Author: Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

2024 week #18: SL CCUG summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Venus by the Water, April 2024 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log transcript of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024.

Meeting Purpose

  • The CCUG meeting is for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current and upcoming LL projects, and encompasses requests or comments from the community, together with related viewer development work. This meeting is held on alternate Thursdays at Hippotropolis.
  • In regards to meetings:
    • Dates and times are recorded in the SL Public Calendar.
    • Commence at 13:00 SLT on their respective dates.
    • Are conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.
    • Are open to all with an interest in content creation.
  • The notes herein are a summary of topics discussed and are not intended to be a full transcript of the meeting.

Official Viewers Status

  • On Thursday, May 2nd, the Materials Featurette RC viewer updated to version 7.1.7.8883017948.

The rest of the official viewers remain as:

  • Release viewer: 7.1.6.8745209917, formerly the Maintenance Y/Z RC (My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history), dated April 19 and promoted April 23.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes), version 7.1.7.8820696922, April 29.
    • Maintenance X RC (usability improvements), version 7.1.6.8758996787, April 23.
  • Project viewers:

Graphics / glTF

  • Mirrors: Geenz Linden continues work on bug fixing (notably the fact that mirrors under Linden Water seem to break) and additional updates to improve usability.
  • PBR Terrain:
    • Cosmic has fixed an issue wherein 2K textures were not rendering on the mini-map.
    • In addition, she is looking into the ability to customise repeats in PBR terrain.
  • It is known that screen space reflections (SSR) do not work well on Linden Water, producing moiré effects. There has been talk within the Graphics team of “ripping out” SSR and replacing it with “something” – but no determination has been made as to what should be used, and it is pending work elsewhere within the graphics / rendering system.

glTF Scene Import

  • Runitai Linden is continuing to work on glTF scene import. This has reached a point where (on test viewers) it is now possible to preview a scene (tied to an in-world object) in-world.
  • Work is now being done to set-up a couple of test region on Aditi (the Beta grid) where this can be more widely tested.
  • The overall status of the glTF scene import work is described as “prototyping with much brokenness”, and the project is liable to continue through summer in order to get it into something of a more productive state.
  • The initial aim is to get to a point where scenes can be imported and seen, and nodes within them updated with both tools in the viewer and / or using LSL, and ensuring they stay in synch with the rest of the scene.
  • Once the above has been reached, then the plan is to start looking at performance, working out a Land Impact accounting schema, etc.
    • In as much as Land Impact is concerned, it is likely that nodes within a scene will have their own Land Impact, with those also involved in skeletal animation having an additional Land Impact.
  • Scenes are liable to use the MSFT glTF extension for Level of Detail (LOD), as this allows LODs to be set per node within a scene, providing more intuitive / consistent LOD switching management (based on screen coverage).
    • For automatic LOD generation, the first pass of work might only use the automatic LODs generated by Blender; if a home-ground automatic LOD generation system is used, it will “almost certainly” be Mesh Optimiser.
    • Overall, glTF scene support should leverage Blender’s LOD generation, as Blender is “way better” at this than LL are “any day of the week”.
    • Managing LODs (e.g. setting a default LOD Factor in the viewer is liable to become more firmly set and managed as glTF scene import becomes available (e.g. all viewers working to a fixed LOD of 3.00 or something).
  • The will be constraints placed on scene imports (e.g. will not be able to have a scene which exceeds the capacity of a region; scenes will not be able to span more than one region (so as to avoid issues with physics, etc.); and so on).
  • It was noted that glTF scene support will require a lot of work in areas such as physics management, update message handling (the object-based messaging currently used will not work with glTF scenes). Not of these aspects are seen as potential blockers – but solving all of them will take time.
  • glTF scenes will present more of a two-way street for creators, moving more seamlessly between a design tool such as Blender and SL when building and testing a scene and, following the upload of a scene, the ability to save it back locally again (subject to the SL permissions system where content has been subsequently added to a scene after its initial upload).

In Brief

  • Animations: it was noted that under glTF there is support for at least eight morph channels (with one vertex attribute being considered a channel, so it could be that 2 morphs change 3 attributes), making animation far more flexible in terms of use.
  • Some using the SL Mobile app have apparently been reporting that PBR terrain textures are not showing in that app, as it currently does not have PBR rendering support – this has been passed to the Mobile team.
  • It was noted that one of the reasons for LL adopting the glTF specification is that it is mobile friendly, so the Mobile team is going to be adding PBR, etc., support.
  • A lot of the meeting was taken up with a general discussion on matters relating to glTF scene import – LOD management, collaborative building, licensing matters (e.g. if an asset is available on a third-party asset store with a specifically licensed use, and importing it to SL potential break that license – should LL proactively block the asset from being imported?), etc., which have yet to be fully determined internally at LL, and so fall outside of this summary.

