The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 5th, 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 the chat log and 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.
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
No deployments for this week, just rolling restarts across the grid.
Simulator Deployment Plans
The next simulator maintenance update will be Barbecue (or BBQ), which is currently awaiting further bug fixing. This should include:
Support for “alpha-gamma” which will allow an object owner to adjust some of the PBR alpha values that were impacting legacy things like hair.
A new warning on receiving direct IMs from Scripted Agents (“registered” bots). Rider describes this as “Bot confessions”:
Oh. One of the other items coming in BBQ. Bot confessions. With IM sessions with bots there will be a warning sent to the receiver that they are having a conversation with a bot. Also, for viewer developers, there will be a bit of metadata attached to the IM_NOTHING_SPECIAL that indicates the sender is a bot.
Following Barbecue should be Apple Cobbler, which should include:
llTransferOwnership which enables a prim give itself to a new user (subject to owner permissions already set).
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).
SL Viewer Updates
No changes at the start of the week:
Release viewer: version 7.1.10.10800445603, formerly the DeltaFPS RC (multiple performance fixes, etc), dated September 11, promoted September 17 – No change.
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.
In Brief
Please refer to the video below for the following:
LL are still holding back on throwing the WebRTC switch across the grid, waiting for more users to move to WebRTC-enabled viewers.
The new function for detecting attachments / HUD in an experience, noted above, sparked a slightly interwoven conversation on “missing” attachments” and the detection of HUDs.
A discussion on the SL Lua(u) implementation and LSL. The official place for information on this is in this FAQ in the SL Wiki. A resident-written entry is also in the SL Wiki. In terms of LSL / LUA interoperability, see this section of the official FAQ.
Further discussion on llTransferOwnership, including the fact the end use need to accept the transfer of ownership in some kind of a dialogue, as per any other inventory transfer.
The “Bot Confessions” function sparked a further conversation on bots / Scripted Agents & identifying them (e.g. adding an indicator in the Profile of registered Scripted Agents), their use, etc.
† 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.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024 – click any image for full size
A Place Between appears to be turning into something of a theme for Bella (BellaSwan Blackheart); in June I had the pleasure of visiting her A Place Between The Rocks, inspired by the house at Castel Meur, a physical world location within the department of Côtes-d’Armor, France (and about which you can read more here). More recently, and within the same Homestead region, Bella has created A Place Between Trailers, which I believe opened in late September / early October (I could be wrong in that estimate), and which I finally managed to ger to visit at the start of November 2024.
Whilst carrying forward the Place Between theme, this is a very different location to that of A Place Between the Rocks, in that appears born entirely of Bella imagination – an imagination which has given birth to multiple settings and iterations of settings (such as Bella’s Lullaby), many of which I’ve recorded in these pages.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
In this instance, Bella invites us to visit a a trailer park, which I’ve liked to images ins on a coastal headland somewhere, even if it is entirely surrounded by water; your own imagination may disagree, but that’s fine; life would be boring if our imaginations all ran along the same tracks.
The skies are grey, the weeds are thick and on the horizon looms decrepit trailers in the shadows. Welcome at a Place between trailers, enjoy your stay!
– A Place Between Trailers About Land description
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024This is a setting pretty much centred in the region’s low-lying grassland, taking the form of the above-mentioned trailer park; a place which has perhaps seen better days as it runs south-to-north through the land, surrounded by a smattering of trees too loosely spread to be called a woodland, but also perhaps too large and too mature a group to comfortably be called a copse. The landing point sits at the southern end of the park, where what appears to be a site office and entrance spans the main track through the place – although admittedly, the sign on the roof suggests the trailer park is in fact on the waterside of the building, rather than on the inland side!
There’s a lot to see here even before setting out to explore; the office is furnished – if basically so – and evidences someone connected with the park has been in receipt of postcards from abroad, suggesting they have well-travelled friends. Outside, a magazine stand offers puzzle and entertainment magazines to help pass the time, together with – amusingly for me, the London edition of Time Out, celebrating the city where that publication started its long life.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
This magazine stand will also provide a notecard for visitors on being touched. Among other things, this provides guidelines on behaviour in the region and also notes on joining the local group for rezzing props for photography. It concludes with a firm but fair warning from Bella:
If you just follow these simple guidelines, I’m sure we will all get along just fine and if not, I’m sending you home without further notice 😀
So, make sure you familiarise yourself with the rules!
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
Further into the park stands what appears to be a washhouse of dubious hygiene. Facing this is a large trailer home packed with details that help bring it to life both indoors and out; touches which help give clues about whoever his living there – and their sense of humour! Further along the track still is the local general store whilst further caravans and trailers mark the northern extent of the park.
