Category: Second Life

Dropping into Inspira Gallery in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Inspira Gallery of At, April 2021 – Rachel Magic

I recently had occasion to drop into the Inspira Gallery of Art operated and curated by Mark Uladstron. At the time of my visit, the gallery was advertising itself as being in a “new waterside location” – although I have to admit, it is not a gallery I’d previously come across, so my apologies to Mark for not having done so sooner.

Occupying a two-storey building, the gallery also presents itself as a museum of art, combining exhibitions of art from both the physical world and created through the medium of Second Life, the Former coming in presenting reproductions of works by some of the most influential artists  – east and west – of their respective ages, These are all presented on the lower floor of the gallery, and at the time of my visit featured Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Gu Kaizhi (Changkang).

This is the first gallery museum I’ve visited in quite a while that offers an audio tour of some of the works on display (the very first art museum I visited that did so was the Vordun back in 2016 – see: The Vordun: a new art experience in Second Life). Here, the audio tour is provided for the exhibits of Picasso’s and da Vinci’s works. It is facilitated by a HUD which should be offered as you enter the gallery, but if not, it can be obtained by clicking the blue globe at the reception desk, and while not a necessity for a visit, I would recommend using it.

Inspira Gallery of At, April 2021 – Leonardo da Vinci

Once added to your screen, and unlike other tours of this nature, the HUD isn’t tied to a local experience, but is triggered by simply entering a hall where the tour in enabled. When you have done so, the palyback buttons are activated, and you just need to tap ESC on your keyboard a couple of ties to ensure your camera is free, then press the central Play / Stop toggle button in on the HUD. Doing so will trigger the HUD’s scripts and focus your camera on the first image within the exhibit  and trigger the associated audio track, together with a text display in local chat. In addition:

  • Clicking the “fast forward” or “rewind” buttons on the HUD will position your camera at the next painting in the sequence (or the previous, if moving back through an exhibit), again, triggering an audio / text exposition.
  • Clicking the Stop / Play button will re-centre the camera on your avatar, halting the audio / text. Providing you do not leave the hall, clicking the PLAY / STOP button again will centre the camera back on the last painting examined by the HUD and resume the audio / text expositions from there.
  • If you prefer, you can disable the text display or the audio by clicking either the Closed Caption or Audio toggle buttons directly under the main playback buttons.
  • Two further buttons will invite you to join the Inspire art group or receive a landmark to the gallery respectively.
Inspira Gallery of At, April 2021 – Pablo Picasso

The audio files appear to be drawn from a variety of sources, with some sounding slightly artificial / electronic in nature. The alternate between various male and female speakers, and the provided information strikes a good balance between being informative whilst avoiding going on too long.

As the audio doesn’t extend to the hall featuring Gu Kaizhi’s work, traditional museum-style information displays are provided for in-world reading. It would perhaps be nice to see these information plinths also offering a note card when clicked to help thought who might find reading such in-world text difficult, but again the information that is provided in informative and adds to the experience of a visit.

A noted politician, painter, poet, calligrapher and author – he wrote three influential books on the theory of painting – Gu is most noted today for his silk scroll paintings, which form the focus on the exhibit at Inspira.

Inspira Gallery of At, April 2021 – Gu Kaizhi

Stairs hidden behind the reception desk offer the way to the upper floor of the gallery, where two halls are devoted to Second Life artists. At the time of my visit, these were showing landscape images by the always captivating Rachel Magic (larisalyn) and pieces by Thomaz (Thomaz Blackburn). Between the halls is a cosy café / venue area, where images by Mark’s SL partner, Lisa Cruise (lisacruise), might be appreciated / purchased.

I will admit to being surprised that the reproductions of the images by da Vinci, Picasso and Gu are offered for sale. While I appreciate galleries, etc., in-world need to cover the cost of tier, seeing the images available via right-click buy did raise concerns (e.g. the potential for transgressing copyright on owned works or contravening any established Creative Commons (or other) licence that might be applicable, etc).

Inspira Gallery of At, April 2021 – Thomaz

However, this discomfiture duly noted, I will say that the Inspira Gallery of Art does makes for an engaging visit, and I particularly enjoyed becoming acquainted with Thomaz’s SL art, and the opportunity to see more of Rachel’s work on display.

SLurl Details

The S&H Hug & Kiss HUD ReAnimated

Posted on by Inara Pey
Ten of the animations to be found in the new Hug & Kiss 3.0. Via Meike Heston

There’s likely to be few in Second Life of a certain age who do not have, or have not encountered, Meike Heston’s Hug & Kiss animator. I’ve personally been using it for well over a decade – generally with the “mini” version tucked into a corner of my screen.

For those who have not come across it, it’s a HUD that allows you to select an avatar around you and offer them a hug or a kiss – in greeting, in farewell, in comfort or simply just because. If accepted, the system will animate them and your avatar so they will come together in the selected greeting – the vagaries of Second Life animation system allowing.

