Tag: Meet the Lindens

On Friday, October 21st, Linden Lab streamed a special session of Lab Gab featuring Vice President of Product, Grumpity Linden and VP of Product Operations, Patch Linden. The session was built around questions submitted by users in the wake of the announcement of the session, together with those asked via You Tube chat during the live stream. Notes: The following is a summary, not a full transcript of everything said. A glitch during streaming meant the session extends over two videos. Both are embedded in this summary. Timestamps to each video are included within each topic / sub-topic.

Table of Contents A little background Grumpity Linden Patch Linden New Announcements Land Economy and Pricing European Premium subscriptions Recent Announcements Tilia and JP Morgan Payments CasperTech Acquisition Premium Plus and Speedlight Puppetry Announcement New User Experience (NUX) New Starter Mesh Avatars New Viewer and Simulator Capabilities PBR and Reflection Probes LinkSet Data General Topics Second Life Search Marketplace Updates Linden Home updates Mainland HiFi in Second Life VR Headset Support in Second Life Closing Comments

A Little Background

Grumpity Linden

• Heads up Second Life Product team, where she has overseen a shift to growth, a stronger, more balanced economy, movement towards better community cohesion, and an overall forward-looking approach.
• Originally came to Linden Lab while working for The Product Engine, a company providing end-to-end consulting and software development services, and which supports viewer development at the Lab, and she was initially involved in the development and viewer 2 (as designed by 80/20 Studio).
• She became a “full-time Linden” in 2014. Her current position involves coordinating the various teams involved in bringing features and updates to Second Life (e.g. Engineering and QA), liaising with legal, financial and compliance to ensure features and capabilities meet any specific requirements in those areas, etc. This work can involve looking at specifics within various elements of the overall SL product, such as UI design and layout, etc.
• Prior to working for Linden Lab, she was involved in a number of industries, including technology, higher education, and oil & gas. She enjoys exploring worlds both virtual and physical and takes pride in building bridges – personal and professional.
• Holds a Master’s in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s from same in Computer Science & Psychology, both from Johns Hopkins University. She finds leading the Second Life product a joy because it allows her to draw on both areas of study.

About Patch Linden

• Originally a Second Life resident and business owner who joined the platform in 2004, and became a Linden in September 2007.
• Initially worked as a support agent and then as a support liaison. From there he moved to the Concierge team, eventually becoming that team’s manager.
• Shifted focus to the role of Operations Support Manager for a year, then moved to the Product group, the team responsible for defining the features, etc., found within Second Life.
• At Product he developed the Land Operations team, which includes the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).
• In 2018, he established the company’s support office in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 2020 he oversaw the move to larger office space in Atlanta, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In 2019 he was promoted to Vice President, Product Operations.
• Together with Grumpity, Mojo and Brett Linden, he forms the leadership team overseeing Second Life’s continued development.
• In his management team role, Patch continues to oversee all of the Lab’s user support operations (some 5 teams), including the LDPW.

New Announcements

[Video 1 – 1:13-5:23]

Land Economy and Pricing

• Lower-priced Premium option to allow more access to Mainland for users.
  • Some notes on this are available within my October Web User Group summary.
• The amounts paid for the different Mainland tiers are to be reviewed with a view to drawer them closer together.
• Premium Plus will be able to hold a Homestead regions without having to pay for a Full region (so Premium + subscription + $109 a month tier for a Homestead).

European Premium Subscriptions

• It was hinted that Premium (P+) subscribers in Europe will hopefully get some good news in the near future (removal of VAT from all subscription options?).

These are all to be formally announced in November.

Recent Announcements

[Video 1: 5:35-15:35]

Tilia and JP Morgan Payments

• As per the official announcement from Tilia, plus my own blog post, Tilia has received a minority investment from JP Morgan Payments.
• This partnership will allow Tilia to expand its services (again, see my blog post).
• This does not change the relationship between Tilia and Second Life, and Second Life users’ data remains as secure as before the partnership JP Morgan Payments do not gain access to this data.
• In the future it may also lead to further benefits to SL users in terms of payment / cash out options for obtaining L$ or processing L$ amount to fiat currencies.

CasperTech Acquisition

• LL have had a long relationship with CasperTech, and the services and tools offered fit with a lot of the Lab’s needs as well as being heavily relied upon by a lot of users an businesses.
• The acquisition was therefore seen as both a means to help grow the CasperTech business and ensure its continued longevity and stability.

Premium Plus and Speedlight

• At the start of October, LL announced Premium Plus members can make use of a special tier of access to the Speedlight Second Life client.
  • This benefit is purely as a result of an agreement reached between LL and the Speedlight team (Speedlight remains a third-party viewer in terms of its definition).
  • Speedlight is not part of the Lab’s own mobile development efforts.
• Within the own Mobile plans, the Lab is working on an option that gives “as high as” visual fidelity as can be obtained on a desktop system.
  • There may be some in-progress teasing of this option “in early 2023”.

Puppetry Announcement

• Originally referred to as “avatar expressiveness”, this project is still in the early phases of development.
• IIt essentially allows a user’s head / arm movements to be captured via webcam and translated into avatar head / arm movements (but not facial expressions at this time), and more capabilities may be added as the protocols and functions are added.
• The project is in very early development, and is being worked on in concert with user-developers within the Puppetry User Group.
• Those interested can join the Puppetry User Group meetings or can follow development via my Puppetry Project summaries.

