Category: Second Life

Visiting The Dickens Project 2023 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Seanchai Library

The Dickens Project, a seasonal celebration of the life, times and work of Charles Dickens with a focus on what is perhaps his most famous story, A Christmas Carol, officially opens to the public on Thursday, December 7th 2023.

Now a tradition within Second Life – the first edition of the event was held in 2012 (and which itself grew out of a special presentation originally made in 2008), the Dickens Project offers a mix of reading, storytelling, music, events and activities. It is organised and presented by Seanchai Library and offers visitors an immersive environment across two regions evocative of Victorian England in Dickens’ time. This two-region environment serves as both home to settings from A Christmas Carol and the stage upon which the Project’s multiple events and activities take place throughout it run, which concludes in early January 2024. However, this year’s event brings with it some changes.

“This project has a lot of history and long time fans have a lot of ownership over elements that are favourites … We try to balance retaining things that are familiar with exploring new ideas and new ways to improve the experience for our guests

– Caledonia Skytower, Seanchai Library

For 2023, and following the success of Where’s Mr. Lurky?, a search-and-count style hunt during Seanchai Library’s 2023 Bradbury Project (read more here), the 2023 Edition of The Dickens Project will see visitors invited to Help Tiny Tim! who has left his crutch somewhere, everywhere across the two Dickens regions and which visitors are invited to find in all of its various hiding places. Information on the hunt can be found at the event’s Welcome Area.

Another new feature this year is a celebration of the myth of mermaids. Depicted in many ways throughout history, from lithe beautiful maidens to grotesque fish hybrids, mermaids were also a source of fascination in the Victorian era. For 2023, the Dickens Project offers a fascinating display of some of the art and stories surrounding these mythical creatures. Curated by Dagmar Kohime, the display can be found at the lighthouse within Dickens Harbour.

The Dickens Project 2023 Edition

As with  the 2022 Edition, The Dickens Project is this year assisted by a local SL Experiences to help with navigation and general enjoyment. All three are explained at the Project’s Welcome Area. They will be triggered automatically for anyone visiting the Project for the very first time, when approaching one of the teleport portals around the walls of the Welcome Area – so if you are new the the Project, expect the pop-up invite to join the Experiences and accept it when it appears. To also assist visitors with the layout of the regions, the floor of the Welcome Area also includes a map of both regions which highlight locations of interest.

Throughout its history, The Dickens Project has promoted communities through events and activities held throughout its annual run, and 2023 is no exception. Participating this year are: Virtual Community Radio, Innsmouth in SL, Evolution Dance, Idle Rogue Productions, Misfit Dance and Performance Art SL, and Virtuoso Dance, eClipse Club & Resort, and the SL Hawks Aerobatic Team. Some of these communities have dedicated spaces within the Project’s regions which can be reached via the teleport portals at the Welcome Areas, others- such as the Hawks Aerobatic Team. will be visiting to provide special shows.

The Dickens Project 2023 Edition

Also returning for 2023 is the Community Virtual Library, once again providing research and information on Victorian life in the time of Dickens’ works, whilst making a first and special appearance of December 30th is the Angelicus Boy Choir. Finally, the Project will see a broad range of entertainment and parties featuring DJs and live musicians from across Second Life.

Readings

Of course, no edition of the Project would be complete without the readings from Dickens’ a Christmas Carol.

The first such reading for 2023 will take place at 17:00 SLT on Thursday, December 7th, when the Community Virtual Library will host the Virtual Pioneers reading A Christmas Carol: Christmas Present. Then at noon SLT on Sunday, December 17th, 2023, there will be The Big Read, a relay-style reading of A Christmas Carol in its entirety.

The latter will mark the start of Carol Week, with daily readings for parts of the novella throughout the week of December 18th through 21st, each reading taking place at a location within the Project inspired by the story. In addition, a listening room is available 24/7 where guests can listen to different recordings of A Christmas Carol on the media stream, and a HUD can be obtained  by visitors who would like to explore listening to the story stream, rather than the music stream.

The full calendar of events for the Project is provided below – note all times are SLT.

