Update: the issues described blow have also been noted on Nvidia drivers 512.95 and 515.48. If you encounter similar issues please check for driver version (go to Help → About in the viewer and then look for the line “OpenGL Version: X.X.X NVIDIA YYY.YY”, where Nvidia YYY.YY is your installed driver); if you note a different driver to 51.6.40, please consider adding a note to the two official Jira linked to below, and in a comment on Beq’s NvidIa forum report, so other can see potentially affected drivers. Thanks.
It is being reported that the latest Nvidia driver version 516.40, issued on June 15th, 2022, is causing issues for Second Life Users running either Windows or Linux who have updated to use it. As a result, the general advice is not to update to this driver for the time being.
In summary:
The issues are apparent when running the viewer with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled.
They can cause objects to flash or blink in and out, or can display rings or lines across in-world objects (as shown in the image below).
Image showing some of the artefacts created during scene rendering following an update to the Nivida 516.40 driver. Image courtesy of ermanart / BUG-232264
The following bug reports provide further information on the problems reported thus far:
For those who have updated to driver 516.40, two courses of action are currently available to try to correct:
Minimum: disable ALM (Preferences → Graphics → uncheck Advanced Lighting Model. Note that this may not work when under Linden Water in Second Life, per BUG-232268 (above).
Recommended: revert to an earlier driver version or use the Nvidia Studio Drivers instead.
Again, please note that the issues are driver-related, and so not something either Linden Lab nor TPVs can address themselves.
Have a Great Week From all of us at Zoha Island and Fruit Islands
This week we are shining a spotlight on Sam King-Slain (Dropyour.Knickers), a skilled singer, songwriter, and musician who credits Second Life for assisting his journey in self-discovery. Watch him play live at SL19B later this month!
How long have you been in Second Life and how did you first hear about it?
I’m 11 years old in Second Life which makes me about 250 in SLife experience. I heard about it after me and one of my childhood friends were playing the Sims. I think we googled ‘virtual world’ and it was the first one that popped up.
You are an award-winning musician with quite the talent for songwriting. Second Life and the humorous and perhaps frustrating situations you encounter in this virtual world are the main topic of your songs. Tell us more about your music career and how it all began.
I’ve always been into writing songs, raps and poetry so it wasn’t totally out of character for me. But roughly 5 years ago, myself and a few close friends were hanging inworld at a recording studio and it just struck me how funny it would be to write something about Second Life. I remember saying brb and 20 minutes later I jumped on mic like ‘I gotta show you guys what I’ve done!’
That was the day I wrote my first song ‘TP Me‘ and the chorus was literally ‘tp me, tp me, I’ve got a platform in the sky’ and everyone had it stuck in their heads for weeks! I think we all knew we were onto something and I just knew I could write more so I went away and wrote ‘Relog‘, ‘Crosshairs‘ and ‘Prim Love‘ and with each song just came more laughter and enjoyment. It was those guys that said ‘Sam we have to do a concert’ and that was when we set up a little warehouse sky box and threw our first show – I felt like a true Second Life Pop star, with my name in lights and it was a hit!
My friends had made merch and set the stage up and we felt like we had really injected the fun back into Second Life. It ended up with us having a full sim with a Record Label Office and a venue and we started going around inworld to all our favorite spots asking if I could do a show. It was hard to get people to buy into the vision but I knew all I had to do was convince them to listen to one song and they got it.
Do you play any musical instruments and how do you compose the music for your songs?
I have played the guitar and saxophone from a young age in real life. My song writing process is usually quite simple. I’ll feel inspired, go away, and find a beat or play a tune on the guitar and then record and write simultaneously until it’s done. It’s very rare that I’ll step away and come back to a song. If I feel it then, I just have to write something in that exact moment and I have to finish it then and there.
What genre would you say your music falls in, and who are some of the musicians that have influenced your style?
I would say my genre is varied, like my music taste. Sometimes I rap, sometimes I’ll do an acoustic song or something on the piano, and sometimes I’ll do something people can dance to. Overall for Second Life, I like to keep my music light hearted, fun and relatable. Some musicians I look up to are J Cole – a lyrical genius, Drake, Bon Iver, Beyonce, Juice WRLD & Lil Peep. I’d say my acoustic music is heavily influenced by Ed Sheeran – gotta keep it in the UK!
One of your songs reveals how Second Life assisted in your journey of self-discovery. Can you share in what ways SL has impacted your life?
