Author: Inara Pey

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

Project Zero Update: Firestorm in your browser as well

Posted on by Inara Pey
From Friday, March 14th, 2025 (if all goes according to plan) Firestorm will be available as a viewer-in-a-browser option via Linden Lab

On Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, Philip Rosedale, the Lab’s Chief Technology Officer and Syntax Linden, the lead for Project Zero, the viewer-in-a-browser project, provided a special update to members of the Blogger Network on the status on the project, including the news that Firestorm is joining the project with “Firestorm Zero”.

Firestorm Zero

The release version of Firestorm will be available to users as a viewer-in-your-browser offering in collaboration with Linden Lab. All things being equal, it will be launched on Friday, March 14th, 2025, in addition to the current Project Zero offering of the Official viewer (see below for more on this) and has the unofficial title (likely to become official now!) of Firestorm Zero.

Audience

The primary audience for Firestorm Zero is seen as existing  and returning users  – the majority of whom already use Firestorm, and who might therefore find Firestorm Zero a more attractive option that Project Zero’s Official viewer.

Payment “Passes”

  • Unlike Project Zero, Firestorm Zero will be offered on a pay-to-use basis  from the outset, in the form of purchasable “passes”.
    • Passes will cost L$250 and provide up to 5 hours of use with Firestorm Zero (passes will not apply to the official viewer at this time, which remains free to use.
    • Passes will be available through a Dashboard web page “similar to how you purchase Linden Dollars”, once the service has been announced and is live.
    • Firestorm Zero passes will not be available via either the Project Zero website or the Firestorm website.
  • While the number of passes available at any given time may be limited, once purchased, they guarantee immediate access to Firestorm Zero without any of the waiting experienced with Project Zero.
  • With regards to the above, the idea of selling passes for Firestorm Zero is two-fold:
    • To test the waters on charging for the streaming service, to see how users respond to it, how they go on to use the service based on the fees charged, etc.
    • To offer the service at a price-point potentially in line with the expectation of the actual streaming costs coming down over time to match or come close to the cost of passes.

Additional Firestorm Zero Notes

  • The viewer is streamed at 1920×1080 (as with Project Zero).
  • Whilst this is the Firestorm viewer, it is being surfaced to users directly by Linden Lab. As such:
    • If a user has opted-in to MFA, they will be required to provide a token (again, as per the usual requirements).
    • The viewer will be accessible through a Linden Lab web page after a pass has been purchased, not through the Firestorm website nor the current Project Zero web page.
  • Once available, issues with Firestorm Zero can be reported through the Feedback Portal dedicated Firestorm Zero category.

Project Zero Update

Note: for a general overview on the Project Zero work, please see: Second Life in your browser: a new initiative from Linden Lab.

General Update Notes

  • As noted above, the Official viewer Project Zero option will remain available at no cost at present, through its dedicated website, and with individual sessions still limited to 1 hour.
  • Project Zero is currently provisioned out of Amazon’s AWS facilities on the US West Coast. However, Linden Lab is in discussion with AWS about offering Project Zero through UK and European end-points “soon”.
  • Work is continuing on the React / HTML updates to the viewer UI within Project Zero, but these are not ready for surfacing just yet.
  • IMs within the Zero viewers are now saved – however, local chat sessions cannot, at present, be saved.
    • More general work on Chat is being carried out to try to ensure chat messages are properly synched between different modes of access (e.g. between the viewer and SL Mobile).

More On Possible Future Fees

  • Currently, Project Zero is costing Linden Lab around US $1.75 per hour per user.
    • While there are expectations / confidence that this price will be reduced in the future, it still means LL are running the service at a loss at present.
    • Some of the ways these costs are likely to come down involve switching the service away from Windows machines to Linux systems (hence why at the week #10 CCUG meeting, Linux support was described as becoming “more and more of a forefront priority” with “internal dependencies on supporting it”), and in moving away from dedicated per-user hosting for the streaming viewer to more of a “shared tenancy” model.
    • It is the expectation of the overall cost eventually coming down to under US $1 an hour which has encouraged the Lab to settle on the idea of selling “passes” in conjunction with Firestorm Zero, as a means to test the water among users.
  • In terms of charging for the service in the future in order to cover costs, it was indicated that offers passes as a subscription perk of some kind (e.g. at a reduced fee(?)) might be considered.

