Seanchai Library: mystery and fantasy in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library – and this week previews the launch of a very special event.

As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Sunday, September 11th, 13:30: Evil Under the Sun

A Seanchai Library special event at SLEA.

The are times when even Belgian ex-pat detective Hercule Poirot needs a break from his chosen vocation; so when the opportunity arises for him to enjoy a holiday in Devon at the Jolly Roger Hotel (inspired by the Burgh Island Hotel) located on a tidal island just off the south Devonshire coast, he looks forward to the chance of a little R&R. 

Evil Under the Sun – a Seanchai Library special event

Whilst at the hotel, he encounters the other guests, notably Arlena Marshall who, desire being at the hotel with her husband Kenneth and step-daughter Linda, spends a lot of her time flirting with Patrick Redfern – much to the anger of Redfern’s wife, Christine and the disgust of her step-daughter. Also among the guests is Rosamund Darnley, who was once sweethearts with Kenneth Marshall.

Trying to keep himself apart from the intrigue, Poirot finds himself drawn into the middle of things and in need of his most particular deductive skills when Arlena Marshall is found dead on the sand of a secluded cove across the little island far from the hotel; a place where she apparently had a secret assignation…

Evil Under the Sun – a Seanchai Library special event

Join David Abbott, Corwyn Allen, Gloriana Maertens, Elrik Merlin, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower as they commence a reading of the 23rd adventure for Agatha’s Christie’s hero, first published in 1941, within the setting of the Jolly Roger Hotel. Should you wish, you can also enjoy the hotel’s grounds and facilities, partake of a little fun – and visit the cove which proved fatal for Arlena Marshall.

Monday, September 12th, 19:00: Fantasy Shorts

With Gyro Muggins.

Tuesday, September 13th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Howl’s Moving Castle

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle.

To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

Caledonia Skytower reads Diana Wynne Jones novel.

Wednesday, September 14th 19:00: Seanchai Flicks

The Seanchai cinema space plays host to videos and throw popcorn around!

Thursday, September 15th: Dark

No events.

Autumn at Sainte Rose sur Mer in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022 – click any image for full size

On the advice of the Destination Guide – and also to give Firestorm 6.6.3 with the Lab’s Performance Improvements something of an exercise, I hopped over to Sainte Rose sur Mer. This is the 21,000+ square metre parcel designed and held by Dandy Warhlol (terry Fotherington) occupying most of the eastern aspect of a Full private region that has the additional Land Capacity bonus available for use by those renting there, and which I last visited in December 2021.

At the time of that visit I noted that Sainte Rose sur Mer presented “a refreshing break from the current round of winter-themed regions by presenting visitors with a little corner of Mediterranean France with a beach to the southern aspect … and a coastal, almost rustic corner of a town … that offers little walks and corners to explore”.

Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022

This is still very much the case with the updated design for the setting, which sits now dressed for the autumnal season. within it, there is much that echoes the look and feel of the former design in terms of architecture and layout, something that gives an overall sense that this is a further, and previously unseen, part of that little town Dandy first revealed to us in late 2021.

The landing point is located towards the south-east corner of the build, at a point where a small cobbled square opens to one side to overlook what might have once been a natural cove, but which has been built up over the years such that it now sits as a home to little wharves and a tiny, trapped shingle beach. Facing this overlook from the opposite side of the cobbles is one of the entrances to the BarDeco club.

Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022

Always a staple of Dandy’s personal builds, BarDeco here retains its open-air look and feel, sitting within a large courtyard area now bounded on all sides by buildings and high walls. It has an attractive, ramshackle look to it which is always instantly engaging – a hallmark of the BarDeco designs over the years -, the broken floors of the upper level suggesting that at least part of the area occupied by the club might have once been roofed over, although what it may have housed if so is entirely a matter for the imagination.