To keep up-to-date on daily events and updates, be sure to keep an eye on the Seanchai Library website.

Dickens Project Art Show

Returning for 2023 is the Dickens Project Art Show, which is currently open (until December 17th, 2023) to submissions from artists.

This is a non-juried show which will formally open on December 23rd, 2023 with a special opening party at 15:30 SLT on that day. Artists are invited to submit 2D art (some 3D art can be accommodated by arrangement), with the organisers given priority to art with the following themes:

  • Elements of The Dickens Project.
  • Victorian Christmas.
  • Winter beauty.

Multiple submissions are allowed, but the number of works shown per artist may be limited in order to allow as many artists to be represented as possible.

Submissions should be made via notecard to Stevie Basevi. These notecards should include: the artist’s full SL Name (that is, Display Name and account name); the artist’s physical world time zone or best SL times when they can be contacted; a brief description of the piece + an artist biography; a *preview* image of the art to be submitted (i.e. a lower-resolution, thumbnail copy in order to provide the organisers with an idea of the work – not the art itself); and optional links to a related website, Flickr page, etc., for the artist.

General enquiries – including those concerning 3D art submissions – should also be forwarded to Stevie Basevi.

The Dickens Project 2023 Edition

About Seanchai Library

Seanchai Library (pronounced Shawn-a-kee, which means “Storyteller” in Irish Gaelic.) was founded in March of 2008 in Second Life. The program remains dedicated to promoting the power of stories to transform and inspire through live voice presentations: “We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life and other virtual worlds.”

The Dickens Project was created for Seanchai Library by Da5id Abbot, Dagmar Kohime, Gloriana Maertens, Stevie Basevi-Morane, Iniry Vaher, and Caledonia Skytower, in presenting it, Seanchai Library acknowledges the support and sponsorship of Linden Lab.

Links and SLurls

December 2023 SL Web User Group (WUG) meeting 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 December 6th, 2023. 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

Supporting PBR Creations

Sntax Linden opened the meeting to idea as to how LL can support makers of PBR content via the Marketplace. Key feedback included:

  • At least a clear category distinction for PBR-enabled items.
  • More preferably the ability for creator to indicate whether their product is “classic Materials” (or some such – the technical term is “Blinn-Phong”, which is likely a confusing mouthful for most users) or “PBR-enabled”, in the same manner as they can note a product as “100% Mesh” or “Partial Mesh”.
  • Some form of iconography on listing pages to indicate content (e.g. whether it is mesh (or partial mesh) and / or PBR enabled and / or rigged for wearing primary and secondary types; or whether it is “classic Materials (or some such), with/without baked lighting, etc.).
    • The problem here is that if the icons become too granular, they risk becoming confusing / off-putting when seen in listings and / or the simply confuse users unfamiliar with the MP, unless some form of cheat sheet / icon key is provided on every listing.
    • The above might be mitigated against if the icons are set with tooltip, so that when moused-over, the tip displays a brief description of the icon’s meaning.
  • If icons were to be used, have them act as filters to help narrow / manage searches.
  • Addition of specific search filter such as mesh+rigged+baked and lighting+PBR.
  • Further filters in the left-side filter list to distinguish PBR components / kits (e.g. Building and Object components → PBR Materials).
  • This broadened into a more general discussion on a greater use of distinguishing icons (with tooltips) within listings Marketplace in general.

Senra and Mesh Bodies

  • The above also focused on the Senra avatars, and the need to distinguish creations for these so that new users using the Senra avatars can more easily find clothing and accessories to fit them.
  • The above seems particularly pertinent given the “official 1.0” release of Senra made on Wednesday, December 6th, 2023 (the August release of the avatar now being referred to as a “beta” release), so there is potentially going to be an uptick in creator-provided content for Senra.
  • This raised the question of a generic category and filters for mesh body types for easier product location (e.g. Human, Animals, Monsters, Fantasy, etc.) – although this could be subject to confusion when listing / trying to find things like anthropomorphic mesh characters.
  • Garfield Linden suggested an open-ended tagging system for mesh body support: creators could freely input the supported mesh body as a tag, selecting from a drop-down that shows how many other products currently have each tag applied, with the ability to arbitrarily add new tags to the system. These same tags could then be used by residents to filter their search results.
    • Potential problems here are with scalability / accuracy: how many creators will select tags as opposed to just typing in their own? How unwieldy would this eventually make the drop-down list? How will the tag list be managed to prevent cluttering with typos (e.g. “nial” for “nail”, etc.) & the consequent accidental use of mistyped tags?
    • A suggested solution for the above is to have the field used by creators to add tag names actually display the total number of times an entered tag has been used (so a typo will hopefully show 0). This could also provide an easier means for creators to select existing tags without having to necessarily use a full drop-down list for tags.

