Category: Second Life

Bright Canopy, the streaming service for SL, discontinued

Posted on by Inara Pey

I admit I’m getting to this somewhat late, although I don’t recall seeing it reported elsewhere among the blogs, etc., I try to read.

In January 2020, Bright Canopy, the one remaining streaming service for Second Life (and OpenSim) ceased operations. I’m actually a little embarrassed by not having noticed the change, given that I played a very small role in it getting started.

While possibly not a well-known service, Bright Canopy was officially launched at the end of August 2015, having come about (at relatively high speed) as a result of the folding of the SL Go streaming service. SL Go had, in turn, been the first functional SL streaming service, put together with LL’s help by former game streaming company OnLive. It established a small but loyal following before it came to an end after OnLive was forced to sell its IP to Sony as a result of not being able to generate the revenue through its various services (including SL Go) it needed to remain viable.

At the time of SL Go’s demise, I ruminated on the potential of the Lab running a streamed SL service through Amazon AppSstream (see: Could the Lab use Amazon AppStream to “replace” SL Go?), and that prompted Second Life user and app developer Bill Glover to comment:

Let’s just do it ourselves! You really got me thinking. I’d can launch a service right now if I get enough folks for Beta.

Bill and Jeri Glover: creators of the Bright Canopy service

Bill and his wife, Jeri, set about working on the idea whilst user Nebadon Izumi, also picking up on my ruminations, started his own tests using AppsStream,. I reported on his work a few days later (see: Using Amazon AppStream to stream a viewer – although sadly Nebadon’s video that originally accompanied that article was later removed from You Tube), and as a result of that article, Nikola Bozinovic, founder and CEO of Frame, a cloud-based service focused on delivering Windows applications to users, suggested his service could be used to deliver Second Life through the cloud.

Nikola Bozinovic, founder of Frame, worked with Bill and Jeri to make Bright Canopy happen, with Frame eventually acquiring Bright Canopy as a service in June 2016

Bill and Nikola quickly got their heads together, and within 24 hours, they had their own proof-of-concept running, delivering the official SL viewer over Frame via Amazon (as an aside, even while Bill and Nikola were in discussions, I tried Frame directly for myself).

As a streaming service, Bright Canopy did incur a cost for users – initially US $17.00 a month (necessary as operating costs from both AWS and Frame needed to be covered), but it continued where SL Go left off, offering both the official viewer and Firestorm to users for the same quality of graphics delivered to almost any computer / device as offered directly by the viewer. Over time the service expanded, adding Singularity to the list of viewers available, together with Blender and Gimp for those who might want CPU / GPU horsepower for their content creation work.

I actually lost track of Bright Canopy in the years post 2016, but it continued to be available, and several friends continued to use it as an away-from-home alternative to their viewer. My interest was stirred again in late 2018, when I caught the news the Frame itself had been acquired by Nutanix, as I was curious as to what it might mean for Bright Canopy. But as nothing appeared to change, I once again lost track of things.

However, as Jodi Serenity – who used the service on occasion – informed me, things did change at the start of 2020, with Nutanix discontinuing Bright Canopy and an offering. No reason (such as lack of subscribers) has been given, and Jodi informs me she has no recollection of any e-mail that may have been circulated ahead of the suspension of the service.

The ending of Bright Canopy means that currently, there is no longer a streaming service for Second Life. However, the landscape for accessing the platform without resorting to a full blown viewer has also changed in the years since SL Go and Bright Canopy first arose. Apps like Lumiya have shown what can be done in terms of client apps that can also render the world, and we currently have Speedlight the Android / browser client with its nascent world rendering capability, while LL themselves have hinted their own iOS  / Android client may eventually progress to world rendering.

Bright Canopy running Second Life through Frame, offering those on low-specification computers to enjoy the full graphic richness of the platform with (allowing for network vagaries) low latency

Of course, none of these options render Second Life to a fidelity that can be achieved by a streaming service – but they have the advantage of being offered at a lower price. That said, the cost of streaming is also slowly changing, and even the Lab has been pondering whether they might want to offer a service at some point in the future – so it is very possible (if not probable) that Bright Canopy’s passing is not the last we’ll hear of a Second Life streaming service.

Sisi’s Celebration of Art in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Raging Graphix Gallery, April 2020: Sisi Biedermann

Now open at Raging Graphix Gallery, curated by RagingBellls, and continuing through until April 29th, is an exhibition by digital artist and Sisi Biedermann.

