Lavender Springs, May 2025 – click any image for full size
Back in September 2024 I dropped into Les Bean at the Salty C, a coffee house within the Cerulean regions (see Coffee and a Salty C in Second Life).
Designed by members of the extended Cerulean family, notably (at the time of my visit) Emmerson Skye Cerulean (Emm Evergarden) of The Nature Collective fame and Teagan Cerulean, it is one of a number of places held across Second Life by members of the family – and somewhere to which I’ve received an invitation to make a further visit, and plan to do so in the near future.
Lavender Springs, May 2025
Another location designed by members of the Cerulean family – V Cerulean Rhys (Veronika Nightfire)and Dani Cerulean (Dani Varela) joining Emm and Teagan – is that of Lavender Springs, a charming retreat offering hot springs, relaxation and opportunities for photography, sitting on the south side of Heterocera.
Located at the end of a short dirt track connecting it with the cobbles of the Atoll Road, Lavender Springs sits and an open-air retreat, a large sign encouraging people to explore, and a notice board offering information on the Cerulean Sea, the Nature Collective and the Greenwich Café – a coffeehouse apparently inspired by England’s Lake District, and so may well end up on my list of places written about.
Lavender Springs, May 2025
Small it might be, by Lavender Springs is perfectly formed and richly engaging. Three hot springs are available for bathing – two on one side of the stream flowing through the setting. The third is reached via a fallen tree trunk now doubling as a bridge across the colder waters of the swiftly-flowing waters of the stream as they tumble away from the local falls.
The first two springs are reached by crossing two wide stepped decks. One is the home of a massage therapy area, the other offers relaxation in the Sun. They are partnered by a stack of Zen rocks forming a tall pedestal for yoga and meditation.
Lavender Springs, May 2025
Oak, Jacaranda, Wildberry form a screen of mature trees to provide shade and some degree of privacy, while the large pool into which the stream flows perhaps offers the opportunity for cold plunges after time in the hot springs. For those seeking a quieter means of relaxation, a swing might also be found.
Watched over by egrets, completed by a gentle soundscape and offer a lot of detail in so small an area, Lavender Springs is another space adding considerably beauty to the Mainland.
Grauland – Arrakis / Fremen Home – May 2025 – click any image for full size
As is probably apparent from past articles in this blog, I enjoy science fiction in most of its various forms, be it literary, television, film or radio; and whether it takes the form of epic space opera or near / far-future explorations or action / adventure or comedic in nature. However, whilst I’ve read everyone from Adams to Zelazny, I have, in all honesty, never been overly enamoured with Frank Herbert’s Dune (neither the original novel nor the franchise as a whole).
I say this because Dune – in the form of Arrakis and its hardy inhabitants, the Fremen – forms the inspiration of JimGarand’s latest build (as of May 2025): Grauland – Arrakis / Fremen Home. Fortunately for those who, like myself, are not soaked in the lore of Dune as it might be found on paper or on film, one does not have to have an in-depth knowledge of either the planet or the the tale in order to appreciate the setting.
Grauland – Arrakis / Fremen Home – May 2025
Rather, all that is required is the knowledge that the Fremen arrived on Arrakis as a religious sect, thousands of years prior to the events within the franchise, becoming a numerous and hardy race, fully adapted to life on the desert world, living as tribal communities within cave warrens they call “sietch”, meaning “place of assembly in time of danger” (and borrowed from sich – a term meaning military / administrative centre – of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, not that this is of any relevance at all in the scheme of things 😀 ).
The sietch of Arrakis, I believe, come in a range of sizes. Within Grauland, Jim and his partner, PaleLily, offer a fairly modest vision of such a centre of Fremen life, located somewhere within the greater desert of Arrakis. And while I cannot offer insight into the sietch found within the novels or associated films, etc., I can say that whilst minimal, Grauland: Arrakis / Fremen Home offers an interesting setting ripe for those seeking something a little different in which to take photographs.
