Author: Inara Pey

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

Glastonbury in Sansar: post event observations

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lost Horizon: Nomad Stage, Saturday, July 4th, 2020

Friday, July 3rd and Saturday July 4th saw Sansar host Glastonbury Shangri-La – the night-time festivities traditionally held during the UK’s Glastonbury Festival (cancelled in the physical world due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic) – across four stages and provide some 24 hours (12 hours per day) of live electronic dance music (EDM) to anyone wishing to attend.

Organised in conjunction with the team behind Glastonbury Shangri-La, led by Creative Director Kaye Dunnings and VRJAM, the free-to-attend or view event featured some headline names in the DJ world including Fatboy Slim (Friday 3rd July) and Pete Tong (Saturday 4th), along with Peggy Gou, Carl Cox, Seth Troxler, and Skream for a total of 50 DJs across the two days. Basic admission to the event was free, but those wishing to receive “VIP” access could optionally pay US $10.00 for goodies, the money going towards donations to Amnesty International and The Big Issue.

Lost Horizon: landing point and stage portals

Called Lost Horizon, the event actually comprised six areas in total, with five comprising:

  • The main stage – modelled after the festival’s famous Gas Tower stage.
  • The Freedom stage.
  • The ShiTV stage, home to films, documentaries, theatre, live art, and comedy.
  • The Nomad stage – a “special” for the event, dedicated entirely to UK culture and drum’n’bass music.
  • ShangrilART – featuring 200 visual art pieces on the theme of human connection.

All of these could be reached either directly through the Sansar Codex (the directory of places and events available for users to visit) or via the fifth physical space offered to visitors: the Lost Horizon landing point. This formed a general gathering point for those coming to the event via the Sansar Nexus (the main landing point for incoming new users / existing users who do not use the web-based Codex (Atlas) to select where they want to go prior to launching the Sansar client), and which in turn offered portals to each of the four stages.

Lost Horizon: The Gas Tower, Saturday, July 4th, 2020

In addition to being open to people to come into and enjoy via their avatar presence (desktop with or without a VR headset), the event was live streamed across a number of platforms, including You Tube, Twitch and Beatport. Further, Lost Horizon was used to introduce / showcase the new Sansar streaming app for iOS and Android devices – an app I’ll be writing about in due course, as my own use of the Android version for this event wasn’t too successful.

A High-Level Look at the Numbers

EDM / trance / techno is hardly my kind of music, so I confess I didn’t spend much continuous time at the event per se – rather, I hopped in and out over the two days for periods of between 10 and 20 minutes, and also tried to keep a watch on things via the Codex (which reports active numbers at events and in turns of the individual instances of the event), and through things like the Steam stats page for Sansar. Unfortunately, I was unable to visit / observe Fatboy Slim or Pete Tong, which may have shown things at variance to my observations on numbers here.

  • The average hourly attendance I noted was within the 200-400 for the event. This was based on periodic checks by dropping in to Lost Horizons, or via checks on the web Codex / Atlas during the following time spans:
    • Friday: 19:30-02:00 BST (11:30-18:00 PDT).
    • Saturday: 17:00-19:00 BST (09:00-11:00 PDT) and 20:00-02:00 BST (noon-18:00  PDT).
  • Checks between this times (around between 2 and 3 per hour – if only perhaps one actually in-world at any given hour) tend to give the following approximate breakdowns of attendance:
    • Gas Tower: 140-200 across an average of five instances.
    • Freedom: 60-70, generally running two instances.
    • Nomad: around 40 in a single instance, sometimes popping up to 45-55 with two instances.
    • ShiTV: appeared to be below 40 most of the time and a single instance.
    • Landing Area: generally a single instance (so no more than 60), at times just tipping over into a second instance with a handful or avatars.
A moment in time: a snapshot of the Lost Horizon Gas Tower attendance figures via the client Codex, giving a breakdown of instances / avatar numbers. Generally, throughout my time checking / observing, 2 or 3 of the instances were running at full capacity (sometimes dipping to 38-39) and the remaining two tended to hover in the 30s and 20s / teens respectively

Continue reading “Glastonbury in Sansar: post event observations” →

A notebook for Aspen Fell in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Aspen Fell – The Notebook, July 2020 – click any image for full size

It’s been several years since we last visited Aspen Fell in Second Life. A homestead region managed by Jessica Marabana, it’s a place that periodically undergoes transformation by designer Aspen Fell to offer visitors something new to appreciate whilst exploring, in taking photographs of and in writing about. However, I have to admit my curiosity was particularly piqued in reading the latest description provided with the region’s entry in the Destination Guide:

The Notebook is inspired by the movie ‘The Notebook.’ Stroll through the streets of Seabrook, South Carolina, have a seat in the movie theatre, and feel the love Noah and Allie, through all the ups and downs, had for each other.

