Category: Second Life

2022 SUG meetings week #5: summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Longing Melody, January 2022 – blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. No video for this week, as Pantera was unable to attend.

Server Deployments – Restarts Only

All simhosts are being restarted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 (SLS Main channel) and Wednesday, and February 2nd, 2022 (SLS RC channels). No deployments will form a part of the re-starts.

There should hopefully be a new simulator version available for the RC deployments in week #6.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those official viewers currently available.

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.2.567427 – Mac Voice hotfix viewer, January 13 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.3.567451, issued on January 20th, combining the Jenever and Koaliang Maintenance viewers.
    • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Improvements project viewer version 6.6.0.567604, dated January 24.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • 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

  • The core of the meeting was a user-to-user discussion about BUG-231634 “[Feature Request] llGetObjectDetails() constant OBJECT_BODY_SHAPE_HOVER_HEIGHT”, and the exact requirements for calculating and avatar’s position (notably relative to a sit object), where the issues lay, and what needs to be done. However, given the Lab’s response to the feature request, it appears unlikely this will be a focus of work near-term.
  • Leviathan Linden is compiling a list of feature requests that he will likely be tackling as he eases back into working on Second Life. As s first part of this work, he has been looking at requests related to llGetPrimitiveParams(), noting:
I’ve already overhauled the logic to allow me to call the fundamental logic in llGetPrimitiveParams() via llGetObjectDetails() but will have to translate the parameter values. I’m at the point where I’m wondering which should be supported and which should not.

This sparked a discussion on the parameter should be supported, with suggestions including: PRIM_SIZE, PRIM_TEXT, PRIM_BOUNDING_BOX, etc., leaving Leviathan noting:

Well, my inclination would be to expose a few safe parameters to llGetObjectDetails() and add more later after more discussion/feedback.

So expect this to be a discussion for future SUG meetings.

Lab Gab with Brad Oberwager & Philip Rosedale: a summary with video + audio

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Monday, January 31st, Linden Lab streamed a pre-recorded session of Lab Gab featuring the company’s Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) and the Lab’s co-founder, Philip Rosedale, who recently re-joined Linden Lab in the capacity of a strategic advisor, having left in 2010 to work on a number of projects – most notably co-founding High Fidelity Incorporated in 2013.

The session was built around more than 300 questions submitted by users in the wake of the announcement that High Fidelity had invested in Linden Lab in terms of money, patents and personnel.

The following is a summary of the session, the full video of which is embedded at the end.

  • For ease of reference, I have broken this summary into heading based on the topics discussed through the session, and timestamps to the relevant start point in the video are provided for each.
  • Throughout the summary comments made by / questions directed towards Brad Oberwager are preceded by [BO] and those relating to or made by Philip Rosedale are preceded by [PR].
  • Note that audio extracts, where provided, have (as usual) been subject to some editing to remove pauses, repetition and the occasional aside that fall outside of the topic being discussed. This has been done with the aim of making it easier to follow the comments being made, and without changing the context or meaning of any of the statements made.

On the Investment by High Fidelity

[Video: 1:54-4:49 – PR]

  • After leaving Linden Lab in 2010, went on to establish Coffee And Power (2010-2012), prior to co-founding High Fidelity, a company initially focused on building a VR headset-centric virtual world.
  • In 2019, the company concluded the current generation(s) of VR headsets would not be commercially successful enough to sustain a virtual world environment. So the company pivoted away from this in 2019 – see: High Fidelity changes direction: the reality of VR worlds today (& tomorrow?), High Fidelity changes direction (2) and High Fidelity changes direction (3): layoffs & shuttering apps and access), eventually opting to focus of 3D spatial audio.
  • The Spatial audio side of the business – which already has the software licensed to a number of customers – will continue, However, the company retained a core set of skills based around building VW technologies, and with Brad Oberwager coming into Linden Research in a very hands-on capacity, he and Philip reached agreement that there is a synergy between the VW expertise at Hi-Fi and the work LL is doing with SL.
  • His personal view is the Second Life is the place to explore where virtual reality might go next, as it remains the cutting edge example of what a virtual is, and what might be achieved within one.

