The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.
Server Deployments
No deployment plan notes were available on the forums at this time of writing this update.
On Tuesday, August 2nd, the simhosts on the Main SLS channel were restarted without any deployment, leaving them running simulator version 573176, comprising infrastructure updates.
On Wednesday, August, 3rd, all RC channels will be restarted, also with no deployment, also leaving them on simulator version 573176.
Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.
Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
Copy / Paste project viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
In Brief
There was a general discussion on chat relays and the means to deliver chat to all avatars in a large parcel (e.g. such as those attending a presentation) that adheres to parcel boundaries in a way that current scripted chat extenders do not, and in lieu of the server-side chat range extension being generally available. Please refer to the video for details and:
BUG-228822 – “[Feature Request] – llParcelSay() a same-parcel alternative to llRegionSay()”.
Simon Linden has been working on Group Chat to try to further improve it. In discussing the work, he indicated that the Group Chat server cluster is now running with 4x the servers it had previously.
His work is currently focused on a disparity between the viewer and the group chat servers, where the viewer believes it is part of a Group Chat, but the controlling server for the chat doesn’t believe the viewer is connected to it.
He also noted the issues users have where the are suddenly disconnected from a Group Chat Session but not reconnected without manually closing / reopening the Group Chat session, or where a log-log fails to re-connect to a Group chat.
Part of the problem with Group Chat and other services is that while they run on server clusters separate to the simulators running regions, the simulator is currently the *only* connection point between the viewer and the rest of SL, so it has to act as a form of “relay”, and this can be unreliable (due to TP disconnects, etc.).
What would be preferable is a more reliable form of connection – such as the log-in service – which could monitor the viewer more so that when it re-connects to SL after a crash / disconnect, the service “orders” the viewer to re-connect to the additional services like the Group Chat servers it had previously been using.
This is something Simon indicated he’d personally like to see, but it would require considerable work.
For the rest of the meeting, please refer to the video.
For her latest 80 Days region builds, Camila (Camila Runo) carries us from Italy and the town of Ars Vivendi (see: A touch of Italy for photographers in Second Life), to her native Germany and a place of the imagination called Krayentanz, which once again presents a picturesque setting well deserved of a visit by SL explorers.
I say “place of the imagination” because while a visit takes us to Germany, it carries us back in time to offer a view of that nation as it might have appeared in the Middle Ages – a fact reflected in the setting’s name, as Camila explains:
Krayen is a variation of the Middle High German word “kraeje” and means crow. So the meaning of Krayentanz would be Dance of the Crows in English. As Middle High German was spoken from approx. 1050 till 1350 AD, so the build matches the time frame.
– Camila (Camila Runo)
Krayentanz, August 2022
This is very much a setting of three parts, two of which are open the public, and the third, tucked into the north-eastern corner of the region, forms a private home. The latter is neatly hidden by a curtain run of a hill, a richly wooded landscape and the hide side of a table of rock and grass; as such it is very hard to run the risk of trespass – just stay on the village side of the humpbacked curtain of hills or the top of the table of rock and grass.
The latter is home to a sprawling collection of buildings set within a large, enclosed courtyard protected by high walls and a pair of stout gates themselves guarded by defensive towers. Described as a convent, these buildings, with their stone towers, look like they many have previously served another, possibly more war-like purpose, while the floor mosaics within several of the rooms give a suggestion of Romanic influences.
Krayentanz, August 2022
But whatever its past, the place is now given over to holy worship and to the vows of the nuns who live within its walls. And two of these nuns can be found within the courtyard of the cloisters, engaged in conversation with an individual I assume is a visiting Prior or Brother. Behind them, the Blessed Mother holds the baby Christ as she keeps watch on the convent’s gates, whilst beyond the side of the cloisters the nuns are facing, the land rises again to become the seat of a church, reached via stone steps set into the grassy flanks of the hill.
The convent is itself reached via a dusty track the meanders from a small steam that feeds a much large pool of water, and which passes the region’s landing point just as it divides. One arm of the track then continues around the foot of the plateau before finally climbing it to the convent; the other presents a short walk to where a small but apparently prosperous town, given the look and conditions of the buildings and the garb of the locals, sits behind high, protective walls.