– from the Aspen Fell Destination Guide description, July 2020

Aspen Fell – The Notebook, July 2020

I have to confess that The Notebook is not a film with which I was familiar prior to reading those words, so I made a call to a friend (aka Netflix and a couple of hours in front of the telly) to learn more – although as I found out on making my return trip to take the photos seen here, the landing point does offer a note card with a fair synopsis of the film to incoming visitors, which I may have accidentally discarded on arriving for our exploratory wanderings.

In short, the film – itself based on the 1996 début novel by Nicholas Sparks – is a decades-spanning love story about a young man of humble origins who lives and works in Seabrook Island, South Carolina. During a night at the local carnival, he becomes smitten with a young socialite who is vacating in the town with her family. His persistence eventually wins her over – although her family doesn’t precisely approve. In part due to their objections and the interference of the woman’s mother, and in part due to America’s entry into to World War Two, the two separate and remain apart for several years until a chance sighting whilst Noah is visiting post-war Charleston brings the two indirectly back into one another orbits, and eventually leading them to renew their relationship.

Aspen Fell – The Notebook, July 2020

As simple as it sounds, the film – like the novel – is nuanced it the way it presents its story. We see the unfolding relationship of two main characters – Noah Calhoun and Allison “Allie” Hamilton – in flashback, as an elderly patient in a nursing home, referred to as “Duke”, reads their story from a journal to an elderly female patient. Through the intertwining of the modern-day storytelling and the flashbacks we discover that not only did Noah and Allie’s love eventually endure, but the the elderly man and woman are Noah and Allie, and his reading of their journals is itself a poignant act of love for her, stricken as she is with dementia.

I know you feel lost right now; but don’t worry, nothing is ever lost, nor can be lost. The body sluggish, aged, cold; the embers left from earlier fires shall duly flame again.

“Duke” / Noah Calhoun, quoting in part lines from Walt Whitman’s Continuities

Aspen Fell – The Notebook, July 2020

Within Aspen Fell, notable elements in the film in which the story of younger Allie and Noah’s relationship are played out are presented as vignettes. There is the main street of Seabrook Island itself; the carnival where they first meet; the lumber mill where Noah works; the abandoned house he shows her, which she describes once it his been restored to its former glory and which he eventually renovates in accordance with her vision in the belief it will bring her back to him.

And there is more: in the town you can dance in the rain or watch the changing traffic lights in reflection of Allie and Noah; in the carnival you can try the rides, at the house you can explore Noah’s renovations and make yourself at home, or close by, you can visit the boathouse and take a canoe out on to the water and get caught in the rain, just as they do.  Thus, as a homage, the region’s vignettes are all nicely framed and gently linked by a winding path.

Aspen Fell – The Notebook, July 2020

Just how much love for the film has been put into Aspen Fell can additionally be seen in the smaller details. For example, the movie theatre is promoting Albert S. Rogell’s 1940 version of Li’l Abner, starring Buster Keaton just as it does in the film. Elsewhere, the dilapidated house contains the old piano Allie sits at and plays (and in respect of this and the piano solos featured as a part of the film’s soundtrack, the region’s audio streams features piano solos). Look hard enough and you may even spot a copy of Allie’s journal the elder Noah reads to her to frame the story.

The introductory note card states the region is open for rezzing to allow for props, etc., but during our visits, I found this not to be the case, even with membership of the local land group. However, this isn’t really an issue; there is more than enough to see within the region, and a fair number of poses available as well.

A labour of love, a photogenic setting and – for those not familiar with the film (or the novel) – and education, Aspen Fell – The Notebook makes for yet another engaging visit.

Aspen Fell – The Notebook, July 2020

SLurl Details

A renaissance festival for MSABC in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Banner courtesy of the SL Renaissance Festival

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC) is a global signature event coordinated by the American Cancer Society aimed at raising awareness of the risks of breast cancer and in raising funds to support research into, and treatment of, the disease. Traditionally held in the latter half of the year, in 2019 MSABC raised over US $13,600 large through two main activities – Out to Shop and The Pink Power Fest / Making Strides Walk-a-Thon.

