Category: Second Life

2018 SL UG updates 49/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Tokyo Street Subway Entrance; Inara Pey, October 2018, on FlickrTokyo Street Subway Entrance – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for updates.

  • There was no SLS (Main) channel deployment on Tuesday, December 4th, leaving that channel on server release 18#18.11.09.521593, previously deployed to the RC channels and comprising internal fixes. However, in keeping with the 14-day restart roll, all SLS regions should have been restarted.
  • The main RC channels should all be receiving an update, comprising further internal fixes (see below for more), however the release number was not available at the time of writing.
  • It’s not clear if the Snack RC (EEP) will be updated.

Mesh Logging

Part of the RC update includes the removal of a lot of mesh-related logging that had been required during testing, but has been surplus to requirements. However, as the code was never removed, it resulted in a lot of unnecessary logging as mesh became more popular.

SL Viewer

There have been no updates to the official viewers at the start of the week, leaving the current pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.0.0.520636, dated October 18, promoted November 14. Formerly the Animesh RC viewer – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 6.0.1.521759, November 20.
    • Spotykach Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.0.1.521757, November 15.
    • Estate Access Management (EAM) RC viewer, version 5.2.0.520057, September 28.
    • BugSplat RC viewer, version 5.1.9.519462, September 10. This viewer is functionally identical to the current release viewer, but uses BugSplat for crash reporting, rather than the Lab’s own Breakpad based crash reporting tools.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Hover Height Issue

Ever since server release 18#18.10.25.521081 was deployed at the end of October / beginning of November 2018, people have been reporting hover height issue for full mesh avatars of less than “normal” height. Essentially, the issue can leave such avatars floating 0.2 to 0.3 metres off the ground if non-height related changes are made after hover height has been set. See BUG-225893 “Hover height on assets has changed somehow” for more.

Linden Lab is aware of the problem, but a fix has yet to make it to a simulator update.

Region Crossings

There is new viewer-side code coming for region crossings. It is intended to limit how far the viewer predicts motion when crossing into another region, with the hope that it should reduce some of the visual rubber-banding. The viewer commit is available, but it has yet to reach a project or RC viewer. It is believed there are a couple of potential issues with the code as provided that could see vehicles slipping sideways along a region crossing if they approach it at an angle. These concerns have been passed back to those working on the code.

Aditi Voice Issues

This has been a problem for some time – unfortunately, there’s no fix in sight as yet.

 

Our Digital Selves: film festival nominee

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Monarch Film Festival

The Monarch Film Festival is an annual event held in Pacific Grove, California. It is intended to not only showcase the latest in International blockbuster achievements, but to also be a place where local filmmakers of any age can show their artistic vision on the big screen.

Among this year’s entrants in the Festival is Our Digital Selves: My Avatar is me, the documentary by Brenard “Draxtor Despres” Drax, the film focus on the work of Tom Boellstorff and Donna Z Davis (respectively Tom Bukowski and Tredi Felisimo in Second Life), who for three years were engaged in  studying the experiences of people with disabilities – visible and invisible – who are using immersive virtual spaces to represent themselves, possibly free of the shadow of any disability, engage with others and do things they may not be able to do in the physical world.

Released in May 2018, the film tells the story of 13 global citizens and their avatars as they transcend their various disabilities through artistic expression and making a home for themselves in the VR Metaverse – Second Life, Sansar and High Fidelity. You can read more about the film and Donna and Tom’s work in my articles: Our Digital Selves: living within a virtualised world (2018) and Exploring disability, new cultures and self in a virtual realm (2016).

As a part of this year’s Monarch Film Festival, Our Digital Selves is in the running for Best Documentary. As such, the film will be shown on Friday, December 7th, 2018: 5:35 PM, Pacific Time, And those wishing to attend in person can purchase tickets view the link at the start of this paragraph. For those who cannot see the film at the festival, it can be seen via Draxtor’s You Tube channel, and I’ve embedded it below as a reminder – if you’ve not see it before, now it your chance to catch up with a truly remarkable documentary.