Second Life has saved my life in a lot of ways. I’m from a conservative quiet town on the South Coast of England and being myself was pretty much out of the question as a kid. I struggled with my gender identity and Second Life gave me a means to explore that. I met the love of my life (we’re back together now 10 years on!) and that taught me things about my sexuality. It’s funny because in a game where you can be literally anyone – it has given me confidence to be my true self. I have met so many wonderful people from all different walks of life and it has inspired an abundance of self reflection and growth. I’m proud of my gratitude towards Second Life and I never shy away to say how much I appreciate the game – it really is whatever you want it to be. To some it’s just a game but to me it’s the place I’ve expressed my most authentic creativity and made genuine, life long connections and friendships.
June is Pride month and in Second Life many members of the LGBTQ+ community find this to be a safe space to express themselves and feel empowered. You have been very active in Second Life raising awareness in the past, can you share more about that and if there are any activities or events that you’ll be taking part in during this coming month?
Last year I wrote a song “SL Pride” which sort of depicts why pride is so important to me and how Second Life has helped me along the way. I won’t go into much more detail than I did above because I’m much better at singing out my words than speaking them.
Last year I did two big Pride performances – Burrow & Co for SL Pride and Pride at Home run by Tink Hax. Both events were hugely successful and we raised a load of lindens for various LGBT charities with a variety of really talented people. This year I’m booked for two Pride shows so far – Pride at Home and one at a fairly new venue called Eleventh House.
Tell us about some of the other Residents in Second Life that inspire you and whose work you admire.
Someone who believed in me at the start of my SL music journey when no one did is DJ Gracie (Gracie Barbosa). Not only is she one of the most talented DJ’s on the grid, has come to every show of mine and performed along side me, she has also created The Little Tokyo Rooftop which is home to the Dream Team – a collaborative of creative artists who bring love and good vibes to the grid. Gracie is very humble about what she has created on SL, but the sim is free for all and she is always making rl donations and sending out school supplies to kids in Africa. Lil Tokyo Rooftop does a Bumpin’ Brunch event every Sunday and I’d really recommend dropping down! Check out Lil Tokyo Rooftop’s Facebook page.
Another collaborative that really deserve recognition is WWBH: We Will Be Heard – Founded by Daisatella Slain, Bars Simpson, November Justice, Pinky Banks, Roshambo Dench. It’s hard to put into words what these ladies have achieved in the last couple of years. It started in 2020 with their Black Lives Awareness Event, it was so successful and raised somewhere to a million plus lindens for charity. These guys do a whole month of events, rl speakers, parties, art exhibitions, open mics, museums and raise as much as possible for the chosen cause. Last year was WWBH: Girl Power – Bars Simpson put together one of the most jaw dropping interactive inworld museum experiences I have ever seen – our whole community was involved and it showcased beautifully the issues surrounding women’s rights. I was honoured to perform in the closing show. Their next project will be for Mental Health and I am so excited because this bunch pull it out the bag every single time, truly it blows me away and I’d love them to get some coverage for their next one – I think it’s something Second Life would be extremely proud of. You can still check out their first Black Lives Awareness website and the LinkTree to last year’s Girl Power where you can find their IG/FB and more.
I know I’ve talked for ages but I just have to give Tinkers a shout out! Tink Hax has done absolute wonders this year. He’s always raising loads of awareness to various LGBT charities, creates a beautifully colourful Pride sim for people to explore at Pride at Home and runs the Pride shop&hop. Tink created Love to Ukraine and I’ve never seen someone raise so much money in such a short timescale. They raised L$6209987 which ended up being £17,500 – an incredible amount of money which I’m sure helped so many people in such a crisis. What a guy! Check out the Pride at Home Facebook page.
Where can people see you perform or hear more of your music? Please share links to your sites, social media accounts, and destinations you regularly perform at.
I’ll be performing at Pride at Home at the end of this month, Saturday 25th June 6pm SLT. I have a good feeling about this one, hopefully see you all there!
Also just want to say although I’ve mainly stopped doing small occasions/parties, I’m always down for a good cause so I will happily come perform at your event if it’s going to charity!
And Linden Lab, if you ever want me to jump up on stage at one of your big Second Life events, just say the word and I promise I’ll keep it PG!
Well Sam, we heard you! Watch Sam perform live at SL19B later this month!
Sam has graciously recorded a PG version of his song, Relog, for us. Watch the music video on our YouTube channel.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about Sam’s many talents and enjoy his music as much as we do. We’ll see you at SL19B listening to his live performance!
Have a great week from all of us at Zoha Islands and Fruit Islands
Reader Rant: Other Companies Are Delivering on Meta’s Metaverse Vision More Than Meta Itself
Longtime reader Martin K. has a pretty excellent rant responding to Meta’s vision for the Metaverse from its global exec Nick Clegg. And while I might recommend taking some of it with some dashes of sodium, Martin hits pretty hard:
Maybe the most interesting aspects of that essay are the things that Meta is doing today but Nick Clegg is not talking about. For example, regarding “Economic opportunity — how we can give people more choice, and maintain a thriving digital economy.” The evolving metaverse crypto-scene is full of scams, fraud, rug-pulls, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, bubbles without any real value, etc. What is Meta doing to protect their users? They just introduced NFTs on Instagram this month.
