Premium Plus Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme – Tiki style units
The newest Linden Homes theme – this one again for Premium Plus subscribers – was launched on Monday, February 3rd, 2025. Entitled Thousand Islands, it comprises the tiki-style homes – which topped-out the list of requested Linden Homes styles – and, for the first time for any Linden Home theme, underwater Grotto Homes.
Set around tropically-styled islands, both themes occupy and same shallow waters, the tiki homes sitting on rafts and the grotto homes scattered across the sandy bottom of the seas, marked by their own floating platforms. As common with Linden Homes, each type come in different styles – six for Tiki, two for Grotto.
Premium Plus Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme – Ohana Tiki Home
The Tiki comprise:
Luau – two circular interconnected rooms, a circular pool with a surrounding deck, and a covered deck with an upper level curricular room reached via an external spiral staircase.
Ohana – a total of five interconnected circular lower-level rooms, two with upper level connected rooms reached via an interior stairway, with the larger having a balcony. A kidney-shaped pool with large deck area fronts the design with a smaller deck to the rear.
Premium Plus Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme – Puka Tiki Home
Puka – a suite of three interconnected circular rooms with a wrap-around deck outside, fronted by a circular pool.
Lanai – A rectangular multi-room structure built around three sides of a swimming pool, with covered front walkway / deck and an exposed deck.
Premium Plus Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme – Liani Tiki Home
Makai – a main room and two (bedroom?) wings to either side, all built around a raised deck fronted by a lower deck with swimming pool, and two smaller decks to the rear.
Hula – circular in from with a single round roof over a central room with glass floor section (which can be “shuttered” with wood), fronted by a covered deck to the front and flanked to either side and the rear by three rooms, each with access to a narrow wrap-around deck.
Premium Plus Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme – Puka Tiki Home
The Grotto homes come is two similar styles: the Scallop and the Abalone, each taking the form of a large hollowed rock cut through with glazed window openings, fronts doors and interiors with self-like levels and spaces.
All of the new styles can be previewed at the BelliHub Linden home Demo area, and on first looks, the tiki styles are attractive, with the Ohana giving the greatest amount of internal space, albeit at the cost of mooring space of any boat you might want to leave rezzed out. By contrast, Lanai and Makai offer perhaps the easiest in direct mooring. The inclusion of swimming pools with most of the Tiki designs is a nice touch – although the pools with the Luau, Makai, Ohana styles could benefit from steps/ ladders for getting out of them, rather than having to rely on jumping / flying.
Premium Plus Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme – Abalone (l) and Scallop (r) Grotto homes
The release of the Thousand Islands theme came with a blog post announcing it to be part of a Month of Surprises for Members – those with a Plus, Premium or Premium Plus subscription to Second Life. This being the case, members should keep their eyes on the official blog through the rest of February.
Between the Clouds, February 2025 – click any image for full size
Over the years I’ve covered many of region settings designed by Bella (BellaSwan Blackheart), and have always enjoyed my time exploring them and taking photos. So when I saw via Bella’s Second Life profile that she now has a place called Between the Clouds, I was curious to see what it might be all about.
Sitting within a Full region split into 16 4096 sq metre parcels – something which, as a by-the-by, I haven’t dropped into in a very long time – Between the Clouds is much smaller than Bella’s other settings. As a result, and upon arrival, the setting might be mistaken as a sky build mostly comprising building shells and – other than upper portion of a tower block apparently thumbing its nose at gravity – little else. But first impressions often deceive, and such is the case here: there is a lot going on and waiting to be discovered.
Between the Clouds, February 2025
Welcome to this little hideaway high upon the sky and discover the hidden spots this place has to offer. Feel free to enter the buildings that are accessible and hang out wherever you want. No nudity or any sexual activities please!
– Between the Clouds About Land description
Take, for example that floating tower block roof area; it forms the setting’s Landing Point, and the rooftop on which people arrive is speckled by colourful paper cranes whilst the roof over the elevator winch room has been imaginatively turned into a little swimming pool.
