Category: Second Life

The many aspects of Jules Farigoule in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

Opening on Monday, January 16th, 2023 in the Annex at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, is The Farigoule Collection, a series of images and settings by Jules Farigoule which – as always for Nitroglobus – offers a fascinating take on the art and expressionism of the artist involved.

The easiest way to introduce the collection is to use Dido’s own words:

A while ago when meeting with Jules in his loft, which is really a superb tastefully made place, I asked him if he was willing to exhibit his awesome art collection at Nitroglobus.  At first he hesitated and told me he was neither an artist nor was this a ‘collection’, just images which he likes to have around him; a very subjective and personal selection. .. a set of images, gathered from meetings, friendships and by chance, from the serendipity of Jules’s long Second Life.

Dido Haas

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

Now, on the surface, this may not sound so unusual – serendipity often plays a role in art, be in painting, drawing or photography, and in Second Life, photographs tend to focus on our personal moods or on the friends we make, the people we encounter and the sights we come across in our explorations. So what makes this collection so special?

Simply because, while it may not have any intentional theme or narrative thread, it is nevertheless something of a story about Jules – who hails from France – and his self-expression both in the physical world and within Second Life.

Some of the latter is expressed through the two settings occupying the floorspace of the Annex, and which offer a glimpse into Jules’ loft home in-world. Their simplicity of form and minimalism, coupled with the placing of the art on their walls and the sculptures, speak to a mind and eye driven by thoughts of beauty and balance, and something of a reverence for the female body – as well as the simple joy of taking photos.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

More broadly – and intimately – the exhibition as a whole offers insight into the dual nature of Jules’ time in Second Life, where both a male and a female avatar – Gaia Republic – are used (with Jules now being the primary and Gaia – although older – the “Alt”). The images from Second Life – outside of those Jules has on display within the “loft” sets which originate with other artists (including Dido herself) – come from both the persona of Jules and that of Gaia, and examining the differences in style, tone and subject between the two.

Most of the images by Jules, meanwhile present fair more structured results in which the more technical aspects of each – style, focus, presentation, cropping and production. Thus, there is perhaps a femininity reflective of Gaia that naturally comes to the fore within Mes copines, whilst Jules’ piece might be seen as leaning towards a more “masculine” expressionism.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

It’s subjective to be sure, and also subjective, given the technical skills required to produce Mes copines are as great as those seen within, say, ExMachina 04. More importantly, the contrasts speak to a person as ease within the skins of both Jules and Gaia, and makes for a delight layer of observation when viewing these pieces.

Mixed with the Second Life images are several which appear to have been brought into SL from the physical world, and these again offer insight into Jules’ outlook as an artist and the richness of his imagination.

Yet another engaging exhibition from Nitroglobus – and full kudos to Dido for persuading Jules to display his work, and to Jules for doing so.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, January 2023: JuleJules Farigoule – The Farigoule Collection

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2023 SL viewer release summaries week #2

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, January 15th, 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: Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.8.576863 Monday, December 12.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • glTF / PBR Materials project viewer updated to version 7.0.0.577486 on January 11, 2023.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • Kokua updated version 6.6.8.50080 (no RLV) and version 6.6.8.53435 (RLV variants) on January 15, 2023 – release notes

V1-style

  • No updates.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Haiku’s Portraits and venue in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Akiniwa: Haiku Quan – Just who do you think you are?

Now open at Akiniwa, a region within the Akipelago estate of arts regions founded and operated by Akiko Kinoshi (A Kiko), is an engaging exhibition of art by Haiku (Haiku Quan), one of Aki’s partners in organising and hosting art and music events within Akipelago, and who is herself both a photographer-artist and patron of the arts in Second Life.

In this latter regard, and as well as the work she carries out with Aki and Violet Boa at Akipelago, Haiku founded the Free Museum on 2021, giving away copies of works by some of SL’s most gifted artists (with their approval). In 2022 she sponsored the first annual Lyrics Prize and awarded over L$100,000 in prizes to the residents who wrote the best original lyrics to a dozen popular songs.

Akiniwa: Haiku Quan – Just who do you think you are?

