Category: Events

SL22B: your completely unofficial pocket guide to the celebrations

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

Second Life marks its 22nd anniversary in 2025, with a month of activity kicking-off on Friday, June 20th through until Sunday, July 20th. Celebrations will be taking place across the Birthday regions in Second Life, and and with previous years includes live music, DJ sets, art, shopping (via the dedicated Shop and Hop event), exhibits by Linden Lab and – particularly – exhibits by Second Life residents and communities.

The following is intended to provide a general overview of the celebrations and provide calendars, SLurls and anything else that might be useful to you when visiting the regions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: many of the builds at SL22B, particularly the stages, etc. have been built using PBR materials, and the skies are rendered as HDR. Therefore, to see the regions at their best, you should preferably be running a viewer that is “PBR enabled.”

SL22B: The Welcome Area – Portals

Theme

This theme for 2025’s celebration is Myths and Legends, which the Lab describes thus:

It reflects the Second Life experience because we are all the heroes of our own adventures! The emphasis is on the characters and stories people create in SL both personally and within their communities. 

However, as has been the case over the last several birthday events, exhibitions are not confined to the theme itself, with the Lab additionally noting:

Share your Second Life passions with us. Your interests. Your communities. Your world! Every year we celebrate because of you, the amazing and creative Residents who have chosen to call Second Life home. What has drawn you into this world, and what keeps you here? These annual festivities are an opportunity to show us what fuels your Second Life. Let’s celebrate that together!

SL Birthday Calendar

The best way the stay abreast of all that’s going on is via the official calendar of events, which I’ve embedded below.

  • Use the Week / Month options, top right to change the calendar view.
  • Click on any given line item on any given day of festivities to view more information, including teleport SLurls.
SL22B: The Observatory Stage

Key Events

Shop and Hop

The SL22B Shop And Hop event is taking place across multiple regions, and features many creators and merchants. The best way to find out about this event is via the Shop and Hop Destination Guide entry and via the SL22B Shop and Hop Participating Merchants list.

Meet the Lindens

As per usual, SL22B will feature a series of events featuring various members of the Lab’s management team and those from front-line teams. The sessions will be a mix of live sessions at the celebrations events and pre-recorded sessions. They will take place per the schedule below.

SL22B: Astral Athenaeum
Day (Times SLT) and Event Featuring
Monday, June 23rd, 13:00
Meet the Product Operations team		 Senior VP of Product Operations, , Customer Support & Trust & Safety Patch Linden;  Manager, Customer Success & Trust & Safety Keira Linden; Creative Producer Izzy Linden.
Tuesday, June 24th 13:00
Watch the Product and Engineering teams (pre-recorded)		 Senior VP of Product & Engineering Grumpity Linden; Director of Engineering Web & Platform Kali Linden.
Wednesday, June 25th 13:00
Meet the Founder of Second Life		 Philip Rosedale.
Thursday, June 26th 13:00
Watch the Marketing team (pre-recorded)		 TBA
Friday, June 27th 11:00
Meet the Moles.		 The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works.

Meet the Lindens SLurl:  Astral Athenaeum

If you cannot attend a session in person, you can watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel.

Entertainment and Performances

Live performers from across Second Life and around the globe are lined-up to perform  at SL22B between Friday, June 20th and Sunday July 20th. The complete schedule can be seen below.

 

SL22B: The Royal Keep

The Welcome Area

Never been to an SLB event before? Try starting at the Welcome Area where you’ll find lots of help, things like the SL22B Hunt HUD, teleport boards and teleport portals to key event areas, and more!

The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area.

First presented in 2018, the region-wide Tapestry of Time presents visitor with a walk-through of Second Life’s history from 2003 through to the present day using images, text and videos. True, not everything has been recorded, but there’s enough within the region to be of interest to the historically minded.

within the Tapestry of Time can be found the SL22B Gift Area, offering gifts from the Birthday exhibitors and from merchants participating in the Shop & Hop event.

