I don’t know Misty Mole (aka Caliandris Pendragon), but I can say I know her work, and have enjoed exploring some of it, and blogging about it here.
As a member of the Linden Department of Public Works from 2008, Misty had worked on a range of high-profile projects, including Nautilus, the Linden Realms game, Linden Homes, Cape Ekim (and the oft-forgotten Professor Linden) and Pyri Peaks. I’ve had great fun exploring the latter two, and admit I enjoyed Linden Realms when it first appeared, and still sometimes drop back there simply because I’m feeling a tad silly, while my Linden Home has been more than comfortable for me. I’ve also spent time sailing on (and diving under) the Sea of Fables. Misty had a hand (or hands) in all of these, and a whole lot more.
Sadly, Misty Mole is no more. She has left the ranks of the Moles in what appears to be less-than-happy circumstances. As a farewell, she has produced a video highlighting her work – and her skill as a composer and musician (she’s often provide music for the Lab to use within LDPW builds). It’s a celebration of her work – and rightly so. It’s also a fitting reminder of the amount of work carried out by the unsung heroes of the Moles.
It’s also something which has me itching to don my hiking boots and go out and explore other Moley places around SL.
Thanks, Misty for all your work – and thanks to the Moles as well.
Update June 21st: Kokua version 3.6.0.28975 has been released, which include Materials Processing support.
Update June 20th: NiranV Dean has released a version of his “in development” Black Dragon SL viewer with Materials Processing support. See his blog post for details.
If you are already running the release version of the viewer (3.5.3.276452) and have automatic updates enabled, the new version of the viewer, you should be notified that the update is available. If not, or if you have not previously installed the SL viewer, but wish to try-out the new materials capabilities, you can download and install 3.6.0.277516 by following the above link to the official download page.
A katara created by June Dion showing surface detail and reflective qualities using materials properties
For those not in the know, Materials Processing adds normal and specular maps to the in-world tools capabilities of the viewer (using the new land impact accounting system in the process!), allowing much higher / improved levels of realism be obtained with textures used on prim, sculpt and mesh items (they do not work on avatar skin and clothing layers).
I provided an overview of the Materials Processing, including brief notes on normal and specular maps when the project reached a beta viewer release status at the start of June, and I refer you to that post for details.
As noted in that article and elsewhere, the materials capabilities introduce a revised Textures tab to the Build floater in the viewer, which allows you to add normal and specular maps to objects and object surfaces, as well as textures (referred to a diffuse maps).
Materials Build floater Texture tab: The diffuse (texture) option, showing the Alpha mode drop-down options (l); the normal map options, with map picker and default bump map drop-down (c); the specular map options, in which the Shininess drop-down displays the familiar low, medium & high shiny options (r)
Note, as well, that in order to see materials in action, you’ll need to enable the Advanced Lighting Model option in the Graphic tab of the materials viewer. Please also see the Materials FAQ for other information relating to Materials Processing.
Given the capabilities are now available in the release viewer, and allowing for pressing activities around Server-side Baking / Appearance, it is likely that we’ll start seeing more TPVs start to adopt materials in the coming weeks (for example, the Cool VL viewer already has materials support in the experimental branch).
In the meantime, the Lab has released a video demonstrating the capabilities, complete with a Torley Dancing SL10B bear!
Materials Processing represents a collaborative project developed and implemented by both Linden Lab and third-party viewer developers. Originally a proposal submitted by members of the Exodus viewer team in 2012, the project has included the direct involvement of developers from Catznip (notably Kitty Barnett) and Firestorm (notably Tonya Souther) as well as from Exodus (notably Geenz Spad) in the development of the viewer-side tools and capabilities, with the Lab working on the server-side of the capabilities.
If you encounter any major issues with the viewer, such as alpha issues, severe problems with texture rendering as black, etc., please make sure you file a JIRA on the issue, with any screen shots you can provide in addition to details of your system (Help > About Second Life > COPY button to copy / paste system information).
Coming on top of the limited-time offer of the SL10B bear avatar launched last week, the Lab has offered-up more freebies for folk to celebrate SL10B, comprising:
The blog post also reiterates the SL10B Destination Guide category. Anyone organising an event to celebrate SL’s tenth anniversary can submit details of their activity for consideration for inclusion in the special DG category.
Sl10B mesh t-shirts from LL
The post also includes a reminder of the Lab’s SL10B Photo Contest, which could see the lucky winners obtain a homestead region for up to four months.
It’s now a month since the furore over the changes made to the Second Life Terms of Service relating to the buying and selling of Linden Dollars (L$) and which lead to the Lab writing to third-party exchanges (TPEs) requesting they cease trading L$.
Immediately following the change – which was officially referred to as an “anti-fraud” measure by the Lab, there was a lot of speculation as to the cause of the changes, most of it related to the guidelines issued in March by the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement network (FinCEN), which I originally reported on back in April. There was also a good degree of confusion in the days following the announcement, with some exchanges receiving notification of a possible opportunity to resume some for of operations, while others found their SL accounts suspended, before everything was finally resolved with what some are referring to as a “climb down” by the Lab with the establishment of the “Linden Dollar Authorised Reseller Programme”.
Whether the original move was a direct result of the publication of FinCEN’s guidelines is actually somewhat debatable – as I’ve commented here across several articles. For example, blocking TPEs doesn’t actually mitigate the Lab’s own exposure as an MSB as FinCEN currently sees things; for another FinCEN gave all companies not compliant with their regulations six months to put their houses in order, and at the time LL announced the ToS change, barely two of those months had passed.
Again, as pointed out within this blog, there’s a reasonable argument to suggest that the change could have been a clumsy grab at revenue the Lab felt it was missing out on. One which may have been thought through in blinkered terms and put into play without any real understanding of how the move would actually impact a reasonable proportion of SL users.
