ArtCare Gallery, August 2025: Solen – Walking the Land
Two art exhibitions opened earlier in August, at ArtCare Gallery curated and operated by Carelyna. The first, and longer running of the two, is a series of photo-paintings by Solen (Solen Karu). It opened on August 1st, 2025 so in truth may not have too much longer to run – my apologies to Solen and Carelyna for taking so long to get to it.
The second opened on August 18th, 2025, and features the Second Life photography of Anja (Neobookie). Both are very different one to the other, but both share a common aspect of representing their artists’ unique outlook on life and Second Life.
ArtCare Gallery, August 2025: Solen – Walking the Land
Solen’s road to art has been an interesting one; from a career in information technology to that of land ownership, cultivating nut and fruit trees to form a small woodland. Whilst doing the latter over a period of some three decades, he also spent / spends time walking a local country trail and taking photographs of the trees and wildlife together with the local river.
He called these photographs “mediocre”; whether the originals were / are or not is an entirely subjective matter. What is clear is the manner in which Solen has used computer software tools and a range of processing techniques to turn them into photo-paintings which are anything but mediocre – rather the reverse, in fact: they are, completely captivating, as can be seen within Walking the Land.
ArtCare Gallery, August 2025: Solen – Walking the Land
Incorporating multiple aspects of art from abstract to impressionism / abstract impressionism to expressionism, and spread across the two levels of its gallery space, Solen’s work conveys so much within each picture, making this a simply superb exhibition.
Hailing from the Netherlands, Anja has been involved in Second Life for some 12 years and who remains fascinated with the multiple ways in which creativity can be expressed through the platform.
ArtCare Gallery, August 2025: Anja – Distraction Visions
It’s a fascination which led Anja to start taking photographs of the places she visited in-world, and this exhibition allows visitors to explore both her photography and her travels through Second Life.
Entitled Distraction Visions, this is no ordinary pictorial tour of Second Life; the images chosen illustrate the more surreal beauty to be found within our digital world: an island floating in the sky, complete with buildings attached to it almost like barnacles while a whale swims in an embedded aquarium; guitars rising from the ground sprouting branches and leaves; a lunar lander sitting within a multi-level chess board; a racing car formed from a wine bottle; a jet propelled industrial building, and so on.
ArtCare Gallery, August 2025: Anja – Distraction Visions
Each piece is a story in its own right, simply awaiting our imaginations to offer up a narrative (or perhaps narratives, such is the potential of each piece). Whilst they are not necessarily required, the gallery space also offers a series of props reflective of some of the images, given Distracted Vision further depth.
Expressive and engaging, there are very much two exhibitions deserving to be seen and enjoyed.
ArtCare Gallery, August 2025: Anja – Distraction Visions
Celestial Vale, August 2025 – click any image for full size
Designed and held by Kimma McGregor (Kimmie Rayna), Celestial Vale is a Full private region leveraging the available Land Capacity bonus to offer a mix of private and public spaces. The latter forms the larger part of the region, while the majority of the former are clearly separated from the public spaces, allowing visitors to wander without too much risk of trespass.
Seasonal, tranquil, nature-focused haven where peace and beauty intertwine. Ground yourself with meditation and yoga in serene surroundings. Feel the rhythm of life. Come unwind. Come home.
– Celestial Vale About Land description
Celestial Vale, August 2025
The Landing Point sits on a high plateau overlooking the small island of the southern aspect of the region. A large, friendly Welcome Centre occupies one part of the plateau’s top, a path to one side leading up to the uppermost part of the plateau and the Tea & Tack Café. This is a charming little place with indoor and outdoor seating, the ground around it set out as something of a garden space.
A path runs down from the café to a shoulder of the plateau where a little country chapel sits. From here, steps lead down to the lowlands as a means to continue exploring the region. However, this isn’t the only way down from the Landing Point plateau; in front of the Welcome Centre steps ending in a rock path also descend to the region’s lower public spaces.
Celestial Vale, August 2025
The lowland areas might be split into three major parts. The path down from the Welcome Centre leads to a small camping area, fronted by a large pool of water fed from high waterfalls and the home to swans swimming gracefully. It’s a nice little retreat, completely with a table top game for those some inclined.
Another path curves around one side of the pool, hugging the plateau’s cliffs below the chapel. As it does so, it reveals one of the region’s little secrets – a tunnel cutting through the rock to reach the lowlands on the west side of the region – of which more anon.