Bracketing the club to either side are two south-north thoroughfares which between them offer routes of exploration. The first of these, which includes the cobbled landing point, connects the southern beach and the tall form of houses, hotels and beachfront places of business overlooking it, with a small “residential” area (not rentals, just a grouping of publicly-accessible houses) at the northern end of the setting. In doing so, it passes through a cosy street of little businesses and tall townhouses, arched gateways and tunnels denoting the limits of their influence.

Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022

Along this street are reminders of the prior iteration of Sainte Rose sur Mer I visited in December 2021 – the steps gently connecting the different levels of the town, the gateways, the little stone bridge (now rubbing shoulders with building either side of it) which now takes the street down to the narrow little Rue du Petit Pont. This narrow street runs behind the local hotel and parallel to the beach before opening out into an fountained square which in turn links to the raised waterfront and the beach beyond.

Steps on the far side of this square rise up to another terrace, also with its own fountain.  Backed by local residences, it has clearly been laid claim to by cats, birds and children. Steps on the same side as those leading up to it, but without any gated access, drop back down to provide access to the second of the north-south thoroughfares.

Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022

This second route is more informal in nature, being marked not by cobbles but by gravel pools and paths which both sit alongside two further entrances to BarDeco and  also meander northwards past gazebos and trees and over bubbling streams to reach a stone and steel framed greenhouse. Imposing is size and form, this greenhouse carries an air of having once been a proud garden feature, complete with its own clock marking the passage of time; now sits in the midst of a wildling garden, apparently now the house of occasional piano recitals.

Both garden and pond – which has a large deck extending over its southern side from the bank just below the greenhouse – offer a picturesque view over to the gardens of the houses at the northern end of the setting. The latter can actually be reached by means of a little bridge and rock path which skirt around the west side of the water to pass by way of an old gatehouse tower. At the houses, an overgrown alley running between two of them leads visitors back to the cobbled “main” street, thus allowing them to literally circumnavigate the entire setting from landing point back to landing point.

Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022

As is the way with Dandy’s build, there is a richness of details to be found here throughout, and there are a lot of nooks and crannies and little side passages and alleys to be exploring I haven’t touched upon in this piece.

Normally, the high level of attention to detail can lead to hits on viewer FPS. While this is still the case in places with this build, thanks to LL’s performance improvements, I found I needed to jiggle with settings a lot less than has often been the case when dropping into Dandy’s builds (although I did have to derender a lot of the mesh rain sheets, as these have always been a bane to my PC).

Sainte Rose sur Mer, September 2022

Picturesque, rich in the use of local sounds and with much to see appreciate and photograph, Sainte Rose sur Mer remains an engaging destination.

SLurl Details

Firestorm 6.6.3: performance improvements

Posted on by Inara Pey
On Friday, September 9th, 2022 (PDT), the Firestorm team released version 6.6.3 of their viewer – the first such release since indicating they would be stepping up the cadence of releases with more in the way of “maintenance” cycles in order to better keep place with updates and improvements coming out of Linden Lab with the core viewer code.

Whilst technically a maintenance release, version 6.6.3 is significant for Firestorm users as it includes the Lab’s Performance Improvements code, which for this user yielded noticeable performance improvements in terms of general FPS. In addition, there are a number of additional updates from both the Lab and the Firestorm team.

 Table of Contents

As per usual, this article is a not a full blow-by-blow breakdown of absolutely everything in this release, but it does include notes on some of the more significant updates and fixes people are liable to find useful, and some general notes.

For a complete breakdown of changes, please see the official release notes for Firestorm 6.6.3.

Sidebar: some may have received a premature notification of this article, together with an invalid URL. My apologies for any confusion: I boobed – sorry!

Installation

  • There is no need to perform a clean install with this release if you do not wish to.
  • Do, however, make sure you back-up all your settings safely so you can restore them after installing 6.6.3.

Linden Lab Updates

Firestorm 6.6.3.67470 is fully merged up to the 6.6.2 Linden code-base, plus some cherry-picked fixes from upstream, per the notes below.

