Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, June 9th, 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: 7.1.6.8745209917, formerly the Maintenance Y/Z RC ( My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history), dated April 19 and promoted April 23 – No Change
June 2024 will mark the 21st anniversary of Second Life opening to public access – and to mark it, Linden Lab has announced the 2024 Birthday celebrations as being marked across an entire month – from Friday, June 21st through until Sunday July 21st, 2024.
Theme
This theme for Second Life’s 21st birthday (SL21B) has been given as Elements, which the Lab describes thus:
This theme invites us to explore the fundamental components that make up our vast virtual landscape and the diverse communities within it. From the fiery passion of creators and artists to the fluid adaptability of our social environments, from the solid bonds within our communities to the fresh breezes of innovation that propel us forward, “Elements” is a celebration of the core forces that shape our experiences in Second Life.
For the last several years, the birthday celebrations have included a series of sessions called Meet the Lindens: opportunities for people to hear from and put questions to Linden Lab personnel, generally with questions submitted beforehand. In 2023, these Meet The Linden sessions morphed into Lab Gab sessions, and this year they are being referred to as Town Hall meetings, all to be held live at the SL21B event, and which will include the second of the Community Round Table events, at which questions can be specifically put to members of the Linden Lab leadership team.
It is not clear as to who will be representing the Lab at each of these sessions, or when the sessions will be held. In the announcement that they would be taking place, the Lab only promise details to come and indicate:
The founder of Second Life Philip Linden and Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden will be among the participants, which also include many leading executives and team leads from Second Life’s Product, Engineering, and Product Operations departments.
However, the blog post does include a link to a form those wishing to ask questions of the Lab can complete and submit, which includes the opportunity to indicate to whom the question should be addressed, if required (although a little difficult outside of the usual suspects for these events given that, as noted, exactly who will be attending them has yet to be announced).
BUT – if you do wish to submit a question, then hop over to the form and do so, and note that it will remain available until Thursday, June 20th, 2024.
Kingsand, June 2024 – click any image for full size
I recently received an invitation from .Tempest Rosca-Huntsman and her SL partner, John (Johannes Huntsman), to visit their latest project, completed under the banner of the Formal Knot group and in association with Kultivate Magazine and Art Hub.
Kingsand is a Homestead region designed by Tempest and adjoining the Kultivate Gallery region. It is offered as a location for relaxation and photography – and to mark its opening, it is also host to a photographic competition running through until June 30th, 2024 offering a combined prize pool of L$30,000 – of which more anon.
Kingsand, June 2024
Accessed via the southern side of the Kultivate Water Haven region, Kingsand presents an open, semi-rugged setting sharing the same region surround as the former, thus allowing it to be enclosed on three sides with high mountains which add depth to photographs taken within it.
The land comprising the region has been divided into three parts, each separated from the others by water channels. The land directly adjoining the Kultivate gallery spaces is fairly low-lying, carrying with in a hint of a wildling garden, ancient paths and steps providing routes between the more even elements of the land, walls and gates offering a further sense of sub-division among the trees and flowers. To the east, this land forms a long finger of a headland, far rockier in nature, bordered by relatively open waters to one side and that larger of the channels cutting into the land on the other. Cut through by a narrow gorge, this headland ends in a low-lying promontory topped by a giant windmill.
Kingsand, June 2024
Across the channel, the larger of two islands cam be reached via a stone bridge. Low-lying to the south and west, this island rises to a tall central peak with highlands reaching up to it from the eastern side. These slopes provide the means to reach the ruins of a cathedral or some similar structure sitting on a shoulder of rock thrusting outwards from the peak.
Apparently now the home of a library / story-telling space rich in flowers and blossoming vines and presided over by a dryad caved into a tree at its centre, the ruins might also be used as a means to reach the top of the mountain – although this does entail dropping down their flank and scrambling through the brambles at their base, and getting back again might be a challenge on foot, given there is no mean to climb back up into the ruins. Although that said, the bare peak is easily visible from the ruins, so such a climb isn’t really necessary unless you’re really wanting to take a photograph of yourself up there.
