Day: December 20, 2023

Two art exhibitions for winter at BOSL in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
BOSL’s Hello Winter, December 2023: (r to l): Hannah Starlight, Lizzy, Evelyn Ravens

Winter 2023 see the Best of Second Life (BOSL), operated by Regin Congrejo and Jamee Thomson (Jamee Sandalwood), host two art exhibitions within its home region, both of which I was able to visit a little earlier in the month.

The first is an ensemble exhibition, which is being held within BOSL’s main gallery. Entitled Hello Winter, it opened on December 2nd and runs through until January 13th, 2024. It features art and photography from 11 Second Life residents, some of whom are more than likely familiar names to SL arts patrons, and others may not be so familiar. They comprise: Sheba (Sheba Blitz), Dante Helios (Dantelios), Kylie (KylieQuinn), Elan (Ineffable Mote), Brion Ravens (Brian Ravenhurst), Evie Ravens (Evelyn Irelund), Hannah Starlight, Jennifer Steele (JenniferSteele Wilder), Lizzy (Lizzy Swordthain), Matt Thomson (MTH63), and Jamee Thomson (Jamee Sandalwood).

BOSL’s Hello Winter, December 2023: (l to r): Dante Helios, Sheba, Kylie

The majority have selected Second Life as their subject for their winter-themed images, although Jennifer Steele and Elan both present paintings from the physical world, and Matt Thomson straddles digital worlds with pieces that appear to have been produced world and pieces of digital abstract art which has been something of a hallmark of his.

It’s a very easy-going selection of art and images, each with its own appeal and sense of the season, be it traditional in for or more expressionist in content (if not necessarily in genre).

Down at the Waterfront Café, which can be seen if you stand on tippy-toe and look over the wall on the far side of the main gallery’s car park (and also reached vey a downhill walk commencing at the left-hand end of the wall as you look at it), is a further exhibition of Jamee Thomson’s work.

BOSL’s Waterfront Gallery, December 2023: Jamee Thomson

Running through until January 20th, 2024, this is actually Jamee’s first solo exhibition in something like a year, offering 11 pictures, 10 of which have been captured from within Second Life and the 11th appears to be a digital creation. Jamee’s Second Life landscapes are  instantly recognisable wherever they are seen, thanks to a combination of her use of colour and her ability to breath both depth and life into her work – and the landscapes offered within the Waterfront Café are ample proof of this.

Both exhibitions make for pleasing visits, and their proximity to one another make them an enjoyable joint visit – if you don’t fancy the walk between the two galleries (which is in itself a pleasant meander), the region’s teleport boards make hopping between the two locations easy.

BOSL’s Waterfront Gallery, December 2023: Jamee Thomson

SLurl Details

BOSL Innovation Pavilion is rated Moderate

2023 SL SUG meetings week #51 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nom Nom Café Library, November 2023 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 19th 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 meeting is embedded at the end of this summary, my thanks as always to Pantera for recording the meeting and providing it.

Meeting Overview

  • The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • They are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
  • Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

  • No scheduled deployments, just region restarts.

Viewer Updates

On Monday, December 18th, the Maintenance-W RC viewer (bug and crash fixes) updated to version 7.1.2.7213596294.

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.1.7039128750, formerly the Maintenance V(ersatility) RC viewer (displaying user-customized keybindings in chat), issued December 1, promoted December 14.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • glTF PBR Materials Maintenance RC, version 7.1.2.7215179142 issued December 15 – numerous bug fixes and improvements.
    • Maintenance X RC, version 7.1.1.7088410646, December 7 – usability improvements.
    • Maintenance Y, version 6.6.17.6935642049, issued November 21 – My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history.
    • Emoji RC viewer, version 6.6.15.581551, August 31.
  • Project viewers:

Game Controllers Update

From Leviathan Linden:

I had a fresh working game_control viewer [on Github] on Wednesday [Dec 13]. There is an updated viewer that allows avatar control “Actions” to be translated into GameControl input. 
DaveP pointed out that game_control could be hijacked to supply midi input if the number of supported buttons was uncapped. Right now the game_control event is limited to 32 buttons because they are stored in a 32-bit mask. However, that would require button state to be represented in lists, which I had originally proposed, but received feedback saying scripters would prefer the bitwise masks –> much faster to process.

In Brief

  • Party week + No Change window, so not a lot discussed / little news.
  • Leviathan Linden has implemented llGetAspectRatio() for attachments, and is aiming to release it in the new year with the Gingerbread simulator update (likely mid-to-late January).
    • There are no parameters for the function, it just returns horizontal/vertical ratio float value if the scripted object is an attachment.
    • The item doesn’t need to be attached as HUD, any attachment point works.
  • The bug within the current Fall Colors simulator release (currently on all RC channels) which causes repetitive collision sounds has not been completely resolved. See BUG-234835 “Can hear Collisions “play” on RC channels”.
  • The first hour of the meeting focused on a general discussion on possible scripted updates for the SL camera (including whether or not some general camera improvements might be better handled viewer-side).
  • Please refer to the video below for the core meeting – which extended beyond the hour due to the live music; unfortunately, I had to depart for the physical world just after the first hour was up.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.