Category Archives: NEWS

Linden Lab Plans SL Improvements

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In a recent article in the Second Life blog, Linden Labs announces upcoming planned improvements to the Second Life platform. As promised in a recent video interview given after Linden Lab dropped the bombshell that a new virtual world was being developed, Linden Lab continues to dedicate resources to improving the current Second Life platform.

From a long list of improvements and enhancements that LL plans to bring to Second Life, they weighed priorities and scoped out a list of important projects for the next few months. They shared a few highlights from the list of projects LL will be working on so that residents are aware of what improvements to expect in the coming months. This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, but here are a few of the initiatives LL thinks will have a big impact on improving all of our Second Life experiences.

One of those developments and improvements is Experience Keys, that I blogged about earlier.

Linden Lab posted this about Experience Keys:

Releasing Experience Keys
We recently put out a call for creators to join a limited beta for Experience Keys – new LSL functions and calls that make it possible to bypass the multiple permissions dialogs that you encounter with scripted objects today. Thanks to the applications we received, we now have enough creators to move ahead with the beta, and we’ve begun giving these beta users access the keys. The feedback we get from beta participants will help determine our next steps for making Experience Keys available to everyone, and we may start by expanding the beta group with a second group of creators.

In the meantime, though, everyone can get a sense for what’s possible with Experience Keys by downloading the Project Viewer and checking out The Cornfield game.

Improving Group Chat Performance

One of the most frustrating experiences in SL is group chat. As most of you know, group chat is notoriously laggy, resulting in either serious chat lag that makes a connected conversation impossible, or the fact that group chat just flat out refuses to open at all. I know that when I do large weddings, it is extremely helpful in trying to organize everyone that we all get into a group chat, and nine times out of ten, it just doesn’t work. It is incredibly frustrating.

Linden Lab states: “We’re carefully monitoring the effects of the changes we make to improve group chat performance, and so far, the results of efforts like upgrading the servers that host chat have been positive. We anticipate that the work to improve group chat performance will continue for some time as we identify the underlying causes of the issues, experiment with different fixes, and analyze results.”

Implementing the Chrome Embedded Framework

Linden Lab is working to upgrade the component of the viewer that is responsible for rendering web content, including the viewer splash screen (displayed before login), the content of a number of floaters, and inworld media-on-a-prim. This is important because it will fix a number of bugs (especially related to streaming media) that currently affect many Second Life users, and it will also make available many modern web features that aren’t possible with the current viewer.

Linden Lab states: “We’re making good progress on this initiative already, and expect to have an experimental Project Viewer ready for testing soon.”

More Texture and Mesh Loading Improvements

Building upon the performance enhancements made with Project Shining, LL is continuing to make improvements to how the viewer retrieves texture and mesh data from the servers. Linden Lab indiates that the next round of improvements will reduce the number of connections the viewer needs to get this data (making it easier on your router and network), while also using each connection to retrieve more data more quickly (for the technically inclined, this means that among other things we will add support for HTTP pipelining).

These improvements will mean that as you explore Second Life, objects will appear more quickly and reliably, especially for users who have longer latency connections (higher “ping times”), such as those who live outside the US.

Linden Lab states: “We have begun doing small scale testing with a selected group of users, and the early results have been great from a performance point of view. Unfortunately, we’ve also encountered a bug that we need to tackle before we can move on to releasing a project Viewer. We’re eager to move ahead as quickly as we can, and will … announce that project Viewer as soon as it’s available.”

Again, these certainly aren’t the only things LL is working on as they continue to improve Second Life, but they’re among their priority initiatives in the coming months.

It is certainly good to know that Linden Lab is clearly putting time and effort into the Second Life platform. Stay tuned here, as I will report changes and improvements as quickly as Linden Lab publishes them. Meanwhile, visit The Cornfield and check out the benefit of the Experience Keys improvements. I haven’t had time to visit it yet, but I plan to this weekend. My only concern is getting chased by someone with a chain saw! Horror flicks are not my thing!!