Next Meeting

† 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 gathering of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

Vision of Spring in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Vita Theas and Teagan Dawnbringer
The four seasons of the year have long served as focal points for artists who sought to portray the emotions and feelings that each one brings to most people. Spring is a season that is overflowing with life and new beginnings a season where we’re making friends with our emotions again , our emotional reactivity and responses blossom with nature around us, happiness, serenity as flowers hatch and colours explode everywhere in intense expressiveness.

So reads the introduction to an expansive exhibition of art and artistry from Second Life and the physical world, mixing photography with mixed media and painting to express the beauty and renewal of springtime, all of which is being hosted at the Serena Arts Centre and Plaza in Second Life.

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Sisi Biedermann and John (Johannes Huntsman)

And when I say expansive, I mean just that: the exhibition is located across Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, featuring both indoor and outdoor displays  which have been thoughtfully laid out so as not to overload the senses with art by the 25 artists who have been invited to participate in the event by the Serena Arts team.

Officially opening at 12:00 noon SLT on May 3rd, 2024, the exhibition – officially called Visions of Spring : Rebirth and Recolouring, will run through until May 23rd, and the 25 invited artists comprise:

Dante Helios (Dantelios), Maggie (maggiemagenta), Greg Parker (GregParker), Terrygold, Christian Carter (XJustFriendX), Tara Paxlapis-Savior  (Tara Aers), Sisi Biedermann, Sheba Blitz, Zia Branner, Raven (Raven Cedarbridge), Teagan Dawnbringer, Prins Evergarden, John (Johannes Huntsman), Layachi Ihnen, Hermes Kondor, Jaminda Galênê Moon (Jaminda Lygon), Dreams (barry Richez), Tempest Rosca-Huntsman (Tempest Rosca), Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas), AmandaT Tamatzui, Vita Theas, Nils Urqhart, Pask Wasp, Meycy Winchester, Onceagain (Nanoji Yachvili), Deyanira Yalin, and Cayla (YumiYukimura).

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Tempest Rosca-Huntsman (Tempest Rosca), Cayla (YumiYukimura) and Deyanira Yalin

Each artist has been invited to display two items of their work that encompass the central theme of spring the richness and vibrancy of its colours, its beauty, and the sense of renewal and rebirth evident within it. In addition, artists have been able to include their biographies and information on where more of their work might be seen in-world and on-line.

Given such a diversity of artists, it’s impossible to highlight particular pictures of images; suffice it to say that all offer highly individual views of spring, be they images from locations in Second Life or avatar studies, paintings or photographs of their physical world work uploaded to Second Life or purely digital compositions (some of which combine elements from within and without SL). the majority have opted to offer copies of their pieces for sale (some of a limited quantity basis), although one or two have not.

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Nils Urqhart and Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas)

All of the displays comprising the exhibition are located across the canals from the Centre’s landing point, with the majority being to the west of the landing point, under the two geodomes located there and along the walk linking them, with the rest on the plaza area to the north of the landing point (and directly connected to the area with the geodomes) and the gallery building to the north-east build out over the water and reached via the two decks alongside of it.

Given the organisers have taken care to present a broad mix of genres and art types in each location, rather than focus on a specific genre / approach in each one (e.g. one area devoted to work originating in SL, another for those artists offering work uploaded from the physical world, etc.), the exhibition should be explored in full, and the spread of the exhibit spaces – as noted above – present the eye and mind becoming too overwhelmed whilst also being a pleasant stroll.

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Dante Helios (Dantelios), Terrygold and Onceagain (Nanoji Yachvili)

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Linden Lab: updates to policies and new initiatives on community relations

Posted on by Inara Pey
© and ® Linden Lab

On Thursday, May 2nd, 2024, Linden Lab issued the promised updates to both public-facing (i.e. linked to the Terms of Service) and internal policies.

These updates, together with additional internal changes (as noted below), have been made in the wake of investigations carried out in the wake of allegations made pseudonymously in February via the social journalism website Medium (and since removed).

In March, Linden Lab Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) made a public statement on these matters indicating as much as was deemed necessary at the time (see my own reporting here, if interested), and that a further statement would be made in due course. It was further indicated by Keira Linden, speaking during a Lab Gab session released on April 19th, 2024 (and summarised in my own words here) that updates to policies were (then) being finalised, so the May 2nd statement – entitled Enhancing Our World Together – comes as no surprise.