At of June 8th, 2013, 29 organisations have signed-up to the programme
However, whatever the reasons, things appear to have calmed down somewhat, and in the 22 days since the launch of the Authorised Reseller Programme, some 29 organisations have signed-up and are now listed on the Linden Lab Official: Linden Dollar (L$) Authorized Reseller Programme wiki page.
The wiki page provides basic information on those organisations which have registered for the programme, including the currencies and payment methods they will accept from people wishing to purchase L$.
SL resident Uzi Boa (Joanna Bogacz in real life) has also compiled a reference guide for SL users wishing to purchase L$.
This provides the same information as the official website, but also includes details on typical prices charged for the purchase of L$1,000. She further breaks the list of authorised resellers into two parts: those which are operating as expected (i.e. accessible websites and services) – which total 16, and those which are described as “listed by LL but not operating or with website error” (12 in all), for a total of 28 TPEs. Hypno is listed on the LL wiki page but does not appear on Uzi’s page at the time of writing, or to actually be offering any services (the website noting that “webpage is only in Czech language. This time we are not able to accept random custommers from alien countries”).
Commenting on the comparison page to Maria Korolov in Hypergrid Business, Uzi stated she plans to try to maintain the information on the page and keep it as up-to-date as possible for the benefit of SL users.
If you’re unwilling / unable to use the LindeX for direct L$ purchases, Uzi’s page could be a handy resource for you.
Seven months ago, on Halloween 2012, MadPea Games opened Carneval, a phan-tastic series of rides, puzzles and games set in a ghostly fun fair which is itself an awesome and atmospheric build, and one presided over by none other than Cthulhu himself.
Now it seems that Cthulhu has had enough of the ghoulish revelry, and has decided to call “time” on the Carneval and the wickedness within. Perhaps it wasn’t wicked enough for his dark heart?
Already, fires are burning within the ground of the carnival, and Cthulhu’s minions are at work destroying parts of the build, and at midday on the 31st, we’re told the zombie hordes will arrive to wreak further mayhem before the entire place is swept away in a 48-hour Demolition Party focused on the Carneval main stage.
The fires are lit and the countdown has begun at Carneval
So, if you’ve not had time to visit the Carneval and drink-in the atmosphere (I’m not entirely sure how many of the rides are still operational, if any), you only have a few short hours in which to do so – so hurry; even without the rides being operational, the build alone makes this a worthwhile visit.
Nor is Carneval alone in facing The End. The Lost Treasure of the Inca Warrior is also closing (one that I’ve admittedly not had time to visit) after its own extraordinary run, in what the MadPea team are calling “the end of an era”.
Cthulhu’s minions are already at work bringing the Carneval to a suitable end
“Is This the End for the Potty Peas and Their Devious Developments?”
Not at all. New games and activities are promised, as the blog post announcing the closures states:
From the ashes and dust rises a brand new MadPea bigger and better than ever before.
Whole new games with immersion never seen before are on their way. We are creating together with the best of the best to take SL by a huge surprise.
To help fund their plans, the MadPea Games team are running a raffle which features a range of special items – some of which are from their well-respected hunts, others of which are one-of-a-kind offers. The raffle items are all on display opposite the Carneval stage, and will remain available through until midnight SLT on June 1st.
And a teaser has already been produced, hinting at what is coming in the future.
In the meantime, and if you’re up for getting some snaps of a truly inventive build and fancy an hour or two listening to music, dancing and blasting seven bells out of a zombie or three, why not grab your camera, put on your dancing shoes and slip into your favourite anti-zombie outfit and pay a last (or first) visit to the Carneval?
Regulars to this corner of the SL blogsphere know I’ve been covering Project Shining – the various projects the Lab is currently undertaking to improve Second Life on the technical front in order to give us all a (hopefully) better experience.
Part of this work includes Project Sunshine, which is more colloquially know as server-side baking (SSB) or server-side appearance (SSA) or server-side baking/appearance (SSB/A) – the choice is yours, depending on personal preference, and which I’ve covered throughout numerous reports in this blog. The primary aim of project Sunshine is to resolve the issue of avatar bake fail – those situation wherein your avatar (or other avatars) fail to render correctly to either yourself or to others around you.
Today, the Lab itself moved to formally announced the forthcoming arrival of SSB/A with a special blog post of their own on the matter, which includes a short video explaining matters:
As the post indicates, SSB/A is being deployed in three parts:
A viewer update – which is available now for the majority of commonly used SL viewers
The deployment of server-side changes, which should be commencing shortly
A further viewer-side update once the server deployments are completed.
The server-side deployment will take a while to complete, as the new service will require a degree of testing. As such, it is expected that a number of regions on the main grid will be enabled for SSB/A (if they have not been already), and these will be used to measure performance over a period of time prior to a decision being made on “throwing the switch” to enable the entire grid is SSB/A enabled (the test regions may even be scaled-up over time, depending upon how the initial testing goes.
Server-side baking / appearance: must viewers should (or will shortly) support SSB/A – make sure you update to a current release of your preferred viewer to avoid seeing grey avatars as the server-side of the new capability is deployed in the coming weeks.
As you won’t be able to tell which regions are using the new SSB/A service and which are using the existing avatar baking service, it is important that you make sure you are using a viewer which supports both capabilities – otherwise you might find yourself encountering grey avatars in increasing numbers. This means updating to a viewer which has the SSB/A code; at the time of writing, these are:
Doubtless, Catznip (R8 with SSB/A has been in development for a while), Dolphin and Exodus will have SSB/A-capable viewers out shortly as well.
Those wishing to obtain a further overview on SSB/A and also on the most recent updates out of LL on the server-side deployment plans are welcome to refer to the following reports from this blog:
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 