Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, July 7th, 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 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
Nathhimmel: Lavender Fields of Madame Loutre, June 2024 – blog post †
The following notes were taken from my audio recording + the video recording by Pantera (embedded at the end of this summary) of the Third-Party Developer meeting (TPVD) held on Friday, July 5th, 2024. My thanks to Pantera as always for providing it.
Meetings Purpose
The TPV Developer meeting provides an opportunity for discussion about the development of, and features for, the Second Life viewer, and for Linden Lab viewer developers and third-party viewer (TPV) / open-source code contributors to discuss general viewer development. This meeting is held once a month on a Friday, at 13:00 SLT at the Hippotropolis Theatre.
For both meetings: dates and times are recorded in the SL Public Calendar, and they re conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.
The notes herein are a summary of topics discussed and are not intended to be a full transcript of the meeting.
Atlasaurus RC (object take options; improved MOAP URL handling), version 7.1.9.9620320242, June 27.
Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes) 7.1.9.9555137545, June 21.
Maintenance C RC (reset skeleton in all viewers), version 7.1.9.9469671545, June 14.
Project viewers:
None.
General Viewer Notes (Both Meetings)
The switch to working from multiple viewer RC branches to a single development branch is continuing.
This will mean in future there are likely to be fewer RCs in the pipeline than has bee the case for roughly the last decade (and sees the visible aspect of viewer development and release process swing back towards how it appeared prior to the switch to using RC channels).
Parallel tracking of viewer development will continue for a while, given the fact there are currently four RC viewers in flight.
The above change-over will not prevent contributions being accepted.
A new project intended to move Second Life away from reliance on the Vivox voice service and plug-in, and to using the WebRTC communications protocol (RTC=”real-time communication”). Roxie Linden is leading this work.
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.
In addition:
LL are are of some of the security concerns around WebRTC voice (e.g. risk of eavesdropping, exposure of users’ IP addresses, etc), and is actively working to block these through the use of an internal proxy service.
LL will be looking to Linux devs to help give feedback on how well WebRTC is working on their Linux viewers
Work has been on stabilising WebRTC and getting the viewer to RC status so that TPVs can look at it.
Overall, development work is in a “wrapping-up” phase.
Currently, LL is looking at August for a potential deployment across all of SL on the server-side.
This will follow the usual approach of roll-out to the simulator RC channels first, then to the SLS Main channel.
As a result, there will be some short-term issues around peer-to-peer, Group and ad-hoc voice connections between those on regions running the two different voice services (Vivox and WebRTC).
Depending on how the deployment goes (e.g. first to a single RC, then multiple RCs, then the SLS Main channel), it is hoped that any such issues will only be for around 2 weeks.
Viewers adopting the WebRTC code prior to or during this deployment period will be able to process both WebRTC and Vivox voice.
As a result of the Firestorm PBR release, Runitai Linden has been revisiting the issue of memory use in the PBR-enabled viewer code on lower-specification computers.
Geenz Linden is continuing to work on various glTF extensions, including glTF index of refraction (IOR) and transmission – with the work on the latter potentially being wrapped up.
Cosmic Linden has been tweaking the PBR terrain work for PBR transforms on terrain (one transform per material).
[Video 39:44-41:14] requests have been made for reflection probes in shapes other than cubes and spheres (e.g. cylinders, triangles, hemispheres) to account for more awkward interior space shapes (e.g. in roof areas). This is viewed as “highly unlikely” at the Lab.
However, the mirror capability may be extended to include sphere reflection probes at some point “if all goes well”.
PBR Terrain Painting
This is the next planned project for Cosmic Linden, and is in the very early stages of planning, so things are subject to potential change.
Currently, the thinking is:
The four PBR materials currently used for PBR terrain would remain available for use / painting.
The painting element would allow a user to define how these materials are mixed, rather than having to rely purely on the the height map.
E.g. if you have a paint map for a region, you’ll be able to blend the materials based on that, rather than having to use the height map, and define where areas of grass or rock or dirt, etc., appears on the ground.
The paint map is likely to initially be on the basis of one blended texture at region level (not parcel), although the resolution of the texture is still TBA at the time of writing.
The permissions for terrain painting will be based on ability to edit the height map (if you can alter the latter through the Region settings, then you’ll be able to use the terrain painting capability).
Terrain painting will be a significant departure in how terrain texturing has been managed, requiring a new entity to be introduced. This is also still being thought through, but it is unlikely it will be a new asset type stored on the asset servers.