It’s a HUD that hasn’t been updated in over a decade – in part because Meike herself has been absent from Second Life for a fair amount of time, but also because it has always simply worked. However as Meike has once more been semi-active in Second Life, she’s been working with Chance Strike (ChanceStriker) on a completely new version of Hug & Kiss, and they gave me the opportunity recently to take it for a test drive.

Called Hug & Kiss Animator 3.0 ReAnimated, the most obvious difference between version 3.0 of the HUD and earlier versions is in its appearance, as shown below.

Left: The Hug and Kiss 3.0 (top) compared with the Mini Hug & Kiss 2.02. Right: the Hug & Kiss 3.0 buttons explained.

But a new look is only the start. Version 3.0 of Hug & Kiss has:

  • 16 completely new animations, twelve of which retain the names of their predecessors from earlier versions or which offer similar styles of animation under a new name, plus four brand new animations unique to version 3.0 of the HUD.
  • An improved height matching capability that automatically attempts to more accurately compensate for differences in avatar height of +/- 60 cm for a more realistic hug / kiss / pose (the vagaries of the SL animation system allowing).
The 11-step automated height adjustment system should help to better account for differences between avatar heights. Via
  • Ability to add your own animations / run your own configuration of animations – details are provided in the *config note card in the HUD itself.
  • Automatic update service – the HUD will notify you if / when an update is released,  and present you with the option of receiving it.

Given the nature of SL animations, the HUD still requires some basic preparation when wanting to greet someone – most obviously the avatars need to be face-on to one another – but otherwise the operation of the HUD is simple and direct,particularly for those familiar with earlier versions:

  • Use < and > to page through the HUD’s animation until the one you wish to use is displayed in the centre black button.
  • Click the centre black button to select the animation, and then click on the desired avatar name from the dialogue box in the top right of your screen.

Providing your target accepts the request, the animation will play, bringing both avatars together.

By default, animations will play for a set length of time, but if you would prefer great manual control,the the padlock button on the HUD can be clicked to set it to “locked”. Animations will now only end when the centre black button is clicked a second time.

And that’s pretty much it. As noted above, the configuration notecard within the HUD includes instructions should you wish to add couples animations of your own. I confess to not having tried this, simply because I don’t have any suitable animations, so I’ll lave that to others to explore.

General Observations

Overall, a nice update with animations potentially suited to a wider set of uses than previous versions (round-and-round might be used by a parent greeting a child, for example). In my testing, the height adjustment seemed to work well, and animations on the version 3.0 of the HUD looked more natural as a result.

At L$750, the HUD isn’t expensive, but it will be interesting to see if those with an earlier version opt to purchase it (no update path is available because both the animations and the control scripts are entirely new). I suspect this will come down to a  combination of how often the HUD is used and which animations in particular are used / appeal. And, of course, there are other options available through other creators, some at a lower price – so weighing-up which might be the better comes down to personal taste.

I do wonder if the “transparent” option might cause confusion, given it leaves the HUD on-screen (but “invisible”) so that it might come between a user and something they are trying to click in-world – but this is really more of a passing thought. That said, if making the HUD transparent doesn’t suit your needs, it will allow a certain degree of re-sizing should you wish it to have a smaller on-screen footprint – which is actually what I opted to do with it.

My thanks to Chance and Meike for the opportunity to try out / test the new Hug & Kiss HUD.

Marketplace Link

Sharing Memories of Us in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Memories of Us, April 2021 – click any image for full size

Occupying a quarter of a Homestead region that goes by the same name, Memories of Us is a corner of Second Life that Shawn Shakespeare (once again!) pointed me towards as a place to visit.

Designed by Candi McCulloch (Candi Melune), this is a setting that is easy on the eye, centred on a lake ringed by land that is mostly low-lying, but which does rise to the north-east, where broad waterfalls feed a stream that in turn curves its way around to feed the lake.

Memories of Us, April 2021

The landing point sits alongside an open field, where a lean-to stands and what looks like a Romany camp site has been established.  From here, a path winds its way around the lake, and visitors are invited to follow it on foot or by bicycle – although by warned that as the path does climb into the north-side uplands, getting all the way around on two wheels might be a little difficult! Those who have wearable horses are invited to use them and ride the path if they wish.

As well as the camp site, there are various places to sit waiting to be found, ranging from an old camper trailer to picnic tables and benches at various points around the setting, as well as the more esoteric – a blanket suspended from the branches of a tree or an upturned rowing boat on the lake’s shore.

Memories of Us, April 2021

Those who would like to spend time on the water can do so via the rowing boat that is sitting on the lake. Oars will be offered on sitting, so you can row yourself/ves out into the middle of the water, and the rezzer will leave a further boat for others to use. Note the boat you’re in will de-rez after you stand up.

