December 2022 Second Life Web User Group summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, December 7th, 2022.

These meetings:

  • Are held in-world, generally on the first Wednesday of the month – see the SL public calendar.
  • Are usually chaired by Reed Linden, who is the Lab’s Product Manager for the Second Life front-end web properties (Marketplace, secondlife.com, the sign-up pages, the Lab’s corporate pages, etc.).

A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found embedded at the end of this article (my thanks to her as always!), and subject timestamps to the relevant points in the video are provided. Again, the following is a summary of key topics / discussions, not a full transcript of everything mentioned.

Marketplace

Marketplace Elastic Search Overhaul

[Video: 4:29-7:00]

  • The drive to get the MP search updates release is continuing.
    • It had been hoped that this would be completed by US Thanksgiving, but last minutes issues resulting from the sheer size / volume of the MP (which cannot be replicated in test environments) prevented this from being achieved.
    • The aim is now as soon as everything is working as anticipated.
    • Those using the Marketplace recently may have noticed some glitches with search – this has been due to the Search team banging on things under the hood in order to get the updates deployed.
  • This work is essentially the same kind of back-end update as carried out with Web search a few months ago, with the emphasis on faster, more robust performance, together with new search options, including:
    • Merchant and store names will no long be searched in product searches.
    • Wildcard (e.g. using *) will be possible.
    • Better exact matching against search terms
    • The back-end supports fuzzy matching to better handle typos when inputting searches.
    • There should be a noticeable increase in speed of search results being returned.
  • Once running, these updates will allow LL to add-in the relevance engine AI to the Marketplace search (as a separate API entity to the relevance engine already running on the web search).

Marketplace Styles

[Video: 7:15-7:54]

  • Work will resume on Marketplace Styles (allowing multiple colours, etc., for an item to appear within a single listing rather than each requiring its own listing) as soon as the MP Search updates are officially enabled. As such, Styles will not be deployed in 2022, but will be the first MP update for deployment in 2023.
  • It will obviously be up to merchants as to whether they use it to group variances in a product within a single listing or continue to list them separately – single listings for multiple versions of an item will not be mandatory.

Marketplace Refresh / Rebuild

  • This is still being looked at as a primary project for development and possible initial deployment in 2023, and as such will likely form a focal point for discussions and feedback through Web User Group meetings in 2023.
  • The work will at least comprise a refresh of the Marketplace appearance and the addition of further desired functionality; because of this, there is a push within LL to completely rebuild the Marketplace from the ground-up.
  • [Video 13:54-14:05] Any rebuild of the Marketplace would not require merchants to re-upload there items: a migration of listings from the current MP to any new MP would be provided.

New “Plus” Subscription Level and Beyond

[Video: 8:00-10:34]

  • The Plus subscription level was launched on November 18th, 2022 – for details please refer to the official blog post and my own reporting on the release.
  • Work is continuing to bed this in alongside of the other subscription options.
  • The Lab is generally pleased that the majority of users appeared to understand what they were trying to achieve within the introduction of Plus.
  • Plus is the last of the currently-planned subscription options the Lab has on the boards, and there are currently no plans to make further offerings available.
  • However, consideration is still being given to providing future possible options, such as:
    • A “Premium A-la Carte” level whereby your subscription fees are based on the options you select from a list.
    • Subscriptions based on specific interests (such as a “creator subscription”.
    • BUT these are only in the “Soon™” phase, indicating they are a feature or capability Linden Lab would like to implement, but which is not far enough along in development to determine if or when it might / could / will be implemented.
  • [Video 21:19-22:42] Will subscriptions ever support payment in Linden Dollars?
    • This is being considered, although the overall implications, etc., have yet to be fully understood.
    • In particular, it could have ramifications on the status of the Linden Dollar (which is not at present regarded as a virtual currency, but could be if it were to become a recognised payment system for benefits.
    • As such this is an idea that is not even in the “Soon™” criteria of thinking; however, there is an internal goal to make it possible to pay for “all things” SL-related in L$ – the questions are really what will this do to the Linden Dollar in making it a virtual currency; how will that effect how the LindeX will function / be regulated, how Tilia can support such a move, etc.

In Brief & Q&A

Video, 17:00 onwards, unless indicated.