Exhibitor Regions

via Linden Lab. Click for exhibitor list

As is common for SLB events, the mix of content is varied, and the representation of interests broad. Role-play groups, arts, communities, are represented across the nine regions open to exhibitors; some are static, others are interactive in nature.

  • Direct links to the exhibitor regions can be found in the SLurls lists at the end of this piece.
  • Information / SLurls for individual exhibitors can be found in the SL22B Exhibitor Showcase.

Note that teleport boards are available at the centre of all Exhibitor regions for easy of moving between them.

Adult Exhibitor Regions And Adult Shop and Hop

2025 sees the Adult content and groups exhibitor regions combined with the Adult Shop and Hop regions.  Once again, the celebrations include Adult content and groups, with exhibits at the event, with the Shop and Hop taking place across four dedicated regions separate to the main exhibitor regions. I’ve also included individual region SLurls at the end of this article.

Advice on a Better Experience

The SL22B regions can get exceptionally busy. To help ease the pain for you:

  • If you have a high draw distance, reduce it to  as low as is comfortable for your enjoyment.
  • Turn off shadows in your viewer if you usually have them enabled.
  • Go to Preferences → Graphics and reduce the slider Max # Non-Imposter Avatars to a minimum and dial-down your Complexity slider.
  • Remove texture-heavy HUDs to free-up more texture memory.
  • Remove unnecessary scripted attachments and dress lightly, avoiding accessories of high complexity.
SL22B Adult: Odin’s Bar and Grill

SLurls and Destination Guide Links

Core Event Region SLurls

General Rated Exhibitor Region SLurls

SLB Beguile SLB Blissful SLB Breathtaking SLB Captivate SLB Celebrate SLB Delightful
SLB Electrify SLB Enchant SLB Fabulous SLB Glamorous SLB Incredible SLB Marvelous
SLB Outgoing SLB Sparkle SLB Spectacular SLB Stupendous
SL22B: The Observatory

Adult Rated Regions

Odin’s Bar and Grill Stage Pod Tours
Exhibitor Regions: SLB Alluring SLB Daring SLB Euphoric SLB Irresistible
Shopping Regions: Buttercup Goldenrod Freesia Trillium

Web URLs

Second Life Hair Fair 2025

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Hair Fair

The 2025 Second Life Hair Fair is opened on Saturday, May 31st and runs through until Sunday, June 15th, 2025. As with previous years, it is being run to raise money for Wigs for Kids, with every purchase seeing a percentage donated to the cause while the Bandana booths and Donation kiosks donating 100% of all proceeds received.

As with recent years, the event takes place across six regions, appropriately called Blonde, Brunette, Foils, Noirette, Redhead and Streaks,  all laid out in a loop around a central boulevard. So, no matter where you arrive or whether you head left or right, you can easily pass through all of the regions and pass all of the stores. The landing zones for the regions are located at either end of the the loop (Blonde & Streaks; Foils & Niorette), and towards the middle of the boulevard for Brunette and Redhead, where the Hair Fair Bandana Booths can be found.

If walking isn’t your thing, signs along the boulevard allow you to rez and ride a “prim bus”: just click to rez, sit to ride and hop off when you see something of interest.

Hair Fair 2025

As is usual for Hair Fair, the shopping regions are lightly decorated in order to minimise viewer-side lag that might otherwise be created by having a significant amount of extra object and texture rendering. The list of participating merchants can be found on the Hair Fair website, while for those who may not find something they wish to purchase, donation kiosks are available to help support Wigs for Kids, or there are the Bandana Booths mentioned above.

Important Note to Those on Non-PBR Viewers

All of the stores within Hair Fair utilise PBR reflection probes. If you are using a non-PBR viewer, you will be unable to click through the reflection probe to touch a vendor board from outside of a store (e.g. when cam-shopping from the landing points). To make a purchase, please make sure your enter the store first.

Hair Fair 2025

About Wigs for Kids

For more than forty years Wigs for Kids has been providing hair replacement systems and support for children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, Alopecia, Trichotillomania, burns and other medical issues at no cost to children or their families. The effects of hair loss go deeper than just a change in a child’s outward appearance. Hair loss can erode a child’s self-confidence and limit them from experiencing life the way children should. With an injured self-image, a child’s attitude toward treatment and their physical response to it can be negatively affected also.