Within it, Mr. Oberwager provides a short summary of the outcome of the investigations into the allegations made, before going on to summarise actions that have been / are being undertaken in the wake of those investigations, stating:

The investigation determined that all Lindens and contractors have stayed in compliance with our own community guidelines, as well as unwritten, ethical guidelines. I do not make this statement lightly, and I know there will be plenty of discussion. What I can say is that there is no incentive, monetary or otherwise, for me to mislead the community. At some point, the community has to trust that we, the Lindens, do well when the community thrives. We may make mistakes along the way, and we know that our community will engage with us when we do. Second Life is an enormous virtual world and we have to walk a very fine line between policing and preserving freedoms while also protecting the future growth and health of Second Life as a platform that respects diversity and creative expression among our community.
The findings did highlight opportunities for improvement. As a result, we are making updates to our internal policies to raise the standard for how Linden employees should respectfully engage with community members. This addresses multiple forms of engagement including how we present ourselves, how we interact with the community (even in moments of conflict), and how we minimize the perception of conflict of interest and favouritism in our interactions. 

As a result, the Lab has:

  • Updated the Child Avatar Policy related to the Second Life Terms of Service (ToS) – hence the need to re-accept the ToS on accessing Second Life or its related web properties.
  • Updated internal Policies and Procedures
  • Implemented personnel changes
  • Initiated management improvement programs
  • Committed to Community Roundtables (see below)
  • Committed to increased transparency and accountability

In terms of the the changes to the Child Avatar Policy, the statement notes:

We know that this update has the potential to cause confusion or concern in our community, so we’ve prepared an FAQ which we will continue to update as questions come up.

Community Round Table

  • The first of the Community Round Table events, as referenced in the statement and as previously announced by Linden Lab, will take place between 09:30-11:00 SLT on  Monday, May 20th, 2024, although the venue still to be announced (at the time of writing).
  • The event will feature Mr. Oberwager among those taking part from the Lab. It has been indicated that this event will have a focus on the acquisition of Tilia Inc., by Thunes, but also that reasonable questions / concerns on matter such as this might be addressed.
  • At the time of writing, and anonymous form for those wishing to ask questions of the Lab / offer feedback / suggestions on improving Second Life remained open (but I would advise using it sooner rather than later, if you intend to do so).
  • There will also be a Q&A portion during the Round Table at which questions  / ideas can be put forward.

Please note: if you opt to comment on the Lab’s statement, as outlined in this article, please refrain from discussing / naming any individuals, whether or not they may be related to the matters pertaining thereto.

 

Vindfjell: Nordic Beauty in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Vindfjell, May 2024 – click any image for full size

Open for a period of a month – through until late May 2024 – is a new Homestead region design by Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington). Called Vindfjell, it is a marvel of windswept, Nordic beauty, balancing the region perfectly against the surrounding backdrop.

It’s my wont to often try to place regions with natural settings like this against locations within physical world which they might – if they existed – reside, or at least helped to inspire them. In some cases, this is helped by the region creator pointing to their inspiration or inspirations for their designs; sometimes it is possible to take a lead from the overall design and the designer’s background; other times, it is pure guesswork and imagination on my part.

Vindfjell, May 2024

With Vindfjell, it might be easy to point to Telemark County in Norway – specifically the Vindfjell mountain and nature reserve. However, whilst the name might well be taken from that area of Norway, I’d suggest that’s as far as the inspiration goes; the region itself folds numerous ideas and elements into it so that it is possible to see influences from across the Nordic countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland and their associated autonomous regions, together with the likes of Denmark’s Faroe Islands and Greenland.

This is a place of rugged beauty and hardy living; a sheltered island sitting within fjords and inlets where fisher folk can live protected from the harsher aspects of North Atlantic weather, and from which they could depart in their boats to ply their trade, perhaps supplemented by a little sheep farming (although the sheep also likely help feed them!).

Vindfjell, May 2024

Given this, and as one might expect, the houses and cabins tend to confine themselves to the coastal aspects of the setting, where they can be easily reached by boat; indeed few are without a wharf, jetty or wall where boats may come alongside. Most – as typical of many Nordic houses in remote / rural areas – have a semi-turfed roof to help with insulation. These and the rugged nature of the island I found particularly evocative of my times in the northern parts of Iceland around Akureyri (which remains a place with one of the most spectacular runway approaches I’ve experienced, flying down through the ever-narrowing fjord) and Mývatn.

Most of the setting’s interior is given over to rocky beauty, with scrub grass and the occasional tree breaking the ground – something else that brought to mind parts of Iceland (and indeed, some of the remoter points along the north coast of Scotland I’ve seen).