In Brief

  • The Linden Homes store (see: Looking at the New Linden Homes Store) is to gain search filters for finding themes easier, and also notifications. These should be deployed before year-end.
  • There is a known issue with Marketplace fuzzy search such that partial names may not produce anticipated results.
  • There was a general discussion on keyword abuse – including some stores using what might be regarded as keywords in product titles (e.g. the use of “bed” in the name of tattoos), which can skew search results (although may not always be intentional).
  • There was a repeated request to prevent Marketplace stores using stars in their names, enabling them to show up in searches using the star rating system. This is something the Lab is looking at.
  • The end of the meeting includes a general discussion on possible improvements in Marketplace gifting (e.g. allowing direct gifting, without having the items go to the user’s main shopping basket). This was coupled with requests with a more flexible shopping basket system (e.g. having the ability to use a basket to store items for later purchase, whilst also being able to purchase a selection of options within it when going to the check-out).
  • LL is still mulling how to best integrate CasperVend with the Marketplace.
  • Please refer to the video below for other topics.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024.

Seventeen years in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
 My SL island home, as rendered on the PBR Materials viewer

So it’s another year and another pair of birthdays, physical and virtual – although I admit as the time passes, I get more and more envious of my avatar’s youth; she remains eternally young, trim and fit. Me? While I admit to still being vain enough to work out and maintain something of a trim figure (home rowing machines and exercise mats are both a godsend and a means of home torture), I have to admit that each year I find the back complaining a little more, the feet and knees getting more resentful when I go for walks or spend 20 minutes on the rowing machine…

However, be that as it may, December 5th saw my avatar reach 17 years of age. I actually had to be reminded of this by Johann Neddings (who always sends rezday greetings, bless him!), as I’d totally missed the fact for myself. I guess that as with the physical world, the older you get the harder it is to mark the passing birthdays with any enthusiasm!

2023 has been an interesting year; events in the physical world have – and continue – to mean that my ability to spend time in-world has become choppy. This is somewhat reflected in the number and frequency of posts appearing in this blog decreasing through the year as I’m just not had time to even begin to keep on top of things in Second Life. Sadly, this is likely to continue through the first part of 2024, largely as a result of one set of contractors messing a project up so badly, another project had to be postponed and cannot now commence until the end of January / start of February 2024. However, on the positive side, the project to switch to solar for the bulk of the house’s electricity requirements did go ahead without fuss or bother (although very nearly derailed by the aforementioned mess-up), and in the last 2 months alone has seen a reliance on the national grid for electricity drop by some 40%.

Anyway, what time I have had in-world has largely been devoted to various personal projects and following the ongoing updates to the platform  – particularly that of PBR Materials and the Lab’s work to adopt the Khronos glTF 2.0 specification. With the first phase of the PBR Materials work now live across the grid (see: A simple introduction to PBR materials, reflection probes & glTF in Second Life), I’m looking forward to getting the home island updated with reflection probes. I’m also eagerly awaiting the availability of the PBR Materials terrain work Cosmic Linden is working on, to see what that allows.

