Category Archives: EVENTS

The Spookiest Time of the Year is Almost Here!

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Entry posted by Linden Lab in Events

 
 

Second Life is ready to celebrate with Haunted Halloween Events! Halloween is all over the grid, with plenty of activities to enjoy. Here’s what you can look forward to:

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Spooktacular Shopping Deals: The Shop & Hop event features hundreds of merchants offering incredible discounts on their best items. Expect to find everything from eerie outfits and creepy costumes to haunted home decor and spooky accessories. Many merchants will be offering at least 20% off their items, so it’s the perfect time to stock up on all your Halloween essentials.

Gifts: One of the highlights of Shop & Hop is the gifts available at each store. These gifts are free for all shoppers. Make sure to visit every participating merchant to collect your goodies and discover unique items.

Halloween-Themed Last Names: To add to the Halloween fun, Second Life is introducing new Halloween-themed last names! These special last names will be available for a limited time, allowing you to embrace the spooky season with a fitting moniker. Whether you choose something eerie like “Macabre” or playful like “Boo,” these names are sure to add a festive touch to your avatar.

Premium Member Perks: If you’re a Second Life Premium member, you’re in for some extra treats! Premium members can claim exclusive virtual gifts at various inworld kiosks. These gifts are designed to enhance your Halloween experience and add a touch of luxury to your virtual life. Not a Premium member yet? Now might be the perfect time to upgrade and enjoy these special perks.

Annual Trick or Treat Event in Bellisseria: Creep or crawl over to Bellisseria this Halloween season to snag some candy and win prizes! This is an interactive event open to everyone where Residents living in Bellisseria can host Candy Buckets on their parcels. You don’t want to miss the paranormal partygoers and creative costumes throughout Bellisseria during this virtual Trick-or-Treat. Plus, there are prizes to be won for all who participate! The event starts on October 1st! Participants who rez out a candy bucket will get 5 extra bonus candies per day starting on October 1st. Starting next week , you can get your Candy bucket in the Millbank region to set up for the event.

Swaginator Hunt: Join the Swaginator Hunt starting on October 8th to find hidden items and collect exclusive prizes. Look out for clues and hints to guide you through the hunt.

Get Ready for Second Life’s Halloween in 2024!

  • Event Dates: October 1st – November 3rd
  • Shop & Hop: October 4th – November 3rd
  • Annual Trick or Treat Event in Bellisseria: Starts October 1st
  • Swaginator Hunt: Starts October 8th

How to Join the Fun

  • Mark Your Calendar: October 1st – November 3rd.
  • Explore the Shop & Hop: Visit multiple shop and hop regions to discover deals and gifts.
  • Change Your Last Name: Embrace the spooky season with a new Halloween-themed last name.
  • And many more things to do in Second Life during the Halloween period! 

More information will be posted on October 1st.

Get ready to immerse yourself in the Halloween spirit and enjoy all the thrills and chills that Second Life has to offer. Happy shopping and haunting! 🎃👻

Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands

Google Introduces New Target API

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Level Requirements For Google Play Apps & Linden Lab Responds

Daniel Voyager

 

As of 31st August 2024 Google has introduced new Target API level requirements for Google Play apps. Basically the new requirements say that “New apps and app updates must target Android 14 (API level 34) to be submitted to Google Play (except for Wear OS and Android TV apps, which must target Android 13 or higher)“.

“Existing apps must target Android 13 (API level 33) or higher to remain available to new users on devices running Android OS higher than your app’s target API level. Apps that target Android 12 (API level 31) or lower ( Android 10 or lower for Wear OS and Android 11 or lower for TV OS), will only be available on devices running Android OS that are the same or lower than your apps’ target API level.“

For anyone requesting extensions then you should read this below…

“You will be able to request an extension to November 1, 2024 if you need more time to update your app. You’ll be able to access your app’s extension forms in Play Console later this year“.

Second Life Mobile Future – September 2024 Update

Linden Lab have responded to the new Target API Level Requirements For Google Play Apps by saying this on Friday 6th September 2024 via the Second Life Feedback Portal.

Grumpity Linden

“Good news and bad news. Let me start with the bad news: the specific language we are complying with is “New apps and app updates must target Android 14 (API level 34) to be submitted to Google Play (except for Wear OS and Android TV apps, which must target Android 13 or higher).“

 
 
 

It’s the “app updates” part that requires us to target Android 14+.

Now for the good news! We’re looking into distributing an APK that targets older Android versions from our download page – we will update the feedback portal with instructions once we sort that out.

Summary

I think these latest Google Play app changes are going to cause further problems and possible delays for the short term future of Second Life mobile on Android.

