The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday November 6th, 2024. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting, recorded by Pantera Północy, is embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks as always to Pantera for recording it and making it available.
The Web User Group exists to provide an opportunity for discussion on Second Life web properties and their related functionalities / features. This includes, but is not limited to: the Marketplace, pages surfaced through the secondlife.com dashboard; the available portals (land, support, etc), the forums.
As a rule, these meetings are conducted:
On the first Wednesday of the month and 14:00 SLT.
Meetings 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.
Data Feeds: a re-cap on the new from the last meeting that the issues causing the breakages to the data feeds API metrics (number of users logged-in, etc), for use by external services, have been fixed.
Marketplace UI / Responsiveness Updates: defined as being in the “final stages”, with changes under review and subject to on-line feedback from users.
It was noted that a lot of what is visible to users is just “pieces” and a lot hasn’t been released as yet, with the intention that all the work is out by the end of 2024.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): as per the last meeting, is being extended across all of the Lab’s web properties to make them all consistent, so those opting-in to MFA will find at times that they may have to re-authenticate when accessing a wider range of Second Life web properties.
At the previous meeting the target for implementing this was within 4 (October – December 2024). In this meeting, less confidence was displayed that MFA would be deployed by the end of the year, and a more likely target is Q1 (January-March) 2025.
The reason for this appears to be competition for resources between the MFA work and another project.
Web Properties Responsiveness and Appearance: as well as working on Marketplace responsiveness, the Web team is now looking at improving the responsiveness of other web properties, and bringing them more up to the look and feel of those web properties like the MP which have been undergoing an update.
This is described as not being a large-scale overhaul of all web properties, but more an update to those which are looking particularly outdated.
Examples under consideration for this work include: Web log-in and Dashboard (secondlife.com), the Account pages, and the download page.
Make web maps more usable on smaller screens, and refining the left-side Destination Guide bar so it does not intrude so much into the map display on smaller screens.
Ensure that when a destination in the Destination Guide on the left is clicked, the map scrolls to the destination and opens an information pop-up that provides actual information on the location, not just the “Welcome to Second Life” boilerplate, as seen below.
LL are looking to make the information pop-up for destinations on the map selected via the Destinations Guide sidebar more meaningful than the default boilerplate text that tends to be displayed
“Stars” in MP product / store names: there have been complaints about the use of stars (e.g. via emojis / unicode, etc.) in the names of products / stores, which people feel are being used to give the false impression that the product / store is “star rated”. The web team is working on a means to prevent this.
[Video 22:34-26:30 and 30:54-34:34] Marketplace images being distorted, notably in the Related Products section of listings (see: this Canny report). This appears to be a clash between absolute image size and aspect ratio (the latter being quotes as 1:1 or 4:3 – when it is more 3:2). The 3:2 ratio also conflicts with viewer thumbnails being 1:1.
Alongside of this was a request to increase the (viewer thumbnail?) image size / aspect ratio (the latter might be subject to a Lab-raised Canny to allow the correct aspect ratio information to be stored with the textures to avoid the 1:1 default).
Concerning this the distorted images, Garfield Linden noted:
The fixes to images will be shipped after the next batch of fixes (which improves half of the issues with Related Items, as well as some weirdness when there is an error during product listing image upload fails) in our queue ships.
Preferences were also expressed for support custom image aspect ratios at upload and / or from a drop down of common aspect ratio options.
It was suggested that an overlay / crop tool might be provided to allow images to be suitably cropped to meet display requirements within MP listings.
[Video: 26:34-30:30] Embedding videos in MP listings: rather than simply lining to videos on You Tube, the option to use You Tube’s Embed capability to embed videos in MP listings.
Seen as a good move, if it can be supported, with the suggestion that embedded videos should be restricted to a maximum length to avoid abuse (e.g. someone creating a listing and embedding an entire movie from You Tube).
An alternate suggestion was a video thumbnail image which, when clicked opens up the video on You Tube, etc., or within a dedicated tab / floater, if possible.
Embedding would be preferable to direct uploading and / or front-loading, as the latter requires LL storage and front-loading could slow down page loading responsiveness.
[Video: 38:45-45:39] A discussion on further Marketplace categories / tagging.
[Video: 45:56-50:09] General discussion (with interruption!) on multiple shopping carts (focus on on dedicated for gifting) and labelling the Buy Now button to indicate it means buying for yourself.
Loktak Lake, November 2024 – click any image for full size
Located in Manipur, north-eastern India, and close to the town of Moirang is the remarkable Loktak (“stream end”) Lake. Covering between 250 km² and 500 km² in area (depending on the season), the lake is freshwater in nature and referred to as a “pulsating” lake after the way in which is surface area expands and contracts as a result of the region’s rainy / dry seasons.