Vindfjell, May 2024

However, the one exception to this is a large industrial-like structure sitting somewhat inland, balanced between a deep gorge cutting its way through the landscape and a large body of water. Its presence, coupled with the electrical power lines close by together with the water and nearby falls might suggest this may once have been a hydroelectric power generation centre, or perhaps a place where geothermal energy had once been used to provide local power.

Or maybe the building had some other purpose, now being deserted; the choice is left totally open to the imagination – which adds further to the beauty of the setting, allowing as it does visitors to cogitate their own narratives as to the history of this place.

Vindfjell, May 2024

A further hint that the island once had something of an industrial use sits on the north-western headland, misty waters encroaching upon three sides. This is the kind of promontory many would look to site a lighthouse. Instead, Dandy (wisely, in my opinion) eschews that cliché and instead offers an ageing storage tank as a sentinel  overlooking the waters, the gentle twist of steps around its circumference making an easy climb to its flat top, the threatening graffiti notwithstanding!

The landing point for the region sits somewhat towards the centre, amidst the scrub grass where sheep are grazing peacefully, having wandered up a narrow valley from the little farmhouse / fisherman’s cabin on the southern coast. As well as providing the route back to that cabin – no doubt followed by the sheep as night closes in, and the sheep dog herds them gently home – the grassland also presents a path and board walk down to the north side of the land, from where the storage tank mentioned above might be reached, together with the grassy spit of land forming the island’s northern side and which provides space for a couple of windswept houses.

Vindfjell, May 2024

In addition, the graceful arc of a stone bridge spans the gorge from this sheltered grazing, giving arrivals the means to reach the old industrial unit with its attendant body of water or follow a fence-marked trail down to the little hamlet occupying the south-east east of the setting, as they find shelter against the elements on their southern side by a blocky bluff of a headland poking out into the sounding waters.

Throughout all of this, Dandy has added further ambience to the setting via the region EEP, and through the use of mesh “puff” clouds, low-lying misty and floating seed heads float and flow as they are caught on the wind (in some cases to be blown helter-skelter between the narrower walls of rock, where one much reasonably expect any breeze to be funnelled and accelerated). That said, the static nature of the mesh clouds are a little at odds with the haunting hiss of the wind present in the sound scape – but one can forgive their refusal to move simply because they add a further depth to the setting.

Vindfjell, May 2024

Dandy calls the setting “ephemeral”, mostly because Vindfjell is only with us for a short time. As such, it’s a fitting term – but one to which I’d personally add the word “beauty”, as the setting really is glorious in its natural beauty and sense of being. A fabulous celebration of the rugged pulchritude of Nature, this is a setting very definitely not to be missed.

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May 2024 SL Web User Group summary

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 May 1st, 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.

Meeting Overview

  • 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.
    • In both Voice and / or text.
    • At this location.
  • 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.

Marketplace Infrastructure Update

  • The Marketplace infrastructure update has been completed, although the work did lead to a few “bumps” and some rapid bug fixes. However, the Marketplace team believe things should be running “just fine now”.
    • If any Merchant is experiencing issues with list / updating items, etc., then it is requested they raise a Canny report through the Feedback Portal.
  • As a result of this work, the Marketplace should be a lot more responsive in terms of page loading, etc., and the work also opens the door to the Lab adding a “lot of cool features” to the MP.
  • Garfield Linden noted that the focus on MP work now is making it “mobile-friendly and making improvements to Marketplace search”.

General Discussion

  • Sntax Linden indicated that the request to allow people to be able to Gift items directly from the Marketplace without having the item transferred to their Shopping Cart is “high” on the list of updates for the MP, but will not be available “soon”.
  • There have been multiple requests for users to be able to have more wish lists / favourites lists, both public and private. Requests to go with additional lists were also given, including:
    • Provision of sort filters added (e.g. newest first / oldest first)
    • Ability to search lists for items previously added to a list.
    • Ability to give lists custom names / create custom lists (e.g. by selecting items in another list / the Shopping Cart and use them to create a new wish / favourite list).
    • General load time improvements (for those with very large lists).
    • An ability to move items more easily between different lists (e.g. from the Shopping Cart to a favourites or wish list, or between wish lists if there are multiple lists available, etc.).
    • All of these were seen as potentially “good ideas” for improving the functionality and usability of lists within the MP.
  • A further request was made for Merchants to be able to respond to poor ratings and / or purchasers to be able to message Merchants through the MP – particularly to help where people have made a purchase and are confused about something and needs a little assistance.
    • A messaging system was seen as particularly beneficial for Merchants who get their IMs capped, as it provides a further channel to track comments and requests, making it potentially easier to help provide customer service support / mitigate bad reviews that are based on misunderstandings.
    • Sntax  suggested this could be handled via a prompt / link could be added to the review option (e.g. “do you need assistance with the items? Contact me by clicking here”).
    • This suggestion was seen as potentially However, there was some opposition to making any message option that “hidden”.
    • Instead, a preference was expressed for a proper messaging system – button, form, an “inbox” for the Merchant to receive messages (rather than them going to e-mail, although this should be offered as an option), etc., – all of which would take significant resource to supply.
  • The above led to a broader request to make it possible for anyone to reply to a review – so even if the creator of a product does not reply, someone who might be able to help (e.g. having gone through a similar misunderstanding) can drop an explanatory reply.
  • A request was made for LL to provide more header differentiation between e-mails sent to users that are off-line Group notifications and those that are actual off-line IM from individuals, with some claiming Gmail often lumps them together after filtering (which could as much be an issue in how the Gmail filter is set-up).

