Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week ending Sunday, October 3rd
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: version 6.4.22.561752, formerly the CEF update viewer, dated July 24th, promoted August 10th – No change.
DARYA (Da-ry-a) is, we are informed by the region’s About Land description, Persian for “sea”, and given this Homestead region held and designed by Zaffy Kiyori Bailey (Zaffy Kiyori) sits as a island caught within the calm waters of a broad sea, the name is apt.
However, this is no mere tropical or temperate isle; the largest among a small group of islands (the rest being elements of an off-region surround), DARYA is very much a place that straddles the lines between realism and fantasy to present a setting that is at once familiar and also full of whimsy and the unexpected whilst mixing into itself a measure of artistic expression.
DARYA, October 2021
The latter commences t the landing point, imaginative set on a little off-shore pergola that is connected to the island by means of a short bridge and dark tunnel. A sign at the landing point encourages visitor to enable Shared Environment in their viewer (if not already active – go to World → Environment and make sure Use Shared Environment is checked). This is because the region makes use of several different environment settings as a part of the region’s artistic statement / atmosphere, and these should be properly experienced.
To further this, walking across the bridge from the landing point and into the short tunnel leading onto the island, will prompt visitors to accept the local Experience. The idea here is to allow the scripted environment cubes that mark parts of the region to automatically change your environment settings as yo pass into their influence; as such I would recommend accepting the experience when prompted. However, do be aware that this is not the most ideal way of applying environment settings, although I do understand why it has been used.
DARYA, October 2021
The first of these environments is to be found up on the crown of the taller of the islands two hills. Reached via a path that winds itself around the hill from an initial set of steps guarded by a cylindrical folly, this hilltop is marked by the darkness of night presided over by the stars, the path up to it lit by mystical mushrooms that cast a lavender light into the darkness. At the crown of the hill, the path gives way to a stone circle that holds within itself the green swathe of a faery ring to present a place rich in a sense of enchantment.
The second environment cube sits over a circular island that extends from the southern end of the islands’ east headland and reached via a bridge-like causeway. To be honest, I would was simply have parcelled the land here and applied the environment settings rather than use a cube. It’s a minor difference, but it would allow those on this little island to make some adjustments to the environment settings for photographs without getting kicked by into the region-wide settings. However, this minor quibble doesn’t change the fact that this little artificial headland offers another evocative setting that is palpably spiritual in nature.
DARYA, October 2021
It is these contrasts from the normal – the cottages (furnished and inviting to guests) and the quaint lighthouse over on the western headland, the arc of south-facing beach caught between the two – and the unusual: the high stone circles, the garden-like eastern setting with its tall fountain statue, the strange mix of plants across the entire region, and so on, that adds a whimsical, engaging and eclectic depth to DARYA that is quite captivating.
Take for example the footpath that winds around the northern shore of the island after emerging from the landing point’s tunnel. Bounded on one side by waters from which lilies and more exotic flowers grow and over which a small pavilion offers a tea party setting with faint echoes of Alice’s tea party; it offers on the other an equally exotic mix of giant mushrooms that cast shade over their more normal-sized brethren and the flowers that grow around them. With all of this presided over by a gigantic mechanical teapot that is gently watering a spray of flowers growing within a large pink tea cup, visitors are immediately informed in the most natural way possible, that they have entered a place of art and fancy, as well as local beauty.
DARYA, October 2021
DARYA is a place that, wherever you wander, there is something awaiting to catch your eye, from the multiple statues and other artistic statements that sit quietly alongside patch or on shingle shore or on rocky outcrop, to the smaller more eclectic touches, such as a the little Shaolin monks carved along the side of the paved footpath or the cheeky winged sprite with dyed hair lurking among the flowers, or simply the pleasure of seeing the island’s wildfowl.
Engaging, photogenic and with places to sit throughout, DARYA is rich in mood and contrasts and very worthwhile the time taken to visit.
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.
Sunday, October 3rd,13:30: A Night in the Lonesome October
It is the start of the Haunted Month, and Seanchai Library (SL) are marking the arrival and passage of October with a reading of Roger Zelazy’s A Night in the Lonesome October, the last of Zelazy’s published works.
A Night In The Lonesome October
Every few decades, when the Moon is is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and the door between worlds becomes unlatched. At this time, those with certain Occult knowledge gather to engage in The Game.