Wigs for Kids helps children suffering with hair loss look themselves and live their lives. Families are never charged for the hair replacements provided for their children; Wigs for Kids rely completely on both the donation of hair and / or money to help meet their goals.

Read more about Wigs for Kids mission, and discover how hair can be donated.

URLs and SURLs

Sunday, May 18th: Bay City turns 17 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bay City 17th Anniversary, 2025

Bay City, the first major project undertaken by the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), will be turning 17 on Sunday, May 18th, 2025. Citizens of Bay City will be joining in celebrations to mark the anniversary, with a parade, music and entertainment, and residents from across of Second Life are invited to visit Bay City and join in the celebrations.

Activities will kick-off at noon SLT, with a parade line-up at the band shell in Bay City – Harwich. At 12:30 SLT, the parade will commence its way along the City’s Route 66, and proceed to the Bay City Fairgrounds in the North Channel region for an afternoon of entertainment and fun.

Bity City Parade Route 2024

DJ GoSpeed Racer will be providing the music throughout the parade, which will be followed by at live concert from 13:30 SLT onwards at the fairgrounds. The line-up for the concert this year comprises (all times SLT):

  • 13:30-14:30: Aubryn.
  • 14:30- 15:30: Mimi Carpenter.
  • 15:30-16:30: Jesie Janick.

As usual, celebratory goods are available at the Bay City Community Centre, in the Daley Bay region for those who wish to be a part of the parade. Ample viewing areas are provided, such as those at Orleans and Falconmoon. The event is also open to anyone who wants to attend, not just Residents of Bay City

About Bay City and the Bay City Alliance

First opened for initial viewing in May of 2008 and with parcels throughout the city being auctioned soon after, Bay City is a Mainland community which has shown itself to be one of the highlights of Second Life: a blending of Linden infrastructure and a strong, friendly community of involved residents who give the area its unique charm. It is home to the resident-run Bay City Alliance, also founded in 2008, to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

Each year, in honour of Bay City’s founding, Bay City residents come together with this special celebration.

Anniversary SLurls

Virtual Ability: mental health awareness in Second Life 2025

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability: 14th annual Mental Health Symposium

The Virtual Ability community in Second Life is hosting its 14th annual Mental Health Symposium on Thursday, May 15th, 2025. The theme for this year’s event is Facing Our Fears: Managing Anxiety About Life’s Uncertainties.

Fear is a built-in human reaction. Fear of large carnivores, fire, dark, starvation and strangers likely contributed greatly to the survival and early evolution of humanity. The modern world has given people even more causes for fear: community violence, biased public institutions, horrific war, climate change, racism, gender violence and artificial intelligence, among many others. Fear can at times be useful, but it also impacts quality of life. Disabling fear is a treatable condition. The varied causes and levels of intrusiveness of a fear demand individualized therapeutic approaches. The broad theme of this conference allows us to look at the topic of fear from a number of different perspectives.

Virtual Ability Mental Health Symposium 2025 introduction

Virtual Ability Inc  (VAI) and the Virtual Ability community hosts this annual Symposium to share information about mental health and mental disabilities with the general population. Within this cross-disability community are people who deal with a variety of mental health issues. So, not only is this an opportunity for community members to learn more about topics related to mental health from experts they probably would not have an opportunity to otherwise meet, it also  allows the general public to attend a professional conference for free.

Virtual Ability Island

The symposium will once again feature an international group of presenters offering a wide interpretation of the theme, based on their interests and academic backgrounds.

Speakers

(All times SLT)

  • 07:00: Dr. Manish Kumar Asthana, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee – Attenuating conditioned fear using imagery-based interventions.
  • 08:00: Mr. Aman Kumar Prajapati, Invertis University (India) – Near death experience and transformation of afterlife belief.
  • 09:30: Ms. Maria Nieves, Catholic University of Pelotas (Brazil) – Worry related to climate change among Brazilian adults.
  • 10:30: Ms. Jen Johnson, Private Practice, Learning from the Land: Growing Emotional Resilience in the Climate Crisis.
  • 12:00 Noon: Dr. Mustafa Demir, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA – Effects of trust in government, counterterrorism policies, and counterterrorism laws on fear of cyberterrorism and fear of terrorism.
  • 15:00: Dr. Veró Caridad Rabelo, San Francisco State University – When Safety for You Means Danger for Me (interview).