This is a place which has seen better days, to be sure; but it also carries hints of modern living; microwave transmitters sit at the top of a mast, suggesting the place has good cellular reception; computers hint as Internet connectivity, and someone is attempting to go green with a PV panel – even if it does appear to be purely for powering their television, itself turned to an interesting choice of channels…
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
The latter sits in one of the elevated parts of the setting and alongside a greenhouse of industrial size that has clearly seen better days. Curiously, and despite being elevated, it has also been subject to flooding at some point, with the floor still an inch or two under water which has apparently spawned the growth of surface weeds.
Quite what caused this to happen is unclear; perhaps the sprinkler system once used to water whatever was grown here malfunctioned, leading to to the greenhouse being abandoned, the water left within it too shallow to reach over sills and drain away. However, the place looks like it might well have been converted to use as an entertainment hall, so perhaps it was simply abandoned through lack of use, and the rain as been steadily finding its way inside. Either way, the greenhouse is now the home of a worn armchair and sofa, rubber ducks and the bloodied “corpse” of a video surveillance teddy bear floating in the water, hinting at a mystery here.
A Place Between Trailers, November 2024
Beyond this, the setting lies open to exploration, the trees scatter far enough apart so as to not required paths through them as they stand like sentinels around the park, the coastline sloping gently down to the surrounding waters. Several places to sit and pass the time can also be found throughout, but one of the things I particularly enjoy about the location is the local wildlife and animals, all of which bring further life to the setting throughout.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, November 3rd, 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 7.1.11.11565212741, October 30 – NEW.
I’ve had the pleasure of writing about the art of Kitten (Joaannna) since 2022, and have never ceased to be stunned by her artistic ability when it comes to Second Life photography. Her work spans both landscape and avatar studies, with the former as engaging and rich as those of another Second Life landscape photographer I have long admired, Ziki Questi. Kitten’s avatar studies are equally as rich and evocative – and also contain that element I always enjoy with such pieces: the telling of, or hinting to, a story that reaches well beyond the framing of the subject.
I first encountered the latter during Kitten’s 2022 exhibition Nior, at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (which also hosted Kitten’s Fourth Wall in 2023), and also through the like of Tales from the Wastelands, also in 2023.
Now Kitten has a further avatar-centric exhibition available for viewing. Hosted at the Kondor Art Centre, operated and curated by Hermes Kondor, Gothic present sixteen black-and-white images which carry with them strong Gothic / Victorian themes, and which touch on horror, mystery and a touch of literature.
Kondor Art Centre, November 2024: Kitten – Gothic
I’ve no idea if thoughts of Halloween – the exhibition opened on October 31st – sparked the idea for this collection of works, but the fact is that whether it did or not really doesn’t matter; these are pieces for all seasons, and which carry with them a richness of narrative that draws one into them.
Some might overtly put one in mind of classic literature, whilst others do so perhaps in a more subtle manner. Spectral Hound is perhaps the most obvious among the former, bringing forth as it does thoughts of Conan Doyle’s classic tale of The Hound of the Baskervilles, set within the Victorian era; whilst We Have Always Lived In a Castle and Gargoyle might act on that more subtle level, perhaps leading one to thoughts of Bram Stoker and Dracula.
Kondor Art Centre, November 2024: Kitten – Gothic
However, the truth is, each of these 16 pieces stands in is own right as a prompter for the imagination. No reference of literature is really required; only the ability to view each in turn and allow it to speak as the eyes travel over its detail, the words of the tale it wishes to tell evident in the pose and poise of the central character (Kitten herself) and the response to her by everything around her- animate and inanimate.
And I do mean response; setting and character in each image are deeply intertwined, rather than one being the backdrop for the other, as might be the case with a portrait; everything has to be considered as a whole. As to what the stories themselves might be is a matter for Kitten’s images and your imagination; I’ve said more than enough here – other than, as ever, Kitten’s art continues to engaging and enthral – and I will leave it to you to visit and see what the art says to you.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn first stage rolls past NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for its first trip to the launch facilities at SLC-36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in February 2024. Credit: NSF
In the world of commercial space development, there is a tendency to pooh-pooh the efforts of Blue Origin, the company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos. This is chiefly done through comparisons with SpaceX, a company which has achieved a lot over the last decade in particular, albeit (and contrary to what SpaceX fans will insist as being the case) largely at the largesse of the US government, from whom the company receives the lion’s share of its revenue.
However, this may all be about to change. Whilst much of the public focus on Blue Origin has been on their sub-orbital New Shepard vehicle catering to the space tourism industry, the company is now gearing-up in earnest for the (somewhat overdue) launch of its massive New Glenn launch system.