  • [Video: 12:10-12:54] Real-time population stats:
    • The Lab is working on improving the ability for the Destination Guide to provide a real-time reflection of the number of avatars within a specific in-world location.
    • Should this be achievable, the capability will be extended into Search so that Places searches will return the number of avatars within the location at the time of the search.
    • This work might be completed by 2022 year-end.
    • [Video: 14:20-14:54] Concerns were raised over the use of unregistered bots (i.e. avatars not correctly flagged as Scripted Agents) to game the numbers. LL is aware of the unregistered bot issue across Second Life, but outside of users reporting them on finding them, there is no easy solution to this issue.
  • [Video: 19:00-19:36] With the acquisition of CasperTech, will Caspertech Drop Boxes and vendors be integrated into the Marketplace?  Yes. However, what form this will take and when it might be undertaken has yet to be determined internally at the Lab / with Casper Warden.
  • [Video: 23:22-29:42 + via text earlier in the meeting] The suggestion was made to make OpenSpace regions (aka Void or Water regions – not to be confused with the 2008 OpenSpace offering which morphed into Homesteads in 2009) as a part of a “Super Premium” offering (+ a nominal tier fee on to of the subscription fee) purely for use as private homes.
    • These regions have a Land Capacity of 1000, and are limited to 10 concurrent avatars, and are regarded as being for light use and a special purchase via support with the requirement that the purchaser must hold at least one Full private region.
    • While the idea was taken under advisement, such a offer could still impact the existing private estate market, and so would have to be considered carefully.
  • The OpenSpace discussion further raised the idea of having these regions potentially on an on-demand basis (e.g. only spun-up when avatars are present within the regions. H
    • However, it was pointed out that regions, whether “up” or “down” require grid slots, and the infrastructure configurations means that grid slots have underpinning hardware, so there is still a potential hardware cost, regardless of whether a region is spun up for use or not.
    • As such, this cost impact would have to be resolved in order for regions (or a specific region type) to be made available through an on-demand system.
  • [Video; 30:11-30:35] Land ownership Overhaul:
    • As noted in previous WUG summaries, this is a complete re-write of every route by which users can obtain and hold land, from Premium (+Plus) Linden Homes, obtaining Mainland (incl. Abandoned Land), and private island regions, and renting from private estates.
    • A focus at the moment is on defining what “land” and the associated terms around it actually means (e.g. what is “renting land”? Where can land be rented? How is it rented?, etc.) .
    • The first element that will be surfaced is a new Land Portal, a central hub from which to get to all aspects of land “ownership”.
  • For all other discussion points,  please refer to the video below.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, January 4th, 2023. Venue and time per top of this summary.

 

 

Mareea’s Enchanted Garden in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
IMAGOLand Gallery: Mareea Farrasco – Enchanted Gardens

Enchanted Garden is the title Mareea Farrasco has given to a small exhibition of her own work available at her IMAGOLand gallery. Comprising just 10 paintings reproduced within Second Life, it is nevertheless an engaging exhibition, taking visitors literally and figuratively on a walk through a garden whilst asking a question.

The paintings are of a classical nature, encompassing themes and styles familiar to any lover of art: nature, women in flowing gowns, hints of faery and fantasy, ideals of love and marriage, summer days with fields of flowers and lavender, and so on. They are presented with a dream-like finish, the haze and soft form suggesting horizons and ideals which extend far beyond the edge of the canvas.

IMAGOLand Gallery: Mareea Farrasco – Enchanted Gardens

Looking at these images, it is hard not to see within them the echoes of great painters mixed with the imagination of a modern-day dreamer with the rich range of image manipulation tools at her disposal and an imagination capable of carrying us on the wings of story to wherever our own imaginations and dreams choose to alight.

At least three of the pieces paint a story of their own: one of a wedding, the bride and her maids – possible post-ceremony – caught in moments of contemplation (or lightness) within a garden. Posed they might be, as all such wedding photographs are, they encompass both s sense of the romantic painters of a bygone age and the artificial construct of a posed photograph in a manner that might be seen through a certain lens as, well, kitsch.

It’s a sense evident within the other paintings to different degrees, and in using the term I am not in any way denigrating Mareea’s work; for in presenting these pieces, she asks us to define what is kitsch.

IMAGOLand Gallery: Mareea Farrasco – Enchanted Gardens

Often used in a pejorative manner to express the feeling that a piece of art – visual, written or musical – is naïve, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste. “Kitsch” is a term that at its height became – ironically – somewhat passé, the means by which not so much to pass a critique but to demonstrate our own hipness. However, the term has other connotations; some kitsch art can, for example, be appreciated for the irony or humour or quirky nature without it being visually offensive.

