The 22 ArtSpace: Alice (Mostly) Doesn’t Live Here – Boudicca Amat and Trinity Yazimoto
I confess that when the invitation to visit the exhibition at The 22 ArtSpace, the boutique gallery operated by Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand in Bellisseria, which opened on April 1st, 2022, my mind immediately leapt to thoughts of the Scorsese comedy drama starring Ellen Burstyn.
However. whilst somewhat similarly titled, the ArtSpace exhibition, Alice (Mostly) Doesn’t Live Here has nothing to do with Scorsese’s Alice Docesn’t Live Here Anymore, but instead takes its inspiration from the poetic writings of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who better known by his pen-name of Lewis Carroll gave birth to a pair of literary classics – books that have proven enduringly popular in Second Life, simply because of their marvellous dive into the world of literary nonsense and adventure.
The 22 ArtSpace: Alice (Mostly) Doesn’t Live Here – Ricco Saenz and Whiskey Monday
The exhibition features one or two images by Randy and Ricco, together with Boudicca Amat, Whiskey Monday and Trinity Yazimoto, that have been drawn from a pre-defined list of Carroll’s poems, with the poem itself offered alongside each picture.
Within the 22 ArtSpace house, which has been redressed by Ricco and Randy to suggest the kind of living spaces in which Carroll may well have penned his works, this is a light-hearted and engaging little exhibition that presents a treat for those – like me – who enjoy the author’s broad wit and observations.
The 22 ArtSpace: Alice (Mostly) Doesn’t Live Here – Randy Firebrand
Offered without pretence or metaphor or allegory – but occasionally with a moral -, these are pictures and poems intended to raise a smile and offer light reflection. And, truth be told, they succeed in both! And while they may not be within the main pictures on display, neither Mr. Carroll not Miss A. Liddell pass entirely without mention!
Where Our Journey Begins, February 2022 – blog post
The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting held on Thursday, March 31st 2022 at 13:00 SLT. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, and their respective dates and times can be obtained from the SL Public Calendar.
This is a summary of the key topics discussed in the meeting and is not intended to be a full transcript.
Available Viewers
Current SL viewer pipelines:
Release viewer: version version 6.5.3.568554 – formerly the Maintenance J&K RC viewer, promoted Monday, February 28 – No Change
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.
General Viewer Notes
There is a general request out that people try the Performance Improvements RC viewer even if they are not in the cohort to auto-receive it as a viewer update.
Additional Materials Support – CCUG Meeting
LL are actively considering expanding the SL materials system to handle materials surfaces (imported in glTF format).
The initial idea is that when done, it will result in a “materials asset” containing all the settings that can be stored in inventory and re-used on object faces.
The primary motivators for this are a) to help people who are creating content in the likes of Substance 3D Painter, so that then can import and then adjust the parameters are required; and b) to act as a foundational step as SL moves towards supporting PBR, as PBR will require additional texture channels, etc., and LL believe this approach offers a means to start holing that additional information.
However, as assets, materials, while copyable / reusable, would not initially be editable in-world when in use.
To start this off, LL are looking to:
Better understand “typical” workflows used by content creators (notably the specific tools creators would like to see supported), and how they might better support those workflows.
Gain feedback on how creators might want to use an expanded materials system.
It is felt that to be of value, the entire SL reflection model would require an extensive overhaul to better support specularity handling. However, LL are still determining overall support for materials, and have suggested specularity could be handled in one of two ways:
The glTF could be adapted to the existing SL texture entry parameter;
Or (seen as preferable) add glTF support to the render engine for materials exactly as they come out of Substance 3D Painter and similar tools, allowing reflection models produced within them to be properly represented.
Support for the latter is already available within the viewer, but is not currently readily accessible for use.
Some form of user group may well be established to help manage discussions going forward and help understand how different tools implement glTF and how creators utilise those tools.
Provision of materials support for Bakes on Mesh is not a part of this work.
In Brief
A lot of general discussion on a number of topics, none of which is currently the focus of any Lab project, including:
“Flexi-mesh”: .a frequent request to have mesh react to physics in the same manner as flexiprims.
Technically this could be made possible by treating the flexiprim physics as part of the skeleton rather than as just a primitive path.
However, there is a real risk that were this to be done, it would break existing flexiprim content.
