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February 2008
Zoning in the New New World
apollo [blog] Mon 25th @ 06:23 EST
ldpw, mainland, sl-general
One of the joys of Second Life is the ability residents have to create and control their own surroundings, but it is also true that when many people with divergent tastes and goals occupy adjoining land areas things can quickly degenerate into chaotic build jumbles. Of course it is possible for groups of like-minded residents to band together to retain control of their environment, such as the Luskwood community on the SL mainland or the set of private sims that make up the Independent State of Caledon, to name two examples quickly, but these kind of endeavors are somewhat infrequent when compared to the size of the Grid overall.
There are many problems with trying to effect this type of project, especially on the mainland where it can be very difficult to acquire contiguous blocks of land and where resident control of the sim at the Estate level generally doesn't happen. This situation often leaves SL with a distinctively jumbled sense of style; full of wonderful creative energy, raw, primal and free. While rampant creativity is certainly not a bad thing, it can make for a confusing or disjointed experience for visitors and explorers of the Grid, and often leaves SL bereft of a publicly owned "showpiece" build.
Linden Lab has previously attempted to remedy this by creating zoned sims, where key infrastructure is provided by Linden-managed land and the overall theme and style of the sim is enforced by a Linden, but these projects have often been on a small scale like Boardman or undertaken as a short term project like the Shermerville sims were originally. Now after a break from their previous zoning efforts, the Lab has recently begun discussing The Linden Department of Public Works:
The Department of Public Works is a new program being launched and is all about improving the experience for users living on, or visiting the Linden Mainland.
It will be intriguing to see how this latest zoning effort plays out. The early information surfacing about it makes it seem as though it is very well planned and has a clear focus. With the right resident builders signing up, this could be a wonderful showpiece for SL.
August 2007
Into the Void
apollo [blog] Mon 20th @ 10:03 EDT
hatchie haven, sim, wip
We are in the process of designing and building our first private island, with the help and consultation of some very talented individuals. You can see preview/development photos in this new gallery and can expect more updates/information at some point.
Re: The Almighty Voice Client
apollo [blog] Tue 7th @ 08:41 EDT
sl client, voice
I've avoided pontificating about the negative impact I suppose Voice - with a capital V - will have on the SL experience, mostly because I assume that those who are sane and rational will quickly discover the fundamental social shortcomings of the technology, while those who perceive this as a Good Thing will not be swayed by my quaint and outmoded textual arguments. That said, on reading Ordinal today, I couldn't help but chortle at this:
Those of you who wish to partake in the receiving of other-worldly voices - and coughs, and feedback, and the sounds of errant other-world children, and so on and so on ad nauseam - may do so widely, without even having to pay any sort of Pharmacist for this Altering of the Mind.
--Ordinal Malaprop, A Momentous Day (For Some)
Ms Malaprop also expounded at great length and with much aplomb, citing most of my various concerns and serving practical examples that directly correlate to my personal reasons for generally refusing to use the voice feature and I heartily recommend investing a few moments in reading both of her posts on the subject. For those seeking insight in 30 words or less, however, I refer you to the infinite wisdom of one John Gabriel, but please do mind the naughty language in that last link.
I suppose I should add, for the record, that I can imagine situations where the voice features would have some genuinely practical use, but mostly I cannot fathom the need to by default automatically enable voice across the entirety of the grid at large. This can only lead to the situations alluded to above.
July 2007
Relay For Life
apollo [blog] Sun 29th @ 13:09 EDT
charity, relay for life, rfl
This weekend the Relay for Life event comes to Second Life. They have an Official Website for the SL branch of the event, which is currently ongoing:
The American Cancer Society Relay For Life began in May 1985 when a colorectal surgeon ran around a track in Tacoma, Washington, for 24 hours, raising $27,000 to support the American Cancer Society. Today Relay For Life is held in more than 4,600 communities in the United States and in 23 countries across the globe.
Support a worthy cause and check it out today.
February 2007
Wormhole Solution
apollo [blog] Thu 22nd @ 11:45 EST
musing, sl, technology
I have avoided commenting on the quality of the SL experience of late and I feel that doing so now would only serve to firmly beat an extremely, terminally deceased horse. What I would like to say is that this is an acceptable short term solution and that this will eventually evolve into a more permanent long term solution. However, given the monumental technological barriers to overcome with distributed datacenters and multiple asset server mirrors and the like, the fact that this employment position is merely being advertised now leads me to believe that it is going to be a very long term solution.
This forward planning is heartening though, given that it would seem to suggest that Linden Lab have their financial ducks in order and are planning for the long haul of Second Life. What concerns me is the period between the short term and long term solutions. Basically I can imagine that the situation is going to functionally remain the same for some months assuming that the "big picture" variables do.
