2022 SUG meetings week #15: summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Long Feng and Akuma – Akuma, blog post

The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed, and a video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.

Server Deployments

  • There was no deployment to the Main SLS channel on Tuesday 12th, April.
  • Wednesday, April 13th should see the completion of the RC deployment of server release 570305, which was suspended last week. This comprises:
    •  Fixes issues with llRequestAgentData and llRequestSimulatorData sometimes failing after they’ve been called repeatedly.
    • A couple of crash fixes.
    • Additional logging around simulator start-up.

Upcoming Server Releases

There are a number simulator releases in the works, including:

  • One contains some reworking of a few of the internal subsystems, which are now suitable for update now that the tool uplift is completed.
  • One that contains some long requested additions to llGetObjectDetails and llGetEnv as well as a new LSL function.
    • llGetObjectDetails will gain a series of new constants: OBJECT_MATERIAL; OBJECT_MASS; OBJECT_TEXT; OBJECT_REZ_TIME (a timestamp); OBJECT_LINK_NUMBER and OBJECT_SCALE.
    • llGetEnv will gain:
      • “region_agent_limit”: Current maximum population for this region.
      • “region_agent_limit_max”: Maximum population setting possible.
      • “region_agent_unreserved”: Current limit on unreserved population.
      • “region_agent_reserved”: Current number of spaces reserved for premium.
      • Further options may be added prior to release.
  • Two further updates that respectively repairing offline friendship and group offers.

Available Official Viewers

All official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – 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).
    • MFA RC viewer, update to version 6.5.4.569725, on March 24.
    • Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.569349, dated March 14.
    • Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, version 6.5.4.569191, issued on March 11.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

In Brief

  • Monday, April 11th saw the SL log-in servers updated. Those running scripted agents may need to check their bots to make sure they are accessing SL correctly.
  • There were some requests for things like avatar height to be added to llGOD. After looking into it, Rider Linden feels it does not make sense put it there.
    • Instead, he is adding llGetVisualParams, which will give access to any of the visual parameters that are sent to simulator from the viewer. These will be accessible either by their ID number or the parameter name.
    • These are the parameters found within avatar_lad.xml.
    • It was noted that these parameters could be used to auto-size scripted clothing/attachments.
  • There has been a request made to allow Experience owners who build games using a specific EEP environment to be able to check whether or not all players are using the environment and not “cheating” by using a more advantageous EEP.
    • Note the request was not to determine what EEP settings a player is using, just as simple “yes / no” on whether or not they are using the game’s EEP settings.
    • This drew an over-reaction from some that doing so would be a means to “spy” on other users; a statement that at best seems to be a stretch, given the functionality and the fact it would be opt-in.
    • However, it was also acknowledged by LL that given the viewer is open, there’s a risk things degenerate between attempts to present cheating and finding way to cheat.
  • The above lead to a broader discussion on games and capabilities within SL, and some of the issues that can be encountered: latency over the Internet, general message handling, etc.

Blip’s Exaggerations in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Andante Gallery: Blip Mumfuzz – Exaggerations

I received an invitation from Blip Mumfuzz to visit her latest exhibition, Exaggerations which opened on April 8th at Andante Gallery, operated by Jules Catlyn and Iris Okiddo (IrisSweet), and which will remain available through until May 8th.

Blip is an artist whose work I’ve come to admire for its richness of colour and depth, and this is very much celebrated within Exaggerations, a series of images taken around Second Life in which one or more colours have been exaggerated and / or a colour filter has been overlaid.

 

The result is a series of images that are both stunning and subtle. In some, landscapes have become alien worlds and plants turned into strange new life forms. Others she shrubs turned into pieces of modern abstract art and / or play with abstract expressionism; still others are more subtle in touch: gentle highlight that allow a scene to remain “natural” whilst drawing the eye to certain features: the blush of lipstick or the topping of a pizza or the heat of a barbecue, and so on.    

Andante Gallery: Blip Mumfuzz – Exaggerations

Nor are the images confined to the gallery building and its little courtyard. Blip has placed a quartet of large format pieces outside of the gallery, within its grounds so that they might be viewed through the gallery’s windows. These give the exhibition a unique additional perspective, making it appear as if we’re are viewing the exhibition from within itself.

Expressive and full of colour and life, Exaggerations is another eye-catching and engaging exhibition from Blip.

Andante Gallery: Blip Mumfuzz – Exaggerations

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The week with Seanchai Library – April 11th-15th

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home 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.