Kingsand, June 2024
To the west, the land sweeps around the mountain and along the second of the water channels to reach another bridge, this one offering the way to the smaller of the two islands. The most rugged element of the region, this island forms two rocky hills cut through by a natural canyon. The latter leads the way to a deck built out over semi-turbulent waters and offering one of multiple places to sit and pass the time spread throughout the setting.
The overall design is such that the region might be enjoyed by multiple visitors without them necessarily tripping over one another, and with sufficient space for photographers to rez-out props for photography again without necessarily interrupting others. Those who wish to do so should join the Formal Knot group; there is no charge and auto-return is set for 90 minutes. This should be more than enough time to compose props and photographs – but if you take advantage of this and complete your work within the time limit, do please consider taking back your items.
Kingsand, June 2024
Which brings me neatly to the June 2024 photo contest. Full details are in a notecard available from the region’s landing point – together with another card providing region information and rules – however, and in short:
Entries must comprise images taken within the Kingsand region, and entrants are limited to two such images apiece.
Entries must be submitted to the Kingsand Flickr group and bear the tag “Kingsand”.
Prizes will be awarded on the basis of L$10,000 each to two winners and L$5,000 each to two runners-up, for a total prize pool of L$30,000.
In addition, winners, runner’s up and a selection of commended entries to the competition will be exhibited at Kultivate Art Gallery at a date to be announced.
Kingsand, June 2024
Sitting under a fairly neutral environmental setting, Kingsand is perhaps best suited to being photographed using your own EEP settings – the landscape being such that its naturally lends itself to a range of day cycles and settings extremely well. It also seems to lack any ambient sound scape, which is a shame given its natural beauty. However, accepting the region is primarily designed for photography, this does not overly detract from its appeal.
In all a superb setting ideal for photography and avatar studies. My thanks to Tempest and John for the invitation to make a pre-opening visit.
June brings with it Cica Ghost’s installation for the the month, located on her Homestead region of Mysterious Isle, and this time it is a little different from recent installations from Cica.
Entitled Under the Stars, it comes with a quote from John Green’s debut novel (2005), Looking for Alaska, which – as with the majority of the quotes Cica uses – frames the theme of the installation, without necessarily reflecting the source it is taken from (in this case, Looking for Alaska being a coming of age story):
At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze.
– John Green
Cica Ghost: Under the Stars, June 2024
Instead, the quote literally describes the core of the setting – a maze carved into the ground and sitting under s starry sky. The landing point sits at the start of the maze and to one side of the region, the way forward marked by high walls of terrain and the path quickly splitting. Which arm you take is entirely up to you – but what I would suggest is that you resist the temptation to cam upwards and look at what might be sitting above and instead allow the maze to unfold before you.
This actually makes describing the setting a little hard, as it really is best taken as a voyage of discovery. However, within the maze is a series of open spaces, some of which are home to giant creatures of fantasy; but these are not monsters; rather they are more like oversized cuddly toys, some of which bring to mind memories of Dr. Seuss. All are sleeping, the stars overhead looking like lights spread across a green sky of grass, presenting the feeling we are somehow underground whilst at the same time suggesting the creatures are all lost in happy dreams. Those spaces with a creature contain one of Cica’s marvellous drawings.
Cica Ghost: Under the Stars, June 2024
Also scattered through the maze are ladders leading up to the ground above. These can be climbed to reveal what lay overhead. Again, I don’t want to spoil things by saying too much here.
With a number of places to sit, creatures to photograph (and purchase!), Under the Stars is another genuine delight from Cica and fully deserving of a visit.
My audio recording and chat log transcript of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, June 6th, 2024.
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, June 7th, 2024. My thank to Pantera as always for providing it.
Meetings Purpose
The CCUG meeting is for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current and upcoming LL projects, and encompasses requests or comments from the community, together with related viewer development work. This meeting is held on alternate Thursdays at Hippotropolis.
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.
The latest Graphics Featurettes RC viewer is seen as the last RC update prior to this viewer being promoted, hopefully in week #24 if it passes QA. This will see the official release of Viewer-side setting of PBR materials for terrain; 2K texture upload support; glTF / PBR mirrors.