The exhibition marks both the gallery’s move to a new in-world location and an expansion of the space it provides for visiting artists, and I can honestly think of no better artist than Sisi to inaugurate the new building in its new home. As I’ve oft remarked in this pages, her work is extraordinary for its content, depth and presentation.

Raging Graphix Gallery, April 2020: Sisi Biedermann

Referred to simply as a Celebration of the Arts, the exhibit offers a rich pot pourri of Sisi’s wide-ranging work as a painter, a digital artist, a creator of the most marvellous collages, and a weaver of tales. Nature and fantasy are strong – but not exclusive – aspects to her art, while her ability to blend styles and approaches to her images is simply sublime.

All of this is much in evidence in this exhibit, located on the upper floor of the gallery (the lower being given over to Raging Bellls’ own art), which offers everything from almost “straightforward” images from Second Life (Sonata of Love), to marvellous paintings from nature such as Christmas Roses, through more abstracted works (Another Art in Copenhagen) and wonderfully surrealist pieces like Fisherboat and Time Flies, to Sisi’s always mesmerising digital collages such as Veils and the truly marvellous Oriental Dream.

Raging Graphix Gallery, April 2020: Sisi Biedermann

As is invariably the case with Sisi’s work, the 20 pieces presented in this exhibition are not so much to been looked at as they are to be savoured; each is so richly detailed it should – like a fine wine – be enjoyed in is own time, unhurriedly, so it might be properly appreciated.

SLurl Details

2020 Simulator User Group week #16 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lake NumB, February 2020 – blog post

The following notes were taken at the Simulator User Group meeting held on Tuesday, April 14th.

Simulator Deployments

Please refer to the simulator deployment thread for updates.

  • On Tuesday, April 14th, the majority of the grid was updated to server maintenance update 539684, previously deployed to an RC channel on April7th, and comprising:
    • BUG-228417 Emails created by llTargetedEmail() in deeded objects show owner as NULL_KEY in the received email metadata.
    • BUG-228412 Emails created by llTargetedEmail() are missing header info in the received email.
    • SL-12941 Disable TARGETED_EMAIL_ROOT_CREATOR in llTargetedEmail
    • SL-11502 New LSL function llTargetedEmail
    • BUG-226917 EEP Environment, New Sky should default to midday and not 6pm
    • BUG-226737 [EEP] The ‘get parcel_dayoffset’ request returns the value of the ‘parcel daylength’ parameter in the Region Debug Console.
  • On Wednesday, April 15th, two RC deployment should take place:
    • 540032 – containing infrastructure updates related to the cloud migration.
    • 540037 – containing fixes for the just released name changes after it was discovered the feature could, in a couple of places still call you by your former name for up to a week (“oops!”, as the Lab put it), and assorted internal changes.

SL Viewer

At the time of writing, there had been no updates to the current crop of official viewers to mark the start of the week, leaving the current official viewer pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version  version 6.3.8.538264, dated March 12, promoted March 18th. Formerly the Premium RC viewer – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538729 March 25.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538760, March 25.
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.538823, March 20.
    • Zirbenz Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.3.9.538719, issued March 19.
  • Project viewers:
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

Group Chat

With the general increase in user concurrency, issues are being experienced with group chat (general slowness, sent messages failing, etc). Commenting on the situation, Simon Linden said:

Group chat traffic grows in “interesting” mathematical ways … a single person will have X number of groups, and thus joins them all and increases the number of people in the group. That multiplies out as groups get larger so a single message goes to more people … it’s not linear. Add in the updates on people coming on-line or logging off and it bogs down –  and yes, we’ve done some work on it and want to get time for more.

A factor that’s likely contributing to the issue is that the plan to cut back on the number of group update messages created when users log-on  / log-off of Second Life was actually curtailed, with Simon also noting:

[There was] some pretty strong push-back that managers need that info … so it got more complicated about who should get what messages when, and the project went back on the shelf. But you can imagine the math … if you have a group with about 10 people on-line, every once in a while someone joins or leaves, and about 10 updates have to be sent out. Put 1000 people in a group … people are coming and going all the time, and 1000 updates have to go out if everyone needs to know

And yes – there are some different ways it can be fixed. The real issue is people getting upset if they can’t do something any more, and finding that magic spot where it works right for those that need the feature, and not a load slowing down chat for everyone

Magic, music, murder and time travel in Second Life

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 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, April 13th 19:00: The Higher Space

Gyro Muggins reads Jamil Nasir’s 1996 novella that mixes science and magic.

