Author: Inara Pey

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

Dissecting the “free L$” viewer scam – Chaser Zaks

Posted on by Inara Pey

The last several days have seen the circulation of news regarding what is patiently a scam viewer. The item in question is being “promoted” by means of an IM circulating to users promising all sorts of goodies and advantages: free Linden Dollars! Freedom to build where you please! And so on.

Most established users are a little too wily to fall for such promises – and the IM has apparently given rise to a number of Abuse Reports being filed, with additional warnings going out via social media. However, those not so familiar with such schemes might be tempted by promises of free L$ and so on, and others might be tempted to “just give it a quick try” to “see what it is all about” – neither of which would be especially wise, as the “viewer” in question does far more than might initially be suspected.

To discover the threats posed by the “viewer” in question, programmer and Firestorm Bug Hunter (and also animator and modeller) Chaser Zaks risked taking a look under the covers of the code that is supplied, and published his findings on Github Gists. So as to (hopefully) help spread the word more generally, I asked Chaser if I could repro his notes here, to which he agreed.

In his document, Chaser neatly encompasses the high-level claims of the “viewer” before dismantling them, before going on to describe the threats posed by installing it. For ease of reference, I’ll summarise the realities behind the claims made by the “viewer” in my own words in the table below, and then turn to Chaser’s notes directly on the threats posed by the “viewer”, if installed on a computer.

Claim Reality
Unlock unlimited Linden Dollars (L$) This isn’t possible. Linden Dollars are created and controlled by Linden Lab through the LindeX mechanism, which is not a part of the viewer. Therefore, any claim of being able to access / generate unlimited Linden Dollars outside of this mechanism constitutes the crime of fraud and is a violation of both the Terms of Service and (among others) US federal law. Further:

  • Linden Lab has the capability to immediately identify and track fraudulent transactions – and to take action (up to and including) banning accounts engaging in such transactions, as well as reporting such activities to the relevant authorities.
  • The Lab can also identify and block malicious viewers (and similarly take action against accounts using such viewers).
Fly to Unlimited heights This is already possible; Linden Lab removed the limit on flying to any altitude a fair while ago, and most third-party viewers allow users to fly as high as they like (Building, however does remain constrained to below 4096 metres – but’s that’s a different matter).
Build on any land Not possible; land permissions are checked by the simulator, not the viewer, the the permissions set by a land holder as to what can / cannot be done on their land cannot be overridden.

For the rest, I’ll refer directly to Chaser’s notes.

So What Does It Actually Do?

A lot of stuff you don’t want happening. I’ll break it down into steps:

  1. You are instructed to download viewer.exe, upon execution it will pretend to install a viewer so that it looks legitimate.
  2. Upon running the newly installed program, it will run builddata.bat.

This script elevates the permission to administrator permissions on your computer! This is incredibly dangerous as it allows whatever is running to do what it wants. In specific, this script will download and execute the files called “V1”, “Q”, and “A”.

  • “V1”, will install files “1” and “2”.
    • “1” is Trojan.CobaltStrike, which is a penetration testing toolkit which cybercriminals often abuse in order to do remote administrative access.
    • “2” will install Trojan.Molotov/Reflo. While I am not 100% sure about what it does, it is very likely another remote administration toolkit.
  • “Q” will install Quasar, which is also a remote administration toolkit.
  • “A” will install AsyncRAT which is also a remote administrative toolkit.
  • Some of these toolkits will automatically install additional stuff not included in the script, such as a crypto-miner.
  • The script will execute start.vbs – which shows a fake dialogue saying that there was an error.

Why So Many Remote Administrative Toolkits?

Attackers will intentionally install as many backdoors as possible so that it becomes increasingly difficult to remove to the point where you should probably just wipe your hard drive and re-install your operating system.

What Does a Remote Administrative Toolkit Do?

A remote administrative toolkit(also known as a RAT), is basically like giving someone physical access to your computer. They can, but are not limited to, do the following:

  • Steal your username / passwords.
  • Steal your browser cookies.
  • Steal your files.
  • Steal your banking information.
  • Steal your L$.
  • Steal your REAL WORLD money (through credit / banking / wire fraud).
  • View your webcam and take pictures/videos.
  • View your desktop.
  • Install additional software.
  • Encrypt your files.
  • Delete your files.

What Does a Crypto-miner Do?

A crypto-miner abuses your GPU to mine cryptocurrency such as bitcoin. This wastes electricity, computing power, and also degrades your graphics card. And you do not see a dime of what they make. It’s basically turning your computer into a mining slave.

Does it Install Anything Else?

