Category: Second Life

Rapid update: Kirsten’s Viewer & Speedlight

Posted on by Inara Pey
Isla Caitinara via Kirsten’s Viewer

While viewer updates are always in process across the available TPVs and clients, I thought I’d take a brief delve into recent updates for a couple of those I tend to routinely follow – Kirsten’s Viewer and the Speedlight Browser / Android / iOS client.

Kirsten’s Viewer

Late February and early March have seen a burst of activity from KirstenLee Cinquetti, with three versions of the Kirsten’s Viewer being released in a rapid-fire succession, started with S23.6.1500 on February 23rd and running through S23.6.1525 (codenamed Valkyrie, dated February 27th) and then S23.6.1533 (also, I gather, Valkyrie, released on March 2nd).

Give it’s been getting close to a year since the last update (see Kirsten’s viewer: a return to active duty and Kirsten’s Viewer gains the client-side AO), these releases do not focus on new features so much on both catching-up with the Lab’s core code base (which appears to be currently still in progress) and a lot of under-the-hood house cleaning.

In particular, the code clean-up means that as from the S23 release, Kirsten’s Viewer discontinues support for Linux /Solaris/ OSX, and the viewer will be Windows-only. The reason for this is simple: time.

Why would I do such a thing? Its simply the realisation that keeping this thing maintained takes time, which is a rare commodity and focusing on a pure windows based solution without sifting through endless defines and endif’s not to mention the triple whammy cmake files or anything else for that matter makes life a heck of a lot simpler.

– KirstenLee on why Kirsten’s Viewer is now Windows-centric

A further benefit of this move, as Kirsten goes on to note, is that it also streamlines the Windows built process itself, through the integration of some of the build libraries into Visual Studio 2017 (now the core build tool for the Windows flavour of viewers), rather than relying on third-party libraries.

Given this focus, it appears the viewer has yet to get some of the more recent updates from the Lab, including:

  • Camera Presets (contributed to the Lab by open-source developer Jonathan Yap).
  • Mesh Uploader updates (contributed by open-source / Firestorm developer Beq Janus, with further modifications by the Lab).
  • Avatar “jelly doll” rendering improvements (via Vir Linden).

That said there are a couple of new additions to be found in preferences:

  • The return of the Midnight UI skin (Preferences → S23 Features → S23 UI Selection).
Kirsten’s S23 see the return of the purple “Midnight” UI skinning (viewer restart required)
  • The inclusion of the Controls Tab from the Lab’s Custom Key Mappings RC viewer, which allows users to assign specific key mappings to a range of viewer functions (Preferences Controls).
S23 incorporates the Lab’s custom key mapping options, which at the time of this review, were still at viewer release candidate status in the official viewer.

As  noted, these recent releases are more along the lines of maintenance work and under-the-hood changes that are vital to the viewer’s longevity and future ease-of-update, rather than intending to present significant user-facing updates.

But that said, and with this work now completed, it hopefully won’t be too long before options such as the jelly doll updates and Camera Presets appear within Kirsten’s Viewer  and it continued to recover greater parity with the Lab’s code base and releases.

Details on KirstenLee’s recent work on the viewer can be found on her blog, and the viewer can be downloaded here.

Speedlight

Speedlight, the browser / android / iOS client updated in mid-February, with updates for both Basic and Gold users.

Core updates (Basic and Gold):

  • Places search has been added.
Speedlight now includes the ability to search via region / parcel name (subject to location’s search listing)
  • SLURLs are now clickable with an ability to teleport.
  • Avatar maturity can be changed via the Settings → Maturity tab.
  • The Avatars page (dashboard) now displays the current location of your avatars.
The location of your avatar(s) is now listed on the Avatar dashboard page

3D World View Updates:

  • Walk auto-pilot: right-click or long touch on device screen at location to the walked to, then select Walk Here from the pop-up menu.
  • In-world object interaction (Touch): right-click or long touch object, and select Touch from the pop-up menu.
  • Revised interface for the world view, with improved rendering.
  • Gold 3D Word View Updates:
    • While in low-poly mode, touch any object to load a high LOD model.
    • Holding ALT+mouse will rotate camera around avatar (as with a viewer).
    • On-screen joystick can be turned on in 3D settings.
    • Stick avatars size adjusted to fit with real avatars in preparation for avatar rendering).