Maintenance2 Viewer Updates

Viewer version 6.6.2.573358, August 2022

  • Copy and Paste capabilities in the build tools.
  • World  Map Legend: can now be hidden / revealed by clicking on the arrows on  the right side Map border.
The World Map Legend can now be hidden / revealed by clicking on the arrows on the right-side border of the World Map
  • Create and ungroup folders:
    • Create:
      1. Select multiple items within an inventory folder using SHIFT and or CTRL-left click.
      2. Right click on any part of the selection and select Create Folder From Selected the menu.
      3. A pop-up is displayed, prompting you for a folder name. Enter a suitable name and click OK.
      4. The folder is created and the selected items moved into it.
    •  Ungroup:
      1. Right click an inventory sub-folder.
      2. Select → Ungroup folder items.
      3. The items in the selected sub-folder are moved to its parent folder, and the subfolder is deleted.
  • Show avatar attachment in Inventory: right-click a worn attachment or HUD and select on of the following:
    • Context menu: Show In Inventory
    • Pie menu: More → Show In Inventory.

Maintenance (M)akgeolli Viewer Updates

Viewer version 6.6.1.572458, June 2022.

  • Edit Shape menu previously included every attachment, slowing down preview thumbnails significantly. With this update, only rigged attachments are displayed, in addition to prior avatar preview thumbnails .
  • Assorted fixes and UI tweaks.
  • Improved mouse responsiveness in situations where previously it would over-react to inputs.

Performance Improvements

Viewer version 6.6.0.571939, May 2022.

  • This update should see reduced image decoding time, decreased frame stalls and decreased initial font rendering time, and the viewer should feel generally more responsive.
  • These changes include updates to Vsync (vertical synchronisation):
    • Vsync can now be toggled on / off via Preferences → Graphics → Hardware Settings.
    • When enabled, Vsync will synchronise (/cap) frame rates to your monitor screen refresh rate (e.g. if you have a 60 Hz screen, FPS will be capped at 60 fps) and should deliver smoother game-play.
  • The Performance Improvements viewer also includes the MeshOptimizer Project .
    • By default, this replaces obsolete GLOD’s mesh simplification in the mesh uploader with the newer and more powerful MeshOptimizer package to provide better level of detail (LOD) modelling during the upload process.
    • Note that as an option, Firestorm also retains the GLOD capability – see below for more.

Tracy integration Viewer Updates

Viewer version 6.4.23.563771, November 2021.

  • This update adds the Tracy Profiler to the viewer to help developers interested in or working on performance improvements. For developers/self-compilers:
    • Running autobuild configured with –tracy will enable the telemetry.
    • At any time while running the telemetry recording can be disabled/minimised by deactivating it using the Developer menu entry profiling/telemetry → Profiling .
  • It contains no other user-visible changes.

Firestorm Updates and Improvements

UI Updates and Improvements

Notecards – Font Style, Size and Colour

Firestorm 6.6.3 brings the following capabilities to Notecards:

  • Set the font style and size:
    • Style: one of San Serif, Monospace, Scripting or Cascadia Code.
    • Size: one of Monospace, Scripting, Cascadia Code, Small, Medium or Large.
    • These can be set via Preferences → User Interface → Font → Notecard Editor Font drop-downs.
The new Notecard font options in Firestorm’s Preferences
  • Set the colour of: a notecard background, text, cursor and highlighted text.
    • Set via Preferences → Colors → Miscellaneous → Notecard Colors .

Note: these setting will only apply to notecards you view in Firestorm. Other users will see the notecards you send in whatever font / colours (if the latter can be set should the FS code be adopted by other TPVs) set within their viewer.

Other UI Updates
  • Inventory:
    • It is now possible to open Inventory folders in their own floaters. Right click an inventory folder → Show in new window.
    • The selection count is  now given when deleting multiple items from inventory (FIRE-31816).
With Firestorm 6.6.3 you can open an inventory folder in its own floater
  • The Create Landmark floater (menu bar → World → Landmark this Place) will now open centred on the viewer window by default.
  • 360-degree snapshot floater should now open at last-used quality setting  in a session.
  • Region Details → Region should now:
    • Show the correct length of the region name text (no truncations).
    • Report the correct grid position for the region.

