Category: News-Opinion

SS Galaxy refits for a new role

Posted on by Inara Pey
SS Galaxy - set to return to SL
SS Galaxy – set to return to SL

Update, May 18th: Keira Linden sent me the following in-world, and has given me permission to share it. Hopefully it will both please those of us hoping to see the Galaxy resume her role as a location for events:

“Hey Inara!  Just read your blog about the SS Galaxy.  Great article! 

“Just wanted to clear a few minor things up.  I saw where the topic of Events was discussed and wanted you to know that once the dust settles on the ship it will be available for public events just as any other parcel set as a Linden Location would be. I know that the ship had numerous events, and we would hate to have that opportunity vanish for those who have enjoyed it for so long.

“Also, I wanted it be clear that this wasn’t a situation where we came in and took over.  We worked very closely with the former owners for quite some time before they offered us the opportunity to preserve the builds for the entire community.  As long time residents ourselves, we are very sensitive to the disappearance of historic areas such as and work very hard to ways to keep them in world and active.  Thanks again for the blurb on SS Galaxy! Talk to you later!”

In April 2015, I wrote about the final cruise for the SS Galaxy. At the time, a series of circumstances meant that the owners had decided to reluctantly call time on the great ship’s eight-year cruise on the “Sagittarian Sea” and make a return to port at the start of May.

Now, it seems that the great liner is to make a return to the open oceans of Second Life. DB Digital, who has operated the liner’s long with his SL partner Mia Epsilon, for the majority of the the ship’s cruise, passed me a short communique on Tuesday, May 12th, which has also been posted to the SS Galaxy blog, and reads as follows:

Dear Supporters and Friends of the SS Galaxy,

There have been many rumours cycling regarding the Galaxy and what really happened.  I can’t release that information as of yet.  However, I can now say that the SS Galaxy has been acquired by Linden Labs and will return.  She is currently undergoing retrofitting to sail under the Linden Labs flag.  I have been tirelessly converting all the transferable prims I personally owned to Linden Lab ownership, and my part of the project is now complete.

Sadly being under Linden Lab’s flag also means that none of the previous management or crew will be aboard in any sort of capacity.  I have also been told there will be no rentals or events.  This means she will not quite be the Galaxy you know and love.  But she will still exist in a museum state and be open for visitation in the near future.

More information will be released as I can.  I wish to thank everyone again from the guests, to the staff, and beyond.  You all made the Galaxy the special place she was, and no one can take that from us.

DBDigital Epsilon
Former Managing Director
SS Galaxy

SS Galaxy - the spa pool
SS Galaxy – the spa pool

As can be seen from the communication, it doesn’t look as if the Galaxy is going to be available as a venue, but like Svarga, is to be preserved as a piece of Second Life history. I also understand from DB that her final moorings have yet to be determined. Should an update be forthcoming on this through DB or the Lab directly, I’ll update this post and will doubtless cover her return when it happens.

Lab says: “help decide the next meet-up location”

Posted on by Inara Pey
The group gathers for selfies at the Meauxle Bureaux fountain during the Wednesday, March 25th meet-up with Linden Lab folk
The group gathers for selfies at the Meauxle Bureaux fountain during the Wednesday, March 25th meet-up with Linden Lab folk

Linden Lab has resumed the habit of social get-togethers with SL users. It’s a welcome move, and the events tend to be very popular. Since getting things rolling again, the Lab has selected the venue – which so far has been “Mole Town”, aka Meauxle Bureaux (see my report on the last gathering).

However, for the next get-together, they’re looking to do things differently. In a blog post published on Friday, May 8th, Xiola Linden is asking for venue ideas from residents. The post reads in full:

It’s just about in-world meetup time, and since we’re in the habit of sharing some of our favourite spots from the Destination Guide, this weekend, we wanted to flip the script and find out from you what spot you think is one of the best to visit for our next in-world meetup.

Share your recommendations in this forum thread – links to Destination Guide entry or SLURLS are best – and we’ll pick one to have our next in-world meetup.

The next meetup is planned for Thursday, May 14th at 1 PM SLT, so get your recommendations in soon!

As always, if you have a region or location that you would like to show off – be sure to share it, and we always love to see pics of your adventures on the Official Second Life Flickr page.