New User Experience (NUX)

[Video 1 – 15:00-19:38]

• LL ran a survey among users who have joined since 2018 with the aim of getting feedback from a good cross-section of users who have joined and stayed with the platform in more recent years.
• The feedback from this survey is being used to help guide LL’s thinking WRT the NUX and going forward.
• A specific question in the survey was (paraphrasing) “what was the one thing that almost saw you walk away from Second Life when you first started?”
  • Performance issues was one of the most frequent responses to this question, and it is hoped that the Performance Improvements recently deployed, and those coming upon the Performance Floater / Auto FPS viewer (at Project status at the time of writing) have and will help overcome these shortfalls.
• Alongside of this, popular reasons for almost quitting were (presumably in order): avatar customisation, finding things to do and getting to meet people.
• As a result, LL will soon be rolling out “some big improvements to a first-time avatar customisation process”.

New Starter Mesh Avatars

• These were previewed at SL19B. and are now very close to being released – which may happen “in the next couple of months”.
• There will be an initial ecosystem of hair, clothing, skins, etc., that will be available when the new avatars are launched.
• In advance of the release, a developer kit + documentation will likely be made available to creators who also want to get involved in the NUX avatar ecosystem and develop clothing and accessories for the line, which they can sell.
• These avatars and their accessories might even form a special element within future LL Shop’n’Hop events.

New Viewer and Simulator Capabilities

[Video 1 – 1938-end]

PBR Materials + Reflection Probes

• This is an in-progress project which I am covering in my CCUG meeting summaries.
• As noted by Grumpity, this work will include reflection probes, which are not dynamic mirrors in the way that most people will think of mirrors when that word is used.
  • However, it has been suggested that a  future enhancement to the work might be used to provided some limited degree of planar mirrors (i.e. like those you might hang on a wall) – but contrary to the video, this work is not part of the initial PBR / reflection probes work.

Linkset Data

• See https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Linkset_Data.
• Allows data to be stored within objects within a linkset, which can be read by scripts within that linkset.
• This could revolutionise create types of in-world object and vastly improve the lives of scripters.
• The back-end support for this work will hopefully be deployed to RC channel simhosts on Wednesday, October 26th, subject to LL’s QA.
• I hope to have a special Gust Article explaining this capability in this blog shortly after the RC deployment.

General Topics

Second Life Search

[Video 2 – 1:14-4:21]

• SL has a number of Search instances:
  • The web search (powered by Elascticsearch) at search.secondlife.com and which appears as the first tab in most viewer search floaters.
  • Marketplace search (also powered by Elasticsearch).
  • People Search.
• Web search was recently updated, notably with a search relevance engine, with the intent of making returns and results more accurate.
  • Relevance in particular should continue to improve due to the “learning” nature of the AI-driven relevance engine.
  • This work also folded-in adding a full range of Boolean search options.
• A decision has yet to be made on how often web search should be indexed. This currently occurs twice a day, but more frequent updates would allow more recent additions – stores, etc – in-world, to be recorded.
• Similar work is now in progress with the Marketplace search, and it is hoped these changes will be deployed before year-end.
  • Those interested in these updates can find out more in my Web User Group summaries.
• People Search uses a different back-end system, and there are currently no plans to make changes to this.

Marketplace Updates

[Video 2 – 4:21-4:54]

• For the latest on Marketplace updates, please refer to my monthly Web User Group summaries, which include current status and promised updates such as listing variances (aka Styles), etc.

Linden Home Updates

[Video 2 – 6:03-7:11]

• Plans are still “on track” to get new floor plan these released for some of the existing Linden Home designs before the end of the year.
• The First Premium Plus selection of Linden Homes will be the Ranch theme, and are being targeted for a possible end of 2022 / start of 2023 release.
• There will be more themes for both premium and Premium Plus.

Mainland

[Video 2 – 7:13-9:33]

• Improvements and updates to the Mainland roads is part of the on-going general work of the LDPW.
• Allowing users to provide intersections between LDPW roads and private roads is a good idea – but overseeing / inspecting the work when carried out by residents can take time away form other work, and so is something that may be considered in the future.
• The LDPW already provides switches, branches and connections between resident-owned rail lines and those of the SLRR. However, these are easier to handle as they are a lot fewer.

HiFi and Second Life

[Video 2 – 11:41-12:21]

• As I reported at the time, at the start of 2022, High Fidelity Inc. invested in Linden Lab and Second Life.
• The investment took the form of cash, expertise (several members of the High Fidelity team moves across to Linden Lab) and patients.
• The latter sparked speculation (including by myself) that some of High Fidelity’s work is full spatial audio could be coming to SL.
• This is something that has been discussed internally at LL, but would require a lot of changes being made if SL and the viewer are to support the HiFi audio. As such, it is something that is still “under consideration”.

VR Headset Support in SL

[Video 2 – 12:29-14:05]

• VR has traditionally been limited by the requirement for sustained high frame rates (around 60 fps with modern headsets). This has tended to be problematical for Second Life, although the current and upcoming performance improvements go some way to alleviating the issue.
• VR headsets are also very much in the minority in terms of general computer use, and their usage still represents a small sub-set of SL users, and headsets are certainly not as ubiquitous as mobile devices.
• As such, while moves have been made to “bring SL to VR”, it is not a priority at this time and is certainly not an active project.

Closing Comments

[Video 2 -14:20-end]

• Please refer to the video.

Friday, June 24th, 2022 saw the final Meet the Lindens special events take place for the SL19B(irthday) celebrations, featuring Patch Linden and the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).