Another view of the island home, with two copies of the No Cottage Bazar used to form the “pool house” (lower left) ad “main house” (behind it, upper left) overlooking the old “castle courtyard”, the two linked via a small walled inner courtyard and be dint of swapping out windows on the upper level of the “pool house” for a door

In terms of the home island, Second Norway remains my “home” estate, but time being what it has been, I’ve not had the ability to fiddle-fart around with trying out new island designs and kitbashing houses as frequently as I’ve been known to do in the past. There are certainly a lot of house designs I’ve encountered whilst wandering SL and reporting on public regions, but even if I’d had the time to start playing with ideas, I’m not sure I would; a good deal of available effort this year has been in putting together a home design based on what remains one of my favourite models to be offered with Second Life: Marcthur Goosson’s NO Cottage Bizar, which I first obtained in January and initially kitbashed into – of all things – a home swimming pool and lounge area (see The NO Cottage Bizar in Second Life).

Since then, that build has gone through a couple of iterations, but remains very much in use, becoming the nucleus for a scratch-build home design using renovated ruins as a theme before I finally opted to simply bring two copies of the model together to form a single extended home. Although me being me does mean the layout has had a couple of updates since I originally blogged about it (notably swapping the positions of the “house” and the “swimming pool” with one another).

Under full sail

Due to the lack of time, sailing & boating – a particular pastime I enjoy in SL – has also taken a back seat in 2023, whilst flying has been almost totally absent my SL. However, I would like to again thank Spartaco Zemenis and Analyse Dean for their individual generosity in supplying me with versions of the ’86 Domino cruiser and Skûtsje Barge respectively. I’ve enjoyed taken both out on the water (even if the ’86 Domino is by far the largest vessel I’ve operated in SL!) and equally enjoyed modding them to suit my needs.

The other thing I’ve continued to enjoy / appreciate is Second Life is the art exhibitions and installations I’ve been privileged to be invited to view. I haven’t always been able to make every invite  – and certainly not every exhibit or installation; but the fact that my opinion is actively sought and artists and gallery owners take the time to write to me either via the blog comments or directly after I have written a review, is both greatly appreciated and genuinely humbling. Thank you to all of you for this – it genuinely keeps me engaged in SL and wanting to see (and often learn about) more art and expressionism in SL.

And, of course, there are all the marvellous public builds across the grid I’ve been invited to visit. Again, apologies to those who have sent an invite I’ve been unable to follow-up on for one reason or another; as noted already, time has often and quite genuinely often been against me. However, the fact that folk do take the time to offer a personal invitation is deeply appreciated, and I do try to respond whenever I can by paying a visit, even if time later conspires to prevent me from offering a writing-up.

A final but by no means lesser thank you to everyone who does continue to read this blog, comment on articles and who suggest ideas for articles and / or pass on news and pointers; all of you genuinely make these pages what they are as much as I (only with fewer typos! – I’m still exceedingly lazy in checking my own pieces after a day of checking other people’s written work; my apologies again for that).

Each time my rezday rolls around, I tend to wonder about the portion of my life spent in Second Life, and whether it has been a meaningful, worthwhile effort, and whether or not I should continue to devote time to it. But the flipside to this is just where else is it possible to see such a rich and diverse gathering of creativity, companionship and artistic outreach and expression from the comfort of an armchair and in the company of your own cats (yes, both of mine will actually sit on my lap / on the desk and watch SL on the screen in fascination – and occasionally try to paw something so it will stop moving!)? As long as all of that remains available, it’s kind-of hard to imagine stopping altogether.

Besides, next year my avatar will be old enough to vote! 😀

2023 SL SUG meetings week #49 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Castle Dracula, October 2023- blog post †

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 5th Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this summary, my thanks as always to Pantera for recording the meeting and 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

  • Tuesday, December 5th: the SLS Main channel was re-started without any simulator updates being deployed.
  • Wednesday, December 6th: the “Fall Colours” maintenance update may be expanded across all RC channels from BlueSteel / Preflight. This update includes llRezObjectWithParams, llIsFriend, but will not include the game controller updates.
    • However, following its initial deployment in Week 48, “Fall Colours” was found to have bugs with collision sounds (e.g. transferring them across region boundaries and with being able to silence them), with the result that the sounds can be repeated multiple times (see: BUG-234757 “Repetitive Collision Sound?” and this forum thread). As a result, at the time of the meeting, LL were still discussing whether or not to consider these issues as “blockers” against the release being more widely deployed.
    • If the deployment to all RCs goes ahead in the next week or two, it will represent the last server deployment for 2023.