On What the Investment Means for Second Life / LL and for High Fidelity

[Video: 4:54-9:37]

  • [BO]
    • Looks at the relationship in three ways: personal, business and “meta”.
    • Personal: he and Philip have been friends for a long time. They share lot of personal time (e.g. travelling to and from Burning Man together, sharing walks and the occasional beer, etc.), and he has a lot of respect for Philip as well as liking him, and he is also a person he would like to emulate. Sees being able to connect with Philip within a business environment as “very gratifying”.
    • Business: running a platform like Second Life as a “great responsibility”, and fully acknowledges the platform is nothing without the users. So sees having someone with Philip’s vision to offer tactical and strategic input from outside of the company very beneficial.
    • “Meta”: believes that any / all consideration of “the metaverse” or of “metaverses” requires a moral compass. If it is left purely up to big corporations that generate their revenue through surveillance / behavioural monitoring (to deliver ads, content, etc.), could be “very dangerous”. In questioning of this approach and its associated technologies, he feels Philip has demonstrated he is that moral compass at this point in time, and is someone who continues to focus on serving and supporting users.
  • [PR]
    • In terms of Hi-Fi, the company retains a core team working on the spatial audio product, which is being licensed and will continue to be developed and licensed.
    • He will continue to run Hi Fi.

On the Role of Strategic Advisor

[Video: 9:39-11:17 – PR]

  • As an advisory role, is not responsible for day-to-day decision making with the Lab.
  • Meets with the various teams at Linden Lab as and when they specifically would like his input / ideas / perspective.
  • Very much appreciates being seen as a moral compass.
  • Also hopes that his experience as an engineer and product strategist can be put to practical use.
  • Personally enjoys becoming a voice at the table again in an environment where responsibility for the platform’s growth is shared between the company and the users.

On Their Friendship and Mutual Approach to SL / LL

[Video: 11:31-17:50]

  • [BO] Initially met around twelve years ago through mutual friends when taking a boat trip around San Francisco Bay. At the time Brad was trying to close his first major business deal and “acting like a goofball” and being “obnoxious” when he noticed Philip was watching him. Once on the trip, they started talking, which lead to dinner (with at least Philip’s wife – whom Brad has previously referred to as his “closest friend” – joining them).
  • [PR] notes that Brad had always shown an interest in Second Life, and when he happened to mention the Lab was looking to put itself up for sale, Brad was immediately interested in the opportunity presented.
  • [BO] On the subject of buying Linden Lab:
    • Understood that SL as a virtual world has different needs to those of LL as a company, so felt there was a real danger that had LL been purchased by an entity that didn’t understand the difference between the needs of the platform and the needs of a company, SL could have ended up being squeezed for revenue.
    • Took a much different view in acquiring the company, with a willingness to invest in a commitment to make the platform “better” – although he admits he is not that sure what “better” actually means.
    • As such, he acknowledges that running Linden Lab requires a “looseness” of approach and outlook that others might have missed.
  • [PR] Felt he left Linden Lab in 2010 without knowing whether or not he’d built a successful culture at the company whilst its CEO. However, believes that it has become apparent that it does take a special kind of company to steward Second Life. The fact that the culture within the company remains very similar to when he was CEO has both made him confident that the right choices were made and made returning to the company and the platform “easy”.

PR – On Returning to LL and His View on SL in 2022

[Video: 18:15-20:20 PR]

  • Felt the decision to invest in LL and make a return to SL was absolutely the right thing to do, and the decision was easy to make.
  • Believes Second Life is both “incredibly similar” to how it was when he left it, even though it obviously changed in terms of users and content, etc.
  • Has loved reacquainting himself with events and activities in-world, and once again participating in the “standing wave” the platform represents.

On Facebook and its Pivot to “Meta” and the “Metaverse”

[Video: 20:29-26:51]

  • [PR]
    • If he could provide advice to Facebook, it would be “don’t do it”.
    • Particularly believes that the temptation for companies such as Facebook to enter the metaverse environment and attempt to parlay their surveillance / behavioural business model (utilising data gathered on users for the purposes of generating revenue through targeted ads and content) would be extremely harmful.
    • In contrast, Second Life has clearly demonstrated a fully scalable business model that operates purely on a fees-driven model, one that generates more revenue dollars per user per year than You Tube through its model, and probably than Facebook.
    • As such, believes the approach taken by LL / SL is much less prone to the risk of abuse and is safer than those espoused by the likes of Facebook and Google.

  • [BO]
    • Would add that as well as generating more money per user, Linden Lab also spends more per user.
    • Believes this is critical because a platform like You Tube is scale based: it relies on building a larger and larger audience, which in turn drives the surveillance / behavioural business model (more users means more adverts can be served and more revenue generated from advertisers, etc.).
    • The Second Life model, however is not just about user acquisition but is more equivalent to the physical world consumer model of supply and demand (or perhaps more properly for SL – demand and supply). So, the more closely links LL’s ability to generate revenue to its ability to offer capabilities and services to users, the more attractive it is for users to spend money on the platform.
    • As such, the decisions made by the likes of Facebook with regards to its platform will be very different to those made by the Lab for Second Life and its users.

