Hera’s Drune Giger City in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Drune Giger City, December 2021 – click any image for full size

Hera (Zee9) forwarded an invitation to visit the latest iteration of her Drune City design – Drune Giger City – which she has just opened on the ground level of her region.

If you read the name “Giger” and think of the late Swiss artist, Hans Ruedi (H.R.) Giger, perhaps most famous for his work on the original Alien film (with elements of his work – notably the alien itself – being used in the subsequent films in the franchise), you’d be absolutely right; this is a build that openly draws inspiration from Giger and his work – not just the Alien franchise, but also other elements of his extensive portfolio as well.

Drune Giger City, December 2021

The city is reached via Hera’s main landing point, where a brief introduction to the setting can be obtained, using a poster-sized teleport board to complete a journey down to the city proper. Before making the trip ourselves, I would point out a couple of things: make sure you accept the local environment settings for the region and that you have Advanced Lighting Model enabled, and do be advised that in taking its lead from Giger, the region is in places somewhat explicit in some of its elements.

The city retains the general layout found within the various iterations of Drune, but this time under a distinctly alien sky. However, this does not mean the buildings are in any way derivative of earlier iterations. As I’ve noted before when writing about her work, Hera goes to extraordinary lengths with her designs, using her own meshes and textures – and this is very much the case here. As such, I do recommend spending time and looking around carefully, as there is a lot of Giger-esque details to be appreciated, not all of them at first obvious to the eye.

Drune Giger City, December 2021

The city’s landing point again takes the form of a docking / landing station for aerial vehicles to one side of the cit. It is home to an alien vehicle, potentially a single-seat spacecraft, entirely of Hera’s own design but entirely in keeping with Giger’s approach to design.  The walkway from this landing area gives the first direct example of the richness of Hera’s texturing: the mural is clearly homage to Giger’s bass relief style of art. This is continued through the outer walls of the buildings, the streets and elevator doors that provide teleport access to street-level in the city.

The streets themselves undulate around the buildings, here and there offering exits to the road that runs around the exterior of the city. The architecture of the buildings carries more of the Giger bass relief style of texturing, together with stronger hints of his work: xenomorph heads extending gargoyle-like above covered walkways, and strangely designed oval doorways that have the edge of genitalia to them  – and these doorways / tunnel entrances are not the only sexualised elements.

 

Drune Giger City, December 2021

Scattered across the city and its surrounds are further suggestive elements – phallic growths and extrusions in the hills around the city (offering hints of Giger’s Landscape series), more obvious references to female genitalia on what look to be some form of machinery, a refreshment stand offering drinks from nipple-like dispensers. This vendor also offers novel seating – the “eggs” from which one of  Giger’s Facehuggers once leapt and made a mess of John Hurt’s day. More of these eggs are laid out along an alleyway – with one open, so be careful when looking inside!

In keeping with past Drune cities, this one again features a night club. With more phallic elements, this also includes something of a homage to the holographic navigation systems used by the Engineers of the Alien films, while the interior as a whole has a Giger-like fluidity to it, with a further sexual undertone that goes beyond the phallic elements.

Drune Giger City, December 2021

Across the road from the club is a small lounge bar (replacing the hotel that has been present in some earlier iterations of Drune) where the sheer beauty of Hera’s work is on full display in a form that not only encompasses clear inspiration from H.R. Giger, but also to one or two sci-fi franchises.

This latter might be coincidental, but for me, it looking at the figurehead between the pair of xenomorphs, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the death mask used in the opening sequence of the first season of Stargate SG-1, with the patterns on the walls a little mindful of hieroglyphs and runes often seen in that series. Elsewhere, the bar setting that first seen (I believe) in Drune: Sleazy Street has been give a perfect redress to further enhances the further Giger / Alien vibe.

Drune Giger City, December 2021

Atmospheric, strange – yet familiar, alien – yet identifiable, and rich in detail, Drune Giger City might be a little discomfiting for some given some of the sexual motifs present, but that does not change the fact it is another work of art from Hera. So, if you have a love of her work and / or of H.R. Giger and / or sci-fi, this is a build not to be messed.