No Change Window

  • The end-of-year No change window for simulator and official viewer releases will come into effect on the week commencing Monday, December 18th, 2023 and will remain in place until Tuesday, December 2nd, 2024.
  • Linden Lab offices will be closed for all but emergency support from close of business Friday, December 22nd, 2023, and will re-open on January 2nd, 2024.

Viewer Updates

On Tuesday, December 5th, the Maintenance-W RC viewer updated to version 7.1.1.7088402585.

Other viewers in the pipe remain as:

  • Release viewer: version 7.0.1.6894459864, the glTF / PBR Materials viewer, issued November 17, promoted November 28.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance V(ersatility) RC viewer, version 7.1.1.7039128750, December 1.
    • Maintenance X RC, version 6.6.17.6935636398, issued November 21 – usability improvements.
    • Maintenance Y, version 6.6.17.6935642049, issued November 21 – My Outfits folder improvements; ability to remove entries from landmark history.
    • Emoji RC viewer, version 6.6.15.581551, August 31.
  • Project viewers:

Game Controllers

  • Leviathan Linden has previously considered the idea of changing the signature of the LSL event to provide per-channel info (input, value) rather than all of the controller state (buttons masks + all axes). However, he has discovered that such an event system would make it difficult to handle multi-modal input: e.g. some_button + axis_state.
  • This is because the state of each input would arrive in different events, and the order or arrival would matter, with Leviathan noting what he already has in place would likely win out in the end, negating any changes.
  • Currently, he is trying to make it possible to supply game_control input with keyboard input, but without having to completely rewrite the keyboard mapping and other related UI.
  • The Gingerbread maintenance branch with the prototype game_control feature has been redeployed to the Beta grid, and can be found on the following Aditi regions: Aegis Island, Blake Sea – Turnbuckle, Cloud Sandbox 1, Cloud Sandbox 2, Firestorm Aerodrome, Gothlauth, Hona Lee Puff, Jigglypuff, Laefeon, LR151, LR 152, Mauve, Moonberry, Morris, SG2, and Smithereens.
  • A point to note here is that the game controller work does not currently support 3dConnexion SpaceNavigator Mouse many of us use for things like flycamming, photography, filming, etc., but he is promised not to break support for the SpaceNav functionality.

In Brief

  • Combat Updates:
    • Rider Linden has published his outline document on improving SL’s combat capabilities, which can be found within the combat systems discussion thread on the forums. Feedback is requested from users engaging in combat games in SL.
    • This lead to a discussion on combat capabilities and needs throughout the rest of the meeting – please refer to the video below.
  • A question was asked on fog and distance hazing, this is something the graphics team hope to implement within the on-going glTF project – see: 2023 week #46: SL CCUG meeting summary: PBR status & current release plan.
  • BUG-234598 “Avatar hit box rotating bug” has been accepted by LL, but is proving difficult to reproduce.

† 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 Calas Christmas 2023 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Calas Christmas, 2023 – click any image for full size

When the world is ever changing
Like a candle in the dark
There’s a source of inspiration in the air
It’s time to let a Calas Christmas onto your heart.

A wonderful place of love and peace for everyone
With magical sleighs and horses to ride
A wonderful dream of joy and fun for everyone
Sharing a place where imagination is set free.

OK, so Melanie Thornton didn’t quite write the lyrics to Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) quite like that, but I figure if a certain brand of carbonated soft drink can turn the lyrics from the song into a seasonal promotional jingle, then why can’t I a tweak a line or two? After all, it is the season of goodwill and all that goes with it, and in Second Life, there is perhaps no better place in which to share the love and happiness the season tends to bring than at the annual Calas Galadhon Christmas regions.

A Calas Christmas 2023
For 2023, Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith, together with the rest of the Calas Galadhon estate team, bring us no fewer than three regions in which to enjoy the snowy beauty of winter, partake of many activities that come with it, mark the closing of the year – and of course, engaging in all the broader celebrations and joy which Christmas itself invokes.