Have a wonderful weekend, and don’t forget to click over and check out our available land! This is a great weekend to stay indoors, keep cool and shop for your upgrade or new home today!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers
ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager

Skill Gaming Regions in SL

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New regulations are afoot for skill gaming in Second Life. According to the new blog post, Linden Lab is revising its gaming policy. Gambling has always been, and will continue to be strictly prohibited by the TOS (Terms Of Service). Gambling is considered to be operating, or participating in, a game of chance that provides a Linden Dollar payout. However, there are many jurisdictions in SL where games of skill are legally permitted, and result in a payout of Linden Dollars. The difference being one is a game of chance (gambling) and a game of skill (winning Lindens for achievements).

Since the games of skill are becoming increasingly popular, Linden Lab has decided to update it’s TOS. Skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will still be allowed; however the new TOS dictate that these games will be limited to a specific Skill Gaming Regions only. Beginning August 1, 2014, this new region designation will be available for those SL residents wishing to convert their regions to Skill Gaming Regions.

Second Life residents who wish to convert their regions to Skill Gaming Regions can do so by contacting Linden Lab in accordance with Linden Lab’s Land Policy. Linden Lab states that “Due to the additional administrative and compliance-related costs associated with these regions, the monthly maintenance fees will be greater than those for regular regions in Second Life. We will include Skill Gaming Regions as a new category in our Destination Guide (unless the owner requests its removal). As a resident, you will be able to check the setting of each region to verify that it has been recognized by Linden Lab for the placement, operation, and use of approved Skill Games.”

Those wishing to become approved operators can apply now. Due to processing and compliance-related costs associated with maintaining this program, there is a one-time nonrefundable application fee as well as a quarterly license fee (waived through December 31, 2014, upon approval of an application) for those designated as approved operators. Linden Lab will maintain a public wiki page of operators.

Creators of skill games can apply to become an approved creator and to have their games approved beginning immediately. Due to processing and compliance-related costs associated with maintaining this program, there is a one-time nonrefundable application fee as well as a quarterly license fee (waived through December 31, 2014, upon approval of an application) for those designated as approved creators. Linden Lab will maintain a public wiki page of approved creators and their approved games of skill.

Residents need to meet relevant age requirements in order to access these new regions. If you are not eligible, you will receive an error message. However, you are responsible for knowing which jurisdictions are prohibited and the requisite ages of participation and not attempting to access a Skill Gaming Region if you do not qualify. Attempts to circumvent the controls will constitute a violation of the Skill Gaming Policy and Terms of Service.

The details of the revised policy can be found here, and this is a summary of how it will work:

• Skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Skill Gaming Regions only.

• Only operators approved by Linden Lab will be allowed to run skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts on Skill Gaming Regions.

• Creators of skill games that wish to make them available in Second Life may do so only through Skill Gaming Regions and only after the games have been approved by Linden Lab.

• Access to Skill Gaming Regions will be restricted to Second Life users who are of sufficient age and are located in a jurisdiction that Linden Lab permits for this kind of online gaming activity.

In summary, skill games that offer Linden Dollar payouts will be allowed in Second Life, but each game, its creator, its operator, and the region on which it is operated must be approved by Linden Lab.

These changes are effective as of August 1, 2014, and applications for approved creators and approved operators are now being accepted at Echosign.

If you live in a jurisdiction where gaming is permitted and you plan on playing these games in Skill Gaming Regions in Second Life, you should not need to do anything differently. However, adding payment information on file now is a good way to ensure you’re able to play as soon as Skill Gaming Regions are live.

Linden Lab has created an FAQ page to address what are likely to be the most common questions at this point. They plan to update that as needed and will keep an eye on the forums and other community discussion channels so that LL can help clarify anything that might seem confusing as this update goes into effect.

Basically you need to comply with the age requirement, have payment on file in order to play the games, and ensure that the region and the games you are playing are authorized by Linden Lab.

ZoHa Islands has a strict policy against third party sims. We will not be applying for any of our sims to be authorized Skill Gamging sims because of the tight regulations, increased costs and there are many legal reasons that come into play. Thus if you currently are using any of ZoHa Islands land for skill gaming, they will have to be removed no later than August 1, 2014. Please see ZoHa Island management for further clarification.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers
ZoHa Islands Social Media manager

Content Creators Wanted: Experience Keys Beta

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Linden Lab is looking for creators to beta test a new way of interacting with items in Second LIfe without having to constantly give permissions.