Avatar and Appearance

  • Avatar:
    • The avatar should now turn the full 180-degrees when editing appearance (FIRE-31959 / BUG-232502).
    • All mesh bodies/objects should now show in the shape editor previews (FIRE-31966 / BUG-232503).
    • Animesh attachments should no longer show in shape editor previews.
  • Appearance:
    • Attempted fix for mesh attachments sometimes vanishing after teleports which should either fix / reduce the number of cases where this may occur (FIRE-31906).
    • Update to the warning given when attaching rigged meshes to HUD.
      • The new message reads: “An attachment named ”[NAME]“ contains rigged mesh but is attached to the HUD point ”[HUD POINT]“,/a>
      • Attaching rigged meshes to HUD was never supposed to be supported, per BUG-232489.
      • Also see: FIRE-31955.

Building and Scripting Updates

GLOD Option In Mesh Uploader

As noted above, Linden Lab introduced Mesh Optimizer as a new way to generate improved level of detail (LOD) models for mesh uploads. However, this can lead to higher upload costs and can cause issues in maintaining UV layout. To help prevent issues Firestorm 6.6.3 retains GLOD alongside of Mesh Optimizer.

To this end the Firestorm mesh uploader presents the following options when specifying a model’s LOD:

  • Load from file: Manually upload .DAE files for models at any level of detail. This enables you to control how your model looks at each level of detail, preserving key visual features that the automated algorithms may otherwise distort. If the viewer could “auto-detect” lower LOD models when it first loaded the model, these will be shown in the corresponding LOD “slots” here.
  • Generate Auto: Generate a new model at the currently previewed level of detail based on the model you uploaded. This method currently defaults to using the sloppy method and tries to set a target number of triangles based upon the high LOD. This is the method applied when first selecting your model if no auto-detected LODs are found.
  • Generate Precise: Uses the newer method (Mesh Optimizer) to construct a LOD model. This is more accurate than the “sloppy” method but will result in a more detailed model. Target triangle settings and thresholds are very loosely adhered to.
  • Generate Sloppy: Uses the newer method (Mesh Optimizer) to construct a LOD model. The “sloppiness” relates to the accuracy of the result compared with the original. Target triangle settings and thresholds are very loosely adhered to .
  • Generate Reliable: Uses the older method (GLOD) to construct a LOD model. This method is what we have been used to in the past; it gives reliable results based upon the target settings.

For more information, please refer to: Mesh Upload – Level of Detail.

Other Building / Scripting Related Updates
  • The “remaining capacity” LI count has been returned to the Edit / Build floater.
  • Flip texture scale buttons should no longer “magically jump” when switching texture modes.
  • The animation preview window should now have a link to the correct wiki page (FIRE-31836).
  • Full bright rigged meshes should now correctly display as full bright.
  • Full bright transparent objects should no longer render as solid when using highlight transparent – CTRL-ALT-T (FIRE-31986).
  • 100% transparent objects on HUDs should now show when highlighting transparent – CTRL-ALT-T (FIRE-31917).
  • The Firestorm Bridge can now display object rez time with the Script info in extended info mode (enabled via Preferences → Firestorm → Build 2 → Enable extended script info details).

Other Updates of Note + Key Fixes

Third-Party Library + RLV Updates

  • FMOD Studio updated to version to 2.02.07.
  • Updated Collada with a C++17 compatible version.
  • Firestorm 6.6.3 is running Restrained Love API RLV v3.4.3 / RLVa v2.4.2.67470, and includes a fix for focus going unexpectedly to menu bar after calling llMapDestination with “@showworldmap=n” (FIRE-31920).

