| The following notes were taken from the Thursday, June 26th 2025 Project Zero User Group (PZUG) meeting. |
Table of Contents |
Meeting Purpose
- The Project Zero User Group provides a platform for open discussion about Project Zero, the cloud-streamed version of the Second Life Viewer. Topics can range from sharing the goals for Project Zero, demoing the current experience, and gathering feedback to help shape the future of cloud access for Second Life.
- These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
- The second and fourth Thursday of every month at 13:00 noon SLT.
- In Voice and text.
- At the Hippotropolis Campsite.
- 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.
Resources
- Blog posts:
- Browser-Based Access to Second Life – Linden Lab.
- Firestorm is now available in your favourite web browser – Linden Lab.
- Second Life in your browser: a new initiative from Linden Lab – this blog.
- Project Zero Update: Firestorm in your browser as well – this blog.
- Access:
- Project Zero (official viewer) – priority given to new users.
- Firestorm Zero – paid sessions; currently unavailable.
- Project Zero on the Feedback Portal.
Recent Updates
Firestorm Zero
- Firestorm Zero has – for the time being – been shut down as a streaming option.
- Those who still had remaining purchased time for Firestorm Zero should have been refunded and received an e-mail notification that the service was being shut down.
- The reason for shutting it down is primarily related to:
- The amount of work required to maintain two different streaming products.
- The need for the Lab to migrate project Zero to a new platform at the behest of their streaming provider, and not having time to also migrate Firestorm Zero in the same period.
- This does not mean there will never be a further offering of Firestorm as a part of the Second Life streaming service.
New Joiner Workflow Updates
- There has been a complete refresh of the Lab’s web-based new joiner workflow at join.secondlife.com, which now leverages the Avatar Picker first seen in Project Zero. For more on this, please see A short look at the refreshed Second Life web-based join flow.
- As a part of this, the sign-up flow specific to Project Zero has also been updated. In particular, the Project Zero web site web.secondlife.com (formerly zero.secondlife.com) has been refreshed so:
- It now shows the same backdrop image as now seen on the web sign-up flow.
- It Includes a slide show of Polaroid-like snapshots intended to illustrate to ne users what people can do in SL, whilst waiting for an instance of the viewer to become available and load in their browsero.
- My own tests of this suggested that the page will keep parsing through the images seemingly ad infinitum if you cannot be connected to a browser instance of the viewer, rather than indicating this is the case.
- Overall, these changes – both to web.secondlife.com and (particularly) join.secondlife.com have resulted in more incoming users sticking around in-world.
Current Focus
- In line with Philip Rosedale’s SL22B Meet the Lindens session on Wednesday, June 25th (see the video, or refer to my summary of that event for specifics), Project Zero is focused on the new user experience.
- Specifically, how to get a new user from logging in and choosing an avatar through to customising that avatar so it reflects what they want to reflect, as easily as possible, using the Avatar Welcome Pack content, rather than Senra.
- This is likely to be an iterative process over multiple months, with a cadence of updates intended to test and refine ideas and approaches.
- The work will also involve gathering quantitative data on how well the approach(es) seem to be working, and also qualitative data through spending time at areas where people coming into SL are, and watching and interacting with them as they customise their avatar, and gain feedback.
General Discussion
- Project Zero remains primarily focused on use by incoming new users, with a “very small concurrency” of existing users available to access it.
- The reason for the focus on incoming new users is because it is easier to try new ideas and iterate on them easier using Project Zero, rather than trying to do so through the desktop.
- It is recognised that there is a hunger among existing users to try the streaming viewer, and one way to do this might be to start to offer it on a paid basis as was the case with Firestorm Zero. However, this is not something that is likely to happen in the short-term.
- The current action of Project Zero simply booting a user off when their allotted time is up without any warning / gracefully log-out is something to be addressed in “the very near future”.
- Whilst the UI for Project Zero largely resembles that of the official viewer, there are differences, some visible (such as the lack of a left-side toolbar button field, and some not so visible.
- The not-so-obvious difference is that elements linked to buttons are subject to redesign, so that if any are updated – such as Chat – the associated Conversations floater can be redesigned so it does not obscure so much of the in-world view when it is open.
- These aspects of the work potentially allow elements of the viewer to be displayed outside of the world view, but withing the browser tab, as has been done with the Avatar Picker, leaving the in-world view unimpeded.
- A general discussion on helping new users understand customising their avatars – from providing freebies suitable for the bodies in the Avatar Welcome Pack in placing such as the Welcome Hub and locating these together with the teleports to the changing rooms; providing additional help and information boards, etc., within the changing rooms, offering new users a “home space” where they can go to change (much like Sansar had / has), etc.
- Offering some form of recognised changing room area where new users could experiment with avatar dressing / customisation was seen as advantageous on several levels:
- It has a familiarity with the way we go about trying clothing in the physical world, and thus is a comfortable environment.
- It could be used by a new user and a mentor or friend, so the latter can give support and lessons without interruption.
- It can save on unintended embarrassment (e.g. having a fatpack for multiple different bodies and accidentally wearing everything).
- A broader discussion on how to offer new users more of an experience in Second Life – should they be prompted / directed on the basis of interest, or should it be free-form? Should users be provided with lists of Groups which share their interests? How can this be done?, etc.
Date of Next Meeting
- Thursday, July 24th, 2025, at Hippotropolis Campsite – but check the SL Public Calendar.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 