Vibes of Painting in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Vibes Art Gallery

I recently had cause to drop into Vibes Art Gallery to witness a new exhibition of art featuring a trio of artists – Matt Thomson (MTH63), Zia Sophia (Zia Branner) and Wan (Wan Laryukov), entitled Vibes of Painting.

Curated by Eviana Raider (eviana Robbiani), as well as being a centre for exhibiting art, the gallery is also something of a statement of purpose in its own right. In developing it, Eviana has intentionally utilised industrial elements to create a space suggestive of a warehouse facility – three storage buildings with loading / unloading bays and areas, etc., – that has been repurposed  rather than invoking the carbon-costly process of demolition, clearing and replacing. As such, the setting is something of an immersive environment for art displays.

As the name of the exhibition – which opened on July 14th, 2021 – suggests, Vibes of Painting focuses on physical world art the three artists have produced. I was attracted to it for both this reason – I do appreciate the opportunity to witness art from the physical world in Second Life – and because one of the three artists is a name new to me, whilst another is someone who is perhaps more usually associated with Second Life photography, rather than painting.

Vibes Art Gallery: Matt Thompson (MTH63)

That person is Matt Thomson (MTH63). whose work I’ve appreciated through a number of SL exhibitions, and whose sense of humour I’ve enjoyed through reading and re-reading his biography at each of his exhibitions. Here, in one of the two smaller (and linked) warehouse units, he presents a selection of vibrant abstract expressionist pieces worthy of Jackson Pollock or Jean-Paul Riopelle without being in any way derivative. Far from it, in fact, given that Matt is himself an experienced abstract artist. As such, these are pieces that can be fully appreciated as being works by an established abstract art and for the statements they make (mostly in reflection of Matt’s sense of humour and self-deprecating manner).

In the neighbouring hall, Zia Sophia offers a selection of her always layered art. Working mostly with acrylics with accents in oil crayons and in, and to which she often adds materials such as paste, gel, sand, glue, bandages and paper to give her work a tactile sense before finishes with a layer of varnish to act as a binder, Zia produces pieces that have their own unique sense of life.

Vibes Art Gallery: Zia Sophia (Zia Branner)

Embracing a range of techniques and subjects, Zia here presents a selection of pieces that include the purely abstract to a study of a flower in bloom (and which is quite marvellously attractive) and with a slight focus on pieces that feature water and / or coastal scenes. These combine to offer an engaging cross-section of Zia’s art that perfectly sits within the exhibition’s theme and compliments Matt’s abstract pieces, just as his compliment Zia’s.

Occupying the largest of the three display space, Wan Laryukov offers both 2D and 3D work that is richly evocative and oft provocative in theme and content, and which covers multiple styles and genres. Expressionism, allegorical art, symbolism art, figurative art and more are to be found in the selection offered across the floor and on the walls of the hall.

Vibes Art Gallery: Wan (Wan Laryukov)

Presented in colour and black-and white, the 2D art is fascinating in content, with the strongest lean perhaps being towards expressionism, whilst the 3D pieces perhaps lean more towards symbolism in their themes. Both 2D and 3D work make for an engaging display which, when taken as a whole, also offers a stitching of oneirology that brings all of the pieces together as it offers a central point of appreciation.

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2021 CCUG meeting week #28 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hermosa Tierra, April 2021 – 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, July 15th, 2021. These meetings are chaired by Vir Linden, with dates available via the SL Public Calendar and the venue for the CCUG is the Hippotropolis camp fire.

SL Viewer

The Fernet Maintenance RC updated to version 6.4.21.561414 on Wednesday, July 14th. The rest of the available official viewers are as follows:

General Viewer Notes

The Fernet Maintenance RC should have been promoted, but an error in the merging process meant that it has only just been merged with the current release viewer, so a further RC version has been issued to soak for the next few days in preparation for promotion, possibly in week #29.

ARCTan

Summary: An attempt to re-evaluate both Avatar Rendering Costs and the cost of in-world scene rendering, with the current focus on avatar rendering cost / impact, and in-world scene rendering / LI to be tackled at some point in the future.