Unlike previous articles in this series, this is not a detailed summary of the session, but focuses on information relating to the New User eXperience (NUX) and the upcoming new Starter Avatars, and on plans for Linden Homes for Premium Plus and Premium accounts. Also provided is information on who the Moles are, and how to apply to become one, if you believe your skill sets are suitable.

New User Experience / Starter Avatar Project

[Video: 12:27-20:56]

• NUX is a multi-phase, multi-faceted project that is fairly constantly in motion.
• Currently, the focus is on the new user starter avatars, given the current avatars are a mix of the original system body and mesh attachments.
• This project is intended to replace all of the starter avatars with fully mesh offerings. These will utilise the Bento skeleton and sliders, support Bakes on Mesh (BoM) and be an all-in-one, head-to-toes avatar, complete with new animation overrides.

• These avatars:
  • Will be provided with an “array” of outfits/looks/ethnicities from which new users can choose during the sign-up process, with everything being an unisex as possible, so as to work across the full gender spectrum and the avatars themselves also available through the system Library.
  • Won’t necessarily be as robust and extensible as some of the “best-in-class” bodies and heads, but are seen as a means to help those coming into SL get started and ease them into the wider creative ecosphere.
  • Will be supported by developer kits so that creators can produce clothing and accessories for them, and again further encourage new users into the broader commercial ecosystem.

• The work is still very much at a pre-release status, with the preview shown at the event not necessarily represent the finished product; there is a lot more to come with the project before it is ready for release.

Linden Homes – Premium Plus and Premium

[Video: 36:31-44:55]

• At the time of the Moles MTL, 34,845 Premium Linden Homes had been made available and 1,913 regions released, with a further 172 “under construction”.
• Premium Plus Linden Homes:
  • Entirely new “ground up” themes with a new approach to implementation.
  • The “ranch” theme Patch mentions at his MTL session [video ; blog summary], is one under consideration, although exact style, etc., is still TBA.
  • The fact that ideas are still in development is why Premium Plus Linden Homes will not be appearing until the end of 2022 “at the earliest”.
  • The increased land offering (2048 sq m) means more opportunities to use different parcel sizes.
• Premium Linden Homes:
  • Both the Traditional and Victorian theme will be getting a refresh with “open-plan” variants on their styles.
  • Houseboats to get four new floor plans.
  • Updates will include a pass to bring the control panels up-to-date with the most recent home releases.
  • All of this will be rolled out before the end of 2022.
• New large-scale community centres for Bellisseria are also in the works.
• No plans at this time for a “city style” theme with apartments and the like.

About the Moles

Who or What are the Moles?

• Officially called the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), originally formed in 2008, Moles are residents from all over the world hired by Linden Lab as independent contractors to undertake specific tasks.
• Their work was originally focused on the Mainland, adding the infrastructure – road, bridges, etc., and the landscaping, as noted in the official LDPW wiki page, although they actually do a lot more than this.
• Notable major projects carried out by the Moles include:
  • The infrastructure within Nautilus City.
  • The development of Bay City.
  • The Linden Homes continent of Bellisseria (including all topography, flora, infrastructure and housing).
  • The facilities for events like Shop & Hop, the Second Life Birthday, town hall events, the turn-key regions available for businesses, starter avatars, etc.
  • The Lab provided games such as Linden Realms, Paleoquest, Horizons and the grid-wide Tyrah and the Curse of the Magical Glytches – all accessible via the Portal Parks.
• They also provide support / input for / to technical projects (e.g. Project Bento and the avatar skeleton extension), and work with marketing, QA and other LL teams.
• In keeping with their name, Moles were originally given a mole avatar, complete with hard hat. However, over the years, most have moved to having a more individual and personal look, although some say with their Mole look.
• As well as being paid for the work they do, Moles also receive and allowance from the Lab, which is primarily intended to go towards the cost of uploads (texture, animations, mesh objects, etc)., but which can also be put towards developing their individual looks.

How to Become a Mole

• Positions in the LDPW are open to application by residents who believe they are qualified to work in the team, and the team may also approach specific residents and ask if they would consider joining them.
• Applications are made by dropping a résumé (note card or email) of qualifications / experience (including links SLurls, Flickr, You Tube, etc.) to Derrick Linden (derrick.linden-at-lindenlab.com) or to Patch Linden (patch.linden-at-lindenlab.com).
• Applicants have to go through a former interview process.
• Successful applicants get to pretty much choose their hours of work – providing agreed tasks are completed on time.
• As they are from around the world, this can allow some projects to move forward on almost a round-the-clock basis.
• Those who are more fully-rounded in skill sets  – content creation, scripting, etc., – are encouraged to apply, but LL will also take on specialists.
• Motivated, outgoing, communicative people with a passion for SL and willing to self-teach themselves new skill sets are particularly considered.

 

Thursday, June 23rd, 2022 saw the fourth in the SL19B Meet the Lindens events, this one featuring Grumpity Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Product and Mojo Linden, the Vice President of Engineering. The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised. The full video is located at the end of this article. Note that this is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.

Table of Contents The TL;DR Summary A Little Background Platform Improvements and the Roadmap Viewer Performance Improvements Environmental and Lighting Improvements Dealing with Technical Debt – Bugs, and “Incomplete” Features The Marketplace Event Regions Update The Product Roadmap NUX – New User eXperience Mobile Update Looking Ahead – Aspirational Aims Second Life and the “Metaverse” SL and the Metaverse Standards Forum General Q&A

Also, information given in braces ([ and ]), has been provided by myself and does not form a part of the conversation.

