Category: Second Life

Vision of Spring in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Vita Theas and Teagan Dawnbringer
The four seasons of the year have long served as focal points for artists who sought to portray the emotions and feelings that each one brings to most people. Spring is a season that is overflowing with life and new beginnings a season where we’re making friends with our emotions again , our emotional reactivity and responses blossom with nature around us, happiness, serenity as flowers hatch and colours explode everywhere in intense expressiveness.

So reads the introduction to an expansive exhibition of art and artistry from Second Life and the physical world, mixing photography with mixed media and painting to express the beauty and renewal of springtime, all of which is being hosted at the Serena Arts Centre and Plaza in Second Life.

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Sisi Biedermann and John (Johannes Huntsman)

And when I say expansive, I mean just that: the exhibition is located across Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, featuring both indoor and outdoor displays  which have been thoughtfully laid out so as not to overload the senses with art by the 25 artists who have been invited to participate in the event by the Serena Arts team.

Officially opening at 12:00 noon SLT on May 3rd, 2024, the exhibition – officially called Visions of Spring : Rebirth and Recolouring, will run through until May 23rd, and the 25 invited artists comprise:

Dante Helios (Dantelios), Maggie (maggiemagenta), Greg Parker (GregParker), Terrygold, Christian Carter (XJustFriendX), Tara Paxlapis-Savior  (Tara Aers), Sisi Biedermann, Sheba Blitz, Zia Branner, Raven (Raven Cedarbridge), Teagan Dawnbringer, Prins Evergarden, John (Johannes Huntsman), Layachi Ihnen, Hermes Kondor, Jaminda Galênê Moon (Jaminda Lygon), Dreams (barry Richez), Tempest Rosca-Huntsman (Tempest Rosca), Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas), AmandaT Tamatzui, Vita Theas, Nils Urqhart, Pask Wasp, Meycy Winchester, Onceagain (Nanoji Yachvili), Deyanira Yalin, and Cayla (YumiYukimura).

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Tempest Rosca-Huntsman (Tempest Rosca), Cayla (YumiYukimura) and Deyanira Yalin

Each artist has been invited to display two items of their work that encompass the central theme of spring the richness and vibrancy of its colours, its beauty, and the sense of renewal and rebirth evident within it. In addition, artists have been able to include their biographies and information on where more of their work might be seen in-world and on-line.

Given such a diversity of artists, it’s impossible to highlight particular pictures of images; suffice it to say that all offer highly individual views of spring, be they images from locations in Second Life or avatar studies, paintings or photographs of their physical world work uploaded to Second Life or purely digital compositions (some of which combine elements from within and without SL). the majority have opted to offer copies of their pieces for sale (some of a limited quantity basis), although one or two have not.

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Nils Urqhart and Vee Tammas Shocker (Veruca Tammas)

All of the displays comprising the exhibition are located across the canals from the Centre’s landing point, with the majority being to the west of the landing point, under the two geodomes located there and along the walk linking them, with the rest on the plaza area to the north of the landing point (and directly connected to the area with the geodomes) and the gallery building to the north-east build out over the water and reached via the two decks alongside of it.

Given the organisers have taken care to present a broad mix of genres and art types in each location, rather than focus on a specific genre / approach in each one (e.g. one area devoted to work originating in SL, another for those artists offering work uploaded from the physical world, etc.), the exhibition should be explored in full, and the spread of the exhibit spaces – as noted above – present the eye and mind becoming too overwhelmed whilst also being a pleasant stroll.

Serena Arts Centre and Plaza, May 2024: Spring – Dante Helios (Dantelios), Terrygold and Onceagain (Nanoji Yachvili)

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Vindfjell: Nordic Beauty in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Vindfjell, May 2024 – click any image for full size

Open for a period of a month – through until late May 2024 – is a new Homestead region design by Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington). Called Vindfjell, it is a marvel of windswept, Nordic beauty, balancing the region perfectly against the surrounding backdrop.

It’s my wont to often try to place regions with natural settings like this against locations within physical world which they might – if they existed – reside, or at least helped to inspire them. In some cases, this is helped by the region creator pointing to their inspiration or inspirations for their designs; sometimes it is possible to take a lead from the overall design and the designer’s background; other times, it is pure guesswork and imagination on my part.