Originally targeting a maiden flight in 2020, the 98-metre tall vehicle is now due to launch in November 2024 from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 36. The payload for this mission was to have been NASA’s Mars EscaPADE mission. However, that mission was removed from the flight by NASA over concerns that Blue Origin might miss the required launch window. As a result, the company switched its attention to the second planned flight for New Glenn, a demonstration flight for the United States Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) programme, with the payload taking the form of a prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring spacecraft platform.
New Glenn is classified as a heavy lift launch vehicle with a maximum payload capacity to low-Earth Orbit (LEO) of 45 tonnes, with a fully reusable first stage. This compares favourably with Falcon Heavy’s 50 tonnes with all three of its core stages recoverable (although the latter can lift up to 63 tonnes to LEO when all three core stages are discarded). In addition, New Glenn is designed to deliver up to 13.6 tonne to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) and up to 7 tonnes to the Moon, as well as the ability to send payloads deeper into the solar system.
As well as the first stage of the rocket being designed from the ground up to be reusable, Blue Origin plan to replace the current expendable upper stage of the system with a reusable stage called Jarvis; however, little has been heard on this front since 2021. If it happens, it will make New Glenn fully reusable.
In September 2024, the company carried out static fire tests of the expendable upper stage of the rocket, and on October 30th, Blue Origin rolled-out the first stage for the maiden launch from its Exploration Park complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for a 37 km, multi-hour road trip to Launch Complex 36 “having to go the long way round” as Dave Limp, Blue Origin’s CEO put it.
The route taken from Blue Origin’s Exploration Park and SLC-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The long journey was the result of the sheer size of the booster and its transporter: a 94.5 metre long behemoth comprising a powerful tractor and two trailers with a total of 22 axles and 176 tyres. Simply put, it’s not the most manoeuvrable transport, with or without a 57.5 metre first stage on its back; as such, the route from factory facility to pad had to reflect this.
The stage in question comprised an engine module which also includes the landing legs, the core tank section and am upper interconnect – the section of a booster onto which the upper stage connects. After being delivered to the vehicle integration facility at SLC-36, Limp confirmed it will be participating in an integrated hot-fire test.
The first stage of the inaugural New Glenn booster rolls into the the vehicle integration facility at SLC-36 on the back of GERT – the Giant Enormous Rocket Transport (yes, really). Credit: Blue Origin
Each New Glenn first stage is designed to be re-used 25 times, with Blue Origin planning a cadence of up to 8 launches per year, and already have a growing list of customers. While this cadence might not sound as extensive as SpaceX and Falcon 9, it should be remembered that the larger percentage of SpaceX Falcon 9 launches are non-commercial / non-government / non-revenue generating Starlink launches; as such, New Glenn’s cadence is potentially in step with the current state of the US commercial and government launch requirements.
As noted, for the inaugural launch, New Glenn will be carrying a prototype Blue Ring satellite platform capable of delivering up to 3 tonnes of payload to different orbits, and capable of on-orbit satellite refuelling (as well as being refuelled in orbit itself) and transporting them between orbits, if required. It is “launch vehicle agnostic”, meaning it can be flown with payloads aboard any suitable vehicle – New Glenn, Vulcan Centaur, Falcon 9.
An artist’s impression of the Blue Ring space tug. Credit: Blue Origin
The prototype will be flown as the Dark Sky-1 (DS-1) mission, intended to demonstrate the vehicle’s Blue Origin’s flight systems, including space-based processing capabilities, telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) hardware, and ground-based radiometric tracking in order to prove the craft’s operational capabilities in both commercial and military uses. To achieve this, the vehicle will operation in a medium Earth orbit (MEO), ranging between 2,400 km by 19,300 km.
In addition, the flight will be used to check the New Glenn upper stage’s ability to re-light its motors multiple times. After the launch, the first stage will attempt to make a return to Earth and a landing at sea aboard the company’s Landing Platform Vessel 1 (LPV-1) Jacklyn, as shown in the video below.
The company is targeting the end of November for New Glenn’s inaugural launch. However, given the work still to be completed, it is possible this might slip to December 2024. If successful, the flight will for one of two certification launches for the USSF NSSL programme, both of which are required to clear New Glenn for classified lunches.
As well as these projects – all of which have been directly funded by Bezos himself outside of a modest contract payment made under a Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) payment – Blue Origin is well on the way to developing its Blue Moon Mark 2 lunar lander, capable of supporting up to four astronauts on the surface of the Moon for up to 30 days.
