Category: Second Life

November 2022 Web User Group: new “Plus” subscription level

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, November 2nd, 2022.

These meetings:

  • Are held in-world, generally on the first Wednesday of the month – see the SL public calendar.
  • Are usually chaired by Reed Linden, who is the Lab’s Product Manager for the Second Life front-end web properties (Marketplace, secondlife.com, the sign-up pages, the Lab’s corporate pages, etc.).

A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found embedded at the end of this article (my thanks to her as always!), and subject timestamps to the relevant points in the video are provided. Again, the following is a summary of key topics / discussions, not a full transcript of everything mentioned.

Marketplace

Marketplace Search Overhaul

[Video: 1:08-4:30]

  • All of the currently planned updates are complete and are awaiting the opportunity to “turn them all on”. This will likely happen (with an announcement) ahead of US Thanksgiving, 2022.
  • Some of the noted updates include:
    • Merchant and store names will no long be searched in product searches.
    • Searches for exact matches (using quotation marks around search descriptors) has been added.
    • Wildcard (e.g. using *) will be possible.
    • The back-end supports fuzzy matching to better handle typos when inputting searches.
    • There should be a noticeable increase in speed of search results being returned.
  • Once running, these updates will allow LL to add-in the relevance engine AI to the Marketplace search (as a separate API entity to the relevance engine already running on the web search).

Marketplace Styles

[Video: 12:15-14:00]

  • Work will resume on Marketplace Styles (allowing multiple colours, etc., for an item to appear within a single listing rather than each requiring its own listing) as soon as the MP Search updates are officially enabled.
  • It is hoped this capability will be available towards year-end.
  • It will obviously be up to merchants as to whether they use it to group variances in a product within a single listing or continue to list them separately – single listings for multiple versions of an item will not be mandatory.

Land Ownership “Journey”

[Video; 8:14-12:12]

  • A complete re-write of every route by which users can obtain and hold land, from Premium (+Plus) Linden Homes, obtaining Mainland (incl. Abandoned Land), and private island regions, and renting from private estates.
  • The first element of the land work to be user-facing will be the new Land Portal, a central hub from which to get to all aspects of land “ownership”.
  • Overall, this work is not liable to be surfaced much before the end of 2022.
  • When it does, it should be looked upon as a template / proof of concept for overhauling the rest of the Second Life web properties to give them a coherent appearance; make it easier to maintain existing web portals and pages and to add new ones; make SL’s web presence more performant overall and ensure it works on mobile devices as well as desktops / laptops.

New “Plus” Subscription Level

[Video: 4:1-35-8:05]

  • The new subscription option is to be called simply (if possibly confusingly) “Plus”.
  • This is designed to sit between Basic and Premium.
  • Its core intent is to unlock the ability to hold land on the Mainland, although it will have a modest stipend associated with it + a small bump in the number of allowed Groups.
  • Pricing is subject to the formal announcement that Plus is available, which is anticipated as being by the end of November.
  • It is hoped that once available and given time to determine how it performs / users respond to Plus, that further subscription levels – which may possibly include an “a-la carte” option – can be defined and added to the selection.

Premium Plus (and Premium) to be Renamed in the future?

  • It was suggested that the new subscription level would be better named “Basic Plus” – something that was not dismissed by Reed as an informal means of referencing it.
  • However, the Lab is apparently considering single-word names for all current and future subscription offerings, and Reed indicated that if this is the case, then Premium Plus is likely to be renamed at some point in the future, and this renaming might extend to Premium as well.

In Brief

  • It is hoped that a future Marketplace update will allow store owners to have access to search metrics for their items (e.g. which items are being popularly searched / purchased, etc.). However, this is not part of the Search updates described above.
  • The web properties updates will likely include improvements to the web version of the World Map. However, what these changes may be & which they might be implemented is very much still TBD.
  • Web profiles will not be entirely shut down for as long as the profile Feed remains popular with users – this is the one element of Web Profiles that has not been moved back into the viewer (and appears unlikely to do so).
  • It has been noted that if a user has the Profile Feed set to Private, the new Legacy Profile viewer code shows a broken version of their web profile in the Web tab.
  • For all other discussion points,  please refer to the video below.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, December 7th, 2022. Venue and time per top of this summary.

