Author: Inara Pey

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

Previewing The Dickens Project 2024 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Dickens Project, a seasonal celebration of the life, times and work of Charles Dickens with a focus on what is perhaps his most famous story, A Christmas Carol, officially opens to the public on Friday, December 6th, 2024.

Now a tradition within Second Life – the first edition of the event was held in 2012 (and which itself grew out of a special presentation originally made in 2008), the Dickens Project offers a mix of reading, storytelling, music, events and activities. It is organised and presented by Seanchai Library and offers visitors an immersive environment across two regions evocative of Victorian England in Dickens’ time. Within this settings, Seanchai Library and friends will be hosting a variety of events and activities, including readings of A Christmas Carol.

This year brings with it new features and tools to help visitors feel more immersed within the setting. These include:

  • A Personal Audio HUD (developed by Shandon Loring) and a Map HUD: (developed by Arrehn Oberlander) designed to assist guests in connecting the words of Dickens’ novella with the created environment and sorting through the many “Points of Interest” across both regions of the setting. Both will be available at the Welcome Centre and various locations around the Project. The Map HUD required accepting the Caledonian Studios SL Experience which is also used for the regions’ teleportal system.
The Dickens Project 2024 Feature Markers
  • Feature Markers to help guests discover points of engagement including task animations. These comprise:
    • The red hammers icon: indicating that here you can perform a task such as baking a pie, hammering out a horseshoe, chopping wood, weaving baskets or making gingerbread.
    • The blue camera icon: indicating a pose scene is available for you and your friends to use and take pictures.
    • The green people icon: denoting that there is a sitting action available including things like drinking tea and cakes in a shop, playing a game. There are also scenes available where you can mind a store, or a market stall, or tend a fire.
The Dickens Project 2024

Readings and Events

The Dickens performing community is back in force this year, including opening weekend performances by Angelicus Boy Choir, the opening celebration of the Hermes Kondor art show, and a reading presentation by Poet Klannex Northmead from Dickens’ “Little Dorrit.”

These are all in addition to the live story reading programs which Seanchai Library is known for.  The popular Carol Week will begin on Friday, December 20th with a section of Dickens’ novella presented live each day in a Story Tour presentation at the sites on the estate inspired by the story.

Also returning for 2024 is the Community Virtual Library, once again providing research and information on Victorian life in the time of Dickens’ works; the Angelicus Boy Choir; the Raglan Shire Tiny Carollers; the Seanchai readers and friends, and, of course a broad range of entertainment and parties featuring DJs and live musicians from across Second Life.

The full calendar of events for the Project is provided below – note all times are SLT.

To keep up-to-date on daily events and updates, be sure to keep an eye on the Seanchai Library website.

Important Note: The Dickens Project uses several Experience-based systems including Caledonian Studios, Quantum Products, and MetaHarpers Interactive Theatre for teleportation and to enhance guests interaction. If you are prompted to join any of these Experiences during your visit, please ensure you accept them.

Dickens Project Art Show

Returning for 2024 is the Dickens Project Art Show, which is currently open (until December 16th, 2024) to submissions from artists wishing to participate.

This is a non-juried show which will formally open on December 22nd, 2024 with a special opening celebration at 11:00 SLT on that day, and will run through until January 5th, 2025. Artists are invited to submit 2D art (some 3D art can be accommodated by arrangement), with the organisers given priority to art with the following themes:

  • Elements of The Dickens Project.
  • Victorian Christmas.
  • Winter beauty.

Multiple submissions are allowed, but the number of works shown per artist may be limited in order to allow as many artists to be represented as possible.

Submissions (and enquiries about the Art Show) should be made via notecard to Stevie Basevi, with submissions no later that December 16th, 2024. These notecards should include: the artist’s full SL Name (that is, Display Name and account name); the artist’s physical world time zone or best SL times when they can be contacted; a brief description of the piece + an artist biography; a *preview* image of the art to be submitted (i.e. a lower-resolution, thumbnail copy in order to provide the organisers with an idea of the work – not the art itself); and optional links to a related website, Flickr page, etc., for the artist.

The Dickens Project 2024

About Seanchai Library

Seanchai Library (pronounced Shawn-a-kee, which means “Storyteller” in Irish Gaelic.) was founded in March of 2008 in Second Life. The program remains dedicated to promoting the power of stories to transform and inspire through live voice presentations: “We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life and other virtual worlds.”