Now at Akipelago, Haiku launches a new phase of her work in supports art in Second Life, a new complex of three gallery buildings of a unique neo-industrial design by Blue Tsuki, all of which are to be curated by Haiku and are ranged on three sides of an open air events area.  One of these units will eventually be home to additional works from the Free Museum, and the other will host rotating exhibitions by other Second Life artists. The fourth side of the venue is occupied by Nessuno Myoo’s As Mammoths In the Middle Of Butterflies, an installation I reviewed in April 2022.

As for the first unit, this is home to Haiku’s exhibition With Just who do you think you are? This is a collection of no fewer than 300 avatar portraits captured by Haiku. Many of the subjects are themselves artists and musicians using Second Life as their medium of expression, with one or two SLebrities mixes among them (see if you can spot Simon Linden for one…).

Akiniwa: Haiku Quan – Just who do you think you are?

However, rather than being offered as individual pieces, Haiku has opted to place up to 16 portraits in a single frame and then use a scripted timer to rotate through them, showing etc i turn for a period long enough for us to appreciate each one. This results in an exhibit in which the pieces are almost constantly in a state of flux  (or change), presenting visitors with the choice of observing the changes a picture frame at a time until all the portraits it contains, or to wander around the gallery floor, each circuit revealing different portraits, giving the sense of walking through a space much larger than the hall.

In terms of the portraits themselves, they are almost all head-and-shoulder shots, the subject looking directly at the camera and with a minimum of post-processing. Thus they present an honest view of each avatar, unburdened by the play of digital tools – and in doing so, perhaps allow us a glimpse one their eyes to the person who lies, so to speak, within them.

Akiniwa: Haiku Quan – Just who do you think you are?

Engaging and rich in content, Just who do you think you are? offers a noel manner in which to present avatar portraits – and I look forward to returning to Akiniwa and witnessing the development of Haiku’s new endeavour as the galleries all become occupied.

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Hippiestock 2023: peace, love and music in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hippestock, January 2023

Sunday, January 15th will see the 2023 edition of Hippiestock take place in Second Life. A day-long music event, Hippiestock was established in 2011 by Hippie Bowman as a way to for him connect directly with friends he’d made through the Second Life forums. and this year it is sponsored by sponsored by Corsica South Coasters and Commune Utopia.

Whilst intended as a “one-off”, such was the response to that first event in 2011, the Hippie agreed to consider making it an annual event -and 12 years later Hippie and his friends once again present an opportunity to come together with fun and music and to embrace the “hippie philosophy”, once described by Hippie himself as:

[A belief] in peace as the way to resolve differences among peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to peace is through love and tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they are, giving them freedom to express themselves and not judging them based on appearances. This is the core of the hippie philosophy.

– Hippie Bowman, January 2011

Hippestock, January 2023

The event kicks-off at 09:00 SLT on Sunday January 15th, with the music line-up as follows:

  • 09:00 SLT – Hippie Bowman
  • 10:00 SLT – Dimvan Ludwig
  • 11:00 SLT – Alsund
  • 12:00 noon – Cranston Yordstorm
  • 13:00 SLT – The Vinnie Show
  • 14:00 SLT – Joe Paravane
  • 15:00 SLT – Lluis Indigo
  • 16:00 SLT- Jed Luckless (2-hour set with particle show by Moondance Parx)

As well as enjoying the music in an outdoor setting designed to recapture the sense of Woodstock, attendees also have the opportunity to explore the Hippiestock region, there the beach, a camp site between it and the region’s river, a barn recalling Woodstock, a rendition of England’s Stonehenge and multiple places to sit and relax might be found and enjoyed. This setting will remain open to the public to enjoy through until the end of Wednesday, January 18th, 2023 – so even if you don’t make the event on the 15th, there will still be time afterwards to drop in and explore.

Hippiestock, January 2023

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A Lyrical visit in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lyric, January 2023 – click any image for the full size

An entry in the Editor’s Picks section of the Destination Guide for Lyric recently piqued my curiosity, although I found it a struggle when it came to blogging about – not because there is anything wrong with the setting; it is simply that I’m cautious about writing-up locations that might public spaces and rentals, as is the case here. However, the setting is photogenic, so I decided to take some photos and offer a brief write-up.