The core updates noted above further tune Speedlight’s ability to meet with many use-cases for those needing to access SL while away from a full viewer. As noted last time around, however, my personal view is that the 3D world view remains hit-and-miss – even on my PC using a browser, objects frequently fail to fully render and avatar movement can be unpredictable.

Whether this is just done to my being Basic / have a bad connection to the rendering pre-processing server, I’ve no idea; but if these issues are more endemic, then perhaps they might suggest that more more needs to be tweaked before full-scale avatar rendering is attempted.

In the meantime, Speedlight can be run via any browser via the Speedlight Website, or downloaded from either Google Play or the Apple Store (fee payble for the latter, with automatic Gold lifetime subscription).

2021 viewer release summaries week #8

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, February 28th

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

  • Current release viewer: Project Jelly viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.13.555567 and dated February 5th, 2021, promoted February 17th – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 viewer updated to version 6.4.14.556118 on February 23rd.
    • Simple Cache project viewer updated to version 6.4.14.556088 on February 22nd (dated February 19th).
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Lightsight – currently unavailable on Google Play; at the time of writing, it is unclear if this is temporary or permanent.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

A touch of Orange at Feint and Bone in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Feint and Bone: Livio Korobase – Orange

Feint and Bone is the name of a new centre for artistic expression within Second Life that opened on Monday, March 1st, 2021. Operated by Flower Rainforest and Tarhai Breen, the facility covers a homestead region, and is curated by Bryn Oh, with Installations within it intended to run for three months at a time. For the opening – which was deliberately without fanfare – Feint and Bone presents Livio Korobase.

Orange is another of Livio’s region-wide installations that is both visually engaging and mentally stimulating, one in which the broader environment settings and the audio stream play as important a role as what is to be found within the setting.

Orange is the sacral chakra colour … composed of red and yellow in equal parts, and it is a colour of vitality and strength. Just as the sacral chakra is located in the pelvic area, orange is the area of our gut feelings and wisdom. Buddhists call this “hara”, the centre of being through which we connect with the deepest voice of the self, the deepest stillness and wisdom; this is where we find bliss.
Orange energy is very sensual. Living a life guided by orange colour transforms even the most mundane daily experiences into pleasurable experiences … [It] stands for creativity, growth, learning, pleasure; a sense of vitality and aliveness.

– Livio describing his installation at Feint and Bone

Feint and Bone: Livio Korobase – Orange

Thus, visitors are asked to ensure they use the region’s environment setting (World → Environment → Use Shared Environment) and enable the local audio stream in order to be fully immersed in the installation.

As with many of Livio’s installations, Orange makes full use of the available space both on the ground and over it, presenting a series of vignettes and individual pieces that await discovery as you explore the region, the orange colour helping to ensure individual details only become apparent as you do so, rather than being immediately revealed through a high Draw Distance setting.

Feint and Bone: Livio Korobase – Orange

What awaits explorers is is highly individualistic, delightfully interactive and quintessentially Livio.

Each vignette has something to offer, visually and through simple touch – be it climbing a gigantic giraffe’s neck, riding a levitating acrobatic rocking horse or wandering toy train, or rocking on a a dance floor. Throughout the entire installation there is vitality and life entirely in keeping with the artist’s statement on the colour orange, encouraging us to abandon ourselves to the energy of the colour and the installation.

There is something else here as well that reflects the theme of orange. As Livio notes, the colour represents creativity, and this is very much reflected throughout the installation, be it the representation of music and dance, references to the silver screen (look for Buck Rogers’ rocket ship), children’s tales (find the teleports to the cube trees), or human ingenuity (the Wright Brothers biplane, a rocket) and more besides. And if you visit with friends, you can all even hop into bumper cars and have fun that way.

Feint and Bone: Livio Korobase – Orange

The low-key opening for both the region and Orange has been deliberate because Livio tends to let his installations evolve, making changes here and there, presenting a living experience. So why not hop over to Feint and Bone and let your inner child out for some run around fun whilst taking in Livio’s unique art? And make a note of the SLurl for future visits.

