Category: News-Opinion

Second Life “March Mobile Millions”

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Destination Guide on the SL Mobile – part of the first March Mobile Millions challenge

On Monday, March 3rd, 2025, Linden Lab announced a new promotion to encourage the use of the SL Mobile app, with a stated prize pool of up to L$31 million, with up to L$1 million in individual prizes to be claimed. The promotion is available to all Second Life users – Basic and any subscription tier – with no purchase necessary.

How It Works

  • Log in to Second Life Mobile and complete each week’s challenge every day in March.
  • Challenges will be announced every Monday through until March 24th, 2025 and will run through until 12:00 noon on the following Monday.
  • Each challenge must be completed every day for the time it is running.
  • One participating user will be randomly selected for a “March Millions MegaWheel Ticket”.
  • Winners get access to the “VIP Spin & Win Event”, where they can spin for up to L$1 million Linden Dollars (winners will be notified in-world).
    • Prize amount start at L$10,0000, approx. USD $40.00 (15 in 48 opportunities), and rise to L$1 million, approx.: USD $4,000 (1 in 48).
    • Winners of amounts valued at USD $600 or above will be required to submit either Form W-9 – Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification (US citizens) or Form W8-BEN – Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals) (non-US citizens).
  • This “Spin & Win Event” will take place weekly in a mystery inworld location inside Second Life, and will be streamed live to the Second Life YouTube channel.
  • For full rules and prize details, please refer to the official blog post.

Week One Challenge

Open from Monday, March 3rd through 12:00 noon, Monday March 10th.

  • Use SL Mobile to log-in to Second Life and teleport to three different locations listed in the Mobile Destination Guide.
    • Launch SL Mobile.
    • Navigate to Places in the menu.
    • Select the Destination Guide and pick a Destination to visit.
  • Then pick two more from the Destination Guide and visit them as well.

Note that the next challenge will be announced on Monday, March 10th, 2025.

Again, please refer to the official blog post for full details.

Seraphim, AI Character Designer round-out “Membership Mania” Month

Posted on by Inara Pey
Character Generator (see below) – via Linden Lab

On Monday, February 24th, Linden Lab announced the final rounds of perks and enticements in their February “membership mania” promotion to encourage users to subscribe to the Second Life membership tiers (Plus, Premium and Premium Plus). This is the third such announced for the month, and comprises the following:

SeraPlus – In Association with Seraphim

via Linden Lab

SeraPlus is an all-new exclusive perk in partnership with Seraphim and available to Plus, Premium, and Premium Plus members intended to bring subscribers “all new exclusive, high-quality virtual items from some of Second Life’s top creators”.

Starting in April, Plus, Premium, and Premium Plus members will be able to claim their new perks inworld at the Seraphim region including:

  • Quarterly SeraPlus Boxes: Four times a year, members will receive a curated box filled with exclusive virtual creations from some of Second Life’s top creators.
  • Monthly Exclusive Gifts: For each of the remaining eight months of the year, members will receive one additional exclusive item created in partnership with a top creator.

Expanded Access to the Updated AI Character Generator & More Profile Picks

Expanded Access to the AI Character Designer

At the end of 2024, Linden Lab announced the Alpha release of a new AI Character Generator utilising Convai, a platform for developers and creators proving an intuitive approach to designing characters with multimodal perception abilities in both virtual and real world environments. At the time, the service was only available to Premium Plus subscribers – although it was suspended shortly thereafter so it might be overhauled in response to feedback (see: Linden Lab leverage Convai for AI character generation in Second Life).

With this announcement, the Character Designer is re-launched, and is now available to all three subscription tiers: Plus, Premium and Premium Plus.

Members can now access this innovative tool to craft and customize virtual characters with intelligent responses, unique personalities, and immersive roleplay capabilities. It’s an exciting way to enhance community-building, storytelling, and social interaction in Second Life. While still in development, we’re excited to give a wider audience early access to this experimental creator tool.