 

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, June 5th, 2024.

Three for May at La Maison d’Aneli in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Blip Mumfuzz

Having opened on April 24th, 2024, the May exhibition at Aneli Abeyante’s La Maison d’Aneli brings together three unique talents in the world of Second Life art, in three highly individual and engaging exhibitions. As usual, all three can be reached from the ground level of the gallery, either via the main teleport disk, or by walking onto the “whirlpool” teleport on the floor directly in from of the three large posters advertising the exhibitions.

Blip Mumfuzz needs no introduction to regular readers of these pages; I’ve been an admirer for her art for a long time, and have often reviewed her exhibitions. Blip has a way with the images she creates of the Second Life places she visits which sets her work apart from merely being landscape photographs. She is unafraid to flood her work with colour, sometimes to the point of it being almost abstract, whilst elsewhere she captures marvellous scene which evoke the rich diversity of nature and the wildness of its growth whilst also, through a subtle direction of the eye to linear elements within them, can impose a sense of order and / or subdivision.

La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Blip Mumfuzz

These linear elements can come in many forms – the framing of, or focus on tree trunks in a grove; the subtle splitting of a scene by a hedgerow or shrubs; the more direct references to order through the inclusion of fences, gates and doorways; the natural stepping grace of rock formations or the overlay of hillslopes, small to large – or even the simple foreground focus on stalks of grass growing against a background of foliage or rock. This technique is much in evidence through the pieces making up Blip’s multi-level exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli, particularly in the upper section of the exhibit, which she has  – appropriately enough – entitled Fences, a selection of pieces intended to offer reflections on a number of physical and metaphorical reflections o nature, art, photography and – life, as Blip herself notes:

Fences are rich symbols, signifying barriers, or boundaries, both physical and metaphorical, protection, security, division, exclusion, confinement. In art they can signify isolation, societal restrictions, and the tension between freedom and constraint. They can serve as a metaphor for personal boundaries or emotional barriers. The fences in my images are broken or partial suggesting barriers broken, or limits eroded over time.

– Blip Mumfuzz

La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Tutsy Navarathna and Adwehe

Within their joint exhibition, artist, videographer and social commentator (and a conscience of the world through his work) Tutsy Navarathna and lighting and media artist Adwehe present what might be best referred to as an artistic commentary on modern life and the horribly pervasive banality, mundanity and shallowness of modern advertising. It’s a theme (and threat) most easily expressed through the artists’ own words:

Whether you’re a Pop-Artist, Cubist, Surrealist, Futurist, Expressionist, Psychedelist, Post-Impressionist or even a Promptist!… Come and enjoy the captivating experience of being plunged into a whirlwind of megabit-deficient pixels! Let yourself be drawn into the strangest, most fantastic, most dreamlike, most sensual vision of an extravagant metaverse parasitized by invasive advertising slogans!

– Tutsy and Adwehe

On arrival, it is important to accept the local Experience in order to see the exhibition under the correct environment and lighting. There is a sign about this at the main teleport disk landing point, but I found I had to descend the steps to the lower level in order to trigger the Experience dialogue.

La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Tutsy Navarathna and Adwehe

I admit I found this installation a little hard to get into – whilst appreciating the pop-art nature in the use of colours within it – and felt that perhaps some of the images could perhaps have been a little larger for more comfortable viewing. However, the humour across several is clear (and I have to admit to chuckling at one image which pokes fun at the oft-referenced commentary on the inverse relationship between male genitalia size and the need for big / fast cars). However, I’ll leave it you you to appreciate the installation for yourselves!

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