Between the Clouds, February 2025
The stairs alongside the winch room lead down to the rest of the remnants of the tower – including the upper doors of an elevator shaft. However, given the rest of the building is not longer there, trying to call for the elevator might be a little difficult. Instead, the stairways offers the most immediate route down – but do beware of the last step, it’s a big one (although a paddling pool has thoughtfully been provided to enable incoming bodies to splash down 😀 ).
Further progress to the setting’s street level requires a further leap of faith. Or at least a leap; one which will drop you down into a grassy courtyard with little businesses tucked into it – although most of these appear to have been shuttered and to have seen better days.
Between the Clouds, February 2025
Two routes out of this courtyard are offered; a narrow alley link through to a much larger square, again overgrown with grass and around which various businesses are arrayed on the ground floors of stubby apartment blocks, one of which appears to have never been completed. The second route away from the courtyard is via stairs leading between more squat buildings. However, this doesn’t go too far – but it down offer a route to a couple more of the little spaces set aside throughout the setting for people to sit an pass the time.
What then of all the little details I mentioned? Well, these take many forms – find the right door, and you can take the stairs up to a trio of small apartments being put to various uses, for example. Another door offers a similar upwards climb ending in the rather unsettling sight of a couple of hazmat-suited figures in heavy gas masks apparently observing the square from behind the gaping maws of frameless windows, one of which has an equally not-too-reassuring sign reading FALLOUT SHELTER beneath it. This little tableau, together with the office space in the same building where a monitor screen warns NO SIGNAL PLEASE STAND BY, possibly offer the makings of a narrative for the setting – but I’ll leave you to work out what form any story might take.
Between the Clouds, February 2025
Also in the large square is a sturdy builder’s scaffold; but while there are building blocks on and under it, it now appears to be in support of a stone statue and fountain, adding another mystery to the setting – a mystery furthered by the apparent hints of habitation which suggest whoever lived here may have rapidly departed: bicycles sit in a rack or propped against walls along with a deserted moped; underwear hangs on a washing line; slippers await feet by an armchair and, most intriguingly of all, a pair of glasses holding paper papers with scribbled sketches and partner by an old cell phone and a stagnant cup of tea, as if suddenly abandoned.
Not that the place is entirely devoid of life; beside the two strange figures up in the apartment building, this is a place rich in bird song and the cooing of pigeons; there’s even a big dog apparently awaiting the return of its owner, who appears to have left some handwritten cards and little bear (perhaps a toy for the dog?) on the bench – and I’ll leave you to find the other dog 🙂 . Then there are the setting’s cats; around a dozen of them are scattered around, some keeping an eye on things, other catching up on their sleep – and one taking on the role of an unusual star of a television!
Between the Clouds, February 2025
Deceptively engaging, Between the Clouds is one of those locations which demonstrates you don’t have to have a complete region in which to allow your imagine loose; small can be equally as a captivating and photogenic.
NASA’s SLS, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and SpaceX’s Starship / Super Heavy. Credit: NASA, Blue Origin and SpaceX
NASA’s Project Artemis, which plans to return humans to the Moon, is being increasingly strained under the weight of multiple opinions and as a result of on-going delays.
In December, NASA confirmed it is pushing back the next mission in the programme, Artemis 2 – intended to fly a crew of 4 around the Moon and back to Earth – back to April 2026, with the first lunar landing now not occurring until at least mid-2027 (see: Space Sunday: of Artemis and Administrators). More recently, the agency has attempted to walk back on the Artemis 2 mission date by saying April 2026 is the “at the latest” target, but efforts are focused on trying to offer a “work to” date which could be somewhat sooner.
In the interim, here have been calls from several different points on the compass calling for the abandonment of the current technology route for Artemis – the Space Launch System and Orion – and replace them with “something better”. Others are calling for “alternatives” to be used in place of the Space Launch System, which is regarded as the most crippling element of the Artemis programme on the basis of costs – critics citing its US $4 billion per launch cost and thus pointing to “cheaper” alternatives.