  • Work is continuing on the new performance floater, which has seen some further redesign work.
  • This work is currently separate to the work on revising that actual formulas used for calculating avatar complexity.
    • It has been suggested on a number of occasions that it might be preferable to hold-off issuing any viewer with the new floater until the new avatar ARC calculations are available and used, to prevent people just ignoring the information as being “wrong”, even when the new calculations do come into use.
    • There is a strong probability that without proper education, users will simply ignore the information anyway, but the objections to issuing the viewer ahead of the correct calculations being available has been acknowledged, so internal discussions are still in progress as to when the viewer might be released.
    • Beq Janus is working on her own variant of avatar ARC calculations, which she has dubbed “TrueARC”, which currently simply overlays avatars with colours (green, yellow, red) to indicate their rendering load from low to heavy. This work is in its early stages, and Beq plans to keep LL updated on her work / findings.

Graphics Work

  • The Graphics team are working to integrate the Tracy debugger / system analyser for cross-platform graphics development. This will be used to look for performance “hot spots” in the rendering code.
  • Callum Linden has now resumed work on the 360-degree snapshot viewer.

EEP Items

  • Mainland EEP settings: since the release of EEP, multiple Mainland regions suffer from their default EEP settings being too dark. The fix for this has been awaiting the implementation of new tools on the back-end, which are now available. As a result, a simulator using updated environment settings for Mainland is currently on test, and will be deployed Soon™.
  • BUG-230677 “llSetAgentEnvironment transition doesn’t work” – a fix for this should be in the next Love Me Render RC viewer (LMR-6).
  • Following the EEP discussion at the Simulator User group (notes here), Vincent Nacon has raised his concerns / ideas in a set of Jiras:
    • BUG-230973 “[EEP] Obscured option to reset Cloud Scroll to the default position” – bug awaiting review.
    • BUG-230974 “[EEP] Increasement [sic] to max limit on Cloud Scale” – bug awaiting review.
    • BUG-230975 “[EEP] Brightness Slider for the Sun” – this is currently awaiting the weekly Feature Request triage.
    • It is possible the two bugs might be picked up for inclusion in an LMR viewer.

Mesh and LODs

Investigations have started into ways to improve mesh LOD model generation using the open-source Mesh Optimiser (originally used within Sansar). No ETA on potential visible output from this work at present.

This sparked a discussion on whether, and if introduced, auto-LODding should be enforced on existing content.

  • The “pro” argument for this approach is that it would “rectify” content with poor / missing LOD models.
  • The arguments against the idea include:
    • Many content creators do properly craft their LOD models correctly – and any enforced “re-optimisation” of in-world content could see these LODs replaced by poorer automated LODs, causing understandable upset.
    • Image matching (the suggested means of re-examining content) cannot contextualise content in terms of things like visibility (e.g. the interior of a vehicle might be intentionally entirely low-LOD, as it is designed to be seen from only a handful of metres away).
    • While LL have AWS under them, the process of re-examining thousands and thousands of in-world assets would be processing-intensive and come with a cost. – so who pays?
  • A counter suggestion would be to make any such re-optimisation opt-in: if a creator has content they’d like to pass through the system, they could opt to do so and then utilise the automatic LODs.
  • LL have also been in internal discussions on where the 16-bit limit on mesh faces originated, with the view that allowing a higher number of polys into a face would a) make rendering easier, and improve object decimation (it would likely be replaced with some form of global limit). However it has yet to be determined if changing this would require changing the mesh asset format. As such, there are no current plans to implement a new mesh format – but doing so in the future has not been ruled out.

In Brief

  • A question was asked how any “dominance” between two worn rigged items that use position overrides for the same joint. Vir noted that there is no assigned dominance per se, other than via mesh ID (UUID), so it is something that cannot be directly controlled by assigning a priority or anything like that.
  • The question was asked as to the difference, functionally, between a mesh and a sculpt. In short: a sculpt is a texture used as a cylindrical displacement map, whilst a mesh is a physical asset, which has had its ID “kludged” (Vir’s term) into the spot originally intended for sculpt IDs. If Vir recalls things correctly, whether the ID is for a Sculpt texture or a mesh is determined by the presence (or not) of an additional bit of information. Overall, information is to what an item is – prim, flexi, sculpt or mesh – is still held within the “prim” container.

