Category: Second Life

2024 SL SUG meetings week #28 summary: 2K Bakes on Mesh

Posted on by Inara Pey
Infinite Darkness, June 2024 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday,  July 9th, 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. No video this week.

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.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • 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

  • The SLS Main channel was restarted on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024.
  • On Wednesday, July 10th:
    • The BlueSteel RC is due to be updated with the summer Fun simulator update, which includes the initial Combat 2 updates from Rider Linden.
    • The remaining RC channels will be restarted.
    • However, at the time of writing a last-minute issue with Interest List updates meant the the Bluesteel deployment may be postponed.

SL Viewer Updates

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • WebRTC Voice RC, version 7.1.9.9688089989, July 1.
    • 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.

2K Bakes On Mesh

Something that people might be excited to hear — we’ve officially started on 2k BOM support. It sounds like an easy thing to do, but it turns out that the service responsible for handling avatar baking hasn’t been touched in many years, and depends on an extremely old Linux viewer fork.

– Pepper Linden

  • Vir Linden has also pointed out that as well as updating the Bake Service (mentioned in Pepper’s comments) it is possible the entire wearable system layer system may also require updating. There is therefore no ETA at present on when this work will be completed.
  • The above led to a discussion on VRAM usage as a result of 2K textures on avatars, matters of Avatar Render Complexity (ARC – already well out of date and also ignores PBR), etc.
    • As a reminder, on PBR viewers, textures should have their resolution scaled to match screen resolution, should should help to some degree with VRAM use.

In Brief

  • It is possible that the implementation od glTF scene imports(once implemented) could lay the foundations for the updated of ARC as well as Land Impact.
  • There is apparently a potential issue with notecard searches and the number of returns generated, which could be in error. Rider Linden is looking into this.
  • There was an extended discussion on texture  / PBR UUIDs, issues with overrides, etc. Unfortunately, most of this went clean over my head.
  • A new feature request for llRegex* functions has been raised and is being tracked by LL.

† 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.

Bryn Oh’s Skyfisher in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024

July 6th, 2024, saw the opening of the latest immersive installation by Second Life’s foremost and award-winning multimedia and immersive artist, Bryn Oh.

Herself a digital alter-ego – or perhaps digital incarnation might be a better term – of a Toronto-based artist; although I suspect they would prefer to consider Bryn as a personality with standing in her own right and as unfettered as possible from any sense of human identity. Given Bryn’s success over what is more than 15 years, and the recognition her work has gained in digital, virtual and physical spaces – including her work being the subject of a course taught at York University,  Toronto since 2020 -, this view of her being an independent entity is not unreasonable.

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024

Much of Bryn’s work exists not only in the virtual, but within a universe of her own creation, stories, themes and characters all wrapped within a unique timeline and travelling through environments and worlds throughout unique yet interconnected. They are also individually and collectively – if to a defined degree – reflections of elements from Bryn’s physical world incarnation.

All of the stories and characters are pieces of my life, and the characters are often portions of my personality. It is like a diary of sorts that takes place in a parallel world to our own where technologies advanced at different speeds.

– Bryn Oh

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024

I have been fascinated by Bryn’s work for more than a decade, and have at times attempted to plumb the depths of her work – perhaps at time making presumptions with which she might not agree but has always had the grace not to single out. In 2020 she was certainly kind enough to to discuss her work for this blog (see: Hand and the art of Bryn Oh – in her own words).

With Skyfisher, Bryn presents another chapter in the unfolding stories of some of her familiar – for those who have followed her work  – characters in a further expansion of her universe, which also sees the return of a number of settings and motifs. As such, it is perhaps not so easy to follow in all is complexities as a pert of an ongoing series; however, it is not unfair to say that it also stands – as all of Bryn’s installations do – on its own merits as a story.

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024
The Skyfisher wore a headdress fashioned from deer antlers and twigs. Strings with fishing hooks attached hung from them as she walked slowly down the street towards the spot she had gone to many times before. It was an area where winds converged. Gusts from the rooftops and breezes snaking in from the alleyways all met to make a whirlpool of air that lifted the hooks and strings above the ground. They floated behind the Skyfisher, like a sharp nimbus.

– Bryn Oh, The Skyfisher

For those who do wish to recap – as the saying goes – on “the story so far” (although in this case it is more a matter of understanding the backgrounds to some of the characters and the universe as a whole), then Bryn provides a list of videos which encompass the essential storylines, and which I’ve taken the liberty of listing below.

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024

In addition, Bryn also recommends watching Standby (2013), a trio of poetic narratives.  To this, I’d also suggest those who really want to gain insight into Bryn’s worlds, I’d suggest a run-through of her own multi-part commentaries.

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024
As with The Brittle Epoch, I don’t want to delve into the story of Skyfisher too much; it is a naturally unfolding narrative in which visitors once again follow Flitter and her friends through something of an adventure as they follow the title character through a unique cityscape.

It is essential visitors use the shared environment, and have media enabled and on auto-play; the installation both has unique sound effects and features an English language narrative, once again recorded by Kaneha Atheria.

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024

The latter can be heard on entering locations where it is available, or by clicking the white circular “speaker” buttons found at such locations. For those who prefer and / or form whom English is a second language , notecards containing the narrative which can be read or copy / pasted into a suitable translation tool. Click the glowing moths located close the the speaker buttons to obtain the notecards.

I would advise visitors to take their time exploring the routine through the various settings; there is a lot to discover in addition to following the main narrative, some of which might be obvious, some of which – such as various poems by Bryn – might be easily missed (such as the one in a photo booth). There are also references to Bryn’s wider universe waiting as well.

Prize Draw

Bryn Oh’s The Dancer

To mark the opening of Skyfisher, Bryn is holding a prize draw featuring one of her sculptures, The Dancer, valued at US $350. Details are as follows:

  • Tickets can be purchased via the Marketplace at a cost of L$300.
  • The draw will be open through until July 31st, 2024, when the winner will be picked at random.
  • The winner will be contacted, and will need to supply a shipping address. Bryn will ship the statue at no charge to the winner.

The Dancer is cast in bronze and stands approximately 15 cm (six inches).

Rich is story and detail, Skyfisher is another engaging, immersive and presenting a rich tapestry of characters, events and Easter eggs for following of her tales, and one deserving of the time given to exploring it.

Bryn Oh, Skyfisher, July 2024

SLurl Details

2024 SL viewer release summaries week #27

Posted on by Inara Pey
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.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No Updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable branch updated to version: 1.32.2.3 (PBR) on July 6 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2024 week #27: SL TPVD meeting summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
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.

Official Viewers Status

[Video: 1:25-4:45]

  • Release viewer: version 7.1.8.9375512768, formerly the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer dated June 5 and promoted June 10th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • WebRTC Voice RC, version 7.1.9.9688089989, July 1.
    • 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.

WebRTC

[Video; 5:00-7:28]

Summary

  • 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
  • Feature requests for WebRTC should be made via the WebRTC board on the SL Feedback Portal.

Status

  • 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.

glTF Update

[Video: 7:42-13:23]

  • 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.

 

Next Meeting

† 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.

Of Angels of Pain in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
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.

SLurl Details

July 2024 SL Web User Group summary: MP on Mobile & MFA for MP

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

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.
    • In both Voice and / or text.
    • At this location.
  • 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.