Yes and no:

  • No: The script it’s self doesn’t install anything else
  • Yes: However, when each of the remote administrative toolkits are installed, it pings as server, which that server can tell the toolkit to install even more stuff.

While I could do further investigation, it involves going further than I feel reasonably safe doing so.

Help! I installed it! What do I do?

  1. Turn the computer that you installed it on OFF immediately! If the computer is off, they can’t access it. Make sure you do not put it in a “sleep” state where the CPU is still operating in a lower power mode, make sure it is OFF off!
  2. Take your device to a computer technician who is specialised in removing viruses and malware. Be prepared to have to have your files backed up and system re-installed.
  3. Do not be tempted to use it until it is cleaned! Malware can spread over internal networks, and every moment it is on is a chance that the hacker will be able to steal any or more data from you!

 

Closing Notes (from Inara)

“Viewers” like this are not a new phenomenon, although not all of them are as blatantly suspicious in terms of up-front claims as this particular example. Some are extremely subtle, seeking to trick users into downloading them (such as by spoofing the genuine download address in a manner which makes it look like you’re going to the official website when you are not). To this end, when it comes to installing viewers:

  • Stick to recognised viewers such as the official Second Life viewer or those listed on the Lab’s Third Party Viewer Directory.
    • While the latter are self-certified and not validated directly by the Lab, the fact that they have registered for inclusion on the Directory generally means they are regularly updated, ensuring stability, security, and compatibility with the platform.
  • Only download such viewers directly from their “official” websites. Do not use links supplied via random IMs or notecards, and carefully check the links provided by other website and blogs (even this blog!) to ensure they are pointing to a valid download page for a viewer.
  • If you are on X (or as most of us – and quite frequently, the platform itself – still prefer, “Twitter”), then follow Soft Linden for news and information on dealing with malware in general.
  • Keep an eye on the Second Life forums for warnings about bad faith viewers, etc. These may be posted in the General forum or within the Technology forum.

My thanks to Chaser Zaks for allowing me to reproduce his work here and for his work in investigating the “viewer” in question; also thanks to Soft Linden for pointing me towards Chaser’s Github document. Do be sure to read the latter as well, as it also includes code snippets for those with a more technical interest.

Space Sunday: remembering Ken Mattingly

Posted on by Inara Pey
As it might have been: a NASA portrait of the original Apollo 13 crew with Ken Mattingly flanked by Jim Lovell, the mission commander (l) and Fred Haise, the Lunar Module pilot (r). Mattingly was later dropped from the mission ahead of launch due to fears of illness. Credit: NASA

On November 3rd 2023, NASA announced that Apollo and shuttle era astronaut Thomas Kenneth “Ken” Mattingly II, had passed away on October 31st, 2023 at the age of 87.

Perhaps best known, courtesy of Ron Howard’s film and his portrayal by Gary Sinise, for the mission he never actually flew, that of Apollo 13, Mattingly did participate in the penultimate Apollo mission to the Moon – Apollo 16 – and also flew two space shuttle missions in the 1980s.

Born on March 17, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, Mattingly grew up with aviation in his blood, his father being employed by Eastern Airlines, and came to see it as a natural choice of career, opting to study for and achieve a BSc in aeronautical engineering prior to joining the US Navy in 1958 and applying for flight school.

Graduating as an attack aircraft pilot in 1960, Mattingly served first in VA-35 based out of Virginia, with an at-sea rotation aboard the USS Saratoga. Following this he was assigned to the heavy attack / reconnaissance squadron VAH-11 with his rotations split between the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt and Naval Air Station Sanford, Florida. It was whilst at the latter that Mattingly accepted an invitation to share a flight an a fellow aviator in his squadron had been ordered to take in order to gather aerial photographs of the launch of Gemini 3 out of Cape Canaveral in March 1965.

Shortly after this, and having being refused admission into the Navy’s Test Pilot School due to his assignment at VAH-11 finishing after the class of ’65 had commenced, he accepted a slot with the US Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School. While primarily a USAF school, this also took on pilots from both the Navy and the civilian sector for courses, and in joining, Mattingly found himself training alongside future astronauts “Ed” Mitchell and Karol Bobko whilst receiving instruction under future astronauts Charles Duke and Henry W. “Hank” Hartsfield Jr.

Ken Mattingly posing for an official Apollo 16 photo. Credit: NASA

All of this had an impact on Mattingly, who applied for and was accepted into the NASA Group 5 astronaut intake of 1966. Coincidentally, his final selection interview was chaired by John W. “Jim” Young – one of the crew of the Gemini 3 mission he had watched launch whilst riding the photographic mission – and Michael Collins. It was an event he didn’t feel he’d fared well at, thinking he annoyed Collins and felt “perplexed” by Young’s attitude.