Bob Wilson is a lawyer with a house in the suburbs, a beautiful wife, and a predictable life. Then he agrees to represent a neighbourhood couple in what looks like an open-and-shut custody case.

But no sooner do the Wilsons take in fourteen-year-old Diana Esterbrook than Bob must ask himself some troubling questions. Is Diana a computer genius or a dangerously disturbed adolescent? Why is his house being bugged? Who is the mysterious man in black? And what about Diana’s birth mother, a convicted kidnapper just released from prison?

Wilson’s quest for answers will lead him to an enigmatic private detective, a meek professor with dreams of immortality, and finally to the secrets of a discipline called Thaumatomathematics a strange blend of magic and science where death becomes the key to beatific ecstasy.

Tuesday, April 14th:

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

Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session that is finding a new home in Ceiluradh Glen as guest of Seanchai Library.

19:00: Selections from The Wind’s Twelve Quarters

Willow Widlfire reads selections from this collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, which the author described as a “retrospective”. First published in 1975, it brought together 17 previously published stories, four of which were the germ of novels Le Guin would later write, two of which are represented here and which between them offer insights into the origins of her Earthsea realm.

First published in the January 1964 issue of Fantastic, the short story The Word of Unbinding first introduces the islands of Earthsea as they are each subdued by the dark wizard Voll. Seen through the eyes of another wizard, Festin, the story unfolds around his attempts to stop Voll, only to have his own not inconsiderable powers be rebuffed each time until finally, Festin realises the truth behind Voll power – and the way to undo it. A way that has a terrible price. 

The Rule of Names, published in Fantastic in April 1964, takes us back to Earthsea, and to the rural island of Sattins Island in a convoluted tale of magic, school teachers, secret names, superstitions, dragons, lost treasures and unexpected outcomes. It is centred on the arrival on Sattins Island of a stranger from the archipelago, bent upon mischief-making. His target is the island’s resident magician nicknamed Underhill, widely regarded as incompetent. The stranger believes Underhill holds the key to his being able to reclaim the dragon-stolen treasure of his ancestors. It turns out he is absolutely correct in Underhill being the key to the treasure’s loss, but not in the manner the stranger anticipated. 

Wednesday, April 15th, 19:00: A Nun in the Closet

What do two Benedictine nuns, a secretive man-on-the-run, a Tibetan monk, three hippies, members of the Mafia and children of migrant workers have in common? Why, A Nun in the Closet, of course.

When a cloistered monastic community of nuns inherit an old house with 150 acres in up-state New York courtesy of a mysterious benefactor, they are at a loss as to what to do. Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe are therefore dispatched to give the property the once-over and report back. A simple enough assignment, except neither Sister is entirely prepared to deal with all that they find.

From hippies on the lawn to suitcase stuffed with money sitting at the bottom of a well, disguised cocaine and a wounded man who has hidden himself in a closet to avoid Mafia hitmen, not to mention strange apparitions in the night, It might have been better had Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe remained cloistered in the abbey. 

But it is amazing what two nuns can achieve armed only with their faith and boundless energy – up to and including a shocking revelation or two about ghosts, gangsters – and murder.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads Dorothy Gilman’s 1986 mystery.

Thursday, April 16th 19:00: Welcome to the Company

Shandon Loring reads one of Kage Baker’s short stories set within her “Company” series of historical time travel science fiction novels and novellas that revolve around Dr. Zeus Inc., a 24th century corporate entity using technologies of time travel and immortality to exploit the past for commercial gain. Also in Kitely – grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).

Tutorial: Second Life Names Changes

Posted on by Inara Pey

via Linden Lab

Second Life offers Premium Account holders the opportunity to change the the first name, the last name or both the first and last names of their account at any time, or to revert to any name they name have used in the past (again, first name, last name or both).

This Tutorial is intended to provide an overview of using the Name Change capability.

