Category: Second Life

Making a beeline for WTB in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
What The Buzz, May 2022 – click any image for full size

November 2022: What the Buzz has relocated. Willow Creek appears to have closed.

The Destination Guide led me to a little corner of Heterocera called What the Buzz. Designed by Emm (HeyEmm) and located within the larger Willow Creek National Park – a place I’ll be covering in more detail in a future piece.

What the Buzz is, to quote Emm:

An interactive bee/pollinator reserve. Wander the path and stop at the yellow signs to learn about the different ways that YOU can help save and protect our precious pollinator population. Try your hand at virtual farming with the DFS Community Garden or relax at Firefly Lake and take in all of the sights and sounds.
What The Buzz, May 2022

Bees are the major type of pollinator in many ecosystems that contain flowering plants; so important that of the estimated one-third of the human food supply dependent on pollination actually receives it via bees, either wild or domesticated. They are thus a vital – if declining, due to a variety of reasons – role in the lifecycle of plants.

This and more is covered with What the Buzz, a walk through a garden-like setting, rich in plant life and areas in which visitors can learn about bees, their habitats, pollination, keeping bees, and more. Signs along the way can be touch for information, and – if they wish – also learn about the “Digital Farm System (DFS) through the What The Buzz Community Garden, where a number of vegetables, herbs and crops are being grown.

What The Buzz, May 2022

Located on the main trail that winds its way through Willow Creek National Park, What the Buzz can be explored on foot or via horseback (horse rezzer at the park’s main landing zone for those who don’t have their own to wear).

It is clear that Emm has taken considerable care in putting the setting together: areas of interest are clearly marked, and touch signs will either provide well-written information on bees and bee-keeping via note card or take you to website where further information can be obtained on helping bees in the physical world, such as creating your own pollinator garden.

What The Buzz, May 2022

At the same time, the garden spaces, located alongside an orchard, the park’s lake, offer opportunities for a careful walk within a Nature’s lap, places to sit and relax, and sits as a good place to start an exploration of the Willow Creek park as a whole

Rounded-out by a fitting soundscape, What the Buzz is a charming, informative and photogenic setting well worth visiting and wandering through – and I’ll be taking more of a look at the park as a whole in the near future, as noted!

What The Buzz, May 2022

SLurl Details

 

2022 CCUG meeting week #20 summary: reflection probes update

Posted on by Inara Pey

Lemon Trees Mediterranean – blog post

The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, May 19th 2022 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and their dates and times can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.

This is a summary of the key topics discussed in the meeting and is not intended to be a full transcript.

Official Viewers Update

  • On Wednesday, May 18th, the Performance Improvements RC viewer updated to version 6.6.0.571869.

The rest of the official viewers remain as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – Non change.
  • Release channel cohorts:.
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

Materials and PBR Work

Please also see previous CCUG meeting summaries for further background on this work. In summary:

Three core elements of work:

  • Work on an implementation of reflection probes which can be used both with PDR shading and with legacy content. This formed the focus of this meeting.
    • The overall aim of this work is to provide a means to support more physically accurate reflections in SL than can be currently generated (seen as a requirement for PBR support).
    • It applies to both PBR generated content, once available, and to legacy content.
  • Foundational work in creating a materials type with an associated inventory asset, as per the week #16 meeting. This  will initially comprise the ability to copy a texture entry (with its specific parameters) to inventory, to be followed by
  • Initial work to work implement a PBR graphics pipe in the viewer.

Reflection Probes

  • Additional information available within the week #18 CCUG meeting summary.
  • This work is close to feature complete.
    • The viewer gets to work with 256 reflection probes, which take the form of spheres or boxes within a region.
    • Anything within a sphere or box will receive reflections from the cube map rendered from the centre of the sphere / box.
    • Some of these probes will be automatically placed in open areas of land where there are objects, etc., by the viewer.
    • Additional probes can be created by users using prims tagged as probes and placed where they want to influence the reflections being generated (e.g. inside rooms, etc.).
    • Baking for reflection probes will be automatic, and updates will be handled at least once every 30 seconds.
  • There is a performance hit with the capability, and this is still being adjusted so that it will hopefully not be overly onerous.
  • Elizabeth Jarvinen (Polysail) is working  on the current light shader to enable legacy content to receive the reflection probes without looking “too different” and look like it belongs in the environment along with PBR content.