The Dickens Project was created for Seanchai Library by Da5id Abbot, Dagmar Kohime, Gloriana Maertens, Stevie Basevi-Morane, Iniry Vaher, and Caledonia Skytower, in presenting it, Seanchai Library acknowledges the support and sponsorship of Linden Lab.

Links and SLurls

December 2024 SL Web User Group summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby
The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday December 4th, 2024. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting, recorded by Pantera Północy, is embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks as always to Pantera for recording it and making it available. Table of Contents

Meeting Overview

  • The Web User Group exists to provide an opportunity for discussion on Second Life web properties and their related functionalities / features. This includes, but is not limited to: the Marketplace, pages surfaced through the secondlife.com dashboard; the available portals (land, support, etc), the forums.
  • As a rule, these meetings are conducted:
    • On the first Wednesday of the month and 14:00 SLT.
    • In both Voice and text.
    • At this location.
  • 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.

General Update

[Video: 1:59-3:59 and 6:18-8:45]

  • Marketplace UI: work on updating the marketplace with a new user interface is described as being in the final stages of internal testing and thus “very close”.
  • Second Life Dashboard (secondlife.com): this is also being updated to a new design, and there is a chance it may be deployed in the next month / during January 2025.
  • Web Log-in and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): this is ongoing work to update the Second Life web log-in splash screen to a new design which will will work better on all devices, and will support MFA.
  • Marketplace MFA: work is continuing on adding MFA to the Marketplace.
  • Also in the works:
    • Changes to Linden Home store, adding some UI updates.
    • Updating the Second Life web maps – described as “still in early design”. Some of this work was mentioned in the November meeting – also see below.

Single Sign-On

  • [Video: 5:28-5:58] The subject of single sign-on (SSO) – allowing a user to log-in with a single ID to several related but independent services (e.g. SL dashboard, the Marketplace, (possibly) the viewer, etc.), just once (and possibly with unified authentication factors) Has often bee requested  – and looked at – by the Lab. In response to SSO being raised at this meeting, Sntax Linden responded:
SO and Federated login is something we have been looking at doing in the future. The MFA on web login and marketplace will just be reusing the existing MFA we have on viewer and mobile.

Gifting Marketplace Items

[Video: 7:09-8:45 and 11:44-24:06]

  • This has been discussed at past meetings. Gifting is seen as confusing for some (having the Add to Cart as Gift and Buy Now buttons so close together suggests Buy Now must be clicked when gifting); plus the Shopping Cart is often used as a means of storing things people might be interested in purchasing, but as gifting is tied to it, carts must be cleared of anything stored therein.
  • As such, requests have been made for a direct means of gifting items in a manner similar to the Buy Now button (e.g. an “Gift Now”) button.
  • Commenting on this,  Juniper Linden said:
We do have some updates to the gift UI coming out soon-ish; minor changes to that flow that might be better but nothing like “gift now”
  • Sntax indicated the MP team will get to gifting as soon as they can.
  • The basic requirement for this was seen as a simple button within listings, per above.
    • However, maintaining the ability to still add gifts to the cart as an option was also seen as useful – so having the “Gift Now” button present the current steps for gifting (enter recipient’s name + an optional message) followed by options to send the gift directly or add it to the Shopping Cart was seen as the optimal solution.
  • The main pressure from the meeting was to have some form of “band-aid” solution for direct gifting, and then refine things after-the-fact. This was seen as the preferable course of action.
  • This conversation also spiralled into use of legacy (user) names over Display Names and mis-gifting people.