Following initial training, Mattingly was selected as part of the back-up crew for Apollo 8 and served as CapCom (capsule communicator – the individual charged with communicating directly with a crew in space) for that mission. He then worked with Michael Collins during the training cycle for Apollo 11, having being assigned as Collins’ “second” back-up after Bill Anders. As there was a risk that the mission could slip from July 1969 and into August  – and Anders would be leaving NASA during that month – Mattingly was put on the back-up roster and training in case the mission did slip beyond Anders’ departure and Collins was unable to fly for some reason.

That he was assigned the joint back-up position on Apollo 11 also meant Mattingly took over Anders’ spot as Command Module pilot for Apollo 13, continuing the loose partnership started with Jim Lovell (Apollo 13 commander) and Fred Haise (Lunar Module pilot). They formed a particularly good team together, but plans had to change three days ahead of the launch after Mattingly revealed he’s be exposed to someone with rubella. Standard policy called for his back-up for the mission (John “Jack” Swigert) to replace him to avoid any complications caused should he fall ill during the mission.

As a result of this, Mattingly was on the ground following the explosion which crippled Apollo 13’s Service Module. He immediately joined the teams ordered to recover the mission, using his knowledge of various simulations to suggest who could be called upon to provide specific expertise – such as cobbling together an air circulation system between command module and lunar lander.

After the command module had to be completely powered-down in the hope of conserving the battery power it would need in order to successfully re-enter the atmosphere and deploy its parachutes, Mattingly was assigned to the team charged with working out exactly how to re-start the command module’s electrical and guidance systems, given this was part of their design parameters – and to do so with a very limited power budget.

In the film Apollo 13 this saw Mattingly – as played by Gary Sinise largely leading the way in this work and bouncing in and out of the simulator. However, as the real Mattingly was quick to point out after seeing the film, reality was a lot less dramatic, comprising working through reams of documentation and data on the Command Module with a team led by Flight Controller John Aaron, and using the information to slowly and methodically write-up a clear set of procedures to bring the Command Module back to life. Only after this was all done was there any simulator hopping

We said, “Let’s get somebody cold to go run the procedures.” So I think it was [Thomas P.] Stafford, [Joe H.] Engle — I don’t know who was the third person, might have been [Stuart A.] Roosa. But anyhow, they went to the simulator there at JSC and we handed them these big written procedures and said, “Here. We’re going to call these out to you, and we want you to go through, just like Jack will. We’ll read it up to you. See if there are nomenclatures that we have made confusing or whatever. Just wring it out. See if there’s anything in the process that doesn’t work

– Ken Mattingly on developing the restart procedures for the Apollo 13 Command Module

Mattingly, at the CapCom desk in the Apollo Mission Operations Control Room, watches the screens after the successful splashdown and recovery of the Apollo 13 crew, April 17th, 1970. Credit: NASA via Getty Images

That the vetting of the procedures went smoothly and afterwards, Fred Haise on Apollo 13 was able to receive them over the radio and follow them without major hiccup is testament to the speed and care with which Mattingly, Aaron and their team were able to work, bringing together the final vital part of the puzzle together in order to bring the crew home.Mattingly finally got to orbit the Moon in April 1972 as the Command Module pilot for Apollo 16. By another of the quirks of fate which seemed to mark his entire career, his commander for that mission was Jim Young and the Lunar module Pilot was fellow Aerospace Research Pilot School instructor Charles Duke. While the latter went down to the surface of the Moon, Mattingly remained in orbit, performing a battery of experiments – some of which required he complete a EVA during the return leg to Earth in order to collect film and data packages from equipment in the science bay of the Service Module.

Mattingly (l) with Mission Commander Jim Young (c) and Charles Duke (r), in training for Apollo 16. Credit: NASA via Getty Images

Opting to remain with NASA as Apollo’s lunar missions were rapidly wound-down (causing a number of his colleagues to depart the agency to go back to their military careers or the private sector), Mattingly rotated through a number of key positions in managing the development of the space shuttle. This led to his first shuttle mission assignment as commander of STS-4 in 1982.

This was a week-long mission – the final in a series of four so-called “test flights” – timed to end on Independence Day 1982, with the landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California serving as the backdrop for then President Ronald Regan to announce the Space Transportation System was to henceforth be regarded as “operational”. In another twist of fate the man selected to fly with Mattingly as the vehicle’s pilot, was none other the Hank Hartsfield, Mattingly’s other instructor from the Aerospace Research Pilot School and who was now subservient to Mattingly’s overall command (confusingly, and in difference to aviation, the pilot on most NASA missions is not the commander for the mission but rather the “co-pilot”).