The TL;DR Summary

• Platform Improvements and the Roadmap:
  • Viewer performance: Graphics team working to overhaul the viewer’s graphics performance, with updates already released (Performance Improvements viewer) and more (at the time of writing) on the way (Performance Improvements Floater viewer).
  • SL environmental work in development / testing: reflection probes; glTF materials support; moving towards “full” PBR support [progress on this work available via my CCUG meeting summaries].
  • Managing technical debt: dealing with long-term issues; re-visiting features; under-the-hood improvements.
  • The Marketplace: recent small-scale improvements; the Styles project to add variances(e.g. colour options) to listings; future considerations.
  • Event regions update: new products released with revised pricing – see: Lab announces updated Event and Event Elite Regions + pricing
  • Roadmap: search relevance overhaul; Group Chat.
• New User eXperience: overview of new starter avatars and hopes, but see the Meet the Moles session for more details.
• Mobile Update: not a lot to report; LL still has mobile / web ambitions; a streaming solution is in development.
• Second Life and the “Metaverse”: being a part of the discussions of “the metaverse”; being aware of the challenges;
• thoughts on joining the Metaverse Standard Forum.

A Little Background

[Video: 0:00-4:00]

Grumpity Linden

• Heads up Second Life Product team, where she has overseen a shift to growth, a stronger, more balanced economy, movement towards better community cohesion, and an overall forward-looking approach.
• Originally came to Linden Lab while working for The Product Engine, a company providing end-to-end consulting and software development services, and which supports viewer development at the Lab, and she was initially involved in the development and viewer 2 (as designed by 80/20 Studio).
• She became a “full-time Linden” in 2014. Her current position involves coordinating the various teams involved in bringing features and updates to Second Life (e.g. Engineering and QA), liaising with legal, financial and compliance to ensure features and capabilities meet any specific requirements in those areas, etc. This work can involve looking at specifics within various elements of the overall SL product, such as UI design and layout, etc.
• Prior to working for Linden Lab, she was involved in a number of industries, including technology, higher education, and oil & gas. She enjoys exploring worlds both virtual and physical and takes pride in building bridges – personal and professional.
• Holds a Master’s in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s from same in Computer Science & Psychology, both from Johns Hopkins University. She finds leading the Second Life product a joy because it allows her to draw on both areas of study.

Mojo Linden

• Joined Linden Lab in August 2021.
• Has overall responsibility for managing both the viewer and the simulator engineering teams at the Lab.
• Holds a degree in Computer engineering from the University of Washington.
• Has over 20 years experience within the games industry, and he has worked on iconic franchises such as Halo, Forza, Motorsport, Fable, Crackdown, and Wheel of fortune.
• His expertise extends across multiple platforms: PC, console, mobile, cloud and web.
• Prior to joining Linden Lab, held senior positions at Level EX, Zume, Doubledown Interactive, IGT, and Microsoft.
• Since joining the Lab, he has demonstrated an intuitive understanding of the platform and the viewer, and has sought to make himself available at in-world user groups such as the Content Creation User Group, the Simulator User Group and the Third Party Viewer Developer’s group.
• Loves being a part of Linden Lab, finds the users “dynamic” and enjoys working with his colleagues.
• Is grateful the the move to AWS was largely completed before he joined, as it has opened a lot of opportunities.

Back to top

Platform Improvements and the Roadmap

Viewer Performance Improvements

[Video: 4:11-5:39] – Mojo:

• Performance has always been important to him as an engineer, and is aware of how poor performance can spoil an immersive experience.
• The Graphics team has been working on performance improvements over the last six months, with Runitai Linden’s work in particular leading to a near doubling of FPS on the official viewer [see: Looking at the SL Performance Improvements Viewer).
• Further viewer-side changes to come include: performance auto-tuning [within the Performance Improvements Floater RC viewer], texture streaming improvements; and using all available video memory.
• [Note: several of these improvements are covered in my CCUG meeting summaries.]

Environmental and Lighting Improvements

[Video: 9:51-15:11]

• Mojo:
  • Global illumination / bounced lighting [a form of radiosity lighting]  is “on our minds”.
  • Currently in development is support for reflection probes, which could be used to approximate global illumination and bounced lighting.
    • [In short: reflection probes will exist / can be added to a scene or build, and used to generate a cube map of a defined area, and the cube map used for generating illuminations / reflections on other surfaces within the specified volume. ]

• • Reflection probes are an adjunction to implementing support for physically based rendering (PBR)
    • [The first phase of this work is to allow the import of materials to Second Life as inventory assets which can be applied to object faces. This work is following the giTF 2.0 specification – specifically metallic roughness; and will go on to provide better support for tools such as Substance Painter (aka Adobe Substance 3D)].
  • This work is being carried out in direct collaboration with members of the Second Life creator community and developers working on TPVs to ensure as many use cases as possible are considered.
    • [This work is continually summarised in my CCUG meeting notes.]
  • This might be seen as a step towards mirrors in Second Life.
• Grumpity:
  • In terms of weather effects, points out the the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP) carried general environment rendering in SL significantly forward, but at a resource / time to implement [it also moved SL further away from the Windlight baseline code].
  • As such, “weather” is something that is going to have to wait whilst the focus is on other aspects of the platform.