Currently, there are no plans to touch the flexiprim code; or offer support for “flexi-mesh”. However, if a well-conceived feature request on the subject is submitted, then it might be something that the Lab could look at in the future to see how it might be addressed.
Physics enhancements (e.g. altering the rate at which an avatar sinks in Linden Water so as to be more realistic) – no plans at present to touch the physics system.
There has been a request to completely overhaul the mesh importer to provide a much better means of previewing models prior to upload (e.g. see things like lighting effects, how textures appear, etc.).
Doing so is seen as assisting workflows by allowing models to be previewed without the need to log-in to the beta grid (for free uploads), easing the workflow when working on the Main grid.
Again, shy of a detailed feature request, there are no plans to overhaul the mesh importer in a dramatic way.
BUG-231985 “LL Incoming Damage Cap” is a new feature request to make the SL damage system more flexible to creators of combat, etc., environments / games when damage is a factor (e.g. by allowing a max damage per hit cap to be set for a region / parcel, so that players aren’t automatically “dead” on the first hit).
Setting animation priority via script: frequently requested, but not yet on the roadmap, although LL are aware of the popularity of the request.
On Thursday, March 31st, 2022 Patch Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Product Operations and a member of the company’s management team, attended the 2022 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference in the first of three special events featuring representative from Linden Lab.
The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised. The notes provided have been taken directly from the official video of the session, which is embedded at the end of this article. Time stamps to the video are also provided to the relevant points in the video for those who wish to listen to specific comments.
Notes:
This is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.
Timestamps are included to allow a direct jump to a subject / comment.
Management Items
On the Passing of Ebbe Altberg and the CEO Position
Brad Oberwager noted the dynamic between Grumpity Linden (VP of Product), Brett Linden (VP of Marketing), Patch and now Mojo Linden (VP of Engineering), and decided to work with them as a management team, rather than bringing in a new VP.
Philip Rosedale’s role is purely advisory. He is not at the Lab full time, but he is a resource the management team can call on when broader strategies are being discussed.
The management team maintain the day-to-day management and development of Second Life.
Grown out of the need to properly regulate money handling and the operation of a virtual currency, Tilia has grown into a product set in its own right.
It still plays a central role with Second Life in terms of handling fiat money and transferring Linden Dollars to fiat money amounts.
However, it is a separate entity, and specialises in all regulatory and compliance matters in dealing with fiat money transactions. As such it free the SL management team to focus on Second Life and its services for users.
Initial introduction of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for some web properties and which is to be expanded (the MFA viewer code is currently in testing as a release candidate viewer available through the Alternate Viewers list).
Starting work of new “event” regions capable of running with 100-150 avatars within them, with a hoped-for target of 200.
These regions have had some testing at various shopping events, and work is continuing to test and compare these environments.
Seen as offering a route to true auditorium-style events as well as supporting shopping style events.
Things like cost and additional features for this product have yet to be determined, so these regions are not generally available at this time.
There are still issues to be resolved. For example, tests revealed that if a region took more than around 175 avatars, the memory use within the simulator / server the region was on would start to exponentially rise with each additional avatar.
These regions might possibly be available to support RFL events.
[Video 47:46-48:22] Once available, these “event” regions will be offered to educators at the current educational discount.
[Video 49:40-51:21] These new “event” regions will not see any increase in either region size or in Land Capacity limits. Should Land Capacity ever change, it will be globally scaled for products.
A lot of the work in leveraging AWS and developing the new “event” region product have both led to the discovery of additional areas where work needs to be carried out, and this is an ongoing process.
The breadth of product offerings provided by AWS are constantly being analysed to see if they might be leveraged for use by Second Life.
However, some of this might be limited, or required more engineering work. For example, text-to-speech / real-time translation are options AWS can provide, but leveraging them would require extensive viewer-side engineering to leverage what are essentially server-based tools.
[Video: 44:21-47:21] Two major efforts at the moment are geared at growing the user base. These comprise:
A further redesign of the new user on-boarding process and new user experience, part of which can be seen with the revamp of the welcome islands launched in 2021.
A review of the avatar system / avatars supplied by LL for new users.
For those who use the RegAPI, these changes will, it is hoped, “revolutionise” bringing users in SL.