Krayentanz, August 2022
The men folk here clearly take the responsibility of protecting the town seriously: the gatehouse under which the road passes is very solidly built and has a strong portcullis which can be dropped to bar access into the town. Further, the walls sweeping away from the gatehouse to enclose the town in their protective arms are in good repair, if a little lacking in defensive positions along their length. Meanwhile, arms for the defenders come by way of the local smithy, conveniently place closed enough the gatehouse so they can be grabbed whilst running to defend it.
Most of the houses and buildings here are furnished in keeping with the period and are open to the public, whilst the town square features a raise stage where, doubtless pronouncements may be made from time-time-time to the gathered inhabitants – although for visitors, it offers the chance to partake of a medieval dance with music provided by the local bard. Music lovers can also find more at the local tavern, sitting on the lower should of an escarpment also within the town’s walls, on the track that leads to a thumb-like knoll rising above the town, and upon which a windmill benignly keeps watch on all that goes on.
Krayentanz, August 2022
As well as the village, stream and pool, the region’s lowlands are home to gentle woodlands to the west, sitting below the plateau of the convent. Here, sunlight slants between leaf-laden boughs to offer pools of light amidst the trees whilst glades open out from between their trunks, and deer wander and graze.
In introducing Krayentanz, Camila offers an apology for having to downsize her work from a Full private region to a Homestead. Personally, I think this is misplaced; this is a setting as richly engaging as any of her previous designs, the greater land capacity afforded by the Full regions they occupied notwithstanding.
Certainly, moving to a homestead has not diminished Camila’s eye for detail, and the manner in which she has seamlessly presented the region within a mesh surround helps enhance the sense that were are somewhere deep within Germany’s borders. This sense of immersion is further enhanced by the soundscape she has created for the setting – so do please make sure you have local sounds enabled when visiting. Finally, those wishing to engage in informal period role-play are apparently welcome to do so, whilst photographers and bloggers will doubtless find a lot to see and appreciate when visiting.
It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.
Monday, August 1st, 19:00 Dandelion Wine
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
These are just a few of strange and vivid people who entered the secret world of a twelve-year-old boy during one enchanted summer when he discovered the fact that he really was alive…
“The summer of ’28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma’s belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury.”
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.
Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?
Caledonia Skytower read Donna Barba Higuera’s 2021 winner of the Newbery Medal and Pura Belpré Award.
Wednesday, August 3rd, 19:00: Seanchai Flicks
A special for Star Wars month as the Seanchai cinema space plays host to videos and throw popcorn around!
Thursday, August 4th, 19:00: Dark
The library will be closed to events this evening.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week ending Sunday, July 31st, 2022
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 6.6.1.572458 – formerly the Maintenance M(akgeolli) RC viewer, promoted June 29 – no change.
Drug and alcohol abuse among you people – teenagers from 13 or 14 upwards – has long been a problem. So much so that today within many western countries, it scarcely appears to be on the radar of politicians, who instead prefer to point their fingers and rabble-rouse about imagined “evils” facing their countries from -*horror* – refugees seeking sanctuary or – *gasp* – the terror of equal rights for women, ethnic minorities, the disabled, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Terrygold: Crack, July 2022
In Europe, studies have shown that while not rampant, substance abuse – including the use of tobacco – as a whole has been increasingly found among children below the age of 15 (per the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)).
Much of this has been put down to “experimentation”, although peer pressure has also been noted as a factor, as has the fact that in terms of illegal drugs, some dealers have taken a leaf out of the tobacco advertising playbook from several years ago, but “promoting” their wares to younger consumers.
Further, while many reports note that such experimentation / engagement with alcohol and drugs in particular has tended to be among younger male teenagers, the EUCDDA studies from 2007 onwards have shown that more and more young girls are increasingly following suit, and the gap between boys and girls in terms of drug use is closing.
Terrygold: Crack, July 2022
Drug use among young girls is something artist Terrygold has had to face in the physical world and within her own neighbourhood; and what she has witnessed, almost daily, has resulted in her latest installation Crack, which opened at her art gallery in late July 2022.