New Users

  • The Lab has been seeing “hundreds” of new users per day come into to Second Life via the workflow that leads them to running Project Zero and the Official viewer rather than having to download and install the viewer.
  • New users have up to four hours for a session when accessing Second Life through the on-boarding process / Project Zero.
  • Those entering SL through the workflow / Project Zero who have responded to the Lab’s surveys have done so “very positively”.
  • However, it’s not clear how well these users are being retained beyond their first log-in, as this is harder to track, particularly as retention really needs to be measured in terms of multiple months rather than weeks.
  • As a broader note on new user on-boarding, LL is looking towards a “simpler” approach to the on-boarding process as a whole, including giving people the option of using Firestorm / Firestorm Zero as a part of the workflow.

General Notes

  • It was suggested that as there is no facility to save snapshots to a local disk in either Project Zero or Firestorm Zero, that those taking snapshots on either try the Save to E-mail option on the Snapshot floater (both Zero and Firestorm Zero) or Save to Flickr (Firestorm Zero) and – if post-processing is required, download the image from there.
  • Update: the issue of saving Preferences originally mentioned in this article was fixed on March 13th.

Within the Forest of Hours (and more) in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Forest of Hours, March 2025 – click any image for full size

A recent entry into the Destination Guide was for a mainland location called The Forest of Hours, described as a newcomer-friendly setting with a lot to see and enjoy. It immediately caught my eye, with the description drawing me in even further through its mention of Cael Ystafell, a place I know to be held by Kinn (Kinnaird Mainlander) and her Second Life partner, Ziki Questi, two people with whom I’ve been acquainted for a long time (Ziki being a former Second Life arts blogger I’ve greatly admired for her work promoting the arts in SL, and who is a massively accomplished photographer as well). As such, I was keen to hop over and spend a number of visits exploring.

To describe The Forest of Hours without including Cael Ystafell would be somewhat akin to a visit Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower; both are completely intertwined and open to visitors and genuinely include a lot to see and discover, with portals and other surprises waiting to be found by wanderers. Both have been landscaped by Kinn, with Nix Onyx working on the core of The Forest of Hours alongside Kinn.

The Forest of Hours, March 2025

Kinn, Nix and Ziki describe the combined landscape thus:

It was our goal to create a space to show the possibilities of beauty on the Mainland … our joyful attempt at “reforesting” the Mainland on the Northwestern shore of the Heterocera Atoll. The Forest of Hours blends into Cael Ystafell … to the West, creating an unbroken treeline from Route 4 in Scape through Route 2 in Echo. Please feel free to explore all of the nooks and crannies and fun spaces tucked into the forest.

The Landing Point for The Forest of Hours lies at the side of Route 4 in the region of Scape and just inside the forest’s edge, close to a stone arch bearing the forest’s name. From here, the path winds into the mist-bound land, winding between trees through which rays of sunlight slant;  the tree trunks and mist work together to give a sense of mystery to wandering, concealing at they do what might be found, so that places of interest hide among the shadows, emerging from the mist in greeting as they are approached.

The Forest of Hours, March 2025

The first major location to so reveal itself is that of a once extensive structure built of carefully cut stone, the walls now broken and in places entirely absent, any roofing that may have once covered the shells of rooms now long vanished, the stone flagged floors and worn steps slowing giving way to the returning grass and moss of the forest. Within these remnants can be found a charming café, an open-air set for live music and dancing, places to sit (outdoors and in –  the latter courtesy of the House of Variants tucked into one corner) and even a magic potion brewer!