Celestial Vale, August 2025
Follow the path without passing through the tunnel and you’ll reach the steps coming down from the chapel. Here the land becomes something of a meditation garden, with a grotto, a garden pavilion and a summer house now converted into something of a contemplative shrine or temple to Buddha.
Rich with flowers in bloom, the space flows neatly into an outdoor music events area partially screened by trees threaded with strings of lights. This area can be reached by walking along one of the bursts of path among the grass and flowers and under the trees, or by passing along the length an old covered bridge set upon the grass and which actually forms the formal entrance to the events space.
Celestial Vale, August 2025
Sitting close to one side of the summer house / shrine / temple is another archway cut through the rock separating these central areas of the region from its west side. Passing through this arch brings visitors to a broad flat meadow, on which has been built a barn with accommodation on the ground for the horses roaming within its surrounding fences, and for humans on the upper floor.
A road wraps itself around most of the meadow and barn, connecting with a footbridge at its southern end. It is here that a degree of caution is required; cross the bridge brings visitors to another portion of the region dominated by a large, flat-topped hill on which sits a private residence and gardens.
Celestial Vale, August 2025
This is the only private residence directly accessible from the region’s public spaces (the others being screened by hills and curtains of rock), so it is best to skirt around the land below the hill to avoid accidental trespass, and towards another covered bridge. This bridge, also covered, leads back over the water to the tunnel cutting through the shoulder of the rocky plateau I mentioned above. A tarmac track runs a short distance from this covered bridge to link it to a smaller footbridge which in turn provides access to a little corner retreat snuggled under the cliffs of the high plateau.
Perfectly landscaped, rich in detail throughout and highly photogenic, Celestial Vale more than lives up to its About Land description; it’s a place that soothes the eye and mind and offers one or two little surprises I’ve not mentioned here (hint for one: look behind the waterfalls). Very well worth taking time out to visit and appreciate; joining the local Group will provide information on events, etc.
Viper Isles – An Elysian Paradise, June 2025 – blog post
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) off-week meeting (which I refer to as the “SUG Leviathan Hour”). These notes form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. They were taken from my chat log of the meeting and the video recording by Pantera, embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks to Pantera for providing it.
Meeting Overview
The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas is held every other Tuesday at 12:00 noon, SLT (holidays, etc., allowing), per the Second Life Public Calendar.
The “SUG Leviathan Hour” meetings are held on the Tuesdays which do not have a formal SUG meeting, and are chaired by Leviathan Linden. They are more brainstorming / general discussion sessions.
Meetings are held in text in-world, at this location.
Simulator Deployments
On Tuesday, August 19th, the simhosts on the SLS Mian channel were restarted without update.
on either Wednesday, August 20th or Thursday, August 21st, a new simulator update – code-named Grape Juice (Fig Newton having morphed into the network updates noted in my week #32 summary), should be deployed to one or more RC channels.
SLua Update
A recap of the recent work on SLua, as given by Harold Linden at the week #33 Leviathan Hour “off-week” meeting. In short:
Changes to the Luau garbage collector which means that it can run a lot faster now, so scripts have to pause less and run out of memory less.
This sparked a conversation on Mono memory usage, with Harold noting that the memory usage presented by ll.GetFreeMemory() in Mono has little relation to how much memory is actually being used; the value given is basically how many “memory fun bucks” a script has left. He noted it is also on his list to get an accurate measurement including JIT cache overhead, etc.
Limits on memory use have not been settled as yet, but testing indicates that SLua generally uses less memory than Mono under a typical workload, with Harold noting:
I imagine that no matter what we do, memory limits are going to be higher than they were on Mono. Having tiny memory limits has created perverse incentives to just do things like split things into many scripts that communicate over link messages that end up bogging the sim down more than if everything was in one script … I have felt all the multi-script pain, I’m interested in preventing that pain in SLua
This sparked a discussion on memory use and limits in general, which ran through the rest of the meeting.
Scripters are encouraged to read and comment on it.
There was also a conversation on SLua event handlers during the meeting.
The above also folded into it a discussion of on_error events.
Signal Linden is working on scoping SLua milestones and shepherding release and projects, together with planning SLua documentation (wiki).
In Brief
Monty Linden has “up-cycled” the Experience KVP store – that is, implemented a new package with reliable data retention, under the same version number.
Pepper Linden noted that a new Conductor was rolled out onto Agni last week, which – subject to further adjustments – should improve packing of regions onto simhosts.
Rider Linden is about to start a “research spike” into creating an official SL plugin for VSCode for better external editing. He was particularly interested in hearing what people would like to see in this.