Monday, April 11th, 19:00: When They Saw

Having graduated from the juvenile education system, Ana Mia decides to join her sister as a part of Fort Hope’s Midnight Guard. Fort Hope is a stronghold, protecting its inhabitants from Earth’s alien invaders; and the Midnight Guard forms the eyes, ears and guardians of the stronghold’s Wall.

Without the Guard and without the Wall of the stronghold, the aliens would be free to harvest humanity, using their ships and the Coyotes who form their eyes and ears in opposition to the Midnight Guard.

But now things have changed. Now Ana is something more, as she notes herself:

I never expected to be abducted. But here I am, standing onboard Their ship, facing Them down for the first time in my life, seeing the true face of the Earth’s invaders from another world.
My task is simple: to act as Earth’s emissary and negotiate peace. But it is far more complicated than it seems. I know nothing of politics, and even little of persuasion, but I have no choice. I must do this to keep my friends, and my world, safe. I cannot afford to fail humanity.

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads the second volume of Kody Boye’s When They… saga.

Tuesday, April 12th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Randomness with R. Dismantled

Friend of the Library R. Dismantled shares random selections from his 100 Word Stories website and podcast.

Wednesday, April 13th: Dark

No readings.

Thursday, April 14th 19:00: More Scary Stories for Sleepovers

With Shandon Loring.

2022 viewer release summaries week #14

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

Updates from the week ending Sunday, April 10th, 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 version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Hera’s Goatswood returns to Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Goatswood, April 2022 – click any image for full size

My first introduction to the work of Hera (zee9 – then known as Kora) came getting on for a decade ago, when I first visited Venexia and Goatswood, two separate builds developed for role-play. At the time, both were popular spots for visitors, with Goatswood possibly the more popular by virtue of its more general setting.  However, both departed Second Life in 2015 and while Venexia has reappeared from time to time since then, I think I’m right in saying Goatswood has largely been absent the grid. At least until now.

As pointed out to me by Cube Republic, Goatswood is now back (for a time at least), sharing Hera’s region with an updated version of her Whitby build (which I wrote about in October 2021 (see Visiting Dracula’s Whitby in Second Life), which I hope to get to in the next few days; for now I want to focus on Goatswood.

Goatswood, April 2022
Welcome to Goatswood
Well it is that time again when I get the call of the wild and must return to Goatswood 🙂 . It is a virtual Victorian Gothic novel [and] was always my favourite region of all the ones we created for RP 10 or so years ago. For me it had a real heart and soul that the others lacked; many people passed through it and made homes there. The role play was IMHO as good as it gets. This version is very different as there is no game set up, but I feel that for me this version is better in many ways I hope you like what you find.

Hera (zee9)

Set in the period 1860 – 1900, Hera describes the village as being somewhere in the Midlands of England – although I always felt it to be closer to the Cotswolds, something perhaps referenced in the fact that Hera modelled the basic design of Goatswood on Castle Combe, Wiltshire. It was developed specific for easy-going role-play set within that era, and while that may not be central to this current iteration, there is little doubt that Goatswood very much retains the heart and soul of the original.

Goatswood, April 2022

As is common with Hera’s recent builds, Whitby and Goatwood share a common landing point, both being on the same region. However, for this iteration of the builds, the landing point has also undergone a change, now having about it a touch of Harry Potter, presented as it is as a railway station with two steam trains are drawn up to the platforms. The red train to the right (when looking at them) offers a journey to Whitby, while the green train calls at Goatswood. Just click on the carriage through the open door to be transferred to the required destination.

Those who recall the original Goatswood may well recognise elements of this version – the railway station, the Roebuck Coach House, the church – but these have some subtle difference within them. The Roebuck, for example, now has a grand carving of a stag above the main door, while the church no longer has a steeple atop its tower. These, together with other changes to the setting that allow this iteration of Goatswood to stand apart from its namesake as a quiet independent setting, rather than an mere copy.

One of the major attractions of the original Goatswood was the care with which it had been built; there was a real sense of place in the way the village and its surroundings had been put together. This is also present within the new iteration. Anyone familiar with the Cotswolds or, more broadly, the counties of Oxfordshire,  Worcestershire, or Warwickshire as a whole will realise the beauty of Hera’s build richly replicates the beauty of the countryside through those counties.

Exploring the region is something for which a good deal of time should be apportioned. While many of the houses may be shells, there is nevertheless a richness of detail awaiting discovery along the paths of the village and along the gardens. Those buildings – such as a Roebuck Coach House, the church and manor house, plus a couple of places outside of the village itself (which I’ll leave to you to find 😉 ) – do have interiors waiting discovery.