A request has been made to fix an alpha asset mode issue prior to release. This is seen as unlikely, unless QA reject the viewer going to release status.
It is anticipated the WebRTC viewer will move from project viewer status to RC viewer status with its next update.
The initial RC viewer will support both Vivox Voice and WebRTC, depending on how voice is handled on the back-end for any given region.
However, there may be issues when trying to use Voice across different regions / in groups where use of WebRTC and Vivox is mixed.
A planned Maintenance RC viewer (Maint A) is currently pending the resolution of a number of fixes, hence why Maint B and C are currently in the pipeline.
Graphics / glTF
General Notes on glTF / PBR (CCUG Meeting)
Cosmic Linden is working on custom repeats for PBR terrain, allowing for higher texel densities to help reduce the “stretching” of textures of elevation changes) and better support 2K textures. This work is *not* part of the PBR Terrain updates in the Graphics Featurettes viewer, but will be part of a follow-on set of glTF updates currently contain within a development viewer branch on Github.
This branch also includes a improvement specifically for Mac performance related to actions such as editing, moving UI elements around, etc.
It has been noted that the current implementation for reading & writing glTF data has some limitations in terms of SL, so there is some internal work to re-write it to better fit the SL systems / services. Part of this work means Geenz is re-writing some of the work on glTF transmission to better fit the SL asset loader.
This work will also assist the development work going into the glTF scene import project.
Development of the ability to import glTF scenes (objects, materials, animations, etc.), directly from Blender to Second Life. This includes a node hierarchy which will allow some degree of editing / modification of scene elements once imported. There will also be the ability to export scenes back to Blender for more extensive update by the creator. Both of these latter points (editing / export) will be subject to the SL permissions system.
Scenes are liable to use the MSFT glTF extension for Level of Detail (LOD), as this allows LODs to be set per node within a scene, providing more intuitive / consistent LOD switching management (based on screen coverage).
There will be constraints placed on scene imports (e.g. will not be able to have a scene which exceeds the capacity of a region; scenes will not be able to span more than one region (so as to avoid issues with physics, etc.); and so on).
Status:
Rapid prototyping of the ability to upload and preview glTF scenes is progressing. This can be tested via prototype viewer made available through the Content Creator Discord channel (apologies, but due to a request from Linden Lab I cannot provide details on how to join this channel, outside of contact Vir Linden) and on the glTF development / test regions on Aditi.
The functionality currently remains that of being able to preview a scene – there is no actual simulator-side representation of the scene (e.g. it is viewer-side only, so only visible in the viewer used for the preview). Obviously, this will change as the work progresses.
For those wishing to test the capability, note that there is an known issue with large file uploads for glTF scenes failing. This is being investigated by Pepper Linden.
The work is now within the general development branch of the graphics / glTF work.
Limits (avatar limits, land impact, number of vertices, faces, etc), will be defined in detail as the project develops, with any defined as a “must” within the glTF specification being a hard line, those defined as a “should” being considered as the baseline.
[Video: 20:50-21:55] Transitioning to glTF scene support (when it ready for more widespread availability) will be in a manner akin to the introduction of mesh support back in 2011/12: those running viewers that have not updated to the code supporting glTF scene rendering will not see any scenes they enter, but will instead see “something akin to a little chiclet of a sculpt”.
† 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.
Located within the north-west corner of a Full private region which has been sub-divided into a series rental parcels, and which leverages the Land Capacity bonus, Simurg occupies a little under 4096 sq metres and is held by Lintu (KorppiLintu). It is offered as public space for visitors and photography, redressing it to suit the season and / or to offer different themes. The iteration I visited at the start of June 2024 carried the sub-title Ancient City, and contained a mix of ancient history wrapped with a touch of fantasy mythology.
Given its small size, the setting is seemingly easy to take in at a single glance, open to the water on two sides and the other two screened from the rest of the region intruding through the considered use of a main structure and two scenic backdrops. However, a simple glance can be deceptive; there is a lot more here than at first appears to be the case.