The Tools and Technology blog posted about this early in July, so if you’re a creator and you want to get in on the beta testing of Experience Keys, sign up right away!

This is taken directly from the Tools and Technology Blog:

“We’re ready to start a limited beta test of an exciting new tool for creators: Experience Keys. These are new LSL functions and calls that make it possible to bypass the multiple permissions dialogs that you encounter with scripted objects today. Experience Keys will make it possible for users to create more immersive experiences inworld, because those interacting with the experience will be able to grant all the permissions necessary to participate just once, instead of having the experience interrupted by multiple permissions requests. To learn more, check out this brief video.

(Ed. note: I always enjoy Torley vids!)

“We used this technology when creating the Linden Realms game, and we’re now ready to start putting this tool in the talented hands of creators in the Second Life community. Experience Keys is a powerful tool, and we need to be sure we test and roll out the feature carefully, so the first step will be a limited beta, then the viewer and server releases shortly after.

“If you’d like to participate, send an email to slexp_beta@lindenlab.com with “Experience Key Beta” as the subject along with:

• Your experience name.

• What genre does it fit in?

• Give us a brief description of your experience.

• How would your customers benefit from Experience Keys?”

From the end user perspective, it looks like a fabulous way to improve user experiences without all the clicking, but also has the potential to be harmful if someone uses those permissions to do evil things. I hope that our awesome content creators use this opportunity to make Experience Keys into an amazing tool!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers
ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager

A Brave New World!

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“I feel like we’re in a very good place,” Altberg says. “We are the most experienced when it comes to this stuff. We’re bullish; we’re investing; and all the things that are happening around us with Oculus and the market getting excited about these things again [are] great for us. It’ll make it easier for us to attract talent.”

Now that the big news has broken, and some of the hubbub has died down a bit, more information is beginning to be leaked about the new virtual world platform that Linden Labs is developing.

Based on the information in the interview with Oz Linden and Pete Linden last week, Second Life is not going away. Indeed, Linden Labs is working on a new virtual world, but it will be a additional virtual world focused more on virtual reality, not a replacement to Second Life. They reassured anxious residents that Linden Labs is still putting time and effort into the continued development of Second Life, and that even though the team working on SL is smaller, it is no less focused on fixing what isn’t working and developing and improving the current platform.

According to an article appearing on the website Engadget, the new platform will be more focused on virtual reality in a social networking platform. Basically, this new platform will be Second Life on steroids.

According to the article on Engadget, Linden Labs’s CEO Ebbe Altberg’s vision for this new platform includes making it compatible with just about every device its users could possibly own. “How do people interact with the world from their phone, from their pad, from their PC and from their Oculus? All of that we’re solving from the ground up with this new code base,” Altberg says. “Multi-device from day one.”

Engadget states: “Altberg wants this new platform to be a virtual world that embodies everything Linden Lab got right with Second life, but bigger and more accessible. He also thinks of it as a development platform for new games and virtual reality experiences.”

” ‘It’s a platform,’ Altberg says. ‘In some ways, you could compare it to Unity.’ Altberg wants developers to see both Second Life and its eventual successor as game engines they can build their content on. He tries to paint…a picture: ‘I’m going to build an experience that has virtual capabilities,’ he states. ‘Do I use Second Life? Do I use Unity? Do I use Unreal Engine? Well, if you want to use those [latter two], your technical ability needs to be a lot higher and you have to have a team. In Second Life, you just come in and start building.’ If Linden Lab’s follow-up to Second Life has a good Oculus Rift implementation, he explains, then every experience on that platform can be an Oculus experience. ‘So, the bar of entry for anyone to be able to create an Oculus experience … it’s almost like we have the lowest bar possible,’ he says.” Reference: Engadget

The Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset has been forefront in the news lately, and indeed Second Life has already developed a beta viewer that will accommodate the VR headset. However, users often experience simulator sickness (a form of motion sickness) while using it, which can leave users feeling nauseous, disoriented and uncomfortable. An entire publication on VR Best Practices has been published, and in it are some guidelines for minimum framerates, graphics aliasing and response times, but most of it focuses on creating an experience that feels natural to the user.