What makes this lake particularly famous are the phumdi scattered across it. Looking like islands of various sizes, these Phumdi are in fact floating masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter in different stages of decay, ranging in size from the very small to the largest, which covers an area of 40 km². Located the south-east shore of the lake, this massive phumdi is the home of the Keibul Lamjao National Park, the world’s only floating national park and wildlife reserve.
Loktak Lake, November 2024
The lake is a richly biodiverse body of water, with 57 species of waterbirds and another 14 species of wetland associated birds being recorded within its bounds and 425 species of animals, comprising 249 vertebrates (including the brow-antlered deer Cervus eldi eldi, or sangai, which had been thought to be extinct, and for which (in part) the Keibul Lamjao National Park was established).
Further, the lake is also home to 176 species invertebrates and some 233 species of aquatic macrophytes (vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic environments), whilst the annual fish yield from its waters is said to be 1,500 tonnes, with a variety of fish species introduced to the lake to assist with the natural capture fishing “industry” of the region. It is also a centre of hydropower generation and irrigation, water from it feeding into wetlands used for paddies, with water from the lake also used to provide drinking water for the nearby hamlets and towns.
Loktak Lake, November 2024
The latter aspects of its use has all placed considerable pressure on the lake, another factor in it being designated a wetland of international importance. In particular, issues of over-irrigation and deforestation are an increasing theat. Also, given its location, the lake has become a destination for tourism, with two of the phumdi being largely devoted to tourist facilities, including the Sendra Tourist Home.
However, it is the lake as a beauty spot and home to local flora, fauna and natural living, which is celebrated in a build in Second Life. Designed by Iska (Sablina) on behalf of region holder Sominel Edelman (who also worked on the setting), Loktak Lake occupies a Full region, and showcases some of Som’s products in the form of the region surround and an upcoming new product, the Weather Dome.
Loktak Lake, November 2024
In this, the surround beautifully encapsulates the region, with off-region elements continuing the theme of phumdi stretching out across the waters of the lake towards the distant hills, with the region itself offering two large islands and smaller phumdi awaiting exploration. A further layer of natural beauty has been added through the use of the Weather Dome and EEP settings which allow for not only a 24-hour day / night cycle, but also changing weather.
During one of my visits, for example, – the one in which the photos here were taken – the setting was in the middle of Manipur’s monsoon season; rain fell, the clouds roiled over heavy, and one felt the need to seek shelter within the huts and cabins.
Loktak Lake, November 2024
From the landing point sitting towards the south-west of the region, it is possible to explore on foot. A bridge links two islands one to the other, one end of it forming the actual landing point and the southern end of the smaller, finger-like region. From here is it possible to descend stone steps and make one’s way around some of the phumdi, or follow the track around the larger island. Both offer their own attractions, from bars to houseboats to romantic-leaning retreats where time might be passed – so exploration is more than warranted.
In places, bridges connect to islands a little further afield whilst elsewhere a little wading might be required (I didn’t note any boats available for rowing / boat rezzers, but I may well have missed them). Throughout all of this are many more places to sit and appreciate the sitting and watch the local wildlife (including several SL breeds of deer representing the local sangai) and waterfowl.
Loktak Lake, November 2024
With flora carefully chosen to fit with the climate of the region’s physical-world namesake, and with numerous details to be found throughout, Loktak Lake is a beautifully conceived and executed setting ideal for exploration, appreciation and photography.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Traci Ultsch – CTL ALT Delete
Four years ago to the month, Dido Haas invited me to visit a new exhibition at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. Entitled Camouflage, it was a double first for the gallery: the first time art produced outside of Second Life had been displayed at the gallery, and it was the first Second Life exhibition by an artist known in-world as Traci Ultsch.
It was an exhibition which immediately captivated me, as I noted in Camouflage and questions in Second Life. The style of the art was visually engaging to the point of exhibiting a sense of being tactile, whilst the questions within them served to encourage us to both peel away the layers present within the images to bring forth thoughts on both the artist’s own introspections and on the relationship between our virtual and physical identities.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Traci Ultsch – CTL ALT Delete
Since that time, Traci has exhibited her work across Second Life, and I’ve frequently covered her work in these pages. I’ve continued to be fascinated by her work, both in the manner in which it has evolved, and for the depth of expression and interpretation it contains. Her art has always been deeply personal, reflecting thoughts on life, the impermanent nature of all things, and the importance of capturing of moments in time.