SLurl Details

Sansar: the Wookey in ex-CEO lawsuit

Posted on by Inara Pey
Stock image via MGN

Sansar, the platform for live virtual events originally created by Linden Lab, had something of a scare in later December 2021, when all services, including the platform’s website went off-line for a period of time. This prompted a round of speculation / rumour (and in some cases, indignation) that the platform had been shut down without warning.

As we all know, Sansar went through an intensive development cycle from 2014 through 2017, prior to being (prematurely, I tend to believe) launched on the world at large. It then – being brutally honest – went through a period in which Linden Lab flip-flopped in direction and purpose for Sansar as the bubble of hype surrounding consumer-based VR (unsurprisingly) burst. Finally, in March 2020, after having laid-off the majority of staff involved in Sansar at the end of 2019, Linden Lab sold Sansar to what appeared to be a start-up company, then called Wookey Projects (eventually to be come Wookey Search Technologies Corporation (operating as Wookey Technologies). For a time, this seemed to bode well for Sansar’s future: the majority of laid-off staff were re-hired, development work resumed, etc., and Sansar event hosted some large(ish) events in 2020, such as Lost Horizon’s Glastonbury Shangri-La. But really, Sansar continued to struggle to build a genuine audience.

Then, on Wednesday, December 22nd, Sansar’s presence on the web abruptly vanished, with the website returning a 404 error, and the client left unable to connect to any servers. As the hours passed, so speculation grew that perhaps the plug had been pulled, particularly in light of the comments that had been doing the rounds that all Sansar technical staff had been placed on extended furlough since some point in September 2021 (which, given the company’s total number of direct employees is put at just 22 by RocketReach and others, could represent a something of a significant portion of staff).

Sansar Discord channel screen capture, courtesy of Dr. Fran Babcock

Having heard the news about the outage, I decided to wait things out for at least 24 hours to see if the situation changed, or if any announcement were to be made. As it turned out, things did start to change in that time, as Sansar’s services began to come back on-line on December 24th, starting with the sansar.com website, with the avatar service about the last visible service to re-surface prior to log-ins resuming.

Exactly what went wrong is unclear – being completely transparent, I’ve not actually been actively involved in Sansar since the end of June 2020 – but so far as I’m aware, nothing official has been stated beyond a Discord channel statement from “Steve from the Wookey management – Sansar team” (displayed on the right), from Steve Moriya. VP of Business Development (with thanks to Dave for the pointer).. Given we are on the year-of-year-break; perhaps something will be stated in the New Year – but time will tell on that.

However, the outage did prompt me to return to information that came my way in September 2021, and which I (again) opted to withhold from blogging about at the time, in order to see how developments progressed.

Coming by way of Cain Maven, a Second Life creator and individual not given to hyperbole or rumour, that information was / is that Wookey Search Technologies Corporation is engaged in a long-running dispute with its former CEO, Mr. John Fried. He has been seeking recompense from the company that could amount to something over US $1 million.

Companies being sued by former employees isn’t precisely unheard of in the United States (Linden Lab themselves has faced it – or the threat thereof – at least once), and can be subject to settlement without ever reaching a formal court case. Hence why, when Cain pointed me to the matter, I decided to hold off on commenting, and await developments.

However, case number CGC20584302¹, filed with the Superior Court of California, San Francisco, does now appear to be on course for a potential trial by jury, following demands to do so were filed with the court by both parties at the end of November 2021.  

The situation has been developing since shortly after Wookey acquired Sansar in 2020; at its heart, is a claim by Mr. Fried that Wookey failed to honour commitments they allegedly made to him concerning salary and reimbursement of relocation fees (from Florida to California), and further failed to honour an alleged US $1 million bonus payment for which he is also seek recompense. It’s a case that has seen both sides file claim and counter-claim, motion and counter-motion; but as noted above, both parties filed demands to move to a trial by jury in late November 2021. As a result, the court issued a Notice of Time and Place of Trial at the start of December 2021, and unless anything else arises, the trial will commence: June 27th, 2022, and it will be heard in the court of the Honourable Suzanne Ramos Bolanos.