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Dealing with Technical Debt – Bugs, and “Incomplete” Features

[Video: 16:15-20:09]

• Technical debt does get constantly addressed; however there are constraints on what can be done, due to both legacy code and legacy content + the risk of breakage.
• A lot of what is addressed is not necessarily user-visible: updating to more modern code languages and libraries to run systems and services and the viewer, updating to more capable database systems, etc., all of which directly benefit users.
• In terms of users providing input on bugs and ideas for improvements, there are the following options:
  • The Second Life Jira.
  • The SL user groups. (dates and times via the SL Public Calendar).

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The Marketplace

[Video: 27:32-29:30] – Grumpity:

• Marketplace improvements tend to be rolling over time. Recent small-scale improvements include:
  • The ability to sort by orders you’ve reviewed.
  • Some initial improvements to search results and improvements to the back-end of MP search, with more to come.
  • Improvements to the speed of order recipients search.
  • Major project to implement “Styles” (e.g. thing like colour variance in products) to product listings. The back-end work is now done and the front-end work should become visible “in a few cycles”.
• Still thinking hard about the Marketplace, up to and including a potential complete re-build, which will be “quite a project”.
• [Note: on-going work on the Marketplace are reported via my Web User Group summaries.]

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Event Regions Update

[Video: 31:45-37:08] – Grumpity:

• LL have noted that while Event regions tend to run best in a “standalone” mode, rather than connected to other regions (particularly other event regions), where child agents¹ can become an issue. This has yet to be resolved, and is being worked on.
• In the interim, the tier tier of Event product are being made available – Event Regions Pro (at US $449/mo) and Event Region Elite (and US $599/mo) with no set-up fees for either.
• LL believe the revised product offering and pricing will “hit the spot”.
• [Please also refer to  Event Regions: New Pricing and Offerings – Linden Lab and Lab announces updated Event and Event Elite Regions + pricing – this blog.]

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The Product Roadmap

[Video: 20:40-26:38]

• Grujmpity:
  • A lot that has been on the roadmap has been, and is being rolled-out, including Premium Plus; Event regions; performance improvements (with more to come, as this is a constant focus).
  • Further work encompasses the New User eXperience (NUX), with a current focus on Starter Avatars and customising avatars – with discussion of this to be found in the Meet the Moles session [+brief notes below].
  • Web properties [the secondlife.com dashboard, the various SL Pages, the Marketplace, etc.] are a focus of update and improvement.
    • Land ownership – buying regions, obtaining Mainland, choosing a Linden Home, etc.,  is the next major focus for this.
• Mojo:
  • Group Chat is a current area focus (responsiveness and reliability).
    • This is something that has been complicated by the raising of Group limits for Premium Plus, so more people are liable to be in more Groups, which places a great load on the Group Chat service.
    • LL recognise the importance of Group Chat, so it will continue to be an area of focus and improvement.
  • Search relevance: a major project to overall search (web, Marketplace, etc.) in terms of relevance and accuracy.
    • This includes work to track search results so that if a result that appears will down a list is the one the vast majority of people go to, it will be moved up to the top of the list.
    • At the time of writing, this project is still in progress so it will take time to be fully deployed to properties like the Marketplace.
• [Note: on-going work on projects such as search relevance, land ownership, Marketplace improvements and updates, etc., are reported via my Web User Group summaries.]

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NUX – New User eXperience

[Video: 30:02-31:10]

• Mojo:
  • Making it easier to on-board new users.
  • Major current focus, easing the process for new users to customise their avatars. This includes a new body type and clothing that “just works”.
  • Hope that there will be an opportunity for creators to test their clothing against this new body type.
  • Wants to encourage creators to cater for the new body type and sell good for it to new users.
• Grumpity:
  • More details in the Meet the Moles session.

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Mobile Update

[Video: 40:08-42:09]

• Mojo:
  • LL was working on a chat app [initially iOS] but has “shifted gears”.
  • Appreciates third-party solutions such as Speedlight “filling the gap”.
  • LL still has ambitions in the mobile / app environment, but is not ready to discuss everything as yet, but there are initiatives being examined, including using web functionality in the mobile space.
  • Wants to be able to give users the power to managed inventory, shop, find things to do, manage their accounts, etc., via mobile and on the web.
• [Video: 47:47-48:34] Grumpity:
  • Also working on a streaming solution (again).
  • Believe LL has found a sweet spot for a streaming solution in terms of pricing.
  • This cannot be free as it is running on some server, somewhere.
  • May offer a better option for 3D viewing of Second Life on mobile devices than dedicated apps.

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Looking Ahead – Aspirational Aims

[Video: 42:19-48:34]

These are not things that are about to be shipped; they are “R&D projects”, some of which may be in progress.

• Grumpity
  • Puppetry [aka “Avatar expressiveness”]
    • Controlling an avatar via wbecam – e.g. so if you use a webcam and roll your head, the avatar mimic by rolling it’s head; if you smile, your avatar smiles, etc.
    • Sees this as an a alternate, more cost-effective means of bringing emotional expression to avatars than using VR headsets.
    • A future step is to put a demo of this work together and present it for input from the community.
  • “Chat Roulette”: improving the ways in which people can meet, converse, find answers to questions and generally feel a greater sense of engagement.

• Mojo:
  • Performance improvements, notably in the area of fidelity.
  • Increasing a sense of presence within SL by removing / overcoming the limitation of draw distance in being able to see vast open spaces like on Mainland, when exploring or whilst flying.

