June 2021 SL Web User Group summary with video

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021. These meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of the month, with dates and venue details available via the SL public calendar. A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found at the end of this article, and the following is a summary of key topics / discussions.

Web Properties Updates

[Video: 0:18-3:20]

  • Most of the month has been spent on implementing a new project workflow, for which the primary focus has been on the back-end systems, as per previous reports (post-uplift work, etc.), most of which has been non-user visible. Members of the team should start pivoting towards other work now this is drawing to a close.
  • Payments and Purchases:
    • Work has been carried out on the payment system – but no specifics supplied.
    • The issue with non-US Dollar purchases of  Linden Dollars some experienced at the end of May has been addressed.
  • Web pages:
    • The Cookie permissions banner common to SL web pages has been reduced in footprint size (when displayed), so as to be less intrusive.
    • Further web pages have been updated to use the “new” blue SL logo rather than the older green one. This is low-priority work, so is only being addressed when pages still using the the older logo are worked on for other reasons.
    • Web page “control panels” for the original Linden Homes received assorted fixes for issues.

Marketplace

[Video: 3:29-3:57 + as indicated by timestamps]

  • No updates on any significant Marketplace projects.
  • The issue with Quick Fill failing to pull-in the correct information on the non-English tabs for items has been addressed.
  • Planning / discussions have started with regards to allowing variants in product listings  (e.g. a single listing for multiple colour versions on an item, which currently each have to have their own listing).
    • This is only preliminary discussions and planning, not actual work to implement.
    • The hope is the work can be formally kicked-off as a project later in 2021.
  • [6:27-9:27] Keyword searches: reports that Marketplace keyword searches are failing to return expected results, prompting the question whether anything has been changed. The short answer is, not as far as is known.
    • If there are specific examples that can be cited where this is occurring, the request is for them to be reported via the Jira.
  • [15:01-15:25] the Marketplace  team are also working on ideas for additional MP listing categories. Again, no specifics, but additional categories may start to appear some time in the next 2-3 months.

Mobile Client

[Video: 4:05-4:18]

  • The iOS version still has not been passed to Apple for further evaluation, as it is still being worked on by LL.
  • Android: nothing to report.

Name changes / Last Names

[Video: 4:20-5:15]

  • June will see a further set of Last Names made available.
  • Some of these will be a general refresh of the available names (e.g. new names replacing some of the less popular names currently on the list).
  • Some of the new last Names will be themed after the Second Life Birthday and its  (somewhat generic / bland) theme.
    • As with the April “limited edition” names, these will only be available through the period of the birthday and will then be removed from the list.
    • At the time of writing the list for these “special” names was still being refined.
  • All of the updates will be blogged when they become available later in June.

In Brief

  • [36:18-37:04] Premium Plus: no  significant news, other than still under consideration, but is very much in the “thinking about it” arena, but may be revisited in the “next couple of months”.
  • [38:54-41:00] User-defined grid-wide experiences + larger scripts:
    • Grid-wide experience by users are still under consideration, but no real movement either way on possible implementation or not.
    • Offering larger scripts is something the Lab have discussed in the past, and is something the might be offered in the future, once everything is bedded-in to AWS, but nothing planned for the immediate future.
  • [15:31-23:31] A general discussion on how the marketplace works, various behaviours and feature suggestions (e.g. bulk upload of product images, dynamic keyword – so a creator can specify a set of keywords across their listings, and can then change / remove words dynamically on the basis of how the perform),  with the latter again referred to Jira feature requests.
  • [24:00-27:32] a broader discussion on how to put ideas to LL and where / how creators can make contact with LL. The former remains feature requests through the Jira. The latter is best achieved through LL user group meetings.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, July 7th, 14:00 SLT.

Four artists for June at GenovArt in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
GenovArt B&W Gallery: Caly Applewhyte

I made my first 2021 trip to the GenovArt Galleries, curated by Juna (Junanuj) this week to take in the latest exhibition to open at the centre’s B&W hall. It  will certainly no be my last.

Featuring the work of Calypso Applewhyte, Sandi Benelli, Sisi Biedermann and Christower Dae, the exhibition opened on Monday May 31st, and is very much a must-see collection of art by SL artists and photographers I highly respect or am just coming to appreciate.