User Henri Beauchamp has been investigating the issue with avatar attachments rezzing (e.g. following a TP or after logging-in, particularly in “busy” regions), and noted that it appears that the server sometimes just does not send all avatar attachments.
Monty Linden noted that he is also tracking a set of attachment failures (symptoms: the TP completes (TeleportFinish received), when the avatar is in a new region but none of the scripted attachments is realized in the target region).
Rider Linden indicated that the Canny report has been triaged, and his hope is to fix the underlying issue(s) rather than “cover it with a band aid to hide it”.
A general discussion on animation improvements, notably linked to script limitations with furniture (e.g. each agent sitting on an item of furniture requiring a dedicated script to handle animations). This in turn followed into a discussion on inverse kinematics (IK).
Date of Next Meetings
Formal SUG meeting: Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025.
Leviathan Linden: Tuesday, August 26th, 2025.
† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, August 17th, 2025
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.
Outside of the Official viewer, and as a rule, alpha / beta / nightly or release candidate viewer builds are not included; although on occasions, exceptions might be made.
Official LL Viewers
Default viewer 2025.05 7.2.0.16729091892, issued August 5, promoted August 8 – No change.
Bloom Haven, August 2025 – click any image for full size
Bloom Haven is the latest Homestead region design by Yoyo Collas and AmyDenise. I’ve covered many of Yoyo’s designs in these pages, whether his own or collaborations with AmyDenise, so I’m always keen to what has sprung from his imagination.
The region sits as a rugged island sitting under a late summer sky, its three high peaks topped by wind turbine (depending on the position of the Sun) cast long shadows across the lower-lying landscape. Two of these tall peaks directly overlook the fourth major element in the setting’s landscape: a large lake towards the south-west of the island.
Bloom Haven, August 2025
Nestled in the vast expanse of the ocean lies Bloom Haven, a charming little green island waiting to be explored. Surrounded by shimmering blue waters, this tranquil paradise is covered in lush, vibrant foliage and blooming flowers that fill the air with sweet fragrances. The island’s gentle hills and hidden coves invite adventurers to discover their secrets, while the peaceful beaches offer perfect spots to relax and soak in the natural beauty. Bloom Haven is a hidden gem in the ocean’s embrace, ready to welcome curious explorers seeking adventure and serenity alike.
– Bloom Haven’s Destination Guide description
Bloom Haven, August 2025
The Landing Point sits within a meadow to the east side of the island. It has its back towards southern hills that climb up to one of the two peaks overlooking the lake mentioned above. A second of the two peaks rises on the east side of the meadow, as if standing guard over one of the routes down to the island’s accessible coastal shelf.
An outcropping on rock extends inland from this third peak, breaking up what might otherwise have been an island-spanning meadow of lush grass and wild flowers.
Bloom Haven, August 2025
With a small pond of water trapped within its clutches, this spine of rock is topped by a tall and broad wooden deck, which in turn supports a large, open-plan cabin complete with a tall stone-built tower rising from one side. The latter has the appearance of a lighthouse tower although no lantern sits within its upper level, despite the manner in which it emulates the lamp room and cupola of a lighthouse.
To reach the northern meadow, visitors must skirt around the cabin and the rocks under it, passing by way of a wide wooden deck sitting above the northern extent of the western lake. A long suspension bridge is anchored to this deck. Reaching out over the water, it swings low over the lake and even resting on rocks before gently rising to the southern shore and proving access to the western side of the island.
Bloom Haven, August 2025
Whereas the southern meadow appears to be in part something of a garden space to the deck-occupying cabin – albeit with sheep grazing on the slopes rising to the southern peak – the northern meadow appears to be solely given over to cattle grazing, there being no direct access to it from the cabin (save by jumping from the deck!).
This northern meadow provides further access to the coastal area of the island. This is largely notable for its houseboats and caravan gathered around and on a shingle headland, where they form something of a shoreline encampment.
Bloom Haven, August 2025
As well as the large lake with its low-slung bridge, the western extent of the island is home to another meadow where horses graze and an artist has been at work. A hilly climb offers the way up to the island’s western peak and its wind turbine, beneath which a bench offers a view out over the island’s interior.
Throughout the region are multiple places to sit, indoors and out, on the water and close by it, on the coast and among the hills and slopes. All encourage visitor to lengthen their stay and enjoy the region’s relaxing beauty. The island is also rich in wildlife in addition to the more domesticate animals and chickens. Capybara, otters, ferrets and raccoons mix with egrets, red-crowned cranes, geese and other wildfowl to add a further layer of life to the region.
