Open through until Saturday, February 13th at the Konecta Art Gallery, operated by Gonzalo Osuna (Jon Rain), is a selection of art by the talented Isle Biedermann. Occupying the lower floor of the gallery, the exhibition presents 20 pieces of Isle’s work under the title Landscapes and Still Lifes, although I do not think it unfair to say the bias of the images leans somewhat to the former.
These are elegant pieces shot from around Second Life – although some have that certain depth about their subject matter that at a casual glance, they appear to have originated in the physical world. Take Bayou 1, Goatswood, Tea Time and Goatswood Churchyard as examples of this. Others are particularly evocative in the story they offer – just take Time Travellers Club Guestbook as an example of this: whom do the names on the page belong to? Where (or indeed, when, give the nature of the book’s title, did they come from or go to?
Konecta Art Gallery: Isle Biedermann
Staying with the book theme, one can almost sense the spirit of Hercule Poirot or perhaps Jane Marple hovering at the edges of Crime and Punishment, the soft colours suggestive of the calm before the discovery of a terrible act forewarned by the book dropped on the floor…
Other pieces among the selection beautifully capture the season and / or Nature’s many faces; Windmill in the Snow and La Digue particularly captivate here, the former for its depiction of the perfect walk on a crisp winter’s day, the latter for the manner in which we can almost feel the fading warmth of the lowering Sun and scent the promise of rain in the evening’s air.
Konecta Art Gallery: Isle Biedermann
Indeed, such is the depth of all of these pieces, we’re left with a feeling that they are not so much here to be enjoyed, but entered into and experienced; that more than images, they are gateways to the worlds Isle has witnessed, offering us the chance to step through them and witness those worlds first-hand. Offered for sale at an exceptionally modest price, they are pieces waiting to grace any Second life home or form a part of any private collection. Definitely not an exhibition to miss.
And whilst on the subject of collections, when visiting the gallery, do be sure to pop upstairs, where Gonzalo is displaying pieces from his personal collection of Second Life art.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, January 24th
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
Current release viewer version 6.4.11.551711, formerly Cachaça Maintenance RC viewer promoted on November 12th – No Change.
Release channel cohorts:
Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer updated to version 6.4.12.555058, January 20, 2021.
Starship SN9: three platform engine test firings in three hours. Credit: Mary “BocaChicaGal”
After a build-up of excitement around a potential start-of-year flight for SpaceX Starship prototype SN9, things has slowed down somewhat – but the vehicle may now be on the brink of making its 12.5 km ascent to altitude and an attempt to land successfully after an unpowered “skydive” back towards Earth.
As I noted in my January 10th Space Sunday report, SpaceX had managed to accelerate the processing of SN9 in comparison to SN8 to a point where the majority of pre-flight checks for the vehicle – including a static fire test of the engines on January 6th – had been completed in just a 2-week period following its delivery to the launch stand on December 22nd, compared to 2 months taken for prototype SN8 to reach the same point.
However, as I noted at the time, that static fire test was far shorter than had been expected – just 2 second in length, signifying a possible issue. This appeared to be confirmed when SpaceX attempted further engine tests between January 8th and January 12th, of of which had to be scrubbed for various reasons (including weather), before a further test was made on Wednesday, January 13th – and things took an unexpected turn: after the first brief test, two further tests took place within a 2-hour period for all three tests.
The three firings were apparently “test starts” of the three Raptor motors, rather than a full pre-flight static fire test of all three simultaneously. Following them, and a successful de-tanking of excess fuel, inspections of the motors revealed that two needed slight repairs, causing the company to swap them out for other units.
As part of streamlining starship operations, SpaceX have refined the processes related to engine swap-outs to a point where they can effectively be achieved within days rather than weeks, depending on the availability of replacement motor units – the actual physical removal of an engine can be completed in hours, as can the installation of a replacement. In this case, the work was done over a couple of days, the engines requiring replacement being removed from the vehicle and shipped out of Boca Chica before the replacements were delivered and installed, clearing the way for a final engine test.
This took place on Friday, January 22nd, when all three engines were ignited for several seconds before shutting down.
Outside of SN9, it appears work at Boca Chica has commenced on starship prototypes SN17 and SN18, and on the second Super Heavy booster prototype. Also, in my January 10th Space Sunday update, I noted that work had been discontinued on starship prototypes SN12 through SN14. Work has now commenced in dismantling those parts of SN12 that had been fabricated. This is likely due to the fact that SpaceX are iterating the design and construction of the prototypes so fast, SN12 had become effectively obsolete due to the materials used.