Where one goes from here is a matter of choice – paths wind onwards from the ruins, passing from them by means of arched doorways. Perhaps the most prominent of these, given it is signposted, is the one pointing towards Cael Ystafell – but don’t be in too much of a hurry to follow it; taking the path under the other arch away from the ruins offers its own mysteries, both above ground and under it.

The Forest of Hours, March 2025

Reached most obviously via a cave entrance sitting close to the path winding up the southern uplands to the forest, the landscape has hidden beneath it a network of tunnels and caves of a kind that just as you think you’ve found everything they contain, reveal something else within a waiting chamber. Meanwhile, the path up over this underground labyrinth offers its own many paths of exploration and places to discover, with camp fire meeting places, Japanese-themed elements and paths, meandering streams and tumbling waterfalls, and further routes pointing towards Cael Ystafell.

Along the way there are wonderful touches of detail to be found, from foxes and birds and more extraordinary creatures alongside trails and in the trees, to elements of 3D art carefully placed to surprise when encountered, together with multiple places indoors and out in which to spend time. The latter range from an artist’s studio hidden among the woods to a glamping tent with cosy bed and a Japanese tea house through to what appears to be (from the outside at least!) a witch’s cottage – and more besides, with the more outdoor places to sit equally as richly varied.

Cael Ystafell, March 2025

Also waiting discovery are a number of portals and references to other locations held by Ziki and Kinn. I’m not going to spoil things by saying where to find them, but do keep an eye out for the following:

  • A doorway to Bay City, the community in which Ziki and Kinn are very active.
  • A portal to The Far Away, a location originally created by AM Radio, and now in Ziki and Kinn’s guardianship (and which I wrote about way back in 2013!)
  • A magic mirror that will lift you to Club Echo, a new venue where (I understand from Ziki) social and other events may be held in the future.
  • Other portals and places – such as the underground New York apartment.
The Forest of Hours, March 2025

While exploring, visitors might also come across little references to things like Lucy van Pelt from Peanuts, a touch of Tolkien in the greeting over a doorway and what might be a further homage to AM Radio and his work, in the form of a radio studio and tower within Cael Ystafell, to name but three.

The Forest of Hours and Cael Ystafell are wonderfully landscaped and make for a relaxing and engaging exploration with a lot of discover and appreciate. Whilst naturally under a misty environmental setting, the locations are ideally suited to many ambient environments – as I hope some of the images here demonstrate.  Do be sure to visit.

Cael Ystafell, March 2025

SLurl Details

Linden Lab announces March 2025 Community Round Table

Posted on by Inara Pey
Adapted from Linden Lab

Updated, March 12th: The venue for the Round Table has changed, and the venue details below have been updated to reflect this.

After a recent pause in holding them, Linden Lab has announced the date and subjects for the their next in-world Community Round Table meeting.

From the official blog post:

Project Zero is a significant step towards making Second Life accessible directly through web browsers. Following your feedback, we’ve made substantial progress in enhancing the platform’s performance and usability. During the upcoming Community Roundtable, Philip Rosedale will share some news about these developments and the project roadmap. The Product and Engineering teams will also talk about the overall Roadmap and strategic vision for Second Life in 2025. 

Question from user are invited on the subject, and those wishing to submit a question in advance can still do so via this anonymous form. As usual, I will endeavour to provide a written summary† of the event as soon as I’ve collated notes and quotes following the event.

via Linden Lab

†While they are not officially representative of the Lab or these meetings, please note that I attempt to provide summaries of meeting such as this, and for a number of user group session within these pages.

2025 week #11: SL SUG meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey
Borkum, January 2025 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, March 11th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from Pantera’s video of the meeting, which is embedded at the end – my thanks to her 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.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
  • Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

  • On Tuesday, March 11th, 2025, the SLS Main channel was updated with the Carrot Cake update should be deployed to all RC channels. This includes:
    • A patch for issues found with the version of Carrot Cake already deployed to BlueSteel, together with a fixed for issues in trying to deploy some of the new benefits announced as a part of the “March Membership Madness” month.
    • Monty Linden’s work on EventQueueGet (a simulator Capability that delivers messages from a simulator to viewers over HTTP using a long-poll scheme. It is core functionality without which viewer/simulator coordination is impossible).
    • In addition, an update combining Carrot Cake and the WebRTC back-end was deployed to the Preflight RC channel.
  • On Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, the remaining RC channels will be restarted without update.