Bloom Haven, August 2025
In all, Bloom Haven is a richly detailed and engaging destination in SL, and well worth a visit.
The Lanyue lunar lander test article undergoing a test of its propulsion systems whilst suspended from a special rig. Credit: CNSA
While the US-led Project Artemis programme is suffering continued delays in its attempt to return humans to the Moon – the Artemis 2 lunar orbital mission originally set for late 2024 being delayed until April 2026, while Artemis 3, the first mission to land on the Moon appears increasingly unlikely to meet its planned mid-2027 launch date due a number of reasons, perhaps most notably the current non-existence of the SpaceX lunar landing vehicle and much of the technology required for it to actually work – China’s project to deliver humans to the Moon and establish an operational base there is continues to roll along at a pace suggesting it will be more than ready to meet its initial goal of delivering two taikonauts to the surface of the Moon by 2030.
As I’ve previously covered in this column, China’s route to the Moon – managed by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) – is a lot less technically complicated than Artemis. In some ways it harkens back to NASA’s own Project Apollo of the 1960s and 1970s; at its core, it relies on sending two pairs of vehicles directly to the Moon. The first is the Mengzhou (“Dream Vessel”) crew vehicle, China’s “next generation” vehicle intended to both ferry crews to and from the Tiangong space station (up to 6 at a time) and to and from the Moon (3 at a time). Supported by a service module, Mengzhou is at an advanced stage of development and testing, and could start crewed flights to orbit in 2027.
The other half of the equation is the lunar lander. Called Lanyue (“embracing the Moon”) takes its cues from the Apollo Lunar Module. Designed to carry a crew of two to and from the lunar surface, Lanyue is a two-stage vehicle comprising the actual lander together with a propulsion module.
Models of the Mengzhou crewed vehicle and its service module with its solar panels folded (l), and the Lanyue lunar lander sitting atop of the propulsion module module intended to propel the lander to the Moon and help it during its initial descent to the lunar surface, after which it will be jettisoned and allowed to crash on the Moon. Credit: CNSA
For lunar missions both Mengzhou and Lanyue are designed to be launched separately and directly to the Moon by China’s in-development Long March 10 booster, with the two craft docking in lunar orbit to allow the transfer of two of the crew to the lander, which will then be assisted in its lunar descent by the propulsion module used to power it to the Moon, before the lander separates to make its powered landing.
This week CNSA took a further significant step towards the goal of a human landing on the Moon by 2030 with the first powered test of Lanyue’s descent motors using a full-scale structural test article of the lander. Whilst only 30 seconds in length, the tethered test successfully demonstrated the integration and performance of key systems, simulating descent, guidance, control and engine shutdown, all of which are critical to undertaking a successful lunar landing.
The full sized test article was hoisted into the air within a special test stand which then lowered the vehicle at a rate consistent with a fall towards the Moon, the test article firing its primary braking / propulsion motors and using its attitude control thrusters, allowing engineers to assess the effectiveness of both systems in maintaining vehicle control. The test concluded with a verification of the craft’s landing and take-off systems and lunar surface contact propulsion shutdown procedures.
For our manned space missions, we must ensure that astronauts land on the lunar surface very smoothly, which necessitates high standards for the lander’s cushioning and performance. Every bit of weight has to play a role in several functions, so we have to achieve ultimate in integrated design and lightweight construction.
– Huang Zhen China National Space Agency (CNSA)
Lanyue still has a multitude of tests to undergo, but given the relatively short development time frame and with several test articles and prototypes already undergoing tests, including simulations of launch vibrations and stresses on the craft, investigations into the craft’s response to the thermal environment of cislunar space, it is not unfair to say its overall development is fairly advanced, potentially putting that “by 2030” deadline well within reach.
Artemis 2 Update
Despite its delays in terms of its original timescales as noted above, Artemis 2 is making progress. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), mated to its European-built Service Module (ESM) was transferred from NASA’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) to the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF).
Whilst at the MPPF, Orion and its Service Module were loaded with propellants, high-pressure gases, coolant and other essential fuels for its upcoming flight. In addition, the crew for Artemis 2 – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – carried out the first on-board tests of their flight pressure suits (aka the Orion Crew Survival System suits) with Orion’s life support and communications systems for a variety of simulated ground and flight conditions.
The Artemis 2 Orion vehicle and its European Service Module atop a test rig within NASA’s MPPF at Kennedy Space Centre. Credit: NASA / Anthony Leone
Now it is at the LASF, Orion will be mated to its 13.4-metre launch abort system tower. This is the system which tops the SLS and Orion stack during launch and the initial ascent to orbit. It is designed to propel the crew capsule away from the launch vehicle in the event of an emergency, and steer the capsule from any potential danger, allowing the crew to return to Earth under the Orion’s parachute system.
