ATG Grid News – Week 12
ATG Grid News – Week 12
ATG Grid News – Week 12
Our top stories:
– Second Life 20th Birthday preparations under way
– Unity Viewers on the rise with Crystal Frost and Linden Lab’s Mobile Viewer
– New Changes to Marketplace bring crucial improvements
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This is ATG Grid News.
I am Missoni.
I am Zack Haiku.
I am Katheryn Llewellyn.
Our top stories:
– Second Life 20th Birthday preparations under way
– Unity Viewers on the rise with Crystal Frost and Linden Lab’s Mobile Viewer
– New Changes to Marketplace bring crucial improvements
Hello and welcome to ATG Grid News
Linden Lab is developing a mobile viewer to enhance accessibility for its users.
The development team is focusing on delivering full rendering of avatars and 3D environments, achieving impressive results thus far.
Based on the Unity engine, the mobile viewer will be available for both Android and iOS devices, allowing users to access Second Life on the go.
Although there is no news of a web-based viewer for Second Life, the upcoming mobile viewer may attract former users back to the platform and contribute to its growth.
The Linden Lab team has committed to updating users on the mobile viewer’s progress, with an open beta expected to launch later this year.
This move marks a significant step towards greater accessibility and innovation within the virtual world, despite the lack of major advancements in the past two decades.
Mark your calendars!
On June 23rd, Second Life will celebrate its 20th anniversary.
The 20th annual Second Life birthday celebration (SL20B) is scheduled to take place from June 22nd to July 11th, offering 20 days of live music, performances, shopping, and incredible community exhibits.
This year’s theme aims to not only reflect on Second Life’s past but also embrace its future.
As the platform celebrates its 20th year, it recognizes the vibrant, engaging, and creative community that has emerged since its inception in 2003.
Looking ahead, the theme envisions the next twenty years for both the community and the world.
The SL20B theme is “Our Fantastic Future,” focusing on eco-futurism, sustainability, environmental awareness, and the evolution of the world.
Some may consider this science fiction, but science fiction often represents dreams of potential futures.
At SL20B, participants are invited to showcase their visions of the future.
To kick off the event, applications for Music Fest, taking place from June 22nd-24th, are now open.
Music Fest will inaugurate the SL20B festivities with three days of live music performances from some of Second Life’s most talented musicians.
Those interested in auditioning for Music Fest should complete the application form by April 9th, 2023.
Additionally, applications for the general performance schedule are now being accepted.
The celebration is set to continue for a week, from June 25th to July 2nd, and organizers are seeking various types of performers to participate in the week-long event.
Whether a DJ, live performer, dance company, or particle performer, Second Life welcomes all performance styles.
To apply as a performer, fill out the official application form by May 14th, 2023, and provide some information about your performance style.
While all interested performers are encouraged to apply, submitting an application does not guarantee a spot.
Organizers will review all submissions and send audition invitations via a follow-up note in-world to the SL username provided.
In the coming months, keep an eye on the Second Life blog for more opportunities to participate in the SL20B celebrations as an Exhibitor, Volunteer, and Merchant.
Since early February 2023, Virtual Verse One, previously known as SLuniverse.com, has been inaccessible.
Attempts to visit the website result in a redirect to a cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi.
The displayed message states, “This page is currently unavailable,” followed by instructions for the webmaster to contact their hosting provider’s support team for assistance.
Additionally, Snapzilla (SL Pics) is not functioning.
In early January 2023, Cristiano Midnight was recovering from a severe medical condition.
Although the site briefly returned online, it has been unavailable again since the beginning of February 2023.
The Virtual Verse One Forums were frequented by many Second Life community members, covering various topics related to Second Life and the metaverse.
VirtualVerse.One (formerly SLUniverse) maintains an active Discord server, which can be found in our description.
Many people hope that Cristiano is in good health and on the path to a full recovery.
It is anticipated that Virtual Verse One will eventually return online when the circumstances are appropriate.
The team here at ATG wishes Cristiano a swift recovery and good health.
During the March 10th Lab Gab session, an update on estate-level scripted agent controls, also known as “Ban the Bots,” was discussed.
This update aims to provide estate managers with the ability to control the presence of scripted agents within their regions.
The update introduces a console variable that estate managers can set to either True or False.
When set to True, it prevents scripted agents from entering regions within an estate.
In the future, a viewer UI update will be implemented to facilitate the management of this option more directly.
However, it might take some time before this UI change becomes available in the viewer.
A policy change update will also be published shortly, further elaborating on these changes and the operation of scripted agents within estates.
Although additional modifications have been proposed within the Lab, such as changes to traffic, no decisions have been made regarding their implementation.
This estate-level scripted agent control update is a significant step towards giving estate managers greater control over their regions, empowering them to manage bots and maintain a more enjoyable experience for Second Life users.
In March 2023, Second Life’s user daily concurrency levels have remained stable, averaging between 28,000 (minimum) and 52,000 (maximum) users.
The median figure typically ranges between 36,000 and 43,000 users.
Based on previous years’ trends, it is anticipated that concurrency levels will decrease slightly during the summer months and then rise again in the winter.
A key question for 2023 is whether Second Life’s user daily concurrency will surpass 55,000 or even 60,000 users at peak times.
While these levels have not been achieved in recent years, it remains possible if there is sufficient interest and commitment from users staying logged into Second Life.
As of March 13th, 2023, Second Life User Daily Concurrency Levels are as follows:
– Maximum: 46,000 to 52,000 users (average)
– Median: 36,000 to 43,000 users (average)
– Minimum: 28,000 to 30,000 users (average)
These figures are sourced from the Second Life Grid Survey.
Updates on Second Life’s user daily concurrency levels will be provided throughout 2023 to monitor the platform’s performance and user engagement.