– from the Lab’s official announcement

Profile Picks Increased for ALL Second Life

  • In response to multiple requests from users, Linden Lab will be increasing the number of Profile Picks users can have from 10 to 20.
  • This will require a simulator update, and so the capability will be rolling out “over the next couple of weeks”.

Membership Mania Offerings

As noted, the above is the third such multi-part promotion linked to Second Life subscription tiers, with the first two being:

In addition, at the start of the month, the Lab released the latest Premium Plus Linden Home “Thousand Islands” theme – see A look at the Thousand Islands Linden Homes theme in Second Life.

Links

Further Second Life “membership mania” from Linden Lab

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Tuesday, February 18th, Linden Lab announced a further set of rewards and perks for Second Life subscribers / members as a part of their February “membership mania” promotion. Coming on to of the announcement of expanded membership perks on February 10th (Lab announces Second Life “membership mania”), this sees the Lab announce:

  • Free Mesh Uploads for Premium Plus Members.
  • The chance to win one of three gaming PCs.

Free Mesh Uploads for Premium Plus Members

  • This has been promised since shortly after the introduction of the Premium Plus membership level in June 2022 (see: Second Life Premium Plus launches + some notes; updated).
  • This capability is added to Premium Plus members being able to upload textures, animations, and sounds without fees.
  • Mesh items can currently be uploaded for free at the  Radiantia Sandbox – however, the capability will be rolled out across all regions, so that Premium Plus members will be able to upload mesh items from anywhere on the grid.

 PC Giveaway

Important: for specifics on the giveaway, including AMOE, drawing and odds, and other rules and requirements – please refer to the Lab’s official blog post.

  • HP OMEN 45L Intel i9 RTX 4090 Gaming Desktop

    Between now and 23:59 SLT on February 28th, 2025, the Lab is holding a giveaway of three gaming specification desktop PCs comprising:

    • For Plus members: Thermaltake LCGS Quartz i460 R4 Gaming Desktop with a stated value of US $899.
    • For Premium members: Skytech Gaming PC Desktop with a stated value of US $1,999.
    • For Premium Plus: HP OMEN 45L Intel i9 RTX 4090 Gaming Desktop, with a stated value of US $4,679 USD.
  • All eligible Plus, Premium, and Premium Plus members are  automatically entered into the giveaway to win the PC in accordance with their subscription membership.
  • In addition, the Lab offers an Alternate Method of Entry (AMOE) via mail, and entries must be received by 23:59 SLT on March 9th 2025.
  • Due to local regulations and/or restrictions, this promotion is not open to residents of the following countries: Belgium, Italy, Brazil, Poland, Russia, India, China, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and any country under U.S. embargoes or trade sanctions.
  • Winners will be solely responsible for any applicable taxes, duties, or import fees, and for the submission of required paperwork (US: Form W-9 – Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification; Non- US: Form W8-BEN – Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals)).
  • Again, please refer to the official blog post for full rules / requirements and notes on the giveaway.

Links

Lab announces Second Life “membership mania”

Posted on by Inara Pey
February “Membership Mania”: Linden Homes for Plus Subscribers, formal announcement of SL Mobile Streaks awards and increases to a range of limits

On Monday, February 10th, Linden Lab announced a further set of rewards and perks for Second Life subscribers / members (that is, those with a Plus, Premium or Premium Plus account).

SL Mobile Streaks Rewards

The announcement formally announced the Streaks rewards system – here defined as a “limited time” perk – which rewards subscription account holders with modest L$ payments in return for logging-in to Second Life daily.