A chic Alexa Linden and a very tall Torley at the last gathering
A chic Alexa Linden and a very tall Torley at the last gathering

While there are no guidelines on what might be considered acceptable, any venue put forward should probably be rated Moderate at best, or General. Ideally, it should also have plenty of space for people to mingle – so it’s probably best not to suggest your back garden (unless your back garden happens to be an entire region, of course!).

There can be upwards of 50-60 people wanting to attend, so full regions are really the best, and those which offer things to do  – dancing, music, a bit of exploring – might well be appreciated. And do keep in mind the potential impact having an army of Lindens and residents might have on the regular users of any venue, should they all suddenly turn up!

Of course – if you do have a great venue of your own to offer which could fit the bill, this could be an ideal time to drop its name and SLurl into the forum thread.

As Xiola points out, the next meet-up is scheduled for Thursday, May 14th, at 13:00 SLT – that’s just a week away, and the Lab will need a little time to select a place and get the word out – so if you’re going to make a suggestion, best to get it in sooner rather than later!

Altas Obscura offers a clear-eyed image of Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Second Life has been enjoying something of a positive resurgence in the media in recent months, and with May now passing us by, and June and SL’s 12th anniversary  sitting just over the horizon, it is inevitable that there will be more media coverage forthcoming on SL as the Lab’s media team crank things up.

Eric Grundhauser: touring Second Life with Ziki Questi
Eric Grundhauser: touring Second Life with Ziki Questi

One of the first out of the gate in this regard is an article in Altas Obscura, which describes itself as the definitive guide to the world’s wondrous and curious places. Penned by Eric Grundhauser, Forgotten Wonders of the Digital World offers a positive insight on SL with a novel twist.

Rather than asking a few questions of the Lab or relying on images grabbed from Flickr and cobbled together with a little staggering around in-world, Eric Grundhauser is, with the assistance of the Lab, able to gain none other than Ziki Questi, photographer and blogger (together with her partner Kinn), to act as his guide to all that is, and can be found, in-world.

The result is an engaging and informed piece which neatly encapsulates SL’s history, presents an assured view of the platform devoid of the usual clichés and asides, and which focuses on the rich tapestry of content which can be found in-world – role-play, art, personal spaces, with even the broader uses of the platform touched upon, such as the US Army’s use of SL (and OpenSim) to help service personnel deal with PTSD. What’s more, with some of the images supplied by Ziki, the article looks good as well (Mr. Grundhauser’s own snaps aren’t too bad, and kudos to him for taking them, rather than seeking to raid an archive from 2008 or so!).

Ziki and I are a lot alike in terms of taste, so for me it was good to see Roche,  A Petrovsky Flux and Haveit Neox’s City Inside Out referenced in the article, with Insilico, Kowloon and The Far Away – which Ziki herself rescued from oblivion and now curates – also getting a mention (and photographs).

Roche, a favourite of mine, and featured in the Atlas Obscura article
Roche, a favourite of mine, and featured in the Atlas Obscura article

Such is the impact of his time in Second Life exploring with Ziki and Kinn, Mr. Grundhauser willingly re-evaluates his thinking about the world, while remaining open and honest:

To be honest, when I decided to delve into Second Life, I half-expected to find a dying world of outsiders and bronies gleefully recreating pornographic impossibilities. But that simply doesn’t seem to be true. What I found, and mind you, I was only able to visit a strikingly miniscule portion of the available spaces, was that Second Life is still a fascinating and vital world that is constantly changing and pushing the boundaries of what a virtual space can be…

More telling I think, is the somewhat widespread perception that Second Life is no longer an active digital playground. The Grid is still a vital and evolving space that hundreds of thousands of users create and evolve each day.

Nor is “the sex thing” shied away from – kudos again to Ziki for being open on that subject as well, and the fact that – just as in the physical world and the Internet as a whole – there is an awful lot of it in SL. But as Eric Grundhauser demonstrates very ably – with or without established guides – just because there is a lot of sex in-world, it doesn’t bean it’s the be-all and end-all of the platform. As he notes when describing the diversity of activities and those using SL:

Doctors, universities, hobbyists, sci-fi fans, artists, and inexplicable curiosities can all be found operating in SL, by those willing to look.

Well done to him for making the effort to delve into SL and spend time exploring and getting to know at least a couple of residents, rather than simply taking the hoary old trail of slapping a few outdated headlines (and images) together in an attempt to underline a preconception.

All told, a good, light read.

Related Links

With thanks to Ziki Questi for the advanced notification that this article was upcoming.

