Tag: SL News

Promoting Second Life: LL at MomoCon

Posted on by Inara Pey
Linden Lab’s booth at MomoCon 2019. Credit: Linden Lab

During a couple of his public chat sessions in 2018, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg indicated that as well as continuing with the work to enhance Second Life, introducing new technology and new capabilities, Linden Lab would also be looking at new ways that might help grow the Second Life user base, possibly through a number of different channels / approaches.

One of the more interesting of these approaches is taking place between May 23rd and 26th, 2019, as Second Life makes a début at MomoCon 2019 in Atlanta Georgia.

Defined as a “geek culture convention”, MomoCon is an annual event held in wither March or May of each year, which the official website describes as:

One of the fastest growing all ages conventions in the country. Fans of Japanese Anime, American Animation, Comics, Video Games, and Tabletop Games come together to celebrate their passion by costuming / cosplay, browsing the huge exhibitors hall, meeting celebrity voice talent, designers, and writers behind their favourite shows, games, and comics and much, much more over this 4 day event.

– Official MomoCon website

MomoCon has its roots deep within the anime community – it started life as a offshoot of Georgia Tech’s anime club, Anime O-Tekku, with the first convention, called Techwood Con, held in 2004. In 2005, it became MomoCon (“momo” being Japanese for “peaches” and Georgia being the Peach State), and the convention enjoyed rapid growth over the next few years as a free-to-attend event.

In 2012, MomoCon became a paid-to-attend event, and experienced massive growth: in 2018, for example, over 35,000 unique visitors attended the convention over its four days, with a programme encompassing anime and animation, games, comics, manga, contests, demonstrations, cosplay activities, photo shoots, screenings, concerts, robot wars, and more.

Visitors have been dropping into the booth since the conventions opened. images credit: Linden Lab

While such a venue for the presence of Second Life might initially seem a little unusual, the fact is that there is a rich and vibrant cosplay community in Second Life, some of which does encompass anime, which also has a large following among Second Life users. As such – and given the event is also about on-line activities – there is a potential for Linden Lab and Second Life to engage with people face-to-face and potentially bring new users into the fold. A further reason for appearing at MomoCon in particular is that Linden Lab have a physical presence in Atlanta, with their support centre being located there, thus making the logistics of an appearance at the convention somewhat easier.

Even so, the company’s presence at MomoCon does represent something of an experiment for Linden Lab, as their head of Second Life marketing, Brett Linden noted to me.

This is our first presence at MomoCon and it represents a new test for us to try in person outreach at themed consumer events where we feel there is potential to introduce Second Life to new audiences. As part of our presence, we are demoing Second Life to attendees with the goal of registering new users on site.

– Brett Linden, heads of Marketing for Second Life

How successful the booth might prove to be remains to be seen. Certainly, Sansar has spent a fair amount of time “on the road” over the last couple of ears, which if nothing else, can help raise brand awareness. As such, seeing Second Life out and about  – and possibly able to both garner users and / or change preconceptions is worth the time and effort. Depending on the Lab’s view of how things went, and their willingness to discuss them I hope to have a follow-up on this a little further down the road.

With thanks to Brett Linden for taking  time out for his vacation to discuss the Lab’s presence at MomoCon with me. 

April Linden blogs on the May 13th/14th downtime

Posted on by Inara Pey

The week of May 13th-17th saw a planned period of Second Life network maintenance work, as announced in the Grid Status updates.

The first tranche of this work – Monday, May 13th through Tuesday May 14th – appeared to go well, until there was a completely unexpected 4(ish) hours of downtime, which at the time caused significant upset.

On May 17th, April Linden, the Second Life Operations Manager, has provided an insightful blog post on both the work being carried out and the cause of the downtime.

This week we were doing much needed maintenance on the network that powers Second Life. The core routers that connect our data centre to the Internet were nearing their end-of-life, and needed to be upgraded to make our cloud migration more robust.

Replacing the core routers on a production system that’s in very active use is really tricky to get right. We were determined to do it correctly, so we spent over a month planning all of the things we were going to do, and in what order, including full roll-back plans at each step. We even hired a very experienced network consultant to work with us to make sure we had a really good plan in place, all with the goal of interrupting Second Life as little as we could while improving it …

Everything started out great. We got the first new core router in place and taking traffic without any impact at all to the grid. When we started working on the second core router, however, it all went wrong.

– Extract from April Linden’s blog post

In essence, a cable had to be relocated, which was expected to cause a very brief period of impact. However, things didn’t recover as anticipated, and April resumes her explanation:

After the shock had worn off we quickly decided to roll back the step that failed, but it was too late. Everyone that was logged into Second Life at the time had been logged out all at once. Concurrency across the grid fell almost instantly to zero. We decided to disable logins grid-wide and restore network connectivity to Second Life as quickly as we could.
At this point we had a quick meeting with the various stakeholders, and agreed that since we were down already, the right thing to do was to press on and figure out what happened so that we could avoid it happening again…
This is why logins were disabled for several hours. We were determined to figure out what had happened and fix the issue, because we very much did not want it to happen again. We’ve engineered our network in a way that any piece can fail without any loss of connectivity, so we needed to dig into this failure to understand exactly what happened.