[Video: 16:15-16:29] No decision has been made on making terrain painting open to scripted control.
Cosmic is open to feedback on how this might be used, if enabled (e.g. a scripted explosion leaving a detonation mark on the ground for a period of time).
In Brief
Reflections turn black when zooming in close is an issue which appears to be related to the use of mirror probes as well as “normal” reflection probes. If you are impacted by this, add your vote.
Auto-exposure under PBR (adjusting the general scene brightness when looking at one or more very bright objects in the scene), with people interpreting it as a bug, particularly with the release of Firestorm PBR.
It’s been suggested that a wiki page on how auto-exposure works should be produced, to which people can be pointed to help them understand what it is and how it works. Or potentially a debug setting or similar to disable (with a warning things may not display correctly as a result).
Canny feedback has been requested on issues being encountered / suggestions for related features (such as the setting noted above).
This led to an extending general discussion on lighting and rendering – please refer to the video.
RLV/RLVa adoption by the Lab is still in discussion and described as something the Lab wants to do, but it does represent an extensive change to their viewer.
As such, it is likely that as contributions are made, they will be pulled into the official viewer incrementally (presumably with some going behind debug flags until such time as they can be properly enabled).
Overall, it now appears the Lab does want to support the full RLV/RLVa feature set, rather than just a sub-set thereof as had been previously indicated as a possible route.
Opening the PBR terrain painting to scripted control led to a conversation on scripted weather systems – such as being able to change the ground appearance to match the season; having the ground appear to be covered by snow when it snows, etc. There have been requests for this, but it is not something the Lab is currently working on.
† 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 gathering of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.
Angel of Pain, July 2024 – click any image for full size
The subjects of BDSM and D/s are not to everyone’s taste, and given this broad cross-section of readership I’m fortunate enough to have with this blog, they are areas I only occasionally cover when it comes to places in Second Life to visit (for example, Athenaeum, which I’ve covered a few times in these pages). However, there is one I’ve been meaning to cover for a while is that of Angel of Pain, a Full region held by fellow Second Life explorer and blogger, Susann DeCuir, and I find it both engaging and unique in looks.
As one might expect from a seasoned traveller with an eye for region designs and an accomplished Second Life photographer as Susann undoubtedly is, as well as being focused on Adult activities, Angel of Pain is also exceptionally photogenic and extremely well laid out, offering a good mix of ground level public spaces, all nicely interconnected through the landscaping and design, with more private areas – vignettes, you might say – occupying platforms in the sky, where the regions landing point and its associated locations and the Angel of Pain club might be found.
Angel of Pain, July 2024
Angel of Pain is built on a complete region. Here you can find many different ways to enjoy yourself. From soft to hard, everything is included for our guests. At the main landing point you will find a teleport board on one of the walls. There you can also find a dating service, teleports to other friendly sims, a group gift.
– Susann’s introduction to the region
The landing point offers general information on the region and its supporting in-world Group, teleport / landmark givers to various other regions in Second Life, links to the Angel of Pain Flickr group (membership required), Facebook page and to Susann’s blog, and the group joiner. Also to be found here is the region’s main teleport board and corridors leading the art gallery – which was at the time of my visit featured images by Ludi Taurus (due to run through until July 25th), and the Angel of Pain Dating Bar. The latter is a large space with central bar, a stage, seating areas and spaces for adult / BDSM play.
Angel of Pain, July 2024
The teleport board provides access to all of the locations to be found within the Region. Several of these are located in the sky – as noted – with the rest on the ground. As the latter can all be reached by following the well laid-out paths around the region, I recommend you select the option to jump down to Angel of Pain Ground, and follow the paths and trails from there and use the teleport boards found throughout to reach the locations in the sky. Prior to taking the teleport, however, I would further strongly recommend you have your viewer set to Use Shared Environment as this does change to suit places as you explore; you should also enable local sounds.
The arrival area on the ground is close to a large mansion with a casual pool and seating area to the rear. The mansion, with a foyer containing a pool of its own flanked by two other rooms, carries on with a theme started in the main landing point sky platform and found throughout the region, and which I found particularly attractive, artful and effective: Susann’s use of greenery: vines, plants, shrubs and grass / flowers inside building as much as outdoors.
Angel of Pain, July 2024
The mansion sits with its back to a broad channel cutting into the landscape from the north, running first south and then west, where it slims before exiting the region to the south as a narrow neck of water. With a second channel branching to the east, the water divides the landscape into two large land masses and a smaller island, bridges linking them together.