I’ve actually covered the Streaks rewards in some detail in Looking at Streaks reward testing on the SL Mobile app during testing, but in short:

  • Opt-in and log into SL via the Mobile app when logging-in via it daily over a 7-day period and receive incremental L$ rewards (L$15 on the first day after opting-in the Streaks, L$20 on the second, L$25 on the third, working through to L$70 on the 7th day), which can be claimed daily.
  • Miss a day, and the “streak” of log-ins will reset to 0 days and the daily amount to L$15.
  • After 7 days of increments, the “streak” resets to L$15 and 0 days, allowing you to start claiming the next 7 days of incremental amounts (again, up to L$70 on the 7th day).
Streak rewards on the SL Mobile app are available to all subscription account holders (Plus, Premium and Premium Plus), for “a limited time”

Linden Homes for Plus Subscribers

Second Life Plus subscribers can now participate in the Linden Homes benefit, with the 512 sq metre options in the following themes being available to Plus members:

Newbrooke: “modern container homes” – see here for a review – with the following styles available to Plus subscribers: Denver, Ender, Faraday and Gatewood.

The 512 sq m Newbrooke Linden homes (clockwise from top left: Faraday, Gatewood, Ender, and Denver

Sakura: Japanese themed homes – see here for a review – with the following styles available to Plus subscribers: Botan (or Benibara in open-plan form), Himawari (Haibisukasu in open-plan form), Kosumosu (Kinmokusei in open-plan form) and Tenjikubotan  (Tsubaki in open plan form).

Camper: – all styles, but limited to the 512 sq m parcel size see here for a review.

Four styles of the Camper and Trailer Homes 

Remember: all Linden Home themes and styles – including those now available to Plus subscribers – can be viewed at the BelliHub Linden Homes demo area in-world. Availability of specific themes and styles can be found via the Linden Homes portal.

Linden homes Increased Land Capacity

All classes of Linden home  – Plus/Premium and Premium Plus now have increased parcel Land Capacity / available Land Impact, per the table below:

Land Capacity / Impact increases for Linden Homes. Credit: Linden Lab

Note that these Land Capacity updates may take time to be deployed across all Linden home parcels.

Increased Limits form IMs, Groups and Animesh Attachments

ALL account types – Basic through Premium Plus – see increases in some or all of the following: IM limits, Group limits, and allowed Animesh attachments, per the table below.

Increased limits as applied to account types. Credit: Linden Lab

Links

Lab officially announces 2K Bakes on Mesh is live for Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Comparison (not overly great) between 2K BOM (l) and current maximum of 1K (r). Credit: Girl Crush (Zipper) via Linden Lab

Following Pepper Linden’s statement at the Tuesday, February  4th, 2025 Simulator User Group meeting that Second Life 2K Bakes on Mesh support is now grid-wide, Linden Lab posted an official announcement on Thursday, February 6th, 2025.

Residents, the wait is over! We’re thrilled to announce that as of February 3rd, 2025, 2K Bakes on Mesh (BOM) is now officially live!
After an exciting round of testing on Aditi, where many of you helped us refine this feature (thank you, beta testers!), we’re now rolling it out to the main grid. That means higher-resolution baked textures are here to take your avatars to the next level!

– 2K BOM Official blog post

This is the service that allows compatible wearable textures – skins, clothing layers, tattoos – to be baked at up to 2048×2048 resolution, which should lead to them appearing crisper and sharper on avatars (system or mesh with Bakes on Mesh enabled), although the following should be noted:

  • Bakes will be to the highest texture resolution in the bake composition (e.g. if the highest resolution among the layers – skin, clothing, etc – is 512x512K, then the overall bake will be 512x512K overall; if the highest resolution is 1024x1024K, then the bake will be 1024x1024K; if just one texture is 2048×2048, then the entire bake will by 2048×2048).
  • The exception to this is eye textures: these will never be bakes any anything higher than 512x512K (so there is not need for creators to start producing 2048×2048 eyes).

This blog post include sample shots- one of which is included in this post – and people should read the official post for full details.

Feedback is requested via the feedback portal, or via the weekly Simulator User Group (SUG) meetings, held Tuesdays at 12:00 noon SLT at this location.