For example, claims have been made that Artemis 2 could still go ahead “simply” by substituting Blue Origin’s New Glenn as the Orion launch vehicle, and having Orion rendezvous and mate with a ULA Centaur upper stage placed in orbit by that company’s Vulcan launch vehicle (Centaur being the Vulcan upper stage), and using the Centaur to boost Orion on its way to the Moon. However, such a claim simply does not stand up to any reasonable examination due to the number and extend of changes that would be required, including:
Significant alterations to New Glenn’s upper stage to handle Orion’s larger diameter, including an entirely new vehicle mount and new fairings to enclose Orion’s European Service Module (ESM).
Alterations to the vehicles aerodynamics as a result of the above modifications in order to maintain stability during launch and ascent.
A complete re-working of the Orion launch abort system (LAS), which has been designed specifically to work with SLS.
Significant upgrades and alterations to the New Glenn launch facilities at Space Launch Complex 36, Canaveral Space Force Station, in order to support Orion and its systems while on the pad.
As New Glenn is designed to have its payload integrated horizontally, and Orion is designed to be integrated into SLS vertically, it is likely significant changes would have to be made to either Blue Origin’s payload integration workflow / systems and / or Orion to accommodate mating both on a horizontal basis.
Among other things, Blue Origin’s New Glenn is designed for horizontal vehicle integration and transport to the launch pad; NASA’s Orion is designed for vertical integration / transport to the launch pad. Credit: Blue Origin
None of these issues are insurmountable, but the idea that they could be implemented in a manner that would allow Artemis 2 to go ahead in anything like the current time scales NASA is looking at, or without delaying Artemis as a whole, is frankly ludicrous. Nor do the problems end there.
With a combined mass of 26.5 tonnes, Orion and its ESM are too heavy for New Glenn to boost directly to the Moon – hence the suggested use of the Vulcan Centaur upper stage. However, this would require on-orbit rendezvous and docking between Orion and Centaur, something for which neither is designed – so the idea simply added another level of complexity to missions, which in turn will require even more expenditure (with NASA undoubtedly footing the bill) and additional delays while the vehicles are modified and tested.
Finally, and in the case of Artemis 2, the fact remains that the delay to that mission doesn’t lie with SLS – it is because of concerns over Orion’s heat shield, with NASA wanting to delay the mission so that additional studies can be carried out around optimising the capsule’s re-entry profile to minimise the kind of excessive ablation (aka “char loss”) seen in the initial SLS / Orion flight.
As to “replacing” the entire hardware roster – something the SpaceX CEO has called for – the answer has to be – with what? People will point to that company’s Starship / Super Heavy, but the fact is, that system has yet to achieve a single orbit of Earth – and is a very long way for being certified for (or capable of) carrying humans. A more viable solution might be to utilise Dragon XL and Falcon Heavy; NASA already see this combination as viable for resupply missions to the proposed Lunar Gateway station. But Dragon XL isn’t designed to carry humans and Falcon Heavy isn’t certified for crewed launches; so again, a switch could lead to protracted delays to Artemis and even more expenditure – which might well benefit SpaceX financially, but on its own will do little to move Artemis forward.
Dragon XL: an uncrewed cargo vehicle NASA has requested from SpaceX to deliver cargo to to the Lunar Gateway station. Credit: SpaceX
Hence why the Companies involved in the current Artemis lunar exploration campaign are urging the new administration and their prospective new NASA Administrator not to rock the boat, arguing the current architecture still offers the fastest way of getting humans back to the Moon from the United States. The simple fact is, that while there is nothing wrong with developing alternatives to SLS / Orion for future use; if NASA (and more importantly, the US government) want to reach the Moon without becoming serious stalled for years beyond the current delays, SLS / Orion remains, at this point in time, the most practical path to doing so.
2024 YR4Sparks Planetary Defence Response – But There’s No Need to Panic
Estimated to be somewhere in the region of 50-60 metres across, 2024 YR4 is an Earth-crossing Apollo-type asteroid discovered on December 27th, 2024 and which – as of February 2nd, 2025 has a 1 in 71 (1.4%) chance of entering Earth’ atmosphere in December 2032.