Grauland – Arrakis / Fremen Home – May 2025
Surrounded by a desert expanse, this rocky sietch has been hewn within a low mesa, the entrance to which can be found a short walk from the Landing Point. Within it, as one might expect given the general description of such places, is a warren of tunnels, halls and rooms hewn from the living rock.
Some of the tunnels within this warren are roughly cut, walls and floors unfinished; others have squared-off walls, paved floored and properly supported doorways. Similarly, the rooms come in various forms, from simple cubes of space through to a grand pillared hall suggestive of a council chamber of or meeting place – or place of worship. Lights sit above doors, in ceilings and along walls provide pools of illumination which are particularly effective when running with shadows enabled.
Grauland – Arrakis / Fremen Home – May 2025
Perhaps the greatest delight within the sietch is its massive pool of water. When discovered, it can be the most unexpected find; it is also the one location within the sietch utilising a reflection probe, potentially as a result of it using a section of Alex Bader’s excellent PBR mesh water. Taken as a whole, it forms a relaxing focal point, with places to sit and meditate to one side.
As noted, this is something of a minimalist build, although I believe it might be one that evolves; whilst there are rooms either empty or only partially furnished, I’ve been given to understand Jim and Poly are interested in being pointed towards items that might sit within the overall setting without looking out-of-place.
Grauland – Arrakis / Fremen Home – May 2025
Those who find their way through the tunnels, halls and circular doors might find their way to a landing bay complete with a shuttle vehicle parked within it. Whilst the latter isn’t an Ornithopter, it also does not look out-of-place here as a piece of technology that might exist on Arrakis. The same might be said of the ship passing overhead.
Simple but attractive and well-suited to avatar photography – particularly for Dune fans – Arrakis / Fremen Home makes for an interesting visit.
Drawn from the Latin, simulacrum (“likeness, semblance”) entered the language of European art during the late 1500s, when was originally used to refer to a painting or statue directly representing someone or something (most notably a god or deity). However, by the 19th century, it had come to express an artistic endeavour – notably an image – formed without the substance or qualities of the original (e.g. to use a more modern example: a photocopy of a photograph of a painting).
It is a term which is particularly relevant today thanks to the rapid rise of generative AI tools, and the manner in which they can be used to literally churn out prompt-based images over and over without any genuine artistic input or understanding of the actual desired request or the inconsistencies, anachronisms and outright errors present within the final product.
Of course, those using such tools diligently will argue that they are merely a tool; when balanced with a critical eye and the use of other tools to refine, enhance and correct, they can be used to produce richly diverse pieces that do have originality within them. This is actually not an unfair summation, as far as it goes.
The problem¹ here is that the vast majority of users of such generative tools don’t exercise skill or talent. They prompt, wait, publish, often using minor variations of the same prompt ad nauseam (“make the woman’s hair colour blue”) to produce a stream of near identical images (as all too often seen on the likes of Deviant Art). There is little originality within such pieces when compared one to the next; worse, there is little in the way of critical review, and those aforementioned errors are allowed to persist. Worse still, all this repetition (complete with errors) is fed back into the data pool, further diluting it and increasing the regurgitation of vacuous elements to form what amounts to self-perpetuating simulacrums, devoid of originality and talent.
This constant cycle of regurgitation and repetition without originality is explored by Manoji Yachvili (onceagain), in her exhibition Simulacrum, currently on display at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas. It is also very much a personal expression of Manoji’s own increasing sense of artistic loss and frustration as she sees creative expression, skill and progress within art and artistic experimentation vanishing in a rising tide of banality.
Reality no longer exists, it has disappeared, crumbled by the media and modern technologies that propose images that do not refer to reality, that receive meaning only from other images and that are perpetually regenerated, thus remaining increasingly disconnected from what was originally real. Everything I see has an appearance and the power of appearance, without a faithful external image and therefore devoid of the original vitality.
To achieve this, Manoji presents a collection of original paintings that are richly expressive whilst clearly echoing the banality and emptiness of the kind all too easily spewed forth by generative AI. Through the use of simple, repeated elements – masks, faceless figures, and muted colours – she beautifully conveys the empty, expressionless redundancy so common within generative AI art.