These are both part and parcel of an overall drive to increase the Second Life user base over the next few years (Patch’s personal target being to double the number of active avatars in-world).
A benefit here of being on AWS is that Second Life is now entirely “elastic” and can group as required.
Mobile / lightweight strategies are still very much part of the work that is on-going at the Lab.
The dedicated Mobile offering (initially iOS) is still very much a focus.
A streaming option is also being considered – but streaming is very much a moving target in terms of technology and capabilities, so this is very much a longer-term project. However:
It potentially offers a higher-fidelity experience with graphics, etc.
It is in active development and experimentation.
Costs will be a factor, however, and such a service is unlikely to be something that would be folded-in to, say, some Premium subscription, simply because stream costs are so variable in terms of data load, etc.
[Video 42:59-44:20] It is hoped that in offering a mobile solution, LL will be able to increase SL’s exposure to audiences and help grow the user base.
Front-line support has been increased by 4 people.
A new scripted support bot has been deployed that utilises AI to tackle support questions, rather than operating programmatically.
Can understand plain English questions and leverages the Knowledge Base.
Can carry out basic support functions, such as restarting a region on receipt of a recognised request.
Also includes (or will include as the capability is being developed) to help with things like filing Abuse Reports.
New support options are being introduced (notably as a part of Premium Plus, but no specifics).
In General
[Video: 39:24-42:57] On Meta and virtual spaces: Meta has put a huge spotlight on the metaverse business. Feels that at the end of the day, Meta will be just one of a number of virtual worlds / environments, and that others like Second Life can benefit out of the “all boats rise” adage.
Some passing mention of Premium Plus but no real specifics worth noting.
June 2022 will see Second Life celebrate it’s 19th anniversary of opening to public access, and this year’s Second Life Birthday will run from Thursday, June 16th, with the Birthday regions open through until Tuesday, July 5th, and the main celebration events taking place from June 16th through to Sunday, June 26th, 2022. The theme this year is Steampunk.
On Thursday, March 31st, 2022, the Lab opened applications for exhibitor and volunteers. In calling for exhibitors the Lab notes:
Your exhibit does not need to stay in theme. If you are inspired by the thought of the hidden worlds around you, show us! Or, share your Second Life passions with us. Your interests. Your communities. Your worlds! Every year we celebrate because of you, the amazing and creative Residents, who have chosen to call Second Life home. What has drawn you into this world and what keeps you here? This year at the nineteenth annual Second Life Birthday, show us what fuels your Second Life and inspires you. Let’s go exploring!
Those who are interested in exhibiting at SL19B are asked to read, complete and submit the official exhibitor application form, which includes this year’s Exhibitor Rules. Note that the closing date for applications is Sunday, May 8th.
At the same time, the Lab is seeking volunteers to assist during the celebrations, again noting:
We are looking for Residents with great people skills and a love and excitement for Second Life to help us make SL19B a huge success! That starts by making a great experience for visitors. If you like the idea of promoting Second Life in a positive way to thousands of people in a celebratory atmosphere, we welcome you to apply today!
Those who fancy volunteering are asked to complete and submit the volunteer application. Again, note the closing date is Sunday, May 8th.
This brings the total list of application form to:
Recently I was asked by a friend in Second Life if I knew of any good holiday resorts in-world, a question that had me thinking; while over the last few years there seems of have been a upsurge of vacation-style destination venues in SL, I’ve rarely covered them in this blog (partly, I’ll admit, because of unfortunate experiences in a couple) However, the question came on top of me also learning about a relatively new such destination in world, and it prompted me to hop over and take a look.
The destination in question is Badu- Egypt – Aswan City, a place which offers a mix of public spaces and more private opportunities for vacationing and touring, with a mix of activities that can be enjoyed by visitors as well as by guests availing themselves of the vacation opportunity.
Badu- Egypt – Aswan City, March 2022
Operated as (at the time of writing) the latest destination presented by AshaRhia Resident as a part of her Asha Destinations SL Travel Agency, Badu – Egypt is currently set to be open for at least 2 weeks (starting on March 25th), with a potential for this to be extended to up to four weeks, depending upon its popularity. Like Aswan, it mixes two faces of Egypt, ancient and modern, into a single location, offering visitors the chance to learn about some of the history of Ancient Egypt whilst also being pampered.