Linux Updates

  • 3p Library Updates:
    • Boost updated to boost-1.72-linux64-222121224.
    • Collada updated to colladadom-2.3.222130404-linux64-222130404.
    • Curl updated to curl-7.81.0.222121724-linux64-222121724.
    • Libxml updated to libxml2-2.9.4.222130358-linux64-222130358.
    • Meshoptimizer updated to meshoptimizer-0.16.222121104-linux64-222121104.
    • Minizip updated to minizip_ng-3.0.2.222121607-linux64-222121607.
  • New Simple DirectMedia Layer-2 (SDL2) support for Linux to future-proof Firestorm, providing better low-level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D. See the SDL2 Documentation.
  • The Linux viewer now uses xdg-open ahead of x-www-browser, as requested in FIRE-31929.

OpenSim Updates

There are no OpenSim updates with Firestorm 6.6.3.

Key Fixes

  • FIRE-31852 – Modified hotkey gestures should no longer play from any window.
  • FIRE-31823 / FIRE-31648 – torn-off menus should now correctly update enabled/visible state
  • FIRE-31882, FIRE-31896 / BUG-232463 – The main menu bar should no longer become the focus when minimising docked floater or after changing graphics preset
  • FIRE-31913 – CTRL+Tab should now correctly switch to the active floater.
  • Crash fixes:
    • FIRE-31818 – Firestorm should not longer crash when inspecting a Linden tree.
    • FIRE-31942 – Firestorm should no longer crash when taking a 360 snapshot when “Improve graphics speed” is enabled – note that this may mean that slower machines timeout during a 360 snapshot, so a new debug setting FSUseCoRoFor360Capture – Use co-routine to extract 360 photos – has been added. By default, this is set to False to prevent crashing. Setting it to True may result in crashes.
    • FIRE-31473 – “Internal Error”/“Uncaught Exception”.
  • Again, please refer to the 6.6.3 release notes for the full list of fixes with this release.

Feedback

As noted towards the top of this article, Firestorm 6.6.3 is the first release of the viewer since the Firestorm team moved towards a faster release cadence, allowing the viewer to pretty much reached parity with the official viewer, which should ease matters of parity going forward, assuming a 6-8 week release cadence can be maintained – and hopefully, it will be.

Probably the most significant inclusion in this release is that of the Lab’s updated viewer code and thread handling, intended to improve general performance. As I noted at the time this code reached release status in the official viewer, this code gave me an average boost of around 20 fps compared to a version without the improvements; in comparing Firestorm 6.5.6 and 6.6.3, I noted a similar fps boost. This is also the first viewer I’ve ready played around with the updated Vsync functionality, and have found that it does offer a far smoother experience for me when flycamming.

Elsewise, I’ve not had a a lot of time to test this release, but have found it to be stable during my personal use, so those updating may want to keep an eye on the Firestorm in-world support groups and the Jira for info on any possible issues.

Related Links

Landscapes and Shadows in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Michiel Bechir Gallery, September 2022 – Vanessa Jane

Currently on display at the Michiel Bechir Gallery – itself sporting a new frontage, décor and outdoor events area – are three exhibitions by well-established Second Life photographers, which between them offer a set of contrasts that make for an interesting trio of displays.

On the ground level of the gallery, and bracketing the main foyer are exhibits by Vanessa Jane (VanessaJane66) and Raisa Reimse (RaisaReimse). Both are known and highly regarded for their SL landscape photography and capable hands with post-processing, and while both focus on landscape pieces within there respective halls, both have contrasting styles which also compliment one another.

Michiel Bechir Gallery, September 2022 – Vanessa Jane

Within her display, Vanessa Jane offers 15 pieces, many of which offer broad, almost panoramic views of settings within Second Life, re-touched to offer views that contain a degree of romance and / or offer present the richness of the location in a single frame.

Architecture also sits as a focus with several of these pieces, with Vanessa ably demonstrating her ability to bring the character of a building or structure to life, and to wrap a narrative around her images. Capped by three images which are largely black-and-white, this is and engaging selection of art.