In-Viewer Mesh Editing Tools

There is a view circulating that during his Meet the Lindens (MTL) session at SL18B, Patch Linden indicated that there are “plans to implement mesh editing capabilities inworld”. However, this is something of an incorrect extraction of what was actually said, based on Patch’s initial response to a question asked about content creation and scripting (“I think this is absolutely something we should tackle”). While he did start his reply using these words, Patch also added further context around them by:

  • Broadening his reply in terms of the existing 3D tools in the viewer – how people have started with them before going on to model in mesh via Blender, Maya, Unity, etc., – and the more important need for LL to understand what incoming users need today by way of an updated toolset in order to engage in content creation.
  • Noting that while Grumpity Linden might agree on this in principle, she would likely have very different idea on if / how / when any such work might be tackled, and so deferred to her on this aspect of any potential tool update.

As such, his comments shouldn’t really be seen as any form of statement that in-world mesh building tools is a project the Lab is about to embark on – and it certainly was not mentioned by Patch or Grumpity at their respective SL18B MTL sessions as being a part of the roadmap of work planned for the next 12-18 months.

The original question and Patch’s complete answer can be heard in the official video of his SL18B Meet the Lindens session, between 1:32:28 and 1:34:52.

Date of Next Meeting

In theory, Thursday, July 29th. However, Vir will apparently be out of the office then, so the meeting is dependent on someone deputising for him. If no-one does, then the next LL-attended CCUG should be on Thursday, August 5th.

Austin’s town in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
AustinLiam’s Havna town, July 2021 – click any image for full size

This is a slightly different Exploring Second Life article, as it is, when all is said and done, about a store as much as it is about the regions it references.

AustinLiam is well-known in Second Life for the building he produces. These cover a range of functions from houses through to industrial and dockside, units and assorted rural-style buildings. All are very well made and supplied Copy / Mod, making them ideal for tweaking and kitbashing – as I can state with certainty, having purchased his Captain Retreat combined house / boathouse and converted it into a very comfortable alternative house for Isla Caitinara (see  A Captain’s Retreat in Second Life).

AustinLiam’s Havna town, July 2021

But given many building creators provide their work Copy / Mod, there is nothing especially unique in this, nor is there in the fact that Austin has placed his buildings in a landscaped environment – again numerous store owners and building creators landscape the regions around their store / products.

What does set Austin’s store apart from others, however, is the degree to which he has created an entire environment  / setting that combines his buildings with roads, moorings, footpaths, vehicles, boats and even static NPCs to create a genuine sense of place  – one that neatly integrates smoothly into the general environment of Second Norway in which the three regions the store spans sit.

AustinLiam’s Havna town, July 2021

I first visited the regions – Havna, Svalbard and Erle – as Second Norway was undergoing re-development under the management of Vanity Bonetto and her Luxory Estates Brand. At that time, Austin was also re-working his regions and extending his presence through the addition of Erle. All of that work has long since finished, and the result is a waterfront town that climbs into the rocky highlands behind it, giving it a stepped feel of a place built along the narrow lowlands that hug a rocky coast.

The core of this little township is called Havna, after the first of the regions in which it sits, and it is a busy place – there are moorings for sail boats and motorboats, workshops, a boat builder’s yard, working wharves – and even signs that the town acts as a shipping base for logging operations further up in the hills. Buildings follow the waterfront or sit out on the islands that help to give the town a natural harbour, the way they’ve been naturally been placed and mixed making the entire setting highly photogenic, whilst the roads (a mix of kits by other creators and Austin’s own work) offer multiple routes through the town and its surroundings that encourage exploration.

AustinLiam’s Havna town, July 2021

Further realism is added by Austin’s willingness to utilise buildings by other creators alongside his own. This not only adds depth to his town, it also means that visitors can not only discover his creations and see how they might fit their needs, they might also find other items they might be interested in purchasing, be those things houses, cars, boats or landscaping items. Photographers will also find rezzing is open – making it possible to rez props – but if you do so, please remember to clear up after yourself!

Whether looking for building for your waterfront setting (or to go inland – many of Austin’s structures are suited to either / both) or a more unique look to a house or simply enjoy exploring and want to visit and photograph a place well off the usual “tourist” trails in Second Life, then Havna might be worth dropping in to see.