Important Points

First some points to note:

  • Premium members may change their first name or their last name or both their first and last name whenever they wish.
    • First names are free-form.
    • Last names are selected from a list, with the available names updated periodically.
  • There is a fee applicable each time the capability is used. This fee is displayed as a part of the Name Change process.
    • VAT at applicable rates will be added to accounts in VAT-paying countries.
  • Once a first name+ last name combination has been applied to an avatar account, it cannot be used by any other account (so “Josephine Bloggs” cannot use Name Change to become “Inara Pey”).
  • It is possible for you to revert back to any previously-used name assigned to your account.
  • If you are Premium and use the Name Change capability, then subsequently downgrade to Basic, you will retain whatever avatar / account name you have at the time you downgrade. You will not not “revert” to any past name you may have had, and you won’t be able to change you name again until such time as you re-up to Premium.
  • Name Changes is not replacing Display Names – these will remain available at no charge to all who wish to use them.
  • Name changes are made via the Second Life dashboard, and you must be logged-out of Second Life in order to make sure any Name Change you make is correctly applied to your account.

Changing Your Name

Note: It is possible (and based on some feedback received), that a name change might take a little time to propagate through SL’s various services, which may have some impact on things like scripted objects such as security systems.

Premium Members can change their names as follows:

  • Log out of the viewer if you are currently in-world.
  • Log on to your dashboard at secondlife.com.
  • Click Account on the left-menu.
  • Click on Change Name.
  • The Change Your Account Name page is displayed. This comprises:
    • The account availability of Name Changes (including a link for Basic account holders to upgrade to Premium.
    • The fee that will be applied to your account, including and VAT that may be added.
    • A reminder than you can change your first name, your last name or both.
    • An option to go ahead and change your account name.

The Change Your Account Name page

  • Click the Next Step button to proceed.
  • The Choose a New Name page is displayed. This comprises three parts:
    1. The Change First Name option.
    2. The Change Last Name option with a list of currently available last names names.
    3. A list of previous last names you have used – if you have not previously used Name Changes, only your current last name is displayed.

The Choose a New Name page, showing the three options for changing your first name (1); selecting an new last name from a list of currently available names (3), and for any previously-used last names (if available – 3)

Change Your First Name Only

  • Leave the Change First Name option checked.
  • Use the text input field to enter your desired first name.
  • Uncheck the Change Last Name option.

Change Your Last Name Only

  • Uncheck the Change First Name option.
  • Leave the Change Last Name option checked.
  • Click the radio button next to last name you would like to use.

Change Both Your First and Last Names

  • Keep both the Change First Name option and the Change Last Name option checked.
  • Enter your desired first name in the text input field under Change First Name
  • Click the radio button next to last name you would like to use.

Reverting to a Previously Used Name

If you have previously used Name Changes, and would like to change back to an “old” name:

  • Enter the first name in the Choose a First Name text input field (if required).
  • Click on the require last name from the list of your previously used Last Names (if available).

Completing the Change

  • When you are happy with the name(s) you have set / selected, click the Review Changes button.
  • A summary of your changes is displayed (if you have made no changes, you’ll be taken back to the Change Your Account Name page).

The Name Change summary – use it to make sure you are happy with the name(s) you have selected

  • Make sure the details are as you want them, or use the Go Back link to change your selection(s).
  • If you are certain of the changes:
    • Log out of the viewer if you have not already done so.
    • Click on Continue to Checkout.
  • On the check-out page, you are presented with your payment options:
    • Via an US dollar balance on your Tilia account.
      • Requires acceptance of the Tilia Terms of Service, if you have not already done so.
      • If you have a sufficient US dollar balance on your Tilia account, but do not with to use it, click the Don’t Use button.
    • Via any credit / debit card already tied you your Second Life Account.
    • By clicking the More Payment Options… and making a selection (e.g. assigning another credit / debit card to your account).
  • When you have selected your preferred payment method, click the blue Buy Now button to complete your Name Change.

Name Change payment options

Second Life: the return of last names, and some notes

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Monday, April 13th, Linden Lab announced the return of Last Names to Second Life. Also known as Name Changes, the feature re-introduces the capability for (some) users to select a last name, as the blog post explains:

Back in the day, Second Life Residents were given the option at registration of selecting from a variety of pre-determined “last name” options. The use of shared “last names” helped build community among Residents who found instant kinship and bonding amidst these newfound virtual family ties shared with strangers of the same lineage. Similar to the commodity of dot-com domains, some “last names” held a special status in the community. Some were extremely rare and, in some cases, there were perceived attributes and reputations associated with certain last name offerings.

However, the capability is more about last names, as I’ll cover in a moment, but first:

The History Bit

When the capability was withdrawn in 2010, to be replaced by Display Names and leaving all new sign-up with the default (and largely invisible “last name” of “Resident”, there was widespread outcry, accompanied by requests and demands that the option for people to once more pick there last name be re-introduced.