The digital mastery of Milly Sharple in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Milly Sharple – November 2022

I found it hard to believe that two years have passed since I last visited an exhibition of Milly Sharple’s fabulous digital art; so when I recently happened across a Landmark to her current gallery, I knew I would have to pay a visit.

For those who may not be familiar with Milly and her work, she is a successful artist and photographer in the physical world. Not only is her art sold on a global basis, it has been used for book and CD cover art, in promotional material, posters for theatrical productions, and even on bank cards. In 2020 she was invited to do a collaboration representing the Covid pandemic with Salvador Dali’s protégé, Louis Markoya.

Milly Sharple – November 2022

Milly joined Second Life in 2008, and established her first gallery the following year. Not content with simply displaying and selling her work in-world, she also established the Timamoon Arts Community, which in its day, hosted over 40 resident artists and was regarded as one of the most successful and popular art communities on the grid before circumstance forced Milly to retire the region on which it was based.

As one of the pioneers in introducing the world of fractal art to Second Life audiences, and while in recent years her work has diversified as she continues to develop and extend her range of artistic expression, fractals have remained an integral part of her creativity. To produce these pieces, she works with Apophysis, and open-source software package which allows her to create soft, flowing, liquid effects that sets her work apart from other, more rigidly geometric fractal art that can also be found displayed within Second Life. It’s an approach that not only acts a a differentiator between her work and other fractal art, it also gives her work a stunningly organic look and feel, rich in life.

Milly Sharple – November 2022

Alongside her fractal pieces, Milly also produces digital portraits that combine her use of organic forms with the human face and body. Flowing with intentionally rich and vivid colour, these pieces have a life that is both connected to, yet utterly separate from, her fractal pieces, containing as they do their own stunning depth of expression. These portraits share the upper floor of the gallery along with pieces that enfold within them elements of abstract expressionism, pure abstractionism and touches of surrealism in a further engaging selection of digital images.

And if this weren’t enough, the gallery offers a rich vein of Milly’s 3D sculptures and pieces. These again fold within them those elements of natural, organic form and multiple artistic genres to offer a rich and engaging select of pieces that work individual and collectively as works suitable for display in one’s own home.

Taken individually or as intentional sets (such as We Didn’t Start the Fire … Or Did We? – a quite marvellous commentary on climate and ecological disasters that can be said to have their roots in our own role in impacting the world’s climate), Milly’s work is always expressive not just visually, but in offering an idea or story.

Milly Sharple – November 2022

Offering the full richness of Milly’s art, a visit to her gallery is a must for anyone interested in either her work or in the potential of Second Life presents to physical world artists to display their work to a global audience.

SLurl Details

Lab announces Homesteads for Premium Plus, and some thoughts

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Tuesday, November 1st, 2022, Linden Lab announced that Homestead regions are now available to Premium Plus members directly from Linden Lab and without the need to hold a Full region.

The offering was first indicated as a “coming” Premium Plus benefit during the Lab Gab session with Grumpity and Patch Linden held on October 21st – see here for a summary of that event – and the November 1st announcement builds on this.

In short the details are:

  • Premium Plus members are now able to hold  one private Homestead region from Linden Lab against their account:
  • Regions can be requested using a Support Ticket via support.secondlife.com. Tickets should:
    • Place an order via Land & Region → Order Private Region.
    • Provide a unique name for the region (in accordance with the region naming rguidelines) and a preferred location on the grid for placement.
  • The region can be held only as long as the member maintains their Premium Plus account. Should they downgrade to Premium (or any forthcoming Premium subscription level that does not include the Homestead “benefit”) or to Basic will lose the region.