One "big picture" variable that will change soon is the "official" SL client. I have been advocating the First Look client for some time now, and a few hiccups during the beta phase aside, it has in general terms performed consistently better than the current "real" SL client. First Look makes the subjective experience of being in SL much better because it uses local system resources much more efficiently. It also seems - although I haven't taken steps to verify it - to handle network traffic more efficiently too which should serve to mitigate some of the horrendous packet loss we have all been experiencing of late. It was mentioned some time ago that the major code changes in First Look will be rolled into the "real" viewer in a future release, so this should ease things somewhat too.
Will the contingency plans and the new viewer code be enough to reset the SL user experience back to the more manageable times of 6 - 8 months ago, before the truly massive growth spurt? More importantly, if Linden Lab can manage this feat, will it be all too short-lived, or will it persist until their much longer-term plans come into effect?
The fact that I'm even able to pose these questions should inspire some degree of hope for the future. Admittedly none of this will help when I go home and log in tonight, but perhaps in the coming weeks and months it will have a positive impact. At least I can honestly say that I feel like Linden Lab is trying to fix things, and that they have everyone's best interests at heart. That doesn't mean that I'm not frustrated with the current state of affairs, but then again I can't imagine anyone being happy with how things are right now, so it seems needless to [over]state it.
Note: The title of this post came from a first draft where I had a joke about an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, but I edited it out because it felt forced.
January 2007
Points of Interest
apollo [blog] Tue 30th @ 07:50 EST
first look, musing, torley
Following an old rule of thumb, I neglected to update for a few days because I had nothing really significant to say. Today I have a few random points to make, so here's a handy list:
- I haven't tried recent updates of the First Look viewer recently as some people are reporting issues with it and while I don't mind helping with beta testing I've come to think of the First Look client as the "in development" real client and the really real client as, well, unusable from my perspective.
- Torley has a most fantastic list of cool places to visit.
A short list, yes, but perfectly formed.
Comment Recycling
apollo [blog] Thu 25th @ 11:35 EST
musing, torley, virtual reality
I was reading Torley's blog earlier, in particular The Majesty of Science and Alternate Virtual Reality and somehow these posts collided with the fact that I've been re-reading A Brief History of Time recently to produce the following:
Sometimes I think it's fun to think of the scientific viewpoint of the universe in philosophical terms, for example the classic "Bugs Bunny" cartoon where he can stand on thin air because, as he says, "I never studied law."
Perhaps then "we" - as humans - only experience the world/universe the way we do because we "know" things on a fundamental level, as in we are born with certain fundamentals "hard wired" into our being that simultaneously prevent us from perceiving outside our physical realm while enabling us to be - in the way that we perceive "being" - in the first place. That line of thinking of course implies that if "we" - again, as humans - could somehow break away from those fundamentals then by definition we [humans] would cease to be human, because those fundamentals are what define us as a human entity even as they limit us. Yet if we could transcend those limits we would still be sentient and alive, but perhaps not in ways that we would describe those qualities in our base human state.
Returning to the "Bugs Bunny" quote, I find it fun to think about because essentially gravity is a limitation of our physical presence; we're made of matter and matter responds to gravity. This is built in on a fundamental level and to "unlearn" this would, in the context of what I just described, mean freeing ourselves from our physical being. Given that SL is completely dependent on the physical realm I'm not sure that it, or other virtual systems like it, will usher in a revolution or ascension of humanity, but that if we reach a point where, for example, someone writes a true AI that passes the Turing test and then that AI reproduces independently; that might teach us some things about the nature of existence.
I know the last paragraph kind of jumps from Point B to Point J with nothing in between, but all I'm really trying to say is that watching a sentient organism evolve in a world that is much different from ours could be enlightening. SL is much different from the real world in the sense that, while the real is based on matter and energy, SL is based on information so constraints that apply to our physical world simply do not apply there, such as the rule that matter cannot be created or destroyed.
Yet at the same time it is still bound to our world because, for example, even information in SL cannot travel faster than the speed of light because the underlying subsystems that convey the information are [currently] limited by that speed.
On Viewer Choices and Menu Options
apollo [blog] Sat 20th @ 19:48 EST
first look, sl client, viewer
By way of following up it's only fair to mention that a new First Look client has been posted and is ready for download. This new version of SL in general is something of an oddity given that the 1.13.2.11 real SL client was released with some Known Issues that were partially but optionally fixed a few days later. As this release had already been previously posponed, I can only assume that the new networking code is that fundamental to the future operation of SL that delaying this release for another week for additional feature polishing ended up not being an option.
Moving swiftly on to the 1.13.2.x First Look viewer I am noticing even more smoothness and even higher framerates under certain conditions. While I agree that chasing framerate purely for the sake of being able to show off a higher number is not necessarily all that productive, I honestly do not believe the LL developers are falling into this trap at all. What I see with the FL viewer is a genuine and wonderfully useful attempt to clean up the gross computer resource wastage of the "current real" SL client.