As with her recent pieces, it comes as a set of vignettes, each narrated by a static, NPC called “Terry”.
These vignettes – a pair this time – are literally framed as pictures; in the first, linked to the installations landing point (reached via teleport disc from the gallery’s main landing point), we she a happy time at home; a wife and husband in a comfortable lounge, their little daughter apparently tucked behind an armchair with her teddy as she plays hide-and-seek with her father. It’s a setting of domestic bliss, which can be seen – literally – through two frames set to either side of scene so as to present frozen images of a happy, safe home life.
A further frame – be it a window or a picture frame, it matters not – presents a view of a world outside this cosy home; a place where alcohol is freely available, the siren glow of neon drawing all too it regardless of age, with those standing in the doorways also caring little about identity or age. Close by, under a streetlight two young girls draw lustful gazes from an older male, whilst another girl, provocatively dressed, staggers down the middle of the road, the worse for – something.
Through the words of “Terry” as we stand next to her looking out onto the scene, we learn this vignette is a reflection of a tragic situation she has witnessed: a girl high of drugs or alcohol, wanting – needing – more – and desperate, spiralling ever deeper into an addiction that can only lead to worse.
Terrygold: Crack, July 2022
Within the house, “Terry” also vents the artist’s frustration in the way that stories of abuse and suffering have become so commonplace that not even the age at which youngsters find themselves trapped by addiction causes anything more than a raised eyebrow. And we, like her, should feel that shame frustration and anger; but how many of us turn the page of the newspaper, shutting out the story just as we can shut the terrors of the world outside by closing the drapes on the windows of our homes?
But just how safe are we, really? Herein lies a deeper layering to Terrygold’s piece.
The entire installation is offered under a dark environment setting. While this clearly adds atmosphere to the street setting, where faces are shadowed, and the sense of danger and intrigued raised, so to does it alter the “indoor” scene of familial bliss, casting pools of darkness that reduce the home to a small island of light, a visual metaphor of the fact that no matter where we go, the darkness in the world is never far away,
But more than this, the shadows within the house serve another purpose. If you view the family through one of the frames, that little girl playing hide-and-seek vanishes, and the faces of the mother and father can no longer be clearly seen. Suddenly the position of the mother as she sits on the edge of the coffee table apparently making a casual call whilst her husband and daughter play, becomes something more urgent, her look more worried.
Similarly, the smiling face of the father is now wreathed in darkness, his tall figure a shadow within a shadow, looming close to his wife. Thus, the entire scene becomes tense and foreboding. The stances of father and mother, together with the apparent absence of their child reminds us that little girls who play hide-and-seek grow into young girls who for whom teddy bears, armchairs and hunting daddies are not enough, but the world, for all its threats, is a wondrous place – and even the threats can tempt and attract, opening young lives to those who would hunt them and/or their money for reasons far less innocent than a game of hide-and-seek, and parents are left fraught and anxious; desperate for the reassurance of a voice on a telephone, for an ear to hear their pleas to come home.
Expressive, offering much to consider, Crack is best seen under the local environment settings (World → Environment → make sure Use Shared Environment is checked), and with ALM (Preferences → Graphics → Advanced Lighting Model) enabled (Shadows are not required, despite the instructions and the landing point, should enabling them impact your computer’s performance unduly).
The ISS: US Congress signals NASA funding through to 2030 now possible. Crew: NASAThe US Congress has approved NASA’s request or funding to extend International Space Station operations through until the end of 2030. However, this does not mean the station’s future is necessarily set in tablets of stone.
The approval came not through NASA’s core budgetary process, but as a result of an additional NASA authorisation bill being appended to the newly passed Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act of 2022, intended to increase semiconductor manufacturing in the United States in the wake of pandemic-induced supply chain shortages.