Continue reading “Lab Gab with Brad Oberwager & Philip Rosedale: a summary with video + audio” →

Lab blogs on recent SL issues

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The last full week of January 2022 saw Second Life experience a number of hiccups that causes no small amount of gnashing of teeth and rumblings from those of us affected.

With April Linden now departed, I wondered if we’d get any formal notification as to what what wrong – and on Monday January 31st, we indeed did, when the Lab blogged Recent Outages.

In short:

  • The week-long, if intermittent (for some) inventory issues: appear to have boiled down to an infrastructure overload, with an initial fix put in place followed by a back-end deployment it is hoped will prevent any recurrence.
  • The SLS Main channel restart freeze: for around 40% of the grid: a change in the simulator restart code resulted in some 12,000 simulators on the main grid attempting to re-start simultaneously, overloading the system, with many then hanging mid-restart. Steps have been taken to prevent this happening again.
  • Wednesday January 26th roll-out / rollback: an attempt to deploy (and then rollback) tools intended to help gather information on group chat performance hit problems, resulting in issues with login, group chat, and presence information, requiring Operations to intervene and crank the rollback.

The official post isn’t quite to April’s level of detail although it is chattier than the above, and provides all the info for who may need further info should it be required. 🙂 .

Sci-fi, music and marking the (Chinese) New Year with Seanchai Library

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

January 31st 19:00: A World Out of Time

After being cryogenically frozen in the 1970s to await a cure for his (then) incurable cancer, Jaybee Corbell awakes after more than 200 years – to find his own body destroyed and his mind and memories transferred into the “mindwiped” body of a criminal. And that’s is not all that has changed: the Earth is now overseen by an oppressive, totalitarian global government called “The State”, and Corbell’s existence is to be determined by a “checker”; if he is found wanting, he will be discarded.

However, Peerssa, the checker, recommends Corbell as ideal fodder in The State’s attempts to seek out exoplanets suitable for terraforming – whether he wants to join the programme or not. Disgusted by his treatment, Corbell works out a way to take control of his one-person ship on its otherwise one-way mission, and heads toward the galactic core. Entering suspended animation, he is unaware his vessel skims close enough to the super-massive black hole at the centre of the galaxy to experience time dilation.

Emerging from his suspended state, and believing only 150 years have passed, Corbell returns to the solar system to find it again vastly changed: more than three million years have passed, and the Sun has become a bloated red giant, and Earth – well, Earth appears to have been relocated to an orbit around Jupiter, whilst humanity itself had endured extensive changes; and Corbell must face an entirely new set of challenges if he is to survive.

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads the 1976 novel (and originally a short story) by Larry Niven.

Tuesday, February 1st

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Celebrating the Year of the Tiger

Caledonia Skytower says Gong xi fa cai – or if you prefer the Cantonese: Gung hay fat choy as the Chinese calendar turns over a new year and we say “goodbye” to the of the Ox and hello to the year of the Tiger.

The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese zodiac. According to legend, Tiger was confident that no one could compete with its speed and vigour for the celestial race that would decide the order of the zodiacs. However, when Tiger climbed out of the river, thinking it was first, it was informed that Rat placed first for its cunning and Ox placed second for its diligence. This left the king of the jungle having to settle for third place.

Traditionally celebrated over 16 days (this year commencing on January 31st), this session stands as a mini celebration of all that the Chinese New Year entails, through story and voice.

Wednesday, February 2nd: Dark

No readings for this week.

Thursday, February 3rd 19:00: Thursday Night Sci-Fi

With Finn Zeddmore.

London Junkers’ Hero in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Eye Arts: London Junkers – Hero

In the United States (where it also known as African-American History Month) and Canada, February marks Black History month, an annual remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African Diaspora (also observed in the UK and Ireland, but in the month of October). Given this, it is fitting that February should also see The Eye Arts host the latest 3D installation by London Junkers and which celebrates the life and work of a great American heroine – Harriet Tubman.

Entitled Hero, this is another installation by Junkers that is both marvellously understated in form but powerful in its content and depth. Rather than offering multiple scenes depicting Tubman’s life and work, London instead presents two gallery spaces that simply and directly encapsulate the major factors of her early life and work as an abolitionist, supported by the words of a poem also penned by Junkers.

Born into slavery in 1822 (as Armanda Ross) in Dorchester County, Maryland, Harriet Tubman was routed exposed to violent beatings and whippings as a child, and received traumatic head wound when a heavy metal weight thrown by an irate overseer struck her, leaving her with bouts of dizziness, pain in the form of headaches and hypersomnia throughout the rest of her life. As a result of this injury and the visions it gave her, Harriet became devoutly religious – and determined to escape her bonds.