Memories of Us is a simple, natural setting that really doesn’t need much in the way of exposition as it speaks for itself. There are one or two little points where the landscaping could do with a small amount of tidying up, but nothing that actually glaringly pokes you in the eye. Certainly this is a place where time can be whiled away peacefully – just be sure to have local sounds enabled to be more fully immersed!

Memories of Us, April 2021

SLurl Details

Motion and poetry in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Selen Minotaur: On the Move, April 2021

Currently open at her gallery  space in Second Life is a new exhibition by Selen Minotaur. On the Move is a celebration of movement and life centred on Selen’s photography whilst combining setting, images, 3D art and the written word to present an environment which Selen describes thus:

The installation is meant to be a place out of time, where sculptures by Mistero Hifeng and Cherry Manga  blend into a décor between surreal and fantasy with a majestic dome (designed and built by Luxor Ragnarok AK moebius9), [displaying] unpublished photographs of mine, suspended like stars, and poetry by Andrée Chedid are projected on the floor.

– Selen Minotaur on On the Move

This is an environment in which visitors must have Advanced Lighting Model active (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked), and if your system can handle them, also enable shadows. Viewer should also be set to Use Shared Environment (World menu → Environment → Use Shared Environment).

Selen Minotaur: On the Move, April 2021

With the viewer correctly set, On the Move can be reached either directly – as per the SLurls in this post -, or by clicking on the Map teleport globe outside of Selen’s main gallery (a similar sphere at On the Move will teleport visitors back to the gallery).

On arrival, I strongly recommend just moving slightly clear of the landing point and then allowing everything to rez / render fully so that the complete setting can be properly appreciated: the outer, water-borne space with the sculptures referenced by Selen, the inner garden and the dome with its display of art.All three are wrapped within the installation’s core themes, from the rippling of life-giving and sustaining water, through the symbolism of the violin and bow and music created by the movement of one upon the other, the timelessness of the cosmos as seen the the motion of the star-like motes that float through the garden, and more.

Selen Minotaur: On the Move, April 2021

Within the dome, Selen displays her work in two ways: as a series of animated canvases circling slowing under the dome’s roof, and as panels placed around the dome between its columns which display the images in turn. These are pieces in which life and art are joyously celebrated, each conveying a perfect sense of motion which in turn offers a story, whilst mood is additionally set by projections of Andrée Chedid’s poems on the floor.

There is a timelessness through the installation that is captivating, a fusing of environment, lighting, framing through the use of water and the dome, and even the manner in which the art is presented through the slowly circling (and rotating) canvases.

Selen Minotaur: On the Move, April 2021

Whilst double-sided, the twelve pieces carry something of a mystical edge to to them: they float in what might be regarded as a starlit sky that suggests they float like the signs of the zodiac, their slow circling marking the passage of time and the seasons, their rotation a metaphor for the more frequent passage of time as we experience it through the passage of days.

The opening of the exhibition featured a dance recital featuring Mist (Procrati Mistwallow) dancing to new compositions by Dandy Pianoman (pianoman1968) and supported by bass player Kali Beeswing that also encapsulated the core themes of life and motion within the exhibit. For those who were unable to attend, two video screens within the dome offer the opportunity to watch a machinima of the installation which includes aspects of the performance.

Selen Minotaur: On the Move, April 2021

Captivating, evocative and vibrant, On the Move is well worth immersing oneself in, both for the art and for the environment itself.

SLurl Details

  • On the Move (Selen’s Gallery, Royale, rated Moderate)

2021 SUG meeting week #17 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Skrunda-2, February 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 27th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting.

Server Deployments

Please refer to the week’s server deployment thread for updates.

  • There was no deployment to the Main SLS channel on Tuesday, April 27th, although a couple of the smaller channels were restarted with thee latest simulator code version.
  • On Wednesday, April 28th, the RC channels should be updated with server update 558586, comprising internal fixes.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the current crop of official viewers to mark the start of the week, leaving the pipelines as possible.

  • Release viewer: Custom Key Mappings RC viewer, version 6.4.17.557391, dated March 24, promoted March 27th.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance RC viewer – Eau de Vie, version 6.4.18.558266, dated April 23rd.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 viewer, version 6.4.18.558365, dated April 22nd.
    • Maintenance 2 RC viewer – Fernet, version 6.4.18.558441, dated April 21st.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26th, 2019.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22nd, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16th, 2019.

In Brief

  • BUG-139309 – “Allow setting of Hover Height via LSL” – originally closed as “unactionable”, this feature request is seen  as having potential benefits (e.g. automatically adjusting the height of Animesh attachments such as a pets, so they appear to be on the ground, rather than floating above it as a result of a change of footwear on the controlling avatar) It has been suggested that the idea be re-submitted as a new feature request with examples, with Simon Linden noting:
We like the idea of making those adjustments easy to work with and use, and also don’t want to limit it to height. X and Y tweaks would be nice too.