Those who play take opposing sides; on one: those who seek to win The Game and throw open the door by the light of the full Moon to usher in the Great Old Ones from the other side so that they might remake Earth in their own images and enslave or slaughter the human race in the process. Opposing the Openers are those are those who would, by winning, re-latch the door and deny the Great Old Ones their prize – at least until The Game once more resumes.
Thus, through the month of October, the Players in the game – all archetypal characters from Victorian Era gothic fiction – form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off opposing Players, until the night of October 31st, when the ritual of the door takes place, and the fate of the world is decided.
Each Player has his or her familiar, an animal companion with near-human intelligence, to help them complete the numerous preparations they must make and so be ready for the ritual on the final night. One of these is Snuff the dog, the familiar of Jack the Ripper, and who not only attends the play of The Game with his master, but also acts as the narrator of the month’s proceedings.
Alone in the desert, Daiya is faced with dilemma that will determine her fate. If she can successfully resolve it she will join the Net of her village, but if she fails, her life will be spent with the feared Merged Ones. Confused and torn between worlds near and far, Daiya harbours a secret of her people, and must find a way to move beyond her discoveries to a safe place where she can survive.
Join Gyro Muggins as he reads from Nebula-winning author Pamela Sargent’s Watchstar series.
Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumoured to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell.
Willow Moonfire concludes Alice Hoffman’s novel.
Wednesday, October 6th, 19:00 Dusk from the the X-Files
With Shandon Loring and Caledonia Skytower.
Thursday, October 7th,
19:00: The Past
How do you think Mrs. Vanderbridge is looking? she asked abruptly in a voice that held a breathless note of suspense. Her nervousness and the queer look in her face made me stare at her sharply. This was a house, I was beginning to feel, where everybody, from the mistress down, wanted to question me. Even the silent maid had found voice for interrogation.
What do you do if the ghost of a past love haunts you in a malicious way? Join Shandon Loring and find out.
21:00: Seanchai Late Night
Contemporary sci-fi and fantasy With Finn Zeddmore.
Friday, October 8th, 19:00: Ghostbusters
If there’s something weird And it don’t look good Who you gonna call? Cale & Shand!
With Caledonia Skytower and Shandon Loring in Ceiluradh Glen.
Currently open at Frank Atisso’s Art Korner through until October 25th, 2021, is Shades of Eo, a selection of art by Eoleon Elcano. Spread across the two levels of the exhibition space, it is a themed display of art focused on the the seasons of autumn and winter and the days, rich in golden hues or cossetted by white blankets of snow or cast in the greys that we so often associated with either season.
Within the space, the lower display area is given over to autumn. The floor of the hall is textured in grass topped by a patina-like spread of fallen leaves, whilst corner trees carry browned leaves and share their space with pumpkins to further help slip the mind and eye into an autumnal frame. The images themselves are rich in that aforementioned golden brown hue reflective of the time of month, although one or two could perhaps topple into the days of a late summer, depending on one’s personal take.
Art Korner, October 2021: Eoleon Elcano
Reached via individual stairways but adjoining one another are the upper halls of the exhibition space, each offering individual collections of Eo’s art. One is devoted to the winter months, five of the images rendered in soft tones and colours we tend to associate with the winter months: white, grey, blue; they sit within a hall in which snow falls to blanket the floor. Primarily landscapes, these five images are dominated by a sixth that spans one entire length of wall in a panoramic format I have not seen since Ziki Questi ceased exhibiting in Second Life. It is a genuinely magnificent piece entitled Winter Melodies, which carries with it a greater warmth of colour courtesy of a lowering Sun that forms something of a visual bridge between this hall and the autumnal display below.
All of the pieces across these two halls evocatively denote the time of year they represent. Each is individually styled through technique (such as the considered use of vignettes in some) and finish to evoke an emotional response in keeping with that time of year. Each carries within in a single-frame story as they catch a moment in time, a story to which we can also relate. But there is also something more within them as well; whilst the theme of this collection may well be that of the seasons and their shades, so too might they be said to carry hints of Eo herself, something hinted through the exhibition’s title.
Eo describes herself as “socially incompatible”, a term that suggests she is perhaps more comfortable with her own company or that of very close friends she has come to trust over the passage of time rather than with broader acquaintances; yet at the same time, there is perhaps that desire that comes upon us all at times to be freer in the company of others – or at least with someone we can regard as particular special. This sense of separation of self from others and the associated longing might be found within several of the images within both the “autumn” and “winter” halls of the exhibition.