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Second Life and the “Metaverse”

[Video: 5:43-9:35] – Grumpity:

• The hype  / interest has allowed her to represent Linden Lab / Second Life through various mediums – printed, television, etc., and to participate in various discussion and panels (e.g. the “metaverse” and the law, hosted by Stanford University with the likes of Lawrence Lessig).
• Thinks it is “fantastic” to see this resurgence of interest in virtual worlds, although there is a lot to consider carefully.
• Notes that a lot of the discussions around the “metaverse” – inhabiting digital selves, engaging in digital transactions – are things that have been occurring in Second Life for almost two decades, allowing the Lab to be a strong player in such conversations.
• In terms of business models for “metaverse” platforms:
  • Reiterates that LL is “very proud” that it does not monetise users’ personal data, in keeping with comments from Brad Oberwager and Philip Linden [video here and my summary here],
  • Notes that LL believe that moving an adverts-based monetised model from the 2D social spaces into immersive environments could be “dangerous”, even though it does allow the virtual world to be “free” in terms of direct cost to users.
•  It has presented LL with the opportunity to innovate, notably with the initiatives noted above.

LL and the Metaverse Standards Forum

[Video: 1:02:47-1:04:15] – Mojo

• LL has started a discussion to join.
• Feels that as the OG among virtual worlds, it makes sense for LL to be in the forum.
• Believes it will be interesting to see if common standards can be developed in terms of information exchange, presence exchange (possibly even avatar exchange), etc., so could be beneficial in having a seat at the table.

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General Questions

This section covers the majority of questions that were responded to in some detail. Note that questions specific to the topics given above are included under those topic headings.

• [Video: 26:56] Will users get more Picks options in their in-world Profiles? It’s possible, but not being worked on at the moment. It may, however, be a Premium feature.
• [Video: 56:11-57:30] What is the status of VR support in SL? Re-visiting VR headset support has been discussed, but there should not be an expectations of anything being released in the foreseeable future, and it sits behind a number of other things in the “aspirational aims” pile.
• [Video: 58:01-59:31] What is the status of any move towards using the Vulkan API for graphics?
  • It is definitely on the docket for work, and is contained in the overall bucket of performance improvements, but no direct work has as yet started.
  • There is also a matter of timing to be considered – how much further can SL move along the OpenGL in respect of Apple’s plan to deprecate OpenGL support.
  • Also the concern as to how many PC users in SL can run Vulkan.
• [Video 59:42-1:00:57] What does the future support of Mac OS look like? There is “every plan” to continue to support Mac OS, including investment in a graphics API to move beyond OpenGL.
• [Video: 1:01:21-1:02:14] Would it be possible to have “lightweight” Groups, purely for notices? Interesting idea; would point out that Group issues are not so much the chat itself, but the presence updates (reporting to all other members when Group members log-in / out); so this is one of the possibilities that can be turned to.
• [Video: 1:04:25-1:06:22] Would it be possible to access and organise inventory via the web and without having to log-into the viewer?
  • This is a “passion project” for a Linden, and discussions have been held on how it might be achieved.
  • However, there are many caveats  / concerns about any implementation (e.g. risk of account hacking); so if done likely to be gated by multi-factor authentication; what happens if you make near-simultaneous changes to inventory from both the web and when in-world?
  • Even so, is something LL would like to provide.
• [Video: 1:06:37-1:10:21] Are there plans to improve the in-world building tools? Believes in-world, collaborative building is a core aspect of Second Life. Some ideas are being discussed internally, but would love to have user feedback on improvements and ideas [Feature Requests via the Second Life Jira].
• [Video: 1:10:49-1:11:40] What is the status of official Linux support in the viewer? Recognises there is an application for Linux support, and some TPVs do support it. However, from an official LL standpoint, it’s not something the company has been investing its time.
• [Video: 1:11:56-1:13:05] Will SL support the nVidia ray tracing functionality? If there is a demand, and it can be done without impacting performance or degrading the experience – possibly.
• [Video: 1:13:12-1:14:07] Can an updated FAQ on “lag” and ways to mitigate it be produced? It will be considered as will a possible Second Life University video on the subject.
• [Video: 1:14:15-1:15:37] Will SL move to a more off-the-shelf graphics engine? LL is currently investing in improvements to the existing engine (e.g. the updates noted above. Which is not to say they are unaware of engines such as Unity or Unreal; there are no current plans to move to a commercial engine.
• [Video: 1:16:14-1:17:12] Will sound in SL see any improvement? There have been discussions; there’s also the potential for improvement audio / spatial audio via High Fidelity, so again – Feature Request Jiras.
• [Video: 1:17:22-1:20:28] How is the Meta platform regarded? Meta has considerable resources to throw tat their platform, particularly as grasping at the “metaverse” concept is something of a Hail Mary for them. As such, it is the elephant in the room for virtual worlds.
• [Video:1:20:50-1:22:09] Will it be possible to “tag” inventory items for easier categorisation (clothes furniture, etc)? This has been a subject of discussion at LL. However, it is not easy to implement due to the impact on things like database schema, etc. As such, it is not as yet on the roadmap.
• [Video: 1:23:22-1:24:41] Will there be improvements to region crossings? There is a lot of complexity involved in both teleports between regions and physical region crossing (one foot or on a vehicle). LL has been, is continues to work on getting a deeper understanding of the complexities and making improvements.
• [Video: 1:25:05-1:26:56] When will there be a fix for regions removed from the grid still showing up on the world map? And when will the Mainland default EEP be brightened? The first is awaiting improvements to the map generation service, and a resource has been assigned to look at that service as a whole. The EEP issue is a LDPW issue.
• [Video: 1:27:29-1:27:57] Will residents be able to add graphics to the world map tiles in the same manner as seen with the SL19B regions? LL can do this, but it’s not clear if this is something that would be opened to users – but “maybe”.