Vindfjell, May 2024

With Vindfjell, it might be easy to point to Telemark County in Norway – specifically the Vindfjell mountain and nature reserve. However, whilst the name might well be taken from that area of Norway, I’d suggest that’s as far as the inspiration goes; the region itself folds numerous ideas and elements into it so that it is possible to see influences from across the Nordic countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland and their associated autonomous regions, together with the likes of Denmark’s Faroe Islands and Greenland.

This is a place of rugged beauty and hardy living; a sheltered island sitting within fjords and inlets where fisher folk can live protected from the harsher aspects of North Atlantic weather, and from which they could depart in their boats to ply their trade, perhaps supplemented by a little sheep farming (although the sheep also likely help feed them!).

Vindfjell, May 2024

Given this, and as one might expect, the houses and cabins tend to confine themselves to the coastal aspects of the setting, where they can be easily reached by boat; indeed few are without a wharf, jetty or wall where boats may come alongside. Most – as typical of many Nordic houses in remote / rural areas – have a semi-turfed roof to help with insulation. These and the rugged nature of the island I found particularly evocative of my times in the northern parts of Iceland around Akureyri (which remains a place with one of the most spectacular runway approaches I’ve experienced, flying down through the ever-narrowing fjord) and Mývatn.

Most of the setting’s interior is given over to rocky beauty, with scrub grass and the occasional tree breaking the ground – something else that brought to mind parts of Iceland (and indeed, some of the remoter points along the north coast of Scotland I’ve seen).

Vindfjell, May 2024

However, the one exception to this is a large industrial-like structure sitting somewhat inland, balanced between a deep gorge cutting its way through the landscape and a large body of water. Its presence, coupled with the electrical power lines close by together with the water and nearby falls might suggest this may once have been a hydroelectric power generation centre, or perhaps a place where geothermal energy had once been used to provide local power.

Or maybe the building had some other purpose, now being deserted; the choice is left totally open to the imagination – which adds further to the beauty of the setting, allowing as it does visitors to cogitate their own narratives as to the history of this place.

Vindfjell, May 2024

A further hint that the island once had something of an industrial use sits on the north-western headland, misty waters encroaching upon three sides. This is the kind of promontory many would look to site a lighthouse. Instead, Dandy (wisely, in my opinion) eschews that cliché and instead offers an ageing storage tank as a sentinel  overlooking the waters, the gentle twist of steps around its circumference making an easy climb to its flat top, the threatening graffiti notwithstanding!

The landing point for the region sits somewhat towards the centre, amidst the scrub grass where sheep are grazing peacefully, having wandered up a narrow valley from the little farmhouse / fisherman’s cabin on the southern coast. As well as providing the route back to that cabin – no doubt followed by the sheep as night closes in, and the sheep dog herds them gently home – the grassland also presents a path and board walk down to the north side of the land, from where the storage tank mentioned above might be reached, together with the grassy spit of land forming the island’s northern side and which provides space for a couple of windswept houses.

Vindfjell, May 2024

In addition, the graceful arc of a stone bridge spans the gorge from this sheltered grazing, giving arrivals the means to reach the old industrial unit with its attendant body of water or follow a fence-marked trail down to the little hamlet occupying the south-east east of the setting, as they find shelter against the elements on their southern side by a blocky bluff of a headland poking out into the sounding waters.

Throughout all of this, Dandy has added further ambience to the setting via the region EEP, and through the use of mesh “puff” clouds, low-lying misty and floating seed heads float and flow as they are caught on the wind (in some cases to be blown helter-skelter between the narrower walls of rock, where one much reasonably expect any breeze to be funnelled and accelerated). That said, the static nature of the mesh clouds are a little at odds with the haunting hiss of the wind present in the sound scape – but one can forgive their refusal to move simply because they add a further depth to the setting.

Vindfjell, May 2024

Dandy calls the setting “ephemeral”, mostly because Vindfjell is only with us for a short time. As such, it’s a fitting term – but one to which I’d personally add the word “beauty”, as the setting really is glorious in its natural beauty and sense of being. A fabulous celebration of the rugged pulchritude of Nature, this is a setting very definitely not to be missed.

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May 2024 SL Web User Group summary

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 May 1st, 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.

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.

Marketplace Infrastructure Update

  • The Marketplace infrastructure update has been completed, although the work did lead to a few “bumps” and some rapid bug fixes. However, the Marketplace team believe things should be running “just fine now”.
    • If any Merchant is experiencing issues with list / updating items, etc., then it is requested they raise a Canny report through the Feedback Portal.
  • As a result of this work, the Marketplace should be a lot more responsive in terms of page loading, etc., and the work also opens the door to the Lab adding a “lot of cool features” to the MP.
  • Garfield Linden noted that the focus on MP work now is making it “mobile-friendly and making improvements to Marketplace search”.