More efficient use of the available resources can only be a good thing, and it is certainly proving to be that way on my hardware at least. For reference, I run an [Intel] Core2Duo 6400 with 1GB system RAM and an [nVidia] GeForce 6800GT with 256MB of onboard RAM, which I consider to be a fairly decent middle-of-the-road system for this point in the endless cycle of hardware upgrades.
In terms of options to try in the FL client I have noticed in this new version that going into the "Client"* menu and enabling "Run Multiple Threads" under the "Rendering" options afforded me another performance gain in addition to enabling VBO and further increased the feel of creamy smoothness. Of course your mileage may vary, but I thought I would mention it regardless.
* If you can't find the Client menu in SL, press Ctrl+Alt+D or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D on the PC, and possibly Ctrl+Option+D on the Mac but don't quote me on that.
The Energy We Expend
apollo [blog] Tue 16th @ 19:17 EST
caledon, expedition, role play, story
One of the qualities of Second Life that continually amuses, amazes and delights me is the appetite many residents have for role playing a given character to the point where it transcends the odd clothes and strange accent and becomes something quite charming. There are many fine examples of this, but I believe that the sim of Caledon contains some special talent in this regard.
Of course Caledon is also home to Ordinal Malaprop and it is by way of her journal that I found myself reading the Frontier Horizon blog. Some residents of Caledon seem to be undertaking a great expedition to the mainland, and Rusty Buchanan is writing some wonderful accounting of it. The journey begins with the blog post "A Grand Adventure Awaits!" should you be interested.
Midian City: Torleystalkers a Go-Go
apollo [blog] Sat 13th @ 13:53 EST
midian city, places, slurl, torley, visit
If you're more than peripherally interested in Second Life then the odds are good that you have heard of Torley Linden in one capacity or another. I like to read Torley's blog for many reasons; from the point of view of a writer I'm amazed by her prolific and high quality output, and as a reader I enjoy her point of view and enthusiasm.
I often find that the places she highlights in her blog or on her photostream are vibrant and well designed and are places that I would want to visit. As much as I dislike feeling like a Torleystalker, which I am honestly not, I can't help but go and check out a lot of the cool builds highlighted by her.
Midian City is one such place. Photos do not do it any kind of justice, especially if you have a decent graphics card capable of local lighting. In my delirious state after discovering how amazingly cool the VBO-enabled First Look Viewer is and blogging about it earlier, I couldn't resist running over to Midian City in order to see how the new viewer would handle a busy sim with high quality graphical elements to render. The viewer performed admirably but I soon got lost in the experience that is Midian City.
The sim is an exemplary one too, a shining jewel on The Grid I am sure. The architecture and texturing are both amazing in their abstract quality and when taken as a whole. Influenced by Blade Runner and Sin City the world created by Jade Steele is focused and purposeful, with some of the best use of local lighting I have seen in SL. This sim really showcases what SL is capable of graphically and reminds me that the often bland, simplistic, low-res feel of SL has a lot more to do with content creators than it does with the SL client's rendering engine.
The fact that the new First Look Viewer with VBO turned on makes it possible to move about the city smoothly and confidently without all the usual SL hitching, grinding, turning lag and general choking doubtless added significantly to my experience and overall mood today, but that certainly doesn't take anything away from the masterpiece that is Midian City.
Footnote: I happened to see a certain Hamlet Au from a certain popular SL news site teleport into the sim while I was there today. If they end up getting featured, I can only say that they deserve to be. Everyone in SL should see this place, if only so they can know what SL is truly capable of graphically and thematically, when you have a designer that is good at what they do and cares about their builds. In this vein there are a few other places I want to write about and I will in good time.
Castles for the Masses
apollo [blog] Thu 11th @ 04:40 EST
castle, fizzdrake, photos
I have added some more photos of Fizzdrake Castle to the Photo Gallery. Aside from the detailed texturing and sheer scale of the build, what impresses me is that this castle is a prefab.
Pirates Enjoy Rock Music
apollo [blog] Mon 8th @ 07:11 EST
beach, exploration, pirates, slurl
"It's a small world after all" belongs to that certain class of adage, which endure despite sometimes flippant overuse, enduring because they so often prove to be relevant and true. By way of example, when I viewed this photo on Torley's Flickr photostream I had the strangest sense of recognition despite knowing that I had not previously visited the build.
After sharing the photo with Aradia she reminded me that a friend of ours had owned that very piece of land until recently and we had actually visited it as a barren island not long after he initially acquired it. One could certainly see the potential of that land in its uncultivated state and I am glad to see that the new owner has constructed a quality build fitting for the locale.