The authorisation bill included in the act specifically targets NASA to receive funding to support ISS operations, and to further the agency’s lunar ambitions and robot exploration of Mars. In addition, the 2023 Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) spending bill. currently being drafted in Congress, looks as though it will seek to provide NASA with the US $25.9738 billion it has requested for its 2023 operational budget – albeit it with one or two small strings attached. These include ensuring the asteroid-hunting NEO Surveyor mission launches in 2026 as planned, rather than slipping to 2028; cutting a part of the space technology spending that includes nuclear thermal propulsion work; and adding $50 million to support a new commercial crew provider beyond Space and Boeing to increase program options.
However, while paying the lion’s share towards ISS operations, the US relies heavily on the assistance of its International partners: a further 15 nations (Brazil having withdrawn in 2007), with both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) providing core modules for the station, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) crucial support systems. While 14 out of the 15 (the majority operating under the auspices of ESA), the same cannot be said for the 15th – Russia, which is also the second largest financial contributor to the station, as well as the largest contributor of pressurised modules.
Russia has long bulked at any attempts to extend ISS operations beyond 2024, and while it appeared that a shorter extension to the station’s life to take it through to 2028, that was thrown into doubt in early 2021, when the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced that a module – the Solar Power Module-1 (SPM-1, also referred to as NEM-1) – due for launch in 2024, would be repurposed to serve as the core power module for a new, smaller, all-Russian space station, provisionally called the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS).
The Russian Orbital Service Station, as rendered during a recent presentation by Vladimir Solovyov, chief designer at RSC Energia, and the director of Russian involvement in the ISS. To the left and right, with the large four-panel solar arrays are the two core modules for the station. To the left foreground and right background as the additional science modules. Credit: Roscosmos
At the time, it was indicated that work on ROSS would commence in 2024 and conclude around 2029. However, that time line was then pushed back to 2030-2035, possibly signalling Russia would remain fully engaged in ISS operations through until 2030. Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine, international outrage, condemnation and the rest. This included assorted (and somewhat silly) threats on the part of the then head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, which included statements that Russia would depart the ISS in 2024 – and might take parts of it with them…
While Rogozin has now departed Roscosmos for pastures new, his replacement at the agency, his replacement – equal hardliner Yuri Borisov – Has sounded something of a warning that attitudes towards ISS operations have not shifted, telling the TASS news agency that Russia’s engagement in ISS will come to an end “after 2024” – the date to which the committed to support the station.
Exactly what “after 2024” means in practice remains unclear. ISS partners are obligated to give at least 12 months warning of an intention to depart the project – and Russia has never taken that step through to now, and it could be argued that 2030 is as much “after 2024” as 2025.
That said, coming on the heels of Borisov’s comments to TASS, Vladimir Solovyov – who is both the chief designer at RSC Energia, the company responsible for developing space station modules and the director of the Roscosmos department directly responsible for ISS operations – presented the first detailed overview of the proposed ROSS platform, including the fact that the first modules are to be operational by the end of 2028.
ROSS: the SPM-! (NEM-1) core module, originally intended for the ISS is currently being repurposed to provide the new space platform with all its required power management capabilities. Credit: Roscosmos
While not explicitly named by Solovyov, the first of these modules appears to remain the re-purposed SPM-1 / NEM-1, Solovyov indicated would launch in 2026. This will then be followed in 2028 by a Core Crew Module (CCM – this nomenclature will likely change), providing crew living facilities and additional power systems, with the two units operating as a baseline station until two additional science modules can join them in 2030.
This tends to indicate that from 2025, Roscosmos will start pivoting priorities away from ISS and to ROSS; but it does not signal they will be ending all involvement in ISS. Further, and while again not indicated by Solovyov, the fact that the science modules will not be flown until 2030 might be indicative that consideration is being given to perhaps utilising the Nauka module, which only joined the ISS in 2021 and which is capable of its own propulsion, within ROSS.
This might come down to the orbit ROSS eventually placed within. During his presentation Solovyov stated the some of Russia’s frustrations with ISS is that the station operates at an orbital inclination that precludes much of the Earth and space science Russia would like to carry out. As such, a wide range of potential orbits are being considered for ROSS, some of which would exclude any transfer of Nauka from ISS to ROSS.