Yes, these are all paintings utilising common themes elements – but each of them is completely original in form and presentation, allow it to stand on its own as a singular, unique piece carrying with it an ability to speak to each of us differently. Thus, these are pieces that reach beyond the artist, offering a richness of expression and meaning, standing not as the result of a collection of prompts, but as a prompt for our imaginations to take flight within them.
In doing so, Manoji establishes the genuine power of art through the hand, eye and talent originating from within the artist, making this a beautiful expressive collection, each piece standing in its own right as a genuine work of art.
Please note that within this article, I’m intentionally avoiding issues of copyright and ownership in relations to the “training” of generative AI tools, because while these are clearly of concern generally, they are not the focus of the exhibition being reviewed.
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 6th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from my chat log of the meeting. Pantera also recorded the meeting, and that recording is embedded at the end of this piece – my thanks to Pantera, as always, for providing it.
Meeting Overview
The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.
Simulator Deployments
On Tuesday, May 6th, the Main SLS channel was restarted without any update.
On Wednesday, May 7th:
BlueSteel and the snack channel running the Elderberry simulator update (see below) should be restarted.
All remaining RC channels should be updated with Elderberry.
Elderberry Update (2025.05)
A new option to llDerezObject – DEREZ_TO_INVENTORY, which returns the targeted object to inventory and saves its current state (e.g. has the same behaviour as Build → Object → Save Back to Object Contents.
llIsLinkGLTFMaterial – which can can determine if a face on a linked prim is PBR.
REZFLAG_DIE_ON_NO_REZZER – which will cause a rezzed prim to die if its rezzer is no longer present in the region.
llSetGLTFOverrides, rather than changes to llSetColor and llSetAlpha to work with PBR, as changing the latter was “starting to lead down some very scary paths WRT ‘What is the right thing to do'”.
Possibly a fix for llSetGroundTexture, which currently has the NE & SW values swapped. The question was asked in this was in the release, but the question wasn’t fully answered.
Upcoming Deployment – Fig Pudding (2025.06)
This is still being put together.
The update is unlikely to surface before June, as the simulator team has been focusing on some necessary internal work (e.g. ensuring various repositories build and deploy via Github actions correctly; updating where docker images are stored) which has drawn attention away from feature work on the simulators.
SL Viewer Updates
Default viewer: 2025.03 7.1.13.14343205944, issued April 9th and promoted April 15th.
New UI element for water exclusion surfaces: Build / Edit floater → Texture Tab → Hide Water checkbox.
The maximum amount of Reflection Probes can now be adjusted to better accommodate low VRAM scenarios.
Values will be set automatically depending on your chosen graphics quality. OR
Use Preferences → Graphics → Advanced Settings → Max. Reflection Probes to manually set.
An issue with being unable to see Sky Altitude values in the Region/Estate window has now been resolved.
Preferences → Graphics → Max. # of Non-Imposters has been renamed Max. # of Animated Avatars for clarity.
Bug and performance fixes and memory optimisations.
Chat Mentions (Early Support): Type @ then pick a name. To follow: audible alerts and highlight colour pickers.
My Outfits subfolders: now supports the use of subfolders.
Key updates:
Build Floater improvements: increase to scale boundaries; Physics Material Type now updates when selecting linked objects; Repeats per Meter value no longer incorrect for non-uniform sized objects
Hover height: the minimum/maximum is now +/- 3 meters.
Snapshot floater: L$ balances can be hidden independently of the rest of the UI.
Preference Search bar: general usability and readability improvements.
Refer to the release notes for full updates and fixes.
Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha, version 7.1.12.14175675593, April 2nd.
A request for SLua events to be updated along the lines suggested in this canny request. Rider Linden indicated that a update will be made prior to SLua moving to wider beta testing, and will likely It will likely end up looking similar to the Canny proposal. However, there is no current time frame as to when the update will be made.
A Canny request was filed in January for a llGetRegionWorldMapTile feature. This was reportedly now sitting in the backlog of requests and work the server team are hoping to work through in time.