Sisi Biedermann is someone who needs no introduction to those who regularly read these pages. I have been, and remain, in awe of her artistry, which is broad-ranging in style and technique, encompassing everything from photography to oil or watercolour on canvas, etchings, tiled mosaics, and digital mixed media, whilst encompassing just about every kind of subject.

GenovArt B&W Gallery: Sisi Biedermann

The pieces offered at GenovArt are very much from Sisi’s digital etching / collage portfolio, and they take visitors on the most captivating journeys into nature and spring, featuring as they do the rich diversity of bloom and flower and the vibrancy of life they represent.

Across the hall, Caly Applewhyte presents an exhibition of two parts, each entitled Geisha, and repectively sub-titled In the Soul and Next Gen.

GenovArt B&W Gallery: Caly Applewhyte

Caly is, without a doubt one of the most gifted and evocative avatar portrait artists in Second Life – and this portfolio of her art is utterly astounding.  Offered as oils-on-canvas, with brooding deep tones and background, these are pieces that are deeply alive and vibrant in the degree of life and vitality running through them and bringing to the fore a narrative of the Geisha as the mother, warrior, daughter, lover, artist – the very soul of her civilisation.

Sandi Bellini sees her art as a means of achieve freedom and peace from the scurrying demands of life, and anyone who has seen her Second Life landscape images cannot fail to have felt that same sense of calmness and escape wash over them. Often using muted tones or backgrounds against which deeper colours are set, Sandi has a way of bringing the places she has imaged not just to life, but as locations in which you can place yourself such that you can feel the breeze, hear the splash of water, touch the softness of the grass or the roughness of the wood found within them.

GenovArt B&W Gallery: Sandi Benelli

I’m not aware of having encountered  the avatar photography of Christower Dae (ChrisTower Dae) previously, but on the strength of the pieces offered on the upper level of the hall at GenovArt alongside Sandi’ space, I want to see more.

Set on white backdrops and within a white space that brings them vividly before the eye, these are portraits of avatars that are incredibly life-like; the deftness of touch in post-processing is quite extraordinary – so much so that it is almost invisible, and the eye becomes convinced that it is not looking upon images of digital characters, but into the faces of living, breathing people.

GenovArt B&W Gallery: Christower Dae

Bringing together four truly unique talents into a single space, this ensemble exhibition at the GenovArt B&W Gallery is a must see – and be sure to walk across the Glass Gallery hall, where four more artists may be appreciated – and to which I’ll be returning for another article anon.

SLurl Details

2021 SUG meeting week #22 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
ChicLand, March 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, June 1st, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. These notes relate to the core points of discussion; other topics may have ben raised without specific feedback from LL as actionable items, so  please refer to the video at the end of this report for the full meeting and all points covered.

Server Deployments

At the time of writing, there had (again) been no server deployment thread available for review. However:

  • Tuesday, June 1st saw servers on the SLS Main channel updated with simulator release 560002, containing updates to the logging infrastructure.
  • Wednesday, June 2nd should see the RC channels updated with simulator maintenance release 560108 that includes a new LSL function: llGetInventoryAcquireTime(), which returns the “Acquired” timestamp that inventory name was added to the object’s inventory.

SL Viewer

There have been no viewer updates to mark the start of the week. So the pipelines remain as:

  • Release viewer: Eau de Vie Maintenance viewer, version 6.4.18.558266, dated April 23rd, promoted April 29th.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 viewer, version 6.4.19.560171, dated May 27th.
    • Maintenance 2 RC viewer – Fernet, version 6.4.19.559726, dated May 19th.
    • Project UI viewer updated to version 6.4.19.559612, May 14th.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26th.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9th, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22nd, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16th, 2019.

Video

The following video of the meeting is courtesy of Pantera Północy.

Finding Esgaroth in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Laketown – June 2021

So this is going to be a little different to my usual offerings under the Exploring Second Life tag in this blog, as it is not exactly about a “typical” region visit, nor is it a product review. However, a photo posted by Loverdag at the end of May sent me scurrying across the grid to pay a visit to a commercial build by creator Del-ka Aedilis (karport).

I say “scurrying” because I’ve been immersed in all things Tolkien since the days of my childhood, firstly via having The Hobbit read to me as a bedtime story, and then discovering The Fellowship of the Ring when I was a (very precocious) 12 (I would pass a pun here about Tolkien’s writings being Hobbit-forming, but I’ll leave that to one side). This being the case, I was hardly going to pass up the opportunity of dropping into the community of Men laid low by Smaug the dragon: Esgaroth – or Lake-town – on the waters of the Long Lake east of Mirkwood and south of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain.