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Footnotes

1. Simply put, a Child Agent refers to a secondary agent (avatar) presence associated with your own, then can exist in regions physically adjoining to the one you are currently in, allowing you to “see” into a connected regions (and have it render in your viewer).

Child agents are not physically rendered avatars but a simulator resource, as such they can directly influence region performance.

via Linden Lab

Tuesday, June 21st, 2022 saw the second in the SL19B Meet the Lindens events, Featuring Linden Lab board member and Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden), together with Linden Lab founder (and now Second Life Strategic Advisor) Philip Rosedale. Notes: This was a pre-recorded interview, with no opportunity to ask questions directly of the participants.

Table of Contents A little background Questions Specific to Brad Oberwager Spending Time In-world What Drew Him to Second Life, and How Does He Feel 18 Months On? Questions Specific to Philip Rosedale What Pleases Him the Most About Second Life? What Drew Him Back to Virtual Reality? Second Life and the “Metaverse” On SL and Upcoming “Metaverse Platforms” On SL’s Longevity Compared to Other Platforms On Concerns About “Metaverse” Competition & Maintaining SL’s Position About Tilia The Economy, Past Present, Future SL and NFTs

• The following is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.

A Little Background

Brad Oberwager

[Video: 0:00-5:30]

Brad Oberwager is one of the three investors who acquired Linden Lab in 2020, together with J. Randall (Randy) Waterfield and Raj Date. Since the acquisition closed, he has been very hands-on at Linden Lab, working alongside members of the management team, and he has also brought-in long-time business associate Cammy Bergren as the company’s Chief of Staff.

His biography, as supplied by the Lab reads as follows:

Brad Oberwager has spent his entire career in technology and consumer focused companies as an entrepreneur and board member.

Currently, he sits on the board of two public companies, Asure Software (NASDAQ: ASUR) and Better World (NASDAQ: BWACU). He is the chairman of two companies he founded, Jyve and Sundia and is also on the board of TEGSCO (aka AutoReturn). He owned Bare Snacks, acquired by PepsiCo in 2018.

Brad was Vice-chair of YPO International, a global organization of 25,000 CEOs [where he met and became friends with J. Randall Waterfield, another of the Lab’s owners / board member].

Brad received his BS from Georgetown University, his MBA from the Wharton School and lives in San Francisco.

Philip Rosedale

Philip Rosedale earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and computer science from the University of California, San Diego, and in 1985 he created a video conferencing product called “FreeVue”, which was ultimately purchased by Real Networks, for whom he went to work, rising to the positions vice president and chief technology officer.

Departing Real Networks at the end of the 1990s, he founded Linden Research Inc (functioning as Linden Lab), and commenced work on trying to develop both the hardware and software for an immersive virtual reality system. The company switched to focusing on the software – which it called Linden World -, launching it as a publicly-accessible platform under the name Second Life in 2003. As founder and CEO, Rosedale steered the company through until 2008, when he stepped back from the role of CEO to become chair of the board of directors.

In 2009, he founded LoveMachine Inc., with  Ryan Downe, which later evolved into Coffer and Power (2011), with Rosedale briefly returning to Linden Lab in 2010 as interim CEO. After two years developing a mobile application called Workclub that helped bring contractors and those seeking them together, he and Downe announced Coffee & Power would become a new company, High Fidelity Inc. (2013), focused on building a fully decentralised virtual reality environments, and the required supporting applications / services. In 2019, High Fidelity ceased working on this platform to focus on one of the key supporting services: spatial audio, with their product subsequently being licensed by a number of companies.

In 2021, High Fidelity invested in Linden Research, brining in both staff and patents that might be used with the platform, and while High Fidelity still very much operates as an independent entity, Rosedale took the part-time position of Strategic Advisor to Linden Lab.

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Questions Specific to Brad Oberwager

Spending Time In-world

[Video: 7:36-9:12]

• Has been 18 months since taking over Linden Lab.
• Does spend a “tremendous” amount of time “on Second Life” – it is his primary business focus, and he is constantly working to ensure the resources needed to improve and grow the platform and its products and available.
• However, as a result, does not get to spend much time within Second Life as an avatar.

What Drew Him to Second Life, and How Does He Feel 18 Months On?

[Video: 15:00-21:31]

• Has known Philip for more than a decade and they are close friends, so has always been aware of SL.
• This awareness included knowing that the former investors – as venture capitalists – had reached a point where they wanted to sell LL as a going concern and move on. However, due to the complexities in running the platform as both a social experiment and an open-ended, creative platform for its users where they can engage in direct commerce with one another, make it it hard to find a buyer.
• After one opportunity fell through, Brad decided to get involved and make an offer to buy the company. As expertise on the financial side would be required, he contacted J. Randal Waterfield, and together they worked out a deal by which they could acquire Second Life and Tilia (the company’s money service business) and continue to move both forward
• 18 months on, feels that the acquisition of Linden Lab is more exciting. In purely monetary terms, sees running a business as having three options by which to add monetary value:
  • By increasing revenue whilst keeping expenses the same.
  • By keeping revenue the same and decreasing expenses.
  • By increasing expenses [/outlay] in order to drive revenue higher, and try to ensure the latter outpaces the former – which tends to be the hardest, but most interesting, of the three options.
• Second Life is proving that it is capable of the third option: it is possible to invest (increase expenses) and grow revenue.
• Within the company, the mantra is, “give two dollars of value, but only charge a dollar” – the idea being LL might lose money as a result of something they introduce, but over time, that loss will be recoups and turned into a revenue gain.
  • An example of this has been Linden Homes and Bellisseria, what have, and continue to cost LL to develop and maintain, but which has generated considerable excitement for users and a social investment that is hope to grow an eventual return on the investment made in the development.
• This is the core idea behind Premium Plus – to offer greater value to those wishing to use the capabilities offered, but at an overall lower cost than might be the case with raising Premium fees to cover the same, whilst still allowing those who do not wish to go Premium Plus to still have Premium.

