Author: Inara Pey

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

2020 SUG meeting week #48: Uplift update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Time Remains, October 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 24th Simulator User Group meeting.

Server Updates

Please also refer to the week’s server deployment thread.

  • On Tuesday November 24th,  RC channels were updated to simulator version 552571, comprising “some bug fixes and internal tweaks”. However, one fix should correct the inability to correctly set permissions (e.g. edit rights) for friends.
  • There is no planned SLS Main channel deployment for week #48.

Week #49

If all goes to plan at the Lab, week #49 (commencing Monday, November 30th) will see a daily series of rolling restarts across the grid. Due to start on Monday, this will be batches of regions being restarted, with the plan that restarts are staggered to avoid too much disruption, and if everything proceeds smoothly, each region should only be restarted once at some point in the week.

Commenting on the restarts, Maxidox Linden stated:

I think it will be something like at most 14-16 hours between rolls. Though as Rider says unless something changes we don’t plan to roll the same region in two successive rolls. And we’re going to do our best to avoid times with tons of people on-line if we can.

These deployments are liable to occur at 16-hour intervals.

Uplift Status

As per my blog post from week #48 (see: LL confirms Second Life regions now all on AWS), whilst all regions are now running on AWS services, the work in transitioning all of the Second Life back-end services is not complete, and LL are still “operating with one foot in either camp” – and this may be exacerbating the problems currently being experienced by some.

Another factor could be the different communications routes between viewers and servers following the move from operating out of the Lab’s co-lo facility in Arizona to the Amazon centre in Oregon. For some, this has definitely resulted in a noticeable increase in basic ping times to / from the servers, although for others, this has barely changed.

Commenting on the general state of play, Mazidox Linden observed:

We are not yet at what I would call “Final uplift performance” (that is to say, without any explicit attempts at tuning performance and behaviour of system communication). There is still plenty of stuff making that round trip over hundreds of miles to the data centre, slowing things down.

In this respect, some of the issues people are noticing at the moment may be down to the fact that LL haven’t as yet started fine tuning things, and are unlikely to do so until all services are running via AWS. As such, some of the problems people are noting might be down to this. In this respect, Oz Linden noted:

We’re much more focused right now on getting things other than the simulators uplifted and fixing anything that really breaks. Performance problems are a step down in priority until that’s done, but we won’t forget about them.

SL Viewer

The Start of the week has seen no change to the current crop of official viewers, leaving the as follows:

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12 – No change
  • Release channel cohorts:
    •  Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.552100, November 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, issued on November 12.
    • Project Jelly project viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.11.551213, November 2.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • Group Chat: There has been an update to the Group chat servers which the Lab hopes will help alleviate the issues of the last couple of months. The hope is that as a result of this, things should be somewhat better, although it is acknowledged things are “not perfectly solid” as yet.
  • Map Tiles: there is a known issue with in-world Map tiles failing to update. At the time of writing, there was no ETA on when a fix will be implemented.
  • Teleports: people are still reporting teleport failures, although data collected by the Lab using additional logging apparently shows the overall level of teleport failures as being back to “normal” after the recent spike.
  • Textures: Slow texture loads: people are reporting slower than usual texture loading. When isn’t currently understood (given textures are among the data coming to users via the CDN, so not directly a part of the AWS transition). The speculation offered by Oz Linden is that where texture messaging is concerned, it may not be going as fast as LL like.
  • Scripts: there have also bee reports of some regions initially showing improved script performance, only to apparently drop back to “pre-uplift” levels of processing. Commenting on this, Maxidox Linden stated:
 If you’re seeing changes to scripts run the likely explanation is that there is contention for shared system resources beneath the simulator layer. That is something we had only mild control over before and have even less control over now..  That said, it’s on our radar. I can’t promise that even when someone gets time to look at it there will be anything we can *do*, but we are aware, and we’re not ignoring it. …
I mean, it is almost possible that we’re calculating that number wrong Lucia, because we have certainly changed the hardware the simulators are running on in ways that the people who made that statistic probably never imagined. I’m not going to swear that is or isn’t happening, but it will certainly be one of the many things we look at.