More particularly, Kitsch as a statement has been around for long enough that it might itself be considered an aesthetic category and style of its own; and it is this idea Mareea explores through these ten images. For while they may well encompass themes and elements we might – in different ways – require as “kitsch”: the flowers in the hair, the “soft focus”, the posed nature, the themes of gardens and faeries, there can be no denying that each piece within this collection is beautifully executed as a work of art, and the pieces collective are an expression of art and talent that is richly evocative. As an adjunct to this, Mareea also asks us to consider kitsch more widely, pointing our thinking – if we are so inclined – towards how it might be considered as broadly as within the topic of politics…

IMAGOLand Gallery: Mareea Farrasco – Enchanted Gardens

However, I’ll leave that for you to discover and close this piece by saying this is a engaging, easy-to-view selection of art, whether you opt to see it in its own light, or through the lens Mareea casts upon it in her introduction.

SLurl Details

2022 SUG meetings week #49 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Perpetuity, October 2022 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 6th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

This week will see all simhosts on all channels restarted, but no deployments.

The hoped-for RC release (which includes a fix for BUG-229301 “Maximum Memory allowable by scripts not being reset until teleport or relog”) has been delayed as a result of a fix being required for an odd crash which could cause some regions to crash on starting. This has now been resolved, but the fix needs to pass through a QA cycle before any release is made, so the deployment should now occur in week #50.

Available Official Viewers

This list reflects those viewers available via Linden Lab.

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.7.576223 – MFA and TOS hotfix viewer – November 1 – 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).
    • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576737, November 28.
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer version 6.6.8.576863 Monday, December 5.
    • VS  2022 RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576310, issued November 4 – utilises Visual Studio 2022 in the Windows build tool chain.
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.576966, December 3 – this viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.
    • Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.3.575529,  issued on October 12.
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 6 graphics improvements project viewer 6.6.2.573263, July 21.

In Brief

Refer to the video below for more information on the following:

  • There is a generic Puppetry-related discussion (Kinnect), but as there is a Puppetry meeting due on December 8th, so any updates will be covered in my summary of that meeting.
  • There is a similar generic discussion on the complexities of the PBR Materials Project, which is covered in my CCUG updates.
  • A discussion on potential LSD bugs / issues – no specifics from LL’s side, as Rider Linden (who runs the LSD project) was absent the meeting.

 

A Frogmore Winterset in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Winterset Hollow, December 2022 – click any image for full size
It was back to a wintry setting for me recently after an invitation of region Holder Tolla Crisp to visit a seasonal offshoot of her Frogmore estate regions: Winterset Hollow. Designed by Tolla and her go-to landscaper, Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington), the region is intended to offer a Swedish-style winter setting – as its name suggests.
A Frogmore Christmas Region from Tolla Crisp and Terry Fotherington. Enjoy your stay in our Swedish inspired winter village.

– Winterset Hollow About Land.

Winterset Hollow, December 2022
By dint of my viewer hiccupping, I arrived within the region with my viewer settings reflecting the environment of the region I had just departed – a night with a Moon low in the sky. It was actually a set of environment settings which suited Winterset Hallow, and so I retained it for some of the photos taken as I flycammed through the region and have included them here. With the landing point located towards the centre of the region, this is a place blended into the surrounding snowy mountains to present the idea of a town deep within the rugged Swedish countryside, one perhaps cut-off from the rest of the world by the snowbound weather.
Winterset Hollow, December 2022
A long central cobbled street climbs (or descends, depending on your point of view!) through the middle of this blanketed town as it sits as if within a deep valley, houses and small places of business on either side. At the top end of this street is the local chapel, providing it with a commanding view back down over the town and its old fountain. Sitting with its water frozen, the latter is also overlooked the local coffee house. All of the business are furnished, with many of the houses either fully or partially furnished, offering many points for exploration (and escaping the snow!), although for those who prefer, there is outdoor seating as well. At the far end of the street compared to the chapel, a pair of holy-wrapped street lamps mark the steps descending to where a covered bridge spans a frozen body of water to where more steps slope down to what might – but for the snow – be a country road.
Winterset Hollow, December 2022
The broad expanse of snow curves north to come to an end before woodland with trees frosted with snow, naked branches reaching upwards and a narrow path winding between them. This path leads the way to where a pond has been converted into a skating rink, and else well-defined paths path onwards through the trees to snow-covered farmland tucked beneath the rocky arm on which the little town sits. To the south, the road continues to arc around the foot of the town, passing between it and a shoulder of a hill on which a trio of cabins sit. From here, and in summer, the road climbs the southern hills before ending in another tree-enclosed trail above the town. However, for winter, this rising road has perhaps been converted into a ski run complete with lift rising upslope beside it. at its upper reach, the slope offers a large deck built out over the hilltop, providing clear views of the surrounding mountains.
Winterset Hollow, December 2022
Whether you view the slope leading up to it as a road or not doesn’t matter; the deck, set with tables and with food and hot drinks on offer, propane heaters warming the air to make it a welcoming look and feel. Across from it, the little ski lodge provides snowboards for those wishing to make a fast descent back down the hill. Beyond the deck and ski lodge, the winding path runs between the tree to where a large, partially-furnished house sits above and separated from the rest of the town. Perhaps it is a private dwelling or perhaps it is a guest house; either way, it faces a footpath dropping down a short slope to where smaller houses flank a playground and the path connects back to the town’s chapel. before dropping away again to reach the northern farmlands under their blanket of heavy snow.
Winterset Hollow, December 2022
Rich in detail (and admittedly, a little heavy on viewer performance even with the recent improvements), Winterset Hollow offers a lot to see and photograph – including the local wildlife – and makes for an engaging visit, rich in a sense of the season and to enjoy. My thanks to Tolla for the invite!
Winterset Hollow, December 2022