In 1849, Tubman finally realised her goal to escape slavery, thanks to several factors combining – her belief in the Old Testament’s tales of deliverance for enslaved people; the discovery that her current owners were ignoring a stipulation the her mother would be manumitted (freed by her owners) at the age of 45; and thirdly that the widow of her owner might actually break up her family be selling them off.

The Eye Arts: London Junkers – Hero

However, a first attempt, made with her brothers Ben and Henry, ended when her siblings opted to return. A few months later Harriet tried again, this time making use of the so-called Underground Railroad – a network of former slaves, those still enslaved, abolitionists, and other activists – to reach the relative safety of Philadelphia. But she did not rest on her laurels.

I was a stranger in a strange land. My father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free.

– Harriet Tubman

And so, spurred both by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which imposed heavy punishment on those aiding escaped slaves, together with the news that members of her family were to be sold off, Tubman started working to bring her family and other escaping slaves out of Maryland and, thanks to the threat of the Fugitive Slave Law making it harder to find places where escapees could be kept safe, she would lead them as far north as British Ontario (Canada), the British Empire having abolished slavery altogether. Over the course of 11 years and 13 expeditions, Tubman directly guided 70 slaves to freedom, and assisted an estimated 50-60 more in their efforts to find freedom.

All of this is captured with Junker’s words and installation. In the first hall, the poem is set upon a pedestal alongside a fire roaring in a hearth – the latter suggestive of the warmth and comfort of a place to live free from the rigours and terror of slavery. Click the poem to get a HUD version for ease of reading, if required, for the words are beautifully crafted, telling Harriet’s tale in freeing herself and then seeking to free the rest of her family and others. Within in it we find not only a reflection of her life and work as a practical abolitionist, but also personal touches that bring her to life, such as the name Minty awarded her by her family or that of Moses, the name given her by those she freed because like him, she led her people from bondage.

The Eye Arts: London Junkers – Hero

Either side of this poem and its warm, safe fireplace sit railway tracks and little wagons, personifying the idea of the Underground Railroad and to the idea of slave labour (the wagons resembling those used to haul coal, rock or other fruits of manual labour). Both of these tracks angle towards a stone arch that leads visitors into woodland clearing at night.

Here a single track of rail line points to the towering figure of Tubman as show towers like an angelic protector over a pregnant woman and two young children  – one of whom carries the yoke and chains of slavery -, figures that represent all those she guided to safety from captivity. Around them, the Moonlit woods stand as a reminder of the covert nature of journeys Tubman took with her wards, travelling by night and hiding by day. Within the setting we also witness the dangers that hunted them by day and night: the baying hounds that tracked them, leading torch-bearing, angry men promising the threat of recapture or even death from a bullet or at the end of a rope for having the temerity to attempt to seek a life of freedom.

Harriet Tubman’s life and work was remarkable; not only did she do much to free those enslaved  directly by physical efforts, she also worked alongside abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and John Brown and working in support of the Union cause in the US Civil War (where she was directly involved in an action that resulted in the freeing on 750 slaves), and then in later life worked to promote the cause of women’s suffrage. Within Hero London offers a just honouring of Tubman and her endeavours and a fitting exhibit for Black History Month – do be sure to pay it a visit.

The Eye Arts: London Junkers – Hero

SLurl Details

Reminder: Lab Gab with Brad Oberwager & Philip Rosedale Jan 31st 2022

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Monday, January 31st, there will be a special pre-recorded edition of Lab Gab featuring Linden Lab’s Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) and the Lab’s co-founder, Philip Rosedale.

As noted in an official press release and within this blog (and others), High Fidelity Incorporated, the company co-founded by Rosedale in 2013, following his departure from Linden Lab, has invested in Linden Lab, bringing with it an a influx of money, patents and new and returning skills.

Following the press release, the Lab also issued and official Second Life blog post on the matter, in which they invited Second Life users to submit questions that might be asked of Brad and Philip as a part of the session, in which they will also likely discuss the future of Linden Lab and and Second Life. They may also talk about the other recent news that the Lab’s subsidiary, Tilia has partnered with Unity to provide their solutions to Unity developers who wish to include  virtual economy elements into their product offerings (see: Tilia Partners with Unity to Power Virtual Economies for Game and Metaverse Developers and Linden Lab announces Tilia partners with Unity “to power virtual economies”).

I hope to have a summary of the session available some time after it has streamed, but in the meantime, the salient details are summarised below.

Viewing Details

  • Time and Date: 09:00 SLT (17:00 UK / 18:00 CET) on Monday, January 31st, 2022
  • Watch on You Tube via this link (when the programme starts) or click the embedded viewer below.