Michiel Bechir Gallery, September 2022 – Raisa Reimse

By contrast and across the foyer, Raisa Reimse presents a selection of 14 pieces which carry with them a rich sense of painting in the style of the great landscape artists. In part, this sense is due to both the ratio of the images themselves and their framing – but which is mostly imbued through Raisa’s rich use of colour, which offers a depth to these pieces that is genuinely captivating.

These are pieces that also carry a sense of life and motion whilst also demonstrating that Raisa understands the effective use of depth of field and angle to present a unique image / story. In these latter points I’d particularly point to Dream of Fall, with its suggestion of capturing a diorama, and In Flight, which so richly conveys the motion of the Debonair aircraft and the solitary joy that can be found in flying.

Michiel Bechir Gallery, September 2022 – Raisa Reimse

Within the upper level hall, Scylla Rhiadra brings a selection of her evocative images together under the theme of Shadow.

The use of light and dark and how they play across surfaces and figures has long been a feature of Scylla’s work; more than a feature, really, and they tend to be central to her work and how she presents themes and ideas. This is a point she acknowledges for herself in the poetic introduction to this display:

No mystery compelling as that obscured by dark.
No beauty so heart-rending as that which lies bathed in shade.
No nakedness is more exposed than that which is clothed in garments of night.
No demons so seductive as those concealed by gloom. 
Shadow is the shape of our desire.
Michiel Bechir Gallery, September 2022 – Scylla Rhiadra

Another aspect of Scylla’s work is that of subtext; it is perhaps as important to her compositions as the contrast between light and shadow. This subtext, so often suggested through subtle placement of props as much by pose or focus or angle, gives each piece Scylla produces its fullest depth of expression and narrative. Within this series of images, this is perhaps most clearly seen within Sale, but it is also waiting to be found in each piece by those who take the time to look.

Three richly engaging artists in their own right, in being brought together by Michel within the one gallery, Scylla, Raisa and Vanessa here present a compelling trio of exhibits.

Michiel Bechir Gallery, September 2022 – Scylla Rhiadra

SLurl Details

September 2022 Web User Group summary: NUX, Premium, and MP

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, September 7th, 2022.

These meetings are generally held in-world on the first Wednesday of the month, with dates and venue details available via the SL public calendar. They 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.

Updates for the Last Month

[Video: 2:47-10:20]

Land Ownership “Journey”

  • 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.
    • This involves not only a re-write of existing land-related web pages (again, as examples, the Premium Linden Homes selection page, the Mainland auction page, the region purchase pages (which date from 2005!), etc.), and the development of completely new pages related to land “ownership”.
    • The work is being carried out using technology that is “new to Linden Lab”.
    • Initially, this work will not involve any changes to Land tools within the viewer UI. However as the project progresses, it will see changes being made to the viewer’s land management tools, etc., as well.
  • The first element of the land work to be user-facing will be the new Land Portal, which is expected to be made available in the next few weeks.
    • This will provide access to land.secondlife.com and offer a “preview” of what form the new “land journey” will take.
  • [Video: 15:36-17:15] Following the work on the Land Portal, the focus will likely either be on updating the Linden Homes pages OR the price region purchase pages.
    • Once the Portal is up and running, the Lab will be monitoring where people go on accessing it, which may influence the order in which the land-related web properties are updated.

Secondlife.com Beyond Land

  • The “land journey” work is the first phase in a larger project to completely update all of the secondlife.com web pages and portals, and which will also eventually encompass Marketplace as well.
  • Some of the thematic elements of this work can already be seen in places such as join.secondlife.com.
  • The overall aim of this work is to offer a modern look and feel to the Second Life web presence which is both easier to maintain / update and allows for new capabilities / functionality to be more easily added.

