Open now and through until the end of 2017, is the Calas Galadhon winter regions offering visitors a traditional Christmas experience called – appropriately enough – Home for Christmas.
Spread across two regions, Home For Christmas has all the familiar touches from Ty Tenk and Truck Meredith those familiar with their Christmas arranges know and enjoy: the Christmas Pavilion, entertainment, sleigh rides, skating, balloon and reindeer tours. In addition, this year offers visitors the chance to ride Bento reindeer around the regions.
A visit starts on the southern side of the build. From here it’s a short walk to the teleport to go directly to the Christmas Pavilion; however, taking it means missing out on much of the scenery. Instead, we recommend a short walk along the path leading east from the teleport board to where the sleigh rides await.
As with previous years, there is a choice of sleighs, one for couples and the other for up to four people to share. Simply sit in a waiting sleigh, and when set, touch the back of the sleigh to start the ride. You’ll be taken around and through the regions, along the trails to eventually arrive at the Pavilion, where you’ll be dropped off. If you prefer, the balloon tour is also available short walk from the landing point, and four couples in particular be a romantic way to see the regions as you drift through the air above them.
Reindeer and horse rides can be found at barns in the regions, and I recommend that rather than relying purely on the tours and rides, people explore by taking a reindeer for a ride, or walking the numerous trails and paths between the trees and rocks – sign boards will ensure you don’t get lost. This is because there is much to see and even if you take a tour there are places you’re going to want to stop and look around / enjoy. There’s the snowy house, for example, offering snuggles for couples or the warmth of a fire as a break from the cold. Then there is also the old stone temple, where cuddles and dances can be enjoyed.
The core of the regions remain, of course, the Calas Christmas Pavilion, with the great tree before it in the middle of the skating lake, camp fires and seats, and Santa’s Schooner sitting just off-shore. Keep an eye out, as well, for the look-out points and the various critters around the landscape, and which bring in to life.
“Things have been crazy for us lately,” Ty informed me as we discussed the build. “It looks like, for the first time in nine years, we wont be able to turn the Calas sims to a winter theme as well. But there is plenty of snow and skating at home for Christmas, and we hope people will enjoy themselves there.”
We’ve little doubt people will enjoy a visit – and quite possibly more than one, because Home for Christmas is a fabulous place to enter into the Christmas spirit and ready yourself for the holiday season in a most traditional way.
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.
Wald began playing medieval, renaissance, and folk music while in high school and college. His love of this music has continued through his adult life. Inspired by the live music scene in SL, Wald dusted off his folk instruments and began performing here in 2014. His repertoire includes folk songs, traditional airs, medieval dances, and renaissance songs, performed with guitar, autoharp, dulcimer, recorders, mandolin, and penny whistle.
For The Dickens Project, he’ll be presenting sea shanties at Christmas Past Docks.
More selections from the works of Charles Dickens. This week in Christmas Present near the Three Cripple’s pub at The Dickens Project. Look for the teleport panel at the main Landing Point. Dancing Follows!
12:00 Noon: ACRL Meeting & Tour
The ACRL Virtual World Interest Group will meet to tour the Community Virtual Library Resource Centre, Dickens Library and “shoppe”. The tour is open to anyone interested-jointly sponsored by the American Library Association Virtual Communities in Libraries Member Interest Group.
13:00: Tea-Time with Dickens
Join Seanchai Library at the Three Cripples pub to hear about parties that didn’t quite go to plan. Namely: Mrs. Quilp’s Tea Party from The Old Curiosity Shop and Bob Sawyer’s Bachelor Party, from The Pickwick Papers.
Monday, December 4th 19:00: The Alien Dark
Gyro Muggins reads Diana G. Gallagher’s one science-fiction novel.
Out of the darkness of interstellar space…
The ahsin bey, a race of catlike beings determined to expand their territory, launch six vessels into deep space to search for an uninhabited world suitable for colonization.
Tahl d’jehn commands the Dan tahlni on a decades long mission to explore the Chai-te system. Studies show that Chai-te’s planets are rich in the resource the ahsin bey need, but will their signal reach their home world in time to launch the colony ship. And what is Tahl to make of the startling discovery of a dead civilization on Chai-te Three?
Tuesday, December 5th
12:00 Noon Russell Eponyn
Stories, poetry, and songs (on stream) on Church Street at The Dickens Project.
19:00 Hans Christian Andersen Tales
With Faerie & Gina.
Wednesday, December 6th, 19:00: Secrets of a Christmas Box
Enter the magical festive world of the Christmas ‘Tree-Dwellers’, as Larry, a Christmas snowman, wakes up after the long sleep in the Christmas box, to find his brother is missing.
Desperate to find him before Christmas, Larry, along with his girlfriend Debbie, a newcomer Splint, and Larry’s companion Tinsel, break the laws of the ‘Tree-Elders’ and escape down the tree and away into the house, to look for clues.
Away from the safety of the tree and in an unfamiliar world, the Dwellers stumble upon a dark and sinister secret that threatens their entire world. Can Larry and the group make it back to the tree in time to warn the others, and finally uncover the truth behind the Secrets of a Christmas Box?
Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).
Thursday, December 7th 19:00: In Time for Christmas
At a time when interest in the Christmas holiday was waning, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and inspired the world.
But now, history is changing, and the book is never written. When the Council for Temporal Studies asks time travelers Simon and Elizabeth Cross to “save Christmas,” they think he’s joking.
However, it’s anything but a laughing matter. Simon and Elizabeth must go back to 1843 London and convince Dickens to write his endearing story, or the Christmas holiday we all know and love will cease to be–forever.
Shandon Loring concludes reading Monique Martin’s story. Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).
The Dickens Project
Now in its fifth year, Seanchai Library presents The Dickens Project for Christmas 2017, now open through until December 30th.
Celebrating the work of one of the masters of 19th Century literature, whose humanistic voice continues to be a relevant one in our everyday culture.
Featuring a period setting, performance art, music and – of course – readings from A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ seminal tale for the time of year – and for all of us. Programme schedule.
Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.
The featured charity for August and September is Little Kids Rock, transforming lives by restoring, expanding, and innovating music education in schools.
The majority of the following notes are taken from the Content Creation User Group meeting, held on Thursday, November 30th, 2017 at 13:00 SLT. For the purposes of Animesh testing, the meetings have relocated to the Animesh4 region on Aditi, the beta grid – look for the seating area towards the middle of the region. The meeting is chaired by Vir Linden, and agenda notes, etc, are usually available on the Content Creation User Group wiki page.
Medhue Simoni live streamed the meeting, and his video is embedded at the end of this article – thanks to Medhue, as always, for the recording. Time stamps in the body text will open the video in a separate tab for ease of reference to the relevant parts of the text. However as these notes present the meeting in terms of topics discussed, rather than a chronological breakdown of the meeting, so some time stamps may appear to be out of sequence.
Animesh (Animated Mesh)
“I like the name ‘animated objects’ because I think it’s unambiguous, but it takes a long time to type!” – Vir Linden joking about the name “Animesh”.
Project Summary
The goal of this project is to provide a means of animating rigged mesh objects using the avatar skeleton, in whole or in part, to provide things like independently moveable pets / creatures, and animated scenery features via scripted animation. It involves both viewer and server-side changes.
In short, an Animesh object:
Can be any object (generally rigged / skinned mesh) which and contains the necessary animations and controlling scripts in its own inventory (Contents tab of the Build floater) required for it to animate itself.
Can be a single mesh object or a linkset of objects (link them first, then set them to Animated Mesh via the Build floater > Features).
Has been flagged as and Animesh object in the project viewer, and so has an avatar skeleton associated with it.
Can use many existing animations.
However Animated objects will not (initially):
Have an avatar shape associated with them
Make use of an avatar-like inventory (although individual parts can contain their own inventory such as animations and scripts)
Make use of the server-side locomotion graph for walking, etc., and so will not use an AO
Use the avatar baking service
Will not support its own attachments in the initial release.
These are considered options for follow-on work, possibly starting with the notion of a body shape (to help with more fully-formed NPCs).
[0:13-1:06] The Animesh Project Viewer should be updated soon, bringing it into parity with the new release viewer (see below). This update will also include a couple of bug fixes.
Non-Rigged Root Items
[6:25-11:12] A short discussion on the ability to include non-rigged objects in an Animesh, such as an invisible prim as the root. This ability was recently added, but hasn’t been extensively exercised as yet. It sparked a look at BUG-139336, with Vir agreeing that the proposal need to be re-examined, as he is not sure if a scripted offset is the best answer, or whether allowing a manual offset through the build tools might be better. This feeds into a later conversation [35:27] about having LSL capabilities for all edit capabilities – and the risk of over-use of options as a result, simply because they can be automated – and the benefits of only making new capabilities (such as BUG139336) only available through LSL, where it might not be obviously to many, rather than being made visible through a build option.
Mod Keys
This was the subject of extensive discussions at the previous CCUG meeting. However, Vir again confirmed that it is viewed as something outside of the immediate Animesh project.
Performance Testing
[12:00-22:00] This is also a popular topic, and Vir re-iterated that it will be done, once the Lab feels this iteration of Animesh is “feature complete”. While he believes this is pretty much the case (allowing for bug fixes), he’d still rather hold off on testing a little longer. In the meantime, there continue to be calls for the current limits on tri counts, Land Impact, etc., to be relaxed to give people greater freedom to design Animesh. Vir is hesitant to do this, as he’d rather start from a constrained baseline with more structured testing to ensure sensible limits are arrived at which can be sustained across the entire grid when Animesh goes live. Given the way that current mesh avatars are some of the more render-intensive (and viewer performance hitting) objects within Second Life, his concern is perhaps understandable.
[36:35-46:30] Some would like to see the tri limit raised to around 50K to allow for testing of products, rather than testing Animesh itself. This seems to be a little premature. However, Vir is going to discuss the potential for an tri limit increase with Alexa.
[22:42-27:53] A discussion on Animesh scaling, animation size and LOD. If an Animesh is based around a 0.5 cube, but the associated mPevlis bone is scaled to allow a 60-metre tall Animesh, what are the LOD calculations based on: the visible size of the object / distance from it, or the size of the root prim / distance from it (which would cause the Animesh to decay faster as the camera moves away from it). Vir believes it should be based on the displayed dimensions, but notes there are already issues with meshes load the correct LODs. As such, he’ll look into it some more.
[28:18-30:00] Further discussion on Animesh Land Impact, the arbitrary / testing only nature of the current 200 LI limit, toggling Animesh items on / off to help reduce LI, the potential of having a separate LI for Animesh objects compared to other in-world objects, and the complexities of doing so, were it to be pursued.
[30:56-32:46] LSL function for converting objects to Animesh and back – suggested as a means of lowering LI on items (so someone could use scripted controls to switch between, say, the active Animesh animals on their land. Again, Vir feels people might be getting a little too hung-up on the LI (and other limits) too early.
[46:42-51:50] Brief discussion on model orientation. As previously noted, Second Life expects a mesh to be X- oriented, so the front of the mesh is aligned to the X-axis. Blender can sometimes orient to the Y-axis. As a known bug, Vir is hoping it can be resolved through Blender, rather than by diving into the viewer code.
Environment Enhancement Project (EEP)
Project Summary
A set of environmental enhancements, including the ability to define the environment (sky, sun, moon, clouds, water settings) at the parcel level; a new environment asset type that can be stored in inventory and traded through the Marketplace / exchanged with others; scripted, experience-based environment functions, an extended day cycle and extended environmental parameters. This work involves both a viewer updates (with a project viewer coming soon) and server-side updates.
Current Status
[1:18-409] Rider Linden is working on the server-side updates so the simulator can support the new environment settings used by the viewer. When this is done, he’ll be working on saving the environment settings as inventory objects. The first implementation of these objects will be as day cycles, skies, and water – and are set-up to be expanded in the future.
There should hopefully be project viewer available (testing most likely on Aditi) after the Christmas / New Year break.
The 2017 Team Diabetes of Second Life Winter Art and Showcase event opens on December 1st, 2017 and run through until December 10th, inclusive. As with previous years, the event will include ten days of live performers, DJs, concerts, tribute acts, hunts, ice skating, ice fishing and, of course the Winter Showcase and the Kultivate Winter Art show. All to raise money for the American Diabetes Association (ADA), through Team Diabetes of Second Life, ADA’s official and authorised in-world fund-raising team.
Over 40 merchants are participating in the showcase, comprising: Aleutia, alme., Beyond Persuasion Design, Blossom, BYRNE, ChiC Buildings, Chiffon, Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery, Dixie Dandelion and Designs, DBS, Emerald Couture, Fjordian Slip, Get Jiggy, Ghee, Gidget’s Style, Go Frock Yourself, Just Ordinary, Kades, Kiliki Bikini, LC Fashion, Le Fashion Whore, Love, Lunar Seasonal Designs, MadCatCreations, Mara’s Mysteries, Mahlberg Tailors, Metal & Stone, OMG! Inc, OYO Breedables, Park Place, Potomac Signature Homes, Roth’s, Rush, Shiva, Simply Shelby, Sohoe Shoes, Spyralle, Steelhead, Tayren’s Fantasy Fashions, TRS Designs, Tylar’s Treasures, Winterwood, Wood Works, Xanna Wahwah Designs, and Xplicit Designs.
Merchants are each offering at least one item among their displays with 100% of proceeds from sales going directly to Team Diabetes of Second Life. The Showcase once again occupies half of Kultivate Magazine’s home region, a short walk from the brand’s art gallery spaces, and faces the Winter Art Show.
Sponsored and produced by Kultivate Magazine, the Art Show features the following artists and photographers: AlexAvion, Anjelikka, Bri Graycloud, alystiaMoonShadow, Caresia Adored, Carisa Franizzi, Carlotta Ceawlin, Catalina Staheli, Chanasitsayo, DAKOTA LAVAROCK, Eucalyptus Carroll, ilyra chardin, Jamee Sandalwood, JolieElle Parfort, John Brianna, Layachi ihnen, maaddi, Paaie, roadrabbit resident, roxaane Fyanucci, Sandi Benelli, saoirseheart, Sheba Blitz, Slatan Dryke, smalldoll resident, talligurl, tessagrace51, Tutti Kaya, Veruca Tammas, & wintergeist. All artists are also offering at least one item of art for sale with 100% of preoceeds going to Team Diabetes of Second Life.
In addition to the shopping and art, the event features two hunts with prizes to be claimed:
The Reindeer Hunt – find the reindeer scattered throughout the events and pay each of them L$10 (all proceeds to Team Diabetes of Second Life) to claim a prize.
Santa Quest – purchase a HUD for L$150 from the kiosk near the landing point and help put Santa together again after he crashed his sleigh! Find the pieces, put things together and claim ten prizes.
Established in 1940, the American Diabetes Association is working to both prevent and cure diabetes in all it forms, and to help improve the lives of all those affected by diabetes. It does this by providing objective and credible information and resources about diabetes to communities, and funding research into ways and means of both managing and curing the illness. In addition, the Association gives voice to those denied their rights as a consequence of being affected by diabetes.
About Team Diabetes of Second life
Team Diabetes of Second Life is an official and authorised fund-raiser for the American Diabetes Association in Second Life. Established with the aim of raising funds in support of diabetes treatment and to raise awareness of the disease in SL, Team Diabetes of Second Life was founded by Jessi2009 Warrhol and John Brianna (Johannes1977 Resident), and is served by an advisory board comprising Eleseren Brianna, Veruca Tammas, Sandie Loxingly, Rob Fenwitch, Earth Nirvana and Dawnbeam Dreamscape, with Saiyge Lotus serving as a special advisor.
millay Freschi – studying the relationship between our physical and avatar selves
At the end of September, Gentle Heron sent me a note card concerning a study being carried out by millay Freschi focused on our relationships with our avatar, other SL users, the group we belong to, and so on. The survey is still open, and millay is still seeking people willing to participate (a link to the survey is at the end of this article). Also included in the note card was feedback from millay on her initial findings from the survey, which also offered me the chance to chat in more detail with millay about her work and plans for the study.
In the physical world, millay is Amy E. Cross, a PhD candidate in an Interdisciplinary Programme at the University of Maine, and the study forms a core part of her dissertation. “I’m compiling information and research on the components of the avatar and how they affect our lives,” she told me earlier in November. “Specifically, I’m looking at social movements as that’s been my experience in SL; but the avatar components are the brunt of the research.
“I believe that I had 500 or so respondents when I talked about my initial findings in September. That number has now risen to over 900, and my dream is to have 3,000 respondents by the time I close the survey. I would like to get an honest look at how we view ourselves, our interactions and the place itself. As a part of this, I’m also conducting interviews with people willing to talk about themselves.”
Amy E. Cross, millay’s alter ego
millay’s research is being overseen by Dr. Kristina Nielson of the University of Maine, and those participating in the study must be at least 18 years of age, and able to answer 47 questions on a range of subjects relation to their physical and digital selves. It should take around 30 minutes to complete.
“It really is an exploratory study,” millay says of it. “I want to use the information to provide a solid foundation – a baseline of experiences and responses – for researchers Second Life, so I tried to create a survey that would convey a lot of information without overwhelming the respondents. I’ll be expanding on it through the interviews I mentioned, together with observations and my own experience within SL.”
And millay does have considerable Second Life experience herself. “I didn’t actually just come here as a researcher,” she says. “I first arrived in 2007 as a physics major with an eye on maybe becoming an astronaut, drawn to Second Life simply out of curiosity, but once in-world, I was hooked!
“In 2008, I started the Four Bridges Project after working with Amnesty USA, which convinced me that peace and reconciliation studies were more in line with what I want to do.” She chuckles and adds, “I realised as well that my chances of becoming an astronaut were pretty slim!”
She continues, “As I was deciding on my graduate studies focus, I thought about who we are in this community and how what we do here, in Second Life, matter out there. So my Masters focused on virtual technology in education with a slant towards civic engagement and peace studies. My dissertation focuses on how our avatar components might play a role in virtual social activism.”
Turning to her preliminary findings, millay said, “Even in September the results were interesting, and educational for me! For example, most of the respondents at that time said they came to Second Life out of curiosity; I actually wish I had worded that response differently, as I’d like to know what gave rise to that curiosity. I’ll be so much better at the next survey! Of the 500+ responses I’d had at that time, 25% said that they came in to meet people, and 70% said they had met an SL contact in the physical world.”
Given the number of avatar profiles which carry statements like “SL is SL and RL is RL, I don’t mix the two”, this latter statistic might seem surprising; but it also might indicate an interesting bias in the nature of those taking the survey. While entirely anonymous, the questions do delve into our physical world lives; this could make it more appealing to those willing to be more open about their off-line selves than those who see a clear demarcation between “real life” and Second Life. By extension, those completing the survey may be far more comfortable with physical world meetings than might otherwise be the case.
It is because of the risk of bias within the results that millay would like to a broader cross-section of Second Life residents participate in her research. “For example,” She says, “Around 80% of the respondents up to the end of September 2017, have been in-world for six years or longer, with 40% over 10 years. While I know this is meaningful because it gives the survey a picture of a history in a way, I would dearly like to see more people who have been in-world for less than five years take the survey.”
She adds, “One of the more surprising results for me was on the subject of alts. I have several alts, probably seven or eight, which I use for money management, privacy, inventory management, and so on. But 44% of those responding up to the end of September say only have ONE avatar, I can’t even imagine! In fact, 88% are between 1 and 3. Of those with alts, 95% have a “main” avatar, and 55%, use their alt for privacy.
The survey is yielding a lot of information about people’s on-line and off-line selves and how they may (or may not) mutually inform one another, that it could lead to several additional investigations. “For example,” millay notes. “75% of respondents said that their avatars are helpful to others. That number went down to 60% with regard to their off-line personalities. I wonder why that is, and if this shouldn’t be examined more closely – The peaceful warrior in me says ‘yes!'”
Once she has completed her dissertation, millay plans to publicly share it and her findings. All things being equal I’ll be discussing her findings in a lot more details once she has published, and also exploring more about the Four Bridges Project in more detail.
Four Bridges Logo
“In short, Four Bridges is a virtual sustainable global community model founded on the four principles of respect for nature, universal human rights, economic and social justice, and a culture of peace,” millay told me as we briefly discussed the project. “Members, who include fifteen organisations from sectors such as education and non-profits as well as individuals, share resources: space, venues, media, technology, as well as knowledge and skills.
“We had two regions in-world, but I actually closed them so that I could focus on my dissertation,” millay notes. “But we’ll be reopening in 2018, probably February.”
millay is looking to close her survey on or around December 15th, although it will remain available through until the end of the year. So, I’d encourage anyone interested in helping millay in her research to hop over to the Four Bridges website sooner rather than later. There is a comprehensive lead-in providing additional information, together with a link to the survey itself – and remember, it is completely anonymous.
With thanks to millay Freschi for her time, and Gentle Heron for the heads-up, and apologies to both for the delay in getting this article to print.
After a brief stint as a ghostly setting for Halloween and a pumpkin smash fight, the Winter Wonderland is back to its former snowy glory, and the Lab has announced a date for one of the Second Life winter traditions: the Lindens vs. residents snowball challenge:
Holidays have traditions – the gathering of families, the giving of gifts, the food and merriment, and – in our case – the Linden/Resident Snowball Showdown! This is your chance to arm yourself with some sweet snow-slinging artilleri [sic], take to the sparkling ice, and attack your friends, fellow Residents, and some Lindens with snowballs galore! But, you had better be prepared to get pummeled in return, because much of the joy of the holidays is giving – even if that means giving someone a snowball sandwich when they are least expecting it. Join us at the Snowball Fight Arena on Friday – December 15th from 11 am to 1 pm (SLT) and prepare to get pummelled!
As with previous years, Winter Wonderland is a 5-region experience which, for those who haven’t visited, includes the 2-region snowball fight arena, a winter snow track for snowboard and snow mobile racing, a skating ring, a Ferris wheel, and spaces to walk. The best place to start explorations is the Village of Light, where the Lindens tend to place a seasonal gift.
This year does bring some changes to the Winter Wonderland. The race track has been revised, and a smaller version of the Village of Light can be found on the far side of the track to the main village. So, even if you’re previously visited Winter Wonderland, a repeat visit may well be worthwhile.