SL Viewer Updates

  • Default viewer: 7.1.12.13550888671, formerly the ForeverFPS, dated March 1, 2025, promoted March 5th – NEW.
    • Numerous crash and performance fixes.
    • Water exclusion surfaces.
    • Water improvements.
  • Project viewer: Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha, version 7.1.12.13526902562, March 3rd, 2025 – NEW.
    • Will only work on Aditi, within the following regions: [Luau Yardang], [Luau Tombolo], [Luau Mesa] and [Luau Tideland].

Lua(u): Initial Aditi Deployment – Recap and Update

  • An initial deployment of Luau support (which will eventually replace Mono as the back-end scripting language) is opening on Aditi (the beta grid) for user testing.
  • The regions running Luau support are: [Luau Yardang], [Luau Tombolo], [Luau Mesa] and [Luau Tideland].
    • These support both native Lua scripting and compiling LSL to Luau VM.
  • A Luau-capable viewer is required.
    • This viewer will work on any region in SL, but will only compile scripts to Luau on the Aditi regions noted above.
  • Discussion on Lua(u) is available through the scripting channel on the SL Discord server, for those with access.
  • It was noted that the server support has some “sharp edges”. In addition:
    • Error reporting when compiling scripts from LSL to Luau is “quite spartan at the moment”, but will be improved “in the next update or two”.
    • If objects with compiled Luau script assets are rezzed in a non-Luau region, they won’t work.
  • On the initial launch, LL constants hadn’t been exposed. Those should be available now.
    • Constants are in the global namespace now, with constant folding in the future to improve performance. Currently, there are no plans on moving them into a namespace.
  • Rider Linden indicated that there has been a high volume of testing of the past week on the Luau regions on Aditi, generating high quality feedback from scripters.
  • Signal Linden added that over the course of the last week, there has been some rapid development with bug fixes and features, with a new build nearly every day. Both he and Rider Linden passed on thanks to everyone who has been putting early work into testing the Lua work.

Luau Resources

In Brief

Please refer to the the video for details on the following.

  • The Durian Scone simulator update contains the new server certificate anchored by DigiCert. Monty Linden has a detailed post on the Technical forum. The Certificate supporting regions are Cloud Sandbox 1- on Aditi, and are open for testing.
  • There was a general round of potential naming for the SL implementation of Lua/Luau. Ideas including: SLuau; SLua (“slew-ah”); Linden Lua(u) Language (LLL / L³).
  • RegEx string functions: Rider Linden noted that he has most of the code written for some of the other RegEx things, and believes it would be mostly a matter of hooking the correct pieces together. However, work is currently focused on internal tooling, so he’s not at this point sure when he’ll be able to get back to the RegEx work. Some RegEx support can be found here.
  • Leviathan Linden is hoping to port game_control back into the main SL Viewer and also to submit some patches for Cool VL Viewer when he has an opportunity to get back to that work. He also noted that for the official SL Viewer it depends on the Linux-build support getting back in place because game_control was using SDL2 for input acquisition, which was supplied by the Linux build work.
  • A general conversation on the AI character tools, LSL, and opportunities.
  • Linden Lab is attending the 2025 Game Developer Conference (March 17th-21st, 2025) in San Francisco to promote Second Life.

† 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.

The Shape of the Whirlwind in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind

Art exhibitions at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, operated and curated by Dido Haas, are – as I’ve frequently mentioned in these pages – among the best in Second Life in terms of visual content, theme, richness of expression and the challenges Dido tends to offer the artists invited to exhibit at her gallery. However, there are times when the artist appearing at the gallery has a reputation for offering thematic art intended to to provoke the grey matter into cogitation without any prompting from Dido.

