One of the most popular technical requests for Second Life in recent months has been to extend 2K texture support to the Bakes on Mesh service, so it can be accessible for use directly on avatar clothing layers. During the Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting of September 10th, 2024, Pepper Linden indicated that an initial release of 2K Bakes on Mesh support could be forthcoming within the next week or so via the Beta grid – or Aditi, as it is called.

In an announcement posted of September 1th, 2024, Pepper confirmed that the capability is now available on Aditi for testing – and that accessing Aditi had now been simplified. To quote from the announcement:

Previously, residents were required to submit a support ticket to manually copy their accounts to Aditi. This process is now automated. Upon your first login attempt to the beta grid, your account will automatically sync, significantly simplifying access. Please be aware that the initial login may experience a brief delay as your account is copied over, but subsequent logins will proceed without delay.

And:

Inventory Synchronization

Each night, the beta grid will sync your inventory from Agni, provided you have logged into the beta grid within the past 24 hours. If you encounter issues where inventory items appear to be missing after synchronization, clearing your viewer’s cache should resolve the problem, as it may have cached your old inventory.

2K Bakes on Mesh Notes

In order to reduce the rendering impact in using 2K textures on system layers (skins, tattoo layers, clothing layers), there are limitations imposed on the system, whereby bakes will only be made at the highest resolution texture used in the avatar layers. So, for example:

• If all the layers are at 512×512 resolution, the resultant bake will be 512×512.
• If the majority of the layers are 512×512, but one is at 1024×1024, then the resultant bake will be 1024×1024, with the 512 textures up-scaled to 1024×1024.
• If the layers are all 1024×1024, the resultant bake will be 1024×1024.
• If the layers are predominantly 1024×1024, but one is 2048×2048, the result bake will be 2048×2048, with the 1024×1024 textures up-scaled to 2048×2048.

As Pepper revealed at the SUG meeting, the exception to this is eye textures: these are capped at a maximum resolution of 512×512, no matter what the resolution of the rest of the bake.

Issues and Feedback

Again to quote the official blog post:

We anticipate a temporary increase in system activity due to these enhancements. If you encounter any issues with these new enhancements, we highly recommend attending the Server User Group meetings held every Tuesday at 1 PM PST in the Denby region. Alternatively, you can submit a bug or feature request on feedback.secondlife.com. Your feedback is essential for refining and improving our services.

I’ll also continue to update this work through my SUG meeting summaries and, should the topic be raised at them, my Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting summaries.

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

Two of the things I love doing in Second Life are landscaping and building / kitbashing; I have in the past droned on about the commercially available houses I’ve purchased and then adapted for personal use (as well as some of my personal prim-based builds modelled after real and film structures). The former have been written in the hope of encouraging others to give kitbashing ago (with a couple of additional articles being written to help with this; however, regulars have probably noticed that over the last year-ish, I’ve not said much on the home front.

Well, buckle-up (or run away!), because here I go again 😀 .

The major reason for not writing is because in Marcthur Goosson’s NO Cottage Bizar, I found what  – for me – has been the perfect design from which to create an ideal home. I did provide a articles about a couple of my projects to adapt it for use as both a house and also to contain a swimming pool; but since those first went out, I’ve continued to refine and improve upon ideas, creating What I like to think of as a cosy home – I’ve just not wanted to bore people by banging on about all the updates and changes!

Some of this work has included a move to a larger island within Second Norway, which has allowed me to play with ideas for extended gardens and yet more ruins, making further use of Marcthur’s ruined Wall kits (all five of which can be purchased as a single full perm pack as well as individual Copy / Mod items – see his Marketplace store for more). Whilst this hasn’t been written about, some of the on-going work has appeared in my Primfeed gallery.

With the latter, I’ll freely admit to being inspired to play around with designs using Marcthur’s kits thanks to Lilly Blackwood and her SL and RL partner William Winchester, who have used seveal of the wall kits to great effect within their Winchester Harbor region design which I visited in August 2024, and their work did more than a little to prompt me to look at my own use a little more creatively –  so thank you, Lily and William for the inspiration!

The thing I like about the NO Cottage is the fact it so easily lends itself to so much in the way of kitbashing: internal walls and stairways can easily be removed to open-out interior spaces; new internal walls can be linked into the design; the external courtyard is easily converted into an additional room, if required – it is just and absolute joy to work with and tweak. However, throughout all the recent work, an itch I’ve suffered on-and-off for a fair number of years now decided to make itself felt again.