A stony S-type or L-type asteroid was spotted just two days after it has passed just 828,000 km from Earth. It is now moving away from Earth and will make its next close approach in June 2028. The overall threat of the asteroid striking Earth is subject to further refinement. However, on January 29th, 2025, the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) issued a warning that if the asteroid does impact Earth, possible impact sites include over the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 imaged by an Earth-based observatory on January 27th, 2025, illustrating the difficulty in observing it – even with a large telescope, the asteroid is almost indistinguishable from far more distant star unless its motion on successive observations is recorded. Credit: NASA
However, it is highly likely that as more observations are made utilising both ground- and space-based observatories and capabilities, the risk of impact will decline, not increase: hence the IAWN issuing a “first step” planetary defence response; they want as many eyes on the asteroid as it retreats from Earth so that the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun and how it might be influenced over time can be more precisely calculated. In this it is also estimated that rather than impacting in 2032, the asteroid will come to within approx. 277,000 km of Earth – which is still closer than the orbit of the Moon.
Were the asteroid to impact, it would do so at a 17.32 kilometres per second. Given its size and composition (both similar to the asteroid which likely caused the Tunguska event of 1908), any such impact would most likely result in an air burst of between 7 and 8 megatons rather than the asteroid actually striking the surface of the planet, likely resulting in a radius of destruction of some 50 km.
The project corridor of impact were asteroid 2024 YR4 to impact Earth in 2032
With the asteroid retreating from Earth, opportunities for gathering detailed data are limited, but will improve once more during the 2028 close approach, when the risk of impact in 2032 can be more accurately refined. Should the risk of impact then or in a further close approach remain, then a DART-style mission could be sent to prevent the impact.
“Life Here Began Out There”
Battlestar Galactica fans may well recognise the above quote, but the question as to whether life on Earth may have had a kick-start from beyond the planet has long been a tantalising one. In 2016, NASA launched OSIRIS-REx, a mission to recover samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu. As I’ve previously covered, those samples were returned to Earth in September 2023 and have been undergoing study.
Two teams studying the samples have found that not only do the pristine building blocks for life, they also contain the salty remains of an ancient water world. In particular the sodium-rich minerals contain amino acids, nitrogen in the form of ammonia and even parts of the genetic code. Meanwhile, the salts found within the examined samples are very similar to those found within the ancient lakebeds of the Mojave and Sahara deserts.
This image provided by NASA shows a top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample inside. Credit: NASA
Combining the ingredients of life – the minerals with their amino acids, etc., – with and environment of sodium-rich water, as suggested by the salty deposits in the sample, is regarded as “the pathway to life”, and the organic materials also found within the sample appear to support this. They further lend credence to the idea that Bennu was once a part of a much larger body which contained liquid water within it, but which was shattered through impacts, evaporating the liquids and leaving remnants like Bennu containing evidence of the basic building blocks of life. If this happened with Bennu’s parent object, it potentially happened with other bodies in the early solar system, and it is possible that fragments from those incidents found their way to Earth to help kick-start life.
Most of the Bennu sample is being preserved for comparison with samples with future missions, but the published result from these studies have led to a renewal of calls for a mission to collect samples from the icy dwarf planet of Ceres, visited by NASA’s Dawn mission, entering orbit there in March 2015, and where it remains, inoperative, to this day. During its study of Ceres, the mission’s spacecraft revealed the dwarf has a surface of hydrated minerals on its surface and likely has channels of brine flowing through its mantle which could hold further clues on the origins of life.
Starliner Update
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) provided something of an update on the status of investigations into the reported issues affecting Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle, following the problems experience with the propulsion units on the vehicle’s service module during the Crew Flight Test in mid-2024.
Although largely successful, the latter left significant question marks over the reliability of the vehicle’s thruster systems, and saw NASA exercise significant caution in not allowing the test crew of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to return to Earth aboard the vehicle, although the Calypso capsule did ultimately return to Earth safely in September 2024.