That said, a settlement may still be reached – a conference to attempt to see if this is possible remains scheduled for March 16th, 2022, having been postponed from its original December 8th, 2021 date. But the In the meantime, both parties are moving to the Discovery phase of the case  – which may also bring requests for continuance before the judge, further delaying the trail, or altering the direction of the case.

I offer no direct conclusions on the matter here – I’m not a lawyer, after all. However, given Wookey Search Technologies appears to be valued at around  – as of September 2021 – US 3.78 million, were the case to go all the way, and a judgement made in favour of Mr. Fried, it could put a significant dent in the company’s finances. As such, I’ll continue to track the case and look to provide updates in 2022.

  1. Note that this website requires multiple responses to a Captcha system, and can time-out relatively quickly, requiring additional Capcha confirmations.

A visit to a Scarlett Hotel in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
DRD: The Scarlett Hotel, December 2021 – click any image for full size

If you are seeking something different from a winter-themed region might want to pay a visit to The Scarlett Hotel, a full region designed by Jaimy Hancroft and the Death Row Designs (DRD) team – although you may need to do so before the end of December 31st, 2021, as I’m been informed (unofficially) that that is when the little adventures on the region may draw to a close).

The setting offers what might be taken as a coastal township caught in the midst of winter, snow lying so heavy on the ground, a snow plough is required to keep the local streets clear, and even the local fishing wharves sit under the snow’s thick blanket. Dominating this township is the eponymous hotel, its broad front carrying a certain similarity to the Overlook Hotel from Kubrick’s The Shining (or if you prefer, the Stanley Hotel, Colorado, which was used for many of the exterior shots of the hotel seen in that film).

DRD: The Scarlett Hotel, December 2021

Not only does the hotel give its name to the region, it is the location for a set of adventures that set this winter setting apart from others. There are 12 in all that visitors to the region are invited to participated in; and those who complete all 12 can earn a reward. In all there are 12 individual adventures – or stories – in which people can participate, and completing all 12 will reward people with a prize.

For those who do wish to participate in the quest, the best way to do so is to touch the Tutorial sign mounted on the wall of the landing point. This offer the opportunity to visit a browser-based tutorial (and also a web page of general rules), which forms a fairly good guide to getting started. The key points of this is that you must accept the local DRD experience and join the DRD group. Both of these actions can be achieved at the landing point. However, if you have problems with getting an invitation to join the experience (as I did), you can go to Me / Avatar in the viewer menu bar, click on Experiences → Search, make sure the search maturity is set to Moderate and search for “DRD Experience” (no quotes); this should display the experience name – double-click on it to open the experience profile, then click on Allow to join it. You’re then ready to obtain the game HUD.

DRD: The Scarlett Hotel, December 2021

Once players are set, the next stage is to head for the hotel and trigger a story. This is done by finding a story introduction – which is displayed in local chat (generally at the entrance to a room), and then clicking around objects and surfaces (including drawer and cupboards) to find the start point – once you have done so, the active story/ies (you can have more than one active at a time) will be indicated by a gear icon in the checklist of the HUD.

The recent history of the kitchen is a sad and tragic one. In 2002, an excited young chef from France named Claire Ménard started her career right here at the Scarlett Hotel. Her dishes that she wrote in her personal recipe book were fresh, new, and exquisite, but Head Chef Ernest Cunningham was not a fan. He was well respected in the culinary world and didn’t take well to a newcomer changing his beloved menu. It is reported that he was quick to temper and abusive with staff. Ever since The Accident, there have been reports of banging noises coming from inside the walk-in freezer…

– An introduction to one of the stories from The Scarlett Hotel

DRD: The Scarlett Hotel, December 2021

However, even for those not interested in the adventures, the region offers opportunities for photography and the introductions to the various stories to do tend to whet the appetite.