Such was this demand, that by the end of 2011, the Lab was actually thinking of bringing the capability back, as the then-CEO, Rod “Rodvik” Humble announced on his profile feed:

Former Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble (Rodvik Linden) raising the possible return of Last Names back in December 2011)

Rod even went so far as to indicate Last Names would return in early 2012 (see Last names back in January? from 2011).

In the end, however, everything got bogged down in exactly how Last Names should be re-offered: should in be from a list again, or free form? (see: Last Names: don’t over-cook the baking). And so, in early March 2012, Rod admitted via a blog post (that is sadly no longer available, but you can read my thoughts on it in Rodvik blogs: No Last Names), that due to assorted complexities, Last Names would not be coming back.

Nevertheless, the requests / demands for the ability to select a last name persisted such that in March 2018, the Lab announced they were once again working on a way to bring last names back to Second Life ( see: Last names to return to SL and more – Linden Lab). Just how complex a task it has been to return them is perhaps made clear by the fact that it has taken two years from that initial announcement to the official re-launch in April 2020.

That said, and despite the title of the Lab’s own blog post, it’s important to remember the returning capability is about more than just last names; it’s about the ability to completely change your avatar’s account name, if you wish – last name and / or first name. This is why the project has generally been referred to as Name Changes, rather than “last names”.

As such, it comes with some important points that are (again) worth noting:

  • It is only available to Premium subscribers, who may change their first name or their last name or both their first and last name whenever they wish.
    • First names are free-form.
    • Last names are selected from a list, with the available names updated periodically.
  • Once a first name+ last name combination has been applied to an avatar account, it cannot be used by any other account (so “Josephine Bloggs” cannot use Name Change to become “Inara Pey”).
  • It is possible for you to revert back to any previously-used name assigned to your account.
  • There is a fee applicable each time the capability is used.
    • At the time of writing, the free for Premium accounts is $39.99 per change (first name or last name or both first / last) or to revert to a previous name).
    • It has been indicated that Premium Plus, once introduced, will likely have a lower fee applied for Name Changes.
    • VAT at applicable rates will be added to accounts in VAT-paying countries.
  • Name Changes is not replacing Display Names – these will remain available at no charge to all who wish to use them.
  • Name changes are not being offered as a part of the sign-up process because:
    • It is a Premium benefit.
    • The Lab has data to show that asking users to pick a name from a list was actually a sufficient enough blocker to prevent many of them completing the sign-up process.
  • If you are Premium and use the Name Change capability, then subsequently downgrade to Basic, you will retain whatever avatar / account name you have at the time you downgrade. You will not not “revert” to any past name you may have had, and you won’t be able to change you name again until such time as you re-up to Premium.
  • Name changes are made via the Second Life dashboard, and you must be logged-out of Second Life in order to make sure any Name Change you make is correctly applied to your account.
  • As it is now possible for users to change their account names, it is vital that any scripted means of recording avatar details (e.g. for the purposes of purchase redelivery, or within security systems and so on) do so by avatar key (UUID) and not avatar name.

Now you can – if you are a Premium account subscriber – change your accounts first and / or last name. See my tutorial for how

Observations

While the return of last names has long been request, whether Name Changes will be seen as fitting the bill by all users is open to debate. Money is involved (and a not trivial sum at that), so that alone will likely raise objections among those who have not followed the progress of the capability.

The fee has been intentionally set at a level where for those who are attracted to it will not use it to excess. This is because Name Changes go to the very heart of a Second Life account, and thus touch every single element of the platform – from the name you see on the screen over an avatar to things like inventory data, land information, the things and products they make and /  or sell, transactions they have made, the groups of which they are a member, and so on and so forth. As such, every name change impacts a range of services and databases which may sound “simple” in terms of field / array update – but which still have an impact.

Some might feel the left out by Name Changes being a Premium-only option, or just not worth the expense – and that’s why Display Names are remaining available.

I find myself entirely neutral on the matter. I’m fortunate enough to have an account name I’m unlikely to ever want to change, because after 13 years, it is very much a part of me. Even so, given the time taken to implement, the (albeit understandable) reason for the fee, etc., I actually cannot help wonder if Name Changes will actually generate the kind of return that will cover the 2-year cost of implementation.  But then, if those who do use it are happy to have at least some means to change their name whenever they wish – does that really matter?

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