The Boeing Starliner, comprising capsule Calypso and an expendable service module (the propulsion units of which lead to problems) docked at the ISS during the Crew Flight Test, June, 2024
Most notably, the ASAP update indicated that the capsule has been cleared, and a number of issues reports relating to the service module have now been closed. However, it also indicated the issues related to the service module’s thrusters – the primary cause of problems during the crew test flight – remain open and subject to both further testing campaigns. In this, the update was frustrating, in that beyond general statements of progress, specifics were not provided, and both NASA and Boeing have remained tight-lipped on the subject of the propulsion system since the Crew Flight Test.
As a result – whilst positive for the Starliner capsule units, the update does little to update on how or when the system will next fly; in October 2024, NASA indicated it was keeping the door open to a possible Starliner launch in 2025 – although whether or not this will be another test flight (either crewed or uncrewed) or an all-up 6-month crew rotation flight has yet to be finalised, and following the ASAP update, NASA indicated a possible flight was still on the cards, although it is not clear how any such flight would slot into the current ISS launch manifest.
Insomnia, or sleeplessness, is a terms which might all have some familiarity with, although its definition covers a broad range of conditions and circumstances in which a person has trouble sleeping. In fact, the conditions under which insomnia can occur are so broad, analysis of the problem through study either by randomised controlled trials or via systematic review can lead to very different outcomes and even biased in findings.
Very broadly speaking, insomnia might be split into insomnia disorder (ID), which might de defined as protracted difficulties in sleeping and obtaining rest which might be tied to specific health / lifestyle / psychological issues, and insomnia symptoms, which refers more to shorter (but equally intense) periods where our sleep is disrupted due to briefer onsets of one or more of the symptoms of insomnia. The latter may run from simply eating a large meal too late in to evening and being unable to sleep while the digestive system continues to chug away through to the more recognised symptoms of insomnia such as a rise in anxiety or fear, and similar emotional condition or when we “can’t turn our brains off” as a result of something that occurred during the waking hours.
Whatever form it takes, between 10% and 30% of all adults can be suffering from insomnia at any given time, and around half of all adults will experience insomnia symptoms of one form or another during the course of a year – with up to 6% of them dipping into ID lasting more than a month.
Artsville, February 2025: Filipa Emor – Insomnia
It is these latter aspects of insomnia which are examined within the individual pieces making up Insomnia, an immersive installation by Bee (Filipa Emor) within a sky Gallery at Artsville. In doing to, the pieces come together to offer a broader perspective on Insomnia Disorder as a whole; one that is perhaps very personal to the artist – but through its individual parts, will doubtless hold meaning for each of us who visit.
Insomnia reminds us that the night is not just for dreams, but also for confronting our deepest thoughts … Each image is a fragment of my sleepless nights, shared to resonate with those who have also stared at the ceiling, chasing sleep.
– Bee (Filipa Emor)
Insomnia is also a genuine tour-de-force of artistic exploration and exposition; the arts and the space within which it is displayed – and designed by the inimitable Konrad (Kaiju Kohime) – combine to present an installation seeped in meaning and metaphor, inviting exploration and provoking contemplation. When visiting, you must have local sounds enabled to fully experience the installation and make sure you are using the Shared Environment; both are essential to this visual and physical journey.
Artsville, February 2025: Filipa Emor – Insomnia
Both the art and the environment are presented in monochrome tones of white and black – appropriate, given the subject – which combine to give sense of chiaroscuro which spreads from the individual pieces of art to encompass the entire installation, increasing the sense of being caught within that strange space and state where we hover listlessly between sleep and wakefulness; a space prowled by thoughts and inner demons intent on preventing us from passing peacefully from the former to the latter as the night hours pass.
Each piece here portrays a different facet of sleeplessness: the longing, the struggle, and the strange beauty of being awake while the world dreams. Insomnia reminds us that the night is not just for dreams, but also for confronting our deepest thoughts.