The rapid rate of iteration is also reflected in the move of a new fuel tank section – SN7.2 -, which has been moved to a test stand where it will be pressurised to destruction in a similar manner to the SN7 and SN7.1, each of which also saw iterations in the basic tank design. SN7.2 in particular is built using 3 mm aluminium rather that the current 4 mm material in an attempt to reduce the overall “dry” mass of the vehicle.
In 2020, Musk raised the idea of launching starship / Super Heavy vehicle from sea platforms, suggesting this could be used for vehicles intended to reach orbit or in passenger-carrying sub-orbital transcontinental flights.. While passenger carrying point-to-point will not happen (for reasons I will explain at some point), evidence has emerged that SpaceX are planning to make sea launches a thing, and is in the process of converting two former offshore drilling platforms for use as floating launch platforms.
Aerospace Photographer Jack Beyer was the first to bring the news to the public eye after exploring the port of Brownsville, Texas, not far from the SpaceX facilities at Boca Chica whilst waiting for the SN9 static fire tests to resume. In particular, he spotted an oil platform apparently called Deimos (“dread”) undergoing extensive refit work. Not long after, a image captured over the port of Galveston, Texas, and dated January 13th revealed another rig with the name Phobos (“fear”), and which was later moved to Pascagoula, Mississippi, between January 17th and 22nd.
Phobos and Deimos are, of course, the names given to the captured moons of Mars, and the discovery of the two rigs sparked speculation that the platforms had been purchased by SpaceX.
The soon-to-be SpaceX sea launch platform for Super Heavy / Starship. Credit: Jack Beyer via NASAspaceflight.com
Michael Baylor from NASAspaceflight.com started digging into things using further images captured by Jack Beyer, and discovered that the two rigs in question were originally owned by the world’s largest offshore drilling / well drilling company: UK-registered and Texas-based Valaris plc (formerly ENSCO-Rowan).
Originally constructed in Singapore in 2008, the two rigs were originally called ENSCO 8500 (later Valaris 8500 and now Deimos), and ENSCO 8501 (later Valaris 8501 and now Phobos). However, following the company declaring bankruptcy, the company offered the platforms for sale and US 3.5 million apiece. The purchaser was company called Lone Star Mineral Development LLC, which had only formed in June 2020. Further digging revealed that one of the principals for Lone Star Mineral Development is none other than SpaceX Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who is also the head of the company’s Strategic Acquisitions Group, Bret Johnsen.
Wreathed in cloud, the Deimos arrives at Pascagoula, Mississippi, January 22nd. Credit: Brady Kenniston via NASAspaceflight.com
Both platforms are classified as “semi-submersible”, meaning they float on large pontoons that can be filled with water ballast that both settles them in the water to stabilise them while dynamic positioning water thrusters hold them in a precise location, making them an ideal launch platform, as does their deck loading of around 8,000 tonnes, means that are more than capable of supporting a Super Heavy / starship combination and their fuel loads.
The work to convert the two platforms to support fuelling, payload integration, launch, and landing operations is extensive. As such neither is likely to be ready for use in 2021. However, once operational, they will effectively double the number of Super Heavy / starship launch facilities – SpaceX is currently building the first Super Heavy platform at Boca Chica, and have plans for a second. Multiple launch facilities will be essential in the future if SpaceX is to start to build towards the planned number of launches for the system..
Virtual Community Radio (VCR) is a new 24/7 new internet radio station based within Second Life and service the wider metaverse, be it other virtual worlds, those who reside in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States and their associated territories, can listen to the service via a web browser – including using the links on the right of this blog -, whilst the the station’s URL (http://main.vcradio.org/) can be used through in-world region and / or parcel media and suitable app players such as VLC or WinAmp.
Founded by Richard Elen, known in-world as award-winning DJ and radio presenter, and co-host of Designing Worlds, Elrik “Rik” Merlin, will officially launch on Saturday, February 6th with an in-world gala at their new headquarters. Programming is hosted through Live365 and primarily consists of light classical music, with some selected additional classical, baroque, early music, soundtracks and easy listening pieces.