Panel Discussions

(All times SLT)

  • 12:30: Peer Support and Fear – Second Life panel discussion featuring Viola Mole, Pet Karu, Kip Yellowjacket and Demelza McGinnis. Moderator: Itico Spectre.
  • 13:30: Fear within Specific Disabilities – panel discussion featuring: Dr. Kathryn Post (Massachusetts General Hospital’s Cancer Outcomes Research & Education (CORE) Programme); Dr. Leigh Brosof (clinical psychologist specializing in research on and treatment of eating disorders) and Gloria Kraegel (Team Leader at Brain Energy Support Team, and Chief Groundskeeper at Etopia Sustainable Communities). Moderator: Cicero Kit.

All speaker sessions and panels will be available via the Virtual Ability You Tube channel.

The Symposium takes place in Virtual Ability’s Sojourner Auditorium, on Virtual Ability island and full information can be found here.

About Virtual Ability

Virtual Ability, Inc. is a non-profit corporation, chartered in the state of Colorado, USA.  We are a non-profit tax exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. This means that for US citizens, contributions made are deductible as a charitable donation for federal income tax purposes.

For further information on the board of directors, please visit the Virtual Ability About Us page.

Related links

Fantasy Faire 2025: your (almost) complete unofficial guide

Posted on by Inara Pey
Fantasy Faire 2025 – Izumo
If you are just after links and Surls, click here to jump to them!

The largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, Fantasy Faire 2025, opened its gates to Fairelanders at 12:00 SLT on Thursday, April 17th, 2025. It will remain open through until Sunday May 4th, 2025 inclusive, once again raising money for Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) efforts to bring about a World Without Cancer.

 Table of Contents

As with previous years, 2025 will see a wide range of activities and events taking place at the Faire, with role-play, parties, Jail & Bail, the LitFest, live performances, auctions, and more, together with the using multiple opportunities for fantasy- focused shopping.

The notes below are intended to get Fairelanders old and new up-to-speed with a one-page look at the event as it opens.

Fantasy Faire 2025, Holi

If You Are New to the Faire and Other Notes

If you are new to Fantasy Faire, the many regions it encompasses can be overwhelming to the point where you might fill panicked into trying to see everything at once.. But – the Fire is here for two weeks, so you have lots of time to visit, and remember: shopping and sightseeing can be much easier once all the initial rush is over!

The best place to start a first-time visit is Fairelands Junction. From here you can reach all of the regions via the teleport portals, so it makes a good hub for exploring. You can also grab a Fantasy Faire teleport HUD from here (or at the region landing points).

Also:

  • Keep up-to-date with the Faire and all that is going on through the official Fantasy Faire website.
  • The Fairelands have their own mythology and history. If fantasy is your thing, be sure to read about the History of the Fairelands.

Enjoying a Better Experience / Performance

  • For the best visual experience:
    • Make sure your viewer is set to Use Shared Environment (World → Environment) as the regions all have their own environment settings, and several have dedicated day / night cycles.
    • Try to travel light! Remove heavily scripted attachments you do not require for visiting the Fairelands – including any HUDs you don’t need while visiting (thus reducing things like the texture footprint they take up on your computer and the resources they might claim on the simulator, making the latter a little better for everyone).
    • Please don’t use particle-generating attachments / effects, they may look pretty on you, but they can really impact performance.
    • If you use them, turn off Shadows rendering.
    • When there is no Linden Water visible, set Water reflections to None: Opaque.
    • Reduce your Draw Distance to lighten loading.
    • If you’re familiar with it, use the Improve Graphics Speed floater to adjust your viewer’s rendering and performance on-the-fly.
  • Regions can be busy! So if you teleport into one, be sure to move a little way from the landing point as soon as you can to avoid becoming part of an avatar tower!
  • And, despite the comments about HUDs above, don’t forget to pick up the Fantasy Faire Teleport HUD for quick and easy access to all the regions!
Fantasy Faire 2025, The Wraithwoods

Shopping

Fantasy Faire is very much about shopping. Merchants from across SL can be found in the shopping regions, all of whom offer some of their items through official RFL of SL vendors, so that proceeds of sales go to RFL / ACS.