An artist’s impression of the Blue Moon Mark 2 crew lander. Credit: Blue Origin
A cargo variant of the lander, able to deliver between 20 and 30 tonnes (non-reusable) to the lunar surface is also in development. Both versions are intended to be part of NASA’s sustainable lunar architecture to follow the use of the SpaceX HLS vehicle (Artemis 3 and 4). However, there is some speculation that Blue Moon – due to be used with Artemis 5 onwards – is much further along in its development that the SpaceX HLS, and Artemis 5 might fly in the slot in Artemis 3 mission. Time will tell on this as well.
Voyager 1: Communications Issues
I’ve covered the Voyager mission, and its twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 numerous times in these pages. After 47 years, both craft are now operating beyond the heliopause, and whilst technically still within the “greater solar system” and heading for the theorised Oort Cloud, both craft are now operating in the interstellar medium. However, they are obviously aging, and this is impacting their ability to operate.
As I recently reported, as a result of both vehicles’ declining ability to generate electrical power, NASA has, since 1998, been slowing turning off their science instruments in the hope that they can eke out sufficient electrical power from the RTGs powering both craft to allow them to continue to operate in some capacity into the early 2030s. However, this is far from a given, as again demonstrated in October 2024.
As a part of the “power saving” activities with both Voyager craft, mission engineers periodically power down one of vehicles’ on-board heaters, reducing the electrical load on the RTGs, and then ordering the heater to power-back up as and then powering-down another. On October 16th, 2024, a command was sent to Voyager 1 to power-up one such heater. Due to the distances involved, confirmation that the command had been received and executed would not be received for almost 48 hours. However, on October 18th, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), responsible for (among other things) communicating with all of NASA’s robotic missions, reported it was no longer receiving Voyager 1’s “heartbeat ping” periodically sent from the vehicle to Earth to confirm it was still in communications.
A drawing of a Voyager space craft with the high-gain antenna prominent. The X- and S-band communications systems, located at the centre of the dish, use it to send / receive communications. Credit: NASA/JPL
Both Voyager craft have two primary communications systems: a high-power X- band (8.0–12.0 GHz frequency) for downlink communications from the craft to Earth and a less power-intensive S-band (2 to 4 GHz frequency) for uplink communications from Earth to the craft. However, each also has a back-up S-band capability for downlink communications, but because it is of a lower power output than the X-band, it hasn’t been used since around 1981.
Realising the loss of X-band communications had effectively come on top of the command to turn on a heater, engineers theorised that in trying to power on the heater, Voyager 1 had exceeded its available power budget and entered a “safe” mode, turning off the power-hungry X-band communications system to provide power to the heater. They then trained over to the much lower-power S-band downlink frequency, as any loss of the X-band system should have triggered an automatic switch-over – and sure enough, after a while, Voyager 1’s “heartbeat ping” was received.
This allowed a test to be carried out in sending and receiving commands and responses entirely via S-band, and on October 24th, NASA confirmed communications with the vehicle had been re-established. The work of diagnosing precisely what triggered the “safe” mode & shut down of the X-band system is now in progress, and the latter communications system will remain turned off until engineers are reasonably confident that re-activating it will not trigger a further “safe” mode response.
NASA Confirms Root of Orion Heat Shield Issues – But Won’t (Yet) Disclose
There are, frankly, multiple issues with the US-led Artemis Project to return humans to the surface of the Moon by 2030. They encapsulate everything from the vehicles to be used to reach the Moon and its surface (NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and the SpaceX Human Landing System and its over-the-top mission complexity of anywhere between 10 and 16 launches just to get it to lunar orbit) the supporting Lunar Gateway space station and its value / cost, etc. However, from a crew perspective, one of the most troubling had been with the heat shield used on the Orion vehicle – the craft intended to carry crews to cislunar space and, most particularly, return them to Earth.
Orion has thus far made one, unscrewed, flight to the Moon and back, in November / December 2022 (see here and here for more). While the system as a whole – capsule and service module – operated near-flawlessly, with the capsule making a successful return to Earth and a splashdown on December 11th, 2022, post-flight examination revealed that the craft’s heat shield had suffered a lot more damage – referred to as “char loss” – that had been anticipated.
The moment of splashdown for Artemis 1, December 11th, 2021. Credit: NASA
As with most capsule systems, Orion uses an ablative heat shield which is designed to carry away heat generated during re-entry into the atmosphere through the twin process of melting and ablating to dissipate the initial thermal load, and pyrolysis to produce gases which are effectively “blown” over the surface of the heat shield to form a boundary layer between the heat shield and the plasma generated by the frictional heat of the capsule’s passage into the denser atmosphere, producing a “thermal buffer” again the heat reaching the vehicle.