The other nominees for Best Documentary at the festival are:

  • Moksha, by Jennifer Killian, a film that follows three Nepali women who have dedicated themselves to spreading the joy that mountain biking can give to women across the Himalayas.
  • Up to Snuff by  Mark Maxey, following the life of American musician and composer W.G. Snuffy Walden.
  • Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn? by Zachary Stauffer, recording the efforts of Nicole Van Dorn to discover what actually happened in the helicopter accident that killed her husband, Lt. Wes Van Dorn.
  • Rodents  of Unusual Size by Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler, and Jeff Springer, tracing the work of fisherman Thomas Gonzales as he faces the threat of hordes of monstrous 20 pound swamp rats that are eating up the coastal wetlands that protects Thomas and his town of Delacroix Island from hurricanes.

Congratulations to Drax and all involved in Our Digital Lives, and wishing them all the best for the film festival.

Related Links

With thanks to Eliot for the heads-up.

Firestorm’s Pets for New Residents 2018

Posted on by Inara Pey
Do you have a wearable / follow pet that you no longer use, and that is Transferable? Why not donate it to the Firestorm team for gifting to a new SL user this Christmas?

You may remember that in August, the Firestorm team ran a fun-raiser, asking people to donate their unwanted gacha items?

Well for the end of 2018, they are again asked for the donation of items – but this time with a very different aim in mind, as they explain in the following  Firestorm wiki article:

With Christmas around the corner we think of ways to spread the cheer and give gifts to those who are dear to us. This Christmas, how about extending that love to the ones brand new to Second Life, to let them see what a wondrous place they have entered with loving and generous people.

Every year we are presented with amazing new pets from talented creators and they seem to get better and better with each new creation. And although they are just virtual companions, these pets have the ability to make the times we are here without human contact seem less lonely. They transcend the realm of mere fashion accessories to a loving addition to this our Second Lives.

When the new loves come along, our past companions are packed away in a folder, maybe to come out another day. So why not make that day today and why not pass them on to be loved by another.

Many entering Second Life are shy and overwhelmed with learning the basics. Having a virtual friend and companion to share those first tentative steps with could make a world of difference. Just think your well-loved pet going on to give the warmth of friendship to another, touching their second lives and bringing joy to their hearts.

So for December 2018 make it a true month of giving and pass on your Ex-Loved pets so that they too get a chance at a Second Life.

Kindly contact Kio Feila and entrust her with your Ex-Loved Pets and know that they will be warming the hearts of someone new this Christmas.

Christmas is, as they say, the time for giving. So, if you do have a pet or pets now forever kennelled, caged or locked in a folder in your inventory, and which do have suitable permissions for passing them on to others,  why not follow the article’s suggestion and donate them so that they might get to have a second life with a new owner? Just drop a line to Kio via the link above!

Dickens, waffles and Hanukkah tales

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 at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

Tuesday, December 4th

12:00 Noon: The Dickens Project

Music, poems, and stories with Rusell Eponyn in Dickens Square.

The Dickens Project

18:00: The Dickens Project

VCARA Reads The Christmas Tree at the Resource Centre.

19:00: Everything on a Waffle

In the small Canadian town of Coal Harbour, in a quaint restaurant called The Girl on the Red Swing, everything comes on a waffle–lasagna, fish, you name it. Even waffles!

Eleven-year-old Primrose Squarp loves this homey place.She a young girl who could use a little extra attention; her parents were lost at sea and believed to be dead, and while her Uncle Jack tries his best to care for her, doesn’t have a lot of free time, and the guardian he hires to look out for Primose is so old, child welfare isn’t foremost on her mind. Similarly, the school councillor is far more interested in listing her own concerns and telling her own tales to actually listen. All-in-all Nobody knows what exactly to think of young Primrose, and Primrose doesn’t quite know what to make of her small community, either.

So Kate Bowzer, the owner of The Girl on the Red Swing takes Primrose under her wing. She teaches  her how to cook, doesn’t patronise or chastise her, even when she puts her guinea pig too close to the oven and it catches fire. And so Primrose, in her own perceptive way, develops wisdom beyond her years and a belief system we could all do well to adopt – including the idea that hope is not crazy.

Join Faerie Maven-Pralou as she reads Polly Horvath’s 2002 Newbery Honor winner.

Wednesday, December 5th 19:00: Hanukkah Tales

Eight tales by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer–one for each night of the Hanukkah celebration–tell of a world in which miracles abound, love triumphs, and faith prevails. With Caledonia Skytower.

Thursday, December 6th

Shandon Loring one more hitches a ride on a sleigh drawn by a team of rangifer tarandus to bring us the first part of The Santa Clause, a “novelisation” of the Leo Benvenuti / Steve Rudnick screenplay from the 1994 film starring Tim Allen.

Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).

Saturday, December 8th 12:00 noon: The Dickens Project

Idle Rogue Productions – pre-show seating at noon, music and dancing after the performance from 14:00.

 

Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.

2018 viewer release summaries, week #48

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

Updates for the week ending Sunday, December 2nd

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 test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Current Release version 6.0.0.520636, dated October 18th, promoted November 14th. Formerly the Animesh RC viewer – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • No Updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • Environmental Enhancement Project (EEP) viewer updated to version 6.0.0.521947 on November 27th.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V5/V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

RFL Christmas Expo 2018

Posted on by Inara Pey
via RFL of SL Christmas Expo

The annual RFL Christmas Expo opened its gates on November 30th, 2018, and will run through until December 9th. Located on six regions adjoining the American Cancer Society’s in-world headquarters, this year’s expo offers a wide range of shopping opportunities, entertainments and a raffle with a L$76,000 first prize.

Over 120 merchants from all fields are participating in this year’s event, and you can find direct teleports to all of their stores within the regions in the Expo shopping guide.

The schedule of entertainment provides a day-by-day breakdown of all the live entertainers, DJs and dance performances. which include live performers and DJs, all of which culminates in the Holidays of Hope Gala Ball.

Now in its ninth year, the theme for the Gala Ball is Sounds Of The Season. Sponsored by T1 Radio, the gala will take place in a stunning Christmas music box complete with a dancing ballerina, created by Melodie Jigsaw. Featured performers will be  Satin & Erin, Madelyn Majestic and Trader Whiplash.  Admittance is free, and participants will be able to purchase Holiday Gift Basket Raffle tickets with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. The ball will take place from 13:00 through 18:00 SLT on Sunday, December 9th, 2018, and holiday formal attire is requested.

RFL of SL 2018 Christmas Expo

Special Events and Activities

This year’s Expo includes a number of special events and activities, including:

The Holiday Shopping Spree Raffle: several Expo merchants graciously donated to the Holiday Shopping Spree Raffle.  One lucky winner will walk away with over L$76,000 in gift certificates and prizes!  Tickets are L$250 each and the draw will be held on Sunday, December 9th, 2018 at 19:00 SLT at the Holly Jolly Cafe.

Lights of Hope: this year, a number of Second Life’s home builders have decorated the outside of one of their houses in holiday style and brought it to the Expo. Stroll the Holiday Road neighbourhood at the Expo and vote for your favourites by donation to the Relay For Life kiosk in front of each home! 100% of all “votes” goes directly to the American Cancer Society. In addition, some of the builders have offered their homes for sale in a Relay For Life Christmas Expo vendor at the Expo’s Real Estate Office in the neighbourhood.

Gift of Hope Hunt: this is an interactive hunt that can be taken multiple times (each attempt requires a new hunt HUD at L$25), with some L$12,000 available in gift certificates. I

By taking part in these events, and the Expo as a whole, Second Life users can help fund two positions in the Kenyatta National Hospital Patient Navigator Programme. You can also read more about RFL of SL support for the Kenyatta National Hospital at Fantasy Faire 2018: supporting the KNH Hope Hostel.

Some of the Light of Hope houses at the 2018 Christmas Expo

And don’t forget the Holiday Stocking Stuffers and the Expo Gotyas, while bloggers might enjoy the challenges being run in association with the Expo.

Full details of the entire Christmas Expo can be found on the official website.

SLurl Details

All regions rated Moderate.