Or regarding “Equity and inclusion — how we can make sure these technologies are designed inclusively and in a way that’s accessible.” Contrast this with all the people who are excluded from using Horizon Worlds today: To use Horizon Worlds, you need a Oculus Rift or Quest 2, but Meta still requires a Facebook account to use a Quest 2. In fact, they don’t sell the Quest 2 in Germany, because bundling products in this way is probably unlawful in Germany. Even Quest 1 users cannot use Horizon Worlds (unless they run the app on a PC). Users outside Canada and the U.S. must not use Horizon Worlds. Users below the age of 18 years must not use Horizon Worlds.
That’s not quite fair, you may think; for instance, Horizon is still in beta, right?
More from Martin:
Is it fair to complain about these limitations of a beta version? Horizon Worlds has been announced in 2019. At the age of 2 years and a bit, competitor Rec Room has been available on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, and PlayStationVR with a special COPPA-compliant “junior” mode for players under(!) the age of 13 years (and more platforms following soon after).
Or regarding “interoperability — the interconnections of standards, systems and applications that enable people to travel seamlessly between one part of the metaverse and another.” One form of interoperability of HTML is that you click a hyperlink and get to a website. In Horizon Worlds, you cannot set up a portal to another world without explicit permission by the owner of that world. It’s like you have to ask a website owner for permission to set a hyperlink to their website.
On Meta Quest, the most successful metaverse competitors for Horizon Worlds are VRChat and Rec Room. But Meta Quest users wouldn’t know about them when looking at Meta’s lists of “Most Popular Apps“, or “Games to Get You Started“. Their own app store does not properly inform their own users about the most popular apps on their own platform. That’s how far interoperability goes for Meta when it comes to interoperability with competitors.
As always: It’s actions, not words, that matter.
In fairness to Meta, Rec Room and VRChat do show up at the top in the Quest store, under Most Popular Games. (See above.) Meta seems to be going for a Netflix-style recommendation system that’s not necessarily nefarious. Then again, to Martin’s point, other companies are delivering on a version of Meta’s vision faster than Meta, while not introducing questionable NFTs. (VRChat recently made a Definite No statement against those.) And if Meta had a ranking chart of most used apps, it’s almost certain that VRChat and Rec Room would be up there in the top, and Meta’s own platform fairly far down below.
Thanks to Adeon for help snooping Meta’s recommendation system.
Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands
Watch: SeraCast’s Live Stream Showing Off New Items at The Outlet
In case you missed it last weeks live stream from the Seraphim sim during the holiday, here’s Del and Kess with much fun, snark, and surprises, not to mention a truly excellent flower umbrella. They’re showing off all the new available items, and roll out two ne brands: Stealthic and Dove & Pear.
On the Second Life team we are always talking about ways to improve the in-world experience. Often we hear from the Support team about problems with inventory loading times. We dug into this problem and discovered that many of you have inventories which may partially or never load, and even worse, can prevent you from logging in. We have identified a couple of ways the Support Team can fix the most common issues for you.
Starting Tuesday, June 21st, Support will implement a process to stabilize only those inventories affected. For the small group of Residents this affects, you may see a change to the organization of your inventory, but all your objects are still there. If you encounter any difficulty with your inventory, please reach out to our Support Team https://support.secondlife.com
Why it’s important to organize inventory
You can do your part to make your inventory load completely. Organizing your items into folders with fewer items at the same level can make a big difference:
Ease of use: Finding what you’re looking for when you want it
Saving money: Not buying something you already have because you can’t find it
Saves you time: Do you really want to scroll through thousands of folders looking for the outfit you bought last week? Or is it faster to go into your Clothing Folder? The Vehicles Folder?
Tips!
Start organizing your inventory early It’s a great idea to create a few top level folders which represent common things you buy such as Hair, Jewelry, Shoes, etc. Many people also organized clothing into categories.
Get rid of demos When buying a demo and trying it out, you know pretty fast if you like it — and usually if you do, you buy the non-demo version soon after. As a result, search for demos in my inventory and if you no longer need them, move them all in the trash.
Clean your trash out regularly And speaking of trash, it’s much easier to catch an accidental deletion when you’re only looking through a few dozen folders versus thousands of items.
Renaming Folders Did you just buy an exceptional item but the folder’s named in a way that it doesn’t identify what it is? Rename it. Think about naming an item “long lace dress with high neckline – Red”. Your own name for an item is more meaningful to me than “**~~XX BRANDNAME~~** Tiffany Red”
Clean out Lost and Found If things are returned to you or possibly detached, they may appear or get returned to your Lost and Found folder. Many times it’s going to appear as a Coalesced Object (a collection of different objects returned as one mass, shown with an orange box icon with a bite taken out of it).