Lab warns: Facebook upload problems possible

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeFacebook recently implemented changes to the API which Linden Lab (among others) use to allow snapshots to be uploaded to Facebook from the viewer via the SL Share capability.

In response to this, as as I noted in my TPV Developer Meeting report on April 11th, the Lab made changes to SL Share itself to comply with Facebook’s update. These don’t involve and functional changes to SL Share or the way you go about uploading snaps, etc, to Facebook, and it had been hoped that the whole process of changing from the “old” to the “new” API would be completely transparent to SL users.

Unfortunately, Facebook seem to be lagging behind in actually migrating applications using the API to the updated version, and as a result have indicated that some of the applications (like SL Share) might encounter some disruptions as the switch-over occurs.

Because of this, Linden Lab have issued a warning to those using SL Share for Facebook uploads that there might be temporary problems with the service. The notice, which came in the form of a technology blog post, reads in part:

This means that when using SLShare (updating status, photo uploads, and check-ins from the Viewer) you may experience some temporary problems. Please be assured that we are aware of this and any issues you encounter should be resolved once the migration period is complete.

Thank you for your patience!

Note that potential problems might occur with any viewer using the SL Share capability to upload to Facebook, and not just the official viewer. So if you are using a TPV with the capability, please keep this in mind.

The SL Share to Facebook allows you to upload images, provide status updates, etc., directly to your Facebook account - and has proven very popular among the large numbers of SL users who are willing to connect their SL and Facebook accounts
The SL Share to Facebook allows you to upload images, provide status updates, etc., directly to your Facebook account – and has proven very popular among the large numbers of SL users who are willing to connect their SL and Facebook accounts

For those unfamiliar with the Facebook upload capability, it can be accessed either via a dedicated menu / toolbar option in those viewers supporting it, or via the unified snapshot floater (again, in those viewers supporting it). It allows those with a Facebook account to send updates on where they are in SL and what they’re doing, upload snapshots, complete with pre-processing filters. There’s also a Friends tab in the Facebook floater, but this hasn’t been defined in the Lab’s Knowledge Base article on the capability, as I don’t use Facebook, I’ve not been able to confirm it’s use. I assume its a method of connecting to other SL friends you have who also use Facebook.

Related Links

Oculus VR confirm: consumer headset to ship Q1 2016

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Wednesday, May 6th, Oculus VR confirmed the consumer version of their headset will commencing shipping in the first quarter of 2016, with pre-ordering due to start later in 2015.

The news broke via a press release from Oculus VR, and Tweets from Oculus VR, Palmer Luckey, and the company’s Vice President of Product  Nate Mitchell (shown on the right).

The announcement ends months of speculation on when the consumer version of the headset might be available, with many originally predicting it would be ready for Christmas 2014 and then Christmas 2015. Despite such speculation, Oculus VR has always carefully avoided mentioning any approximate idea release dates. As I reported in these pages, even as recently as November 2014, Oculus VR Brendan Iribe was playing down any idea of any (then) near-term release of the headset:

We want to get it right. We really do. We’ve gone out there and we’ve set this bar and said, “we are going to get it right, and we’re not going to ship until we get it right” … We’re getting very close … We want it to be a beautiful product; there’s no reason it can’t be a beautiful product … so we still have a way to go, and we’re still working on a number of things, but we’re getting much closer. We like to say it’s months, not necessarily years, away [but] it’s many months, not a few months.

Click for full size

That something might be afoot by way of announcements was initially hinted at in a May 5th Tweet in which Palmer Luckey commented I love it when a plan comes together!

This brought an inevitable run of replies, many seeing it as a hint about the Oculus CV1 (as the consumer version of the headset has sometimes been referred to), including the humorous response seen on the right regarding the headset’s form factor.

Details of the headset are rather scant in the announcement and the images a little on the dark side (I’ve lightened the contrast on them below), with the release merely stating:

The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as a highly refined industrial design, and updated ergonomics for a more natural fit.

No details on pricing or quite when in 2015 people will be able to start pre-ordering the headset, and there are certainly no details on the technical aspects of the headset. However, one potentially interesting aspect of the announcement has already sparked some speculation, as it refers to the upcoming release as, “a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality”. This has prompted Techcrunch to comment:

There’s no mention of a third-party computer necessary to power the Rift, which previous Oculus developer kits required. That means the Rift might ship with a game console-esque device to handle computing for the headset. An all-in-one box could make virtual reality much more accessible to consumers, especially those who don’t own a high-grade gaming PC.