Traci is now back at Nitroglobus for November / December 2024, where she is exhibiting what might be her last exhibition of art in SL, CTL ALT Delete, within the gallery’s Annex. And one again it combines many of the elements noted above as it explores matters of inspiration, procrastination, fragmentation of thinking, the desire to create – and the confluence of these opposing streams which leads to the creative drive to stall, turning it from what should itself flow through a process to become a struggle to move from half-formed, shadows of ideas to what might be called a finished piece without simply cancelling it (hence CTL ALT Delete).
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Traci Ultsch – CTL ALT Delete
Framing the exhibit, Traci uses a quote by Philip Larkin, variously called England’s most miserable genius, the voice of post-war England (and more besides!):
I dreamt of a beach, of the sun in my eyes and your hands in mine. Instead I still just see these dark fucking trees.
It’s an ideal quote in terms of CTL ALT Delete, in that it both reflects the blocks that come between desire – be it in wishing for visions of love and warmth or in the desire to create – only to become mired in darker moods / feelings; and in the way we use trees to express our inability to see something clearly because the details get in the way: I can’t see the woods for the trees – which can so often be the case when it comes to creativity, be it in art, writing, music, or whatever.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Traci Ultsch – CTL ALT Delete
Trees also feature in the first elements of CTL ALT Delete, which offered an enumerated passage through its images, starting to the immediate right of the entrance tunnel connecting the Annex with the main gallery when you arrive at the landing point in The Annex. Their use, against an overcast / foggy sky serve to lead us into the ideas contained within the images, expressed through fragments of thought given as text; fragments which demonstrate how the creative process can be interrupted and distracted. These continue through the rest of the series, becoming less and less coherent as the images themselves also become less and less coherent, underscoring, as Traci notes, the essential role of both within the exhibition:
The absence of a defined subject becomes the subject itself … The images and text invite viewers to witness the act of this failing creative endeavour as a dialogue between presence and absence, construction and deconstruction … In embracing this state, the works magnify the struggle to make something out of nothing.
– Traci Ultsch
A fascinating exhibition, one I hope will not be Traci’s last in Second Life, even if there is a pause between this and the next.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 5th, 2024 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from the chat log and Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for 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.
Meetings 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 deployments for this week, just rolling restarts across the grid.
Simulator Deployment Plans
The next simulator maintenance update will be Barbecue (or BBQ), which is currently awaiting further bug fixing. This should include:
Support for “alpha-gamma” which will allow an object owner to adjust some of the PBR alpha values that were impacting legacy things like hair.
A new warning on receiving direct IMs from Scripted Agents (“registered” bots). Rider describes this as “Bot confessions”:
Oh. One of the other items coming in BBQ. Bot confessions. With IM sessions with bots there will be a warning sent to the receiver that they are having a conversation with a bot. Also, for viewer developers, there will be a bit of metadata attached to the IM_NOTHING_SPECIAL that indicates the sender is a bot.
Following Barbecue should be Apple Cobbler, which should include:
llTransferOwnership which enables a prim give itself to a new user (subject to owner permissions already set).
An extended llGiveInventory to allow for a destination folder (system folders + RLV/a) to be specified as well (+ the use of a parameter list, so further options can be added in the future).
llMapBeacon – like llMapDestination, but a) does not necessarily open the map window; b) can optionally open the map, with or without focus. This will also require a viewer update.
A new function for detecting attachments. If it is running with an experience it will be able to detect HUDs that also have scripts with the same experience (e.g. to ensure the correct HUDs are being used – this will not allow anyone to script to find out all the HUDs someone is using).
SL Viewer Updates
No changes at the start of the week:
Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, etc), dated September 11, promoted September 17 – No change.
Performance improvements: enhanced texture memory tracking, broader hardware compatibility and higher FPS gain; additional code to improve texture streaming on rigged attachments (e.g. if an earring is made with 2K textures, the viewer will correctly calculate the required resolution for the textures and download them, rather than downloading the full 2K textures), etc.
Aesthetics improvements: new Antialiasing setting – SMAA; Contrast Adaptive Sharpening; Khronos Neutral Tone Mapping (can be changed to ACES via the RenderTonemapType Debug setting).
UI Optimisations.
In Brief
Please refer to the video below for the following:
LL are still holding back on throwing the WebRTC switch across the grid, waiting for more users to move to WebRTC-enabled viewers.
The new function for detecting attachments / HUD in an experience, noted above, sparked a slightly interwoven conversation on “missing” attachments” and the detection of HUDs.
A discussion on the SL Lua(u) implementation and LSL. The official place for information on this is in this FAQ in the SL Wiki. A resident-written entry is also in the SL Wiki. In terms of LSL / LUA interoperability, see this section of the official FAQ.