General Discussion

  • Sntax Linden indicated that the request to allow people to be able to Gift items directly from the Marketplace without having the item transferred to their Shopping Cart is “high” on the list of updates for the MP, but will not be available “soon”.
  • There have been multiple requests for users to be able to have more wish lists / favourites lists, both public and private. Requests to go with additional lists were also given, including:
    • Provision of sort filters added (e.g. newest first / oldest first)
    • Ability to search lists for items previously added to a list.
    • Ability to give lists custom names / create custom lists (e.g. by selecting items in another list / the Shopping Cart and use them to create a new wish / favourite list).
    • General load time improvements (for those with very large lists).
    • An ability to move items more easily between different lists (e.g. from the Shopping Cart to a favourites or wish list, or between wish lists if there are multiple lists available, etc.).
    • All of these were seen as potentially “good ideas” for improving the functionality and usability of lists within the MP.
  • A further request was made for Merchants to be able to respond to poor ratings and / or purchasers to be able to message Merchants through the MP – particularly to help where people have made a purchase and are confused about something and needs a little assistance.
    • A messaging system was seen as particularly beneficial for Merchants who get their IMs capped, as it provides a further channel to track comments and requests, making it potentially easier to help provide customer service support / mitigate bad reviews that are based on misunderstandings.
    • Sntax  suggested this could be handled via a prompt / link could be added to the review option (e.g. “do you need assistance with the items? Contact me by clicking here”).
    • This suggestion was seen as potentially However, there was some opposition to making any message option that “hidden”.
    • Instead, a preference was expressed for a proper messaging system – button, form, an “inbox” for the Merchant to receive messages (rather than them going to e-mail, although this should be offered as an option), etc., – all of which would take significant resource to supply.
  • The above led to a broader request to make it possible for anyone to reply to a review – so even if the creator of a product does not reply, someone who might be able to help (e.g. having gone through a similar misunderstanding) can drop an explanatory reply.
  • A request was made for LL to provide more header differentiation between e-mails sent to users that are off-line Group notifications and those that are actual off-line IM from individuals, with some claiming Gmail often lumps them together after filtering (which could as much be an issue in how the Gmail filter is set-up).

 

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, June 5th, 2024.

Three for May at La Maison d’Aneli in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Blip Mumfuzz

Having opened on April 24th, 2024, the May exhibition at Aneli Abeyante’s La Maison d’Aneli brings together three unique talents in the world of Second Life art, in three highly individual and engaging exhibitions. As usual, all three can be reached from the ground level of the gallery, either via the main teleport disk, or by walking onto the “whirlpool” teleport on the floor directly in from of the three large posters advertising the exhibitions.

Blip Mumfuzz needs no introduction to regular readers of these pages; I’ve been an admirer for her art for a long time, and have often reviewed her exhibitions. Blip has a way with the images she creates of the Second Life places she visits which sets her work apart from merely being landscape photographs. She is unafraid to flood her work with colour, sometimes to the point of it being almost abstract, whilst elsewhere she captures marvellous scene which evoke the rich diversity of nature and the wildness of its growth whilst also, through a subtle direction of the eye to linear elements within them, can impose a sense of order and / or subdivision.

La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Blip Mumfuzz

These linear elements can come in many forms – the framing of, or focus on tree trunks in a grove; the subtle splitting of a scene by a hedgerow or shrubs; the more direct references to order through the inclusion of fences, gates and doorways; the natural stepping grace of rock formations or the overlay of hillslopes, small to large – or even the simple foreground focus on stalks of grass growing against a background of foliage or rock. This technique is much in evidence through the pieces making up Blip’s multi-level exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli, particularly in the upper section of the exhibit, which she has  – appropriately enough – entitled Fences, a selection of pieces intended to offer reflections on a number of physical and metaphorical reflections o nature, art, photography and – life, as Blip herself notes:

Fences are rich symbols, signifying barriers, or boundaries, both physical and metaphorical, protection, security, division, exclusion, confinement. In art they can signify isolation, societal restrictions, and the tension between freedom and constraint. They can serve as a metaphor for personal boundaries or emotional barriers. The fences in my images are broken or partial suggesting barriers broken, or limits eroded over time.