So, if you do fancy something a little different when exploring, why not check into the Scarlett Hotel and see if you can solve some of the mysteries there – or just and a wander and take a few snaps? Just make sure you do so before the end of 2021, just in case the rumour I heard is right, and  things change.

DRD: The Scarlett Hotel, December 2021

SLurl Details

A Cathedral and Silent Beauties in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Cathedral and Sinful Retreat – Fly Kugin: Silent Beauties

In September 20221, I visited Chuck Clip’s Sinful Retreat art hub to witness The Falling Leaves, a series of watercolour paintings by Fly Kugin (FlyQueen), uploaded by the artist for presentation in Second Life (see: The Falling Leaves: Fly’s watercolours in Second Life). At the time, the tone of the notes with the exhibition and Fly’s own Profile gave the impression she was taking a possibly extended leave of absence from Second Life. I was therefore surprised – and delighted – that just before Christmas, I received an invitation to visit a further exhibition by Fly, which is once again being hosted by Chuck and Jewell, this time on the Sinful Retreat adjunct region, Angel’s Rest.

Silent Beauties features Fly’s second collection of watercolours to be displayed in-world, and it is one that continues her exploration of watercolour painting as a means of expression through the creation of pictures depicting flora and flowers. However, where The Falling Leaves focused more on the former, Silent Beauties presents twelve simply gorgeous paintings of garden and wild flowers.

Offered as individual pieces for one-time sale (no copies), with each flower simply presented on a white canvas, the fifteen pieces in this collection are genuinely captivating – as is the setting for their display, which should be seen as a work of art in its own right, as I’ll come to in a moment.

The Cathedral and Sinful Retreat – Fly Kugin: Silent Beauties

The majority of Fly’s pieces are individually hung – the exception being Rose Effect, a group of four paintings of a rose presented in a single frame. Most of the paintings are offered with a single dominant colour / tone that reflects its title and / or emotional essence, including the four paintings of the rose to be found in Rose Effect. Taken individually or together, they demonstrate that Fly has, in the 6 months since she commenced her experiments with watercolours, become an accomplished and expressive artist in the medium (a further proof of which is the fact that all of the pieces have already been sold, and the exhibition only opened on December 21st).

The space in which Silent Beauties is being exhibited is The Cathedral, a build that might be said to be a piece of Second Life artistic history. Originally designed and created in 2009 by Patch Thibaud, it was textured by by DB Bailey utilising alphas to create its distinctive crystalline look. In 2020, Djehuti-Anpu (Thoth Jansen), an immersive, multi-media artist whose work I’ve long appreciated and admired, joined with DB to add media textures to the build, magnifying its depth and richness.

The frames for Fly’s art are displayed along the columns of the cathedral’s knave, one or two per column. These columns also feature some of the media surfaces Thoth has added to the Cathedral. To witness them in all their glory, together with the rest of Thoth’s artistry, (which blends well with Fly’s paintings), enter the Cathedral and enable media playback (click the movie camera in the top right corner of the viewer, alongside the media stream button and those for camera and graphics presets). The image below offers a sample of what you will see.

The Cathedral and Sinful Retreat – Fly Kugin: Silent Beauties

SLurl Details

2021 viewer release summaries week #51

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

Updates from the week ending Sunday, December 26th

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 6.5.1.566335, formerly the Cache+ 360 Capture viewer, dated December 7, promoted December 15 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Space Sunday: JWST and a touch of SpaceX

Posted on by Inara Pey
The James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope yet built – the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – finally made its way into space on Christmas Day, December 25th, 2021, marking the start of a mission almost 30 years in the making.

That mission is multi-part in its scope, encompassing as it does looking back to the origins of the universe and the galaxies around us, together with gaining a greater understanding of the nature and formation of galaxies, stars and planetary systems, and learning more about the nature of worlds beyond our own solar system, as well as seeking signs of the potential origins of life. It is a mission that has been plagued by technical and other issues that have repeatedly delayed its launch – and high winds along its path of ascent to orbit caused one final delay, pushing the launch back from Christmas Eve to Christmas day.