One such artist is Bamboo Barnes. To me, she is one of the most vibrant and emotive artists in Second Life. She is also one of the most unique in terms of content and in the manner in which she mixes digital techniques, blending images captured in SL wand via digital means, her use of vibrant colours and abstracted overlays. In doing so, her art is always marvellously expressive, reflecting her inner thoughts, feeling and perceptions, whilst also being strongly assertive in its own right. This latter aspect additionally allows individual pieces speak directly to the observer, both in terms of the over-arching theme of an exhibition, and as pieces standing in their own right.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind

Such is the case with The Shape of the Whirlwind, Bamboo’s latest exhibition (at the time of writing!) to be hosted by Dido at Nitroglobus. However, there is a further unique twist (or two) about this exhibition. The first is that it is – if my memory is not failing me (which is entirely possible!) – this is the first exhibition to span both halls of the gallery, both the main hall and the Annex.

The other element of uniqueness with this exhibition is that I’m not going to wibble on about it here, as is usually my wont. This is because Bamboo has provided an excellent introduction to both The Shape of the Whirlwind and the thought processes that brought her to create the pieces displayed and which are reflected through the pieces. I think her own words introduce the exhibition in such a way that any exposition / interpretation on my part would be little more than a distraction. So, I’ll let Bamboo speak for herself.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind
I have never been inside a vortex, but I wonder what the distortion of the world would look like when being able to see from the inside.
The concept of a vortex—something that twists and distorts the flow of reality—becomes a metaphor for the hidden, often imperceptible forces that shape our lives and selves. Inside a vortex, the world would bend and stretch, the familiar becoming strange, as if time itself were folding in on itself. The distortion of sight would be overwhelming, pulling you into a realm where what you think you know, what you think you see, slips away from your grasp, much like memories that fade or shift when you try to grasp them.

– Bamboo Barnes on The Shape of the Whirlwind

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind
Rising just a little against gravity, you might glimpse what is hidden—perhaps the edges of your own consciousness, which you usually only sense in fragments. And yes, memories, while they seem solid, can distort the truth, shaping how we see the world around us. The tension between the unseen forces and our struggle to maintain our sense of self would feel like a constant, gentle pull, drawing us into something greater than our understanding, yet more familiar than we’d like to admit.
At least remembering something, someone—however fleeting—might be a tether to a time before the vortex, a trace of what we were, or what we might still become. What do you think? What is it that you’re trying to remember or hold onto through this?

– Bamboo Barnes on The Shape of the Whirlwind

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, March 2025: Bamboo Barnes – The Shape of the Whirlwind

A genuinely rich and engaging exhibition given added depth through the use of animated elements (sometimes directly, sometimes as additional overlays) which mirror the twisting tumbling nature of thoughts and emotions are they surround us, and further supported as well as 3D elements by Bamboo and pieces by other artists placed within the gallery space by Dido, The Shape of the Whirlwind should seen and appreciated.

SLurl Details

2025 SL viewer release summaries week #10

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

Updates from the week through to Sunday, March 9th, 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.
  • Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Default viewer: 7.1.12.13550888671, formerly the ForeverFPS, dated March 1, 2025, promoted March 5th – NEW.
    • Numerous crash and performance fixes.
    • Water exclusion surfaces.
    • Water improvements.
  • Project viewer:
    • Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha, version 7.1.12.13526902562, March 3rd, 2025 – NEW.
      • Will only work on Aditi, within the following regions: [Luau Yardang], [Luau Tombolo], [Luau Mesa] and [Luau Tideland].

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • Kirstens Viewer S24 – Build 2068 – Beta 2 – March 7 – release notes.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable: 1.32.2.39, March 8, 2025 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • SL Mobile (Beta) version 2025.1.544 / 0.5.534 – Lobby – March 3,  2025.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links