– Blip Mumfuzz

La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Tutsy Navarathna and Adwehe

Within their joint exhibition, artist, videographer and social commentator (and a conscience of the world through his work) Tutsy Navarathna and lighting and media artist Adwehe present what might be best referred to as an artistic commentary on modern life and the horribly pervasive banality, mundanity and shallowness of modern advertising. It’s a theme (and threat) most easily expressed through the artists’ own words:

Whether you’re a Pop-Artist, Cubist, Surrealist, Futurist, Expressionist, Psychedelist, Post-Impressionist or even a Promptist!… Come and enjoy the captivating experience of being plunged into a whirlwind of megabit-deficient pixels! Let yourself be drawn into the strangest, most fantastic, most dreamlike, most sensual vision of an extravagant metaverse parasitized by invasive advertising slogans!

– Tutsy and Adwehe

On arrival, it is important to accept the local Experience in order to see the exhibition under the correct environment and lighting. There is a sign about this at the main teleport disk landing point, but I found I had to descend the steps to the lower level in order to trigger the Experience dialogue.

La Maison d’Aneli, May 2024 – Tutsy Navarathna and Adwehe

I admit I found this installation a little hard to get into – whilst appreciating the pop-art nature in the use of colours within it – and felt that perhaps some of the images could perhaps have been a little larger for more comfortable viewing. However, the humour across several is clear (and I have to admit to chuckling at one image which pokes fun at the oft-referenced commentary on the inverse relationship between male genitalia size and the need for big / fast cars). However, I’ll leave it you you to appreciate the installation for yourselves!

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2024 SL SUG meetings week #18 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Still, April 2024 – blog post †

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 30th, 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.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • They 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 Main channel was restarted on Tuesday, April 30th with no update.
  • On Wednesday, May 1st, the back-end support for the the glTF updates available in the Graphics Featurettes viewer (e.g. PBR terrain textures and mirrors) will be deployed to all RC channels.
    • Note that these updates require the use of the Graphics Featurettes RC viewer (available from the Alternate Viewers page), or a TPV that has merged with this code.
    • Note also that attempts to upload 2K textures on regions without the back-end support will result in an error message being displayed.

SL Viewer Updates

  • The Maintenance B RC viewer, version 7.1.7.8820696922, was issued on Monday, April 29th.

The rest of the official viewers in a pipeline remain as:

  • 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 23rd.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
  • Project viewers:

In Brief

  • Monty Linden is reported to have noted improvements in region crossings during test – however, he is doubtful that this is the case and is leaning towards the belief his work in trying to improve things isn’t far enough along to be seeing the kind of improvements he has witnessed.
    • Monty further noted that the changes he is making to region crossings are about reducing impact on avatars already in the region as a result of another avatar physically entering it or arriving via teleport – they are not about improving matters for the avatar entering a region – although he is checking this behaviour for possible regressions as a result of his changes.
  • Those wishing to test Leviathan Linden’s new VEHICLE_FLAG_BLOCK_INTERFERENCE  flag to optionally prevent attachments on passengers from pushing the vehicle around (so as to prevent cheating in racing, for example) can do so on the Aditi (Beta) grid regions Mauve and Jigglypuff.
  • Leviathan Linden hopes to update his Game Control regions on the beta grid (LeviathanLove and LeviathanLost) with the upcoming Spring Break simulator update, which contains the latest version of his Game Controller event.
  • The LL server team is now using Gitflow for tracking simulator releases, and it is hoped this might make it easier for providing a web page reporting on the different server update versions.
  • There were further comments on raising the current Mono script cap (64 Kb) and whether LL are going to do so. The reply was:
We have discussed increasing the memory cap but I don’t have anything to report on that at this time.

– Rider Linden

  • Rider added that in the meantime, he would like to have some way for a script to auto recover from a stack heap collision without the need for additional scripts monitoring and attempting to correct.
    • The problem here is that, potential causes of s S/H collision cannot necessarily be predicted (e.g.  if a listen or an HTTP response comes in that is larger than your available memory then you are going to hit the S/H issue – and you can’t predict how much data is coming in), ergo, resolution tends to be re-active rather than via avoidance.
    • In order to help with the identification of S/H collisions, he suggested a llSetScriptFlags function where one of the flags was something like SCRIPT_FLAG_AUTO_RESET_STACKHEAP. This could help reduce reliance on having other script perform “heartbeat” operations on scripts that may trigger a stack heap collision.
  • The above lead to an extended discussion on scripting and script management through the latter portion of the meeting – please refer to the video below for details.