Materials /PBR Work

  • Progress continues in developing a “materials” type with an associated inventory asset capable for containing PBR materials data.
    • LSL access to said materials is regarded as being “tricky”, simply because the materials will be an asset type loaded by the viewer.
    • What is being proposed is to have the ability to “override” elements of the asset (e.g. colour or texture) via LSL by applying the changes to the properties of the object face to which the materials is applied.
      • So, for example, the LSL override says, “OK. I know this material has a texture UUID inside it – I don’t know what it is, but I want this face to use MY texture UUID instead” – so the material asset itself is not changed / updated, but the UUID defined by the LSL code is displayed, rather than the texture UUID defined by the asset.
      • If the materials asset type subsequently be changed, then the overrides applied via LSL to the object face are automatically dropped until such time as new overrides are applied.
    • This is seen as the most flexible approach, as it protects the integrity of the materials asset (in a similar manner to texture data) whilst also allowing the flexibility of using colour variants against an asset type (such as in the case of a sweater using a single materials asset, but with multiple colour options in the pack or in allow a HUD to alter the tint of an object that uses a materials asset).
  • Nothing of significance to report on the PDR shader work.

In Brief

  • Custom pivot point work: currently awaiting simulator updates & will require viewer-side changes.
  • A fix has been implemented in the viewer to speed-up opening media / web floaters (such as search). This should be surfacing in the next Maintenance RC viewer (“Maint N” to follow the Makgeolli  Maintenance RC).
    • An upcoming simulator release should have a fix for objects failure to rez when users first log-in. .

Next Meeting

  • Thursday June 2nd, 2022.

Milena’s Masks in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Carbone Studio: Milena Carbone – Masks

Masks. Whether physical or otherwise, have always been a part of humankind’s multi-faceted cultures, and also a part of life itself.

Every day we use masks of one form or another, whether we recognise this fact or not, as a means of projection and / or as a means to try to shape how others perceive us (for example: the manner in which we project ourselves at work, is not the same as how we present ourselves among family; who we are in courtship is not necessarily reflective of who we are going to be in marriage, and so on).

We use these masks so subconsciously, that the majority of times we’re not really aware of them. Even when we are alone, we will often adopt and outlook or frame of mind to mask the anxieties and fears that might otherwise plague us. However, there is another way we use masks: to hide that which we do not wish to see. Whether it is the homeless man asleep on a park bench or the images of war and strife on the television or those fears the come upon us in the night,  we mask them out out by focusing our attention elsewhere in the park or in the room or in our thoughts, so we are no longed plagued by what we are seeing / thinking.

The Carbone Studio: Milena Carbone – Masks

It is these latter uses of masks – the tuning out, the looking elsewhere, and on on – that Milena Carbone uses as the central theme to her latest exhibition, called simply Masks, and which is currently open within her personal gallery space at the Carbone Gallery.

I wanted to explore our relationship to the mask, an object that dates back to the beginnings of time mankind … to ask the question of the masks that we do not see as masks; what hides our sight, our anxieties, our fears, ours disgusts; what hides the real that we do not wish to see. 

Milena Carbone

Offering a series of nine images (together with support texts and quote) in the minimalist style that Milena executes so well, Masks explores our subconscious use of masks and projection in a manner that is both stark and richly nuanced, each with layers of narrative to be peeled away.

For my part, I found myself drawn to The Tyranny of Truth, with its triple layering of ideas of courtship, the manner in which “truth” can be used as means to enforce authoritarianism (look at the stance of the figure in white), or an inconvenience to be denied, shied away from (the attitude of the masked figure), together with We’re Fictions and Burned Out.

The Carbone Studio: Milena Carbone – Masks

These latter two in particular framed – and to me – the ideas that whether we are aware of it or not, we frame ourselves in so many masks we risk losing ourselves within fictional projections and that when all has been peeled away of the masks in which we shroud ourselves, nought by a shell of whom we might have been remains. In this, We’re Fictions and Burned Out brought to mind two further quotes which might also frame this exhibition along with the Banksy quote (itself a variation on Wilde’s more famous comment on masks) Milena uses with the exhibition, and those quotes are:

You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.

– Alan Moore

And:

We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.

– André Berthiaume

Masks is a carefully understated exhibition that actually has a lot to say.

SLurl Details

A walk in The Wylde in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Wylde, May 2022 – click any image for full size

Occupying a quarter Full region adjoining, but separate from, their private home, The Wylde is offered by Jazaar Silvermoon (Jazaar Heartsong) and Ami and Aeon Silvermoon (AmiAndAeon) as a public garden for people to visit and appreciate.

The Wylde, May 2022 – click any image for full size

It sits under a hazy sky in which the Sun sits close to the horizon so as to suggest a late evening or early morning (as the Sun lies to the north, you can take your pick as to which it is), presenting a wooded setting rich in a sense of fantasy and fae through which visitors are free to wander, sit, and pass the time.

The Wylde, May 2022 – click any image for full size
The landing point sits in the south-west corner of the woodland, next to a round gate leading into Jazaar and Ami and Aeon’s private gardens – so please don’t try passing through it. Instead head north, following one of the arms of the footpath as it divides a few metres from the landing point. Which you take is down to choice; both offer multiple points of interest.