Mattingly (second from left after Hartsfield) chats with former US President Ronald Regan on July 4th, 1982 following the fourth – and last – test flight for the shuttle programme, whilst former First Lady Nancy Regan admires the imposing bulk of the shuttle Columbia. Credit: NASA

Mattingly’s last flight to orbit came in January 1985, when he commanded the shuttle Discovery on mission, STS-51-C. This flight is chiefly remembered for two reasons: it was the first shuttle flight to be classified by the US Department of Defense, and it is the shortest shuttle mission on record – just 3 days. However, it also has two haunting links with the loss of the shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L just a year later. The first being that 51-C was the first (and tragically last) on-orbit mission for Ellison S. Onizuka, one of those killed during 51-L.

The second was that 51-C revealed the dangers inherent in launching a shuttle during extremely cold weather – if people had been willing to see the signs for what they were. At the time of its launch, Discovery lifted-off in the coldest temperatures recorded for a shuttle flight up to that time: just 12 ºC. Following the recovery of the mission’s solid rocket boosters, it was found that all of the o-rings on both boosters showed signed of charring as a result of exposure to flame – with one of the primary rings entirely burnt through and its secondary badly burnt.

Tests subsequently showed that in low temperatures, this rings – designed to seal the joints between the major segments of the solid rocket boosters – both lose their ability to flex in response to dynamic pressures exerted both from within the boosters as they burn their propellants and from the surround air through which the shuttle system is trying to punch its way, and they become brittle and subject to burn-through. Despite these findings, Challenger was allowed to launch on mission 51-L after it had been exposed to temperatures fifteen degrees lower than those experienced at the launch of STS-51-C – and tragedy followed.

The crew of STS-51-C. Back row (l to right) Gary E. Payton, payload specialist; and mission specialists James F. Buchli, and Ellison L. Onizuka. Kneeling: mission pilot Loren J. Schriver, pilot; and Thomas K. Mattingly, II, commander. Credit: NASA

Continue reading “Space Sunday: remembering Ken Mattingly” →

2023 week #44: SL CCUG meeting summary: PBR

Posted on by Inara Pey
Shades of Autumn, September 2023 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log transcript of the Content Creators User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, November 2nd, 2023.

  • 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 viewer development work.
  • As a rule, these meetings are:
    • Held in-world and chaired by Vir Linden, in accordance with the dates and times given in the the SL Public Calendar, which also includes the location for the meetings.
    • Conducted in a mix of voice and text..
    • 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.

Viewer Updates

The glTF / PBR RC viewer updated to version 7.0.1.6658224456 on November 2nd, bringing it into parity with the current release viewer and built via Github Actions.

The rest of the official viewers in the pipeline remain as:

  • Release viewer, version 6.6.16.6566955269, promoted October 25 (formerly the GHA RC viewer).
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:

glTF Materials and Reflection Probes

Project Summary

  • To provide support for PBR materials using the core glTF 2.0 specification Section 3.9 and using mikkTSpace tangents, including the ability to have PBR Materials assets which can be applied to surfaces and also traded / sold.
  • The overall goal for glTF as a whole is to provide as much support for the glTF 2.0 specification as possible.
  • Up to four texture maps are supported for PBR Materials: the base colour (which includes the alpha); normal; metallic / roughness; and emissive, each with independent scaling.
  • In the near-term, glTF materials assets are materials scenes that don’t have any nodes / geometry, they only have the materials array, and there is only one material in that array.
  • As a part of this work, PBR Materials will see the introduction of reflection probes which can be used to generate reflections (via cubemaps) on in-world surfaces. These will be a mix of automatically-place and manually place probes (with the ability to move either).
  • The viewer is available via the Alternate Viewers page.

Further Resources

Status Update

Server-side deployment

  • The simulator code supporting PBR Materials was deployed to the BlueSteel and LeTigre simulator RC channels, making it “live” across some 3,000 simulators.
  • This has seen a number of additional bug reports filed, but currently nothing which has been seen as constituting a major blocker to further deployment.
  • At the time of the meeting, it was hoped that the PBR code could be deployed to all of the RC channels simhosts on Wednesday, November 8th, 2023. This is seen as the best way to test for additional cases of non-PBR content suffering breakage which may have thus far slipped through the net.
  • If things continue as planned, the aim is to have PBR support on the simhosts fully deployed “by Thanksgiving”.