ROSS: a further view of the Core Crew Module (CCM – left) and the core power module (SPM-1/NEM-1 – right) linked by the multi-port docking hub, which also has an unidentified vehicle docked to it. These elements of the platform are being targeted for operational use starting in 2028. Credit: Roscosmos
As well as the four core modules, Solovyov indicated that the station’s facilities could be expended through the use of a (yet-to-be built) large-scale automated re-supply vehicle that could perform a number of roles from straightforward delivery of supplies and consumables through performing required orbital boosts to offering temporary additional working space when needed. It is additionally possible this re-supply vehicle might be combined with a capsule-like crew vehicle, allowing it to deliver both personnel and supplies to the station, with dedicated crew-only flights to and from ROSS carried out aboard a smaller vehicle intended to replace the veritable Soyuz
Most interestingly, Solovyov stated ROSS would not necessarily be permanently crewed, but will utilise a high degree of automation for science operations, with crews visiting it to carry out very specific science research and / or to collect data and carrying out maintenance and other work. However, as he also indicated that the station could well form a part of Russia’s ambitions for the Moon and Mars (some of least at which will likely include working with China), the station could become more fully crewed from 2030 onwards.
ESA / NASA Simplify Mars Sample Return Mission
In May I wrote about the proposed ESA / NASA Mars Sample return mission to bring core samples gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover back to Earth for analysis. At the time of that report, NASA and ESA were responding to calls for the mission to be prioritised and take place earlier than the early-to-mid 2030s. However, the plan being forward back then stuck me as being overly complicated, involved six vehicles and three individual launches; and bless them, NASA and ESA now seem to share that view: on July 27th, 2022, the two agencies issued an update that reduced the mission to just two launches and changes the overall line-up of vehicles involved, although the fine details have yet to be worked out.
As it was: the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission in March-May 2022: top right is the ESA-built Earth Return Vehicle (ERV); lower right the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) mounted on its lander; in the centre is the ESA-built “fetch” rover (minus its lander) which would transfer samples from where they had been deposited by Perseverance (left) to the MAV. Credit; NASA / ESA
In the March-May plan, Perseverance would have deposited a cache of core sample tubes somewhere in Jezero crater. This cache would then be targeted by two landers – one carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), and the other a small, European-built “fetch” rover. This would collect the sample tubes from the cache and deliver them to the MAV, which it turn would launch from its lander to carry them up to a waiting Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) built by ESA, with the sample tubes transferred to that vehicle for the return to Earth.
Under the new plan, the ERV remains, as does the MAV and its lander. However, the “fetch” rover and its lander have been scrapped. Instead, the MAV will launch to Mars in 2028 and its lander will use telemetry from Perseverance to land in the vicinity of the rover, which will then drive to the MAV and perform the transfer of samples directly.
Exactly how this transfer will be managed is unclear – Perseverance isn’t exactly designed for such a task. So, as a contingency, the lander carrying the MAV will carry will also be equipped with two “Ingenuity class” helicopters. Fitted with wheels and a small grappling arm, as well as flying, these will be capable of scooting around on wheels, collecting sample tubes from the cache rack Perseverance will deposit on the surface of Mars and delivering them to the MAV. Once loaded, the MAV will launch to orbit, rendezvous with the ERV, and the sample pack transferred for its return to Earth.
As it now is: the current Mars Sample Return mission hardware: the ESA-built Earth Return Vehicle (top), with the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) flying up to it from its lander (right), and one of the two “ingenuity-class” helicopters hovering close to the Mars 2020 rover. Credit: NASA / ESA
Overall, the approach is still somewhat complicated, but assuming a methodology can be employed to allow Perseverance to complete the sample transfer to the MAV unaided, it means NASA will have two fresh helicopters available to support the rover in its further explorations in and around Jezero Crater. And even if the helicopters do have to be used for sample retrieval, by combining them with the MAV and its lander, an entire additional launch – and the development of a complex small-scale “fetch” rover – can be avoided, both reducing the overall cost of the mission and reducing the potential for long-term delay which might occur with the development of an entirely new class of rover.
Which is not to say the target 2027 launch date for the ERV isn’t itself challenging; three years to develop and test a space vehicle is an extremely short time-frame; as such it would seem likely this mission will slip back into the early 2030s.
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 