Marketplace Search

  • This work is to leverage all of the recent work put into “regular” such (e.g. the relevance engine, etc.) for Marketplace Search.
    • The current focus is on importing all the infrastructure work carried out for Search into the Marketplace search capability, including the framework for the relevance engine.
    • However, rather than using the current relevance engine, a version specific to Marketplace searches will be built for better optimisation.
    • The updated Search will likely include additional search options.
  • The overhaul of the search tools is seen as a further step that will better enable the use of Styles (i.e. single listings with multiple variances (e.g. colours) of the same product), although the first element of this work is liable to be the “next” significant release for the MP.
  • All of this work is being seen as a lead-in to the potential complete ground-up build and phased implementation of a completely new Marketplace, with 2023 being designated “the year of Marketplace”.

New User Experience

[Video 18:04-24:00]

  • The New User eXperience (NUX) has been identified by the lab’s Executive Team as a major area of focus for the at least next 12 months.
  • Some of the Lab’s work in this are has been previewed in terms of the upcoming “all mesh” New Starter Avatars (see here and here), but LL recognises more work needs to be done within the NUX as a while.
  • Questions asked at the meeting (from a Web Team perspective)  were:
    • Are there “silver bullets” existing users think might improve the overall NUX from sign-up to engagement?
    •  Is there something that could be implemented that would immediately change the NUX to improve retention?
    • What specifically could be done on the web side of things to present a more engaging NUX to incoming users?
    • Have people specific feedback from recent new users (e.g. those whom they may have asked to come try out SL) which might feed into thinking about improving the NUX (e.g. worries users have expressed in having to download and install the viewer as an “unknown” piece of software, issues of people being pressured into believing they are using the “wrong” viewer in favour of another, etc?
  • This is liable to be a major topic of conversation at the next WUG, so those with constructive ideas, particularly (but not exclusively) on the web side of NUX, are invited to attend.

Premium Subscriptions – Looking Beyond Premium Plus

[Video: 24:09-26:30]

  • Premium Plus take-up is still viewed as being “very successful” to the point the Lab is now considering ideas for other possible Premium subscription options, which may include things like:
    • “Premium Lite” – which might offer some of the options available in Premium, but not all of them, and at a lower price.
    • “Premium a-la Carte” – which might offer users the ability to pick and chose at least some of the options available to the current Premium / Plus offerings, each with its own fee, and thus pay a subscription based on the options selected.
  • No timeline on if / when any new subscription options might arise, what they might comprise or the pricing involved, as this is only in the “discussion” phase within the Lab, but feedback is being taken through the WUG meetings.

In Brief

  • Multi-factor authentication: moving beyond just the use of a third-party authentication tool (Google Authenticator / Microsoft Authenticator) to offer additional means to complete the MFA process is unlikely to come before 2023.
  • A further request was made to de-couple Homestead “ownership” from having to hold at least one Full region. While not entirely ruled out for future consideration, there are some very practical considerations around this idea that need to be considered:
    • One of these is the heavy use of Homesteads by private estates and the potential of severely damaging the market if Homesteads were to be de-coupled from Full region holding at the same price.
    • Another is the question of whether, if offered at a higher tier than when coupled to Full region holdings ($109 a month), what that tier would be in order to avoid too severe a disruption to the current land market.
  • Lower mesh upload fees for Premium Plus: this has been indicated as a future Premium Plus benefit. However, it is proving difficult to implement because unlike the other fees for uploads, etc., mesh does not have a “one fee fits all” structure – the cost varies in accordance with things like model complexity, LODs, etc., and injecting a fee reduction based on a percentage calculation into the process is proving to be a more complex task than imagined.
  • Eliminating store names appearing in Marketplace searches using item names: this is a fix currently being worked on as a part of weighting changes to search (e.g. store names and user names will not carry as much weight as item names).
    • Conversely, when searching for store names, these should have a higher weighting as the initial MP search updates are deployed.
  • SL Wiki: it was restated that, outside of various “official” pages, the SL wiki is no longer “officially” supported or subject to updated for a number of reasons.
  • Feature requests:
    • BUG-232355 “Group Name Change” given the desire to reduce the proliferation of Groups in SL and the load they can place on various back-end services, this has been a long-running request, now accepted by the Lab.
    • BUG230941 “Add a store blocklist to the Marketplace” – will possibly be amongst the “Soon ™” Marketplace updates.
    • BUG-231257 “Incorporate 360 Snapshots in to the Destination Guide” – is viewed as a more nuanced request requiring interaction across different services which may make implementation difficult, but the request has not been ruled out.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, October 5th, 2022. Venue and time per top of this summary.