Viewer Updates

  • The PBR viewer has been updated to build via the new Github Action process, marking it as up-to-date with the current release viewer (version 6.6.16.6566955269, October 25th, at the time of writing).
  • It is possible that one of the Maintenance RC viewers may be pushed to de facto release ahead of the PBR viewer in order to correct a statistics reporting issue.
    • At the time of the meeting, a final decision on this has yet to be made. However, if this proves to be the case, and if LL decide to maintain the 2-week minimum period between viewer promotions, this could mean the PBR viewer might not be released until after the simulator code is grid-wide.
  • The PBR viewer release is also dependent upon whether or not any remaining reported / open issues are considered serious enough to require fixing ahead of any promotion.
    • Currently, there is one blocker which is under investigation: if the PBR viewer is used, and then a swap is made to using a non-PBR viewer, then it is possible some objects may not show-up on logging in, and will never show up until object cache is cleared.
  • For those interested – this is the list of currently open issues for PBR.
  • The current PBR RC viewer replaces the term “Materials” in the Build / Edit floater Texture tab with Blinn-Phong. Whilst this is the technically correct term for the current implementation of materials support in SL and was seen as a means of differentiating between the current materials support and PBR, the switch to the term has been raised as potentially confusing to users not deeply versed in graphics  / rendering but who are familiar with using and applying current materials maps. As such, the use of an alternate term has been requested.

Tone Mapping and Full Bright Issues

  • A recently-reported issue is with tone mapping not applying correctly to Full Bright objects, resulting in darker colours / blacks being crushed and white highlights being blown out.
  • This has been highlighted in BUG-234506 and this forum thread, where it is reported as an issue facing content creators trying to produce advertising images for their products for use on in-world vendor boards, etc. However, the issue has the potential to affect SL photography in general, where snapshots are taken to be uploaded for display in-world as textures (e.g. as art, “family” snapshots, etc.).
  • The problem is the result of tone mapping being applied to such textures twice:
    • The first time as a result of tone mapping being enabled (and captured) when the snapshot is taken.
    • The second time as a result of the uploaded texture being rendered with tone mapping active in the viewer.
  • This is seen as “expected behaviour”, and the lighting model will not be changed for dealing with Full Bright (e.g. by making it a straight pixel pass-through).
  • This means the current work-around is to use the No Post Build menu option, thus:
    • Edit the object using Full Bright to open the Build  / Edit floater.
    • Go to menu bar → Build → Options and enable No Post – this will try off tone mapping and exposure, and will remain active as long as the Build / Edit floater is open.
    • Take the snapshot.
    • Close the Build / Edit floater.
  • As this workaround is seen as heavy-handed (and also not helpful to those taking photos who may need to disable tone mapping at times, but who are unfamiliar with the Build / Edit floater and Build menu), it has been requested to incorporate a toggle checkbox for No Post directly into the snapshot floater.
  • Runitai Linden has also proposed the addition of a HDRI export to the 360º Snapshot floater.

General Notes

  • The viewer performance issue on older versions of MacOS has been addressed, but it is not clear if the fixes work with Apple silicon SoC, pending further tests.
  • It is acknowledged that there will be a learning curve among all users where PBR is concerned due to the level of changes involved in the lighting model (e.g. objects with a specular map – even indoors – having a blue sheen to them, due to reflecting the ambient environment; an issue which can be fixed through the correct placement of reflection probes indoors).
    • Efforts are being made to ensure cases like this are being covered in the PBR documentation being put together by LL.
  • It was re-iterated that there will be follow-on glTF work following PBR materials (see the general roadmap, below), with it being noted that some would allow the implementation of hierarchical structures which could allow for options such as arbitrary pivot points in meshes, whilst adoption of the glTF specifications for animations could result expanded animation capabilities, etc.
  • A number of requests for new features (e.g. the ability to be able to simulate Linden water on surfaces via materials). These were noted as all having pre-requisites and potential limiters on them, so while they are not refused, mention of them here will be held over until LL have determined if and how they (and their pre-requisites) might fit into the overall roadmap.
  • Whilst concerns remain about Apple simply ceasing to support OpenGL, thus driving a potential need to switch the viewer away from using OpenGL to using Vulkan / MoltenVK, this is not seen as an immediate priority compared to moving ahead with further glTF work. Which is not to say LL won’t move the viewer to alternate graphics API as the glTF work progresses beyond scene import work (see below).