 

Sisi and Michiel at Kultivate in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kultivate Signature Gallery: Sisi Biedermann

Currently open – for a while longer, at least, given I’m getting to this piece very much on the late side! – are two exhibitions by artists I both appreciate and admire: Michiel Bechir and Sisi Biedermann, who between them present two very different, but equally captivating selections of images for visitors to appreciate and, if they so wish, purchase.

Anyone who is familiar with my coverage of the arts in Second Life knows I am enormously inspired by Sisi’s work, which I categorise as some of the most unique and captivating in Second Life. A  digital mixed-media artist, Sisi’s subject matter tends to be wide-ranging, covering everything from the natural world through in-world settings to the fantastical and even touching on the abstract and the near-surreal. This is enough to make her work attention-holding, displaying as they do a richness of imagination, style and colour.

Kultivate Signature Gallery: Sisi Biedermann

However, what, for me, makes Sisi’s work doubly captivating is her ability to layer her pieces such that whilst each is a static piece, it has a sense of being alive; there is something inherently tactile about it that makes you want to run your fingers over it and feel the life within.

All of this is very much on display with her selection of art on display at the Kultivate Signature Gallery. There, spread over the three floors of the gallery space are 24 pieces that richly demonstrate Sisi’s artistry, including a ground-level display of six pieces celebrating her visits to a number of famous cities around the world. These are particularly engaging as the both capture the very essence of landmarks from the places Sisi has visited – The Elizabeth Tower (originally the Clock Tower) of London’s Palace of Westminster, The Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, and New York’s Empire State Building and Chrysler Building (appearing twice) should all be instantly recognisable.

Kultivate Signature Gallery: Sisi Biedermann

An aspect of these six in particular that I found particularly attractive is that five appear to suggest they have been physically etched rather than photo-layered, and the sixth – with Elizabeth Tower in the foreground – having an also embroidered look to it, thus making these pieces particularly organic in their styling.

The remaining two floors of the gallery hold further pieces of Sisi’s work waiting to engage and en trace. All are richly textured and coloured,  inviting the imagination to take flight.

Kultivate Loft Gallery: Michiel Bechir
A short walk (or quick teleport) away is the Kultivate Loft Gallery, where Michiel Bechir is currently exhibiting some 32 pieces of his Second Life landscape art, including several in a panoramic format that truly captures the breadth of the regions they represent, whilst four offer a dip into combining landscape with with avatar studies, featuring a subject in period dress suggestive of a Victorian woman of means on her travels.

What I find attractive in Michiel’s work is the manner in which he brings a location to life through camera placement and use of camera angle, always presenting us with a unique view of a place that brings out its natural beauty. His use of post processing also demonstrates a constrained touch that is just sufficient enough to add an evocative edge to his work without becoming top-heavy.

Kultivate Loft Gallery: Michiel Bechir

For this exhibition, Michiel has taken the opportunity to present his pieces as collections: most of the the display areas between the building’s structural support offer three or four images from the same location – the aforementioned Victorian Lady images, for example, were all captured in Witchwood. Thus, these pieces become more than individual pieces (although they can be purchased as such), but also sets of images that can be purchased and displayed together at home, making them very collectable.

I admit to not being too sure as to how long Sisi and Michiel will remain on display at Kultivate – these were exhibitions that started in September, so I really would recommendation that if they tickle your artistic fancy, you hop over to Kultivate sooner rather than later.

Kultivate Loft Gallery: Michiel Bechir

SLurl Details

Water Haven is rated Moderate.