– Bee (Filipa Emor)
I don’t want to offer my interpretations of the images Bee presents; I have little doubt they will resonate in a personal, intimate way for anyone seeing them. What I will say about them is that they are designed to be touched, fading and brightening in a portrayal of the struggle to find sleep and thought roil within. They also have an order to them, as indicated by the clock display under each one, marking the passage of the night as they progress from the far side of the information board at the landing point, and progress counter-clockwise around the installation’s lower level.
Artsville, February 2025: Filipa Emor – Insomnia
Accompanying the images are quotes on the nature of sleep, restlessness, insomnia and the soul. Some of these also brighten and dim on being touched, in reflection of the flux of being they each represent. Located higher up within the installation, they are reached by stairways and walkways – as does a bed in one corner. Together these two climbs present metaphors: one for our rising desire to find the sanctuary of sleep as the heartbeat ticking of passing time torment us, and the other the physical act of climbing the stairs to find our bed – possibly accompanied by thoughts of whether it will be to sleep – or to lie trapped in thought.
Beautifully expressive and presented, Insomnia should not be missed.
Campwich Forest grounds: location for the Monthly Mobile User Group (MMUG)
The following notes were taken from the Thursday, January 30th 2025 Monthly Mobile User Group (MMUG) meeting.
These notes should not be taken as a full transcript of the meeting, which was largely held in Voice, but rather a summary of the key topics discussed. For this initial meeting, video recording was not permitted, we hope that changes with future meetings.
The Monthly Mobile User Group provides a platform to share insights on recent mobile updates and upcoming features, and to receive feedback directly from users.
These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
The last Thursday of every month at 12:00 noon SLT.
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.
Ability to create accounts via Mobile, including creating an initial avatar and logging in using the existing new joiner workflow.
SL Mobile – the ability to create a Second Life account from within the app
Addition of an Address Bar to the app, making it possible to:
Search landmarks /create landmarks.
Share SLurls with people on other apps (Discord, Reddit, WhatsApp, etc.) via the native share cards found in Android and iOS.
Allow maps.secondlife.com work on the Mobile App.
Coming soon – the SL Mobile: Address Bar
The new Lobby feature, intended to enable communications, allow users to see who is on-line and provide general information whilst the app continues to load things like the 3D world view in the background.
This is also seen as a means for those on lower / mid-tier mobile devices to make use of the App as a communications tool.
Coming soon: the SL Mobile: Lobby
Other work in progress includes:
Providing quicker access to chat when using the app.
Providing the means to indicate which Group notifications you wish to see pushed to your mobile device.
Improving in-world interactions within the app – making it easier to identify objects with which an avatar can interact, and know that something is happening when long-pressing an interactive object.
The identification will initially likely be the display of a timer under the finger when placed on an interactive object – when the timer expires (approx. 1 second), the interaction (e.g. a dialogue box) will be initiated.
Once available, this will be iterated over time to include selections form things like list views, where appropriate, limiting selection by distance, etc.
Roadmap Approach
Grumpity Linden reiterated the approach to Mobile development is focused on batching together requests and feedback on what users would like to see (allowing for us all having different expectation / needs / wants), to build end-to-end experiences covering a specific aspect (“journey”) in using the app.
To help with this, Grumpity also indicated that feedback (preferably through the Mobile app using the Feedback option in the menu) is greatly appreciated and does go into thinking about the roadmap and feature set for SL Mobile.
Avatar Rendering
As there are numerous differences between avatar rendering / operation in Second Life and Unity (e.g. in SL the Z axis references vertical movement; in Unity it references horizontal back / forth movement; each system handles rigged meshes differently, etc.), the entire rendering system for SL Mobile has had to be built for the ground-up over a period of over a year.
While much progress has been made, the team acknowledge avatar rendering within Mobile is not as yet on a par with avatar rendering in the viewer, therefore more work is to be done in this area.