Laketown – June 2021

This Laketown (to use the name given to the rezbox-enabled build) appears to be based on the visualisation of Esgaroth as seen within Peter Jackson’s (overly drawn-out) film trilogy of The Hobbit, rather than anything based on Tolkien’s own drawings of the town (which were more akin to neolithic pile dwellings than anything, whereas Jackson’s visualisation allowed for a far more adventuresome setting).

From the watchtowers overlooking the pier and drawbridge linking the town with the shore, through to what appears to be the  house belonging to the Master of Lake-town, this is an exceptionally creative and flexible build that utilises both original mesh by Del-ka Aedilis and incorporates full permission kits from the likes of IvanBenjammin to fully capture the tone and spirit of lake-town as seen in Jackson’s films.

Laketown – June 2021

Set within surrounding mountains that are both too numerous to be foothills of Erebor and too close to the the flanks of the Grey Mountains or the Iron Hills but which are nevertheless a perfect setting in which to show of the town, this Laketown is ideal for photography – as Loverdag demonstrated. Even moreso, for those with the space (the build tops out at around 1,736 LI out-of-the-box and covers an area of 196 x 107 metres), this is a build ideal for any medieval or fantasy role-play, whether or not any gold, kings-under-the-mountain, dwarves or dragons are concerned.

Materials enabled, the build is supplied partially dressed with reeds and (I believe) various waterside items – boxes, barrels, etc.). Even tho the buildings are all unfurnished, its hard not to wander the boardwalks around an connecting them and here the sounds of commerce and domestic life going on along the wharves and behind the wooden walls.

Laketown – June 2021

I’m not sure how long this demonstration version of Laketown will be available – the build is apparently available at an introductory price of L$7,499 until the end of June, so perhaps it might poof after that, I’ve no idea. However, for the photographer among us, it does make for an engaging and photogenic visit!

SLurl Details

2021 viewer release summaries week #21

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

Updates from the week ending Sunday, May 30th

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: Eau de Vie Maintenance viewer, version 6.4.18.558266, dated April 23, promoted April 29 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 viewer updated to version 6.4.19.560171 on May 27th.
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

CK’s space adventures in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hoot Suite Gallery: Blushock Space Adventures

Earlier this year, and initially at the suggestion of CK (Ceakay Ballyhoo), I visited Planet Idun, a role-play / photography region developed by Fazzy Constantine (Faisel Constantine) and the Blushock role-play team, which includes CK as a member. I found it an engaging visit, as I noted in An Away Team Mission to Planet Idun in Second Life).

That visit gave me the chance to familiarise myself with the Blushock team, their backstories and role-play and the future mythology they’ve built up around their activities. It’s an acquaintanceship I was able to extend in April, when I paid a further visit to the group’s region to tour their latest build, Resilient Station, which in their developing story has become the team’s new base of operations (see: Docking at Resilient Station in Second Life).

Hoot Suite Gallery: Blushock Space Adventures

I mention all of this, because CK is also an artist, and in her latest exhibition has opened at Hoot Suite Gallery in Bellisseria (curated by the super Owl Dragonash), and it focuses on the Blushock team and their adventures within the Vanaheim star system.

As an artist, CK is perhaps best known for her regions-as-paintings installations, rich in story and always a delight to tour (see The Forest Beyond in Second Life and Niamh’s Journey of Dreams in Second Life). Here she presents a series of vivid paintings that chart the Blushock Team’s adventures across the Vanaheim system, including their time on Idun, at Jasper Point on the planet, and the worlds around the system’s blue giant star – including the discovery of Baldur, the asteroid that is now home to Resilient Station.

Hoot Suite Gallery: Blushock Space Adventures

Rich in colour and vividly portraying the locations the crew have visited – and members of the crew themselves – Blushock Space Adventures presents an engaging set of images and forms a further means of learning about the Blushock Coalition and their activities, information on which can also be found at the Blushock website.

Information on the exhibition and the team will also likely be available at the exhibition party, which will take place 12:00 noon at Hoot Suite Art Gallery, and will feature the music of Joe Paravane.

SLURL DETAILS