There are no other changes to Homestead ownership, including the fact that anyone is able to own Homestead regions as long as there is at least one Full private region owned on that account as well, and pay the required fees.

Does This Make Premium Plus More Attractive?

Whether the ability to hold a Homestead region when taken on its own will make Premium Plus a worthwhile upgrade is questionable.

  • If you are not already a Premium or Premium Plus member, then looking at Premium Plus purely in terms of a means to obtain a Homestead region probably isn’t a worthwhile proposition.
    • When you add the minimum monthly fee for Premium Plus (US $20.75) to the Homestead region tier of US $109, it likely comes out to more than the monthly cost of renting a Homestead region from an established private rental estate.
    • Both renting privately and holding a Homestead via Premium Plus have the same core risk: paying the monthly tier.
  • If you are currently a Premium Member, then looking at Premium Plus purely as a means to obtain a Homestead region is a little less clear-cut.
    • On the one hand, upgrading to Premium Plus from Premium costs at least an extra US $12.5 a month.
    • On the other, this fee, plus the month Homestead tier will still be a competitive outlay when compared to renting a homestead through a private estate.
  • If you are a Basic or Premium member who already sees value in other Premium Plus benefits (such as the reduced fee for Name Changes, the other reduced fees, etc.), and are attracted to the idea of holding your own region, then upgrading to Premium Plus is liable to be worthwhile and cost-effective.

This last point is really the key to this offer: obtaining a Homestead is not the sole benefit available to those upgrading to Premium Plus, so it needs to be considered as a part of the overall package of benefits, and any decision made on upgrading should be made on that basis. For example, the option of holding a Homestead region is of little interest to me – but the forthcoming Premium Plus Linden Homes do. I’m therefore waiting to see what happens on that front before I make any decision on a potential move from Premium to Premium Plus.

 

 

 

2022 SUG meetings week #44 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Clair View Ruins and caves, The Realm of Rosehaven, September 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, November 1st, 2022 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 entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

Please see the forum deployment thread for the latest updates.

  • On Tuesday, November 1st, the Main SLS and Events channels were restarted without any simulator update being deployed leaving them on simulator version 575585.
  • On Wednesday, November 2nd. simhosts on the RC channels will be updated with simulator release 576126, comprising the new Linkset Data capability (see below for more).

Available Official Viewers

No changes to the current set of official viewers at the start o the week, leaving the list as:

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.5.575749 – formerly the Maintenance M RC viewer –  promoted October 26.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself).
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.5.575055 September 19.
  • Project viewers:
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
    • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS project viewer, version 6.6.5.575378, October 4.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

Linkset Data (LSD)

  • Linkset Data is a new collection of script functions and one optional event that reads and writes key-value-pairs to a small 64kb table of data that is part of a root object.
  • It works similarly to Experience Key-Value store, but:
    • It does not require an underpinning experience – the data lives with the object that sends and receives the data.
    • Only scripts in the same linkset will be able to read the data written with this feature.
  • Important Note for the initial deployment:
    • Like all scripts containing new LSL functions, scripts running LinksetData* calls will only run on regions running version 2022-10-27.576126 or newer (so only the RC channels to start with).
    • However unlike some other functions if you move an object containing Linkset Data (or teleport wearing an object containing Linkset Data) from a region that supports the capability to a region that does not support it, all Linkset Data stored with the object will be lost, even if you go back to a region that supports the feature.
    • This limitation will no longer exist once the back-end support for the capability has been deployed to all regions on the Main grid.

llLinkPlaySound and Associated Functions

  • llLinkPlaySound together with llLinkStopSound llLinkAdjustSoundVolume and llLinkSoundRange are new LSL functions that are described as “coming soon”, and which allow sounds in child prims of a linkset to be played without the need for a supporting script.
    • Additional related functions might be considered if subject to a Jira feature request.
  • This is something that has been requested by content creators (particular vehicle creators) for a good number of years.
  • Flags included will be SOUND_LOOP, SOUND_PLAY, SOUND_SYNCH and SOUND_TRIGGER, and will be used to replace the llPlay/Loop functions.
  • Other sound restrictions within linkset remain unchanged.
  • The announcement spurred an extended discussion on the SL sound system as a whole (including pre-loading sounds), as well as options for the new functions, through the first two-thirds of the meeting – please refer to the video.
  • I’ll have more on the link sounds functions as and when LL have documentation on them and are ready to start deploying them.