Ablative materials do not necessarily melt / ablate (the “char loss” process) evenly and can lead to gouges and strakes in the surviving heat shield. However, this is not what happened with the heat shield used in the Artemis 1 mission. Rather than melting and ablating, the heat shield material, known as Avcoat, appeared to crack and break away in chunks, creating a visible debris trail behind the craft during re-entry and leaving the heat shield itself pock-marked with holes and breaks looking like someone had taken a hammer to it.
While the damage was not severe enough to put the capsule itself at risk, it was clearly of concern as it indicated a potential for some form of burn-through to occur in a future flight and put vehicle and crew at risk of loss. NASA and its contractors have therefore been seeking to understand what happened as Artemis 1 Orion capsule was re-entering the atmosphere, and what needs to be done to avoid such deep pitting and damage in future missions.
Most of this work has been carried out well away from the public eye; in fact, the only images of the damage caused to the heat shield were published as part of a report produced by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in May 2024.
Two of the official NASA images showing the severe pitting and damage caused to the Orion MPCV heat shield following re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere at 36,000 km/h at the end of the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, December 11th, 2022. These were made public within the NASA OIG report on the readiness or Orion for the Artemis 2 mission. Credit: NASA / NASA OIG
On October 24th, 2024 NASA indicated, by way of two separate statements, that they now understand what caused to Artemis 1 heat shield to ablate as it did, and know what needs to be done to prevent the problem with missions from Artemis 3 onwards. However, the agency has said it will not disclose the problem or its resolution, as they are still investigating what needs to be done with the Artemis 2 heat shield.
We have conclusive determination of what the root cause is of the issue. We have been able to demonstrate and reproduce it in the arc jet facilities out at Ames. We know what needs to be done for future missions, but the Artemis 2 heat shield is already built, so how do we assure astronaut safety with Artemis 2?
– Lori Glaze, acting deputy associate administrator, NASA Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
Artemis 2 was slated for a 2024 launch, but was pushed back to no earlier than September 2025 in order to allow time for the heat shield investigations, and for the upgrade of various electronics in the Orion capsule’s life support systems. Glaze’s comments suggest that NASA might have to completely replace the heat shield currently part of the Orion capsule slated to be used in the Artemis 2 flight. If this is the case, then it could potentially further delay the launch.
Philip Liden (Rosedale) at the Community Round Table, November 1st, 2024
On Friday, November 1st, 2024, Linden Lab held a Community Round Table event featuring Philip Rosedale, the co-founder of Second Life, and new-appointed Chief Technology Officer and returning member of the board of Linden Lab.
The session comprises two parts:
A main session addressing questions submitted in advance and questions from the audience.
An additional session with Philip Rosedale, but which was not part of the official recording.
The main session lasted just over an hour, the official video for which is embedded below. However, this is not intended to be a full transcript, but a summary of comments / responses. In addition:
Notes are not necessarily in chronological order; where it has appeared logical to do so, I have attempted to group comments under common headings.
So that the context of questions and answers might be fully understood, links are provided to the specific point in the video where they are made and the question can be heard.
Audio extracts have been edited to remove pauses, incomplete or self-corrected comments/ sentences, and/or repetition, and that care has been taken to ensure said edits do not alter the overall context and meaning expressed.
Further, as the session continued after the official video had ceased recording. I have also included Pantera Północy’s video, which is set to start at the point at which the official video ends. However, given the informal nature of the discussion, I have not includes any form of transcript for this section.
Who Is Philip Rosedale?
Just for those who may not be fully familiar with Philip Rosedale’s name / past.
Came to prominence in 1995 as the creator of FreeVue, an Internet video conferencing product, and acquired by RealNetworks, with Rosedale becoming RealNetwork’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in 1996.
Departing RealNetworks in 1999, he founded Linden Research Inc. (operating as Linden Lab), a company initially focused on the potential of virtual reality.
As a part of this work, Linden Lab created LindenWorld, and the company pivoted to a focus on the idea of creating an open-ended, Internet-connected virtual world – Second Life.
Departing Linden Lab in 2010, Rosedale worked on a number of projects, including Love Machine, Coffee and Power and, from 2013 onwards, High Fidelity, a VR-centric, distributed virtual environment.
In 2022, High Fidelity became an investor in Linden Lab in a move which saw a transfer of personnel and patents to Linden Lab, with Rosedale taking on a (not full-time) role of Technical Advisor.
In 2023, Rosedale founder In Reality Lab (IRL415), ” a lab and community in San Francisco working on hard tech to improve the human condition by increasing trust and coordination between individuals and groups.”