This saw a follow-up request at the meeting to be able to zoom down to the level of centring a parcel on the map. Rider indicated that it should be possible to give the full region map as a as a texture ID, allowing scripts to adjust the offset and scale of the texture to achieve desired results.
A discussion on regions idling (at 1 FPS(?)) when not in use (e.g. when there are no avatars in the region, no child agents registered with in and no HTTP IN/OUT functions running); the ability for llGetEnv to obtain a region’s status.
Regions are not completely shut-down when “empty”. as most require scripts to keep running.
This broadened into a discussion on how low a region takes to start-up. The most accurate might be “no long in the scheme of things, but variable”.
In response to a question on progress with combat 2.1 features, Rider stated:
Combat 2.1 is pushed back. I’ve got no eta when that will come back up. I’d like to get it moving, I think it introduces some important additions that have impacts outside of just Combat, but there are lots of things that need doing and I can only type so fast.
The latter half of the meeting was taken up with discussions of texture loading, the impact of alpha layering, non-optimised contents and similar, the majority of which was more viewer-centric. They arose from a complaint that Fantasy Faire is overloaded with “4K textures” (which aren’t actually a thing in SL) causing viewer performance issues.
† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025 – click any image for full sizeFor May – the start of which has become somewhat indelibly linked with science fiction over the last several decades – Saskia Rieko and Konrad (kaiju.kohime) bring us their own epic sci-fi tale; one with its roots in a galaxy-spanning civilisation called the Ythari.
Born long before most others, the Ythari were driven by their insatiable intellects, boundless ambition and an overbearing pride and arrogance which perhaps led to their downfall.
The Ythari once ruled over a vast and enigmatic galaxy known as Veilspire — a name derived from its most haunting feature: a towering, luminous rift that cuts across its heart, like a tear in the fabric of space-time. This anomaly called the Axiom Rift, existing in the very centre of the galaxy, is believed to be the result of their final and most ambitious experiment — perhaps even the very thing that led to their disappearance.
– from the records of Dr. Khiraan Valis
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025
Konrad and Saskia have always produced richly engaging settings within Second Life, often drawing on inspiration from locations and event on or from our physical world. Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, however is utterly different in theme and tone – although its depth easily equals that of any of the previous designs the couple have presented. Whilst it might not draw from events and locations we might all directly research, instead being born entirely of the imagination, it nevertheless comes with a rich back-story; one capable of forming the basis of a novel from the likes or Asimov, Heinlein or James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) for an entire novel.
Mixing a thirst for knowledge and a hunger for understanding with towering abilities and intelligence, the story of the Ythari is one of a galaxy-spanning empire built not on war or dominion, but on the foundations of science, intellect, and an ability to conceive everything within their galaxy from the quantum level to the macro, without any apparent discontinuities of scale.
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025
Veilspire was no ordinary galaxy. Unlike the spiral and elliptical galaxies known to modern astronomers, its structure bore evidence of deliberate engineering. Star systems arranged in mathematically perfect formations, gravity-defying megastructures orbiting black holes with impossible stability, and entire regions where time seemed to flow at inconsistent rates, with the centre of the creation, The Axiom Rift — all hints that the Ythari did not merely live in their galaxy, they designed it with the development of The Equation of Being.
– from the records of Dr. Khiraan Valis
It is also a tale of galactic overreach and a hubris which – perhaps inevitably – could only result in one of two outcomes. Outcomes which themselves might perhaps be indistinguishable from one another, thanks to the passage of aeons and when looked upon through the eyes of a far-future humanoid race stumbling across the crumbling, but still magnificent relics the Ythari left in their wake.
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025
As they neared the completion of their greatest project — an attempt to rewrite the fundamental laws of reality — they miscalculated. Or perhaps they succeeded too well. One by one, their great cities, planets, even the whole solar systems fell silent … The Ythari simply… ceased. Their towering spires, their quantum archives left behind as if abandoned in an instant. No bodies. No signs of struggle. Only silence and the mysterious humming of the abandoned Axiom Rift.