The lab will now need target new Second Life mobile app updates towards Android 14 (API level 34) to be submitted to Google Play for review etc. The lab will need to keep adjusting to upcoming new Android versions like Android 15 (late 2024) and Android 16 due to launch sometime in 2025.

For older Android versions the lab have now officially confirmed they are looking into distributing APKs that will target older Android versions from the download page. There is always risk downloading APKs for any app and it might not feel safe doing this for alot of mobile users.

The lab are due to launch Second Life mobile to the public (free for everyone) soon so it will be interesting to see how these new API changes impact those using older Android versions.

Earlier this year the lab had problems with IOS mobile users trying to access adult regions etc. The lab are still looking at this issue.

The lab will be giving out instructions and updates very soon to address this major change.

Have a great week from all of us at Zoha Islands/ Fruit Islands

New Second Life Homepage Rolls Out

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By  Daniel Voyager

Recently Linden Lab have rolled out a newish Second Life homepage with the new section called important news from the Second Life team at the top middle of the homepage.

There is a lot of mixed feedback already about the new look especially the places animation section up the top. The Second Life website has revamped many times over the years. Some like the homepage to be static and others prefer some animation/videos on it.

I personally think the Second Life homepage should be like the Firestorm viewer login page showing popular places from the Second Life destination guide with current/upcoming events and news. Improvements need to be made for sure and I think the lab will probably change the homepage again soon.

I liked it when the lab used to display the latest Second Life statistics box showing total signups, online active users + logged in past 60 days, US$ spent and the current SLT time.

Once the Second Life Mobile app gets released to everyone later in 2024 or early 2025 then the lab could launch a new Second Life mobile sign-up experience which would be nice.

New Look – August 2024

Old Look – April 2021

A long time ago back in late 2006.

Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands/Fruit Islands/Nocturne

News from the Second Life Team — Summer 2024 Edition

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This Summer has had some highs and lows. SL21B was a great success – the exhibitions, the events & performances, the town halls and the beta launch of Second Life mobile app – we enjoyed celebrating with all of you! But the rollout of PBR has been rocky and we know that it’s caused a lot of frustration. If you are having issues such as lag or texture loading with the latest release, please see this blog post for details on what happened and what you can do for better performance.

Now let’s catch you all up on recent product developments! Continue reading for mobile updates, server changes, news for creators and Viewer releases.

📱 Mobile Update

Our Second Life mobile app – in Beta for Premium and Premium Plus users since SL21B – received a bunch of updates last week including the following bug fixes + improvements:

  • Fixes to the client against bad extended material data
  • Reduced sensitivity of v-stick resulting in improved control of avatar movement
  • Support for new voice chat functions 
  • Lighting falloff calculation is improved 
  • Groups: Fix so Groups identifies correct members
  • New Memory Allocators: iOS and Android: We’ll now use the OS memory reports to hint our memory allocations in real-time, allowing us to load a bit more content before we run out of RAM.
  • Fixes resizing the app on Android folding devices (e.g. Samsung Z-Fold)
  • Prevents several issues relating to executing UI operations on the wrong thread
  • Water no longer appears in weird places after you teleport
  • More fixes for BOM-using avatars where textures would not load

And UI Changes:

  • Wear or remove a group tag
  • UI to show (or hide) group titles
  • Fix to not include self in nearby count
  • L$ balance (in developer settings)
  • Modal dialog updates
  • Simplified loading animation for Destination Guide

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Please give WebRTC Voice on mobile a try! Enable via menu > Settings > Developer tools > Voice 

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and visit one of the following WebRTC Voice regions:

And never miss a message from friends (or non-friends!) while offline when you enable Notifications!

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🌐 Server Changes

Some important fixes and features have made their way across the grid in the last several months. 

We fixed the hovering-on-login issue. Your floating avatar landed as soon as you moved, but we’re still very happy that this fix landed! 

We also shipped support for 2k textures which allows artists to add much more detail to their creations. 

We made several under the hood changes to support upcoming Lua scripting and fixed a bug with region restart scheduling. 

And this week, the grid also welcomed a bunch of changes in support of Combat 2.0 – read more below – and we shipped support for gamepad input to LSL scripts.

Lua Scripting

We are working on Lua scripting for compatibility with LSL, there is a lot to be said here, so perhaps it’s better to link you directly to the Lua FAQ.