In Brief

  • For a full (and maintained!) list of LSL functions,  please refer to the official wiki page LSL_Functions.

A Tango with Nottoo in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Tango with Nottoo, November 2022 – click any image for full size

Tango with Nottoo started life some three years ago as a tango dance venue occupying a Mainland parcel. The brainchild of Nottoo Wise, the club has expanded over the year, both in terms of size and offerings, and in August of 2022, it completed a move to its own Full region, where it continues the original club lounge as well as offering a range of dance venues, a movie theatre, beach, art gallery – and an eclectic mix of “hidden” attractions.

With its primary function being dance, music and entertainment, the region is styled differently to the majority of those featured in these pages, in that there is little overt terraforming within the region. Instead it present a largely flat aspect, the surface area given over to the various venues for music and dancing. Which should not be taken to mean it is without character; it’s simply that its character is invested in the venues and facilities offered.

Tango with Nottoo, November 2022

The dance settings take multiple forms, from the main ballroom, through the outdoor Always Tango area, where – as the name implies – an opportunity to dance a tango is always available (and, for those seeking a dance partner, the opportunity to find one through the Tango with Partners group) and the venues for both blues and jazz, to the outdoor dance expo garden and the very Deco inspired outdoor dance floor.

These all share the region with the Roxy Theatre, where dance performances may be held, the Bijou movie theatre, an art gallery, a 1950’s style diner and multiple places to sit outside and relax. Chief among these are the fine dining area, the beach and and an over-the-water bayou-style bar. Dancing is available through thanks to well-placed dance machines ,and the region boasts over 300 couples dances, a Spot-on Group Dance System, male and female individual dances and even a 3-person dancer!

Tango with Nottoo, November 2022

All of these points of interest are accessible from the main landing point – just follow the labelled paths leading away from it. The landing point also provides a wealth of information via notecard givers (and some gifts for visitors), as well as the daily schedule of events. A bicycle rezzer is available for those wishing to explore by means other than using their feet, and the Landing point is also home to one of the stations’ little railcar stations.

The  latter provides access to the region’s public “hidden” areas, sitting beneath the land and the waves. To explore them, click the railcar sign at the station and hop aboard the little two-seater car it rezzes ((if you are riding on your own, make sure you sit on the right-hand side). Take the car to start the ride, and the car will carry you through an eclectic series of settings linked by tunnels. Each setting has its own little station in the form of a barrier that will stop the car (allowing you to get out and explore) and a further rezzer (allowing you to resume your ride). Should you opt not to explore any of these settings, touch the barrier to make it raise out of the way, and your car will resume its journey.

Tango with Nottoo, November 2022

Off to the east side of the region are two smaller islands. Accessible via jet ski, the northernmost of these islands presents a garden space open to all and, at the time of my visit, caught in the colours of autumn. south of this, the second island is a “members only” area, only accessible to those joining the Tango with Nottoo group (at no charge). Reached via a members-only teleport at the main landing point, the member’s island is one of the many benefits offered to group members – for details of the rest, check the Tango with Nottoo Member Benefits notecard available via the information board at the landing point for full details.

For anyone who loves dancing, Tango with Nottoo offers a lot, whilst the additional facilities – including the art gallery, which I barely touched upon here despite it hosing an exhibition of Milly Sharpe’s fabulous fractal art at the time of my visit – means the region has a lot to attract Second Life explorers as well.

Tango with Nottoo, November 2022

With Nottoo being out-world for much of her time, the region is largely cared for by Mona Layla (Monalayla) – who extended an invitation to me to visit;  and Rachela Rossini – who gave her time to answer my questions during my visit as well as providing a pleasant welcome. To both of them I offer my thanks.