– from the records of Dr. Khiraan Valis
To best appreciate the setting, make sure you have your viewer set the Use Shared Environment, and you have media set to play (at least initially in the case of the latter). The arrival point will provide you with the back-story in the form of a records / log entry by one Dr. Khiraan Valis, an archaeologist dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the Ythari.
The latter is played back over the computer screens and consoles at the landing Point, and really is worth listening to. For those who prefer, the same information can be obtained by clicking the traditional Natthimmel greeting (and setting name) on the ground of the Landing Point, and accepting the offered folder. This contains a notecard with the information given within the narration. For those who do listen to the audio, I would strongly suggest pausing media playback (click the movie camera icon / button towards the top right corner of the viewer’s window), as the narrative track can otherwise overwhelm the ambient sounds within the setting.
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025
Stormy, eerie and caught under a roiling, almost angry Expanse in which the eye of a galactic core balefully stares from one horizon, this is an environment for which words – genuinely – are not enough. Beyond the consoles and systems at the Landing Point, as left by Dr. Valis and her team, this is an assuredly alien setting. Within it, a water-like sea slips into a low-lying landscape. This initially appears to be dotted with strange tree-like groves. However, closer inspection reveals them to be more rock-like than organic – or perhaps they are the fossilised remains of something; and while there is the odd tree to be found, organics as we might recognise them are few and far between.
Even the paths laid across the water have a geometry about them that feels alien. None lead directly from A to B; instead they seem to be some kind of mathematical expression, as much a part of the gigantic towers and other structures within and floating over these strange lands.
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025
Broken, decaying, and ominous even when countered but the roiling heavens beyond them, these structures are riven by massive discharges of energy, themselves accompanied by rolling booms which fall upon the ears as the funerial beat of drums. Whether these discharges are is being generated by whatever remain powers keep at least some of these artefacts raised in defiance of gravity, or whether the explosions of light and energy are the angry response of the atmosphere to their hulking presence, is yours to determine.
Not all the structures are airborne or massive; floating on the waters are polygonal forms, cables and relays on them looking as if they might have once drawn power from the waters – or discharged it into the waver over which they sit. They sit around the remnants of the great towers as if part of their ancient function. Steps climb the interiors of the towers, while outside of one is an indication that the Ythari might not have vanished completely.
Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, May 2025
The very few who dare to explore their ruins tell of anomalies time fractures where the past leaks through, machines that seem to remember their creators, and strange, whispering voices that seem to come from nowhere. The Ythari may be gone, but something of them lingers. Watching. Waiting.
Beautiful, visually impressive, rich in narrative and creativity, edged in mystery and a hint of dread, Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars is a magnificent journey of the imagination.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, May 4th, 2025
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.
Outside of the Official viewer, and as a rule, alpha / beta / nightly or release candidate viewer builds are not included; although on occasions, exceptions might be made.
Official LL Viewers
Default viewer: 2025.03 7.1.13.14343205944, issued April 9th and promoted April 15th.
New UI element for water exclusion surfaces: Build / Edit floater → Texture Tab → Hide Water checkbox.
The maximum amount of Reflection Probes can now be adjusted to better accommodate low VRAM scenarios.
Values will be set automatically depending on your chosen graphics quality. OR
Use Preferences → Graphics → Advanced Settings → Max. Reflection Probes to manually set.
An issue with being unable to see Sky Altitude values in the Region/Estate window has now been resolved.
Preferences → Graphics → Max. # of Non-Imposters has been renamed Max. # of Animated Avatars for clarity.
Bug and performance fixes and memory optimisations.
Chat Mentions (Early Support): Type @ then pick a name. To follow: audible alerts and highlight colour pickers.
My Outfits subfolders: now supports the use of subfolders.
Key updates:
Build Floater improvements: increase to scale boundaries; Physics Material Type now updates when selecting linked objects; Repeats per Meter value no longer incorrect for non-uniform sized objects
Hover height: the minimum/maximum is now +/- 3 meters.
Snapshot floater: L$ balances can be hidden independently of the rest of the UI.
Preference Search bar: general usability and readability improvements.
Refer to the release notes for full updates and fixes.
Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha, version 7.1.12.14175675593, April 2nd.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 