gives it the feel of a tranquil watercolour painting, Borkum is a delightful visit.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 21s, 2023 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
On Tuesday, March 21st, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any deployment, leaving them on simulator version 577734.
On Wednesday, March 22nd, one half of the RC channel servers will receive an update to their current simulator release, the remainder will gain the Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”).
Estate Level Scripted Agent Controls (aka “Ban the Bots”)
This is the simulator update referenced in the March 10th Lab Gab session – see: Lab Gab summary: Grumpity, Mojo & Patch – SL Mobile, land, bots & more – Bots and Policies.
The update includes a console variable that can be set by estate managers to either True or False. When set to True it will prevent Scripted Agents from entering regions in an estate (those required by the estate can be added to the access list so they can continue to access regions).
This will be supported in time by a viewer UI update to allow the option to be managed more directly – but it will still be a while before this UI change surfaces in the viewer.
There will be a policy change update published soon which will further cover these changes and the operation of Scripted Agents.
Further changes have been suggested within the Lab – notably to traffic – but it has yet to be decided on whether / when these will be implemented.
Viewer Updates
There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the various pipelines as follows:
Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968 Thursday, February 2.
Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.10.578270, issued February 24.
Performance Floater / Auto FPS RC viewer updated to version 6.6.10.578172, February 21, 2023.
Project viewers:
PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578792, March 15 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.8.576972, December 8, 2022.
LSL XML-RPC
Linden Lab is going to be picking a date for shutting down LSL XML-RPC functionality completely. This has been deprecated for well over a decade, and and LL has long been warning about shutting it down, and the vast majority of traffic has moved to HTTP-In, as recommended as a secure means of communications. Given the low volume of traffic – given as only a few dozen requests per hour, LL would rather put resources towards new developments, rather than supporting an outdated and insecure service. The next step will be a blog post with a date, and maybe some circuit-breaking exercises where we will shut it off temporarily, to make sure all creators have moved their services away from LSL XML-RPC.
In Brief
There was a fair amount of discussion concerning the Puppetry project. However, as this will be subject to a meeting on Thursday, Marcg 23rd, for which I plan to have a summary, I’ll leave updates on this work until then.
BUG-227303 – “collisions makes a script stop running and revert its mono status” – this bug is still awaiting work by LL.
Please refer to the video below for general discussions.
Hannington Arts Foundation: Etamae – Pariah – The Hidden Persona
We all have facets of personality we reserve for different occasions – and home with family, at work, and so on – and which we are able to wear or switch between without conscious thought. They provide us with a degree of agency over in terms of how we are perceived by others and what we chose to reveal about ourselves.
But what of those aspects of self we don’t, for whatever reason, reveal, even to those closest to us? Those traits which we’re aware of but strive to keep hidden, most likely because we fear what might happen were we to express them, either to others or ourselves. We treat them as pariahs, pushing them down and away from our thoughts, but they never really go away; they remain just below the surface of thought, waiting for the opportunity to take hold, to tear friendships and relationships apart or terrorise us with fears we cannot express or really face because of the sense of panic or upset they induce.
Hannington Arts Foundation: Etamae – Pariah – The Hidden Persona
These are the facets of self explored by Etamae within Pariah – The Hidden Persona, now open at the Hannington Arts Foundation. Eta is an incredibly expressive artist who uses both 2D and 3D forms in both static and interactive pieces, together with a use of space which tends to draw people into her installations and exhibitions. Within Pariah she again demonstrates with with the use of 2D and 3D pieces, some of which are animated, and within which the presentation space is very much a part of the overall installation – as is the environment; when visiting, it is essential you have your viewer set to Use Shared Environment (World → Environment) in order to view the installation under the intended environmental lighting.
The installation is set within a large cube space which extends above and below the visitor, being split by a transparent floor. On the walls of this cube are images of faces, male and female, each offering an expression and utilising a subtle animated texture which might be taken as the flow of thought / emotion. Floating within this space, again above and below the floor area on which the visitor stands, is a series of transparent cubes. On (and within) these are etched further faces bearing a look / emotion, some of which echo those on the wall. Some of the faces of these cubes are are animated, he images on them appearing to slowly pulse back and forth to give a further suggestion of the ebb and flow of feelings and emotions, and that inner struggle we can face with aspects of our own persona.
Hannington Arts Foundation: Etamae – Pariah – The Hidden Persona
Also on the walls are extracts from the lyrics of Keep the Streets Empty for Me, a track from the debut studio album by Fever Ray, an alias used by Swedish singer-songwriter / performer Karin Dreijer, and first released in 2009. The lyrics of the song are well suited to this exhibition, containing as they do introspective reflections / pleas, with the Outro refrain in particular well suited to the theme of the exhibition.
I don’t want to see too much more about the art or the installation, as by its nature, Pariah – The Hidden Persona is a “personal” piece in that it will speak to each of us differently, and as such should be visited and experienced first-hand. There is simply no way the manner in which the images and words within the installation will impact you as they did me. So this being the case, and having hopefully set the scene, I invite you to visit the installation yourself.
Hannington Arts Foundation: Etamae – Pariah – The Hidden Persona
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 