Once the installation of the Launch Abort System is complete, Orion will be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where it will be stacked atop its Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle. The rocket itself is currently going through its final assembly within the VAB. Once Orion is mated to it, the two vehicles will go through a series of final integration tests in readiness for their launch.
The Artemis 2 Orion vehicle and its ESM, both now shrouded in their launch shrouds, arrive at NASA’s LASF where the vehicles launch abort system will be installed. Credit: NASA
The Artemis 2 mission is currently scheduled for a no later than April 2026 launch date, and will comprise six key phases:
Launch to a Low-Earth orbit for initial vehicle check-out on arrival in orbit prior to an orbital boost.
24-hour eccentric orbit with an apogee above that of typical communications satellites, where further vehicle check-outs are performed and proximity operations with the (detached) upper stage of the SLS launch vehicle.
TLI (trans-lunar injection) – firing the service module’s main engines to put it on a course for a Moon rendezvous.
Lunar fly-by – passing around the Moon with a closest approach of around 7,400 km, during which the crew will continue to monitor and test Orion’s systems.
Earth return trajectory – Orion will use the Moon’s gravity to swing it into a free-return trajectory to Earth.
Re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
In all, the mission is expected to last some 10 days.
Hubble Images 3I/ATLAS – and guess what? It is a Comet
A couple of Space Sundays back, I wrote about 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar traveller to pass through our solar system, and the (frankly silly) idea that that it is an alien probe, possibly sent here on a spy mission.
In that piece (see: Space Sunday: daft alien theories and a space shuttle) I noted that some of the claims about the object being “alien technology” were due to the fact that as an interstellar comet (as initial analysis suggested was the case), it “had no tail”; this despite the fact the object was already developing a gaseous cloud of ejected dust as it started to get warmed by the Sun.
Well, guess what? As it continues to close on Sun in is inward journey through the solar system, 3I/ATLAS has started to develop a tail – and it has been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. Given the images were captured at a time when 3I/ATLAS was 3.8 AU from the Sun – some four times the average distance between Earth and the Sun – the fact that it is starting to evidence a tail indicates it is rapidly becoming active under the Sun’s influence.
Tails generally form on comets as they close on the Sun, when the heat and energy of the latter directly affects the surface of the latter, causing it to outgas volatiles – dust, water vapour, etc., – in sufficient quantities that they are caught in the solar wind to form a trail of matter pointing away from the Sun.
Given 3I/ATLAS is still a long way from the Sun, to see it start to form a tail of outgassed material – even if relatively weak in visual terms – would suggest that it has a lot of volatile materials within it which are already being dramatically affected by the Sun’s energy. What’s more, it is entirely possible that this tail will become more pronounced as the object continues to approach the Sun and reaches perihelion.
Image of 3I/ATLAS captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera on July21st, 2025. The interplanetary comet is enshrouded by dust, making it highly reflective, the tail can be seen to the right. Credit: NASA/ESA
However, not only does the appearance of this tail on 3I/ATLAS further undermine claims that it is “alien technology”, it offers a means for astronomers to better understand its composition and likely size. Using Hubble’s exceptional resolution, a research team from UCLA led by David Jewitt has been able to estimate how much material 3I/ATLAS is losing now, putting the amount at between 6 and 60 kilos per second at its current distance from the Sun – or roughly the amount of a small car even few minutes – a not significant amount.
The team also attempted to estimate the likely size of the nucleus of the object; no easy task, given the surrounding cloud of outgassed dust. To achieve this, they instead analysed the brightness distribution of the surrounding dust cloud (coma), and concluded 3I/ATLAS has a likely less than 2.8 km across, assuming it reflects only 4% of the light that hits it (similar to charcoal), but unlikely to be less than 0.32 km in diameter.
This size constraint is crucial because it helps astronomers understand the object’s composition and history. Different materials require different amounts of solar heating to begin sublimating, so by observing when and how vigorously 3I/ATLAS becomes active, it’s possible to make educated guesses about what it’s made of. Further, through this analysis of the Hubble images and data, it is possible for astronomers to gain insight into the nature of 3I/ATLAS, and by extension, the stellar system from which it originated, as objects like 3I/ATLAS carry with them the chemical signatures and physical characteristics shaped by alien environments billions of kilometres away – although sadly, it will be extremely difficult to determine where the object actually originated.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 