A visit to Fellowship Falls in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Fellowship Falls, September 2022 – click any image for full size

I think I’ve sort-of hinted at the fact that I’m something of a Tolkien fan once or twice (at least!) in this blog, and with Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power now showing on Amazon Prime as a charting of the Second Age of Middle Earth, I thought I’d bounce my way over to Fellowship Falls, a Full region utilising the private region land capacity bonus to present a setting that offers an engaging mix of elements from Tolkien’s novels with some hidden extras.

Designed by Celerdir (Chappers101), the region is described thus within its About Land description:

An Elven & Tolkien-inspired sim where all free folk are welcome. Rez a horse to ride through the forest and over hills and make your way to Rivendell. Also explore The Labyrinth of Light…an underground maze of lights that leads to the Fantasy Forest.
Fellowship Falls, September 2022

The landing point sits tucked right into the south-west corner of the region, where information on the design can be found – and it is worth a read. Not only is Celerdir still relatively new to Second Life, having been active for less than 18 months at the time of writing, Fellowship Falls is also his first region build; and it is more than a creditable design, being very well put together for both Second Life explorers and photographers, regardless of any specific knowledge or interest in matters Tolkien.

From the landing point, the region is set out in a manner to encourage exploration either on foot or horseback. Trails run from the landing point into the setting at large, while those pressed for time might make use of the stone teleport discs to hop to the major locations – although I’d recommend against this, as it risks missing  a lot of the region’s beauty.

Fellowship Falls, September 2022

The north side of the region is given over to Rivendell (aka Imladris aka the Last Homely House, the seat of Elrond half-elven during the Third Age). Whilst surrounded by off-region mountains, it sits atop a rocky table of land separated from the rest of the region by a deep valley.

This might give some Tolkien purists cause to frown, given Tolkien states Rivendell sits within a hidden valley – but this is a region inspired by Tolkien, not representative necessarily of his world as encountered in book and film. As it is Rivendell has a suitably elven feel to it, with a richness of character strongly suggestive of an elven enclave.

Fellowship Falls, September 2022

The trail climbing up through the hills to reach Rivendell passes over a couple of bridges, one of which sits below a hilltop marked by ruins which look to have been built by the hands of men rather than elves. A broad stone causeway, this bridge is guarded at one end by the presence of the Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings. Again, for Tolkien purists, this might seem anachronistic, but here the scaled-down figures of Isildur and Anárion (I’m sticking with the books here, rather than the films) work.

The reason for Rivendell being set so high is provided in the region’s description – the Labyrinth of Night. I’ll leave to you to find the entrance, but will suggest you should take time exploring the tunnels of the labyrinth, as there is more than the forest awaiting discovery, including a further Tolkien echo, this one from The Hobbit, this one a reminder of what lay deep in the halls of Erebor and gave rise to Thorin Oakenshield’s Quest.

Fellowship Falls, September 2022

This is where my one small quibble with the setting lay – not in what is presented, but in the fact that the tunnels of the labyrinth are best experienced with the viewer set to Midnight – but given the layout of this part of the region, it could have been parcelled and set so that the tunnels have their own low-level EEP, making them a little more immersive. But this is a very, very minor quibble.

It is clear that throughout the region considerable love and consideration have been poured into is creation, with many small touches awaiting discovery; there are also many places offering visitors a chance to sit and pass the time. Finished with a local sound scape (one that can be a little interrupted by the surprise in the labyrinth!) and sitting beneath a rich sky (not seen in the images here), Fellowship Falls offers a richness of exploration and photography waiting to be appreciated – so be sure to visit soon!

Fellowship Falls, September 2022

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