To the front of the mansion as it faces south, there is a terrace overlooking the southern lowlands and coast, with two paths reaching out and down to these lowlands. One of these paths runs down to a north-west headland sitting between the mouth of the channel and a small bay on the west side of the land. the headland is planted with laurels above which lanterns float, whilst the path passes under a torii gate and runs to a cluster of three Japanese-themed structures forming the Shibari House.
Angel of Pain, July 2024
Meanwhile, and to the east, the path runs down to the narrow neck of the channel splitting the land, passing a gazebo along the way and then hopping over the water via a little hump-back bridge. From here it continues on through a wild garden and climbs steps up to the Church of Pain, thence onwards to the Tower with its multiple levels of play areas and open-sided wooden decks, and finally crosses another bridge to the small island and the ruins and decks located there offering further bondage play areas.
If one misses the path down to the little hump-backed bridge, the path will carry them to Pleasure in the Rain, a barn sitting in its own rainstorm and converted into a cosy little hideaway with a parasoled hot tub outside. These are not the only locations at ground level, but I’ll leave you to discover the rest should you choose to visit.
Angel of Pain, July 2024
Using the teleport boards will provide access to the more personal spaces: the Bathhouse and Garden, the Library, the Interrogation room, the two Dungeons, the Loft, Sex Adventure, Secret Room, Red Room, D/s Heaven, and Lounge. Some of these have uses that are obviously described in their names; with others, the potential use is perhaps less clear – but some have the sense of been connected to one another, even though there are located in different parts of the region. The Loft and the Library, for example, are not directly connected, but the have a feeling of being part of the same building.
Also to be found in the sky is the Angel of Pain Club. This continues the theme of using trees and shrubs as well and the hints of a religious motif (as with “angel”) by being built in a church-like building and having winged demons and statues of robed figures. Caught in a red environment setting (again, be sure to have Use Shared Environment option in the viewer) and with red the predominant décor colour, and decorated with themed images, the club has an atmosphere quite apart from the rest of the region and its various locations, one with is both inviting whilst the pentagram on the floor and the demon figurines give it a darker twist.
Angel of Pain, July 2024
Tasteful, with plenty of indications of its D/s BDSM theme scattered throughout the ground level settings without overly intruding into any photographs one might take of the setting unless wanted, Angel of Pain is very much an Adult playground – but one that is also richly landscaped and photogenic. The smaller, more themed areas in the sky, meanwhile, offer opportunities for more private and personal times whilst also providing potentially ideal environments for more erotic photography.
The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday July 3rd, 2024. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting, recorded by Pantera Północy, is embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks as always to Pantera for recording it and making it available.
Note: This meeting was entirely text-based.
Meeting Overview
The Web User Group exists to provide an opportunity for discussion on Second Life web properties and their related functionalities / features. This includes, but is not limited to: the Marketplace, pages surfaced through the secondlife.com dashboard; the available portals (land, support, etc), the forums.
As a rule, these meetings are conducted:
On the first Wednesday of the month and 14:00 SLT.
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.
Improvements and Updates from the Web Team Planned for the Coming Year
Marketplace on Mobile and MFA on the Marketplace
The Marketplace will have a first release of being mobile responsive in the coming weeks (“not months”).
This will be rolled out slowly so some users may see it before others.
This release will focus on making the the product listing pages and checkout page more responsive and display better at specific break points (including on mobile devices).
Once the initial work on making the above pages more responsive has been deployed, LL will be adding multi-factor authentication (MFA) to the Marketplace
This will be an extension to the current MFA implementation covering secondlife.com dashboards and the viewer.
As with the current MFA, it will be opt-in on the Marketplace, and required on logging-in (presumably, whenever a token has expired).
Information on enabling MFA on the Marketplace will be made available nearer the time it will be made available.
Alongside the MFA implementation, there will be likely be further changes to Marketplace search algorithm.
Once this work is deployed, LL will be looking at how it changes transactions, and receiving merchant feedback on the Feedback Portal.
After the MFA work and search updates, work will resume on making the Marketplace more responsive / mobile device friendly.
This work will focus on MP search and the shopping cart.
However, a fully responsive Marketplace is not anticipated before the end of the year.
In addition to the above, there will be some general quality of life updates on the MP, including things like a button to confirm clearing the shopping cart.