On October 30th, 2024, it was announced that Rosedale had been appointed to the role of CTO at Linden Lab and would be resuming a seat on the board. He has effectively been in the CTO full-time since the start of October 2024.
He holds a B.S. in physics from University of California, San Diego.
Notes that he is back at the Lab full-time as CTO and on the board, and has been so since the start of October.
Acknowledges the work of Brad Oberwager and the other investors in acquiring Linden Lab and in working to revitalise and update Second Life.
Comments that the company is “again” successful as a business and has “extra money” to hire people, and the ability to pursue projects.
Confirms that IRL415 has been quite successful in its own right, and is now operating as something of a “sub-project” based in the same building in San Francisco as Linden Lab [Battery Street, presumably].
Indicates he is happy to be back, and acknowledges all the warm messages he received following the announcement.
Hopes that in addition to the Community Round Table event, he hopes that this event marks the start of a broader conversation between Linden Lab and its users in Second Life.
References he has been active WRT Second Life on various social media channels, and has formed an in-world group – Friends of Philip – which he encourages people to join as a means of communicating with him.
Notes that many SL users have been engaged in Second life for more than 10 years.
Many people using SL depend on it in a manner unlike MMOs or on-line games, and to them it is more like a necessity like a cell phone than a “game”.
As such, believes that only support the most recent generations of home computer hardware is far more ethically fraught for Second Life than for MMOs and games, as it comes with far greater risk in impacting people’s lives and ability to connect with other to a far greater degree.
In this, notes that this is why LL has been so focused on recovering viewer performance across the board following the recent impact of issues associated with [but not necessarily all the result of] the deployment of PBR Materials support in SL.
Thus, as much as it is important to keep improving things like the graphics fidelity of SL, Linden Lab has to recognise who is actually using the platform across the board, and not “cut off” large swaths of the user community as has been the case recently, to whom LL apologies.
Believes one of the most mind-blowing things about VR Chat is being able to see your own avatar from a first-person perspective; “wearing” your avatar.
The challenge here is that VR headset [usage?] is growing far too slowly. Would love to find a way to Second Life in VR, but LL does not have the resources to write a VR viewer from scratch.
LL are thinking about VR in terms of the more distant future, but not thinking about it right now.
Notes that LL has been carrying out a number of “alpha tests” of AI bots [such as the one at the Welcome Hub] acting as greeters and trying to provide help to new users.
States that “one of our companies here in the office” [IRL415?] has worked on some interesting back-end deployments of AI technology for SL, such as assisting with the Canny reports triage process.
Overall notes that the application of AI within Second Life is something LL has to be careful about, particularly with the use of AI with in-world characters – NPCs, bots, companions, etc. It’s important that AI is used – as SL is used – to bring people together, rather than a means to provide substitutes for each other.
Hopes that LL’s focus will continue to be in bringing people together.
Notes that he is a huge fan of artificial life, and thinks “AI will get really unusual when you get actual living things moving around in an environment.”
Describes some of the work at IRL415 [?] in attempting to use AI create conscious, living things,” rather than text prediction machines, etc. It’s not clear if he feels these might have future application in SL.
On Upgrading SL’s Underpinning Engine and The Viewer
SL has a complex user experience, and people need to be able to help one another in using it, and so requires a common, if complex, user interface (UI).
Because of the complexities involved, LL has to plan on utilising that user experience for a long time / indefinitely, and most likely on the same engine.
Also because of this complexity, simply swapping out the underpinning engine is not something that can feasibly be undertaking.
However, that said, based on experience gain in developing Mobile, LL are evaluating the potential of building a new viewer to make SL more accessible to people who either don’t have higher-specification home computer hardware or have difficulties in understanding the UI.
Work is in progress to enhance SL’s scripting through the use of Luau, as used by Roblox.
Part of this is aimed at enhancing SL’s existing scripting capability and make it easier for content creators to script in SL.
This is not ready for release, but is being worked on.
[Note: the Luau work is two distinct projects: a client-side implementation of Luau (e.g. viewer-side only); and the above work mentioned by Philip, which will allow Luau interpretation of LSL / Luau support for server-side scripting. I attempt to provide updates on both of these projects through the likes of my Content Creation, Simulator, and TPV Developer User Group Meeting summaries, as updates on the work are offered by LL.]
Does not believe the Mobile app will become the sole means of accessing SL; the deepest and most immersive uses of SL probably cannot be translated completely for use on mobile devices. Rather, the hope is that at some point, a new user will be able to access SL entirely via the Mobile App, but “we’re not there yet”.
The current focus is on getting the App to a place where it is “a little helpful for everyone”, and then maybe a “fun way to get started, even.”
Ultimately, Desktop will always be available, as some aspects don’t work on small screens.