– Extract from April Linden’s blog post

April Linden

In other words, while it may have been painful for those who were unceremoniously dumped from Second Life and found they could not get back in, the Lab were working with the best of intentions: trying to find out exactly why connectivity was lost within a network where such an event should not cause such a drastic breakage – and its worth noting that as per April’s blog post, even the engineers from the manufacturer of the Lab’s network equipment were perplexed by what happened.

As always, April’s blog post makes for an invaluable read in understanding some of the complexities of Second Life, and goes so far as to answer a question raised on the forums in the wake of the week’s problems: Why didn’t LL tell us exactly when this maintenance was going to happen? – in short there are bad actors in the world who could make use of publicly available announcements that give them precise information on when a network might be exposed.

If you’ve not read April’s blog posts on operational issues like this, I really cannot recommend them enough – and thanks are again offered April for providing this post. And while things might have hurt at the time, there is a silver lining to things, as she notes:

Second Life is now up and running with new core routers that are much more powerful than anything we’ve had before, and we’ve had a chance to do a lot of failure testing. It’s been a rough week, but the grid is in better shape as a result.

New SL viewer release notes pages: an overview

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update, May 21st: The Alternate Viewers wiki page has been retired and replaced by a new Alternate Viewer page, which follows the same broad format as the Release Notes page (making the two slightly confusing, as they both reference recent RC viewers. However, this new page also draws a distinction between RC and project viewers, thus overcoming some of the concerns voiced in the second half of this article.

As noted in my week #20 SL Content Creation summary, Linden Lab have unveiled their new viewer release notes pages.

At the time of writing, the new pages are focused on the release candidate (RC) viewers that are in development and currently available as download cohorts in place of the de facto release viewer. It is not currently clear if project viewers will be included in the new format or not.

As Steven Linden from the viewer team notes in a Tools and Technology blog post on the subject, these new pages are part of a new website for viewer release information. This website comprises a dedicated home page with an introduction to viewer release notes. together with links on the left side to:

  • “Recent viewer releases”: a clickable list of the most recent RC viewer updates, provided as viewer version numbers. These are provided in release date order, with the most recent updates at the top.
  • Additional links to viewer-related support information:
The new Release Notes home page – access specific viewer release notes via the version numbers outlined in red on the left

Individual viewer release notes can be accessed by clicking one of the the listed version numbers, which will open a page specific to that viewer. These pages comprise:

  • Icon links to the available OS versions (Windows 32/64-bit, Mac OS).
  • The general release notes (description, etc.).
  • A list of resolved issues.

A significant change in these pages is that, where relevant, Jira links in the Resolved Issues section now, wherever possible, reference “public” bug reports (e.g. BUG-XXXXXX), rather than the Lab’s internally cloned versions of such bugs (e.g. MAIT-XXXXXX).

Currently, the new pages can also be accessed from the existing Alternate Viewers wiki page, (click the Release Notes link for an RC viewer on that page). However, whether this page will remain relevant if the release notes for project viewers are also converted to the new format, remains to be seen.

An example of the revised release notes for a viewer (in this case the Teranino Maintenance RC) – note the use of “public” Jira numbers where relevant, in the known issues list

The new pages are a lot easier on the eye, although I have a number of reservations at this time.

  • While I understand understand why version numbers are used to reference individual viewers (they are URLs and so can be dropped into the pages without necessarily requiring human intervention), they are less user friendly to those wishing to quickly look-up the specifics on a viewer.
  • The “recent Viewer Releases” lists can include links to multiple versions of a given viewer (at the time of writing, two versions of the EEP and Teranino RC viewers are listed, for example). This might cause a degree of confusion for some users, who may mist he “most recent at the top” arrangement of the list.
  • If project viewers are to be added to these pages, I would hope there will be some form of clearer distinction between them and any listed RC viewers, other than just a top-down list of version numbers, again for ease of user reference.

Related Links

Gone in 27 minutes in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Motoring through some of the new houseboat regions

A total of 709 new Linden Home houseboats were made available on Wednesday, May 15th, 2019, after a build-up of expectation.

I had wondered if the new regions, that arrived alongside Bellisseria, the Linden Homes continent might see one more move prior to being opened, but as was quickly shown, this wasn’t the case. This does leave the new regions supporting the houseboats looking – at this point in time at least, but who knows what might come in time – looking like a bit of an after-thought bolt-on to the continent, but there can be no doubting their popularity: all 709 were gone in just 27 minutes.

(l) the line-up before the release of the new houseboat regions; (r) the situation a few minutes after the launch with people at their new houseboats, even as the regions were being restarted (those in red)

The release saw a huge build-up along the north-eastern side of Bellisseria, the closest point to the new region, with two regions in particular – Graff and Dorma – bearing the brunt of the interest, each having in excess of 50 avatars in them in the hours leading up to the release. A lot of this saw social interactions, although I opted to watch via the Map while paying a visit to another region.