Parties, Entertainment and Performances

The Fairechylde: DJ Events

The Fairechylde will once again be docked at the Faire, spending her time within The Golden Hour region, hosting DJ parties to keep Fairelanders entertained. These parties – live or via Fantasy Faire Radio – will be running right throughout the Faire.

Fantasy Faire 2025, Xalren

Live Performances

Throughout the run of the Faire will be live performances by musicians, singers, dance troupes and more from across Second Life. Performances will be hosted on the Arts and Performance region of Pixieland.

The Fairelands Masked Ball

Fancy a more formal soiree where tuxedoes and gowns are encouraged and an air of mystery is added with eyes behind masks? Then head for the Fantasy Faire Masked Ball. This will be hosted on The Golden Hour on two dates, so as to suit multiple time zones:

  • Saturday, April 26th – Noon through 14:00 SLT.
  • Friday, May 2nd – 18:00 through 20:00 SLT.
Fantasy Faire 2025, Misplaced Melody

Events and Activities Highlights

Literature, Theatre and Film Festivals 2025

Now in its 11th year, the Fantasy Faire Literary Festival is  being hosted at The Golden Hour, and brings with it a celebration of fantasy in the form of story. The LitFest offers many ways to experience the stories of the Faire and inspire your own tales of journeys, wonders, and adventures.

Once again, the Festival will include a special Guest of Honour, English author Genevieve Cogman, and include the region tours to encourage the inner writer / poet.

The Theatre Festival is a new event for Fantasy Faire. It will feature Talks, Practical Sessions and Rehearsals all focused on stage productions in Second Life, and will include the premiere of a new play, 310788, at the end of the Faire!

The Film Festival is returning for its fourth year at Fantasy Faire. Led by Chantal Harvey and Saffia Widdershins, there will be an almost daily event at 11:00, including talks, discussions and retrospectives of the works of different machinematographers.

Role-Play Activites and Classes

Role-play lead by  Astrium will be taking place between April 19th and 22nd. In The Echowrite Quill, travellers venturing into Obsidian Sanctum, under the watch of the Dragon Council, they may find a gate that is not locked. Whilst they may enter expecting to find treasure, they may instead find themselves entrusted with a wondrous, and terrifying, secret.

Lost to time and swallowed by the stars, a quill drifts between forgotten realms and the world of now. It is no ordinary instrument, but a relic of boundless creation—capable of scripting entire realities into existence with a mere flick of its tip. For centuries, the dragons of Obsidian Sanctum have guarded this quill in secret, watching and waiting. Only one deemed truly worthy may claim it. But first, they must solve three ancient puzzles… and restore the Ink of Forever.

– from The Echowrite Quill

Find out more via these links:

Fantasy Faire Quest: The Dreamcaster’s Cauldron

This year’s chapter of the Fantasy Faire adventure quest series is The Dreamcaster’s Cauldron. Once again the Bard Queen will call upon adventurers bold of heart to purchaser a Quest HUD (also proceeds to RFL / ACS) and follow the clues in a quest of two parts.

You don’t have to join the Quest as soon as it opens; the prizes are for everyone who completes the adventure, and the Quest will be open right through until the end of the Faire.

Fantasy Faire 2025, Gwath

And There’s More

Don’t forget, all the staples of Fantasy Faire will again be available, including the live auction, the silent auction and jail and bail – see the Fantasy Faire website for details on these .