As a Premium account holder, I’ve often availed myself of the Linden Homes perk provided to such account by LL. I’ve both reviewed themes as they’ve been released and I’ve shared ideas on how to customise them to offer more unique and personal interiors (notably with the Houseboat theme, which has long been my favourite). However, I’ve never really lived in any of the modern Linden Homes for any real length of time; rather, I’ve simply furnished them and then used them as a bolt-hole into which I could dive in order to avoid the Ravenous Restart Beast of Agni. Yet I’ve often wondered how I might somehow more comfortably link island home and Linden Home in a way that lets me make more use of both.

Although it took a while to register (because I’m not exactly the fastest train on the tracks), the answer has been staring me in a face for about as long as I’ve been going through my on / off phases in thinking about the issue. In short: why not simply extend the local experience I have on the home island for various purposes (such as maintaining privacy from folk randomly teleporting in), and use it to include the Linden Home in a manner that makes passing between the two feel as natural as possible?

One of the key benefits in finding a means of linking the Linden Home with the island home as seamlessly as possible meant I could potentially remove the (much loved) No Cottage Bizar conversion and extend the ruins and gardens to present a place of quiet retreat, with my Linden Home becoming the “house” for this setting. Admittedly, this did mean moving out of my Linden Houseboat (as it just didn’t sit well with the rst of my ideas), but this was offset by that fact that the Linden Home theme best suited to matching the rest of my design ideas was that of the Log Homes – and these happen to be a style I’ve always liked but never actually held; this therefore seemed to be the perfect opportunity to try them on for size.

So, for the last couple of weeks, and using the aforementioned kits from Marcthur, plus plants and landscaping kits from some of my preferred creators – such as Cube Republic, Alex Bader, Sasaya Kayo, and Krystali Rabeni – I’ve been once more re-doing the grounds of the island home to extend the ruins and gardens to occupy the space previously taken by the NO Cottage house; I left the pool house and boat moorings in place because I still want to make use of the waters in Second Norway (and beyond) for sailing / boating / flying, and because – well, where else am I going to “own” property with a large private swimming that come maintenance free?

Not that the House has gone forever; I’m a great believer in rezzing systems, keeping a number available in my inventory toolbox. One of these, Seedro Lowey’s Magic Rezzer, is ideal for swapping between scenes quickly (well, once you’re sorted through want is to go where and as a part of which scene!). This has allowed me to take the No Cottage house and its immediate surroundings – lawns, summer house, plants, trees – and create a scene, and then do the same with ne expanded ruins and their flora and immediate surroundings. Thus, with a click on the rezzer and then on the dialogue box, I can happily switch between the two, and without affecting the rest of the build.

In doing so, I’ve also been able to maintain additional individually between the two settings  through the simply use of different summer houses, etc. For these I turned to Cory Edo, one of my go-to building designers, because her structures are generally very kitbashable / moddable. In particular, her Moosehead Lake Log Cabin formed the basis for a summer house to go with the No Cottage house layout,  whilst one of the two structures from her Yara Treehouse became the basis for a small “hideaway” outside of the ruins, complete with a little “balcony” from where passing boats can be observed.

As to the “integration” of the Linden Home, that was simply a case of installing a doorway in one of the archways within the ruins. Behind it, I placed a TP-on-collision-scripted prim using the local Experience to direct Group members to the Linden Home location. A photo of my Log Home taken at the appropriate angle and in the right ratio means that when the door is opened, it seems to give you a view through the arch to the Linden Home on the “other side” of the wall; then when you “step through” the arch, you arrive in the Linden Home parcel on the “other side” of the doorway.

Using an identical door set into an identical wall on the Linden Home parcel does the same in reverse – the door opens to reveal the island gardens beyond, and “stepping through” the archway teleport you to them. This is not a particularly new trick with portals, but it has achieved what I want, and to further assist in the sensation that both island and Linden Home are connected, I’ve used the same EEP 24-hour Day Cycle in both (obviously set to UK time!), thus maintaining the same overall ambience between the two.

All that’s needed now is for me to add a further script to the TP prims so that the images they show switch between daylight and night-time to (roughly) match the EEP settings, and I’ll be done 🙂 . However, that’s an “if / maybe” project for another day!

Whether or not this approach to help “conjoin” or “integrate” a Linden Home was other property you may hold is of any use to you is obviously up to you; all I can say is, it keeps my little mind happy 🙂 . If it does appeal, and it’s something you hadn’t considered  / would like to try – feel free to run with it; as noted, the basic idea isn’t in any way original to me and has been used in various forms for years – so just take it and run with it as you please!

And with that, I’ll shut up and leave you in peace!

My Linden Log home showing the door of the portal to the island off to the left of the house, within the old walls (it’s closed in the picture because I felt it looked odd seeing it open to show the gardens of the home island through it, whilst over the wall above it, my neighbors house is clearly visible!) Each end of the teleport is oriented so people arrive as if they’ve simply opened either door and walked through

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

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