SL Mobile gains account creation workflow (and more)

Posted on by Inara Pey
Second Life accounts can new be created directly through SL Mobile

On Tuesday, February 4th, 2025, the SL Mobile app updated to version 2025.01.542 (Android) / 0.5.533 (iOS). Chief among the enhancement included is the promised Create Account options, together with the ability to delete an account (if you really want to).

Account Creation

The Create Account workflow is similar to that found when signing-up to Second Life via the official Second Life website, but laid out in a manner suitable for smaller screens, and the key points aspects are:

  • Account creation is initiated directly from the SL Mobile log-in splash screen, which now has a Create Account option directly under the account credentials fields.
  • Tapping this option takes the user to the Account Creation screen where a user name, password, email address, date of birth, etc., can be entered.
    • As per the web sign-up process the e-mail account must be verified within 24 hours by replying to the message that has been sent to it.
  • This page also requires the acceptance of the Terms of Service and Second Life Terms of Service – again, just like the web-oriented sign-up, and which are presented to links to read both.
  • There is also an option to opt-in to the receipt of emails, etc., from the Lab, and a requirement to check a Capcha box.
Initial steps in account creation via SL Mobile: the splash screen option (l) and the sign-up page ((c) and (r)
  • Once completed, the form is processed and the user moves on to avatar selection – gender, facial appearance, hair style, outfit selection / clothing selection, etc, again much as the web sign-up process operates.
  • This section uses sliders and tap options to move between selections and to make specific choices (e.g. skin, clothing hair colours, style on clothing, footwear, etc.).
  • Once that avatar shale, gender, skin, clothing, etc., have by set to the user’s satisfaction, tapping the Continue button at the top of the screen will complete the avatar selection process and take the used back the the SL Mobile logging splash screen, complete with their user name entered in the top field.
The avatar selection process through SL Mobile flows much the same workflow as seen when signing-up via the SL website
  • The new account password can then be entered, and the account logged-in, delivering the avatar to Campwich Forest, the default arrival location for those joining via SL Mobile.

Account Deletion

It is now possible to delete an account directly from the SL Mobile app, should you wish:

  • Display the app’s menu.
  • Tap Help
  • Tap the Delete Account option and follow the required steps. Options to progress through the deletion request process will become enabled as required fields are completed.
It is now possible to delete accounts through SL Mobile, with options to progress becoming enabled as required fields are updated by the user

Additional Updates

  • The new Bone Attachment Developer Tools option (requires restart)

    A fix for the formatting issues with off-line Group notices.

  • A new setting in Developer tools – Bone Attachment Point Handling.
    • This is off by default – so no behaviour change from previous versions of the app.
    • When enabled, can improve avatar mesh appearance handling – although a restart is required after changing the setting to see the results.
    • Warning: this option might also cause new problems! If you see anything untoward as a result of enabling – please provide feedback to the Lab.
  • More debug information relating to rigged meshes is sent for developers to use.

Personal Feedback

My own experience of the sign-up process was – painful, with the first page of the sign-up process repeatedly causing SL Mobile to repeatedly freeze.

I have no idea where the problem lay (my hardware – Android 13, with Octa-core (2×1.6 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55) CPU; Mali-G57 MP1; 8Gb primary RAM + 8Gb from 256Gb internal storage -; my wi-fi or something within the app and how it was processing the sign-up page (the avatar selection / customisation process was a lot smoother). Hopefully, this is not a common problem, as adding account creation to SL mobile is a good move for obvious reasons.

As a general note to the Lab, I would suggest placing an avatar mover at the default landing point at Campwich Forest. My test avatar arrived among a group of 12 so tightly packed together no-one could move without slamming into one another (and getting stuck, as push did not appear to be working).

By contrast, account deletion was straight-forward (bye-bye test account!), but I did not experiment with the new Bone Attachment option, as I’ve not noted any issues with the rigged meshes I routinely wear, so see no reason to toggle the setting.