The Houseboats are available to select as we release them via the Linden Homes Land selection page, and access to the continent addition is open. We will have a set of region restarts to go through, so please bear with us as that happens if you enter the regions right away.

We know they will go very quickly, but as time goes on we will get more out, and hopefully faster.

Our next focus will be to bring more Traditional Homes plus more Houseboats in another smaller launch while working in parallel to a larger launch and an exciting new theme.

As usual, stay tuned here for more updates!

Patch Linden’s forum announcement that the houseboats were available

The Squishy Pickle bar: the social hub of the new regions

The houseboats were released via the Linden Homes web page at 10:00 SLT, together with a warning that some of the regions were being restarted. But the latter didn’t dampen any of the desire to obtain one of the new units: within seconds of the opening of the doors, people were literally pouring into the regions to see their new houseboat – and fortunately Caitlyn was among them as well.

In commenting on the state of play, Patch noted that there was some churn during the 27 minutes: people grabbing a houseboat, checking the location, then abandoning it in the hope of getting a better spot. How many may have missed out on an opening as a result is hard to say, it’s possible some people may have come away a little disappointed – hence the comment from Patch of the focus on making a further “smaller launch” of houseboats and houses.

The new houseboat regions and landscaping

There had also been some churn in the lead-up to the release with some people with Traditional Homes abandoning them in favour of being ready for the houseboats, as was noted on various forum threads.

I took a boat ride through the new regions following their release, and the level of activity was pleasing to see as people set about decorating their new homes, together with a large uptick in conversation and activity in the Bellisseria in-world groups – and the founding of a residents newspaper The Bellisserian – of which more anon!

In the meantime, congrats to all those who snagged one of the new houseboats!

Linden Homes houseboat expansion arrives off Bellisseria – but may yet move?

Posted on by Inara Pey
The “houseboat expansion” regions, still with test elements in place, appeared off the north-eastern coast of Bellisseria on Monday, May 13th

Update #1: ah well, was a nice idea, but apparently, it’s been confirmed the new houseboat regions are in fact in their intended location.

Updates #2, via Patch Linden: Howdy everyone! While I’d love to give more notice than this, it is looking like we will have another batch of Houseboats ready for release within the next 24 hours.  This is as much of a forewarning I can provide, because of the complexity behind the work that is going into these releases.  Each release requires the coordination of several teams, and having all of the resources line up to hit the “go button” is pretty organic.  As soon as we are able to do so, I will post another update [in the forum thread linked to above].

The “houseboat expansion” regions appeared off the eastern coast of Bellisseria on Monday, May 13th, sparking speculation that the new regions could be made available “this week”.

However, while they might be made available soon, I’m not convinced that where they are currently sited will be their final resting place (so to speak).

The new 48-region houseboat expansion appears off the north-east coast of Bellisseria.

I say this because – as others have pointed out* – the “houseboat expansion” appears to be fairly identical in shape to an existing part of the the completed Bellisseria continent, as seen with the overall SSP region design on the world map, as shown below.

The new houseboat regions collectively share the same shape as a part of the completed Bellisseria continent as represented by the current SSP test / development regions

As such, it would seem possible that the new regions will yet make a further move prior to being make available.

Such as move would both allow Bellisseria to remain true to the original design of the continent, as presented by the the SSP test and development regions (as per the image below), and provide a far more natural location for the new regions, rather than simply “bolting them on” to the side of Bellisseria.

Bellisseria (l) showing how the houseboat regions might “slot in” to the continent, compared to the overall layout of the continent as seen in the develop SSP regions

The coming days will obviously reveal whether this will be the case, but given the overall size and shape of the “houseboat expansion”, I’d be surprised if we didn’t see something along these lines. Something which in turn begs the question as to how soon might it be before we see an expansion of “central” Bellisseria to match the SSP regions?

In the meantime, those interested in obtaining a new Linden Home houseboat should keep an eye on the development at Bellisseria, the Linden Homes forum category, and the Linden Homes selection page.

* I cannot provide full credit for this image, as the link to it was supplied to me sans context of posting, etc. If anyone does know who posted it and where, I’ll be happy to update this piece with proper credit.

SL Maintenance reminder: May 13-16th 2019

Posted on by Inara Pey

Just a reminder (or advanced warning for those who may not have seen it): Second Life will be subject to up to 4 days of network maintenance, commencing on Monday, May 13th. This work may possibly run through until Thursday, May 16th.

The details are available on the Second Life Grid Status pages, but are reproduced in full below:

Our engineers will be performing maintenance on the Second Life network May 13 – 16. We hope to perform most of the maintenance early in this window, but it may extend several days if needed.

Residents may experience problems connecting to, being disconnected from, or an inability to log in during this time, as well as possible issues rezzing objects, teleporting, or crossing regions. We hope to keep these disruptions to a minimum and greatly appreciate your patience during this time as we work to make Second Life more robust.

We will resolve this status once the maintenance has been fully completed.

So, if you do experience issues at the start of, or during the week, be sure to keep an eye on the Grid Status pages for updates to this announcement.