AustinLiam’s Havna town, July 2021

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Nekonuko’s Endless Journey through Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Onceagain Gallery: Nekonuko Nakamori
I’ve forgotten how long I’ve been wandering. In-world is infinitely large, disappearing and reappearing, and the roads are endless. My work is simple. I face with contemporary art in real life, but my work in SL is much simpler. I’ve always wanted to do that kind of work; all I have to do is walk around and click the shutter on “something”, a “moment” that resonates with me. Yes, it’s that easy and everyone does it.
I edit these photos, not to create another story, but to extract “something” from that “moment”. If you can relate to the “something” of my “moment”, then my wandering will not be lonely, and I hope you will enjoy that wandering with me. 

With these words, Nekonuko Nakamori introduces her exhibition at Onceagain Gallery, curated by Onceagain (manoji Yachvili). As is suggested by Nekonuko’s words, this is another selection of her travels through the the endless world of Second Life in a collection that comes to just shy of two dozen images presented across the two floors of the gallery.

I was first introduced to Nekonuko’s art around four years ago through a couple of exhibitions in 2017. I’m not sure if it is because she exhibits sparsely, or just that I’ve managed to somehow miss any exhibitions of her work between then and now, but I confess I was surprised that is has been so long since I’ve had the opportunity to write about her art, as it really is quite captivating.

Onceagain Gallery: Nekonuko Nakamori

Eschewing the more usual rectangular format of images that tends to dominate the SL photographic community, Nekonuko utilises a 1:1 ratio for her art. This alone sets her work aside from that of other landscape artists; but what makes it completely special is the manner in which she selects the focus of each piece, seeking out, as she says, a view that sets each image as a moment in time, made completely personal through the presence of her avatar.

A specialist in conceptual art in the physical world, Nekonuko’s skills as an artist are very much in evidence through these pieces. Her selection of angle, composition – off-centre views of skylines, fire escapes, tunnels and bridges, the gently brushed touch of post-processing that offers skies of dappled colour, hazy horizons and soft lines – may not per se tell a complete story, like all great works of art, they combine to capture attention and offer a hint of a tale, making the moment that that caught into something deeper.

Also folded within her images are hints of more classical art forms, notably impressionism and realism – the latter particularly evident in her broader landscape pieces. This does much to further capture the eye and imagination, again drawing the observer into each piece.

Onceagain Gallery: Nekonuko Nakamori

An altogether engaging exhibition from an artist who reminds us of both the ever-changing vastness of Second Life (a vastness that far exceeds either the physical size of the grid or the constraints imposed by the world map) and the broad uniqueness of this digital realm we regard as home.

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2021 SUG meeting week #28 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Summer of ’42, April 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, July 13th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary.

Server Deployments

There are no planned deployments for the week.

SL Viewer

There have been no official viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the official pipelines as:

  • Release viewer: Project UI RC viewer, version 6.4.20.560520, dated June 14, promoted June 23 – No change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

Week #29 (commencing Monday, July 19th should see a new RC deployment that includes the following:

  • Opening custom chat ranges to estate managers through the simulator debug console (apparently requires a viewer update as well).
  • Ability for estate owners / managers to set a default EEP environment across an entire estate.

In Brief

  • A general discussion on EEP and possible fixes improvements, including:
    • A brightness slider for the Sun.
    • Possibly adjusting the relative sizes of the Sun and Moon to reflect their actual size ratio (see as possibly a content breaker).
    • Adjustments to cloud density, cloud detail (making it relative to the world) and bumping the maximum value on the cloud scale slider up to 5.
    • One (or more) feature requests have been suggested for these ideas, as well as raising them for discussion at the Content Creation meetings.
  • There was further discussion around the potential to use the Nimble capabilities originally found in Windlight to provide rain, snow etc., with the ability to avoid entering closed structures.
    • Weather systems have been a discussion topic within the Lab, with no commitment on implementing anything.
    • Generating the data server-side is seen as possible, but to use Simon Linden’s words, “the real magic is rendering it on the viewer”.
    • The main issues may come down to the robustness of viewer-side physics and the effort required to get the viewer so it can render weather and the potential impact on performance (although pseudo-weather systems using ray casting, mesh faces, etc., are already either indirectly (waiting on the simulator calcs) or directly (rendering) impactful on viewer performance.
  • There was also a discussion on dealing with AFK avatars at Linden Info / safe hubs, and the complaints that new users tend to make when arriving in one that no-one will speak to them:
    • One suggestion is to have an experience that sits inactive avatars after a period of time – that is, moves them away from the landing point and sits them on a seat, freeing space at the landing point.
    • A counter suggestion was to simply use a landing point mover, given the avatars that are seated are still effectively in the same space (although could in theory be moved to a separate “room”).
    • A further problem with the experience idea is that it assumes all those arriving will opt to join it at least once.