Likely Roadmap for glTF

  • Complete and deploy the current PBR materials work.
  • Resume work on real-time mirrors and terrain support for glTF materials. In brief, these comprise:
    • Mirrors: providing the means to have mirrors within scenes to reflect their immediate surroundings. These will leverage a “hero” reflection probe concept (512×512 resolution), with one such probe per scene being active for any given avatar, based on the avatar / camera distance from the mirror.
    • Terrain support: providing the means to apply glTF materials to terrain as a viewer-side effect to improve the appearance of the SL terrain. Note that this is not PBR terrain painting.
  • Alongside the mirrors / terrain work will be a period of PBR Materials maintenance work to fix reported bugs / those issues still open at the time of release.
  • Also start to develop a prototype for glTF scene import – with no overall time frame for the latter being indicated.
  • Once there is an initial prototype for glTF scene import, he Lab will proceed in much the same was as for PBR materials: an iterative development cycle which fully engages the user community / content creators.

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.

Subcutan – art and exploration in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Subcutan Art Gallery, November 2023 – Welcome Area; click any image for full size

Subcutan has relocated to here – see:

I have been watching the redevelopment of Subcutan Art Gallery, home of the work of Sophie de Saint Phalle (Perpetua1010) since around early August 2023, following the gallery’s move from its form home to region-straddling parcels on the tip of Satori. As such, and with things now appearing largely complete, I thought it high time to write about a setting which is far more than just a gallery space, offering as it does opportunities for exploration, photography, relaxing and having a little fun.

My first encounter with Sophie’s work was in 2021 when she was exhibiting at Mareea Farrasco’s IMAGOLand Gallery. Featuring a collection of her physical world watercolours reproduced for display in Second Life, The Art of Water and Colours immediately led me to visit her original Subcutan gallery and immerse myself in her work (see: The art of Sophie de Saint Phalle in Second Life). As an artist, Sophie considers herself an experimentalist, and her work reflects this covering as it does multiple genres and styles, from watercolours through abstract and digital art to caricatures and skilled studies of the human form, and encompassing etching and 3D sculptures. Her work is both engaging and exquisite, never failing to capture the eye – and often the heart.

Subcutan Art Gallery: Japanese Garden (upper area) and Atramentum Gallery

With the new Subcutan Art Gallery, Sophie has combined her artist’s eye with that of companion Dex (Dexter Kharg) to create an environment which both celebrates her art – including being able to re-visit installations such as Infinite, a marvellous celebration of indigenous Australian art (which I reviewed in February 2022), Cyborgs, a visual essay on a possible future for humanity (of which I wrote about here) and witness more of her studies of the human form – and to also immerse yourself in an setting which offers something of an east-meets-west fusion to offer a engaging opportunity for exploration and photography, as noted above. In this, a visit is not so much a visit to an art space so much as it is a delightful immersion into Sophie’s and Dex’s creative vision.

The campus – if I might refer to it that way – encompasses parts of two mainland coastal regions whilst just edging into a third. The first of these, Terric is home to Subcutan’s main landing point and welcome area. This presents a distinctly modern looks and feel and offers extensive public facilities: the welcome centre itself, occupying a purpose built structure by Dex and containing an office space and a large seating area of sofas supported by a self-service refreshments area whilst also presenting a mixed genre display of Sophie’s art, all of which is offered for sale. Outside of this is the landing point itself and the primary (Experience-driven, so be sure to accept any request it offers) teleport board.

Subcutan Art Gallery: welcome area lounge

Whilst the teleport board and its siblings around the location offer a quick way to hop around, with the exception of the board outside the main gallery, and which offers the only means to access all the gallery spaces, I’d recommend eschewing the teleports and let your feet do the walking when initially exploring, as there are elements of the location which might otherwise be missed – such as the Man Cave, a short walk between palm trees from the landing point. Occupying another custom build by Dex, this offers a games room and lounging area, complete with playable arcade games and table-top games, the latter including chess, backgammon and Mah-jong (the latter two being particular favourites of mine in the physical world, together with Carrom, despite the beating my nails have taken when getting a trifle over-enthusiastic when taking a shot!).

Above the welcome area and reached by three sets of stairs, is an outdoor events area with glass-floored dance area extending over the welcome area, swimming pool and open-air bar, the seating to which offers a view of the large aquarium below. This area also sits before what appears to be the private home of Sophie and Dex – so trespass is perhaps best avoided unless invited. Looking out to the north, this events area looks out of the Subcutan harbour area, the main wharf of which can be accessing from the landing point and leads by way of a wooden walkway at its western end (and passing by the stairway leading up to the main gallery) to the Japanese and Guest Harbours.