 

 

 

2020 viewer release summaries week #47

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, November 22nd

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

  • Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12th – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No  updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • Kokua updated to versions 6.4.11.46759 (no RLV) 6.4.11.49726 (RLV variants) on November 23rd – release notes.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Let it Snow! 2020 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Let It Snow!, November 2020

With winter on our doorstep, Milly Sharple has once again opened her annual Let It Snow! winter / Christmas themed region for Second Life residents to enjoy, and Caitlyn and I once again received an invitation – although I’m still playing a lot of catch-up on general blogging  due to the physical world occupying a lot of my time at the moment, so it has taken me a fair few days to get to the point of writing about it.

I’ve actually been covering Let It  Snow! on an annual basis since 2014, only stopping during the years Milly took a break from presenting the region, and have always enjoyed our little pilgrimages to see what seasonal delights Milly has served up – as an artist, she has an eye for framing photogenic series of vignettes across her chosen region, often with touches of whimsy design to bring smiles to the faces of those visiting.

Let It Snow!, November 2020

A  visit to the region starts on the north side, where a little village square awaits arrivals, a pavilion offering the warmth of an open fire, a gazebo a place for dancing and, for those seeking something a little warmer, a cosy cottage. Overlooked on one side by a large and warmly-furnished house atop a rocky table,the village is a short walk to a frozen pond ready for ice skaters.

Cut by channels of frozen water spanned by bridges, this year’s Let It Snow! follows Milly’s previous iterations of the region by presenting within its snow-covered landscape a series of interlinked vignettes and scenes, each of which stands on its own whilst also being linked to the rest of the region.

Let It Snow!, November 2020

To describe all of these settings here would be to spoil the opportunity for exploration and discovery, but there are various points within the region I found particularly attractive. Chief among these is the the manner in which Milly has combined The Chapel Ruins from The Looking Glass with pieces by Paco Pooley and Krystali Rabeni to create the site of a ruined chapel, complete with a stained glass window by Milly as a romantic setting with an ethereal edge to it.

Whimsy is added here and there, as with previous designs – such as the snowball-throwing snowman lurking under a tree, while seasonal touches come in the form of the decorations adorning the rooms of the large house, the lights hanging on the trees around the skating rink and so on.

Let It Snow!, November 2020

As well as ice skating, the region offers signs where sleds can be rezzed,  plenty of opportunities for dancing, and even the opportunity to play chess with a companion.

The best way to explore the region is to go where your feet will take you – there are no formal paths (just steps to get up to and down from he raised portions of the landscape). However, when visiting I do recommend you use the region’s environment settings to appreciate i to the fullest – and the sky dome Milly has placed over it – to the fullest.

Let It Snow!, November 2020

With plenty to see and do, and with lots of opportunities for photography, 2020’s let It Snow is as captivating to the eye as past iterations, and more than worth the time taken in a visit.

SLurl Details

Space Sunday: a Dragon, a telescope and a heavenly princess

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sunday, November 15th, 2020, 19:27 local the Crew-1 Falcon 9 booster lifts-off from Kennedy Space Centre’s Pad 39A.Credit: NASA

Sunday, November 15th saw the official start of a new era in low-Earth orbit space transportation with the launch of the NASA / SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space.

Originally scheduled for launch on Saturday, November 14th, the Crew-1 mission was delayed due to weather causing concerns about the recovery of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle’s first stage. However, at 19:27 local time on Sunday (00:27 GMT on Monday, November 16th), the Falcon 9 topped by the Crew Dragon and its crew of four – NASA astronauts, Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi – lifted off from the SpaceX leased Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, the first stage of the rocket making a successful return to Earth and landing aboard the autonomous drone ship Just Read The Instructions.

Resilience approaches the ISS on November 16th/17th 2020. Credit: NASA / SpaceX

Nine minutes after launch, the Crew Dragon capsule – named Resilience by the crew – achieved an initial orbit, and the crew followed a long tradition of space flight dating back to the first manned space mission, and revealed their “zero gee indicator”, a Baby Yoda plushy toy from the TV series, The Maldorian.