Links and Region SLurls

Website Links Event Region SLurls Shopping Region SLurls
Website Home Page

Social Media

VWBPE 2024: Catching Up With the Lindens – a summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Screen cap of Catching Up With the Lindens (l to r): Elli Pinion, Patch Linden, Grumpity Linden, Kali Linden and Kyle Linden
On Friday, April 4th, 2025 the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference held another of in their sessions featuring representatives from Linden Lab and various called over the years Above the Book, What’s Up at the Lab and now Catching Up With the Lindens.
Table of Contents

The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised. Notes are based on the official video of the session, which is embedded at the end of this article. Time stamps are also provided to the relevant points in the video for those who wish to listen to specific comments.

On hand for the session, hosted by Elli Pinion, were:

  • Grumpity Linden, Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering.
  • Patch Linden, Senior Vice President of Product Operations.
  • Kali Linden, Director of Engineering Web & Platform
  • Kyle Linden,  Product Manager (viewer).

Notes:

  • This is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.
  • Timestamps are included to allow a direct jump to a subject.
  • Given these sessions are part of the VWBPE annual conference, there is obviously a lean towards matters of education and learning.

SL Mobile and Project Zero

SL Mobile

Resources:

[Video: 4:14-13:37]

  • A re-cap on work to date on SL Mobile, from the baseline starting point: could an app be built that could render avatars much as they appear within the viewer?
    • All the work tends to be iterative in nature – so, for example, avatar appearance and fixes form a tranche of on-going work as they are refined and improved.
    • Features are being added in terms of “journeys” – what would people like to do in SL when using a mobile app + what is practical to be able to to on a mobile device, and then building-out a specific “journey”.
    • The first such “journey” was called “going to a club” (although it can be applied to other in-world activities), and which incorporated capabilities  such as logging-in, seeing Friends on-line, finding an event / location, going to it, being able to chat / IM, listen to music, interact with objects, etc.
  • As the project has been opened out through the on-going Beta:
    • Development has been adjusted to try to take into account feedback and feature requests from users. developed and more and more feedback has been supplied by users (e.g. feature requests), and all of this is reviewed and considered in building-out the development roadmap.
    • One aspect of the Beta has been the need to better support incoming new users – hence the integration of the new user sign-up process with Mobile, the provision of an arrival / “welcome” area specifically for new users coming into SL via Mobile, etc.
One of the recent updates to SL Mobile was to integrate the new starter workflow – including avatar selection  – into it
  • The goal with the Mobile app is to have it as a companion means of accessing Second Life alongside of the desktop experience, with the eventual aim of having it stand on its own as a window into SL – but there is a lot of work / functionality to add before that point is reached.
  • However, some functionality will not be fully developed – such as the ability to build content from within  Mobile; screen size and other limitations do not allow for this, but users can expect the ability to interact / move content around on Mobile to customise spaces.

Project Zero

Resources:

[Video: 13:38-21:13]

  • Multi-faceted project:
    • Providing easier on-boarding for incoming / returning users by offering a direct path from sign-up to using the official viewer within a browser (Project Zero).
    • Providing a suitable new UI to with with the viewer when offered through a browser (React / HTML) (Project Zero).
    • Providing ability for existing users to access Second Life using a third-party viewer.
  • The payments aspect is in flux; streaming has costs associated with it, which LL need to cover (at the time of writing, around US $1.75 an hour per session – see: here and here for more), but at the same time those costs are gradually decreasing.
  • Firestorm Zero (see: Project Zero Update: Firestorm in your browser as well) has been a “first pass” at trying to offer access to a third-party viewer via a browser. This has been:
    • A limited-availability (in terms of available passes) offer.
    • A experiment in charging a nominal fee for access (L$250 for 5 hours) to see how that was received by existing users.
    • Testing the ability to have viewer settings persist across multiple log-ins using a browser-based version of the viewer.
  • LL are aware of the appetite among users to have browser-based access to SL, and more will be “coming, but not immediately coming.”
  • In terms of pay-to-use: LL are looking at various ways to reduce the cost to users (e.g. bundling so many hours of access per month to the SL subscription tiers before users on those tiers would have to start paying) – but this is all very much still in discussion.