Simurg, June 2024
Perhaps the easiest way to think of the setting is as an ancient and once massive building – perhaps a temple; a place long since overcome by the passage of time. The landing point sits on the north side of the parcel, backed by great arches of a tall, ruined wall and looking across what was once a flagstone floor, now broken and open to flooding by the surrounding waters.
A good portion of this floor survives, pointing south-east towards stairs leading up to an antechamber apparently overlooking the rooftops of a large town or city suggestive of some where in Italy or southern Europe. Also pointing towards the antechamber is a high wall mixed with rock formations which seems to form the western boundary of the setting – although looking through its lower arches will reveal this is not the case.
Simurg, June 2024
Upon this wall, and looking down over the flagstones and water, is a line of statues which carry a Grecian styling about them. Further statues are set just above the waters at the base of this arched wall, although one of these is more Elven in look, thus providing one of the more fantasy elements to the setting. This is increased by the presence of stone-rendered sea beasts in the waters either side of the main flagstone floor. These in turn may have been called forth by the strange mer-like figures trumpeting the arrival of a figure upon a chariot and carrying a trident as he appears to have risen out of the sea behind the landing point.
All of this statutory add to the idea that this is a place steeped in history and legend (that charioted figure, for example, might well appear to be raiding up out of the sea, but he appears to in fact be Achilles, rather than any deity of the deep rising from the sea). However, little touches are add to the mix which bring together so much – as with the elven figures mentioned above, together with one of the statues within the antechamber also mentioned earlier. Rather than being something from ancient times, it is in fact a reproduction of a statue on the Honour Grave of Johannes Benk (1844-1914), located within the Vienna Central Cemetery, thus giving a further little twist to the setting’s narrative.
Simurg, June 2024
This great, semi-flooded hall is only a part of the setting. Sitting atop the high wall running on the west side, and above the statues thereon, sits a large table of rock forming a north-pointing promontory. Here, within a garden-like setting is evidence that however ancient the ruins below and around it might be, this is a place still very much in use. To one end stands the remnants of a modern brick-built structure with the bric-a-brac of modern life in and around it, presenting cosy place to sit and pass the time. facing it from the far end of the promontory is wrought iron gazebo with table and chairs under its open top, offering another place to sit, whilst between them, the garden is split by water tumbling from above and then down a gaping hole it has tunnelled through the rock so it might fall onwards to join the waters below.
A glance down through the hole created by the waterfall reveals a little campsite tucked out-of-sight from the main ruins and sitting on a rocky outcrop. But how is it, and this elevated garden to be reached? There is no means by which to climb the ruins / rocks to reach it, and the waters surrounding and campsite on its outcrop appear too deep to wade through. The answer is to follow the trail skirting the waters flood a part of the ground level area and running north, away from the steps up to the antechamber.
Simurg, June 2024
Lit by electric or gas street lamps, this path leads the way to a teleport portal sitting within a door-like ring of stones. Obey the instruction of Click to Teleport, and you’ll be carried up to the garden. A second teleport tucked behind the brick ruins will then carry you down to the foot of the waterfalls. From here it is possible to take stepping stones back through an arch to the main part of the setting, or – despite the depth of the water between shore and campsite – walk to the little campsite without getting dunked, courtesy of an invisiprim.
Making excellent use of the available parcel space and vertical elevation, this iteration of Simurg has a welcoming mystical air to it. For me, this was increased by the parcel’s name: “Simurg” is one of the alternate spellings for the benevolent bird of Persian mythology, the simurgh. This is perhaps more happenstance than intentional – as noted, the parcel’s design seems to change over time (at least going by Lintu’s profile picks), rather than intentional – but it’s still a nice convergence between name and theme.
Simurg, June 2024
Certainly, the atmosphere within the setting is enhanced by the local environment settings (which I admittedly tweaked very slightly for the purposes of the images here), and brings together a mix of influences in a pleasing cocktail of sights and opportunities for photography. It might perhaps benefit for a slightly more immersive soundscape, but this is a very minor niggle and in no way detracts for the overall beauty and appeal of Simurg.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 