SLurl Details

A mystical Isle in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mystical Isle, March 2021

Mystical Isle, a full region boasting the private island land impact bonus, is the work of Elmer Bellisserian with the landscaping assistance of Aurila Tigerfish. Having recently (I believe) opened, the region describes itself thus:

One of the latest Destinations for Merfolk, Elves, Faeries, Petites and their Admirers! All are welcome to explore this underwater and mystical wonderland. Great for dancing, photography or just hanging out and relaxing.

And the region certainly offers a lot to take in – although for those who enjoy roaming Fantasy Faire each year, it might also set some bells ringing.

Mystical Isle, March 2021

I say this because the core of the region not only comprises elements created by the master of fantasy design, Elicio Ember (of Cerridwen’s Cauldron fame), who has provided many a Fantasy Faire region build but because Mystical Isle presents a strong echo of one of those designs in particular: the 2016 Otherworld build.

Surrounded by off-sim hills, the region presents a central island from which rise great pillars of granite-like rock, five stout legs on which sits a broad table of rock, spread with a lush green cloth of grass over which water flows and a giant tree of life rises still further into the sky.

Mystical Isle, March 2021

Hemmed by sandy beaches, this elevated platform stands over waters rippled with a hundred colours, the waves reflect an ever-changing view of a world that lies beneath them; world hinted at by exotic flowers an other-worldly structures that break through the water’s lens, beckoning people to come and explore.

As with Elicio’s Otherworld, the landing point for the region sits within the roots of one of the great pillars. Here, within a high-ceiling cavern, visitors can obtain a mertail and AO should they need them and then plunge into the waters to explore the world that lies beneath. Or, if preferred, they can climb the crystalline stairs that promise passage to the world above.

Mystical Isle, March 2021

Below these waves lies a fantastical garden of strange flowers rich in colour through which wind ancient paths suggesting this place had once been above the waves. Here, amongst aquatic life that ranges from fish to orca to crustaceans and reptiles, lie the structures that poke their canopies above the water. They sit as places where merfolk can gather an dance and play, whilst the wreck of a galleon presents a hideaway for those wanting a little quiet time.

The taller of the two structures raises around half of its height out of the water, its ornate columns and arches surrounding a pool of splashing water fed by mollusc-like fountains. An arched walkway extends landward from it, but does not quiet connect to the feet of the great pillars, so requiring a little wading to move between the two.

Mystical Isle, March 2021

Along the beaches can be found decks places to sit together with a variety of single-room cabanas and huts – all of which appear to be open to the public. Also to be found tucked into the lee of the rock pillars is a house that stands apart from he rest, caught as it is with snow on its roof and porches, a fire blazing in the hearth inside.

Reached via the crystalline stairs from the landing point as they pass by way of platform and sinuous spiral, the table-top of the setting is richly thatched by oak and fir, the hewn-out trunk of the tree of life rising from their heart, the tunnel through it pointing the way from the stair top to a great pavilion sitting alongside a broad pool of water fed by falls dropping from basalt columns and watched over by winged stags.

Mystical Isle, March 2021

This is the land of elves and fae, where paths wind through trees to glades and pavilions, the ways lit by lanterns; a forest where not even the darkest of nights can threaten thanks to the list strung in branches and the great crystal lights dripping from the massive boughs of the tree of life. There is also much to discover here, from the exotic plant life to the pavilions and wildlife and mystical glades, through to the various places to sit and share, be they a camp site or a canopied bed or simple stone bench (to offer but three).

Whilst offering that echo of 2016’s Otherworld, Mystical Isle nevertheless is unique and engaging in its presentation and design, offering a lot to see and appreciate. And in you don’t fancy walking, keep an eye out for the teleport disks that offer the means of hopping between locations.

Mystical Isle, March 2021

SLurl Details

Shades of war, music, poetry and science fiction

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.

Monday, March 1st, 19:00: Leviathan

In 1914, the world is divided into Darwinists and Clankers. The Darwinists have evolved genetics to make animals more useful to humans. The Clankers have built their society on machinery technology.

Prince Aleksandar Ferdinand, the would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and part of the Clankers, has spent his life facing an uncertain future: because his mother was of common blood, he has been barred from taking his father’s title in the fullness of time.