SLurl Details

Tango with Nottoo (Tango, rated Adult – but using Moderate rules within the public spaces)

 

Milena Carbone’s Africa at Nitroglobus

Posted on by Inara Pey

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa
Milena Carbone is an artist who is constantly pushing at both the boundaries of her own creative means of expression and what might be regarded as the bounds of comfort of her audience.  Through her work, she has encouraged us to consider the world around us and challenged us to face up to the harm we, as a race, appear hell-bent on doing to it – even though that harm may ultimately bring about out own demise. She has also often held up a mirror to humanity’s arrogance and poked us with the conceit of gods created in the image of Man, and she has dared to encourage us to face the failures of religion, the threat of climate change, and more.

Almost all of this is touched upon and / or embraced in Africa, her new exhibition of art opening on October 31st, 2022 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated and operated by the marvellous Dido Haas; a complex and layered exhibit, comprising images, interactive 3D elements, and external elements that present further depth to the installation, which takes as its central (but not exclusive) focus the subject of climate change.

The most obvious elements in the exhibition are the images. These are framed within the continent of Africa – a place of both unparalleled beauty and bio-diversity, and which has perhaps suffered more than most thanks to the uncaring hands of the so-called “developed” nations, and is set to do so even more unless those same developed nations are willing to actively work to reduce the global threat of climate change. They present two interwoven stories, those of Grace and Abel, which unfold as an almost Biblical journey from creation (symbolised by In the Beginning, located on the Gallery’s east wall to the right of the café building), to the end times and the fall of mankind, couple with latter-day plagues.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa

These are stories we can enter into by clicking on the title plague for each image, located just below its lower left corner. These can be used to open “chapters” on Milena’s website which both offer narratives on Grace and Abel and their respective journeys, and offer-up broader food for thought -notably on the realities of climate change – for consumption.

Within the images themselves – which are also hybrid art pieces, utilising background generated via the Midjourney AI art generator combined with avatar images – can also be found reflections and dualities. Take Deluge for example. In title and tone, it echoes the story of Noah and the flood, and the destruction of all that went before; but even as it does so, it suggests more of a foreshadowing then a look back: because as climate change increases, the people of Africa – as noted in the preceding Burn Them All! – will face some of the greatest outfalls, prompting a mass migration – a literal deluge of peoples that could wash away our comfortable civilisations to the north and east of that great continent.

Running along the centrelines of the gallery’s two arms is a series of plinths mounting models of African animals. Each bears a label which may at first appear nonsensically humorous, but in fact offers commentary on the nature of our global society, where the divide between humanity and nature is becoming ever wider and more harmful, thanks to the former’s self-indulgent demands for instant gratification in all things. These models also carry additional subtext on both the issue of climate change and on the nature of “god” – whether seen as an independent consciousness or as a construct formed in our own image -, and our relationship with it. To appreciate this, it is essential that visitors to Africa approach each of the plinths in order to trigger its transformation.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa
(There is also a further interactive element to the installation in the form of a dance video displayed at one end of the gallery, complete with dance positions visitors can use to join in with the performance.)

Further examination of our relationship with “god” can be found within the constructs of the images and the characters within them. Milena herself notes that “Abel” is drawn from the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, whilst “Grace” is a name and a term often associated with “god”. The story of Cain and Abel is perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations of “god’s” fickleness whilst also presenting a metaphor for man’s inhumanity to man – something for which Africa, as a continent both straddling the equator and containing some of the world’s poorest and more in-need nations will perhaps pay one of the highest prices.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Milena Carbone – Africa

From the above, it is hopefully clear there is a lot to unpack and interpret within Africa, and that it is an installation where interpretation should be guided via the artist’s words, and not an “interpreter” (or interlocutor) like me. As such, I will leave you with a recommendation that you visit Africa and allow yourself time to be immersed within the stories and flow of ideas lying within it.

SLurl Details