Art Korner, October 2021: Eoleon ElcanoHolding You, for example appears to be celebrating the autumnal (and often solo) pursuit of kite-flying, it also suggests that yearning to have someone close, but being unable to bridge that last (self-imposed?) gap that forces separation. On the neighbouring wall, A Symphony of Solitude, we have a story of someone both at home within her solitude as she walks a sandy shore as the evening draws in, and also an image – courtesy of the long shadow stretched over the sand at an angle suggestive that it is leading her – that hints at a desire to share the moment with another. Within the “winter” hall, similar subtexts might be found with both Winter Melodies and I Hold You.
However, this reflection of self really comes to the fore in the second of the upper floor halls, where eight monochrome images are to be found while are almost physically striking, they are so emotionally charged.
Given this, and if possible, I would recommend this selection of Eo’s work is viewed after the “autumn” and “winter” displays, simply because it is so rich in personal narrative (to achieve this, take the stairs closer to the eastern side of the gallery hall when moving to the upper levels). With the exception of Neverending Sakura Tales, the depth of personal feeling presented within each of these works is so beautifully mixed with their monochrome nature and composition that it is hard not to be completely captivated by each one, marking this selection very much as a exhibit in its own right.
Art Korner, October 2021: Eoleon Elcano
Perfect in composition and presentation, rich in narrative and layered in interpretation / meaning, Shades of Eo is a magnificent exhibition of art and self.
The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, September 30th 2021 at 13:00 SLT, and the TPV Developer’s meeting of Friday, October 1st, 2021 at 12:00 noon SLT.
With the meetings once again falling on the same week, and with the degree of overlap in content between the two, core discussion points from both have been combined into this one summary. The TPV meeting was also recorded by Pantera Północy, and her video is embedded at the end of this article, for those wishing to refer directly to that meeting.
Meeting Details
CCUG meetings are held on alternate Thursdays each month (generally the 1st and 3rd Thursday, subject to the vagaries of month length), with dates available via the SL Public Calendar. The venue for the CCUG is the Hippotropolis camp fire.
TPV Developer meetings are generally held on alternate Fridays each month, although dates are not currently listed in the SL Public Calendar. The venue for meetings is at the Hippotropolis Theatre.
Both meetings are generally chaired by Vir Linden, and are led using Voice, although attendees can use either Voice or text to provide input / feedback (with text generally being the preferred medium).
SL Viewer
Viewer Updates
Release viewer: version version 6.4.22.561752, formerly the CEF Update RC viewer, issued July 24 and promoted August 10.
Apple Notarisation Fix RC viewer, version 6.4.23.564172, issued September 24 – this should remove the warning messages which are currently popping up.
Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.4.23.564063, on September 21.
Simplified Cache RC viewer, version 6.4.23.562623, dated September 17, issued September 20
Project viewers:
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.4.23.563579, issued September 3.
Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.4.23.562614, issued September 1.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
General Viewer Notes
The Apple Notarisation Fix RC viewer is liable to be the next viewer promoted to de facto release status.
The combined Maintenance RC viewer will likely be the viewer to follow it to release status in a couple of weeks.
The Legacy Profiles viewer is still awaiting some simulator-side updates that have (again?) dropped back behind other simulator work. As such, it is described as being “kind-of on ice” at the moment.
The focus on viewer work is squarely on performance improvements.
With the initial deployment of multi-factor authentication (see here and my own blog post for more), the Lab’s viewer teams are discussing how it can be added to the viewer without massively impacting the user experience.
Let’s Encrypt Certificates Issue
As per this Grid Status Report, an expiration issue with Let’s Encrypt certificates resulted in in-world LSL scripts making HTTP calls to websites secured with a Let’s Encrypt certificate failing. This particularly impacted a number of popular Second Life merchants and assorted pet / breedable systems, etc.
After extensive investigation a fix was deployed to a small number of simulators overnight on Thursday, September 30th / Friday October 1st, which appeared to work. As a result, the main grid (Agni) has been subject to a rolling restart to fully deploy the fix to all regions. At the time of writing, this deployment was still in progress.
In Brief
Vir Linden was out for both meetings, each of which was somewhat briefer than usual, with the CCUG in particular primarily being a WIBNI style of meeting (WIBNI = “wouldn’t it be nice if”), rather than dealing with actual projects / work in progress.
[CCUG] The Graphics team currently remain primarily focused on drilling down into the data being gathered by the Tracy debugger / system analyser, which is available internally to the Lab.