SLurl Details

Junction Points at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

The law of polarity (aka the law of opposites) states the idea that everything has an opposite: with every day, there is a night; for every moment of sadness there will come a corresponding one of joy; for every electron there is a positron; every life ends in death, and so on. It’s a notion akin to Chinese yin and yang; and like that philosophical concept, it suggests that these opposites, if not directly joined, are interconnected at some level.

It is this interconnectedness – this duality, if you will – that is the focus of the December exhibition now open at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas. And like many exhibitions there, it is an exhibition that is layered in potential interpretation.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

Entitled Junction Points, it as presented by Selen Minotaur, and features both 2D and 3D pieces (together with a machinima), and in describing it, Selen focuses on the idea of duality inherent in the law of polarity, and the importance of finding balance:

We live, in fact, in duality: high-low, left-right, chiaroscuro, good-bad, day-night, healthy-sick, cold-hot, north-south, etc. Duality teaches us what we prefer to experience and helps us recognise how to change our way of thinking to create that preferred experience in our lives. We know we prefer happiness because we have known sorrow. We love health because we have known sickness.
The challenge, for everyone, is therefore to find the points of junction, those which make it possible to feel “ONE”, in symbiosis and in balance with oneself, with the others and with the universe.

– Selen Minotaur

In reflection of this, the images and sculpture forming the exhibition offer elements of duality throughout, together with their inherent points of connection. In doing so, she presents pieces that are both highly visual whilst frequently offering insight and commentary on life and the human condition.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

Take 1+1=3 for example. It suggests two people caught in a dance or coming together in greeting / celebration, and about to clasp hands. Between them is a third individual placed in a front split, feet touching both of the standing figures. Set on a backdrop of geometric forms, it is a piece visual rich in ideas of duality, reflection, and connection. More deeply, however, it might be said to reflect the basic truth that the singularity of life (symbolised by the middle figure connecting the two upright figures, complete with hair growing into a tree-like form – the tree being itself a symbol of life) is born out of the duality of two people becoming a unity.

Across the hall, Double Sided offers a a commentary on our need to at times being both striking in our looks and gaining the attention of others and for our need to to be private, as symbolised by the use of shaded glasses and the hat in one  half of the image. Thus, on a deeper level it offers a metaphor for the fact that we are, by turns, both social and gregarious creatures whilst also creatures of needing solitude and privacy, and somewhere between the two is that junction point of nature where me might be most true to ourselves.

Within the 3D pieces, both Mood Swing and Depth are especially layered in interpretation, offering ideas on the manner in which we need to find balance within the see-sawing of our emotions both for our onw piece of mind and our relationships to others; through our perceptions of self and those around us, and the fact that we can seem at time to be incredibly deep and at other extraordinarily shallow, with the junction between the two being whom we really are.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Selen Minotaur – Junction Points

Visually expressive, rich in context and (again) supported by lighting and elements by Adwehe on behalf of Dido and the Gallery, Junction Points is an exhibition well worth spending time pondering. However, when visiting, do make sure you have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked; no need to have Shadows enabled as well) in order to see all of the pieces in the installation correctly.

SLurl Details

2022 viewer release summaries week #48

Posted on by Inara Pey

Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, December 4th, 2022

This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
  • Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.7.576223 – MFA and TOS hotfix viewer – November 1 – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts::
    • Performance Floater / Auto-FPS RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576737, November 28
    • Maintenance P (Preferences, Position and Paste) RC viewer, version 6.6.8.576863, December 5 (updated as this summary was being prepped).
  • Project viewers:
    • glTF / PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.576966, December 3 – this viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links