But when his father and mother survive Gavrilo Princip’s assassination attempt in Sarajevo only to be poisoned later the same day, Aleksandar finds himself the centre of intrigue. Despite the fact that he has no legitimate claim to the throne, the Germans are intent on neutralising him, fearful that he might nevertheless unite the people behind him, possibly fracturing the alliance of nations forming the Clankers.

Forced on the run aboard a battletorn war machine crewed by a handful of men loyal to his late father, Aleks encounters Deryn Sharp, a young woman who has disguised herself as a boy to serve aboard British Air Service Leviathan, a living whale flying ship.

Despite their differences, and with the inevitability of war darkening every horizon, Aleks and Deryn embark on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.

Join Gyro Muggins as he dives into Scott Westerfield’s 2009 novel of an alternate past.

Tuesday, March 2nd

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym, Live in the Glen

Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session.

19:00: Ursuala Le Guin’s Poetry

With Banshee Heartsong.

Wednesday, March 3rd, 19:00: The Guns of Avalon

Across the worlds of Shadow, Corwin, prince of blood royal, heir to the throne of Amber, gathers his forces for an assault that will yield up to him the crown that is rightfully his. But, a growing darkness of his own doing threatens his plans, an evil that stretches to the heart of the perfect kingdom itself where the demonic forces of Chaos mass to annihilate Amber and all who would rule there.

One of the most revered names in sf and fantasy, the incomparable Roger Zelazny was honoured with numerous prizes—including six Hugo and three Nebula Awards—over the course of his legendary career. Among his more than fifty books, arguably Zelazny’s most popular literary creations were his extraordinary Amber novels. The Guns of Avalon is the second book of The Chronicles of Amber.

With Corwyn Allen.

Thursday, March 4th: 19:00: Star Wars a New Hope

The story that started a saga with the immortal words:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…

Join Sandon Loring and Caledonia Skytower as they bring us the story of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca and two certain ‘droids as they fight for the Rebellion against the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. Also in Kitely! Find teleport from the main Seanchai World grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI.

Sketches and Moods in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sketches and Moods: Ladmilla and Eli Medier

Sketches and Moods is the title of the latest selection of images and poems by the artist couple, Ladmilla Medier (Ladmilla) and her SL partner Eli Medier,  which is offered to patrons and visitors at THE EDGE Art Gallery, which is also owned and operated by the couple.

The pieces on display are once again a mix of images and accompanying words – fifteen of the images by Ladmilla, and the remaining four by Eli. All feature poems by Eli,  who has a gift for expression through the written word as well as being a talented photographer-artist. Each piece is presented as a single frame of image and words, although the two can be separated as used individually, if required – as all of the pieces are offered for sale.

Sketches and Moods: Ladmilla and Eli Medier

Ladmilla’s images are presented in her distinctive style. Rich in colour, often presented in darker tones that further contribute to their depth, they have a dream-like quality to them that is evocative and perfectly suited to the framing of words through poetry.

The dream-like element to her work is the result of Ladmilla’s crafted post-processing of her images. This involves layering-in both colours and textures to give each piece a special emphasis that natural directs the eye on a specific aspect, from which we naturally focus out to appreciated the picture as a whole.

Sketches and Moods: Eli Medier

Eli is a gifted poet who writes mainly in unstressed blank verse. His words cast a story that both naturally shares the space it shares with its accompanying image and also stands as work of art in its own right – hence the provided ability  to separate poem and image. This adds a further dimension to the exhibition: through the combination of words and art, we are effectively given two exhibitions for the price of one.

A further “complimentary / contrast” (so to speak) lies within Eli’s pieces. Three of these are presented in monochrome or soft tones at both sets them part from Ladmilla’s work, yet joins with them through this contrast, as well as through the presentation of The Message, which shares the deeper tone seen within Ladmilla’s work.

THE EDGE Art Gallery

The exhibition is framed within what is, for me at least, a new and more open gallery building than seen in my last visit to the gallery (May 2020). It shares the parcel with an external display of Second Life art from Ladmilla’s personal collection, and a small garden of 3D art featuring work by Cherry Manga, Mistero Hifeng, Eupalinos Ugajin and Bryn Oh – which (please allow my own ego to do a small tap dance) is backed by a 2019 image by yours truly. And be sure to say hello to Brillo when visiting

SLurl Details