This has already revealed a number of high latency artefacts within the main loop rendering code, which the graphics team will be looking to eliminate or move to their own threads or update loop so they no longer interfere with the core rendering loop.
The code for Tracy is liable to be merged into another viewer rather than appearing in a dedicated project or RC viewer.
[CCUG] Some of the discussion was around improving performance / simplifying clothing options. In the latter regard, Mayastar 7.0 will include an automatic alpha baking for clothes. Some final touch-up (by the creator) may be needed via Maya after the option has been used, but it offer an improvement in wearing clothes made via Maya / Mayastar.
[TPVD] The Catznip team have been continuing to work with adjusting the viewer so it simply does not render Linden Water where it is not visible (e.g. when hidden by terrain), which has been yielding significant viewer FPS increases. LL have indicated they have found it difficult to get a good occlusion culling result with horizon water and also in trying to programmatically deal with water that may / may not be visible (Catznip appear to have “just” gone for across-the-board occlusion culling). Both LL and Catznip will discussing ideas / approaches.
Paradiso, October 2021 – click any image for full size
In January 2019, I dropped into -Paradiso-/Cor meum, a quarter Homestead region designed by Cain Evergarden as a restful setting mixing water and islands to create a place of escape for those who needed (see: A quiet corner of Second Life). Some time after that, the setting apparently vanished; so I was delighted to recently learn, courtesy of Annie Brightstar, that it has once again returned, this time occupying an entire Homestead region of its own and offering a very different environment.
Paradiso has always been a personal setting for Cain, as he explains in a note card available within the current region:
I made the region for my Grandfather who passed away two years ago. I offer my condolences to him and Reproduce my own heart. The region is always raining because the rain in my heart has not stopped yet. It’s a sad story, but I hope you can feel it and enjoy it freely.
– Cain Evergarden
Paradiso, October 2021
This is a heart-rending statement, and one with which any of us who have lost a loved family member will identify. Thus it presents Paradiso as a place where we might allow memories to flow free. However, even for those who might not have such memories, Paradiso is also a place for anyone who simply wishes to find a moment of peace, or who loves water-based settings will also appreciate.
The primary landing point lies towards the middle of the region, alongside one of several points of interest that rise from the sapphire waters and reside under a midnight sky that is itself in part cut through by the path of the milky way. Ringed by clouds that clouds that tick their way around the region with a steadfastness that is mindful of the second-by-second passage of time – and life -, this is a setting without recognisable landform, but with water shallow enough the wade through.
Paradiso, October 2021
The grassy setting with its single tree alongside the landing point sits as a field of blue roses over which pale butterflies fly spirit-like. Rain patters the water, perhaps encouraging visitors to scuttle over the water to the nearby looming mass of a run-down theatre. Hidden within this is what appears to be a dance club of a most unique styling. The stage stands as a melding of stage, equipment and giant roses, a pair of hands to either side raised almost in supplication towards the projection of a white dove flying against the rear wall. Taken as a whole, it suggests a place of both remembrance and celebration.
A second roofed structure lies to the west of the landing point, a pavilion that is home to the region’s guestbook in which comments on the setting and / or notes of remembrance might be left. Further off to the west lies a more surreal setting: a portal rises from a bank of wildflowers watched over by a large bird cage whilst a school of fish circles overhead, perhaps ensuring the clouds of hovering fireflies do not stray far from the portal.
Paradiso, October 2021
This portal – which I’ll return to in a moment – is somewhat mirrored by cloud formation that sits on the northern edge of the region. Forming a vertical ring encircling a shimmering ring that suggests it is a gateway to heaven, awaiting the souls of those who have passed as the continue their journey.
But to return to the stone portal: touching this will allow visitors to teleport up to a small sky platform. This presents a town setting put together by NEOs Klaar. This is a very different setting to the ground level, offering a place that is dominated by the presence of shiro0822’s Matsuri cats – characters who remain as cute as when I first encountered them a year ago – as they run an open-air marketplace with a second DJ stage. It’s a space that offers an interesting melding of Japanese and Chinese influences, with the latter in particular carrying my to Hong Kong and childhood (more than adult) memories of Wan Chai thanks to the billboards to one side of the setting.
Paradiso, October 2021
With several places to sit and pass the time, and backed with the hissing sound of falling rain, Paradiso’s current appearance is very different to the quarter region I visited in 2019; however, it retains that certain touch of attractiveness that tends to both encourage a visit and to spend time within the region once you’ve arrived.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 