Second Life Web Maps

[Video: 28:09-54:59]

  • As noted above, LL are looking at updating the Second Life web maps (https://maps.secondlife.com/), and to this end, a series of questions were asked on the functionality they provide:
    • Do people use the web maps or just the in-viewer World Map. Probably fair to say the if a broad audience were asking, there would be a reasonable split between “viewer” and “both”.
    • Is the Create Your Own SLurl option in the viewer World Map a useful option?
    • Do people use the Destination Guide element of the web maps to find places?
    • Do people use the Search option on web maps?
A Second Life web map (https://maps.secondlife.com/) showing: 1. the Create Your Own Map Link option (opens a dialogue box), 2. search bar option and 3. the  Picks Destination Guide 
  • That those at the meeting assumed that these questions were focused on the viewer’s World Map (with ensuing confusion as to the Search and Destination Guide questions) is possibly indicative as to how often the web maps are directly used (although eight people at a meeting is far too small a sample from which to draw meaningful conclusions).
  • Web Maps are frequently used, however – and possibly without people realising they are a map system – when clicking on SLurls included in things like blog posts, etc., in order to locate and teleport to the region / location in question.
  • The above spread to a discussion on sharing SLurls and how people go about it (including the misconception that the viewer World Map does not allow for the copying / creation of SLurl, despite the large button at the bottom of the Map legend).
  • A request was made for possible information to be added to the SL maps. Replies focused on the viewer World Map and included:
    • A “show rez zones” option.
    • A “show Set Home locations” option to help new users to find regions where they can set their home position.
    • Ability to find out more about  location via the map. Fore example, clicking on a location on map.scondlife.com gives a default dialogue (which LL have stated will be updated to actually reflect the region information) – having this available for regions / parcels on the viewer World Map was suggested (on a mouse-over hover?).
    • Whether or not a location is open to public teleporting  / a user’s ability to teleport (e.g.  whether there is a minimum age set for access, or access is controlled by having Payment Information on File).

General Discussion

  • The last 10 minutes of the meeting focused on issues around links to outdated videos on web properties such as Where Next? the Support portal, etc., and the potential negative impact they have on new users / incoming new users.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, January 8th, 2025.

Winter 2024 at Le Monde Perdu in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024 – click any image for full size

‘Twas off back to Luane’s World at Le Monde Perdu for me at the start of December, and a visit to LuaneMeo’s always-engaging public region.

As one might expect given it’s the end of the year, the region has been redressed for a northern hemisphere winter, with Luane working with Gorba McMahon to bring visitors a lot to see and do within and snow-covered landscape.

Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024
A white winter blanket has settled over Luane’s World, a Nordic-inspired haven with charming red houses by a frozen lake. Explore the illuminated Christmas market in the village, then take a chairlift to a cosy mountain bar. Ski or sledge through snowy forests and down to the rocky shore to uncover a stunning ice cave with a museum of ice statues. On the island’s other side, visit a quaint fishing hamlet with a rugged, captivating atmosphere. Wonders await—so wander, explore, and enjoy!

– Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu Winter 2024 description

For this iteration of the region, the land forms and inverted U around a cold water bay, watched over from the south by two mountainous off-region islands. The landing point is located on the western headland, where stands a little Nordic-style village with something of a carnival atmosphere about it. A Ferris wheel offers rides, the houses are cosy and warm, and a little skating rink has been set-up, complete with little stalls selling refreshments and goodies to keep people warm, with plenty of seating scattered around.

Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024

Low-lying, the headland and village overlook the semi-frozen waters of the bay, with the second headland away to the east also marked by buildings, these built right against the shoreline. To reach them, people can either make their way around the region on foot (or using one of the forms of land transport dotted around!), or they can cross the bay directly using either an inflatable boat or – in quite a novel option – by taking a bumper car over the ice!

When crossing the water, I’d advise saying clear of the polar bears out on the larger ice floes; they might look cuts and cuddly, but my experience (such as it is) is that you can never be sure that if one mentions “lunch” to you, it is and invitation or a recognition that you’re edible 😀 .

Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024

The buildings on the far side of the bay form a little fishing locale; it appears to be largely closed for the season in terms of actual fishing, but the cabins are warm and the puffins are hopeful you might have a treat for them!

A well-defined track runs between the village and the fishing shacks, following the curve of the bay as it does so. Along the way, the path passes a chai lift climbing up the local peak. At the top, a bar awaits as Santa flies past outside, and people can catch a drink or head out skiing or sledding. Two routes for the latter ware available: either back downslope or a little backcountry skiing / sledding along the northern ridgeline of cliffs.

Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024

Another trail zig-zags down the eastern extent of the ridge, linking once more with the lowland trails and paths. Little cottages sit in the lee of the cliffs,  each one offering a warm welcome – and one with a slightly lewd snowman outside! The last of these cottages forms a literal log house. It sits across the lane from a tall A-frame cabin, complete with a red and white jacket, pants and hat are drying on the line, suggesting that prior to taking to the air in his sleigh once more, Santa may have stopped off for a change of clothes!

Throughout all of this, the landscaping is simply perfect, the snow falls gently and the wildlife obligingly poses for photographs. As well as  all the activities available, the setting offers opportunities to simply sit and pass the time, either indoors or outdoors, with some nicely tucked away for those wanting a little privacy.

Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024

Luane notes that PBR materials are used within the region, and the note suggests these may not have Blinn-Phong fallbacks; so if you are on a non-PBR viewer, you may see “missing textures”.

It’s always a pleasure to visit Luane’s world at Le Monde Pedu, so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a winter destination for your travels. While visiting, keep your eyes open for the little touches of humour scattered around – the aforementioned snowman, for example, together with the little birds dressed for the festive season; but most of all – enjoy!

Luane’s World – Le Monde Perdu, December 2024

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2024 SL SUG meetings week #49 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Soulstone, October 2024 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 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, December 3rd, 2024, the simulators on the Main SLS channel were updated to release 2024-11-25.12013542687.
  • On Wednesday, December 4th:
    • The BlueSteel RC is due to be restarted with no deployment.
    • The remaining RC channels will see a “small” update to the Barbeque (BBQ) updates, presumably bringing them to parity with the version of BBQ currently on BlueSteel.

Upcoming Simulator Releases

Apple Cobbler currently remains in testing on Aditi (regions of Mauve and Jigglypuff for those wishing to test), but is now due to start an initial deployment to the BlueSteel RC in week #50 (commencing Monday, December 9thm, 2024). Apple Cobbler includes:

  • llTransferOwnership which enables a prim give itself to a new user (subject to owner permissions already set). The version on Aditi has been updated. To quote Rider Linden:
The prototype for llTransferOwnership has changed slightly. There is a new list parameter tacked to end. It does nothing at the moment, but I’ve got plans to add a few things there early in the New Year. The wiki has been updates with the new data. You will need to recompile any test scripts you might have had. [Also]  For llTransferOwnership, I’d like to add an exclusion list (transfer the item and all its contents EXCEPT for these items).  
  • An extended llGiveInventory to allow for a destination folder (system folders + RLV/a) to be specified as well (+ the use of a parameter list, so further options can be added in the future).
  • llMapBeacon – like llMapDestination, but a) does not necessarily open the map window; b) can optionally open the map, with or without focus. This will also require a viewer update.
  • A new function for detecting attachments. If it is running with an experience it will be able to detect HUDs that also have scripts with the same experience (e.g. to ensure the correct HUDs are being used – this will not allow anyone to script to find out all the HUDs someone is using).

Following Apple Cobbler, the next simulator update is code-named Banana Bread, but its contents have yet to be defined. However Rider Linden conducted a quick poll on what those at the meeting might like to see included. – please refer to the video (29:48-35:32).

SL Viewer Updates

No updates to start the week with the current official viewers:

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, etc), dated September 11, promoted September 17 – No change.
  • Release Candidate: ExtraFPS RC, version 7.1.11.12041172537, November 27.
    • Performance improvements: enhanced texture memory tracking, broader hardware compatibility and higher FPS gain;  additional code to improve texture streaming on rigged attachments (e.g. if an earring is made with 2K textures, the viewer will correctly calculate the required resolution for the textures and download them, rather than downloading the full 2K textures), etc.
    • Aesthetics improvements: new Antialiasing setting – SMAA; Contrast Adaptive Sharpening; Khronos Neutral Tone Mapping (can be changed to ACES via the RenderTonemapType Debug setting).
    • UI Optimisations.