Lyric is inspired by the Caribbean Islands of St Vincent and the Grenadines, where the architecture of different eras meet the uniqueness of the Island’s natural landscape. It is composed of three regions streamed together to offer its residents and visitors an opportunity to sail between them. Come live, love, and play!

Lyric estate About Land

Lyric, January 2023 – click any image for the full size

This is in fact a couple of regions within a small estate. The first is a Full region utilising the land capacity bonus. Split between public spaces and rentals; it is joined on its eastern side by a Homestead region, both of which have been designed by Algernon (Algernon Bamaisin). A further point to note – as indicated at the landing point via local chat – is that Group membership (free to join) is required to use some of the sit points, etc., found throughout the public spaces.

Speaking of the landing point, it sits on the main road circumnavigating the region. Sitting on the west side of the setting, it lies between an advertising board that repeats the greeting found in the About Land description and the local harbour, with the latter offering the the colourful mix of architecture referenced in that description can be found in the form of shops to rent. Above and behind these sits a small town square dominated by a church and, to one side by a nightclub space offering open-air dancing.

Lyric, January 2023

It is here where private and public spaces overlap: the loungers and seating at the club space are restricted to group access, whilst the east side of the square is dominated by two rental homes, the path between them leading to more rentals – these in the form of beach cabins – below, while steps climb the southern highlands to the region, where more rentals are located, public paths winding through them.

Between the raised town square and the waterfront shops sits a narrow alley with a north-south orientation. Accessed where the road runs along the region’s west side, the alley is called, appropriately enough, Gloomy Alley, it is home to some of the seedier aspects which might be found in holiday / vacation spots.

Lyric, January 2023

To the east, a terrace with a large pool offers a view over the water to the Homestead region, on which more beach huts are arranged – although at the time of our visit, they did not appear to be for rent. Two smaller island lie off shore, again with seating set to Group. A rezzer down on the beach can provide boats to group members so that they can reach the eastern islands and land mass.

The latter forms long finger of land with the cabins to the south and a ribbon of sand to the north, home to a large pier. Beyond this lies a further full region which appeared to offer a mix of rental and private homes; however, whilst designed by Algernon, it appeared to be under a separate group ownership, so our explorations didn’t extend into it.

Lyric, January 2023

Open to a range of EEP settings which lend it to photography, Lyric presents an opportunity for gentle exploration and, perhaps for those looking for it, a home with a Caribbean vibe to it.

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2023 SL Puppetry project week #2 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Puppetry demonstration via Linden Lab – see below.  Demos video with the LL comment “We have some basic things working with a webcam and Second Life but there’s more to do before it’s as animated as we want.”

The following notes have been taken from chat logs and audio recording of the Thursday, January 12th, 2023 Puppetry Project meetings held at the Castelet Puppetry Theatre on Aditi. These meetings are generally held on alternate weeks to the Content Creation User Group (CCUG), on same day / time (Thursdays at 13:00 SLT).

Notes in these summaries are not intended to be a full transcript of every meeting, but to highlight project progress / major topics of discussion.

Project Summary

General description of the project and its inception:

LL’s renewed interest in puppetry was primarily instigated by Philip joining LL as official advisor, and so it really was about streaming mocap. That is what Philip was interested in and why we started looking at it again. However since Puppetry’s announcement what I’ve been hearing from many SL Residents is: what they really want from “puppetry” is more physicality of the avatar in-world: picking up objects, holding hands, higher fidelity collisions. 
As a result, that is what I’ve been contemplating: how to improve the control and physicality of the the avatar. Can that be the new improved direction of the Puppetry project? How to do it?