† 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.

A Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024 – click and image for full size

It was off back to the Full private region held by Dianna Fluffington for me recently, and a visit to her creation of Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow.

This actually marked my third time at the region in the past 12 months, having previously visited in April 2023 and again in November of that year (see: A Blue Finch Spring in Second Life and A Blue Finch Frosty Hollow in Second Life). However, both of those iterations of the region design were collaborative works between Dianna and her former partner Grant Wade (GMi7); so the occasion of this visit marked my first time to an iteration of the region that is solely Dianna’s design – and it remains as eye-catching and photogenic as ever.

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024

As with the two past iterations of the region, this version for Spring 2024 offers a pleasing mix of themes and influences. The subtle touches of fantasy (such as via the elven-like lanterns lighting the many paths through the setting) are present, there is much to appreciate in terms of natural flora and fauna, superb use is made of landscaping elements to give the setting a unique, rugged look and beauty which is softened through the use of grasses, trees, water, shrubs and paths.

Whilst not strictly enforced, the landing point sits to the east of the region, tucked quietly between the north-east and south-east quadrants and within the single paved street of a small gathering of places of businesses, all neatly framed by a mix of walls and water channels, flowerbeds and trees. Within the area, the little shops are open to visitors, whilst outdoor spaces offer plenty of space for sitting down and passing the time.

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024

It is here as well, towards the southern end of the street, that visitors can find information on the region and its in-world Group, an invitation to hop up to a sky platform to visit an art exhibition by Cammie Carver and hosted by The Wanderers Relay for Life team (all donations, etc., to RFL of SL via the team), and directions to a horse rezzer where visitors can take a tour of the region on horseback. Unfortunately, the rezzer refused to work for me, so I’m unable to mention the nature or extent of the tour.

For those opting to explore on foot, there are a variety of paths leading away from the landing point and the little hamlet of shops and on through the region. So many in fact, that I’m not going to even attempt to chart a route for you to follow from here; the best thing to do is just step through the gates or over the little bridges from the town space and start wandering – whichever way you go, you will be richly rewarded with things to see and do.

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024

In terms of the latter, as well as the horse ride, the immediate surrounding to the town offer mini golf to one side and on the other, on the shores of the central lake, the opportunity to rez one or more (if you are in a group) inflatable tubes. These will whisk you around the waterways (at a pretty brisk pace!), complete with your personal supply of beer / drinks. There are also zip lines awaiting discovery and use by the adventurous.

One of the latter sits between a elevated events area tucked into the north-west corner of the setting, on a terrace covering a table hill. Given the other path up to this region is long and winding (but well worth the effort of finding and following given it does take one on a tour of a good part of the region and offers so excellent views from some of the higher aspects of the landscape), this zip line offers a quick and easy ride back down to the lower-lying elements of the setting for those who do not wish to retrace steps.

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024

But to return to the tube ride: this deposits riders in the shallows of a cove directly below the events terrace noted above, which is home to one of two stretches of beach making up the setting. A rocky arch from here provides the means to return of the region’s grasslands and gardens. Once through the arch, it is possible to spot another of the region’s zip lines and also appreciate another touch of the fantasy elements found throughout, this one in the form of ruins and a quiet swing waiting for romantics.

Places to sit can also be found through the region – from converted rowing boats through decks built out over the waters, parasoled tables on terraces and squares or rafts on the water, through to the region’s little cafés and bars or the open-air cinema (complete with offerings of pizza and buckets of nibbles.

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow is one of those places where just as you convince yourself you’ve seen everything there is, something else pops up in the form of an unexpected turn of a path or a hither-to unseen passage between trees or under rocky heights, and so brings you to something else to enjoy.

Such a discovery might be a little vignette of animals or a place to sit, a romantic corner, the unexpected sight of water flowing upslope (such is the magic of the region!) or another such unexpected view. As such, it is genuinely a place where the more time taken in exploring, the greater the rewards to be reaped.

Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow, April 2024

Those seeking an immersive location bringing together assorted themes and ideas and which offer huge scope for photography, relaxing, having a little fun or romantic interlude – or indeed, a combination of all of these  –  will undoubtedly find Blue Finch Blossoms Hollow an ideal destination in their Second Life travels.

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