🪀 Creator news

💣 Combat 2.0

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Combat 2.0 is here with the Tuesday 8/20/2024 update to Second Life Server

  • New LSL functions and region settings to support building flexible combat systems using the built in damage system.
    • Damage adjustment for armor and healing. 
    • Damage types, allow for vulnerabilities and resistances. 
    • System supported combat logs for leader board support.
    • Region settings allow control of death teleports and damage throttles. 
  • More in depth information in the wiki https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Category:LSL_Combat2
  • Find cool combat destinations in our new Combat category in the Destination Guide

Coming soon:

💻 Viewers

🗺️Atlasaurus

In addition to several performance fixes for Macs, VRAM budgeting and improved memory handling for all, Atlasaurus includes support for taking large groups of items back into inventory as individual objects, instead of a coalesced bundle of items, leaving you wondering if your favorite chair is really in there with the rest of your living room set. There is also a new Max Nearby Lights slider in Advanced Graphics Settings, for when things seem too bright. Plus a sneak peek at GLTF model imports which allows you a local, preview-only version, of what an imported model will look like. Plus all of WebRTC merged in! More below.

🗣️WebRTC Voice Viewer

We are very excited at this opportunity to update the voice experience for all Second Life residents! In fact it’s worthy of its own blog post. 

🧰Maintenance Viewers

DeltaFPS will be the next Release Candidate (RC) which will contain many more performance improvements focusing on bringing frame rates up to and if not better than, where they were before. With the move to GitHub we are also trying a new development method called GitFlow. This will mean fewer parallel Release Candidates (RCs) and more frequent, smaller feature releases with only one active RC at a time. For this reason both Maintenance B and C, which were published and had several thousand user hours each, were closed and merged into the develop branch. All those users were offered an upgrade to Atlasaurus already.

Default Viewer

Materials Featurettes

This viewer was promoted to default release in June and contains support for Mirrors, PBR Terrain and 2k textures. We are excited about supporting these features and improving the visual quality of content in Second Life. Now it’s time to focus on those performance issues though.

 

Have a Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands / Fruit Islands

Halloween Shop & Hop Event 2024

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Applications Now Open!

Linden Lab

Entry posted by Linden Lab in Shop & Hop

 
 

HalloweenShopHop2024.jpg

The Halloween season is fast approaching and our annual multi-region inworld shopping event is coming back. If you are a Content Creator, this is your chance to spook up some sales and reach a large audience with your creepiest and coolest creations!

The 2024 Halloween Shop & Hop will open on October 4th and will run through November 3rd. This is your opportunity to bring a ton of new customers to your brand, by offering some of your best items. We are looking for Merchants willing to offer a discount on their items (at least 20% off) and provide a new non-exclusive gift to shoppers.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please fill out this form as soon as possible and no later than Sunday, August 25, 2024. We will contact you soon after that date if your application is accepted.

Have A Great Week From All Of Us At Zoha Islands Fruit Islands

Second Life Community Exhibition – August 2024 Expansion

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In our ongoing effort to connect newcomers to Second Life with some of the most vibrant and active communities within our virtual world, we initiated the Second Life Community Exhibition (SLCE) on January 30th, 2024. Following the enthusiastic reception of the initial exhibits, we’re excited to announce the latest expansion.

Phase III Expansion – August 2024

As we enter Phase III on August 15th, we’re not only introducing new exhibits but also enhancing a few from earlier phases with larger parcels to enrich the visitor experience. Here’s what’s new and upgraded in this phase:

  • Virtual Worlds Education Consortium (VWEC)
  • Premier Wrestling
  • American Cancer Society
  • Cycling Federation
  • Baunatal
  • Blender School
  • Jeogot Warship
  • Happy Hippo
  • Echo Group
  • Rosehaven Estate
  • Sea of Fables
  • Circle Mental Health

These additions join our thriving communities from previous phases:

Phase I – January 2024

  • Bay City
  • Nonprofit Commons Oasis
  • Virtual Ability
  • BURN2
  • Boystown
  • Caledon
  • Furzona
  • LWN – Second Norway
  • Drivers of SL
  • Confederation of Democratic Simulators
  • Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy

Phase II – May 2024

  • Baunatal German Community
  • Islands of New England
  • The Nature Collective
  • FOCUS Art Magazine and Galleries
  • The Teegle Equestrian Community
  • Leeward Cruising Club
  • The Lighthouse: Support & Meetings
  • Premier Wrestling (expanded in Phase III)
  • Virtual Worlds Education Consortium (expanded in Phase III)
  • American Cancer Society (expanded in Phase III)

Each of these phases has built upon the last, broadening the scope and depth of what Second Life has to offer. These communities not only enhance the variety within our exhibition but also foster a supportive and engaging environment for all Residents.

We invite you to explore these dynamic communities and connect with the unique cultures and initiatives each exhibit brings to Second Life.

Looking Ahead

Our commitment to expanding the SLCE is ongoing. We plan to continuously cycle in new communities to keep our exhibition fresh and engaging. If you are interested in being considered, please fill out the application form.