This year, MSABC is changing things up again, and in doing so, they are also hoping to show support for, and receive it from, another of Second Life’s active communities: the medieval / renaissance community.

The Second Life Renaissance Festival in support of Strides will open its doors on Friday, September 25th, 2020 and will run through until Sunday, October 4th, 2020 inclusive, and it will offer something for everyone interested in the medieval / renaissance period, or who wants to support the global work of ACS in respect of treating and curing breast cancer.

The festival will take place across four themed regions – or kingdoms, as they are being called. They will comprise:

  • Two Kingdom Shopping Regions, which will also include the Minstrel’s Corner (the entertainment stage), and will host the Best In Helm contest and the Tale Of Heroes activity, of which more below.
  • The tournaments region.
  • The Kings Court Academy region – focused on role-play – which will also feature the Traveller’s Camp, home to the event’s Gatcha and auctions (silent and one-of-a-kind).

We’d like our events to be all inclusive, so the Best In Helm contest is open to anyone wanting to take their photo in knight’s armour. Visitors to the festival will be able to vote for their favourite knight by making a donation  through the Strides kiosk alongside their chosen knight.

The Tale Of Heroes is open to anyone in Second Life who wishes to tell their story of how Strides and / or Breast Cancer has affected them, or what it means to them.

– Nuala Maracas, Renaissance Festival co-coordinator

The tournaments region will offer a range of period tournaments – jousting, archery, mêlée, mounted archery – on a daily basis throughout the festival, and these are again open to anyone who like to try their hand at any of them.

The Kings Court Academy will feature a range of period role-play classes for those interested, and offer practice grounds for those wanting to try their hand at the various tournament activities, either on their own or via a scheduled class. It will also host the Conquer Trail, a path people can take on foot or horseback, running or walking, and use slingshots or rotten tomatoes to try to strike targets; hitting a target will provide information about Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and the services it provides.

Renaissance Festival merchant’s payments area (post registration)

Currently, the festival is taking registrations from: sponsors, merchants interested in participating – although slots for both are running out! – and period role-play communities / groups. Details can be found on the festival’s website as follows:

Those who wish to help in organising the event can also visit the volunteer’s sign-up page. Note that this does not include any sign-up for stage managers, greeters, entertainers, bloggers, etc., – a call for these positions will be made in due course.

Further information on the festival will be made available through the Renaissance Festival website as it becomes available, and I hope to provide updates through these pages as well.

My thanks to Nuala Maracas for spending time with me to discuss the event.

Picturing the lighthouses of Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
HEA: A Tribute to Lighthouses

If there is one thing region designers / owners tend to love in Second Life, it is lighthouses. Over the years, I’ve visited and written about hundreds of region designs around the grid, and one of the most common elements to be found across them is the humble (or grand, or steampunkish or fallen or … and so on!) lighthouse. And they reside not just on public regions either; they can oft pop-up on private region homes (so much so that a couple of estates around Blake Sea actually requested tenants stop using lighthouses as island décor!).

And to be fair, they can be an eye-catching sight – I admit to photographing more than a few in my travels and frequently use one of SL’s most famous lighthouses: that of Blake Sea – Crows Nest (itself modelled after Fastnet, off the southern coats of Ireland) as a backdrop for photos of boats and aircraft.

Give their extensive use, lighthouses present an interesting topic for a photographic exhibition – as witnessed by the Queen Bee Gallery July exhibition at Hannington Endowment for the Arts (HEA). A Tribute to Second Life Lighthouses features no fewer than 38 images of lighthouses from around Second Life, captured by Ferugina Luna.

HEA: A Tribute to Lighthouses

Offered in a range of styles: individual pieces, themed groups, lightly processed, untouched and significantly processed, triptych style, and do, on these are images that cover all of the various types of lighthouse to be found within Second Life – inland, coastal, tall, short, with accompanying keeper’s house, standing alone, guarding sea routes or looking out from beaches or cliffs…

To be sure, thirty-eight is a lot of images to take in. On the one hand, they reveal that when all is said and done, there is a little number of individual variants to be found within SL (excluding those that are custom-built). It means there is a certain amount of repetition to be found within the images – the aforementioned fallen lighthouse, for example. On the other, by having so many images to hand it is possible to see the many individual ways in which region owners and designers put them to use to make a statement about their land; while the same design may appear in multiple images, the manner in which each is used can be quite individual.