The Sea of Fables in Sansara, one of Second Life’s first and oldest community builds, was once a bustling hotspot in 2010.
This large protected ocean, featuring Linden Lab-owned islands and several community-owned properties, is home to sunken ruins, beautiful underwater gardens, boat race courses, and a labyrinth below the ocean floor.
Despite its fascinating and scenic qualities, the Sea of Fables has largely been forgotten and overlooked in recent years.
In an effort to revive the community spirit within the Sea of Fables area, a project was initiated to create an Information Hub showcasing both community and Linden-owned properties.
The Hub provides visitors with a large map, marked with pins highlighting interesting locations, and an activities board offering landmarks to various fun activities.
This revitalization project aims to bring attention back to the Sea of Fables, reminding Second Life residents of its hidden treasures and fostering a sense of community among its landowners.
While Linden Lab recently announced plans to develop a native mobile app for Second Life built on Unity, the Crystal Frost project continues working to bring the platform to Unity on PC.
Berry Bunny, the project’s lead developer, says the project is unaffected by Linden Lab’s plans, as it is focused on creating an optimized version of Second Life for PCs and VR that can compete with VRChat.
Bunny aims to create a holographic display for the 2D user interface and use Linden Lab’s puppetry system or an LSL bridge for hand and full body tracking.
Berry acknowledges that Linden Lab’s mobile project will face significant challenges in terms of graphics, as mobile devices are not as powerful as PCs.
Crystal Frost is already in an alpha stage, albeit after addressing many technical issues related to memory and performance.
The project has been successful in overcoming hurdles that other Unity projects haven’t, and Bunny remains confident about implementing prim-based creation in the viewer.
Linden Lab has been working on improvements to the inventory service and has recently finished testing on the Aditi beta grid.
They have been specifically focused on identifying any variations in behavior between the Agni and Aditi grids.
Now, the upgraded inventory service is set to be deployed on the Agni grid this week.
The agent inventory service (AIS) handles all agent inventory operations in Second Life and has undergone framework and Python version upgrades to prepare for new feature work and to move clients off deprecated API versions.
Linden Lab has thoroughly tested the upgraded AIS on Aditi and is now ready to implement the improvements on the Agni grid, ensuring a better in-world experience for Second Life users.
Linden Lab has recently implemented changes to the Second Life Marketplace, improving the user experience by increasing the default search results to 96 pages.
This modification comes as a direct response to user feedback gathered through an informal poll, highlighting the desire for more streamlined browsing.
By expanding the number of pages displayed by default, users can now enjoy a more comprehensive overview of available items without the need for excessive page clicks, making it easier to find desired products and enhancing overall satisfaction with the platform.
The Second Life Marketplace Web Team has been working diligently on various projects and fixes, including a focused effort to clean up Marketplace listings.
Responding to user feedback about absentee store owners and older in-demand products, the team has undertaken a second cleanup sweep of the Marketplace.
Products will be unlisted if the Merchant hasn’t logged in for two years and the product hasn’t sold in a year. A similar scenario applies to stores.
However, products and stores with sales within the past year will remain active.
This initiative aims to provide a more relevant selection of products and search results, benefiting both shoppers and active Merchants on the Second Life Marketplace as it embraces the spirit of spring renewal.
The Destination Guide, Second Life’s premier directory for intriguing locations, has undergone a significant makeover.
Sporting a contemporary design and enhanced features since its first refresh in 2010, the revamped Guide allows for easier exploration of events and experiences.
A much-anticipated Search bar, Sort by options, and mobile-friendly browsing enhance the user experience, while the upcoming Mobile Viewer promises even greater convenience.
Additionally, logged-in users can now share Destinations on their blogs and view them on the overall Second Life Map.
Future improvements include real-time population counts and better access to the complete Destination Guide within the Second Life Viewer.
Evolving from its humble beginnings in 2005 as a Developer Showcase section, the Guide has expanded over the years to include nearly 50 categories and numerous sub-categories.
The 16th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) Conference, which started on March 23rd at 8am PT, is a distributed, online event taking place across multiple virtual spaces, focusing on the application of immersive virtual environments, virtual reality, and augmented reality for educational purposes.
VWBPE strives to provide relevant educational and networking opportunities, promoting community-building, networking among educators and supporting communities, and showcasing current innovations, trends, case studies, and best practices.
The conference addresses the challenge of sustainably and accessibly utilizing immersive technologies within limited budgets for instructors and students, emphasizing free or open-source platforms and sharing methods and research on best practices.
Second Life will serve as the primary conference venue, but participants are encouraged to submit proposals and immersive experience tours involving any virtual or augmented reality technology for education.
VWBPE 2023’s theme, “Uncommon Realities,” explores diverse perspectives on problem-solving, skill application, prototyping solutions, and interpreting results, aiming to inspire collaboration, storytelling, and embracing differences.
Attendance is free, with sponsorship and donations covering conference costs.
Following discussions at the March 21st Simulator User Group, Signal Linden has confirmed the shutdown of LSL XML-RPC functionality, which has been deprecated since HTTP-In’s introduction in 2009.
Due to the minimal usage of LSL XML-RPC, with only a few dozen requests per hour, Linden Lab will instead focus on developing new features.
Users and creators relying on XML-RPC are advised to migrate to the more secure HTTP-In.
To ensure a smooth transition, unannounced circuit-breaker exercises will be conducted in April and May 2023, temporarily blocking incoming LSL XML-RPC traffic.
This will allow residents and Lindens to make necessary adjustments before the permanent shutdown on June 1st, 2023.
For more information, refer to Signal’s blog post, and direct any questions or concerns to the weekly Simulator User Group meetings, held every Tuesday at 12:00 noon SLT at Simon Linden’s meeting place.
This has been ATG Grid News.
Enjoy the grid!