A front view of the Oculus consumer version (courtesy of Oculus VR)
A front view of the Oculus consumer version (courtesy of Oculus VR)

In terms of specification, the announcement was equally enigmatic, stating, “we’ll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift”, with the last part of this statement leading Techcrunch to also speculate whether Oculus VR might also announce a line of in-house developed games to go with the launch.

Given the backgrounds of many of those involved in the company, such an idea might not be wild speculation. As it is, it is already known that Oculus VR is helping to develop immersive movie experiences. Furthermore, in February 2015 it was confirmed that Facebook is developing VR apps, with Chief Product Officer Chris Cox saying that experiences as varied as flying a fighter jet to sitting in a Mongolian yurt would serve as inspiration, and describing the technology as “sending a fuller picture … You’ll do it, Beyoncé will do it”. Ergo, Oculus VR-branded games are not beyond the realm of possibly.

What the announcement does more-or-less mean is that unless something unexpected happens, the Oculus Rift will definitely be available after HTC / Valve have started shipping their own Vive headset, which looks set to hit the market around the same time as Samsung’s  (Oculus-enabled) Gear VR2, towards the end of 2015.

A view from under the Oculus consumer version (courtesy of Oculus VR)
A view from under the Oculus consumer version (courtesy of Oculus VR)

While there has been a lot of hype about the possible demand for what is effectively a first generation headset from Oculus VR, there have also been some notes of caution sounded in some quarters. As gamesindustry.biz notes, Ben Schachter, a Macquarie Research analyst wrote to Facebook investors, stating:

While there is not yet any info on pricing or available units, we expect relatively small number of units and think that the initial device will be supply constrained. We think that the early versions of the device will be more about showing what is possible from gaming and other entertainment genres, and build demand for later versions of the device.

Mr. Schachter isn’t alone. While price may no longer be a limiting factor in obtaining a headset, Jacki Morie, herself a VR pioneer (and whose work has been featured in this blog a number of times) recently warned that care should be taken in how the potential for VR is promoted, in particular pointing to things like an Oculus VR sponsored art contest as a means to send out completely the wrong message about VR to a wider mass market audience and potentially damaging the technology’s credibility as a useful tool.

I actually doubt the wheels will seriously come off the cart with VR this time around, bad marketing campaigns and the like notwithstanding, although Jacki clearly has a point about getting the right message out there in the first place. However, I do tend to think that Mr. Schachter’s comment about the build-up of demand is well put. VR will profoundly alter many ways of doing things for all of us in time; but the the speculation and hype that will not follow Oculus VR’s announcement aside, it’s still going to be a few years or so before we see VR as being as ubiquitous a piece of technology in our daily lives as we do the mobile ‘phone today.

Lab confirms: Sansar is the new virtual platform’s interim name

Posted on by Inara Pey

LL logoOn May 3rd, I posted about the speculation circulating concerning two trademarks the Lab registered in April 2015 for “SANSAR” (US serial no 86593259) and “Project Sansar” (US Serial no 86593254), and whether there might be related to the Lab’s Next Generation Platform for Virtual Experiences.

At the time I indicated that I’d already approached the Lab on the matter, but has not received any feedback, I also pointed out that in October 2014, the Lab registered the domain name “projectsansar.com”.

The Lab have now responded, both directly to myself, and via Twitter.

In is e-mail I received on Tuesday, May 5th, Peter Gray, the Lab’s Director of Global communications said:

Hi Inara,

Project Sansar is the internal code name we’ve been using for the new platform, and we do plan to use that name externally in its early stages (like the invite-only alpha we begin this summer). However, this is just the project name, and we anticipate changing it prior to launching the platform to everyone.

best,
Peter

Shortly after I received the e-mail, the Lab also tweeted:

Confirmation of NGP's interim name via a Tweet and an e-mail
Confirmation of NGP’s interim name via a Tweet and an e-mail

That the name might be more an interim measure than a final operating name seemed to be indicated by the fact the domain name registration took place in October 2014, around the time the Lab was starting to indicate they had an internal name for the project. However, speculation as to the final name was understandable, given the trademarks were filed in April 2015 – although this obviously also converges with the Lab’s plans for a closed alpha to start-up later in the year, and so also fits with the name being the codename for the product.

I do still have some questions on the matter with the Lab; should I gain further replies, I’ll of course publish them here.