Goatswood, April 2022

The setting also retains much of the mystery of the role-play that formed a part of it – including a couple of places I confess I don’t remember, which is not to say they weren’t present back in 2013/14, when I made my original visit. While these may not be present to encourage role-play this time around (Hera requests anyone wanting to more than explore and take photos contact her first), they nevertheless further help bring the overall mystique of the village to life once more.

Goatswood is the story I never got around to writing, about a place that never existed, where I would have loved to have lived. It is a world full of haunted places, Gothic folk tales and shadowy occult mysteries. It is set in a time when attitudes were just beginning to change due to advances in science and technology. And yet this advance caused a counter reaction in many, who tried to revive older folk traditions and beliefs in Magic.
In the countryside most people still carried on as they had done for hundreds of years. They still retained a strong belief in natural magic, folk tales and herbal remedies, and yet they had their feet planted firmly in the reality of a hard working life on the land. A really great example of this can be seen in the recent television miniseries “The Living and the dead”.

– Hera (zee9)

Goatswood, April 2022

Now I am an acknowledged “Hera fan” and so am obviously naturally drawn to her work. However, if you have never seen one of her regions before, or if you have never had the opportunity to appreciate Goatswood, then I urge you to take the opportunity to do so now. It is one of the great classics of Second Life.

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Kicca’s Pulsions and Nessuno’s Mammoths in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
La Masion d’Aneli: Nessuno Myoo – As Mammoths In the Middle Of Butterflies

Having opened on April 6th, 2022, Kicca Igaly and Nessuno Myoo present two intriguing installations at La Maison d’Aneli (curated by Aneli Abeyante) that stand a both individual pieces and as installations that might – in the mind of the visitor – also be intertwined in terms of theme and potential interpretation.

Before getting to the exhibits – both of which can be reached from the teleport disc at the gallery’s ground-level landing point – please note that to appreciate these installations fully, yo should ensure Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) is enabled and render quality is set to High (if your system can handle it) – both set through Preferences → Graphics, and that the viewer is also set to use the Shared Environment.

La Masion d’Aneli: Kicca Igaly – Pulsions

Within Pulsions, Kicca explores the idea that the human condition – the lives we lead and how we interact – is propelled by the decisions we make individually and collectively; pulsion itself being the act of driving forward (as opposed to being drawn forward involuntarily as a result of influences over which we have no direct control).

Within the setting, we are presented by scenes of everyday life: mothers with their children sharing a conversation; children at play, a mother and daughter passing a (presumably) homeless man asleep on a park bench; a tall man watching the children at play, and so on. Over the shoulders of each character float two little figures – their better angels (or positive pulsions) and darker demons (or negative pulsions) that drive their behaviour – whether or not a group conversation descends into gossip and rumour-spreading; whether a discussion remains calm and reasoned or descends into a heated, angry exchange; whether a game played remains friendly and fun or embroiled in bitterness on losing, and so on. By using the term pulsion, Kicca reminds us that the negative choices we make may not always be driven by a need to hurt or upset and so are not necessarily “evil” or “cruel” – although the tall figure watching the two youngsters also perhaps reminds us there can be intentional evil driving the decisions some make…

La Masion d’Aneli: Kicca Igaly – Pulsions

Within As Mammoths In The Middle Of Butterflies, Nessuno presents a single, stunning sculpture of the skeletal forms of two mammoths of unequal size apparently locked in combat, the smaller forced down onto its rear hunches and attempted to ward off a blow from the foreleg of the larger as it rears up on its hind legs in order to deliver the blow with greater force. Around both rises a cloud of butterflies, their peace and innocence shattered by the warring beasts.

Quite what we make of this is left entirely open to interpretation, the artist only stating At the sunset of existence, immersed in the wonder of its own nature. Thus, how we respond to the piece is entirely subjective. For my part, the use of mammoths (now long extinct) and the term “sunset of existence” suggests the piece can – and as with Kicca’s Pulsions –  be taken on a statement about the human condition.

As Mammoths In The Middle Of Butterflies

That we are, for example, so polarised in views on subjects such as global warming and so focused on arguing about it, we cannot pause to address the fact that we really are disrupting the global ecosystem and hastening our own demise. Other might see it as a commentary on the the danger of the old truism “might is right”, that some countries have grown so arrogant in their own superiority and might, they care little about the manner in which the decisions they make can have shattering and disruptive impacts on others.

But rather than add further subjective thoughts of my own here, I’ll leave it to the sculpture to express itself to you. All I’ll say in closing is that once again, Kicca and Nessuno present two installations that engage both the eye and the mind.

 

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