However, because the SL avatar system is so open, there are still numerous specific issues where avatars may not render correctly in SL Mobile for assorted reasons (such the the way an attachment has been made, how it attaches to the the avatar, etc).
These issues require fixing on a case-by-case basis (and the team already have a library of 50 such “avatar classes”), and each one must undergone extensive regression testing to make sure any custom fix does not break avatar rendering elsewhere.
This is a current focus of work, and users noting persistent rendering issues as a result of clothing / attachments are asked to report it via the Mobile app’s feedback option, including information on the attachment / item which seems to cause the problem they are seeing, and where a copy of it might be obtained.
Once the focus can turn from the above work, there are plans to further improve avatar rendering performance, making it more efficient – and thereby improve app performance as a whole.
There are some tonal differences in how avatars appear SL Mobile (e.g. skin tone). This is because SL and Unity use different approaches to rendering ambient light. Again, the hope is that in time, lighting in the Mobile app can be made more “viewer-like” to help reduce such issues, but, this work will take time to develop and deploy.
Avatar Transparency Issues
During the run-up to the initial release of the Mobile app there was concern as to whether or not the app would get through the vetting process and onto the major app stores, particularly in terms of the risk of avatars appearing nude during rendering.
The transparent avatar approach was specifically to solve this risk; keeping the avatar transparent until such time as it has fully loaded and be preventing it from rendering properly should an attachment fail to apply as expected.
Unfortunately, the system is not fool proof, and false positives can be received which result in an avatar becoming “stuck” in the transparent mode.
There is thought being given to help overcome this (e.g. by forcing the avatar transparency mode to time-out after a set period to allow the avatar to complete loading), but this has yet to be finalised.
Those who do have repeated issues with being stuck in transparent mode, even after an outfit change (e.g. via the Desktop viewer) should file a feedback report, and if possible indicate the item they think might be causing the problem.
Memory Use (and PBR Rendering)
Another key difference between Mobile and the viewer is (obviously) available system and video memory.
Computers running the desktop viewer generally have at least 4Gb of memory to play with, with those with dedicated GPU cards also have dedicated VRAM.
Mobile has around 500MB-1Gb to play with. This necessarily limits Mobile in some ways (e.g. dropping texture resolutions as limits are more easily hit, etc.). However, there is work being put into this in the hope of again making Mobile more efficient in its use of memory.
In the meantime, the fact that memory is limited is one of the primary reasons why, as yet, there has been no attempt to implement PBR rendering into the Mobile app, and it significantly ups memory use.
The memory limit is also the reason why the number of avatars SL Mobile can render is set so low: avatars have a high rendering / memory cost, and can push the app to its limits, stopping other things from rendering – including leaving avatars transparent.
HUDs: something the Lab would like to implement for Mobile, but the volume and complexity of HUDs in use, the screen space they require, etc., does make coming up with a suitable means of handling them difficult.
The likely approach to this will again be iterative: initially offering support for very basic HUDs, and then working up from there.
However, team resources are such that focusing on this as a multi-month project when there are other areas of Mobile to be enhanced and features possibly more easily implemented, means it is somewhat lower on the list.
Inventory:
Another intensive task.
A preview of the work currently being done is in the Mobile app – the Select Outfit option, which is seen as a first step towards inventory support in Mobile.
Exactly what will follow this as it is implemented, is still subject to a final decision.
Mobile is generating a lot of new user traffic into SL, although precise metrics were not available at the meeting.
Date of Next Meeting
12:00 SLT, Thursday, February 27th, 2025, at Campwich Forest.
Streak rewards are available to some users of the SL Mobile app as an experiment
The most recent update to SL Mobile – version 2025.01.538 Android) / 0.1.530 (iOS), dated January 14th, 2025 – introduced an experimental rewards scheme for some of those those using the app to log-in to Second Life, in order to encourage daily engagement through the app.