2K Bakes On Mesh (BOM)

Pepper Linden provided this update:

We were hoping to get 2K BOM out by the end of November [as] its been stuck in QA a while now. Unfortunately, an issue came up recently where the viewer wasn’t properly showing the lower resolutions for avatars that weren’t close up (e.g. far away). So a fix had to be made on the viewer for that (we were seeing VRMA use double for highly complex avatars with dozens upon dozens of wearables). 
There’s a few other minor things that came up, but they should all be addressed very soon [but] unfortunately I have no idea when 2K BOM will make its way here at this time, though as soon as I know, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

In Brief

Please refer to the video below for the following:

  • Leviathan Linden implemented a fix to llModPow(), noting the older implementation was inefficient and that with the update, it should now run faster under the hood.
    • It was noted the one second sleep requirement made the function fairly unusable, and Leviathan noted it could now be relaxed, and will aim to do that as a part of the Banana Bread simulator update.
  • Further discussion on  llTransferOwnership().
  • A general discussion on Combat 2.0 updates.
  • A note that Monty Linden has been put on to poking at why avatars take time to load / de-cloud.
  • A discussion on media support and Media on a Prim (MOAP) / CEF.

† 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.

2024 SL viewer release summaries week #48

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, December 1st, 2024

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

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC, dated September 11, promoted September 17 – NO CHANGE.
  • Release Candidate: ExtraFPS RC, version 7.1.11.12041172537, November 27 – New.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • Black Dragon for Windows updated to version 5.2.1 (PBR), November 25 – release notes.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable: 1.32.2.25, November 30 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Adwehe’s Alienated at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated
I think that you will all agree that we are living in most interesting times. I never remember myself a time in which our history was so full, in which day by day brought us new objects of interest, and, let me say also, new objects for anxiety. 

Joseph Chamberlain, during a speech in 1898

Some believe that the above quote is most likely the root for that hoary old “Chinese curse” may you live in interesting times – the “interesting” being an ironic metaphor for “times of trouble”. This is quite possibly apocryphal, given there is no similar curse in Chinese; however, Chamberlain’s original words have never really ceased to have meaning in the 116 years since they were first uttered.

Indeed, given the state of play in the modern world: wars, invasions, authoritarianism rearing its head even here in the west, pseudo-Christian nationalism, the open “othering” – or alienating – anyone daring to go against the perceived political doctrine. Perhaps more particularly, we are living in an age which is, more than ever before, being shaped by the second part of Chamberlain’s 1898 statement: we are faced with new objects of interest, which are increasingly new objects for anxiety, due to the way they have been used to amplify misinformation, divisiveness, false nationalistic pride and that over-arching alienation of differing values / belief systems / viewpoints.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

In this, two of the most obvious objects of anxiety being used today are social media and AI. With its global reach and ease of availability, coupled with the relative ease with which it can be manipulated both directly (fiddling with the underlying algorithms) and indirectly (flooding with bots), social media is perhaps the most manipulated channel of mass consumption in the world today; whilst with its shallow artistic derivativeness and raping of genuine art, AI has become a primary means of reinforcing falsities through visual manipulation whilst corroding objective creativity.

It is thought like these which have been foundational to Alienated, an exhibition of art by Adwehe, which forms the final exhibition for 2024 in the main hall at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated and operated by Dido Haas.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

A multi-faceted expressionist artist working in 2D, 3D lighting, colour and sound, Adwehe uses Alienated to understand two intertwined ideas: the aforementioned ways in which tools such as social media are being used exploitatively for the benefit of a few and the detriment of the many; and her own entirely natural unease at the way tools such as AI all too often stifle genuine creativity and alienating us from genuine originality by presenting us with shortcuts to an end result by way of derivative re-use of elements and ideas appropriated by copying any and all digital images in the world.

The way in which she does so is through both artistic counterpoint and revelation through words. The images presented through Alienated are in no way dark or foreboding as one might expect from my statements above; nor are they laden with excessive narrative. Instead, they are rich in colour and free-flowing originality. As such, they speak out against the demands of black-and-white uniformity of thinking (where even grey edges of thinking are not permitted) and speak to the beauty of genuine creativity and artistic thinking AI simply cannot replicate – but all too often can smoother.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

At the same time, the words of the accompanying text speak to the love / hate relationship which can evolve around such apps and tools. On the one hand there is promise of new worlds of information, engaging potential for expression and exploration of technique and abilities; on the other there is the fear of the unknown and the anxiety of having to “start over” when faced with a new tool and library of content, leading to a sense of self-alienation with one’s own creativity.

Thus, the text adds a further layer of meaning and insight / interpretation to Alienated, marking it as a multi-layered collection of images which are engaging both individually and within the overall context of the exhibition.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

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