Additional MFA Discussion
The announcement of MFA coming to the Marketplace led to a further general discussion and exchange of ideas on the MFA implementation in general, including:
The need for better safeguards to prevent large-scale Linden dollar movements in the event of an account being compromised.
Even with MFA, an account is vulnerable to being compromised and its L$ balance being access through the viewer.
The suggestion was made that MFA should therefore be additionally requested when attempting to move large values of L$ from an account. This was combined with the idea of the same in the event of multiple transaction above a certain level in a short amount of time.
Obviously, what constitutes a “large transaction” and a “short amount of time” would require consideration and be balanced against users becoming frustrated the MFA process and then opting-out (thus defeating the purpose in having it).
This broadened into a discussion of MFA being triggered more in common with other web services: e.g. an alert being sent via e-mail if a log-in is detected from an unexpected / new device, an unrecognised location, etc., allowing the account holder to take action, if required.
There was a further request for e-mail based authentication or SMS code-based authentication.
E-mail has been promised in the past, but is potentially prone to easy compromise.
SMS + code is not seen as insecure, and not likely to be implement, particularly given the general move away from it that is taking place.
Kali Linden reiterated, the current plan is to enhance and expand the current MFA, not re-invent the wheel.
In Brief
Maps.sl:
Garfield Linden is overhauling maps.sl as an after-hours project. His focus is on:
Bringing it to feature parity with Maps-in-the-viewer.
Making it mobile-friendly (e.g. with a search bar that floats over the map tiles, like maps.google.com).
If anyone has simple ideas for how it might additionally be improved etc., input to him or via the Feedback Portal.
Changing to WUG meeting frequency (date / time):
The web team is looking to add ” a second web user group meet with a different time that is more accommodating for residents then our SLT time zone meeting”.
Noon SLT was considered (by the small number of attendees) as a preferable time.
Sntax Linden arbitrarily selected Tuesday, July 30th as the date for the first of these additional meetings- HOWEVER, 12:00 noon on the 30th July brings any WUG meeting directly into conflict with the Simulator User Group meeting (and there is audience cross-over between the two). As such, the date / time of any additional WUG meeting has yet to be confirmed.
Ironically, since the request was made for an additional meetings (initially on the basis of getting more frequent updates / input, rather than issues over the time), attendance at the WUG meetings has been in decline.
Next Meeting(s)
Wednesday, August 7th, 2024, any alternate TBC – check the SL public calendar.
Whilst I’ve been familiar with the photography of Alex Riverstone for a fair while and have covered his work in these pages, I hope he’ll forgive me for the fact I hadn’t twigged he’s now curating his own gallery space – Sugarfish Photography – which is currently home to a selection of his own work and a joint exhibition featuring both Alex and Harlo Jamison (HarlowJamison).
Located on a sky platform, Sugarfish Gallery featured four exhibition spaces gathered around a central terrace / event space for opening parties. It’s a simple, minimalist design which allows each of the gallery units to present the art it contains to the best advantage, naturally allowing works to be grouped by artist and / or theme as required, with each building a short walk from the last.
At the time of my visit, Sugarfish was mid-way through the joint exhibition by Harlo and Alex, entitled Shades of Erotica (set to end mid-July 2024). Occupying three of the four gallery spaces this is, as one might expect from its title, an exhibition leaning strongly into erotica and adult themes, with some of the images definitely in the not suitable for work (NSFW) category – so if you are of an overly sensitive disposition, please consider yourself warned. The remaining building is home to a cross-section of Alex’s landscape photography.
Sugarfish Photography, July 2024: Alex Riverstone
I’ve always appreciated Alex’s landscape photographs from around Second Life; he has a knack of capturing the essence of a location and / or presenting the core of an idea through pieces that are framed and cropped in a manner that is visually attractive. A further facet of Alex’s work is his use of style – colour, monochrome, black and white – in which to present a mood or sense of emotion. All of this is very much demonstrated in the selection of pieces displayed at Sugarfish, the pieces within the hall neatly grouped by theme or style.
Alex’s art also feature in two of the three halls given over to Shades of Erotica (with one of the halls also forming the Sugarfish gallery), with Harlo’s taking up the remaining hall.
Sugarfish Photography, July 2024: Shades of Erotica – Alex Riverstone
An exhibit of erotic and sensual Second Life photos … Join us for an exploration of sensuality, let the images speak to you, inspire you, and awaken your senses. Whether you’re a connoisseur of photography or simply seeking to be moved, this showcase promises something for everyone.