The Wylde, May 2022 – click any image for full size

As you explore, you’ll find the stream that runs from the southern highlands to the northern coast, a rocky path that winds up a portion of those southern cliffs, glades, fountains, wall-side walks, caverns that pass under hills, and multiple places to sit and pass the time. Also waiting to be found both on the ground and up on the cliff sides are pavilions, statues, drifting lights, creatures from fact and fantasy, and plant life that is an equal mix of the real and the imaginative.

The Wylde, May 2022 – click any image for full size

This is a place that is mystical in its look and feel – although admittedly, some adjustment may have to be made to the viewer for those on low-to-mid range systems in order to appreciate it fully when exploring and taking photos – which actually speaks for itself rather than need a lot of exposition through text. Simply put, the richness of the setting lies both within the natural beauty of the design and through discovering the more mystical elements during explorations such that I really don’t want to give everything away here.

So instead, I’ll Leave you with the images here – offered with the side-not that I did tweak the environment settings a little in taking them to offer a little more light – and encourage you to go pay a visit yourself.

SLurl Details

  • The Wilde (Club of Friends, rated Moderate)

2022 Sci-Fi Con in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via the RFL Sci-Fi Con 2022

The 2022 Second Life Sci-Fi Con departed spacedock on Wednesday, May 18th, 2022, and will remain in orbit through until Sunday, May 29th, 2022 in aid of The American Cancer Society.

Now in its 14th year, the Sci-Fi Con is taking place across 9 regions (including the main hub, and carries the theme of Brave New Future.

The Sci-Fi Con is … the largest gathering of science fiction fans, role-players, creators, merchants, and entertainers in Second Life! The Con covers sci-fi and all its sub-genres like horror, steampunk, post-apocalypse, cyberpunk, superheroes, and even a little fantasy thrown in for good measure. We all come together in peaceful unity to celebrate the things we love, the possibilities of the future, and most importantly, to support the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Second Life’s quest to achieve a world without cancer.

– from the Sci-Fi Con’s website

2022 RFL Sci-Fi Con: Main Hub

For this year, each of the eight shopping regions for the convention carries its own theme (the Hub region also feature the main event stage):

All of the regions can be reached via the teleport kiosks at the main hub, or by walking between them, with most following a broadly similar layout with their landing point / info area towards the centre, and the merchant and group stores set out around it within an environment intended to reflect the region theme.

The best place to find out about planned events running throughout the convention – DJ sessions, movies, quizzes and more – is via the Event Calendar (all times SLT).

2022 RFL Sci-Fi Con (“There’s no place, I can be / Since I’ve found Serenity. / And you can’t take the sky from me.”)

This year’s convention includes the Stargate Hunt: stargates are hidden in plain sight throughout the convention regions. Touching them when found will give you a number. Get all six numbers, and use them to dial a secret gate address at the main stargate dial home device (DHD) to travel to a secret location where you can claim your prize.

Those who wish can also purchase convention T-shirts both in-world at the convention, and out-world as well, or pick up a convention bag.

So, prepare your away team / landing party, set phasers on fun and head over to the Sci-Fi Convention.

SLurl and Information

2022 SUG meetings week #20 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lost Dreams, April 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms 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 refer to the server deployment thread for updates.

  • On Tuesday, May 17th, the SLS Main and Event channel server were restarted by left on simulator version 05-05.571557.
  • On Wednesday, May, 18th, the RC channels should be updated to simulator version 05-06.571613, which contains the server-side fixes for off-line Friend and Group invites going stale. In addition, server-side generation of Calling Cards when a friendship offer is accepted has been removed. This feature moved to the viewer several years ago and now accepting friendship offers creates, at most, two Calling Cards, one for each party.

Available Official Viewers

There have been no official viewer updates at the start of the week, leaving the current crop as:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.571736, May 12.
    • Makgeolli Maintenance RC viewer (Maintenance M) viewer, version 6.5.6.571575, May 12.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.571296, May 10.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • Bug 232091 – “Implement object_rez_failure Event” has been accepted as a feature request by the Lab and is liable to be implemented, providing testing doesn’t reveal any backward comparability issues – but no date for possible implementation.
    • This request led to a degree of discussion on the nature of the event (and the possible need for a new function to support it).
    • BUG-228939 – “on_rez action delayed for 2 to 3 seconds in many regions” and BUG-231929 – “llCanRez or something equivalent to check if an object can rez at the location it will try to in the future” are also touched upon in the discussion.
    • The broad discussion on object rezzing and control took up the majority of the rest of the meeting – please refer to the video below for details.
  • Bug 231582 “Newly rezzed objects are invisible after relog under certain circumstances” – should have a fix available in the week #21 RC maintenance release.