The use of toys and dolls as such indicators goes back to the flight of Yuri Gagarin and his flight aboard Vostok-1 in April 1961.  Gagarin carried a small doll into orbit out of curiosity, as he wanted to see what floating in the micro-gravity of space looked like. However, his practice was copied by other Soviet cosmonauts, and in turn by NASA missions, with crews on the Crew Dragon continuing the tradition – Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken carried a plushy planet Earth on their trip to the ISS earlier in  2020 during the Crew Dragon certification flight.

While not confirmed, it is believed the selection of Baby Yoda was due to back-up crew member Kjell Lindgren. A long-time Star Wars fan, Lindgren had used a model of R2D2 as a zero-gee indicator during a 2015 Soyuz flight to the ISS and while aboard the station, persuaded the rest of the crew to dress up as Jedi Knights for a special NASA promotional poster.

It’s been a tough year. And the fact that … SpaceX and NASA were able to get our spacecraft ready to go, the rocket ready to go, throughout this year, throughout the pandemic, and all of that — we were inspired by everybody’s effort to do that. So that’s why we named Resilience, and we hope that it puts a smile on people’s faces, it brings hope to them. Baby Yoda does the same thing. I think everybody, when you see him, it’s hard not to smile, and so it just seemed appropriate.

– Mission commander Mike Hopkins explaining the choice of name for the Dragon
capsule and the selection of Baby Yoda as the zero-gee indicator.

A NASA graphic showing the craft docked at the ISS at the time the Resilience docked. Credit: NASA

It  took some 27 hours for Resilience to catch up with the ISS, finally rendezvousing and docking with the station at 11:01 EST on Monday, November 16th (04:01 GMT, November 17th). Following a further 2 hours of post-flight checks and preparations both in the capsule and on the station, the forward hatch on Resilience was opened and the four crew were invited aboard the ISS. In doing so, they set a new record for the space station: the first time it has been occupied by full-time crew  totalling seven  people. This is actually one more person than the ISS is designed to accommodate, so Crew-1 commander Mike Hopkins is sleeping aboard the Resilience.

The Expedition 64  crew will remain on the ISS for a 6-month rotation period, Hopkins and his crew joining NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who arrived at the ISS on October 14th, aboard the Soyuz MS-17 – a mission which was itself a record-setter, rendezvousing with the station just three hours after launch, utilising Russia’s “ultrafast” ISS launch and rendezvous flight plan for the first time.

Kate Robins, who arrived aboard ISS as a part of the Soyuz TM-17 crews, greets Victor Glover as he boards the ISS from Resilience, marking the first time an African-American astronauts has boarded the station as part of the full duration crew. Credit: NASA
Once aboard the station, the crew wasted little time in getting down to work. On November 18th, Ryzhikov – currently in overall command of the ISS – and Kud-Sverchkov made a 6-hour 48-minute spacewalk that inaugurated the operational use of the Poisk “mini research” module as an airlock.

As I noted in my previous Space Sunday update, Poisk has been delivered as an airlock / docking module in 2009. It is one of two such units attached to the Russian Zvezda module, the other being the Pirs airlock / dock, deployed to the ISS in 2001. Up until the Ryzhikov / Kud-Sverchkov EVA, Poisk had only been used as a docking module, spacewalks generally being conducted via the Pirs module.

 Sergey Ryzhikov (centre top with the red stripe on his backpack) and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov work outside of the Poisk (the vertical unit) and Zvezda modules of the ISS. Credit: Roscomos

However, Pirs is due to be removed from the ISS in 2021, so it can be de-orbited to burn up in the upper atmosphere using one of the Russian Progress resupply vehicles. It is due to be replaced by the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) – although there are some doubts about this module, as its launch has been delayed so much, several of its systems are at the end of their warranty period.