HEA: A Tribute to Lighthouses

There’s something else in this as well – seeing the same design from multiple angles can do much to “place” it in terms of the possible inspiration behind it. Thus, A Tribute to Second Life Lighthouses offers visitors a twofold treat: images of the subject matter from around SL, and an opportunity to consider where on Earth some of the inspirations for the building designs come from. For me, I found myself looking at photos from around the UK; others might well be put in mind of famous lighthouses from their part of the world. My one regret with this exhibit is the in-world locations where the pictures were taken isn’t evident.

SLurl Details

K360 – a 360-degree image viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey
The K360 Image Viewer, courtesy of Yuzuru Jewell / Kanae Project

Yuzuru Jewell is a long-time Second Life user who has, over the years, come up with a number of tools that have been of assistance to SL users in various ways. I first became aware of his work – provided under the Kanae Project banner in 2012, and have documented a number of his applications in these pages.

For his latest product, Yuzuru offers a handy tool that may be appreciated by those who enjoy creating 360º photographs. K360 is a lightweight viewer that supports viewing (or previewing) 360º photographs primarily taken with the Second Life 360º Snapshot viewer, although it works equally well with any composed 360º image, including those produced by 360º cameras and – in the case of Second Life – via third-party HUD systems (see the links at the end of this article for more on these).

Of course, most photo platforms now provide 360º image viewing support, so why use a third-party tool like this? Well, there are a couple of potential reasons: many viewers are either mobile based, and thus hardly ideal for use with a desktop application like SL), or they rely on images being uploaded to a website first. K360 allows you to quickly and easily view 360º images directly from any Windows folder on your computer and offers some additional functionality as well.

A 360 image produced in 2016 using the Illiastra Camera HUD, viewed using K360

Of course, the Snapshot viewer includes photo preview capability already built-in (just drag the window out to get a equirectangular style image) – but this only allows you to preview the last 360º image captured. The advantage of a tool like K360 is that you can set the camera up and take a series of 360º images of the same location but under different environment settings, compare and contrast them to see which you particularly like, and then upload that version to your preferred photo sharing platform  (or simply browse them on from your local drive).

Using K360 is simplicity itself, as described below. However, when using it, please note:

  • By default, images rendered in the K360 viewer will be watermarked (but all other functions in the application work).
  • To remove this watermark, the application will require a registration user name and licence number.
  • Licences cost L$3980 and can be purchased from the Kanae Project in-world store.

Download and Installation

  • Download the viewer from the Kanae Project website as a .ZIP file. It’s is available in both Windows 32-bit and Windows 64-bit versions.
  • Navigate to the downloaded .ZIP file and extract the contents to a folder / location of your choice on your computer.
  • Navigate to that folder, open it and double-click on the K360.exe file to launch the viewer.

Using K360

Resizing the Application Window

By default,the K360 application window may open to a fairly small size on your screen. To adjust this, either:

  • Click the window maximise button, top right, or
  • Manually resize the window by dragging out the edges.

The Interface and Controls

The K360 interface comprises up to six buttons:

Register – click to open the project registration field to enter your user name and your purchased licence number, as obtained via your purchased registration HUD. Once conformed as valid, this icon will no longer be displayed. Ensure you keep the registration HUD safe.
Select and open any folder containing 360º snapshots.
Page back / forth all suitable images in the selected folder.
Produce a snapshot of the current 360º image. Note that as the 360º image is spherical, this may result in a “curved” flat image.
Re-centre the current image after scrolling around it.

When you have opened a 360º image for viewing:

  • Click and hold the left mouse button to drag-rotate the image (or roll your trackball in the required direction.
  • Use the mouse wheel to zoom in / out of an image.
  • Use the Reset button to re-centre the image to how it appeared on first opening it after rotating / scrolling / zooming, if required.

You can also hide / unhide the the interface buttons by clicking on the “ribbon” containing the Open, Snapshot and Re-centre buttons.

Feedback

K360 is probably a little ahead of its time. As it is there are further fixes required to the 360º snapshot viewer before it is ready for prime time imaging capability of the 360º Snapshot viewer (notably, objects outside of the camera’s field of viewer when the capture process commences don’t always show as correctly rendered in a completed shot  – these are known issues, and Linden Lab is working to correct them).

A 360 image using 360 Snapshot project viewer (version 6.2.4.529111) shown in the K360 app. Note the denuded tree is an example of the rendering issues that can occur with the Snapshot viewer at the time of writing (Interest List issues). Issue like this will hopefully be resolved in time, allowing the viewer to eventually progress to release status.

In this respect, the value you get out of K360 at this point in time could be variable – although if you want to give it a try and don’t mind the watermarks appearing across your images, it won’t cost you a penny to do so.