The two halves of the region are divided by height., with the ancient Egyptian elements occupying the land just above sea level, and the luxury amenities of the hotel sitting on a plateau above them, a layout that keeps them nicely separated while maintaining their relationship via the interconnecting steps leading from one to the other.
Badu- Egypt – Aswan City, March 2022
The ancient Egyptian elements of the region are located on its east side, and laid out in a north-south orientation. To reach them from the landing point follow the path around the base of the cliffs and pass the steps rising to the hotel area. They are dominated by the bulk of a vast temple, that sits with a chariot racing arena as a buffer between it and the rest of the setting, whilst containing what is very much a modern museum. Here, visitors can find images and information cards on multiple aspects of life and society in ancient Egypt, encompassing the lives of Pharaohs down to those of humble farmers, and incorporating elements such as clothing, jewellery, wigs, etc., with the temple itself offering a huge sense of space, wall frescoes, and a nod to the importance of water to the Egyptian civilisation.
South of this and the chariot arena, is a more desert-like landscape that offers a feel of the great pyramids of Giza coupled with the ancient ruins of somewhere like Thebe. Together with the more pristine building to the north, these serve to give visitors a good sense of Egypt’s long history through the ages without being tied to a singular period.
Badu- Egypt – Aswan City, March 2022
The upper area of the region presents a luxury resort complex, split between public and private areas, with the former taking up the central part of the resort and comprising with a front desk, swimming pools, the treatment spa, etc., all of which can be enjoyed by the casual visitor. The seven private suites border this to either side, all clearly delineated from the public areas by their frontage while offering a luxury stay for guests.
The larger of the suite designs present lower floor lounge areas with adjoining kitchen and dining areas, an upper TV lounge area, private terraces (one with a hot tub), and a separate sleeping wing with lower floor grand bedroom with dressing room and bathroom, and an upper level with two further bedrooms and shared bathroom. The smaller units, located around the front desk and the hotel’s bar, offer single-floor accommodation with a more open plan approach to living, dining and kitchen, with a separate bedroom and bathroom, and each has a single terrace with hot tub, they also share a communal poolside lounge.
Badu- Egypt – Aswan City, March 2022
Guest / visitor activities take various forms, including Afrobeat dance classes, a quest, chariot racing, pottery classes and basket weaving classes (all role-play) – non-guests can participate in these for a fee of L$500, with details of times, etc., available at the front desk. Spa treatments and fine dining (both again role-play) are also available, with prices available to non-guests at the front desk. In addition, guests and visitor can join a guided tour of the Abu Simbel Temple Museum.
Badu- Egypt – Aswan City is a setting that has been brought together with a great deal of care and thought for visitors within to experience the fullness of travel to a destination within Second Life. The region is well laid-out, clearly signed, and there is a lot on offer. Fees, as noted, can be found at the hotel’s front desk, and vacations can be booked through the associated website, via the bookings page.
Given all this is available within the region, it can take its toll on the viewer; therefore those on low-to-mid-range systems should (as I’m prone to note in these situations) be prepared to make some adjustments to their system if they encounter problems. However, this should not put anyone off taking a trip to the region and seeing it for themselves!
The 2022 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference takes place between Thursday, March 31st and Saturday April 2nd, 2022 inclusive. A grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments, VWBPE attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year. Its primary goals are to foster discussion on, and learning about educational opportunities presented through the use of such virtual spaces, a defining core values and best practices in doing so, including:
Helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;
Providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and
Offering access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education.
In the context of the conference, a “virtual environment” is an on-line community through which users can interact with one another and use and create ideas irrespective of time and space. As such, typical examples include Second Life, OpenSimulator, Unity, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and so on, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or any virtual environments characterised by an open social presence and in which the direction of the platform’s evolution is manifest in the community.
Each year, the event has a central theme, which for 2022 the organisers describe thus:
Our theme for this year is Phoenix Rising and the exploration of areas outside of our expertise that may be potentially opposed to our current outlook or world view. As educators, we are having to adjust to more than just a transition from in-person to online methodologies. We are facing urgent challenges in the areas of remote classroom management, outdated policies or policies not designed to be applied to online environments, child psychology and welfare in online environments, health and safety considerations, and personal privacy, among others. This means embracing the ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances and innovative technologies to their best effect.