 

A trip to Rivendell in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, July 2021 – click any image for full size

Back in June 2021, I received an invitation to visit Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, a Homestead region design by Seraph Nirvana and Nida Nirvana (Nidatine). At the time the invite came in, I did drop in for a visit but things being what they were I had to wait for another day to make a longer visit. Thus, with apologies to Seraph and Nida, I’m only just getting to this write-up.

The first couple of things to note about the region is that whilst based on Rivendell / Imladris (depending on your preference), this is not a fantasy role-play environment. Rather, it is a quiet place open to visitors for meeting, exploring and taking photographs. The second point to note is that the setting is not in any way intended to be a reflection of Imladris as seen in the likes of Peter Jackson’s epic movies; rather this is an entirely personal interpretation that seeks to present the elven haven – albeit with a small twist.

Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, July 2021

There is no formal landing point set for the region, so I’ve arbitrarily offered one here that delvers visitors deep in the valley and – surprisingly – onto the deck of a ship. Surprisingly because, as all LOTR fans know, Rivendell lies far, far inland. But rather than being an anachronism, the presence of the ship, looking to the West as it does, offers that little twist to the setting as it links Rivendell with another elven centre on Middle Earth: the Grey Havens, the port from which the elves (and those chosen to travel with them) departed via Círdan’s ships for the Blessed Realm.

A further reason for selecting the ship as a landing point, is that it allows the fullest appreciation of the setting, as it offers the two ways by which visitors can approach the setting and gain a full appreciation for how it sits within a cleft-like valley that appears to have been sliced into the lands that sit above it – just as Tolkien intended.

Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, July 2021

The first of these, reached via steps and a high tower with the greeting Feel Welcome, Friend at its base, presents an elevated view of Rivendell, a graceful stone bridge spanning the valley to reach it.

However, I’d actually recommend the second route. It is not as initially obvious, but lies between the ship and the steep shoulder of land that rises next to it (and against which the tower mentioned above rises). Here on the sand, a wooden walkway winds through the valley floor, hugging the water’s edge to reach a path that rises with the slopes to the east. Marked by lanterns and under the shade of trees, it twists its way up to another bridge, this one roofed to help protect travellers from the spray of the falls behind it. Across this bridge, the path pitches up again, passing the outliers of Rivendell before arriving at the haven proper.

Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, July 2021

It is this route that perhaps offers a fuller appreciation of how Seraph and Nida have built their Rivendell into the slopes and cliffs of their valley, from the great arched walkway that stands almost as a protective buttress for the setting as it follows the curves of the high falls above which it has been built, to come to the elven house that sit both above and back from those falls, which might perhaps be the dwelling of Elrond himself.

Gathered around and below this house are numerous points of interest – the curving walkway itself, as it links a plaza with ruined walls and dominated by a great fountain with a tower that connects it with the grand bridge below; a walled garden enclosing a house that may have been built to make visitors feel at home, and winding paths that lead to spaces further afield, including the domed gazebo passed on the way up from the valley floor.

Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, July 2021

One of these additional spaces sits above the main path. It is reached via the path up from the valley floor, continuing as it does past the house, twisting back on itself to reach an almost hidden arboretum that houses another fountain. However, this isn’t the highest structure within the valley. That honour belongs to a high, square tower that stands aloft and alone on a shelf of rock, a high and apparently unreachable sentinel.

All of this makes for a design that is marvellously engaging in presentation, and quite breath-taking in its beauty. Some elven purists might be critical of the “non-elven” elements found throughout – the little house, the appearance of a grand piano within the elven house, some of the statues scattered throughout the setting. etc. But the fact is, none of these touches detract from the Rivendell in any way. Rather, they tend to enhance it, offering touches of familiarity, a sense of romance and – with the swings and seats – places to rest and simply drink in the entire environment, making it a destination that should not be missed.

Rivendell – Lord of the Rings, July 2021

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