Subcutan Aret Gallery: Japanese Harbour by night

The Japanese waterfront area is an eclectic mix of false-front “businesses”, some of which have an adult lean to them (but only in appearance, not in content), whilst there is also a certain amount of humour on display (such as the “Safe Area” sign encouraging people to go swimming – as a shark circles the waters below, or the appropriately called “Small Shop”). Rich in neon lighting and lanterns, this is a little corner best seen at night; the waterfront can be a place for photography and offers the chance to try your hand at Japanese calligraphy.

Set above and back from the Japanese Harbour are the main gallery space and the Japanese Garden, again as noted above). The former comprises the Atramentum Gallery – a very neat play on words, given it is home to a richly engaging display of Sophie’s studies of the human form which are presenting in greyscale and on black mounts (complete with a black tiled footpath leading into the gallery). This entranceway is also home to a more extensive teleport board which allows visitors to partake of Sophie’s sky galleries, where as mentioned, her Infinite and Cyborgs installations can once again be appreciated, together with Red Impressions (an exhibition I witnessed on my very first visit to Subcutan, again as referenced above) and Yellow Expressions.

Subcutan Art Gallery: Japanese Garden (lower area)

The Japanese Garden, meanwhile, offers an extensive opportunity to wandering and sitting, taking photos and / or simply relaxing. Split over two levels linked by a stone stairway curling down from one corner of the upper level, the gardens have been built using Alex Bader’s superb Zen Garden Building set (another personal favourite!) whilst folding into it a number of elements not found in the kit – such as Buddha in his pavilion (and to whom respects can be presented in a traditional style). With its waterfall, ponds and placement of trees and cliffs, the lower level of the garden presents a quiet, contemplative retreat calmed by the gentle chimes of a heavy temple bell.

What is particularly engaging about the Subcutan campus / environment is the manner in which everything flows; there are no sharp juxtapositions which might present a sense of sharp edge as one explores; there is a compositional crafting which is both subtle and intrinsic to the setting.

Subcutan Art Gallery: Atramentum Gallery, November 2023

Take the welcome area and landing point for example. The manner in which Dex has crafted the buildings here such that they combine architectural elements (e.g. the use of angles and glass skylights / roof areas) so that they combine seamlessly with the third-party elements seen within the glass dance floor (a nice kitbash from one of Loz Hoyle’s Meshworx designs) and the house (by Ballack (Rodrigo Aubin) to present a modern / futurist feeling which the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright would probably appreciate. Similarly, the joining of a traditionally-joined Japanese garden with the sharp glass-and-concrete bulk of the gallery building is managed in such a way as to avoid any sense of sharp-edged divide; instead the former – through the use of ground cover from the Zen Garden set – appears to gently lap against the hard tile of the latter, like waves gently lapping the shore, allowing the two to flow together.

Then there is the use of elevation and elements from Colpo Wrexler’s designs. The latter help to both bring together the waterfront areas allowing for a natural transition from the landing area through the moorings at the harbour to the sense of jostling city life of the Japanese waterfront without the move from one through the others feeling in any way jarring, while the former ensures the more peaceful elements of the setting such as the gardens can be set apart from the hustle and lights and general “busy-ness” of the waterfront without any sense of the divide between them being artificially enforced.

Subcutan Art Gallery: Man Cave

All of which makes for a richly engaging visit, with the gallery standing as a superb means to immerse yourself in Sophie’s talent as an artist (I just hope we also get to see some / more or her caricature work as well, as it is brilliantly engaging!).

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November 2023 SL Web User Group (WUG) meeting 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 November 1st, 2023. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript.

No video this time, Pantera was unavailable, and the meeting was exclusively text chat.

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 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.

Updates Since the Last Meeting

  • Linden Homes Store:
    • There has been a high degree of feedback on the Linden Homes store since its launch (see: Looking at the New Linden Homes Store).
    • As a result of this, improvements and updates are being made to the store, and feedback is continuing to be reviewed.
  • Marketplace:
    • The Marketplace team have been looking into the case of some merchants changing their store name to include 5 stars to seem like their store rating is 5 stars. This is an ongoing investigation, but preliminary results indicate it is a small percentage of merchants, and a course of action has yet to be determined.
    • Marketplace search relevance is again being worked upon, primarily in response to feedback received, and updates will be forthcoming once they are ready.