In  particular, the Poisk spacewalk was to start the process of decommissioning Pirs, by moving vital communication equipment and cabling from that module and connecting them to Poisk, allowing it to become the primary Russian EVA airlock.  As  well as this work, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov retrieved hardware used to measure space debris impacts, and repositioned an instrument used to measure the residue from thruster firings. The EVA marked the 47th Russian space walk in support of ISS operations, and the 232nd ISS spacewalk overall.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: a Dragon, a telescope and a heavenly princess” →

A girl, weird women, spirits, and princes

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

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.

Sunday, November 22nd, 14:00: The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

As Calpurnia Virginia Tate, aka Callie Vee, turns 13 in 1900, she revels in studying science with her cantankerous grandfather, with whom she co-discovered a new plant species in The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. But a life of science doesn’t seem to be in her future: although her family is rich and her six brothers can pursue their educations and follow their dreams, Callie can’t.

Destined from her unfortunate birth as a female for life as a Texas debutante and wealthy matron, she’s furious as she feels the doors of the gilded cage closing in on her in a world where the fact that she’s smarter and harder-working than her brothers doesn’t matter a bit.

As she tries to keep her tenderhearted brother Travis, who keeps bringing home strays. And Callie has her hands full keeping the wild animals – her brother included – away from her mother’s critical eye. Whether it’s wrangling a rogue armadillo or stray dog, a guileless younger brother or standoffish cousin, the trials and tribulations of Callie Vee will have readers laughing and crying and cheering for this most endearing heroine.

Join Caledonia Skytower at the Golden Horseshoe for another Magicland Story  Time.

Monday, November 23rd, 19:00: The Dark Bright Waters

Gyro Muggins reads Patricia Wrightson’s second novel charting the life of Wirrun of the Inlanders.

First encountered in The Ice Is Coming, when Wirrun set out on a quest to overcome the rise of the ancient enemy of Australia, the ice-bearded Ninya, the young janitor now has a reputation as a Hero among the Inlanders (Wrightson’s fantasy view of the Australian Aboriginals). It’s not a title he appreciates; he would much rather just get back to his janitorial work.

But the spirits of the land are restless: Yunggamurra, a river spirit is lost, so uses her siren-like powers of song to draw to herself those who might might take her home. Her singing come to Wirrun’s ears, and those of an elderly aboriginal emissary, and he realises he must journey to the very heartlands of Australia to better understand what he is feeling.

This he does, with the old emissary and his friend Ularra. Once there, he discovers that a storm is indeed rising within the domain of the spirits, and he is uniquely placed to both find Yunggamurra and prevent the coming storm. And so his new adventure begins.

Tuesday, November 24th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym, Live in the Glen

Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session at Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Woman’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940

With Willow Moonfire.

Wednesday, November 25th, 19:00: Nine Princes in Amber

Carl Corey wakes in a medical clinic, with little to no knowledge of who he is or how he got there. Fearing he is being over-medicated and kept against his wishes, he overpowers staff and discovers his stay is being paid for by his sister, one Evelyn Flaumel, whose address is on the hospital’s records.

Fleeing the clinic, he makes his way to his sister’s home. Here, with the aid of a pack of tarot cards and a confession from his sister, he learns that his name is actually Corwin (and she is Flora), and they are two of 14 siblings – nine male and five female.

One of those brothers, Random, arrives, pursued by strange, vicious creatures, that force Corwin to join him into fighting them to the death.  During the battle, Corwin makes another discovery – he has super-human strength.

After the fight, Random reveals more truths to Corwin – notably that he and his siblings are of royal descent from a planet called Amber, a parallel world to Earth from which he has been cast into exile.

Random reveals that their father, king Oberon, has vanished, and the throne is therefore open, and persuades Corwin in a quest to claim it. However, to do so, they must travel through the realms of Corwin’s brothers and sisters in order to reach Amber, and the journey reveals to Corwin his family’s ruthless and Machiavellian nature – a nature he shares -, and that the path to the throne is a route of force and betrayal.

Join Corwyn Allen as he reads the first volume in Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series.

Thursday, November 26th: Library Closed

The library is closed for US Thanksgiving Day.