Leviathan Linden

  • Previously referred to as “avatar expressiveness”, Puppetry is intended to provide a means by which avatars can mimic physical world actions by their owners (e.g. head, hand, arm movements) through tools such as a webcam and using technologies like inverse kinematics (IK) and the  LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system.
    • Note that facial expressions and finger movements are not currently enabled.
    • Most movement is in the 2D plain (e.g., hand movements from side-to-side but not forward / back), due to limitations with things like depth of field tracking through a webcam, which has yet to be addressed.
  • The back-end support for the capability is only available on Aditi (the Beta grid) and within the following regions: Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet.
  • Puppetry requires the use of a dedicated viewer, the Project Puppetry viewer, available through the official Second Life Alternate Viewers page.
  • No other special needs beyond the project viewer are required to “see” Puppetry animations. However, to use the capability to animate your own avatar and broadcast the results, requires additional work – refer to the links below.
  • This project is taking in a lot of additional ideas – animation standards, improving the current animation system, enabling truer avatar / avatar and avatar object interactions such that it is likely to evolve into a rolling development, with immediate targets for development / implementation as they are agreed upon, to be followed by future enhancements.
  • As such, much of what goes into the meetings at present is general discussion and recommendations for consideration, rather than confirmed lines o development.
  • There is a Puppetry Discord channel – those wishing to join it should contact members of LL’s puppetry team, e.g. Aura Linden, Simon Linden, Rider Linden, Leviathan Linden (not a full list of names at this time – my apologies to those involved whom I have missed).

Bugs, Feature Requests and Code Submissions

  • For those experimenting with Puppetry, Jiras (bug reports / fixes or feature requests) should be filed with “[Puppetry]” at the start of the Jira title.
  • There is also a public facing Kanban board with public issues – those experiencing issues can also contact Wulf Linden.
  • Those wishing to submit code (plug-ins or other) or who wish to offer a specific feature that might be used with Puppetry should:

Further Information

Meeting Notes

LSL Integration

  • See: OPEN-375: “LSL Functions for reading avatar animation positions”.
  • Rider Linden is starting to look at LSL integration  – the first step being to make the simulator aware of what is actually animating.
  • Currently, the code he has developed lets the server know the position of an avatars attachment points; this sends details of 55 points (HUD points excepted). Attachment points have been selected over bones, as the simulator already has a solid concept of attachment points, and it avoids complications with rigged meshes “doing their own thing” with bone positions.
  • A concern with this is the number of updates being sent to the server for processing.
    • One idea is to refine the the code so that only the attachment points which change relative to the avatar centre (avatar frame/Local Position relative to the avatar) actually send information to the server, in order to reduce the number of updates being generated.
    • Another idea might be to only send updates every n frames, rather than every frame. This would reduce the fidelity of movement, but could still provide sufficient data while reducing the load on the simulator, particularly where multiple avatars in a region are using puppetry.
  • This issue is related to synchronising puppetry actions across multiple viewers as well; a long-standing issues, given that animation playback of animations is viewer-side, and not genuinely across viewers (the resync function found in some TPVs only does so locally).
  • All of the above lead to a discussions of ways and means to best allow LSL integration with animations and ensure a reasonable transmission of results together with decent synchronisation between the viewer and the simulator, whether by frame count or time stamp, in order to ensure predictability of results across multiple viewers. .
  • In addition, the discussion included the advantage in enhancing Second Life to support procedural animations as well as the current canned animations.
  • Rider is also looking into a script enhancement to register collisions.
  • There was some conflating of ideas during the discussion – immediate first steps in opening Puppetry to LSL, and more far reaching goals – setting position, registering collisions (per the above), defining better interpolation for positioning (e.g. as defined in the Khronos glTF specification), etc., which caused a degree of confusion.
  • However, the openness towards making Puppetry a good foundation for future enhancement (such as moving more to procedural-based animations, enabling SL to support “industry standard” animation workflows to encourage animators into the platform, etc., remains, together with (hopefully) enabling more realistic avatar / avatar and avatar / object interactions.
  • That said, Simon Linden did offer a not of caution to all discussing the work:
Not to pop the bubble, but every one please keep in mind all the stuff we’re talked about is experimental and really interesting. I have no idea what we can make into real features and what can work with crowds and all the other interesting problems to make it happen well – we’ll see what we all can do this year 🙂

– Simon Linden

Date of Next Meeting

  • Thursday, January 26th, 2023, 13:00 SLT.