Encouragement of this kind is referred to as “streaks”, and can be used as a form of incentive to encourage or maintain specific routines or achieve daily goals through game mechanics, or some form of reward in return for engagement. Snapchat for example offers “collectible” emojis to users who exchange Snaps through the app with one another on a daily basis; meanwhile Roblox includes the ability for users to build their own streaks rewards systems into their games. With SL Mobile, the rewards take the form of modest (and incremental) offerings of Linden dollars.
The idea behind the experiment with SL Mobile is to see how rewards might influence people’s use of the Mobile app – particularly those referred to as “lapsed” Second Life users; those who have walked away from the platform and who have, according to Brad Oberwager, cited a lack of Mobile access as being one of the contributing factors for them doing so. This aim was also reiterated by Bridie Linden, the Project Manager for SL Mobile during the inaugural Monthly Mobile User Group meeting.
Some of you may have noticed we are doing an experiment that is trying to encourage follows to come back to Second Life and increase their engagement. So [it is] a log-in rewards offering. Not everyone will see the same thing, because we’re trying different variations in incentives.
Bridie Linden, SL Mobile Project Manager, January 30th, 2025
As it is currently an experiment and subject to A/B testing related to the general use of SL Mobile, not all users downloading the app or currently using it will be able to engage with the streaks rewards, as Grumpity Linden also explained during the same meeting:
Currently, log-in rewards are only available to subscribers, but not all who are subscribers will have the same experience; so I’m not going to say you should subscribe if you want to get log-in rewards in Linden dollars, because that’s not always going to be the case. But if you’re already a subscriber, you should check-out Mobile, and come back every day and see whether, maybe [you have the option]– because we’re going to continue tweaking this programme. Obviously, we want people to be happy, and we want this to be successful.
– Grumpity Linden, January 30th, 2025
To find out if you are eligible to join (and have not already done so – I am intentionally late in reporting on this scheme as I’ve been poking at it for the last 8 days), proceed as follows:
Start SL Mobile on your device and log-in.
Click the Menu button (top left, three horizontal bars) to open the menu.
If you are eligible to join the experiment, you will have a Streaks button displayed in your menu Highlighted below, left).
Tap the Streaks button to opt-in to the scheme and start the clock counting down to when you can claim your first rewards (which appears to be set to L$15 for everyone).
Those who are included in the initial testing can opt-in to the Streaks rewards by going to SL Mobile’s menu and tapping the Streaks icon (if available), to opt-in to the the rewards
Note the two sliders t the bottom of the Streaks screen allowing you toggle daily streak messages as soon as you log-in to the app off/ on, and to opt out / in to Streaks, both of which are enabled (“on” and opted-in) by default.
Once you have joined Streaks, rewards can be claimed daily, starting with the initial L$15. In addition, please note:
The amount of the reward offered each day increments (e.g. L$15 on “day 1”; L$20 on “day 2”).
The amount by which the daily rewards increments also increases the longer a streak continues (e.g. rising from a L$5 increment per day to (first) L$10 increments per day).
Streaks appear to last for 7 consecutive days before the reward amount automatically resets to L$15 (or you miss a daily log-in), and you start over again.
To claim a daily reward:
Log-in to the SL Mobile app. Your Streaks status should be automatically displayed unless you have turned off the daily login message, in which case, open the app’s menu and tap the Streaks button.
The display should tell you the amount available to claim, and the incremented amount that will be available for you to claim in 24-hours’ time (below left).
Tap the Claim button to claim the available amount and have it added to your SL amount L$ balance, and update your Streaks status (below centre).
Claiming daily Streaks is required to transfer them to your account L$ balance (left and centre). Streaks appear to rest to the baseline L$15 after around 7 days
Per the notes above, Streaks rewards appear to increment of a 7-day period, and then reset to the initial L$15 (see the image above right) and build up again. However, whether this is an infinite cycle or also limited; I have no idea.
As a means of encouraging users (current and “lapsed” to use SL Mobile, this is an interesting approach; I’d been particularly interested in how much traction it gets amount its intended primary audience – “lapsed” users – over time, and in how well it might act as incentive as new users are able to sign-up to Second Life through the app. However, we’ll hear more on both in due course.
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