“Seemingly simple things, like a player’s walking speed or limitations in camera control, can have a major impact on how uncomfortable a player can feel in a virtual space. The user’s awareness of their own presence in VR is also pretty important. ‘Looking down and having no body is disconcerting,’ the document reads. ‘A full character avatar can do a lot to ground the user in the virtual environment.’ The guide has health warnings too, suggesting that users take 10 to 15 minute breaks for every hour spent in the Oculus Rift and declaring its 3D technology potentially unsafe for children.[credit: Oculus’ Best Practices Explained]

Clearly, Ebbe Alberg’s vision for this new VR world includes attracting as many users as possible — he was talking about Facebook-type numbers — and yet not “dumbing down” the experience and keeping it complex enough so that developers will emigrate away from traditional game-development platforms like Unity and Unreal Engine. He wants the complexity to attract high-end game developers and the gamers that play them, yet make it user friendly enough to attract huge numbers of end users. A bit of hyperbole, perhaps? Since the development of this new platform is in its infancy, it remains to be seen.

At this time, Linden Labs’ stance is that the new virtual reality platform is not going to eclipse Second Life; but rather will be another bright star in the galaxy of Linden Labs’ universe.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers
ZI Social Media Manager

Interview with Linden Labs: Keep Calm and Carry On!

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I was unable to attend the live interview that Jessica Lyon held with Linden Lab staffers Oz Linden and Pete Linden this morning, but the video of their interview has already been released. I was excited to listen to what they had to say.

Jessica’s opening salvo was awesome. She doesn’t pull any punches, opening with the question of the day, which she directed to Pete Linden, Linden Labs’ Director of Communications:

Jessica asks: “Does Linden Lab have plans, either near or far, to shut down Second Life? Has Linden Labs discussed, planned, strategized on how they are going to shut down Second Life? Or even if there is any intention of shutting down Second Life? Does Linden Labs intend to shut down Second Life?”

Pete resounded with a resounding, “No! Absolutely not.”

Pete went on to say that there are plans to continue to improve it, there is not any plan to shut it down, that it is not going away. There are plans to continue to make Second Life better and better.

Jessica made a point of pointing out that Pete’s credibility is on the line as Communications Director, and that he would basically be committing career suicide if he was prevaricating.  It is fair to say that Pete is not lying. He reassured everyone that he understands this, and that he is not being deceptive.

Pete’s message to the community is that Oz and he wanted to come this morning to reiterate what Linden Labs been trying to put out there in emails and in the forums that not only is SL not going away, but they have big plans to continue to improve it,  and that it has a long life ahead of it. There is no intention of ending this amazing platform. What it boils down to, he said, is this: “It is not going away. More improvements are coming.”

You can listen to the interview in its entirety here:

Keep Calm and Carry On! is the message that Linden Labs is giving us. Second Life will continue to exist and improve.

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers

Social Media Manager

The Future of Second Life

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On Wednesday, July 2, 2014 at 7:00 a.m. SLT, Jessica Lyon, project developer for Firestorm Viewer, is hosting a Q&A session with Oz Linden, Technical Director of Second Life, and possibly Pete Linden, Director of Communications at Second Life.

The topic to be discussed at this session is strictly the future of the current Second Life platform. At no time will they be discussing the new “Second Life 2” platform. This discussion is strictly about Second Life, it’s future and the direction that Linden Labs is planning for this platform. There is plenty of time for discussion of the new platform another time.

If you cannot attend in world, the event will be recorded and posted on the Firestorm website, as well as transcribed and summarized by Inara Pey.

The event will also be livestreamed at http://www.livestream.com/metaworld2

If you wish to attend in-world, arrive early.  If you have questions you wish to have answered, please visit this post on the Firestorm Viewer website and drop a comment. Please keep your questions to the topic of the current Second Life platform and not the new platform.

The slurl to attend in-world is here: 

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers

ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager