Cica’s Trolland in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost, Trolland, December 2022

Cica Ghost is back with a final installation for the year as she presents Trolland, a whimsical and fun setting much in keeping with her more recent installations. It comes, as all Cica’s installations do, with a little quote that helps describe it:

A troll is a class of being in Germanic mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

This, plus the title of the installation reveal what it is all about; in this case, a total of three trolls. In this, and given my fondness for Tolkien, I couldn’t help but conjure thoughts of three trolls in particular: Bert Bill and Tom from The Hobbit. Now to be sure, these three individuals have probably done more to give trolls a bad name in the last 100 years than any single other source. Brutish, rude, thieves, uncouth in their lack of manners – and quite partial to human flesh -they are perhaps the worse kind of Troll one might imagine. But in truth, they were born of a standalone story designed to appeal as much to youngsters as adults (The Hobbit was only “retconned”, so to speak, into he broader mythology in subsequent editions, as the likes of The Lord of the Rings were more fully fleshed out for publication), rather than being representative of trolls as a whole.

Cica Ghost, Trolland, December 2022

As such, and in fairness, the creatures depicted in Cica’s installation don’t appear to be drawn from Tolkien’s story either consciously or otherwise; its just something my imagination was bound to dredge up because, as they say – J.R.R. Tolkien is Hobbit-forming (yes, I’m here through the season, folks, get your tickets from the box office!). Perhaps the presence of a camp fire with a cooking pot suspended over it also contributed to setting my imagination off on its little flight of fancy; you might (and probably will!) see things otherwise.

But that is, after all, the beauty and power of art, isn’t it? To call to our imaginations, and entice us on journeys. through their canvas and / or setting.

Cica Ghost, Trolland, December 2022

It cannot be denied that Cica’s Trolls look a lot friendlier than Tolkien’s and any grumpiness that might exude might the result of the landscape where they live. Cut through by deep channels which forced people to meander in their excursions, it may well be fun for explorers, the winding paths leading pat giant mushrooms, strange outcrops which might be rocks or petrified giant plants, some complete with wheels of stone suspended by rope from their arms to for swing-like seats, rock cars and a hidden gift.

But if you’re a troll and simply want to go from A to B to collect something? What might be a fun walk and photo opportunity for humans becomes, perhaps, an annoying chore. So, if these trolls do come off as not being especially helpful as you come across them, remember, you’re just visiting, they live here!

Cica Ghost, Trolland, December 2022

Caught under a mauve sky freckled with white clouds, a haze softening the horizon, Trolland makes for an engaging and fun visit to see out the year.

SLurl Details

Team Diabetes 2022 Winter Showcase in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Team Diabetes Winter Showcase 2022

The 2022 Team Diabetes of Second Life Winter Showcase event is currently underway in Second Life and will run through until December 14th, 2022. As with previous years, the event includes live performers, DJs, dancing, ice skating, and the Winter Showcase for shopping and the Kultivate Winter Art show. All of which is 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.

As is traditional for the event, it occupies one half of the Kultivate Magazine home region, with the Showcase shops for merchants and artists boutique style galleries bracketing the  central events and activities area. The merchants paricipating in this years event are:

Potomac Homes, Ever Green, !!Firelight!!, Pendragon Designs, Studio Line, MG Designs, Couture Chapeau, Dalrymple Designs, ART & FASHION, Artisan Antiques, Cosmos Boutique, Broomsticks & Cauldrons, The Undiscovered Jewel, QUE RICO Deign, Angel Fae Boutique, Fire Within, Peeps, Tchelo’s, PAJAMARAMA, Dollicide, Llama Inc, BE BOLD, Manikin, L’Artistan, DINKIEWEAR, Telsiope’s Couture, ::GK::, The Annex, Mystical Dreams and Fashion, & The Front Porch

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 full shopping guide can be found on the Team Diabetes of Second Life website.

The artists participating in the art show are: Bagnu Resident, Chic Aeon, Eucalyptus Carroll, Hannah Starlight, HarlowJamison Resident, Jamee Sandalwood, Jessamine2108 Resident, Llola Lane, maggiemagenta, Myra Wildmist, & Johannes Huntsman

All artists are also offering at least one item of art for sale with 100% of proceeds going to Team Diabetes of Second Life.

In addition to the shopping and art, the event features a special hunt with prizes to be claimed. The 2022 Reindeer Hunt is an open hunt with tiny reindeer scattered throughout the 2019 Winter Showcase, in stores and in art displays. Find each reindeer and pay L$10 to receive a prize. 100% proceeds of the hunt goes to Team Diabetes of Second Life.

Team Diabetes 2021 Winter showcase

There is also daily entertainment through the event, with the remain days comprising (all times SLT):

  • Saturday, December 10, 2022, 12:00 noon SLT: live performer Grace Loudon
  • Sunday, December 11, 2022, 1300 SLT: live performer Kris Composer
  • Monday, December 12, 2022: TBA
  • Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 17:00 SLT: live performer Angelikus
  • Wednesday, December 14, 2022:
    • 16:00 SLT: live performer Max Kleene
    • 17:00 SLT: live performer Khiron
    • 23:59 SLT: Reindeer Hunt and Winter Showcase End

See the Team Diabetes 2022 Winter Showcase pages for more information on the event.

About the American Diabetes Association

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 (Johannes1977 Resident).

Additional Links

2022 Puppetry project week #49 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Puppetry demonstration via Linden Lab – see below.  Demos video with the LL comment “We have some basic things working with a webcam and Second Life but there’s more to do before it’s as animated as we want.”

The following notes have been taken from chat logs and audio recording of the Thursday, December 8th Puppetry Project meetings held at the Castelet Puppetry Theatre on Aditi. These meetings are generally held on alternate weeks to the Content Creation User Group (CCUG), on same day / time (Thursdays at 13:00 SLT).

Notes in these summaries are not intended to be a full transcript of every meeting, but to highlight project progress / major topics of discussion.

Project Summary

  • Previously referred to as “avatar expressiveness”, Puppetry is intended to provide a means by which avatars can mimic physical world actions by their owners (e.g. head, hand, arm movements) through tools such as a webcam and using technologies like inverse kinematics (IK) and the  LLSD Event API Plug-in (LEAP) system.
    • Note that facial expressions and finger movements are not currently enabled.
    • Most movement is in the 2D plain (e.g., hand movements from side-to-side but not forward / back), due to limitations with things like depth of field tracking through a webcam, which has yet to be addressed.
  • The back-end support for the capability is only available on Aditi (the Beta grid) and within the following regions: Bunraku, Marionette, and Castelet.
  • Puppetry requires the use of a dedicated viewer, the Project Puppetry viewer, available through the official Second Life Alternate Viewers page.
  • No other special needs beyond the project viewer are required to “see” Puppetry animations. However, to use the capability to animate your own avatar and broadcast the results, requires additional work – refer to the links below.
  • There is now a Puppetry Discord channel – those wishing to join it should contact members of LL’s puppetry team, e.g. Aura Linden, Simon Linden, Rider Linden, Leviathan Linden (not a full list of names at this time – my apologies to those involved whom I have missed).

Bugs, Feature Requests and Code Submissions

  • For those experimenting with Puppetry, Jiras (bug reports / fixes or feature requests) should be filed with “[Puppetry]” at the start of the Jira title.
  • There is also a public facing Kanban board with public issues – those experiencing issues can also contact Wulf Linden.
  • Those wishing to submit code (plug-ins or other) or who wish to offer a specific feature that might be used with Puppetry should:

Further Information

Meeting Notes

Viewer and Plug-in Updates

  • A new version of the Puppetry project viewer – version 6.6.8.576972 was issued on December 8th, available on the Alternate Viewers page (until a further version is issued).
    • This version includes an overhaul to the protocol used between LEAP plug-ins and the viewer. For example, Inverse Kinematics calculations are done earlier in the process which will make viewer performance better when more than one avatar is using Puppetry.
    • Please be certain to use both a new viewer and a new set of plug-ins from https://github.com/secondlife-3p, and update any projects or code you might be working on.
    • This version may have a crash bug.
  • Leviathan Linden is still working on updating the wiki documentation to reflect the new API.
Leviathan Linden demonstrating the use of puppetry to move his avatar whilst doing the “pane of glass” mime in front of a suitable capture device. Note that his legs remain static (moving in line with his hips) as puppetry does not (yet) support full body tracking
We changed the way Puppetry expects to get its data for two reasons: 1) we want to only do IK for your own avatar, then just send the joint rotations to everybody else; 2) if someone writes a plug-in that happens to know best what all the joint rotations should be (e.g. it has done its own IK, or is doing full mocap) then it can just specify all parent-frame rotations of the joints. So, now that THAT plug-in mode is unblocked, we can start trying to fix our own IK.

– Leviathan Linden explaining the changes to the way puppetry and managed by the viewer

In Brief

  • There are currently no updates to the Inverse Kinematics (IK); it is described as being “hard”.
  • It has been suggested that the viewer could “do more” in respects of IK, etc.
    • However, this information needs to be transmitted to other viewers able to “see” what is going on, which requires messaging and updates through the simulator, which can lead to the viewer being less than trustworthy in terms of what it is showing and what is going on (due to missed updates, etc due to the bandwidth load).
    • But, if the simulator is tasked with managing all the computations for IK and sending the results to connected viewers (reducing the amount of traffic and potential loss of messaging), it puts a potentially high compute load on the simulator (imagine the simulator trying to manage the IK for 50+ avatars at an event, tracking the movement, interactions, etc.).
    • A potential trade off here is to have a viewer run the IK calculations for the avatar it is controlling, and package that information for streaming to other viewers connected to the region’s simulator with minimal sanity checking (e.g. to ensure the avatar’s position in the viewer is properly constrained to within a few metres of its location as calculated by the simulator). On receipt, the sanity-checked data can then be played back without the need for the receiving viewer having to carry out IK calculations for itself on the avatar(s) it is “watching”, and carrying out some minimal sanity checks of its own.
  • Rider Linden is investigating having the simulator track the motion from a puppetry viewer in a way that does not impact simulator performance “too badly”. The options he’s looking at are:
    • Having the simulator suck the data out of the puppetry messages as they are sent through it, or
    • Using a new message the viewer can use to report the locations of it’s attachment points, and the simulator tracks these – which Rider sees as the preferred option.
    • This later method could – among other things – be expanded to work with animations in general. In addition, if tied tied in to the entire animation system (viewer computes its animation frame puppetry+legacy) to produce results, then the results could be made to scripts.
    • In regards to interfaces for this, Rider is of the opinion that scripts should reference attachment points since those can act as proxies for bone locations and most general creators, scripters and residents are familiar with them. and it avoids having to introduce a new concept of bones into LSL.
  • Collisions: the above spawned a related discussion on providing additional data such as geometry information (e.g. spherical bounding radius or a shape approximation) to allow collisions to be enabled from IK, and allowing “snap to” functionality (e.g. you reach for a glass and the avatar hand snaps to it on detecting the collision).
    • However, rather than allowing allow physics collisions on an attachment points (which might over-complicate the avatar model in the Havok physics engine), Rider suggested having a property (sphere) that could be set on an attachment that enabled it as a physics volume.
My thought is that collision aware attachment points, along with being able to detect and set their positions in space will be enough to get us 90% of the way towards being able to hold hands in world.

– Rider Linden

  • Leviathan noted there was a bug where an avatar with non-unity scale on its bones would be broken under puppetry (misalignment of bones). This should now be fixed, but it allowed him to add the theoretical ability to modify the scale of a joint in its parent-frame (an example plug-in script to demonstrate ho this works has yet to be written).

Date of Next Meeting

  • Thursday, January 19th, 2023, 13:00 SLT.

A Calas Christmas Wish 2022 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022 – click any image for full size

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

So goes the first stanza of the 1972 poem, A Christmas Carol, by Christina Rossetti, and which is perhaps known since 1906 – when it was set to music by Gustav Holst – as the seasonal hymn, In the Bleak Midwinter. It’s an odd poem in many ways, confusing the hard, cold winters of the Victorian era with the warmer climes of the Middle East and the birthplace of Christ.

A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022

But putting the religious cast of the poem to one side, that first stanza does capture the essential point that winter can be an especially hard time for all; the weather can be bitter; snow, whilst fun for some, can also be isolating in many ways; the days are short and can often be leaden with heavy cloud or dulled by freezing fog which refuses the Sun’s urges to burn itself away, and so on.

That said, even in the depths of Midwinter do come times to celebrate, to revel – if just for a moment or two – in that the same snow on water gives the latter the strength of stone as it lay sheathed in ice; that we might look to the end of the year in joy, and perhaps think of the coming year and the opportunities it may hold and the joy it may bring. In short and despite the cold, the end of year and its association with winter within the northern hemisphere can be a special, precious time, with traditions aplenty.

A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022

Within Second Life, one of the greatest of those traditions is the Calas Galadhon Christmas / Winter setting with its two regions of snow, entertainment, ice skating, dancing, sledding, balloon tours, sleigh rides, and lots of opportunities for photograph and exploration.

The theme for this year is once again A Christmas Wish, which this year is located on the regions of Midwinter and Midwinter 2 (the region names giving me the excuse to quote Rossetti’s A Christmas Carol!). This is perhaps actually a more relaxed setting than previous years with a greater sense of an open wilderness marked by snow and bounded by woodland and off-region surround elements which add to its since of remoteness and romance; all of which all come together under the guiding hands of Ty Tenk and Truck Meredith to offer a setting with a familiar mix of time-honoured elements and new trails to wander.

A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022

Visits begin at the skybox landing point for those visiting for the first time. On arrival, new visitors are offered a copy of the music events schedule in texture form and a notecard of landmarks for direct teleporting to various locations within the regions, together with the option of visiting the Calas Galadhon website. From here, follow the candy stripe arrows across an icy landscape to where the portal to the regions awaits (if you’ve never done so before, you’ll be asked to join the local Calas Galadhon Experience in order to complete the teleport down to the ground level), where your explorations proper may begin.

Of course, the centrepiece for the setting remains the Pavilion, rich in its holiday / Christmas looks and home to the music and entertainment – check just inside the main entrance for dates and times of events, or join the Calas Galadhon in-world group for notices if you did not collect a copy of the schedule from the landing point. This sits above the giant skating rink at the northern end of the trails winding up from the ground-level landing point, allowing people to wander through the landscape, explore, take photos and find the little cosy spots indoors and out along the way by which to rest and maybe enjoy a cuddle or two.

A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022

Around the frozen waters of the ice skating lake can be found other familiar touches – the Calas Polar Express, the balloon tour, the winter lodge and the fine dining pavilion with their own opportunities for dancing. For those who prefer, there are the sleigh tours alongside the landing point to carry you around the setting. Capable of carrying up to four, depending on which you select, they give the excuse of keeping a sense of warmth and you huddle under blankets and watch the sights of the region sliding by. Not far from the sleigh rides, and at the start of the Pavilion trail, is a horse rezzer for those who fancy time exploring on horseback.

A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022

The Calas Christmas regions are always a popular destination, and avatars can place the heaviest load on the viewer, consider keeping your avatar dressed accordingly, use Bakes on Mesh, and avoid outfits that utilise multiple high-res unique textures. Also, to assist the simulators, do lighten your script load.

Also, keep in mind that because the regions are popular, you may want to make adjustment to your viewer to help with processing: reduce the maximum number of fully-rendered avatars, perhaps turn off shadow rendering, if used (other than for photography), drop your draw distance, etc.

A Calas Christmas Wish, December 2022

But above all, enjoy your visit!

SLurl Details

Note that the Midwinter estate is rated Moderate.

Lab announces 2022 seasonal events and offers

Posted on by Inara Pey
Winter Wonderland

On Thursday, December 8th, Linden Lab announced the core Lab-supported / provided winter / Christmas seasonal events for 2022 in Second Life.

Winter Wonderland and Annual Snowball Fight

As usual, headlining the season is the re-opening of the Winter Wonderland regions. These bring with them the familiar Village of Lights, snowboarding, snowmobiling, ice-skating, snowy walks and more. Plus, as always the snowball fight arena, open for casual and group games – and, of course, the annual Lindens (and Moles vs. residents snowball fights.

The battles take place on Monday, December 19th, 202 from 10:00-11:00 SLT and 14:00-15:00 SLT. Spots are limited, so be sure to get there early to grab your free snow-launching weaponry from the vendors around the arena, and be sure to read and accept the local Experience.

Seasonal Gifts and Offers

This year, gifts are available through two options:

  • Limited Premium / Premium Plus subscribers seasonal gift  – a holiday light kit for your Linden Home available through the Premium Gift kiosks.
  • The December Premium / Premium Plus land offer in Second Life – no set-up fees on regions ordered during the month, as previously announced – read here for more.
  • A limited selection of seasonal Last Names.

Shop and Hop

The 2022 Holiday Shop & Hop this year with 320 participating Merchants across 16 shopping regions, bringing you loads of festive fun! Every store will have at least a 20% discount on all items and a free (non-group) gift for shoppers or a gift certificate valued at L$300 or above! Check the Shop & Hop blog post for more – including the event SLurls.

Previewing The Dickens Project 2022 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Dickens Project, a seasonal celebration of the life, times and work of Charles Dickens with a focus on what is perhaps his most famous story, A Christmas Carol, officially opens to the public on Thursday, December 8th 2022s.

Now a tradition within Second Life – the first edition of the event was held in 2012 (and which itself grew out of a special presentation made in 2008), the Dickens Project offers a mix of reading, storytelling, music, events and activities, each year introducing something new to the mix to add a little more magic for visitors to enjoy – and 2022 is no exception.

Organised by Seanchai Library, The Dickens Project presents visitors with an immersive environment across two regions evocative of Victorian England in Dickens’ time and which is both home to settings from A Christmas Carol and stage upon which a range of events and activities take place throughout the Project’s month-long run, which concludes on January 3rd, 2023. However, this year’s event brings with it some changes.

This year we challenged a lot of assumptions about how we configured the land to tell the story, so Dickens Project fans will discover is a layout that is very different from past Projects, but still has narrative sense. It feels like a lot ‘more’, somehow, and yet will still have the friendly familiarity that many will expect.

Caledonia Skytower, Seanchai Library

The Dickens Project 2022 Edition

One of the key changes this year is the use of an Experience based teleport system and a skybound Landing Point.  The latter provides a map of the event’s two regions, information in events and requirements for visiting The Dickens Project (e.g. Victorian era costumes are not required, but if visitors wish to dress the part, they are welcome to do so).  This landing point also includes a series of teleport portals to different points within the setting – and this is where the Experience teleport system comes into play.

On walking through any of the portals for the first time, visitors to The Dickens Project 2022 visitors will be asked to accept the local Experience, allowing the portals to teleport them to their destination. Note that in keeping with the SL Experience system, acceptance only needs to be done once; thereafter all teleports through any portals will be seamless. This approach means that the regions themselves lack a common welcome area visitors to previous Dickens Project events might otherwise anticipate, but it also means visitors can have a greater freedom of exploration.

The Dickens Project 2022 Edition

Joining Seanchai Library in presenting the event this year are Virtual Community Radio, Innsmouth in SL and The Community Virtual Library, who will again provide research and information on Victorian life in the time of Dickens’ works. For 2022, the Project and its activities include:

  • Two scenic regions to explore and enjoy.
  • Live music, DJ sets, spoken word, dance events and performances.
  • Dozens of performers, presenters.
  • Educational and interpretive content featuring different aspects of Victorian life.
  • Horse rambler tour, and a hot air balloon ride.

In addition:

  • Four different dance companies – Idle Rogue Productions, TerpsiCorps Dance, Misfit Dance and Performance Art SL, and Virtuoso Dance – will present unique performances through the event.
  • Eclipse Club and Resort will contribute music sets in addition to a variety of independent DJs and musicians.
  • SL Hawks Aerobatic Team will return for a single performance of their popular “Ghost Flights of Christmas” air show in the skies above Dickens Harbour, this season with wing walkers.
The Dickens Project 2022 Edition

Of course, no edition of the The Dickens Project would be complete without Carol Week, featuring readings of A Christmas Carol. However, for 2022, things will be done a little differently. The week will begin with The Big Read on Sunday, December 18th at 12:00 noon SLT. This relay-style presentation involves a chorus of voices in a continuous reading of Dickens’ famous novella from the beginning to end. Following this, there will be daily readings of the story from December 19th, 2002 through to December 22nd, each day presenting a stave of A Christmas Carol within the various locations within the regions inspired by the story.

To keep up-to-date on the Project and its daily events, be sure to keep an eye on the Seanchai Library website and the Dickens Project calendar.

The Dickens Project 2022 Edition

About Seanchai Library

Seanchai Library (pronounced Shawn-a-kee, which means “Storyteller” in Irish Gaelic.) was founded in March of 2008 in Second Life. The program remains dedicated to promoting the power of stories to transform and inspire through live voice presentations: “We bring stories of all kinds to life, in Second Life and other virtual worlds.”

In presenting The Dickens Project 2022 Edition, Seanchai Library acknowledge the support and sponsorship of Linden Lab and the particular support of Patch Linden and the Land Team.

Links and SLurls