The build overall is of a consistent theme with detailed textures and meritorious use of staple beach prefabs and local lighting to create an immersive scene. The streaming rock music is cool too. If you are interested in the romanticized pirate theme, as Aradia and I certainly are, then you could do worse than visit Monkey Island Rock Music.
A Real World Interlude
apollo [blog] Fri 5th @ 17:05 EST
apollo, ordinal malaprop, real world, site features, slurl, snowball technology
There is an interconnected set of difficulties associated with returning to work in the real world, which run roughly along these lines:
- I am naturally a "night person" and tend to gravitate to this kind of schedule when I have more than a few consecutive days off [work]
- Returning to work also means returning to something approaching a less vampiric schedule
- The combination of driving to work and working through the workday has a tendency to exacerbate any fatigue in one's system while simultaneously subtracting available hours from one's day
The end result of this situation is therefore variously a diminished availability of time to be exploring new places in Second Life and a diminished reserve of energy with which to focus on SL, which means that honestly, I haven't been in-world too much this week.
I did stop by Ordinal Enterprises in order to purchase the Snowball Technology that was previously highlighted, with the full intention of reviewing said technology, but sadly due to the reasons outlined previously I have not even unboxed the devices or indeed ascertained whether or not any such removal of packaging is necessary or required. I have, however, been working on various site features; they will come into effect during the course of the weekend and should enhance the reader experience greatly.
A Fresh, New Year
apollo [blog] Mon 1st @ 12:39 EST
new year, places, slurl
My avatar was created towards the tail end of 2005, so for me 2006 represents my first full calendar year of exploring and being immersed in the Second Life experience and I feel as though I have learned a lot over the year. My building and scripting skills have improved to the point where I finally felt like selling something and I feel much more comfortable with the mechanics of operations like switching avatar form or changing skin.
Aradia and I have visited a lot of places in SL and it's only a shame that I didn't get around to firing up this website earlier in the year because we've seen some charming places and cool builds that were unfortunately not memorable enough to be able to recall in hindsight, but were fun enough in the moment to have recorded for posterity. Still, of the many locations we've been there are a select few that do stick in my mind, so I thought I would share those now, in no particular order:
- Isle of Wyrms (Here Be Dragons!)
- Elf Sims
- Samurai Island
- Lost Gardens of Apollo (No relation)
- Intemptesta Nox
- Tiny Tykes (Best viewed with a Tiny avatar)
Moving into 2007, I'll be making more of an effort to document and highlight any interesting places as we find them. There are many more features to be added to this website which are related to this process, such as [the two of us] being able to easily upload snapshots and the previously mentioned imminent configurable RSS feed options to aid in consuming the data.
Mostly I'm excited about the prospect of writing on this website and looking forward to what this New Year will bring.
December 2006
Exploring Virtual Worlds
apollo [blog] Fri 29th @ 16:15 EST
aradia, human condition, musing, philosophy, real-virtual
One attribute of Second Life that enthrals me on an intellectual level is the notion that, although the world itself is virtual, the experiences garnered whilst there are ostensibly real; if two beings can recall scudding across the night sky from sunset into night chasing the falling star over the rim of the world then what separates that experience from a walk in the park or a kiss in the rain? In my mind what defines our realities is the filters we choose to apply to our sensory inputs and the ripples that fan out into the collective consciousness from the results of our actions.
SL facilitates communication in ways that are largely familiar and comfortable, but it also goes beyond that. It allows us to establish a presence in a world in which we can optionally and selectively partake. Unlike the corporeal realm, we need only log into Second Life when we desire to. We have freedom to chose our path, make our mark; define our reality and our perceptions of it in many imaginative and unique ways.
The truly fascinating aspect of this freedom is in how some residents choose to surrender it. They start businesses or seek employment in world, they join organizations and find themselves logging in at disadvantageous times in order to gather merit, they embark on all-consuming projects that leave time for little else; they keep themselves as busy as with their first life, if not more so. I do not say this disparagingly mind, I merely write it as an observational truth in order to give background to this musing post.
In some cases it seems that if you give a person freedom and choice they will choose the familiar, whether out of fear or laziness or lack of speculative vision I do not know. As the technology of communication becomes more advanced and commonplace though, the obsolescing distinctions between "real" and "virtual" will need to be revised and the nature of the human condition explored still further.
Although I appreciate activities in SL "in the moment" as they occur, I am often also thinking of these higher-level subjects as I run around. SL is interesting to me on many levels and that multifaceted nature is a part of why I continue to log in. In a related vein, being able to enjoy SL with my wife and see her and our relationship through these different filters is the other part of why I continue to log in. We are able to share experiences in SL that we could never share in the real world - such as making cute scripted objects in collaboration with one another - and through that we are able to enjoy aspects of each other that would not be the same in any other medium. That, to me, is the true power of Second Life.