As such believes that the Mobile App, working in concert with the Desktop viewer will help SL grow.
[Video: 51:42-52:25] When will SL Mobile be made available to all users?
LL think it is time to allow everyone to be able to try the Mobile App.
Expects it to be made available to all some time in the next month.
Reiterates that SL Mobile is not ready for people to switch over to using it in preference to the viewer.
Did follow and contribute to the Puppetry Project, but felt it might have been too biased towards content creation use cases at the expense of communications use cases.
Feels [as statement throughout the session] that LL needs to be more broadly focused on advances on communications capabilities such as accessibility, discovery, search, in concert with the more technical advances within the platform.
Sees the above approach specifically relevant to puppetry, in moving the avatar’s body more capably, rather than continuing to rely purely on animations, and cites the way his avatar moves during the session as being something of a move in that direction.
Certainly sees better ability to control avatar movement as a “hard” requirement for VR utilisation in SL, and puppeteering is a “big part” of that.
Reiterates that currently, LL is not working on puppetry at present, as to develop an implement puppetry capabilities requires a better redevelopment / use of available resources.
Goes on to note he’s aware this applies to a lot of SL capabilities that are “80%”, and he would like to get those to “100%”, and in this as CTO he is being more “hardcore” about better reflecting the majority of users LL is serving, not talking about features / capabilities until they are more rounded and ready.
In general, LL does not have, nor does it want, kids using Second Life.
Youngsters from 16 and up are allowed to use the platform, but with restricted maturity settings [13-16 years can access the platform, but only for educational purposes (e.g. associated with a school) and whilst restricted to the region hosting their educational institution(s)].
The worry is risk of harm for kids “on multiple levels”, such as financial exploitation, and if adults in a region do not want kids there, then there is a potential for harm to the kids.
Hence why LL has not made attempts to make SL appealing to younger people – but are interested in hearing viewpoints on the matter from users.
Notes that we all have a role to play – as some already do through mentoring, etc.
Further notes that if all those engaged in Second Life were to bring-in one new person to SL every 6 months and gives them the essential one-on-one help required to get them engaged in the platform, that would bring about a sustained growth for SL.
As such, LL needs to design – with the help of users – the best means to enable this to happen.
Deeply believes that there are people in the world right now who would greatly benefit from Second Life, and that world-wide they represent far more than the current user base.
On People Using SL at the Expense of their First Life Interactions (“SL Addiction”)
Whether taking about social media, apps or gaming, there is tremendous danger of addiction. However, most of the time in talking about addiction, it is in terms of exploitative dopamine loops that keep you drawn into game or behaviour mechanism.
SL is perhaps different in that the addictive element is having friends in-world, and those friendships are / can be as real and as meaningful as physical world friendships. Having friends in Second Life is not like having followers on Twitter/X.com; they are much closer and can be better.
So in many cases, SL is providing a genuine reduction in loneliness and access to friends, and there is little else on-line which enables such friendship in the same way.
LL therefore needs to be careful [to maintain this], and also need to be careful that they don’t cause harm.
Reads a statement from a user as to how effective Second Life can be such a beneficial medium for helping people – notably those with disabilities, long-term illness, the elderly and similar – gain new opportunities for expression, enjoyment, finding friends, etc.
Sees this statement as demonstration of the need for LL to “better and better and better” who the people using SL are, and whom LL are serving, and make changes based on that (e.g. in terms of accessibility – captions, sound, text size changes, etc.).
On Avatars Appearing Naked When Rezzing / in the MP (the “Boob Problem”)
Acknowledges that he made a fundamental mistake in allowing the issue of avatars appearing naked when rezzing to pass unchecked in the early days of SL, rather than making it a “P(riority) 1” issue to fix.
Feels it is still too easy for anyone to encounter Second Life content they may find offensive, and agrees that fixing this is something that needs to be properly considered; people should be able to come into Second Life from variety of use-cases, cultural backgrounds, etc., without being easily exposed to content that deeply offends them.
However, this needs to be balanced again giving people the freedom to do what they want in acceptable environments (e.g. the privacy of their own homes).
This balance is difficult to achieve, but also thinks it is “doable”, and users will hopefully see LL move forward over time in that regard, including further discussions on the subject.
Believes that with the expansion of payment system / choices (including crypto, Zelle, etc.), LL should grow to accommodate more ways in which people can pay them for services.
However, there are legal and regulatory complexities involved in doing this, particularly the purchase of Linden Dollars which need to be considered.
States that crypto should be one of the options to be considered, if not by going “all in” (where there are considerable negatives), but rather as a further option for making payments to LL “makes a tonne of sense”.