Final countdown commenced several hours ahead of lift-off, with the Ariane 5 launch vehicle igniting its engines as scheduled at 12:20 UTC, rising into the sky over the European Spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, carrying the US $10 billion telescope on the first leg of a journey to its operational destination that will take it almost a month to complete. Along the way it will go through a series of complex activities along the way, each one vital to its operational success.

The European Ariane 5 launch vehicle carrying JWST (designated flight VA256) lifts-off from the European spaceport, French Guiana, December 25th, 2021. Credit: ArianeSpace / ESA / NASA

The first three of these activities came just half-an-hour after lift-off, with the separation of the telescope from its Ariane upper stage after the latter had boosted it onto the start of its 1.6 million kilometre journey away from Earth. Almost at the same time, JWST deployed the solar array vital for supplying it with electrical power. This was followed two hours later by the deployment of the high gain communications antenna and, 12 hours after launch, JWST completed the first “mid-course” correction to its trajectory, steering itself more closely towards its final destination.

This destination lies close to the Earth- Sun L2 Lagrange point, 1.6 million km further out from the Sun than Earth’s orbit, but which orbits the Sun in the same period of time as Earth. It’s a location selected for JWST’s operations for a number of reasons, including:

  • It effectively puts the Earth, Moon and Sun “behind” the telescope, affording it uninterrupted views of the solar system and all that lies beyond it.
  • It is a semi-stable position in space that orbits the Sun at the same time as Earth. This both allows for continuous direct-line communications, and reduces the amount of propellants JWST would otherwise require for basic operations such as station-keeping and orbital corrections.

Even so, operations at the position will not be straightforward. As the L2 position is a point of gravitational equilibrium, JWST will operate in an orbit 800,000 km wide around it. Whilst relatively stable, this orbit will require JWST to make small periodic adjustments every 23 or so days. Given it can only carry a finite amount of propellants (168 kg) for these adjustments, the telescope effectively has an operational “shelf life”: it’s primary mission is set at just 5 years – although it is hoped it has sufficient propellants for at least 10 years worth of controlled observations.

Having been launched in a “packed” form that allowed it to fit inside the payload fairing of its launch vehicle, JWST will spend the next two weeks gradually “unfolding” itself, as per the video below, with a number of firings of its thrusters to fine-tune its flight to its intended orbit.

All of these activities are vital to JWST being able to perform its desired mission, but perhaps the two most important are the deployment of the telescope’s secondary and primary mirrors, and that of its incredible and delicate heat shield.

The optics deployment will see the booms supporting the secondary mirror that reflects light gathered from the primary back to where it can be delivered by a third mirror to the instruments deep inside JWST. The second part comes with the unfolding of the “table flap” elements of the primary mirror, allowing it to reach its full 6.5 metre diameter, almost 2.5 times the diameter of the primary mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope. (HST), and with potentially 100 times its power.

JWST is primarily intended to operate in the infrared, but in order to do so, its instruments and science systems must be kept very cold. If any of them exceed 50ºK (-223.2ºC), the heat they generate will be registered in the infrared; potentially overwhelming the telescope’s ability to capture the infrared light of stellar objects. Given that JWST will be in permanent sunlight, maintaining such an incredibly low temperature this is a considerable challenge – hence the vital role of JWST’s remarkable heat shield.

How the heat shield will keep the operational surfaces of JWST super-cold. Credit: NASA

This comprises 5 layers of Kapton E polymide formed into sheets as thin as a human hair and then covered on both sides with a thin membrane of aluminium, this shield is carried folded within two “pallets” that also need to be unfolded to form the “base” of the telescope.

Once these pallets have unfolded, booms can be extended on either side of JWST, allowing the 5 layers of the heat shield to be unfurled like the sails of a ship, and then tensioned off. This will provide an area of shadow the size of a tennis court within which the instruments and optics of the telescope will sit, while radiators behind the main mirror will circulate the heat absorbed by the shield and radiate it back into the cold shadow without impacting telescope operations.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: JWST and a touch of SpaceX” →