Rezz these coalesced objects and take each item back into your inventory so you can find them again. Sandboxes are a great place to do this.
Don’t have a Lost And Found folder? That’s great! It means you don’t have anything in it!
Move things out of your Received Items Folder You can wear and use items directly from your Received Items section (at the bottom of your inventory window). But it’s not a good place to keep them long-term. Take a moment each time you receive an item to move it somewhere in your main inventory that makes sense to you.
Antivirus, Firewall and Security Applications While everyone should keep their home network and computers safe, sometimes overly cautious applications or settings may interfere with the communication between the Second Life Viewer and our Inventory servers. This could result in errors like “body part missing from database” and in these cases those assets may be permanently lost..
Too many friends It is possible to have “too many” friends. Check your Calling Cards folder and remove any duplicates.
New inventory error message “There was a problem loading your inventory. First, try logging out and logging in again. If you see this message again, contact Support to correct the problem.”
This error message is new in the Second Life Viewer and is shown to let you know that your inventory has problems.
The sooner you contact Support to resolve this problem, the better! Inventory problems may worsen over time if you keep trying to connect to Second Life before getting assistance from Support.
Please note — clearing the cache and relaunching Second Life will not resolve this specific, new problem that results in this warning message.
Note: We have reports that residents who have changed the “NoInventoryLibrary” debug setting to “True” will see this error message and not be able to load their inventory. That issue has been reported at BUG-231865. The quick workaround is to change that setting to False. If you have changed this setting and are still seeing the error message, you should contact support.
You may contact Support directly at https://support.secondlife.com/create-case. Choose “Submit a Case,” select Technical Question > Inventory Issue, and complete the rest of the form to get assistance. Our amazing Support team is aware of these issues and is on the lookout for these new cases.
Second Life University
Second Life’s Director of Product, Alexa Linden, will be on a Second Life University livestream tomorrow covering these inventory management tips, and more! Watch it live on May 19th at 11:30am PT on the Second Life YouTube channel. We will be monitoring the YouTube chat and answering your questions.
Highlights from the Second Life Destination Guide – 05/13/2022
By Strawberry Linden,
Destination Guide
Pictured: Zen at Astoria
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. If you’re struggling, know that you are not alone. I wanted to highlight some destinations that offer support within the Second Life community and a place to find your inner peace because everyone deserves the opportunity to reflect on their mental health in a safe and meaningful way.
Mental health issues are common and are not something that anyone should feel ashamed of. Impact offers incredible peer support by people who’ve already been through, or are going through, the same things as you. Whether you just want to listen in, get something off your chest, speak to a mentor, attend a group meeting or just play games with people who are ok with every part of you, Impact is a great place for you. If you need support, please join their group ‘Impact Mental Health’ or click on the boards located in the foyer of the main building and an available Mentor will contact you.
Nirvana Island is a sanctuary for your soul dedicated to well-being. All faiths and points of view are welcome. Diverse traditions and systems are harmoniously connected in this beautiful natural landscape full of treasures for mind, body, or spirit. There are daily group meetings and events. If you are in need of healing, solace, or sanctuary – you will find it here.
Braided Lives is a multi-platform initiative designed to bring people from all walks of life together to tell their stories and collaborate on the creation of a more equitable and sustainable future. The concept was born in response to the isolation, stress, anger, and frustration that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing racial tensions. For more info, visit braidedlives.com
Mindful Cove exists to provide both an entry point into Second Life, and an ongoing community region for newcomers and long-time residents alike, based on the core principle that SL can be an excellent place to engage in activities that support emotional and mental well-being.
Mindfulness can literally transform your entire world from the inside out and for the millions of mindfulness practitioners around the world, it’s doing just that! Come and discover the most incredible and wonderful surprise: everything you’ve been searching for ‘out there’ feelings of fulfillment, peace, and wholeness, have been within you all along. The Center for Mindfulness is a beautiful and calming place to come meditate and learn a few mindful tricks. Learn more at mindfulnessinsl.blogspot.com
SL Project Hope was created to empower and support survivors individually and collectively. They are committed to fostering hope, opportunity, peace, and empowerment for all those who are on a healing journey.
In the times we live in, we need to find our peace, come to know your inner power, become the wonderful person you have hidden in you and reach the spiritual level you always dreamed of. Connect with the universe, we are all one!
A beautiful quiet spot to relax, have some me-time, do some yoga or meditate. Enjoy the silence and create a moment for your inner self at this place, you deserve this!
(2).thumb.jpg.6459ece83856388d99d09ddc90be01ab.jpg?resize=545%2C708&ssl=1)