If you already have a selection of 360º images from the 360º snapshot viewer or from the various camera HUDs that are available – or indeed stored on your PC from the physical world – and would like a quick and easy way to view them on your computer, then K360 might well be worth a look.

Related Links

2020 Content Creation User Group week #27 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Yes – Endless, May 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, July 2nd 2020 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, meeting SLurl, etc, are are available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.

SL Viewer

  • A Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, was issued on Tuesday, June 30th.

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

  • Current Release viewer version 6.4.3.543157, dated June 11, promoted June 23, formerly the CEF RC viewer.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544028, June 30.
    • Tools Update RC viewer, version 6.4.5.544097, June 25 – this viewer is built using VS 2017 / a recent version of Xcode, and Boost.Fiber. It contains no user-facing changes.
    • Arrack Maintenance RC viewer, 6.4.5.544024, issued on June 24 – this viewer uses Viewer Manager 2.0.538279.
  • Project viewers:
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.5.544079, June 30.
    • Mesh uploader project viewer, version 6.4.4.543141, June 11.
    • 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.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • The Love Me Render (LMR) RC viewer is still absorbing fixes for EEP and rendering issues. Version 6.4.5.544028, dated June 30th includes a fix for BUG-225784 “BUG-225446 regression – HUDs are again affected by environment setting”. This viewer will hopefully in time include a fix for specularity issues (see BUG-228781 and BUG-228581).
  • It looks like the Legacy Profile viewer could be getting promoted to RC status very soon.

ARCTan

Project Summary

An attempt to re-evaluate object and avatar rendering costs to make them more reflective of the actual impact of rendering either in the viewer. The overall aim is to try to correct some inherent negative incentives for creating optimised content (e.g. with regards to generating LOD models with mesh), and to update the calculations to reflect current resource constraints, rather than basing them on outdated constraints (e.g. graphics systems, network capabilities, etc).

As of January 2020 ARCTan has effectively been split:

  • Viewer-side changes, primarily focused on revising the Avatar Rendering Cost (ARC) calculations and providing additional viewer UI so that people can better visibility and control to seeing complexity.
  • Work on providing in-world object rendering costs (LOD models, etc.) which might affect Land Impact will be handled as a later tranche of project work, after the avatar work.
  • The belief is that “good” avatar ARC values can likely be used as a computational base for these rendering calculations.

Current Status

  • Vir’s updates to jelly dolls have hit a couple of issues whilst in QA, but should still get rolled into the ARCTan project once he’s had a chance to fix them.

In Brief

Pathfinding Navmesh

  • A request was put forward to allow scripted access to rebaking a region’s navmesh (used with Pathfinding).
  • A use case for this would be something likes a procedural game where elements of the scene may be placed via script in accordance with progress.
    • As alterations to a scene impact the navmesh, this can upset NPCs using it.
    • Currently, the only way to rebake is via manual intervention, which can be missed.
    • Offering a scripted means would ensure the navmesh is automatically updated when required.
  • This type of scripted update has been requested in the past, and generally frowned upon due to the risk of potential abuse. However, risk could be mitigated by limited the scripting option to estate owners / managers, and using a throttle on the number of allowed requests.
  • That said, multiple rebakes of the navmesh can themselves have a cumulative impact on simulator performance and resources (particularly on Homestead regions), such that a region restart is required to correct matters, which might in some cases be as disruptive, so this would likely need to be re-examined.
  • Currently, there are no plans to work on Pathfinding in the short-to-medium term, however, it has been requested that the idea is written up as a feature request for review by the Lab.

Other Items

  • There as been a request for the viewer to support Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) image format (see: BUG-229007). However, this would require an extensive overhaul of the graphics pipeline (which currently uses JPG2000) in order to ensure all texture handing had a code path for running SVG. So this is not a likely target for a project.
  • There was a general discussion on the animation system and file formats (.ANIM and .BVH) including long-standing requests to overhaul the system and provide overrides for priority, speed, start / stop frame, etc., and more informed control of easing out/in to the animations. Currently, there is no work being planned for the system, however.
  • A request has been made to allow for scripted interrogation on how people are using EEP. The specific use case would be a game or similar, where a specific environment has been set (e.g. fog / reduced visibility) and the system could query incoming systems to ensure the viewer is set to Use Shared Environment, and if not, advise the user they need to change their setting. Not clear if / how this will be addressed.
  • Next meeting: Thursday, July 16th, 2020.