Caspervend and the Marketplace

  • In September 2022, Linden Lab acquired CasperTech (see the official blog post and my own article, which includes a Lab Gab interview with Casper Warden for more), a family which includes the popular Caspervend system.
  • This meeting saw questions taken on how merchants use Caspervend, and capabilities within Caspervend they’d like to see incorporated in the MP. This drew a breadth of feedback including:
    • Caspervend’s use of graphs to present data relating to sales, deliveries, etc., being carried over to the MP and broadened.
    • A general expansion of MP stats (e.g. top selling products and sales over time).
    • Integration of Caspervend’s in-world selling tools with the MP to allow items viewed on Caspervend sales kiosks to be delivered via the MP.
  • This discussion broadened into more general requests for capabilities related to both Caspervend and the Marketplace both together and individually. These included:
    • Having items purchased via the MP or via dedicated Caspervend in-world servers (and other third-party vending solutions?) to be delivered to a folder within Inventory called “Purchased Items”, rather than “Received Items” or “Objects” – as *everything* users receive might be regarded as a “received item”.
    • Having the means to report broken links within MP so they might be fixed (e.g. by a store owner where the links in their MP listings refer to the former location of any in-world store they own, as they’ve forgotten to update following a move).

Dynamic Landmarks

  • Part of the discussion on Caspervend / the Marketplace raised the matter of dynamic landmarks.
  • This is a subject raised numerous times in the past – most notably by Toysoldier Thor under the term Virtual Landmarks (VLM), see:
    • Feature request SVC-8082 “Proposed Global Service for SL: VIRTUAL LANDMARKS & VLM Mapping Services”
    • The Virtual Landmarks forum thread.
    • My own article on the VLM concept.
    • The third-party attempt to address VLMs, developed by Darius Gothly (but now discontinued – illustrating the need for centralised support of such a system by LL).
  • The general idea for “dynamic landmarks” was referenced by Sytax Linden as a good idea, and the above points are being passed to him for reference (assuming they might be of interest).

In Brief

  • Holding the Web User Group more frequently is still being looked into.
  • Requests were made for the following:
    • Make the *entire* Destination Guide (+ things like the SL public calendar) directly viewable through the viewer(!).
    • Support for 360 snapshots within the Destination Guide.
    • Utilising different colours  counts on DG entries to denote scripted agents rather than active avatars.
    • Expanding parcel Search categories to match those in the Destination Guide in order to make public parcels more discoverable.
    • A public-facing document outlining what is being worked on, what feedback has been taken on-board, etc.,  so people are more generally aware of what is happening with web properties + updates.
    • More Search categories / filtering (web / viewer search) – e.g. “clothing”, “landscaping”, “Building”, etc.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, December 6th, 2023.

Judilynn India: fractured abstracts in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Third Eye Gallery, November 2023: JudiLynn India – Fractured

Currently open at the Third Eye Gallery, operated and curated by Jaz (Jessamine2108), is an exhibition of new works by JudiLynn India, entitled Fractured.

An abstract painter in the physical world, having studied graphics design at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, JudiLynn has been a part of Second Life since 2010 as both an artist and an engaged member of the broader Second Life community of users.

I’ve been drawing since I could hold a crayon. After the turn of the century, I decided to focus my creativity on acrylic and digital painting and have totally enjoyed the journey. My work embodies my spirit and personality. My goal is to allow you to experience the image with your own mind’s eye. My work is entirely intuitive. I get lost in the layering of texture and colour. Occasionally, I will include figurative work if my spirit is so presented with the composition.

– Judilynn, discussing her work

Third Eye Gallery, November 2023: JudiLynn India – Fractured

Working in a variety of mediums – digital, acrylic, wet paint, and so on, JudiLynn is perhaps most widely known as an abstract artist, although her overall portfolio is much broader than this – as can be witnessed by a visit to her on-line gallery and shop. With Fractured,  she presents 18 pieces with are predominantly abstract in nature, but which also fold within them hints, perhaps, of surrealism, pop/psychedelia, and touches of futurism/suprematism (in the use in some of geometrical forms and lines). Thus there is a richness of style and content to be found within Fractured, both in terms of individual pieces and as a collection of works as a whole.

Exactly how the pieces are perceived is entirely up to the individual viewing them; JudiLynn has refrained from offering an artist’s by-line to the collection, preferring people to experience the exhibition with an unbiased eye. As such, I am somewhat loathe to say too much in terms of my own perspective beyond very broad brushstrokes (no pun intended) such as those above.

Third Eye Gallery, November 2023: JudiLynn India – Fractured

What I will say however, is that the pieces within the collection might also been seen in terms of compositional / thematic groups. This is somewhat obvious through the manner in which they have been arranged (like by like), but it also helps to more readily discern those hints of style and approach found within specific pieces – such as with the quartet of Fractured 17 through Fracture 20, which present abstractions strongly suggestive of nature whilst folding within themselves hints of the pop/psychedelia genres thanks to their use of colour and mural-like flow.

However, and as noted, this is an collection very much about personal perceptions on viewing the art, so I’ll leave the rest to you to pay a visit to Fractured.

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