On the Announced Suspension of Skrill as a Payment Option
Believes that education is an excellent use case for VR. If people can be educated in a virtual world using VR capably, it potentially reduces the on-going cost of education as a whole, whilst greatly expanding its accessibly to all.
Caveats this with the need to understand VR devices, communication modality of use, non-verbal communication, in presenting education virtually.
Believes there are areas in which Second Life is, and always has been, effective, and hopes that this will continue, including in making SL more generally accessible with the proper safeguards against viewing potentially inappropriate content.
In terms of general marketing, LL is going to start efforts to market the platform for growth “soon” (and re-iterates the point of users brining friends into SL).
States the company is very well equipped to handle marketing , and to do so in “lots of ways”.
However, marketing into channels like You Tube, where the audience is fairly random, is not seen as effective for a platform like Second Life, because 95% of them have no interest in becoming avatars and enter virtual worlds.
Has a personal belief that most people are uncomfortable with avatars due to their lack of facial expressions / ability to use non-verbal communication cues like body language, and that until this can be overcome, SL cannot be easily offered to “anyone”.
As such, marketing needs to be focused, and welcomes idea from users on how such marketing might be focused onto the kinds of people who would be interested in using Second Life today.
Believes that SL is unique in the way it allows people to come together and develop communities in bot the Mainland and with private islands / estates.
As such believes that matters like improving region crossings and governance should be prioritised.
In terms of governance and community building, invites people to join Friends of Philip, where he’ll be discussing possible ideas.
States that given the nature of SL as an on-line community, banning should be a tool of last resort and should only happen under the most “desperate” of conditions, and believes that LL have done the “very best job” that they can in this regard.
Given the benefits gained to many through the use of SL and the implications of banning, wonders if there are “judicial processes” that can make things work better / provide alternatives to banning.
Has no answers to this [but has perhaps been asking questions relating to it], other than noting SL is a “precious thing” and the focus must be on those who hold it as precious, building their homes and communities, given to the matter of governance, where appropriate: “When someone has to leave Second Life, they should have to leave in broad agreement with their community.”
On Digital History and Preserving Builds / Locations in Second Life
While it would be nice to preserve elements of Second Life as points in time and be able to re-visit them in that state (a kind of Wayback Machine for SL, allowing users to visit a location as it was on a given date / time), there is obviously expense involved in storing all the data regions to Second Life and regions within it.
Does feel it would be good to come up with a “collective means” of “celebrating old builds” – and links this back to the idea of “governance” in terms of using the community through voting or other mechanisms as to what should be preserved in cases where the creators can not longer pay for them to be in-world.
Uses this opportunity to tangentially discuss AI further, as noted in the section on AI above.
Mont Saint Michel – a region preserved via the Second Life Region Preservation Society, currently run by LL
LL has tried on numerous occasions to get Second Life unbanned from Twitch (which has a high sensitivity to adult-themed content), and will continue to make the argument that SL should be allowed.
Indicated that doing so may also require changes being made to the accessibility of Adult content in Second Life in a way that works for the majority of SL users and works for Twitch.
In terms of Twitch s a “marketing tool” re-iterates the points that:
Second Life is not necessarily for “everybody”, so broadcasting it on Twitch might not be beneficial in that sense.
Does not think it would be good for SL to be directly appealing to younger audiences.
On Bringing Back the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC)
[Background: the SLCC was run from 2005 through 2011 by AvaCon on behalf of Linden Lab and alternating between the west and east coasts of the USA. The events allowed Lindens and SL users come together and discuss the platform, make presentations, etc.]
Would be interested in knowing how many SL users would be interested in participating in some form of physical world convention, and what form it should take, and suggesting his Friends of Philip group might be an initial place in which ideas might be put forward / discussed.
Part of his focus is figuring out how to better communicate with everyone.
Specifically as CTO is looking at what, how and why technologies changes should be made, and more broadly focused on strategy and product.
Notes that of late, the comments from outside of SL have not been so much phrased in the past tense and in terms of acknowledging it is still going and available, and that this could be beneficial as LL starts marketing SL more.
Expresses confidence that SL will start growing again, and reiterates that user can help in this.
Does feel that in a time when technology and the Internet have done much to endanger democratic expression and the polarising of views, Second Life demonstrates there is a much more positive way for people to connect using technology, and how it can have a depolarising effect, allowing people who might not otherwise, become friends.
In this, sees the opportunity to promote virtual worlds as beneficial environments for people to use, and which can be respected as such, and can help us face some of the broader challenges we face as a human society.
Videos of the Session
Linden Lab Official Video
Pantera’s Recording
Note this is set to start from the point at which the official video ends.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 