Virtual Community Radio is about Virtual Communities – groups of people with common interests in virtual worlds like Second Life® – and about Community Radio – talking to people in those groups and providing entertainment and information they enjoy. In addition to being aimed at listeners in virtual worlds, it’s also for listeners on the wider Internet.
from VCR’s About page
Outside of their primary programme schedule, VCR will provide additional and wider selections of music genres on a rotating basis of special programming, alongside an an expanding schedule of additional content with a particular emphasis on spoken word presentations – live and recorded readings, radio drama and other similar material.
In this latter regard, VCR will be working with the likes of Seanchai Library, Engines Of Our Ingenuity and ZBS Media to present unique, quality content, and the station is open to suggestions for similar suitable spoken word programming – so if you know of an individual or group presenting such, please contact the station.
Virtual Community Radio Theatre
With the launch of VCR, initial programming will include Where’ve You Been? This will be a discussion-style programme covering a range of topics: interesting sights and places around Second Life and Tarot @ Teatime a series on the history and techniques of Tarot card reading. Meanwhile The Grove (commencing on Saturday, February 13th) will offer live presentations of new age music on an evocative starlit sea.
Drama presentations will launch with the airing of the classic landmark radio drama series The Black Mass, featuring thirty tales of mystery, imagination and the human mind, created by the late Erik Bauersfeld over half a century ago.
As a non-commercial, non-profit public radio service, VCR is supported by direct sponsorship by individuals, organisations, and businesses. Those who would like to support the station can do so by visiting the station’s sponsorship page, but in brief:
Currently, there is one level of sponsorship set at L$5,000 (approx. US $20) per 4-week period. In return, sponsors receive a 300x300px graphic panel on the VCR website, which is displayed in rotation with those of other sponsors; a link to a URL or SLurl, and a crafted, suitable public service announcement (PSA) that will be frequently broadcast as a part of programming.
Those interested in providing sponsorship should contact VCR via info@vcradio.org or IM / send a note card VirtualCommunityRadio Resident in Second Life.
Additional sponsorship opportunities will be made available in due course.
Those who appreciate VCR in-world presentation or enjoy listing to the station’s programming can additional make donations towards the station’s costs via the tip jars within the VCR Theatre or by direct in-world payment to VirtualCommunityRadio Resident.
As noted above, the station will officially launch with an opening gala ball that will be held at the VCR Theatre, commencing at 14:00 SLT on Saturday, February 6th. Formal wear is requested for the opening.
Kondor Art Garden, Dialogue Exhibition by Artemis and Hermes
I was back at the Kondor Art Centre, operated and curated by Hermes Kondor, just a few days after witnessing and writing about Melusina Parkin’s Lockdown and Hope (see here for more). The occasion for such a reasonably quick return was the opening of a new exhibition.
Located in the Art Garden at Kondor Art Centre, Dialogue Exhibition by Artemis and Hermes presents the remarkable sculptures of Artemis (ArtemisGreece) displayed alongside Hermes’ art.
It’s a part of my desire to create a place for different Art and Cultural expressions – music, art, conferences, readings, and more; a garden display of Artemis’ sculptures and my photographic interpretations of them.
Hermes Kondor
Kondor Art Garden, Dialogue Exhibition by Artemis and Hermes
Hailing from Greece, Artemis was attracted to Second Life due to it many opportunities for creativity and expression. She initially found an outlet building houses, but wanted to be more expressive. Whilst not a trained artist, she taught herself to use tools like PhotoShop and Blender, and moved to producing and selling sculptures and 3D designs, developing a portfolio of work, ranging, encompassing everything from neo-classical pieces through to humorous pieces (yes, you can have a farm cat riding bicycle!) and figures of musicians, as well as more general items – frames, cushions, etc.
For this exhibition we are presented with eight individual pieces that brings together elements of her work that lean toward neo-classical pieces that appear to be cast from brass, and figurines that look to have been cast and painted, to a complete set of her Chamber Orchestra collection.
Kondor Art Garden, Dialogue Exhibition by Artemis and Hermes
These are genuinely marvellous pieces, many encompassing themes, ideas and or statements, some animated to add depth to their story / increase appreciation of their form. All are offered for sale to those who wish to purchase them. And believe me when I say these are pieces that will grace almost any setting; so much so, I could not resist obtaining a copy of Woman Makes The World Go Round for our garden; while those seeking something a little more special, Artemis presents an exclusive twin set Out of the Box.