WebRTC

[Video: 21:15-24:52-31:25]

  • Project recap: replacing Vivox Voice service and plug-in with the WebRTC communications protocol (RTC=”real-time communication”). Key benefits:
    • WebRTC supports a wide range of real-time communications tools in common use (e.g. Google Meet), supporting audio, video and data communications, and is thus something of a “standard” approach.
    • Offers a good range of features: automatic echo cancellation, better noise cancellation and automatic gain control, much improved audio sampling rates for improved audio quality.
    • Opens the door to features and capabilities to voice services which could not be implemented whilst using Vivox (e.g. text-to-speech / speech-to-text).
  • Currently, the majority of up-to-date viewer support both Vivox and WebRTC, and regions are running either WebRTC or Vivox on the back end.
    • The intention remains to turn off Vivox altogether on the back-end at some point, leaving only WebRTC.
    • This has been delayed due to the (now decreasing) number of users still using older versions of viewer which do not have the WebRTC updates, and so are reliant on Vivox.
    • It is hoped that, all things being equal, the switch-over can be made before the end of the second quarter of 2025 (e.g. by the end of June 2025).
  • In the meantime, region / estate holders wishing to try WebRTC on their regions can submit a support ticket to have their region moved from Vivox to WebRTC, with the understanding that (at the time of writing) WebRTC is still under development and might be a little unpredictable.

Combat 2.0

Resources:

[Video: 31:45-34:28]

  • Recap: a project (currently on hiatus) to overhaul the Second life Combat System (SLCS) and update it to support better combat capabilities and options, and make user engagement in combat simulations easier and more enjoyable.
  • Key additions to SLCS thus far include:
    • Damage Limit, Regeneration Speed, consequence of death (e.g. teleport victim home as per current SLCS or to a telehub  / landing point or take no action).
    • An on_damage event to account for intervening elements which may result in less severe damage being caused (e.g. when riding inside an armoured vehicle).
    • A new Region Combat Event Log (aka “Brigadier Linden”).
  • More work to come, with discussions often taking place during the weekly Simulator User Group meetings.

AI Integration

[Video: 35:51-40:45]

  • Recap:
    • LL originally launched the AI Character Generator utilising Convai, a platform for developers and creators proving an intuitive approach to designing AI characters, and with limited access in December 2024.
    • There was a lot of negative feedback, prompting the alpha test to be suspended, prior to re-opening in March 2025, with increased access, as a part of the March Membership Madness promotions.
  • LL is looking to work with various groups to make the capability more accessible / usable.
  • Due to the negativity from many towards AI (and some of the issues the wider use of generative AI has genuinely caused), the the Lab is looking to follow-up on Philip Rosedale’s promise to have a dedicated Town Hall / Community Round Table on the subject of AI, and get such a meeting scheduled.
  • There is acknowledgement that AI characters have a use within SL (e.g. the AI helper for new users that can answer questions, provide assistance, etc), and such use-cases could be widespread.
  • In developing AI capabilities for use with / in SL, LL is trying to be as thoughtful as possible, and respective of people’s views.
  • Concerns have been raised about people being able to know whether the character in front of them is an AI-driven agent rather than an avatar operated by a human.
    • Traditionally, the requirement has been for any scripted agent used in-world to be noted as so by the creator.
    • However, LL acknowledges that AI agents have a more nuanced capability over that of scripted agents (“bots”), and so a more granular distinction is likely required so that people do understand the nature of the avatar which whom they are interacting.

In Brief

From approx. 42 mins to end.

  • Mention of the SL server-side implementation of Luau scripting – referenced as “SLua”, currently in alpha testing on Aditi (the Beta grid).
  • SL22B: general notes that the birthday event will run from Friday, June 20th, 2025 through until Sunday, July 20th, and that (at the time of writing) performer and exhibitor applications are open.
  • Mention of the first cut of the glTF mesh model import to run alongside COLLADA – see my Content Creation User Group summaries for more.
  • Mention – without specifics – of two Linden Home releases that are on the horizon.
  • A reminder that SL users are welcome to attend all user group meetings.