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Questions Specific to Philip Rosedale

What Pleases Him the Most about Second Life?

[Video: 5:36-7:30]

• In the early days, felt it was the collaborative nature of design and building and the escalating designs.
• Has always appreciated travelling in SL and seeing the diverse region designs and all of the art and creativity.
• What he particularly appreciates about the platform today is that, despite the state of the physical world, it remains a place of hope in the way it brings people together who engage and communicate with one another, build communities, all in generally positive ways .
• Would love to see this positivity, love, and engagement transferred somehow into the physical world.

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What Drew Him Back to Virtual Reality?

[Video: 9:15-14:22]

• Opening the means for people to communicate and engage with one another through the use of technology / on-line has always been one of his driving passions.
• FreeVue was revolutionary in it time – if limited by the technology. By the time of SL, the technology allowed the ball to be moved much further forward.
• High Fidelity (HiFi) came about as a result of him purchasing one of the gyroscopic chips now used within VR headsets, experimenting with it and realising the potential it represented for VR – although admits he was wrong in his belief of how fast head-mounted displays (HMDs) would “change the world”.
• Ten years on from that point, recognises that HMDs have yet to reach that tipping-point, and understands that connecting people is harder than the technology alone.
• Does believe [as I’ve actually always stated as a layperson – please pardon the horn tooting] there are specific vertical markets for HMDs. One such vertical is education – which is also a market where Second Life has long proved its value, and is a market that will only grow as technologies such as HMDs mature.

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Second Life and “the Metaverse”

On SL and Upcoming “Metaverse Platforms”

[Video: 31:04-40:35]

• Philip Rosedale:
  • Notes the origins of the term “metaverse” in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snowcrash, and notes that what we’re seeing now is the latest resurgence of interest in the idea.
  • Believes this resurgence has been spurred by three things: COVID and the need for social isolation; the general rise in noise around crypto and web 3.0; and Facebook throwing a Hail Mary in trying to claim the “Meta” verse to recapture HMD hype.
  • Notes that much of the noise around crypto and NFTs actually echoes what has been available in Second Life since its earliest days. However:
    • Within Second Life, the concept of “the metaverse” was empowering people to create things together within a single space. This is what spurred everything else – you needed an economy not for “currency” speculation, but to enable people to engage in commerce.
    • Much of the current thinking about “the metaverse” runs contrary to this, as it starts with exploitation: obtaining data from people in order to push them into consumer-based activities.
  • Very much hopes SL can continue to grow as an example of what “the metaverse” can more positively be, and encourage others to move in the same direction.
  • Does worry that the term “the metaverse” is being used to promote ideas very different to those found in SL, ideas that see personal data as the “currency”.
• Brad Oberwager:
  • In terms of Meta and the rest, they have had zero impact on Second Life; Zuckerberg may try to usurp the term “metaverse” but the residents of Second Life just carry on.
  • Where there is a broader impact, it is in consideration of where and what to invest in within Second Life, particularly in terms of rising above those environments that are being built around the crypto-currency / advertising model which could have the advantage of offering experiences for “free” where they’d have to be charged for within SL.
  • However, LL is steadfastly against direct advertising intrusion as a means of leveraging “payment” for services to users. This means the focus is liable to remain on the precepts of creativity and social engagement, and trying to encourage social groups into the platform by offering unique opportunities and experiences.
  • Touches on TOSL – The Office of Second Life and the management team of Grumpity, Mojo, Brett and Patch Linden, who are responsible for running the day-to-day Second Life operations – and their focus on attempting to bring richer, deeper experiences into Second Life.
  • Notes that the resurgence interest in “the metaverse” from other companies offers LL the potential to pick and choose who they might want to partner / collaborate with in order to bring new experiences to SL residents.

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On SL’s Longevity Compared to Other Platforms?

[Video 40:39-46:00]

• Philip Rosedale::
  • Again, the collaborating, creative elements.
  • A common critique of Second Life in the early years was the lack of polish to the viewer UI, and predictions that once “professional” designs stated work on a competitor, virtual worlds will take off. However, this wasn’t the case and polish to the UI wasn’t the key.
  • Another point is that today, the big audience pullers of the world – Fortnite, Roblox, etc., – tend to cater to a younger demographic; but the reality is still that there is nothing that caters for “grown up” sensibilities and creativity in a manner that matches SL, and none of the alternatives – VR Chat, etc, – are close to offering the broad range of creative freedom or the audience reach to be seriously considered a core part of “the metaverse”.
  • This ability to capture a more adult demographic is potentially the “secret sauce” any platform needs to feed it if is to grow to fulfil a vision of “the metaverse” – and it is something that is hard to find .
  • Also feels that there are a lot of governance, technology and management hurdles that need to be cleared – and that’s going to take a lot of time for others to sort out and SL continue to build upon.

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Continue reading “SL19B MTL: Brad Oberwager and Philip Rosedale – summary” →