Further discussion on llTransferOwnership, including the fact the end use need to accept the transfer of ownership in some kind of a dialogue, as per any other inventory transfer.
The “Bot Confessions” function sparked a further conversation on bots / Scripted Agents & identifying them (e.g. adding an indicator in the Profile of registered Scripted Agents), their use, etc.
† 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.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024 – click any image for full size
A Place Between appears to be turning into something of a theme for Bella (BellaSwan Blackheart); in June I had the pleasure of visiting her A Place Between The Rocks, inspired by the house at Castel Meur, a physical world location within the department of Côtes-d’Armor, France (and about which you can read more here). More recently, and within the same Homestead region, Bella has created A Place Between Trailers, which I believe opened in late September / early October (I could be wrong in that estimate), and which I finally managed to ger to visit at the start of November 2024.
Whilst carrying forward the Place Between theme, this is a very different location to that of A Place Between the Rocks, in that appears born entirely of Bella imagination – an imagination which has given birth to multiple settings and iterations of settings (such as Bella’s Lullaby), many of which I’ve recorded in these pages.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
In this instance, Bella invites us to visit a a trailer park, which I’ve liked to images ins on a coastal headland somewhere, even if it is entirely surrounded by water; your own imagination may disagree, but that’s fine; life would be boring if our imaginations all ran along the same tracks.
The skies are grey, the weeds are thick and on the horizon looms decrepit trailers in the shadows. Welcome at a Place between trailers, enjoy your stay!
– A Place Between Trailers About Land description
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024This is a setting pretty much centred in the region’s low-lying grassland, taking the form of the above-mentioned trailer park; a place which has perhaps seen better days as it runs south-to-north through the land, surrounded by a smattering of trees too loosely spread to be called a woodland, but also perhaps too large and too mature a group to comfortably be called a copse. The landing point sits at the southern end of the park, where what appears to be a site office and entrance spans the main track through the place – although admittedly, the sign on the roof suggests the trailer park is in fact on the waterside of the building, rather than on the inland side!
There’s a lot to see here even before setting out to explore; the office is furnished – if basically so – and evidences someone connected with the park has been in receipt of postcards from abroad, suggesting they have well-travelled friends. Outside, a magazine stand offers puzzle and entertainment magazines to help pass the time, together with – amusingly for me, the London edition of Time Out, celebrating the city where that publication started its long life.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
This magazine stand will also provide a notecard for visitors on being touched. Among other things, this provides guidelines on behaviour in the region and also notes on joining the local group for rezzing props for photography. It concludes with a firm but fair warning from Bella:
If you just follow these simple guidelines, I’m sure we will all get along just fine and if not, I’m sending you home without further notice 😀
So, make sure you familiarise yourself with the rules!
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
Further into the park stands what appears to be a washhouse of dubious hygiene. Facing this is a large trailer home packed with details that help bring it to life both indoors and out; touches which help give clues about whoever his living there – and their sense of humour! Further along the track still is the local general store whilst further caravans and trailers mark the northern extent of the park.
This is a place which has seen better days, to be sure; but it also carries hints of modern living; microwave transmitters sit at the top of a mast, suggesting the place has good cellular reception; computers hint as Internet connectivity, and someone is attempting to go green with a PV panel – even if it does appear to be purely for powering their television, itself turned to an interesting choice of channels…
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
The latter sits in one of the elevated parts of the setting and alongside a greenhouse of industrial size that has clearly seen better days. Curiously, and despite being elevated, it has also been subject to flooding at some point, with the floor still an inch or two under water which has apparently spawned the growth of surface weeds.
Quite what caused this to happen is unclear; perhaps the sprinkler system once used to water whatever was grown here malfunctioned, leading to to the greenhouse being abandoned, the water left within it too shallow to reach over sills and drain away. However, the place looks like it might well have been converted to use as an entertainment hall, so perhaps it was simply abandoned through lack of use, and the rain as been steadily finding its way inside. Either way, the greenhouse is now the home of a worn armchair and sofa, rubber ducks and the bloodied “corpse” of a video surveillance teddy bear floating in the water, hinting at a mystery here.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
Beyond this, the setting lies open to exploration, the trees scatter far enough apart so as to not required paths through them as they stand like sentinels around the park, the coastline sloping gently down to the surrounding waters. Several places to sit and pass the time can also be found throughout, but one of the things I particularly enjoy about the location is the local wildlife and animals, all of which bring further life to the setting throughout.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, November 3rd, 2024
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC, dated September 11, promoted September 17 – NO CHANGE.
Release Candidate: ExtraFPS RC, version 7.1.11.11565212741, October 30 – NEW.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 