– From the introduction to VWBPE 2022
VWBPE 2022 Gateway
Programme
As with previous VWBPE conferences, this year’s event includes speakers, workshops, presentations, social activities and more.
The best way to find out what is going on over the three days of the conference is through the VWBPE programme page, However, here are some of the highlights (note: all times SLT, and all events at the VWBPE auditorium – landing points:Auditorium, Area 52; Auditorium, Norganon; Auditorium Skywall – unless otherwise stated):
March 31st:
08:00-08:50: Kick-off event at the VWBPE Gateway.
11:00-11:50 SLT: What’s up at the Lab? with Patch Linden and hosted by Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal), VWBPE Director; Rockcliffe University Consortium.
April 1st:
08:30-08:50 SLT: Keynote address – Randall Sadler, Professor of Computer-Assisted Language Learning Telecollaboration (incl. Virtual Worlds and Virtual Reality
April 2nd:
18:00-19050 SLT: Closing ceremony.
If you cannot get in-world to attend any of these or the other major talks and presentations at the conference, note that you can watch them via You Tube – check the VWBPE website for the full schedule of live streams (also available on YouTube).
The VWBPE Spaceport and (foreground) the Rings of Saturn, start of the Phoenix Egg Hunt
Conference Facilities
For 2022, the conference uses the same as the past two years, with some additional twists. The following is a quick run-down of some of core facilities.
The VWBPE Gateway: located on the ground level, the Gateway offers a main landing point for in-coming visitors, complete with a swag bag for arrivals available through several givers.
The VWBPE Auditorium: with three access points (Auditorium, Area 52; Auditorium, Norganon; Auditorium Skywall), the auditorium is an asteroid that has a cloud of debris floating before it – just click one of the little rocks and take a seat!
The VWBPE Social Spaceport: the spaceport is the main entertainment centre for the conference, and offers rides and freebies and opportunities to relax.
Social events at this year’s conference features a number of special activities, including:
Rocket Ride – fly a rocket through asteroid fields, past the moons of Lyra Prime, through a worm hole, and landing at the docks of the Lyra Prime spaceport.
And more – details in the information packs available at the Gateway!
The conference also includes lecture and workshop spaces and locations for presentations, all of which can be accessed via the teleport HUD and the gateway teleport kiosks.
The Teleport HUD
As noted above, the VWBPE teleport HUD is the best way of getting around the facilities. It can be obtained via the swag bag givers at the VWBPE Gateway and is delivered to inventory in a folder. Open the folder and right-click → ADD the HUD. Note that you will need to grant teleport permissions for it to work.
VWBPE 2022 Teleport HUD
By default, the teleport HUD attaches to the bottom of the viewer window, with three buttons available (Help and Detach are self-explanatory).
Click the Main button to display the full HUD (which can be minimised again by clicking the Hide button, displayed when the HUD is fully in view). This comprises two sections:
On the left, a display of primary options (shown above). Clicking on any of the buttons in this section will following: display a further list of options (teleport or web page links). Use the Main button to return to the primary set of options again, when required.
One the right, a changing display of event sponsors – clicking on a name displayed in this section will display a link in the viewer’s top right corner to an associated web browser page about the sponsor.
The primary set of options comprise the following (note: at the time of testing, Special and Administration were both blank, and so are ignored below):
Teleport to Gateway: go directly to the VWBPE gateway station, where you can grab freebies (if you’ve not already done so) and use the teleport kiosks inside the main building, meet with friends, etc.
Stations: displays buttons for all of the conference facilities except the main auditorium. Click one of the buttons to be teleported to the named location.
Auditorium: displays the three teleports to the main auditorium.
Social: displays the teleport to the space station and other social elements.
Exhibits: teleports to the conference exhibition spaces.
Sponsors: displays a set of teleports to the exhibition spaces of the conference’s major sponsors.
Post-Conference Survey: offers a link in the viewer’s top right corner to an associated web browser page, where attendees can offer feedback on the conference.
VWBPE 2022 Main Auditorium – pull up an asteroid as take the weight off of your space suit boots!
To keep up-to-date with the conference, be sure to check the VWBPE website daily.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 