– Alex Riverstone on Shades of Erotica
Given the nature of Shades, these are avatar-centric photographs, with Alex’s pieces offering what might be regarded as sets built along interconnected themes and utilising (I believe) the same model. Outside of the use of nudity / semi-nudity, these are pieces touching upon common themes of erotica activities: clothing (boots, stockings, latex clothing, heels); activities (D/s games, bondage), and the the use of pose and focus to offer a feeling of sensual suggestion.
Sugarfish Photography, July 2024: Shades of Erotica – Alex Riverstone
With her pieces, Harlo explores similar avenues, whilst also offering pieces of a more narrative style in terms of how they might be interpreted, as well as enfolding elements of eroticism and sexuality drawn from a broader canvas (so to speak).
Whilst not the first piece within her gallery space, Red2 Shadows Him helps set the tone of Harlo’s pieces. It sits on the left wall of the hall relative to the entrance, and thus sits close to one of the rooms displaying Alex’s art. It features a model seated on a stool, front lit and casting a shadow. In this it follows on from a series of images from Alex on the same lines (Shy Model). Here, and unlike Alex’s pieces, the silhouette of a male figure dominates one side of the photo. Thus, Red2 Shadows Him offers both a narrative in its own right and also sense of continuity between the two artists’ work in both content and titles (Shadows him = follows Alex’s images).
Sugarfish Photography, July 2024: Shades of Erotica – Harlo Jamison
These dual-layer narrative can be found elsewhere in Harlo’s selection. Gentlemen & BadBoys, for example, both suggests the making of an erotic ménage à trois whilst also hinting at the issues of temptations which might be prevalent in relationships (the woman’s hand reaching back for the the man behind her even as she is hugged by her lover. Meanwhile, Ladies & Harlo’ts, only offers a tongue-in-cheek play on Harlo’s name, it offers both a tale of refined sensuality touching on three people, whilst the black and white finish and clothing carries is suggestion of harking back 100 years and a period when taboos started to be broken more openly, even if they weren’t entirely broken down for many more decades to come.
Elegant, explicit, sensual and sexual, Shades of Erotica is engaging through out.
Sugarfish Photography, July 2024: Shades of Erotica – Harlo Jamison
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, July 2nd, 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 my chat log and the video by Pantera – my thanks to her as always 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 the week, but all channels will be restart per usual schedule.
Coming up as the next simulator update is Summer Fun, which is currently with the Lab’s QA team. Following that will be Picnic, which among other things will include the following LSL functions:
llFindNotecardText
llFindNotecardTextSync)
SL Viewer Updates
The webRTC RC viewer updated to version 7.1.9.9688089989 on July 1st, 2024.
The rest of the current official viewers remain as:
Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
Release channel cohorts:
Atlasaurus RC (object take options; improved MOAP URL handling), version 7.1.9.9620320242, June 27.
Maintenance B RC (usability updates / imposter changes) 7.1.9.9555137545, June 21.
Maintenance C RC (reset skeleton in all viewers), version 7.1.9.9469671545, June 14.
Signal Linden is putting together a technical FAQ about lua with has more detailed answers about “why lua and not [insert option]” and “how is lua faster than mono” etc.
Pepper and Rider Linden confirmed part of the work planned will allow for shadow execution of scripts under the Luau and Mono VMs during testing, which will ensure that all output of functions are the same.
This shadowing will likely be only be visible to the Lab.
Once LL is convinced both behave the same, the switch to using the Luau VM. At that point, the anticipated memory and execution time improvements should become visible.
Finally LL will allow a switch to compile either LSL2 or Luau.
Signal further indicated:
That with the switch to lauau on the back-end, code can be written in either LSL2 or Luau.
That both the current Lua client-side project and the announced luau back-end work, whilst separate projects will both leverage Luau, not Lau.
Pepper Linden confirmed LSL functions will continue to be maintained, but using Lua will allow for the creation of versioned functions for Lua scripts, providing a more flexible means to update functions without the worry of breaking content.
This discussion took up most of the meeting – please refer to the video for more.
In Brief
Please refer to the video for the following and other topics discussed:
Leviathan Linden is hoping to provide an updated GameControl viewer download. It will contain no additional capabilities, but will be updated to the current viewer development branch. However, GameControl will now be behind a single UI setting which will need to be set in order to see its UI.
Monty Linden confirmed that the first batch of teleports / region crossings work will now likely surface in the Picnics simulator update.
† 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.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 