Encountering Writer’s Block in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Writer’s Block, April 2021 – click any image for full size

Over the weekend, Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova) graciously invited me to visit his latest region design utilising his home region of Solveig ahead of him opening it to the public at large; and I say without reservation that it another absolutely stunning build that cannot fail to engage and captivate – one with the most fascinating (for me) titles: Writer’s Block.

Anyone who has ever seriously spent their time writing either for pleasure or for a living will be familiar with the idea of writer’s block – the inability to come up with original ideas, or to productively put pen to paper / fingers to keyboards.

Writer’s Block, April 2021

Contrary to the (sometimes flippant) proclamations of some noted authors that writer’s block doesn’t exist (after all, doctor’s don’t get “doctor’s block”, do they?) writer’s block can take a wide variety of forms, some of them very definitely the result of physical disorders (agraphia). Others can equally be purely psychological and / or self-inflicted.

Ender’s Game author Orson Scott Card, for example, notes that his most frequent form of his writer’s block is the result of knowing, subconsciously or consciously, something he’s written isn’t “right” in some way, be it in terms of character interaction or action, plot narrative or turn, or something else. It prevents him moving forward with a story until he has gone back, located the issue and worked out how to correct it. For others, it can come down to a loss of inspiration, simple distraction or even an over-abundance of ideas.

Writer’s Block, April 2021

Lex’s Writer’s Block offers a personification of much of the latter. As with his previous designs, this is an incredible landscape of vignettes and objects that, whilst offered within a contiguous landscape that brings them together, whilst they also stand as potential individual statements of ideas and narrative; exploring them is very much a tour through the mind of a writer / artist.

Writer’s Block, April 2021

Symbolism is – as with all of Lex’s designs – to be found through this build, and starts at the landing point, where sits an oversized manual typewriter. It is slowly being overcome by winding vines and thus speaks the the longevity that can genuinely occur with writer’s block. Pages rise from it, either blank or repeatedly printed with the image of a flower – both of which speak to two of the most recognised forms of writer’s block: the inability to get started with writing something, or becoming obsessively stuck on a particular aspect / passage / piece of writing to the point – as with Orson Scott Card, above.

Beyond this is a richly diverse landscape, a walk through the mind of a writer. Buildings stand as half-finished stories or unfinished plots that lay crumbling in the wilderness of the imagination; those that are complete, stand with empty rooms, signifying the structure of a narrative that awaits the décor of the plot and the presence of characters.

Figures human and fantastical, stand and sit as the personification of characters; the interactions between some suggest the waltz of possible interactions they might come to have within their tale; the pose of others personifying the sense of loss of creative vision or the weight or anguish of being unable to complete a story.

Writer’s Block, April 2021

Elsewhere, a flight of butterflies passes over the landscape like the flutterings of a half-considered idea, whilst feathers from angel’s wing speaks to the ephemeral nature of such ideas, so easily scattered on the winds of everyday distractions. Meanwhile, the ground offers paths – some obvious, others far less clear.  For the visitor, they offer routes of discovery within the region; symbolically they perhaps reference the ease with the writer’s thoughts can wander in distraction from the task at hand.

Writer’s Block, April 2021

As is the way with Lex’s builds, the symbolism throughout Writer’s Block is stunning – but so too is the sheer artistry and the detail.

Lex has a marvellous talent from mixing ideas of scale, as anyone who has visited his previous designs will know. Here, “life-size” buildings share the space with giant carved figures, their contrasts blended through the use of trees and the rise and fall of the landscape itself.

Meanwhile, the smaller details offer both tales of their own that might be both threaded into the overall theme for the region, and also stand as suggestions of narratives waiting for our own imaginations to unwrap. These are incredibly diverse – from the statue of Freddy Mercury standing within a semi-walled garden or the little cottage that comes with mortars ranged in the front garden and the wrecks of a tank and armoured vehicle that flank it.

Writer’s Block, April 2021

I have said this before  – and will doubtless say it again in the future; Lex Machine is one of the finest creators of region settings in Second Life today; his work never fails to stun and amaze in its breadth and depth. When building regions, we all pour something of ourselves into them – vision, ideas, wishes; but Lex does something more. Each of his designs invite us to witness not only his creativity, but take us on a journey through his imagination and to share in his thoughts – be they on subjects such as the global pandemic, his love for his partner Anastasia or his own psyche and outlook.

Writer’s Block is a continuation of all of this: breathtaking in scope and presentation, it is a must see for anyone familiar with Lex’s work. And if you haven’t visited his designs in the past, it makes for an excellent introduction – just be prepared to become a fan of his work!

Writer’s Block, April 2021

Slurl Details