Partnering the sculptures are ten pieces of Hermes’ digital art, rendered with his use of Second Life’s wireframe mode (see: Behind the Scenes in Second Life), but here given additional depth through an expressive use of colour.
Some of these images are placed as a backdrop to the sculpture they represent, as is the case with, for example Artemis Sculptures – 010 and Artemis Sculptures – 026; others stand a little more apart from their inspiration – but all of them a depth of narrative to accompany the pieces they represent. Artemis Sculptures – 010, for example, tells the story of how a dancer is inspired by the figure of The Ballerina, while Artemis Sculptures – 021 brings together a tale of Artemis’ Chamber Orchestra playing for the benefit of her Dancing Couple, in a tale of music, dance and romance.
Kondor Art Garden, Dialogue Exhibition by Artemis and Hermes
Individually, Artemis’ sculptures and Hermes’ art are each captivating to witness and appreciate; together they make for an enchanting exhibition that should not be missed – and don’t forget the telephone station connecting the art garden with the rest of the Kondor Art Centre.
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, January 21st, 2021.
These meetings are generally held every other week. They are video recorded by Pantera Północy, and her recording of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report – my thanks to her for allowing me to do so – and it is used with a transcript of the chat log from the meeting and my own audio recording to produce these notes.
Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.555058, January 20, 2021.
Project Jelly viewer (Jellydoll updates), version 6.4.12.553798, January 7, 2021.
Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.553437, January 7, 2021.
Project viewers:
Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.12.553511, issued on January 7, 2021.
Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, November 12.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.
General Viewer Notes
Viewer updates / releases had been held-up due to some Uplift related issues. This have now been rectified, and viewers should start rolling forward again.
As noted in my 2021 week #3 CCUG summary, the Dawa Maintenance RC viewer was the only viewer updated during the week, and this will likely be the next viewer to be promoted to de facto release status.
The Simple Cache project viewer (VFS replacement) and the Legacy Profile project viewer are both now “close” to be promoted to release candidate (RC) status. That latter had been blocked due to some required UI fixes, with Kylie Linden indicating these are in progress.
Graphics fixes continue to be added to the LMR-5 project viewer, but this is liable to end in the next week or so, in order to allow this viewer to progress onwards through RC and eventual de facto release.
Some users running systems with AMD GPU has been encountering a issue with scenes being rendered with a strong blue bias when running the SL viewer with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled and using the most recent (post October 2020, I believe, and particularly the latest Adrenalin drivers) AMD drivers.
General reports can be found here, and a formal bug report is available: BUG229727.
LL have acknowledged the issue, and believe it to be driver related. However, AMD driver bugs must apparently be reported using a specific reporting tool provided by AMD, and thus far LL have been unable to reproduce the bug when running said software and so are apparently having issues getting AMD to accept it.
The issue appears to be somewhat similar to an Nvidia bug of a few years ago, possibly resulting from a switch to using a BGRA for textures rather than the more usual RGBA format.
There are reports that an AMD driver update issued on January 21st, 2021, but at the time of writing this summary, this has yet to be more broadly confirmed.
In the meantime for those affected by the issue,the following workarounds are recommended:
Rolling back to an older driver version (e.g. Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.11.2).
If that doesn’t work:
Disable ALM in the viewer (Preferences → Graphics → uncheck Advanced Lighting Model).
Remember to disable ALM prior to ending your session (so you only need to re-enable ALM when you next log-in.
In Brief
[16:32-34::45] The meeting saw a significant amount of text chat concerning the technicalities of viewer CPU / CPU core usage, TPV work in trying to rebuild viewer threading, etc. As this is text-based (and may not be of relevance to many users), please refer to the video from around the 16m 32s mark through to .
[34:47-48:00] and continuing after the brief discussion on chat lag] A further text conversation is on graphic API options and moving away from OpenGL. This is covered in my 2021 week #3 CCUG summary, but it appears that around 20% of Windows users running systems incapable of supporting Vulkan (notably those using Intel integrated graphics).
That said, Vulkan isn’t the sole option available to LL, and much is still in discussion internally at the Lab.
[48:37-49:15] Some are experiencing an increase in chat lag post-Uplift. LL are currently re-starting the chat servers as an interim means of improving reliability of chat services, but it’s not clear if this is also helping reduce general performance issues.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 