The team have been bringing us their visions of the Christmas season for the past 15 years – a fact which genuinely marks the Calas Christmas regions as both a feature of and tradition within Second Life. As such, I’m always delighted to receive an invitation to visit in advance, although I do intentionally tend to leave any blog post written until after the regions are fully open to the public so no-one is disappointed by the fact the first few days the regions are open are (rightly) reserved for the Calas Galadhon group who support the estate throughout the year.

A Calas Christmas 2023

For this year, A Calas Christmas builds upon the setting established in 2022, extending it across the third region. This allows visitors to enjoy many of the locations and sights from 2022 (as well as the staples in the form of the Pavilion, sleigh rides, and so on), as well as presenting opportunities for broader explorations and wandering and – of course – photography.

The main landing point 0nce again sits on an (Ant)Arctic sky platform (you can take your pick as to whether it might be the north or south polar region, given SL is the magical place where polar bears and penguins can share the same environment 🙂 ) where the Moon hangs low in the sky and an aurora swirls around. Here new arrivals are asked to find their way to the portal and from there (by way of accepting the Calas Experience if that have not previously done so), down to the ground level arrival point.

A Calas Christmas 2023

The use of the sky platform helps prevent too much congestion piling up down on the ground, the walk to the portal allowing earlier arrival to settle on a course of action at ground-level, be it simply setting out and wandering or taking one of the sleighs to tour the regions. Of the two options, I’d suggest that those new to the Calas Christmas experience should consider the latter first; the sleighs offer a cosy means of seeing the major sights and points of interest, which can always be returned to on foot.

Those familiar with the Calas Christmas settings may feel bolder and opt to take to their pedal extremities – even if only to the bottom of the slope leading away from the sleighs, to where a horse rezzer awaits those who might like to region through the setting.

A Calas Christmas 2023

The sleigh tour lasts close to 50 minutes (although you can hop out at any time), but will comprehensively cover all three regions, providing a degree of commentary along the way. Towards the end, it will also take to the air to offer a bird’s eye view of the skating lake and the pavilion. Whilst taking it, visitors might like to enable the streaming audio; as always the tracks featured on it have been carefully selected by Ty and Truck to reflect the theme for the regions with music, hymns and songs from a broad range of genres.

The new region within the setting is a place of trails, wildlife, cabins and places to sit or take photos – the cabins perhaps being particularly welcome for those feeling a sense of the setting’s wintry cold! In terms of opportunities for photography, the Calas team have once again been accommodating; through the setting are numerous places where poses might be found for those wishing to capture special moments  – with Tinies and Dinkies catered for as a well as Big People. Not all of these might be obvious, so I do recommend making sure the information folder available at the Pavilion is obtained, as it includes a note card listing all the points where posed photos might be taken.

A Calas Christmas 2023

And speaking of the pavilion, this is where the Calas Christmas events will be taking place throughout the season, with the schedule of performances  available via the information folder mentioned above, and which can be obtained via the sign board just inside the pavilion’s entrance. As well as the horses and sleigh tour, Calas Christmas once again offers balloon flights over the regions (another opportunity for photography and  seeing the sights from a different perspective; and of course, the Calas Christmas express is marking its presence with a degree of hissing steam and its customary cosy interiors.

Once again, Calas Christmas brings everyone in Second Life the opportunity of season fun and celebration in a classic setting. Not to be missed!

A Calas Christmas 2023

SLurl Details

Note that the Midwinter estate is rated Moderate.

2023 SL viewer release summaries week #48

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, December 3rd, 2023

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 7.0.1.6894459864,the glTF / PBR Materials viewer, issued November 17, promoted November 28 – NEW.
  • 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:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • Alchemy – GLTF PBR 7.1.1.2251 (Beta build) November 30 (Beta build, but listed here due to the official release of PBR Materials in SL) – download and release notes.
  • Black Dragon updated to version 5.0 (PBR) on December 2 – release notes.
  • Firestorm updated to version 6.6.16.70339 (non-PBR) on November 29 – release notes; my overview.

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated to version 1.32.0.0 (Stable) (PBR) on December 2 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links